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View Full Version : Sadistic traps and TPK's



Closak
2009-12-08, 01:04 PM
The purpose of this thread is to tell stories about really nasty traps or similiar obstacles that resulted in a TPK.


For example, the rerouting trap that redirected our party's teleportation to the bottom of a lava lake.

Death by massive fire damage.


And this is why we always take precautions before teleporting anywhere.


Killer DM + The players not being nearly paranoid enough to see the traps coming=DEATH!


There's also that one involving a Sphere Of Annihilation, tripwire and kobolds.

drengnikrafe
2009-12-08, 01:42 PM
This story involves the Tomb of Horrors, and a Gem of Cursed Wishing, and everyone crowding around the gem to see how the wish turned out. 'Nuff said.

daggaz
2009-12-08, 01:46 PM
{scrubbed}

El Chupaqueso
2009-12-08, 01:48 PM
My friend once told me of a campain where his party came upon an ancient puzzle, and its creators had written that if you pressed the buttons there in the write order, they would recieve a treasure. There were the same amount of button-pressing combinations as there were party members, so they sent the first guy up to try one. He presses the buttons and then the device kills him somehow. They take precautions against death and send the next guy up to try. He puts in another compination, and the machine kills him in a completely different way. This continues (to the party, it looked like their only way forward), until it gets down to the last person, my friend. He knows his combination is the last possible one, so he strolls leisurely up to the buttons, puts in the combination... and gets killed.

The DM explained that the ancient builders had LIED, and that they were supposed to just ignore the "obvious trap" and move on.

Reaper_Monkey
2009-12-08, 01:54 PM
I'm running the Tomb of Horrors with my group tonight actually, I'll let you know how they died in the end - As that place is a sadistic TPK trap :smallamused:

golentan
2009-12-08, 02:22 PM
Coming upon a room, the DM describes a bunch of columns and floor panels and obvious traps and spheres of annihilation every 10 feet, drifting at random. He says "You sense a strong anti teleportation magic."

So, we go through and test every angle, and of course we all die horribly. We ask how we were supposed to get through. "Teleport. It was the only way." "But you told us we couldn't." "I told you you sensed something without you even checking for auras. The sensation was an illusion."

...

"Damn."

I actually loved that DM, but he was crazy. He was always honest, when we were going to do an Epic RP high fantasy game, we got the epics and the survivability. When he told us we were going to do a massacre of a dungeon crawl, that's what we got and that's the only time we got it. So we knew what we were getting into.

Sir.Swindle
2009-12-08, 03:50 PM
I was playing an anthrpomorphic whale (it's relevent) in a game with some friends. We stormed into this fortress that had been taken over by some orcs led by a BBEG. We came across this room with a ring of frozen mephits around a large crystal sphere. It was very late at night so i decide that my character, being the beef cake he is, is going to roll the sphere off the pedestal and use it as cove as we roll it through the halls of the fortress. After numerous warnings from the DM i roll a 20 and get the sphere to budge. The room then fills with water from under the sphere and we get flushed out to the elemental plane of water.

Technically not a party kill since my whale could hold his breath long enough to get to air. :smallwink:

drengnikrafe
2009-12-08, 03:53 PM
@Reaper_Monkey: Give them more than one life/character. They can die more times that way.

I suppose I can go into greater detail, just for the fun of it. First, you must understand... of my 4 players... for 2 of them, it was their second death. For the other 2, it was death number 5. I gave them 6 free deaths, and the 7th was final.

In any case, they grab the stone (by means of a very obediant riding dog), and the party rogue (one of the once-deads) got the stone. I had thrown a genie at them just a week previous who horribly twisted all wishes possible, and so they were wary. He made his words very precise, but the jist of the statement was that he wanted to go to exactly where Aceryrek (or whatever that stupid Lich's name is) was, and be ready to fight him. Of course, as we all know, the Lich is actually on some other plane, so he immediately died and his soul went there (and was consumed, of course). Then they rolled for inititive, as it says. Then, since the gem was faster than any of them, it exploded and killed everybody. The rogue argued that his evasion should get him out of his rightful 70 damage, but I, as DM, didn't buy it. I still don't. :smallbiggrin: Burning death to all.

