What's your favorite trap?

[Greatwyrm]

50' or so pit trap with a net at the bottom for a nice, soft landing. Also at the bottom are a zone of silence and a zone of darkness. All the guys at the top watch their friend fall into a bottomless hole and never hear him hit bottom or yell for help.

 

[Memnoch3434]

I think this may have been in a pre-made adventure. The trap was a room with tiles that changed the direction of gravity (to up) each time a player took a step further into the room. Also random spikes in the room on both sides.

 

[hemera]

Personal Favorite, Random 100 mile Teleport Circle Trap.

Edit: Also fun, the higher level, random planar teleport trap.

 

[jedavis]

50' or so pit trap with a net at the bottom for a nice, soft landing. Also at the bottom are a zone of silence and a zone of darkness. All the guys at the top watch their friend fall into a bottomless hole and never hear him hit bottom or yell for help.

That's some mad archmage-grade stuff there... Magic-heavy and useful for getting experimental subjects. May have to use this one.

 

[The Red King]

I think this may have been in a pre-made adventure. The trap was a room with tiles that changed the direction of gravity (to up) each time a player took a step further into the room. Also random spikes in the room on both sides.

I'm stealing that!

So cool.

And Evil!

 

[nedjer]

Do like A Bridge Over Troubled Water arranged into a Gauntlet. (It became habit to give them names for a laugh at the table).

Something unpleasant but probably non-lethal is fired at the PCs as they cross a narrow bridge over lava. Usually they don't jump and just take the hit.

Something unpleasant but probably non-lethal is fired at the PCs as they cross a narrow bridge over mud. Sometimes they jump - messy.

Something unpleasant but probably non-lethal is fired at the PCs as they cross a narrow bridge over water. There's a monster in the water or slipping into the water.

Something unpleasant but probably non-lethal is fired at the PCs as they cross a narrow bridge over a clear liquid. There's acid in there.

. . . and any number of other liquids from magic potions to algae that melts into the skin and makes the PCs bio-luminescent for a week

 

[valis]

Pretty much everything on Hack & Slash's Thursday Trick column is fantastic.

Hi!

This is -C from Hack & Slash!

I want to say that several of the traps are very reminiscent of Grimtooth because for one or two traps/tricks a month I use it as inspiration.

But I'm not just thoughtlessly taking traps -- I'm primarily concerned about agency in traps. What is the way the player can detect the trap? How does the trap work?

In each of my examples I go into depth on how the trap can be detected, and what is going on with it. I think that adds a lot of value to those old traps, making them very useful for a modern game.

Also, If it's tricks you're looking for, be sure not to miss my Tricks, Empty Rooms & Basic Trap Design. It's got about 1 millyarn different tricks.

It's a great free resource.

I do a lot of neat stuff on my blog, I hope when you visit you follow, subscribe or decide to stick around! Thanks for the link!

 

[howandwhy99]

The really, really, really big lie. Or the truth that sounds like an obvious lie.

 

[Dykstrav]

I'm a huge fan of two-parter traps. You trigger a trap and then something else happens. For example...

A simple snare trap isn't too much of a big deal. It suspends you 10 feet in the air. (Pathfinder has a spiked snare trap at CR 1 that even slams you into spikes on the ceiling for some damage.) You can cut yourself down with a handy dagger in a round or two. The fun part comes where swarms of bats or spiders in the next chamber have been trained to associate the snare with "dinner is served," so a swarm attacks the character in the snare one round later. Also, I consider you flat-footed if you're dangling by an ankle in mid-air... So nearby rogues will focus fire on you to deadly effect.

Don't use a boring pit trap (CR 1) when you can use a pit trap combined with a falling block trap (CR 5) triggered by a creature hitting the bottom. There's nothing quite like hitting the bottom of a 10 x 10 pit trap and then having a 10 x 10 block of stone fall on you--let's hope your friends have a team of mules with block and tackle!

One of my personal favorites is a suit of glistening, silvery full plate armor submerged in a box of desiccants such as salt or clay gravel. The characters can take out the armor and shake out the powdery stuff and wear it with no problem. Well... The problem is that the armor is made of fine steel lined on the inside with a layer of alchemically deposited magnesium or phosphorous, refined to a high degree of purity. Make sure that you put a waterfall somewhere else in the dungeon and watch the sparks fly.

 

[Gardukk]

It was really more of a trick, but an undead knight on a ghost steed, challenged the pc paladin to a joust. He helpfully gave the party several rounds to buff the champion. They road to opposite sides of a castle drawbridge and charged. The paladin and his horse fell through the weakened / illusionary bridge, into a river below. The undead charged/flew straight over and nailed the party wizard.

that player really shouldn't have said "wouldn't it be awful if..... "

I once read online about a trick someone used in a similar vein as this. (It may have been on ENworld, I can't remember)

As the party reaches their destination, (Typically a dungeon of some sort) they see that the most immediate path they can take seems to be a narrow stone bridge, at the end of which stands a big, burly Orge carrying a nasty-looking greatclub. (The ogre can be swapped out for a similar level-appropriate "thuggish" monster, such as a Troll or an Ettin)

The Ogre billows out to the party, "Send me forth your best riddler, and if he can best me in a game of wits, you may pass!" The party will likely send forth the character with the highest intelligence, which will typically be the squishy wizard or slightly-less-squishy Rogue or Bard.

When the Wizard/Rogue/Bard approaches the brute, he smashes the poor sap with his greatclub, bellowing out, "I HATE RIDDLES!" before proceeding to engage the party in combat.