D&D 5E Why do (non-deadly) traps exist in your campaign?

[MostlyDm]

Grimtooth's is probably the old book I most regret losing track of.

Had some good times, and hilarious kills, with that handy little tome. I bet I could still draw a reasonable approximation of the door trap with a ridiculous name that was designed to kill four or five delvers standing single file up to and through the door, simultaneously.

Also the chest traps that only killed you if you opened them from 10' away. Classic.

 

[n00b f00]

For the same reason the BBEG doesn't scry and die 50 of his best killers into their camp site in the middle of the night, or have a couple dragons harry them 24/7. They're effective and within the means of many BBEGs, but they're generally unfun to deal with and so we rationalize that it's too expensive. The equivalent of getting smoked up by a drone strike doesn't fit many tables definition of high adventure.

Expense is a pretty good excuse for why they don't. You're not the only people he's trying to kill. Some expenses must be spared, til they're higher level at least.

 

[Jester David]

1) Made by primitive creatures, and < deadly is all they can manage
2) Meant to scare and not kill
3) Was deadly, but lost potency over time
4) It is deadly by the character's skill reduces the lethality

 

[Dausuul]

Think about it from the trapbuilder's point of view. Acerak and Halaster notwithstanding, the typical trapbuilder is not just trying to kill people for the lulz. The trap is a means to an end; protecting something or someone.

• If the trap is blocking access to something valuable, there must be a way to disable or bypass it. Otherwise, how can you get to the valuable thing to use it? And what looks to the trapbuilder like a necessary off switch looks to the PCs like a puzzle.
• Traps are not cheap or easy to build. Most thieves will die to a single glyph; are you really going to spend thousands of gold to pile on half a dozen, on the off chance that someone comes along who's able to survive one glyph, yet unable to detect and disable them?
• You, the trapbuilder, might trigger the trap by accident. If that happens, it's nice if the trap is not instantly fatal--the ideal trap would include some provision for disabling it after it's been triggered and before it delivers the killing blow. Again, what looks to the trapbuilder like an emergency safety protocol looks to the PCs like a puzzle to solve.

 

[shadowoflameth]

I Think often games are hungry for challenges other than combat, and skills for a character need to come up, or they are of no value. When was last time a character cared as much about his bonus to pick a lock as he did for his bonus to hit with a weapon? Answer, the rogue when missing might alert the troll or set off a trap that might debilitate him and alert the troll. I personally like non-deadly traps because saying, 'OK, I check for traps.' and then rolling a natural one prompt the DM to say that My character is instantly killed with no way to prevent it isn't fun. Certainly not as fun as the DM saying, 'OK, You set off the trap and a spray of dust covers you. You're slowed. Make a constitution check.' I roll a fail an now I'm paralyzed. Another fail and I get turned to stone unless the party helps.

 

[seebs]

I am seriously confused by the assertion that they're "unrealistic". I mean, these are things we have actually seen in the real world across multiple cultures, so why wouldn't they exist? Humans apparently sometimes like to make non-lethal or bypassable traps.

 

[Psikerlord#]

I mostly view traps as part of the hp attrition game. They might be found or they might not. Set piece traps are different and form a true encounter of their own. they are telegraphed and the encounter is disarming or bypassing them

 

[Gorgon Zee]

I was reading
A realistic trap would be "evil wizard's library, behind the locked door; anyone besides a tall male elven necromancer who mutters 'Galooshka' before opening the door will set off Glyph of Warding x5, one with Hypnotic Pattern and the other four with Conjure Elemental VI (Invisible Stalker)." That trap is designed to secure a resource, even in the face of intruders who are strong enough to defeat the wizard himself.

Sorry, as an evil wizard I do not want to do my own cleaning, and staff are hard to replace, so fatal traps are big turn-off for me. Also, I didn't create the trap, but I bought it and they are MUCH cheaper if you get the off-the-shelf version (with passwords) rather than the custom-programmed version (tuned to me). In addition, one day I expect to leave my lair when I become evil overlord, and the resale value on traps only I can bypass is tiny.

And I really don't want to be found dead in my study because I was drunk and confused the "galooshka" trap in my library with the "azooka" trap in the study. I'm an evil wizard, but not a tedious, no-fun, spend-all-day-studying type. I like to party. Vodka and word-trigger death traps mix very badly.

My traps incapacitate the victim and then alert suitable intelligent people (usually me) to decide what to do with them. Hypnotic patterns are good, but so are boxing in with walls of force and some form of metal that is super-hard to break through.

I have considered becoming resistant to Iocaine powder and using it in poison traps, but I hear that takes years and the stuff is really expensive. Also I worry my cleaning staff might decide to rebel and since it is colorless and odorless, it's not a great thing to leave lying about anywhere where I might eat

 

[Valador]

Grimtooth's is probably the old book I most regret losing track of.

Had some good times, and hilarious kills, with that handy little tome. I bet I could still draw a reasonable approximation of the door trap with a ridiculous name that was designed to kill four or five delvers standing single file up to and through the door, simultaneously.

Also the chest traps that only killed you if you opened them from 10' away. Classic.

I totally backed this, got the PDF, just waiting on my physical copy...

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1409961192/grimtooths-ultimate-traps-collection

May be worth keeping an eye on for when they sell them via their store if you'd like to grab one!

 

[Noctem]

Damn, wish I had seen that project before the deadline [MENTION=6782907]Valador[/MENTION]. That looks amazing.