Karoht
2009-12-08, 06:01 PM
Not a killer trap, but one that my party of all casters became very wary of in a hurry.

Effect-Arcane explosion in a 60 ft radius. Affects spell casters only.
Damage-None. Wait for it.
The arcane torrent disrupts spellcasting. It destroys 1D4 or 1D6 spell slots. Depending on the CR of the trap, it either destoys their lowest level spells starting at level 1 and working upward, or their highest level slots working downward, or roll 2d4+1 to determine level. These spell slots recover naturally upon standard rest or preparation time. IE-A wizard who has this effect loses the ability to use those slots (the wizard chooses which spell of the appropriate slot to discard for the day), but will still have the slot available when s/he goes to prepare spells for the next day.
Trigger? Magical presence within 30 feet, or spell casting taking place within 50 feet. It works kind of like an xray. So if an xray would normally pass through something, say a bookshelf, the arcane torrent still passes through. 6 inches of stone is enough to stop the arcane wave of energy.
If a spell is being cast when the wave hits, a concentration check is required to maintain the spell or lose it. DC determined as appropriate to the CR of the trap. However, it also imposes, for that cast only, an arcane casting failure chance, of 30%. So lets say that a wizard decides to deal with the trap by hitting it with a fireball. The wave hits, they make the concentration check, and now have a 30% spell failure chance on top. If they make it through all that, the fireball goes off as normal.

Now if the casters afflicted are dumb enough to stand around and wait rather than leave the room, it usually goes off again in 1D4 rounds, until either disabled, or until the trigger conditions are no longer met.

I tend to use it in libraries or laboratories, usually positioned in the far corners of the room or between book cases. I also sneak them into rows of statues in crypts and such, typically among gargoyles in stoneform as well (warning, I use homebrew gargoyles, more like the Disney show). However, to be fair, there is usually an on/off switch somewhere in the room or in another room of the dungeon. I mostly use it for area denial, but you'd be surprised how much casters will take it as a serious challenge and try to defeat the trap WITH CASTING.

Later variants include a spell absorbtion or spell reflect ability.

Solution to trap? Get a melee to smash it or a ranger to shoot it, or wing an explosive at it, or find the off switch.

Sstoopidtallkid
2009-12-08, 06:06 PM
Solution to trap? Get a melee to smash it or a ranger to shoot it, or wing an explosive at it, or find the off switch.Or be a Warlock, DFA, IotSFV, or Incantrix. I don't know how an Incantrix would be immune, but I assume one of their class features works on it, since it works on everything else.

Karoht
2009-12-08, 06:36 PM
Crystaline Lanterns and Chandeliers hang from the ceiling in a brightly lit room.
Upon entering detection range (methods and range varies with CR), one of the lanterns spawns a small little glowing ball of light. It seems to be changing color at random. It's very pretty in it's way. Until it fires a magic missile at your face (again, varying by CR). Well, that hurt and just as you are about to fire your bow at the wisp, not only does another one spawn, but the first one now fires some kind of fire bolt (MM but with fire).

Effect-Continously spawns wisps until destoyed.
Wisps-Movement is 90 feet. Depending on variant, they have a free action Dimension Door, usable only once per lantern, not per wisp, although this too changes per CR variant. Some variants spawn more than one wisp at a time, though a cap of 4 per spawn is recommended. They can not fire or join a swarm on the round they spawn in, but can move.
In any event, wisps only have 1HP. Later variants have a 20% miss chance VS missile attacks.
Their actions are random, their targets random, their spells are random. Even their movement is random. To be fair, the wisps are pretty dumb, and will typically provoke attacks of opportunity, they are that dumb/random.
They cast 'prismatic missile' once per turn. CL determined by CR. Roll 1D6 to determine if the elemental damage is Fire, Ice, Lightning, Negative Energy(hurts living, heals undead), Positive Energy(heals living, hurts undead), or Force. Otherwise the spell acts exactly like magic missile, including damage dealt.
Higher CR variants use higher CL, and thus the damage cranks up accordingly.
Also, 5 or more wisps can form a swarm, and obey standard swarm rules. Due to their erratic nature, once in a swarm, they increase 1D4 hit points per wisp added to the swarm, and more wisps can join the swarm at any time. They also gain the ability to salvo fire their spell, making it all the more lethal to any target of the swarm. Salvo Fire turns the damage from D4's to D6's. Salvo Fire can only be used once per 4 turns, and can not be the first shot fired by the swarm, it has to wait until turn 4 to Salvo Fire, and can Salvo Fire every 4th turn after that. Reasoning-Takes a while for the wisps to get coordinated in the swarm.

