Diabolical Traps!

[EZ_Vorashus]

Buddies are all over me to start DMing a new campaign, so ive been getting a nice story togetehr in my head and some dungeons down in ink as the week has progressed.

Only problem is that im having trouble putting together some creative traps/puzzles. Ive been gaming with this group for a few years, and they tend to know all of my tricks before I do. Therefore, Im asking all of you other hardcore tabletop folks to help me out.

Whatre some of the more dastardly traps youve tossed at your parties? Which puzzle did you and your group spend three hours trying to figure out before finally just having the mage disentigrate that locked door altogether?

Any input is appreciated. Whenever i have a bit more time ill add some of my own favorites to this thread. It should be a nice little database for DMs trying to find new and exciting ways to infuriate the PCs


Edited by: Vorashus at: 5/5/02 5:05:58 pm

[EZ_Swipey]

I dunno about dastardly, but one of the funniest things I had happen was when I had the whole party stuck for some time at an unlocked door.

It was described as a VERY heavy iron door, with no apparent hinges or handles on their side, which they logically inferred as meaning the door swung away from them (hinges on the other side, no need for a handle this side, since it just pushes open) The door was too heavy for any one of them to push open, though, and there was only room for two people in the hall. So they put their two strongest warriors to opening it, pushing side by side.

Well, the door was actually on a center pivot. Putting the second man next to the first actually guaranteed they would never get it open, as they were working against eachother instead of with.

The trick, which they eventually figured out, was to use a large wood beam from elsewhere in the dungeon to have both strong warriors push on the same side, one behind the other, instead of side by side.

I would have preferred they disintigrate the door really. Then they couldn't have stripped it out of the dungeon and hauled it off for its not inconsiderable scrap value. The greedy little buggers.

[EZ_Vorashus]

That door trap worked really well with a little alteration for my party. Instead of putting it on a vertical axis at the center of the door, i went with a horizontal axis set in the center. Kept the hall as Narrow as possible

Group has a Half Orc fighter and a Dwarven Berzerker. The two of them set to pushing on the door, high and low - off setting each other like yours (which i was getting quite a nice kick out of). The Half Orc leans back against the wall to rest after a few minutes, and the Dwarf starts ranting about how poorly made a door like that is, and throws himself into a frenzy. He pulls back about 30 feet and takes of charging at the door, slamming into the bottom of it headlong. He tumbles through the bottom as the door sings from the impact. The top half swings back and a pretty good clip and slams our Fighter in the head, knocking him out briefly and leaving a rather nice bump.

Everyone had a good time with it - thanks for the idea

Vor

[DarthEnder]

Traps and Treachery is a great sourcebook.

[EZ_Acobar]

if you want to get evil with them, a reverse gravity trap works.

a loose 5x5 (or 10x10) block of stone is set in the floor, not looking any different. they step onto that block, reverse gravity, bringing the pc up towards the ceiling (about 60' is good), followed by the stone block a split second later.

He takes falling damage from the fall upwards, then gets hit by the stone block. The trap resets, so the block falls back to earth, then he falls. He takes the falling damage again (if he's still alive)

Variant is to use a L shaped corridor in the ceiling with anoter reverse gravity in the ceiling.

[DarthEnder]

Why doesn't the block fall into the cieling immidiatly if its in a reverse gravity zone?

[EZ_Swipey]

Another Idea that doesnt require a lot of magic, but isnt really a proper trap either.. but is dastardly:

Next time the party is invading an evil temple, or the stronghold of some other baddie who has humanoid guards, take one chamber and spread a few statues about in it. Statues of various "adventurer" types in action poses, fallen over, broken up even, work best. Have all the regular guards wear an obvious "talisman" or special "odd" helmet in that area. The players will think the evil mastermind has a medusa under his control. You can even reinforce this by having one guard wear a bad medusa wig. Bad works because nobody will be looking closely. The real trick is that all the regular guards will be fighting opponents who are taking big minuses because they're unwilling to look around, or even AT their opponents. Its like adding a couple AC and a to hit bonus to all your guards for the cost of a few statues and a wig.

