Suggestions for a Wizard's tower Traps/Guards/Contents - Please help.

[Grifthin]

Hey everyone, I've got a multi layered map drawn up for a powerful wizards tower my party members are going to be visiting. I want to give the players a really engaging and memorable experience (they have been waiting about 20 sessions to get this far). So far i've got the following:

The mage is obsessed with travelling dimensions - so there are lots of teleporters in tower. What else can I add that follows this theme ?

She uses golems for guardians - specifically beautiful marble statues, Stone golems.

What "standard" stuff can I add to a tower that makes wizards towers very hazardous but extremely rewarding to explore. Please feel free to be as creative as you like. We are playing pathfinder, but I regularly convert traps and ideas from other systems.

[cdrcjsn]

You can put in certain rooms that have different planar traits. Rationalize it with the wizard using those rooms to acclimate herself or to test items in those environments in a controlled setting.

Bound elemental/planar servants are also fairly common for high level wizards in case you get tired of the PCs fighting golems.

An intelligent item that acts as a house alarm system, capable of using a projected image anywhere in the compound. Bonus points for using a creepy little girl.

A bound dretch demon janitor. His stinking cloud ability is actually a form of cleansing chlorine gas. He's a non-combatant, but hates his life, the wizard, and the PCs. He grumbles a lot, often encountered, and will try to ignore the PCs except to tell them to please move because they're standing on the spot he's supposed to clean. A bit of comic relief but can also be a source of information. If killed, he is just summoned back after a period of time due to his binding.

[Kaww]

If she is a powerful wizard. She might have some unconventional visitors.

Outsiders petitioning for help/job.
High level explorers/friends that came over.
Some fun pets from other planes, preferably lawful - they don't scratch the couch when you say it is against the rules...
VERY interesting labs.
An entertainer...

@ cdrcjsn I like the janitor idea.

[CapnVan]

I know you said you've done the map, but...

If the wizard is obsessed with dimensional travel, gates (grrr... portals) are always a possibility. A classic motif is the wizard's tower that's considerably bigger on the inside than on the outside.

If he's a "jumper", there's no need for him to have conventional entrances to rooms, or even stairs connecting different levels. This kind of depends on who else is there. This would leave all sorts of places to trap — traps which might teleport the victim to a variety of places: other planes, holding cells, rooms with monsters, outside the tower, the totally random, etc.

He could certainly have a lot of bric-a-brac and souvenirs, odd and unusual items which might operate oddly in your world, and would certainly look out of place — Snarfquest's Suthaze, with his flashlight and motorcycle et al. come to mind.

[The Big Dice]

I know you said you've done the map, but...

If the wizard is obsessed with dimensional travel, gates (grrr... portals) are always a possibility. A classic motif is the wizard's tower that's considerably bigger on the inside than on the outside.
A Wizard's Tardis should be really, really small on the outside :smalltongue:

One idea I liked, stolen from Dan Simmons, is a home where the rooms are all on different worlds. Or for these purposes, you could substitute different Planes. Have a central chamber that's kind of your hub and then have fun with it.

[Cyrion]

How about living spells? Most of the ones statted out tend to be damage spells, but if he's a dimensional experimenter, variations on a living teleport could be interesting: the players keep having to avoid the sparkly mist because every time it catches up with them, one or more end up in an inconvenient place or a teleport object spell that redistributes their equipment.