The lanterns and chandeliers that spawn them have, at most, 5 HP. However, in a room FILLED with lanterns and chandeliers, it becomes rather difficult to determine which ones are spawning wisps and which ones are not. The room will usually be filled with superfluous lighting, meant to act as cover for the Lanterns. Also, the lanterns can be on the wall, part of statues, etc, any where any form of lighting could be used. Naturally, when the lantern is smashed, it stops producing light.

Best I saw was a party of 4 survive a room filled with 4 of the max variant ones I had, and had also triggered some other fun little traps that had cast things like darkness and silence.

(recommended) Max variant trap
-5 hit points on the lantern
-4 wisps spawn per turn
-DC25 to spot the difference from other lanterns
-Each wisp is CL 10 for purposes of determining damage of prismatic missile (so 5 missiles fired by each wisp).

Again, detection methods and range of detection will vary with CR. I usually give each wisp true seeing, just to avoid arguements and the like.
If left alone, these babies will slowly chew appart a dumb party. Smart parties typically have no issue if their casters aren't idiots. And yes, you can see the wisps in the dark.
Once you leave detection range, the wisps will stay out for about 4 rounds, and then re-enter the lantern. If someone re-enters detection range, the same number that just entered the lantern will exit it. If the party exits the detection range for more than 10 minutes, the lanterns will reset themselves, the previously generated wisps will not re-emerge.

Happy party whomping.

Karoht
2009-12-08, 06:43 PM
Or be a Warlock, DFA, IotSFV, or Incantrix. I don't know how an Incantrix would be immune, but I assume one of their class features works on it, since it works on everything else.
What are they doing that isn't casting or magical in nature? (I'm assuming you mean that they could activate some kind of ability and NOT trigger the Arcane Torrent...) Sorry, I'm not really familiar with those classes or how their abilities function differently from other casters.
And in a library with book cases (which the wave will still pass through), those people still need to be able to draw LoS on the statue before they can do anything.
Use your imagination as a DM, the idea is these things are basically there to be anti caster. They can be anti-psy at the same time, of course.

Speaking of Library, when the party blundered into the library that I introduced this trap, one of the casters lost ALL of his castings for the day before they disabled the statue. Not too bright that one...

As a DM, one could also tune these traps to the presence of magical items, and have the bearer of said item take 1D6 per magical item on their person.

I should have stated this before. These traps were introduced as part of the flavor of a particular cult, who hunted mages and used minimal to no magic at all. They were quite good at building constructs with quasi-magical abilities though, or using magic as a power source for constructs and traps and such. All part of the lore that was tossed at the party.

golentan
2009-12-08, 06:48 PM
What are they doing that isn't casting or magical in nature? (I'm assuming you mean that they could activate some kind of ability and NOT trigger the Arcane Torrent...) Sorry, I'm not really familiar with those classes or how their abilities function differently from other casters.
And in a library with book cases (which the wave will still pass through), those people still need to be able to draw LoS on the statue before they can do anything.
Use your imagination as a DM, the idea is these things are basically there to be anti caster. They can be anti-psy at the same time, of course.

Speaking of Library, when the party blundered into the library that I introduced this trap, one of the casters lost ALL of his castings for the day before they disabled the statue. Not too bright that one...

As a DM, one could also tune these traps to the presence of magical items, and have the bearer of said item take 1D6 per magical item on their person.