If you wanted to be really dastardly, dispense with the fake medusa, have the evil wizard cast Nystul's Magic Aura on the fake helmets and later in the dungeon have the same set up, but with working Protection from Petrification Helmets on the guards and a real medusa. The players will confidently put on the fake helmets and then have a BIG ol' minus to their saves because they think they're immune and will look right at the medusa. This would be a good source for the statues in the first section too.

PS, if youre gonna have working Protection from Petrification items, make em something big and bulky like a helmet, unless you want everyone to have one stuffed into the bottom of their pouch to come out again whenever petrification is a possibility.

[EZ_kiyotee]

I would have to second the traps and treachery book. there are some awsome traps in there. My group hated allowing me run right after I got the book. they all got too paranoid to do anything heh __________________________________________________ __________
Yes this is Kroe Magnon, I'm sick of switching accounts for each board. ;)

[EZ_Arafain]

The reverse lock is a simple, but amusing, way to frustrate people. One of my favorites is the put the key to a reverse lock in a chest next to the door, with a very easy lock on it.

Even more fun things are putting fake or misleading items or information behind very weak traps. Or two doors, one made of wood with a very simple lock and the other made of steel with a massively complicated lock and a convenient circumvention to get around that lock. The real magic items are behind the wooden door, in plain sight, guarded by very low level creatures, while the cursed items are locked in trapped chests guarded by minotaurs behind the steel door - while the minotaurs just happen to be positioned in front of a pit with a very shaky bridge that collapses when the minotaurs cross it to attack the party. Bonus points for pretending to be amazed at the party's good fortune. -- Veteran Arafain Entreri, 60 Assassin
-- Arafein Soulstriker, 54 Champion Relic
-- Arafax Kokorozan, 20 Monk Giantfriend
-- Formerly of Requiem of Souls
-- Formerly of The Rathe Server, now of Zebuxoruk
"Once, in the old west, a gentleman shot a professional gunfighter in the back. When asked why he didn't give the other chap a chance to draw, he replied, 'Well, he's dead and I'm alive and that's how I wanted it to be." -- from <u>Red Planet</u>, Robert A. Heinlein[i]

[EZ_Elegance]

my favorite trap EVAR!

needs a bit of explanation though.

if you mix water and cornstarch you get this stuff that acts like a solid if you play with it and are always moving it around but if you just hold it in your hand it turns into a thick liquid.

I used that substance as an idea for a door trap. just have a 10' or so section of floor in front of the door be a pit filled with stone colored stuff that behaves like the cornstarch water mix. i.e. when they walk up to the door its a solid, when they stop to listen it turns liquid.

you can even be really nasty and have it either deep enough to drown them or shallow but have the floor at the bottom be an alarm trap that brings critters running.

as a reward the dungeons wizzy had a spell in nis book that would allow manufature of this stuff, at a pretty high cost though.

[EZ_Elviscerat0r]

really easy one is a trap ive been using for years

take a treasure chest

put a normal poison needle trap on the lock

your rogue will disarm and it and think hes scot free

but what he doesnt know is that the lid of the chest conceals a retractable razor blade that is triggered by a plate mechanism in the bottom of the chest, which cause blade to extend and chest to slam shut, severing any unfortunate appendages still in the chest. life as a rogue is tough when you dont have any fingers EvisceratusMaximusInyour face againVeniVidi Vici

[EZ_Swipey]

I never liked undetectable traps too much myself. It'd be a rare thing for me to use them. One that I used was the photosensitive potion of explosions in the chest/safe. Its perfectly safe to open the chest/safe up in complete darkness, and, by touch, put the potion back into the opaque case next to it, then turn on the lights. Open the safe with the lights on, or a little roguely flashlight equivalent, though, and KABOOM. You have an injured or dead thief, the guards are alerted, and (most likely) whatever was in the safe destroyed. A favorite trick for the storage of incriminating documents, that. The time I used it I the clue I gave the party about the trap's presence was that the guy who owned the safe entered the room, unconcealed the safe, turned off the lights, opened it, then turned the lights back on. They thought he was turning off the lights to conceal the combination from any spies, though. Poor party.

