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CyberSushi
2010-01-01, 09:40 AM
While it is true that I'm entirely new to this forum, I have come here to read many of the ideas (or thought experiments) for 3.5. I thought I'd toss another in to the mix as my "virginal entry" to this forum: A deathtrap with the details of its creation being included so that even a player could attempt to make it -- or a DM justify its existence. I'd like your thoughts and ideas on its revision, if any.

Happy Coffin of Euphoric Pleasure

1) Anonymously contact Duergar blacksmiths capable of forging with adamantine and creating complex locks. Request discretion as follows:
A) The Forging area must be fully supplied with everything needed for the task prior to beginning the task. Nobody leaves the forging area until the task is complete and the agreement has been met in full.
B) The Forging area must be lead-lined and painted with Gorgon's blood so as to prevent all scrying attempts and hedge out incorporeal/ethereal/astral snoops.
C) A Non-Disclosure "Stygian Water" agreement: Upon completion of the task all witnesses aside from the customer(s) must drink sufficient stygian water so as to induce memory loss of the entire incident. The following options help prevent the possibility of additional interrogation-related problems:
a) Paranoid Option A: Poison the water with a powerful constitution-damaging toxin. Immediately kill and disintegrate everyone else. example toxin) [Swarming Spiderbite (1800gp per .1 lbs): Ingested magic-infused poison, Fort DC 22, 1D6 Con/2D6 Con, from Drow of the Underdark]
b) Paranoid Option B: Poison the water as above. Kill each Duergar with Thinaun weapons (see Complete Warrior: traps the soul of those slain by it, preventing resurrection, etc., until the soul has been freed). Disintegrate the bodies.
2) The Duergar are to forge an adamantine coffin that is watertight, with 12 adamantine latches and 12 complex adamantine locks. Four latches will be forged to the sides and two latches will be forged to both the head and foot of the coffin. The complex locks will have deadly traps. The coffin material will be forged in three layers: A thick inner-layer of adamantine, a 2-inch thick middle-layer of lead, and a thick outer layer of adamantine, and then painted with Gorgon's blood. The lid and floor of the coffin is to be outfitted with multiple magic knife blades which will be triggered to spring forth when a living person is inside the coffin. These removable magic knife blades will be constructed from Thinaun, so as to take the soul of the person who dies on them (only one will hold the soul, randomly chosen upon death by the blades; magic to bypass many forms of damage reduction). The foot of the coffin will include a small aperture which can be opened just enough to feed in a small tube (1/4 inch diameter) for the purposes of pumping liquid or gas into or out of the coffin. Dimensional Shackles (see DMG, cost 28,000, functions as the spell as long as worn) will be built into the coffin and are enchanted to close and "entangle" around any person's ankles, wrists, and neck, thus preventing escape. The schackles may only be opened at the touch of the owner (or DC 30 to break). The Coffin itself is given the additional enchantment of "Proof against Transmutation" (see Magic of Faerun), making the coffin immune to any form of transmutation (including disintegrate) (cost of 36,000).
2a) The magic Thinaun blades twist and grind, doing damage over time (see Fleshgrinder from the Book of Vile Darkness).
When the weapon damages a living target, it can be commanded to “grind” as a Free Action, followed by the wielder releasing it. At that point, the weapon animates for up to 5 rounds, doing normal weapon damage to the target once each round. The original wielder can grab the weapon automatically as a Standard Action. All others must succeed on a Strength check vs. DC 20. Once pulled-out, the weapon obeys its new wielder.
2b) Common liquids/gases which should be used to fill the coffin (to deal with casters), noting that the coffin's air is pumped out (near vacuum) prior to liquid/gas being pumped in:
-Horror Weed Extract .1 lbs. (600gp, Contact poison, Fort DC 20, 1 Wis/2D4 Wis from the Arms and Equipment Guide)
-Illithid Mind Scorch .1 lbs. (1000gp, Inhaled poison, Fort DC 22, 1D6 Int/1D6 Int from Drow of the Underdark)
-Burnt Angel Wings .1 lbs. (2800gp, Inhaled poison, Fort DC 18, 1D6 Cha/2D6 Cha from the Book of Vile Darkness)
-Stygian Water (water from the river Styx, from the Abyss): Causes Amnesia. Even slight exposure causes the last 8 hours of memory to be lost, at least. Would the victim forget where he/she was?
3) The Coffin must be teleported to an undisclosed, lead-lined room painted in Gorgon's blood. This room should have been prepared by the caster while under the effects of a complete nondetection spell or item and should be unknown to any but the caster. Likewise, the room should have no other entry option other than teleportation, as it exists in a pocket of space deep underground. Furthermore, there is no available air in the room so the caster must have no need to breathe.
4) The Coffin will be placed on a raised Dais in the middle of the room.
5) Future enemies are to be immediately transported here as per greater teleport whenever possible.
6) Thinaun blades are collected and either sold or used for creating magic items (as per Book of Vile Darkness).

Thoughts? Comments?

Brendan
2010-01-01, 09:57 AM
seems like a lot of trouble for a trap that kills just one person. Why not teleport the enemy to the interior of a volcano? why not just get a sphere of annhialation and teleport the enemy into a room where gravity is modifed to push them in?
your idea would kill the enemy, but you are assuming or forgetting a few things. 1 the enemy would get a spot check to notice the deadly stuff. 2 why would the enemy want to get in it? 3 someone could have immunity to poisons, lots of health, and the ability to cast spells that would either destroy the coffin or make the enemy be able to break it.
personally, I would send them to a room with a reseting trap of Harm or wail of the banshee or destruction or even summon monster 1-9.
you have a powerful trap, there, but I don't see why not do something else.

