killer traps

[Lightlawbliss]

note: If you are in a game I am DMing, hit the back button now.

So, I am currently DMing a 3.5 campaign where one of the players (soon to be artificer 9) really enjoys traps, and he likes them hard for their cr and/or requiring tactics and reasoning. As such, I am looking for traps that allow him to have the moments he enjoys, preferably without tpk, while also not giving the party a massive amount of xp. Magic and mundane both work. Traps that you can't disable and still go forward are all the better.

Stories of traps you have encountered are just as good as fresh ideas.

[Lightlawbliss]

to get the ball rolling, I recently sent them against an eye of the hurricane trap with spikes on the wall and mushrooms growing in **** on the floor.

[unseenmage]

There's a trick detailed here with Create Trap (RotD) and metamagic that's pretty nasty.

Put the above trick into some Glyph Seals (MIC) and slap those all on a wine bottle to throw at the party. (They explicitly do not inherit the 'can't have too many too close together' trait from Glyph of Warding.) Perhaps the bottle was propped over a doorway all bucket-of-water-over-a-door classic prank style.

Put a Universal Key in the above wine bottle for even more fun. (Alternatively there's a Golem Swarm in one of the Dragon magazines that's even nastier. Can disassemble a whole town given half a chance. Steals items from characters too.)

Put 1 Craft Contingent Spell (CAr) per HD onto the above Universal Key and even more fun can be had. There's none of the Contingency spell's restrictions on the Craft Contingent Spells so they can be nasty trap spells if you want. Pick the right ones and the swarm Universal Key won't even be affected. The Craft Contingent Spells explicitly persist to be triggered after the creature is slain too so you can set the contingency to all sorts of nasty events, like when the corpse is looted, desecrated, or otherwise specifically disrespected.

Put Energy Transformation Field (SC) in the above Craft Contingent Spells and things really get fun. Now you've got a spell/'SU ability'/SLA,/'magc item activation' eating area in the same space as the Construct swarm that's very nonmagically disassembling everything it touches. Oh and that field, it casts whatever spell you manage to be able to "cast" when it's created. Every time it eats enough spell levels it sets off the linked spell. And it's permanent. And explicitly says that the victim has no clue where their spell went.


I mean that's what traps are to me. Layered events on top of each other. And I especially delight in programmable Constructs and spells interacting to cause a landslide of deargodwhy. here's some stuff you could combine using multiple Custom Magic Traps for example:
- Illusory Script + Explosive Runes; you have to read it and you go boom.
- Wind Wall + Telekinesis/Reverse Gravity + Prismatic Wall/Wall of Fire; float 'em and fry 'em.
- Suggestion to make them willing + Fabricate to make the stone coffin + Mineralize Warrior (Un); sure they get cool earth powers but they're your servant for a year and a day.
- Fabricate + Shrink Item + Magic Mouth + Telekinesis/Hurl Item (SC?); make sharp/heavy stuff then throw it and expand it.


Then again there's always just using Invisible Spell (Ci) metamagic with Web/Grease, and Prestidigitation to set it on fire to wreak havoc on low level parties or low op parties. (Add another Reverse Gravity + Wind Wall here for added annoyance.)

[Afgncaap5]

I imagine you've seen the sections in DMG 2 and Dungeonscape on encounter traps and expanded traps, yes? And, alternatively, some of the scenarios in the Book Of Challenges?

What about a room with a curved ceiling made of indestructible glass, the bottom half of a giant hourglass. In the top of the hourglass, ghostly versions of the PCs are moving backwards, and seeming to operate ghostly versions of equipment that the PCs can see in their room but not touch. Sand is filling both rooms.

The nature of the equipment to be manipulated could be shifted based on the skills the artificer and other players have, and getting the ghostly party to move backward while the main party moves forward before the sand (in either side of the glass) fills too much can be a challenge.

[kkplx]

tiny correction on unseenmage, Grease does not, in fact, burn. There's another spell that allows that use.

[unseenmage]

tiny correction on unseenmage, Grease does not, in fact, burn. There's another spell that allows that use.

All better?

...
Then again there's always just using Invisible Spell (Ci) metamagic with Web/Grease True Creation: lampoil, and Prestidigitation to set it on fire to wreak havoc on low level parties or low op parties. (Add another Reverse Gravity + Wind Wall here for added annoyance.)

