Stealing a trick from the Alchemy rules, here is a variant:
Explosive Runes
Category: Warding
Time: 1 hour
Duration: Until Discharged
Key Skill: Arcana
This is a family of rituals, as descibed by the following table:
Code:
Level Price Components Attack Damage
4 200 50 gp +7 vs Reflex Burst 2, 2d6 damage
9 1000 250 gp +12 vs Reflex Burst 2, 3d6 damage
14 5000 1200 gp +17 vs Reflex Burst 3, 4d6 damage
19 24,000 6000 gp +22 vs Reflex Burst 3, 5d6 damage
24 120,000 30,000 gp +27 vs Reflex Burst 4, 6d6 damage
29 600,000 150,000 gp +32 vs Reflex Burst 4, 7d6 damage
To use any of the above rituals, you inscribe a passage of text embedded with secret runs in a language you know how to write.
Anyone spending an action (or actively reading the Runes) to read this text risks setting off the runes. They make a Perception or Arcana skill check opposed by your Arcana roll when you inscribed the runes, where the ritual caster gains a +10 bonus. Characters searching for runes also make such a skill check, and failure also sets off the Runes.
Typically, the Runes are inscribed in such a way that they can only be read from within the blast radius (writing size, etc).
On success, the reader is tipped off that something is wrong, and they can stop reading. On failure, they trigger the runes.
The runes deal half damage on a miss.
The runes may damage the object they are mounted on, or the object they are mounted on can be immune to the damage, at the option of the inscribing ritualist.
Multiple explosive runes placed in close proximity do not work. If there are two explosive runes within 10' of each other for an extended period of time (days), the weaker of the two fades. (A higher-level explosive rune is stronger, and an explosive rune with a higher arcana check is stronger. If both are tied, pick randomly.)