Tyndmyr
2010-01-01, 10:00 AM
Looks particularly nasty...coupla questions though.

First off, Im not sure it's a trap per se...it's not really there to surprise people with, but merely as a place to send people. Enemies, presumably. What's the difference between this and a SoD + Soul Jar, or using their soul as an xp component for crafting or what have you?

Secondly, what's the total cost of creation?

Thirdly, what, if any, would be the CR of the trap?

Lastly...DR/nonmetal is a problem. There's at least one buff that grants that. If they survive the initial attack(or make interesting use of wings of cover or celerity to otherwise survive or bypass it), the place can be turned into rubble quickly via disintegrates or a sphere of ultimate destruction.

CyberSushi
2010-01-01, 10:56 AM
Trap? Ok, perhaps not a trap, persay...

As players, we sometimes encounter nasty foes which are difficult to kill. Many of the strongest villains I have faced have been medium-sized humanoids. Also, it's often the case that the player wishes to keep the items from the fallen foe. That being said, teleporting a foe into a live volcano, plane shifting the foe into the negative plane (randomly), hitting the foe with a sphere of annihilation, etc., all destroy the items. Sometimes, items on the foe are part of a plot device requiring their acquisition. With this option, a foe is not lured into the trap. A foe is teleported directly into it. Consider the possibilities in terms of assassination attempts: you know who your enemy is and you must kill your enemy with relative certainty but also wish to preserve whatever the enemy might have been carrying, if possible. You teleport in, teleport the enemy out and into the "trap," and teleport back to deal with the enemy attempting to escape.

Otherwise, my goal has been to design a "deathtrap" or instant kill option that is within reach of mid/high-level character design. It's not a trap in the literally sprung sense, though I suppose it could be so were one to craft an item/area with a "greater teleport into the coffin" contingency. It is a "trap" in that once a person has been teleported into it that person will have a difficult time escaping, in general. It would require, as Brendan pointed out, a few immunities and some incredible abilities: immunity to poison, still spell (as you are bound), silent spell (you can't have a verbal component without air to word it or simply not need to breathe), and a fairly high DR/nonmagic. All of this is possible but not entirely likely. One can work around the DR as it would be possible to enchant each Thinuan blade with different DR bypassing methods: good aligned, evil aligned, alchemical silver, etc. It is a problem, I admit, but I'd also like to point out that if we use rules for spike traps it's possible to increase the damage output to something high enough that some damage will spill through and beyond the DR. At the least, it takes time for the villain to get out. Finally, note well that "proof against Transmutation" prevents the easy use of disintegrate to get our of the coffin -- it's not an option.

So, assuming you've teleported in there right behind the villain, it gives you some time to make use of the deadlier options you have lying around in the room while the villain starts trying to get free. Remember that the idea is to prevent enemies from easily escaping, hopefully at a lower cost. Just so, I reject using high-level spells for this purpose. By the way, capturing the soul is just an added touch used for the purpose of preventing foes from ever returning back to life to screw with you again (which is something I've hated).

It may be silly or beyond the reach of a normal character designing it. I'd imagine a Lich having such an option ready for troublesome casters (Will save to resist the teleport, but bolster the DC as much as possible) or for use on various tanks, rogues, etc. That's almost certain death for them. Seems to me that only a quick-thinking, fairly lucky caster has a chance. Or someone with lots of layered immunities.

I need to take some time to calculate the total (prospective) cost. I'll get on that later.

Brendan
2010-01-01, 02:57 PM
wouldn't the items be destroyed by the vibrating blades of doom?
Also, symbol of death would leave items intact. If you can enter and exit the area to grab the enemy's items, why can't the enemy leave? a door? it can be blasted. you cannot teleport there, anyway, due to the lead.
it seems like a cool idea to uberkill someone, but wholly unnecessary.

CyberSushi
2010-01-01, 04:12 PM
1) The blades would not necessarily destroy items. Think of it in terms of an iron maiden, of sorts. One for the torso, two for each of the thighs, two for each of the wrists near the shackles, one for the head. It might damage items, but no more so than a typical combat harms armor and other items. How many DMs factor that type of damage over time, eh?

2) You seem to really love those high level spells. I was avoiding those deliberately, whenever possible.

3) The room holding the coffin would be located in a "stale air" pocket deep underground. The enemy would not easily be able to leave without teleporting, assuming the enemy could get out of the Dimensional Schackles.

4) Lead blocks scrying. I haven't heard about it blocking teleport. However, it might be possible to construct the walls of the room with Urdukar, instead (providing a +2 DC on scry attempts per 5 lbs). Generally, Urdukar provides this per 5 lbs carried by a character, but it could be extended to a room, as well.

Brendan
2010-01-01, 04:32 PM
seeing how much all this costs, it would only be available to a high level character, unless you want to not pay people for making the underground area, the coffin, the adamantium, the gorgon's blood, the poisons, the dimensional shackles, the powerful magic weapons with what sounds like a ninth level spell inside of each one, their enchantments, and any other things, like cleanup for the bodies.
If you killed them or simply removed their memories, then you would leave some sort of trail, and either way, your alignment would change to evil.
It would be great as a special device used by a major antagonist, but I can't see a PC using it, if only because most PCs have the attention span of a small, concussed moth.

If you want the items to remain intact, why not just send them to the elemental plane of water, or a vacuum?

ericgrau
2010-01-01, 06:02 PM
It'll be a pity when someone does get out, teleports it away and sells the adamantium.