[Griffithor]

One of the traps that was my favorite was the stairs of doom, 46 stairs each enchanted with a single offensive spell. Us Pc's discovered this from a riddle at the top of the stairs. After about an hour around the table he made it to the bottom. All of the Pc's finally breathing a sigh of relief since we all made it down, alive. Then, the rouge stepped off onto the ground and immediately fell through the floor (major image) 4 thousand feet onto a pile of spikes. All of the players (not knowing about the fall) were bewildered, and we sent the tank next, hoping if there was a monster he could kill it. Using the same reasoning all of the players ended up killing themselves by falling into the pit. After that i wasn't allowed to be Dm for a while.

[atomicwaffle]

I like natural hazards. Uneven cobblestone. Ravine with 8 feet of water and undertow. Cliff with moss. quicksand. Sinkholes (ehehehe). Sure, detect magic! Search for traps, well you go right ahead!

[Jack_Simth]

note: If you are in a game I am DMing, hit the back button now.

So, I am currently DMing a 3.5 campaign where one of the players (soon to be artificer 9) really enjoys traps, and he likes them hard for their cr and/or requiring tactics and reasoning. As such, I am looking for traps that allow him to have the moments he enjoys, preferably without tpk, while also not giving the party a massive amount of xp. Magic and mundane both work. Traps that you can't disable and still go forward are all the better.

Stories of traps you have encountered are just as good as fresh ideas.

You'll need to be careful balancing things here - after all, it's *one player* that enjoys the traps. There are more at the table.

Still... you seem to want ones where Search + Disable Device + Move on isn't a practical option. So:

1) Mix with suitable monsters. A room with an Empowered Mass Inflict Light Wounds trap (automatic reset magic device trap) that goes off every round is a great place to put a couple of undead. The trap itself is CR 8. As you have a 9th level party, you find a nice CR 8 bruiser (like, say, a Morgh, or a young adult red dragon skeleton - both standard critters) to mix into the room and you get an encounter level of 10. Every round, the trap goes off, dealing 1.5*(1d8+13) (will DC 20 half) damage to everyone in the party, and healing the critter a like amount. Sure, you could roll disable device... but disarming a trap takes 2d4 rounds, and the beast is attacking, so you can't take ten. This also works with many of the golems and elemental damage spells if you match them up - a Flesh Golem (CR 7) and a chain lightning trap (also CR 7) have similar effects (that would specifically be an encounter level of 9).

2) Use traps of spells that may or may not be beneficial. A Dimension Door trap, for instance, could take you to the treasure room... or the training room for the mooks... or (if it's high caster level) just deal a flat 4d6 damage to whoever steps into it (no open spaces within 1000 feet of the destination). Or maybe into a small room with no air (someone set a fire and sealed the place up for the purpose). Or maybe into open air above a very deep spiked pit. Or maybe a spot underwater. Or maybe into a vat of poison/acid. Or into a furnace kept hot. Or into an adamantine jail cell that has an Antimagic Field Trap, locked in a way that is only accessible from the outside, that goes off whenever the room is occupied (and has no reset delay). But as all the dimension door trap itself 'knows' is that it sends critters a particular distance in a particular direction... you can't tell without trying to send something that you can track through.

3) The locals should be fine with the traps. Generally speaking, in an inhabited area, the expected inhabitants are going to be immune somehow (negative energy traps around undead, fire traps around fire-immune critters, traps that check for alignment/race/subtype/weight/etcetera around critters of that alignment / race / subtype / weight / etcetera) or are going to have an easy bypass (perhaps the trap on the door doesn't trigger if you use the proper key to open it - and it's left locked; maybe you always use the north door and never the south). Why? Because if you're blind drunk / sick / woken suddenly from a deep sleep, you do not want something lying around that will kill you. So keep in mind what distinguishes the inhabitants (if it's an inhabited area). Fire traps if there are fire immune critters about, 80 pound weight traps if there are a lot of light critters (goblins, kobolds, etcetera) around, scything blade traps that target 4 and a half feet off the ground if there are a lot of short critters about, and so on. Note that this need not apply in an area that is not intended to be inhabited - this doesn't apply in an ancient tomb, for instance, because the guardians will pretty much be stuck where they are, and nobody is expected to traverse the area regularly.