I should have stated this before. These traps were introduced as part of the flavor of a particular cult, who hunted mages and used minimal to no magic at all. They were quite good at building constructs with quasi-magical abilities though, or using magic as a power source for constructs and traps and such. All part of the lore that was tossed at the party.

Well, warlock doesn't cast spells, and doesn't have spellslots, so they don't care. Dragonfire Adept is the same. But with DRAGONS (everything's better with dragons, except DFA). Incantatrix, I think he was just implying it's just that cheesy. Probably dispel the wave, or use a pre epic mithal seed, or... Okay, probably not that. But yes, that cheesy.

Sstoopidtallkid
2009-12-09, 12:07 AM
What are they doing that isn't casting or magical in nature? (I'm assuming you mean that they could activate some kind of ability and NOT trigger the Arcane Torrent...) Sorry, I'm not really familiar with those classes or how their abilities function differently from other casters.
And in a library with book cases (which the wave will still pass through), those people still need to be able to draw LoS on the statue before they can do anything.The Warlock and DFA are casters with unlimited spells/day, but very limited in both power and versatility. Eessentially what the Sorcerer should have been. They can ignore it.

IotSFV is a PrC that gives you access to immediate-action versions of Prismatic Wall and Sphere. It can render you immune to just about any trap by putting an impenetrable magical wall between you and it. Incantrix is just that cheesy. Without knowing the exact wording of the trap, I can't be sure which of their abilities applies, but I'm sure they can make a Spellcraft check to do something idiotic to your trap.
In other words, some casters ignore it, and those that don't are encouraged to go into the cheesiest PrCs out there so they can defeat it.

Ormagoden
2009-12-09, 12:19 AM
Crystaline Lanterns and Chandeliers hang from the ceiling in a brightly lit room.
Upon entering detection range (methods and range varies with CR), one of the lanterns spawns a small little glowing ball of light. It seems to be changing color at random. It's very pretty in it's way. Until it fires a magic missile at your face (again, varying by CR). Well, that hurt and just as you are about to fire your bow at the wisp, not only does another one spawn, but the first one now fires some kind of fire bolt (MM but with fire).

Effect-Continously spawns wisps until destoyed.
Wisps-Movement is 90 feet. Depending on variant, they have a free action Dimension Door, usable only once per lantern, not per wisp, although this too changes per CR variant. Some variants spawn more than one wisp at a time, though a cap of 4 per spawn is recommended. They can not fire or join a swarm on the round they spawn in, but can move.
In any event, wisps only have 1HP. Later variants have a 20% miss chance VS missile attacks.
Their actions are random, their targets random, their spells are random. Even their movement is random. To be fair, the wisps are pretty dumb, and will typically provoke attacks of opportunity, they are that dumb/random.
They cast 'prismatic missile' once per turn. CL determined by CR. Roll 1D6 to determine if the elemental damage is Fire, Ice, Lightning, Negative Energy(hurts living, heals undead), Positive Energy(heals living, hurts undead), or Force. Otherwise the spell acts exactly like magic missile, including damage dealt.
Higher CR variants use higher CL, and thus the damage cranks up accordingly.
Also, 5 or more wisps can form a swarm, and obey standard swarm rules. Due to their erratic nature, once in a swarm, they increase 1D4 hit points per wisp added to the swarm, and more wisps can join the swarm at any time. They also gain the ability to salvo fire their spell, making it all the more lethal to any target of the swarm. Salvo Fire turns the damage from D4's to D6's. Salvo Fire can only be used once per 4 turns, and can not be the first shot fired by the swarm, it has to wait until turn 4 to Salvo Fire, and can Salvo Fire every 4th turn after that. Reasoning-Takes a while for the wisps to get coordinated in the swarm.

The lanterns and chandeliers that spawn them have, at most, 5 HP. However, in a room FILLED with lanterns and chandeliers, it becomes rather difficult to determine which ones are spawning wisps and which ones are not. The room will usually be filled with superfluous lighting, meant to act as cover for the Lanterns. Also, the lanterns can be on the wall, part of statues, etc, any where any form of lighting could be used. Naturally, when the lantern is smashed, it stops producing light.

