Who pays for the traps?

[the Jester]

DMs- do you take the cost of the traps in your villains' lairs out of their gear value?

 

[Cerubus Dark]

DMs- do you take the cost of the traps in your villains' lairs out of their gear value?

Heck no, it comes out of the minons pay.... Or bing a cheap and evil villan you write bad checks, eitehr way works fine. But for the most part if its a group, there is a set limit the can and will spend on lodging/trapping the joint. All depends on the size and complexity of the group.

Now this means one of two things that
A: Ever large group will have an vast lair with lots of traps or a vast lair with few traps it all depends on the mentality of the group. Take a large tribe of Kobolds, by nature they need a large cave system for thier number, and being natural trap builders will have built many simple traps and decoys for their home. This also means that they may have the gold or fools gold to pay for more advanced traps to be placed in their lair. Then again they could have nothing but a string tied to a stick holding up a rock for all the heros know.

Or

B: Every large group invests so much money in their lair that they have no funds left for traps and counter measures to defend them selves. Take for example a group of blackgaurds who in there vanity spent his 20000 gp limit on a huge castle but forgot to invest in any traps. Now their minons must find new ways to defend the castle from any invading heros.

 

[diaglo]

DMs- do you take the cost of the traps in your villains' lairs out of their gear value?

yes, no, maybe.

yes if it is a new lair.

no if they have a long established lair. i take it out of the costs they spent over the generations of their family.

maybe. if it is very expensive or rare.

 

[Carnifex]

Who pays for the traps?

It's me.

I admit it.

For years now I've been making donations to evil villains to ensure their lairs are stuffed with state-of-the-art traps and defences, purchasing and distributing the very best in cunning artifice and deadly mechanisms. I was behind the killer trap combos in every major bad guy's stronghold, and every long-forgotten tomb (the PC's may think they're the first people to have disturbed it for a millenia, but I was there yesterday, making sure the traps all still worked).

I'm responsible for it all. I'm sorry.

 

[d20Dwarf]

DMs- do you take the cost of the traps in your villains' lairs out of their gear value?

Unless you're going to take the cost of his lair out of his gear value as well, then no. Traps are part of the cost of constructing a lair.

 

[Wraith Form]

Who pays for the traps?

It's me.

I admit it.** SNIP** I'm sorry.

LOL! I'm looking forward to Steam & Steel, BTW.

 

[clark411]

Traps tend to pay for themselves... a simple pit trap with spikes at the bottom can cost around say.. 500 gold assuming quality work. Lets say some adventurers with just a bit of experience under their belt walk in and fall into it. Boom- profit.

Sure, you'll have to put with them moaning for food and water (or if they're sassy, rope) or "Help, My Leg!" or maybe even get some comedy in the form of "Dear Corellon, deliver your son from this terrible place" prayers and what.. but really, money isn't a factor except in the most wild traps.

So no, villains do not pay for their traps out of their gear. However, looking at what they have should determine how much they have invested in traps. A system of magically invisible pendulums that whisper "Help me" as they swing by (making adventurers lean forward to hear ever so slightly and sufficiently) may cost 10,000 gold. There should be a pretty good amount of loot on the villain for him to spring for such a trap.

 

[Carnifex]

LOL! I'm looking forward to Steam & Steel, BTW.

Should be out before too long now I'm hearing good things about the art too

 

[the Jester]

Okay, then- but isn't it a double-standard to expect pcs to pay for traps in their headquarters?

 

[AnthonyJ]

The 'gear value' NPCs get is basically for lootable gear. There's a reason NPCs get less gear than PCs of the same level; assume the remainder is in forms that can't easily be carried off and sold by the PCs, such as strongholds, traps, and the like.