Why doesn't 4th ed have rituals for making "traps"?

[Rechan]

Consider the Blastpatch alchemical item, which functions as a trap in and of itself (enter x square, boom), so there's precedence.

 

[Hereticus]

Because abilities that add allies to the battle mat (whether summoned animals, hired hands, or conjured traps as in your suggestion) are next to impossible to balance.

Balance sucks.

There are many great things in 4.0E, but this drive for balance has spoiled alot of it.

 

[Silverblade The Ench]

well balance is easily done by comparing to alchemical items/prices?

 

[gizmo33]

My point is that NPCs and PCs are now very different. Just look at the rules for which they are created. What one groups gets to do does not mean the other group also can do nor should it. I've seen no evidence in the books that would make one think otherwise.

Actually IIRC your point was something about traps and a certain way the game was played. NPCs and PCs being "different" is somewhat of a broad generalization, and IMO doesn't really make the case that the principles of 4E (whatever those actually are) are violated by PCs being able to create traps.

The problem isn't so much that one group "can do it" and the other can't. It's the way that this stuff is defined. You say "such and such is created by a ritual" and PCs can cast rituals, then it takes some explaining (hopefully not "because the DM says so") as to why PCs can't perform a ritual that NPCs can. If the designers want 4E to be this thoughtless and arbitrary, then I'd like to see them clearly spell this out. My sense right now is that so far, it's just a difficult problem to balance things that they haven't felt like tackling at this point. Then again, I'm not an "insider" so I await information.