Best I saw was a party of 4 survive a room filled with 4 of the max variant ones I had, and had also triggered some other fun little traps that had cast things like darkness and silence.

(recommended) Max variant trap
-5 hit points on the lantern
-4 wisps spawn per turn
-DC25 to spot the difference from other lanterns
-Each wisp is CL 10 for purposes of determining damage of prismatic missile (so 5 missiles fired by each wisp).

Again, detection methods and range of detection will vary with CR. I usually give each wisp true seeing, just to avoid arguements and the like.
If left alone, these babies will slowly chew appart a dumb party. Smart parties typically have no issue if their casters aren't idiots. And yes, you can see the wisps in the dark.
Once you leave detection range, the wisps will stay out for about 4 rounds, and then re-enter the lantern. If someone re-enters detection range, the same number that just entered the lantern will exit it. If the party exits the detection range for more than 10 minutes, the lanterns will reset themselves, the previously generated wisps will not re-emerge.

Happy party whomping.

Um...fireball...I fireball the room. Twice if I have too, but I doubt I'll do less that 5 damage to destroy all the lanterns.

Alternatively I shut the door.

Kinda made me chuckle though :smallbiggrin:

Kyrthain
2009-12-09, 07:54 AM
I was playing an anthrpomorphic whale (it's relevent) in a game with some friends. We stormed into this fortress that had been taken over by some orcs led by a BBEG. We came across this room with a ring of frozen mephits around a large crystal sphere. It was very late at night so i decide that my character, being the beef cake he is, is going to roll the sphere off the pedestal and use it as cove as we roll it through the halls of the fortress. After numerous warnings from the DM i roll a 20 and get the sphere to budge. The room then fills with water from under the sphere and we get flushed out to the elemental plane of water.

Technically not a party kill since my whale could hold his breath long enough to get to air. :smallwink:

That would be my dream come true...

BenTheJester
2009-12-09, 03:02 PM
@Reaper_Monkey: Give them more than one life/character. They can die more times that way.

I suppose I can go into greater detail, just for the fun of it. First, you must understand... of my 4 players... for 2 of them, it was their second death. For the other 2, it was death number 5. I gave them 6 free deaths, and the 7th was final.

In any case, they grab the stone (by means of a very obediant riding dog), and the party rogue (one of the once-deads) got the stone. I had thrown a genie at them just a week previous who horribly twisted all wishes possible, and so they were wary. He made his words very precise, but the jist of the statement was that he wanted to go to exactly where Aceryrek (or whatever that stupid Lich's name is) was, and be ready to fight him. Of course, as we all know, the Lich is actually on some other plane, so he immediately died and his soul went there (and was consumed, of course). Then they rolled for inititive, as it says. Then, since the gem was faster than any of them, it exploded and killed everybody. The rogue argued that his evasion should get him out of his rightful 70 damage, but I, as DM, didn't buy it. I still don't. :smallbiggrin: Burning death to all.

Acererak is in the Plane of Negative Energy, and no soul go there when they die.

If I remember correctly, Acererak had one hell of time getting his over there.

Karoht
2009-12-09, 04:13 PM
Um...fireball...I fireball the room. Twice if I have too, but I doubt I'll do less that 5 damage to destroy all the lanterns.

Alternatively I shut the door.

Kinda made me chuckle though :smallbiggrin:
While fireballing is valid, and the idea behind the trap (is to make you waste AoE spells on 1 HP mooks), two things. One is that these things are irratic. They might group up, they might not. I question the use of an AoE spell to kill a bunch of them.
Two is that they tend to stay near the roof, among the lights, until they start opening fire. If the party isn't paying attention, or misses the detail that these things are spawning, there is a good chance that they will get the drop on the party.
I suppose one could up the annoyance factor and give these guys something like Evasion and a decent reflex save to counter AoE heavy groups. Or toss in some kind of miss chance. Their AC is variable, I usually put it at 16 or so, but any party higher than 4th level, the AC is moot. The other thing is, the DM is supposed to try and make the lanterns look like they belong there at any opportunity. The other trick which is great is, as they shoot the lanterns, they start losing light sources, which eventually makes the room potentially dark with the wisps the only light source, unless the party has ways around this like darkvision. If the caster wants to spend an action tossing out a light spell, great, thats one action where the caster isn't tossing out those AoE's. And if the party can't see much other than the wisps, well, that opens up the door for other things. Like an ambush, or another trap.

