Your favourite traps
- Thread starter Krug
- Start date
Turanil
First Post
To put a misleading and very intriguing title for a boring thread.Krug said:
Well, it's not a critic about this thread!
However, at times I have felt deceived by promising thread's titles that turned into a bait to attract people who wouldn't bother to come in the first place. It is a trap, isn't it?Otherwise, I like this one:
1) Inside a tunnel the PCs easily spot a trap on the floor. The kind of thing that breaks down under their weight and let them fall 90 feet onto sharp spikes. Obviously the work of incompetent people, but what expect from goblins anyway?
2) The PCs run and jump above the trap and land beyond... on the real one!
Vertaxis
Explorer
Krug said:
My favourite traps are often triggerred by a scout 15-20 feet ahead of the party and the party are affected when it's tripped. At a minimum, a wall or porticulis drops between the scout and party. A little more lethal.... a pit opens up beneath the party, or the ceiling drops, or the party is hemmed in and the walls start closing in, etc. Meanwhile, our erstwhile scout is in the clear, but cutoff from retreat. He might even try to "save" the party. Ultimately, he will have to move forward to find another exit, and risk encounterring another trap.
Arbiter of Wyrms
First Post
As a general principle, from a DMs perspective, I like racoon traps:
You line a knot hole with spikes (nails) and the 'coon reaches in to get the shiny bit you've left at the bottom. Now, it can't get its paw back out. If it lets go of the shiny bit, it can go about its way with some minor scratches, but it wont, so it stays stuck.
The same principle applies with PCs: Imagine a ten-foot-deep, spiked pit trap. At the bottom, besides the spikes, are a long-clean humanoid skeleton, a faintly-glowing longsword with a jeweled pommel and some kind of inscription on the blade, a few hundred coins of various mints and denominations, and an iron staff with a large jewel attached to the visible end.
Anyone entering the pit is trapped there by a wall of force, and they discover that the pit is inhabited by a vicious otyugh. The sword is just a display piece, the staff is a prop and most, but not all of the coins are copper. The otyugh's sticky hide though, bears some small bits of jewelry, and during the fight, it seems to be defending the tunnel from whence it came. Further investigation of this tunnel (hopefully, after the wall of force expires) leads to a wounded dragon with a less-than-average hoard. . .
This cycle goes on, taking more resources from the party than it rewards them. They could retreat from this path of red herrings at any time, but they invariably hope that the next treasure will be the big one.
You line a knot hole with spikes (nails) and the 'coon reaches in to get the shiny bit you've left at the bottom. Now, it can't get its paw back out. If it lets go of the shiny bit, it can go about its way with some minor scratches, but it wont, so it stays stuck.
The same principle applies with PCs: Imagine a ten-foot-deep, spiked pit trap. At the bottom, besides the spikes, are a long-clean humanoid skeleton, a faintly-glowing longsword with a jeweled pommel and some kind of inscription on the blade, a few hundred coins of various mints and denominations, and an iron staff with a large jewel attached to the visible end.
Anyone entering the pit is trapped there by a wall of force, and they discover that the pit is inhabited by a vicious otyugh. The sword is just a display piece, the staff is a prop and most, but not all of the coins are copper. The otyugh's sticky hide though, bears some small bits of jewelry, and during the fight, it seems to be defending the tunnel from whence it came. Further investigation of this tunnel (hopefully, after the wall of force expires) leads to a wounded dragon with a less-than-average hoard. . .
This cycle goes on, taking more resources from the party than it rewards them. They could retreat from this path of red herrings at any time, but they invariably hope that the next treasure will be the big one.
Angel Tarragon
Dawn Dragon
I'm big fan of traps that mutilate bodies. Think the gauntlet trap from Mummy Returns, loved that one. I ran an adventure that had a trap similar to it years ago.
IamTheTest
First Post
Pit trap. Why mess with the original? I like to use pit traps because it spawns skill checks (climb, use rope, spot...) saves and it rewards the purchase of rope. BTW I run a fairly low level campaign (clvl4), ergo, ymmv.
Arbiter of Wyrms
First Post
Oh yeah! It took me a minute to remember, but that was a good one, wasn't it?Frukathka said:
This, and a recent thread on how to scare players, get me thinking about a variant:
PC spots a gem through a hole in the wall and reaches through to grab it: Clamp closes down and holds the PC's arm in place until (temporal railrodaing here) the party decides what to do about it (Stone Shape, dismemberment, pickaxe, disable trap, whatever). Then the clamp releases and the Thief comes away with a big fat gem.
There are more holes in the walls, but the next person to reach through one gets clamped and doesn't get let go. Then, from down the passageway, the party hears the mechanical griding and ringing steel of an impending doom. Three could get away scott free before it arrives. The one with a handful of gem is stuck there to await his fate.
Lord Zardoz
Explorer
I like pits of watery death...
I have a pit trap variant that happens to be fairly evil.
The pit is deep, and filled with water to a height of say 8 feet deep. Once a vicitim falls in, a heavy iron grate falls down and settles about half a foot below the height of the water. The grate is heavy and requires a str check to lift. This causes a few fun problems for the players.
1) Its pretty damn hard to escape. The player has no leverage, so the one in the pit is not very able to just lift the grate high enough to get his head above the water. So the player starts the drowning process pretty damn fast. If the player is absurdly stong, they can try to break the grate, but lifting it is out of the question. You also cannot cast much in the way of spells underwater.
2) It ties up a great deal of player actions. The player in the pit cannot contribute to the fight. If the player in the pit cannot lift the grate, another player must spend a round or two lifting the grate out of the pit. Doing so would expose the rescuer to attacks of opportunity from the opponents.
3) The victim is very vulnerable. Because its a grate, a long piercing weapon, like say a Spear, can be used to stab at the person in the trap. You can also put something in the water to attack the victim or just hold them under as they try to escape. Also, you can use something alot nastier then water.
END COMMUNICATION
I have a pit trap variant that happens to be fairly evil.
The pit is deep, and filled with water to a height of say 8 feet deep. Once a vicitim falls in, a heavy iron grate falls down and settles about half a foot below the height of the water. The grate is heavy and requires a str check to lift. This causes a few fun problems for the players.
1) Its pretty damn hard to escape. The player has no leverage, so the one in the pit is not very able to just lift the grate high enough to get his head above the water. So the player starts the drowning process pretty damn fast. If the player is absurdly stong, they can try to break the grate, but lifting it is out of the question. You also cannot cast much in the way of spells underwater.
2) It ties up a great deal of player actions. The player in the pit cannot contribute to the fight. If the player in the pit cannot lift the grate, another player must spend a round or two lifting the grate out of the pit. Doing so would expose the rescuer to attacks of opportunity from the opponents.
3) The victim is very vulnerable. Because its a grate, a long piercing weapon, like say a Spear, can be used to stab at the person in the trap. You can also put something in the water to attack the victim or just hold them under as they try to escape. Also, you can use something alot nastier then water.
END COMMUNICATION
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