[EZ_Saluthyus]

*Note living walls are in the denizens of dread rules*
In a dungeon what looks lie a dead end passage on a slight downgrade. Once all the party gets inside the passage the living wall at the end casts a wall of force on the other end (decent length passage, so the end is just at range for the wall and possibly far enough out for the wall to cast without getting seen ((or in 3rd ed a quickend or silent spell since living walls have access to anything that was absorbed by them))). If that isn't bad enough, this is where the grade comes in...the wall casts grease on the floor and instant lunch if its lucky, or alot of pain for the players if it isn't since they can't move without making another save, it can pick them off with spells all day long
Saluthyus Edited by: Saluthyus at: 6/9/02 6:17:51 pm

[EZ_Acinonyx SW]

Personally I do not like traps that dismember or destroy gear (unless you screwed up and have to take that +5 longsword from someone).

However, in my day playing the old chainmail rule set (c.1980-82?) I had a thief in the party that just pushed my buttons. Sure, I threw everything I had at him to try and get him to retire his PC, but he always managed to come out in the good.

I guess the reason I disliked this PC was because the guy was the groups old DM and came to the campaign with an NPC he used to flesh out the party when it was short. I should have had him roll up a new guy, or at least restrict him in his gear, but we were in a hurry to get started and I barely knew the guy and didn't want to make enemies the first night.

Needless to say, this guy had gear that would make Grey Mouser, Tenser, Bigby, and Mordenkainen (i know 3 casters and 1 rogue... I can't think of any other famous rogues) look like paupers.

It was my quest to strip him of gear any way I could, without making it look so obvious that I detested his PC or singled him out. As a result, most sessions revolved around this guy and his unstoppable thief. I'm telling you, I put rust monsters on him, bands of marauding Mind flayer pirates (hehe, this was over a decade before SpellJammer), even a lich or two. Nada.

One day, to my surprise the Thief (his name was Grey Horizon, and if you're out there reading this, I need my 20 sider back tyvm) - was leading the party into a dungeon and he casually started opening doors left and right with a non-chalant attitude barging right in to whatever was on the other side, taking no heed to consequences involved.

Ok, time to slow them down a bit... Trapped door. Glass needle... Poisoned sorta... Green slime.

Simple, yet effective. Thief argued with me on the *ETHICS* of using Green slime as a trap. This coming from a guy who uses a Sphere of Annihilation(not really the name of it, but had the same effects) in a campaign of his Levels 3-6.

Needless to say, the Thief lost his hand, arm and part of his shoulder to the Green slime (along with some really L33T gear) before the party helped him. Noone had any torches to use on the green slime so they quickly decided lamp oil would make a nice substitute to burn out the Green slime. Worked pretty good too (a bunch of his gear got soaked and lost a save vs fire)

We didn't see the guy for about 3 weeks after that. One night he shows up to play and i swear to god the guy was a perfect gamer. He didn't try to dominate the party anymore, and in fact looking at his character sheet, I noticed a LOT of equipment missing/replaced with sub-standard gear.

He merely looked at me and said, "you forgot to roll a save vs crushing blow when the 450 pound Fighter was stomping on me as I lay on the ground burning from where the Magic User doused me with a healthy dose of lamp oil... twice."

He turned out to be the best one-armed thief I ever had the pleasure of DM'ing.

I could have made this whole post shorter by just saying - Green slime in a glass needle. But it was a good story, and i never told it before. Baroness Acinonyx Lanoche
55 Troubadour - Succoring Winds
Bristlebane

Quantum materiae materietur marmota monax si marmota monax materiam possit materiari?Edited by: Acinonyx SW at: 6/13/02 12:10:26 pm

[EZ_Kalais Warbringer]

One of my favorites back when I played was a locked room with a fountain of acid or &lt;input liquid here> in the middle of it. In the fountain or vat of water was a key. In actuallity the key itself was on the ceiling and the reflection was in the liquid, been a long while since I played so don't remember alot of the details, but may be a decent one. You can also toss moving walls or other things in the room to make it a lil more interesting for some quick thinking... Only one who's powers are great and pure can gain knowledge on the ancient art of the Ranger Gate!

Kalais Warbringer
Ranger of the 55th Circle
Morrel Thule