Ironically, magic missile works wonders in this situation. It's just the knee jerk reaction if there are many of them, is to fireball.

Yes, close the door. IF you know how the trap works. If you know how it works without a respective roll to figure it out, you are metagaming. This is also IF you spotted THE lantern and not just any old lantern in the place. Conversely, it could be an innocent looking candle burning away on a desk.

The second or third time you're party encounters this trap, it tends not to be as lethal, unless there happens to be a lantern in the far end of the room, and it's detected their presence, unbeknownst to the party. Libraries are awesome places to trap people.
What gives the trap survivability and replayability is the DM. The DM has to do a decent job of hiding it (without being dinks and requiring a DC35 spot check or something crazy) and without giving it away completley when you describe the room. Take the candle example. The DM describes a desk cluttered with books and papers and drawings off in one corner of the room, with a messy tallow candle burning away, indicating that someone was there recently. Players might take this desk to be a relevant clue to the plot, and walk over to investigate, and walk into sight range of the trap. Now sure, it's just one on the desk. That doesn't mean that the other lanterns in the room are all plain old lanterns either.

Just examples mind you. They are intended for DM flavor, and to be serious threats for stupid parties. I've had party members try talking to them. I've had players try and blow out candles or oil lamps, rather than just shoot them/smash them.

Karoht
2009-12-09, 04:25 PM
The Warlock and DFA are casters with unlimited spells/day, but very limited in both power and versatility. Eessentially what the Sorcerer should have been. They can ignore it.

IotSFV is a PrC that gives you access to immediate-action versions of Prismatic Wall and Sphere. It can render you immune to just about any trap by putting an impenetrable magical wall between you and it. Incantrix is just that cheesy. Without knowing the exact wording of the trap, I can't be sure which of their abilities applies, but I'm sure they can make a Spellcraft check to do something idiotic to your trap.
In other words, some casters ignore it, and those that don't are encouraged to go into the cheesiest PrCs out there so they can defeat it.

Interesting. Cool to know.

So the warlock has no 'slots' and therefore doesn't loose anything? Hmm, do they have spell points then, or is it truly bottomless spellcasting? Good to know:smallsmile:

Later variants (depending on CR) could apply a stacking spell failure penalty, as a dampening effect, in addition to any other effects taking place. 10-20% per stack, lasts until your next successful spellcast.

Common sense says, you'd have to know that the wave was headed your way in order to do this. Library full of book cases, and you are 5 feet from the nearest bookshelf, so how do you detect the wave incoming in time to cast? A spot check in a fraction of a second, plus the time required to process what is going on, and reaction time, before this wave moves 5 feet to cause you issue? Yeah, not many DM's would buy that.


Oh, and the wisp trap? Tends to work better in larger rooms with features like furniture in the way. Large room to avoid AoE's wiping out everything in one go. Remember, the Wisps fly, and move very quickly, so they can sit on top of things like statues or book cases or lab equipment or tables and make pew pew at targets, and can even do so from out of reach of melee. Then again, the wisps are also very random and dumb, so that is really a DM tactical decision.

Dusk Eclipse
2009-12-09, 04:43 PM
Interesting. Cool to know.

So the warlock has no 'slots' and therefore doesn't loose anything? Hmm, do they have spell points then, or is it truly bottomless spellcasting? Good to know:smallsmile:



They do have bottomless spellcasting, it is just that their spells (called invocations) are very limited in number, a pure warlock would get about 12 invocations in all its career, also the selection of invocations is MUCH more limited, IIRC you only find invocations in Complete Arcane (the book that introduced them) Complete Mage, Dragon Magic (they introduced the DFA)