Note that these go well together. A lich might make a pair of Dimension Door traps to get himself, his undead minions and his materials in and out of his lair... which has no mundane entry, and is teleport-blocked except for the arrival area and the exit area (and there's a dimension lock trap in the arrival area which thereafter blocks outbound teleporting for a fixed period of time after an arrival... this also means the second person to go through the entry takes 4d6 damage and stays outside). Leaded, too. In the meanwhile, so as not to need to worry about living invaders in his sanctum as much, he fouled the air (brought in a bunch of wood, then set it on fire until nothing would burn without magic anymore). And, of course, he leaves a bunch of minions in the receiving area, along with said Empowered Mass Inflict Light Wounds trap. Disabling the entry doesn't help much (the trap is one-way, so he can still get out, and can set another one up if he needs to), you can't scry out what's on the other side (lead blocks most divinations), you must be prepared if you go in (no air), and as soon as you get there, you're in a no-light (why bother? Everyone who is supposed to be there has darkvision) room with no air (doesn't bother the undead... oh yes, and you have to HOLD YOUR BREATH to not immediately collapse when using the suffocation rules... so sorry about all those spells with verbal components that require you be able to speak in a loud voice ... and your wands... and your scrolls... and your command-word items...), get repeatedly blasted by negative energy, and have to deal with the undead attacking you. And, of course, details of what's on the other side are really hard to come by - after all, you have to be very well prepared to survive it for long. And that's just the entryway. Everything is coated in contact poison (undead are immune), and there are other traps around that trigger based on: creatures that *do not* detect as Evil (all undead do, and it bypasses the little problem of the goody two-shoes realizing they can cast Undetectable alignment), warm bodies (undead are, by and large, room temperature), or things not wearing a particular unholy symbol. Oh yes, and it's really, really hard to get advanced information on this place - after all, it's rather difficult to scry, and getting out alive is also rather annoying.

Enjoy your trap. Yes, I know how to be evil.

[Lightlawbliss]

One of the traps that was my favorite was the stairs of doom, 46 stairs each enchanted with a single offensive spell. Us Pc's discovered this from a riddle at the top of the stairs. After about an hour around the table he made it to the bottom. All of the Pc's finally breathing a sigh of relief since we all made it down, alive. Then, the rouge stepped off onto the ground and immediately fell through the floor (major image) 4 thousand feet onto a pile of spikes. All of the players (not knowing about the fall) were bewildered, and we sent the tank next, hoping if there was a monster he could kill it. Using the same reasoning all of the players ended up killing themselves by falling into the pit. After that i wasn't allowed to be Dm for a while.

Why 4000 ft? isn't that "slightly" overkill.

and I probably should mention that this artificer has a tendency to take traps if he can. He would go buy storage and literally take every single step out while giving the party gold to guard him while he does it.

[Jack_Simth]

Why 4000 ft? isn't that "slightly" overkill.

and I probably should mention that this artificer has a tendency to take traps if he can. He would go buy storage and literally take every single step out while giving the party gold to guard him while he does it.

Note that, unlike Neverwinter Nights, 3.5 doesn't have any particular method by which to recover traps. They're worked into the architecture? They're not going anywhere unless you're planning on doing some very ... interesting... things to move most the room intact.

[Lightlawbliss]

Note that, unlike Neverwinter Nights, 3.5 doesn't have any particular method by which to recover traps. They're worked into the architecture? They're not going anywhere unless you're planning on doing some very ... interesting... things to move most the room intact.

he has already transported an entire 25 ft radius fountain back to town just to sell the sna3 (d3 crocs only) trap that was in it. I honestly think he spent more to do it than the cost to make the fountain so I had no prob having somebody buy it.

[Jack_Simth]

he has already transported an entire 25 ft radius fountain back to town just to sell the sna3 (d3 crocs only) trap that was in it. I honestly think he spent more to do it than the cost to make the fountain so I had no prob having somebody buy it.

Market price of the trap is 15k. Sell for half, so he gets 7.5k out of it, assuming he finds a buyer.

What method did he use to move a 25 foot radius object that's normally mounted in flagstones and doesn't have the sort of structural integrity needed to be moved intact by mundane means?

Also... wouldn't it be simpler just to Retain Essence on it? He's got Craft Wondrous Item.

[Lightlawbliss]

Market price of the trap is 15k. Sell for half, so he gets 7.5k out of it, assuming he finds a buyer.

What method did he use to move a 25 foot radius object that's normally mounted in flagstones and doesn't have the sort of structural integrity needed to be moved intact by mundane means?

Also... wouldn't it be simpler just to Retain Essence on it? He's got Craft Wondrous Item.

they dug it up, tied boards around it for support, destroyed non-load bearing walls to make a path out, and rolled it out on a giant cart he made while everyone else smashed stuff. (they were lvl 3 at the time so they considered it worth it since they had agreed to equal shares and nearly 1.9k is a lot for a lvl 3.

anyway, we are getting off topic here.