Inventive Traps.

[Siberys]

Alrighty, somethin that's just been annoying me about DND is the traps they have. There's nothing really fun about them. It's always a "suddenly this happens, make a Fort/Ref/Will save." Traps have always just been make a save or you are affected, and the effects of the traps are rather boring. Burning hands here, some arrows from a wall there, maybe a noxious fume from below.

So, I'm wondering if anybody has any really cool inventive traps for Gaming purposes, nothing of the norm and it doesn't even have to be something specific to DND as in you don't have to use a spell or the damage of a bolt or something.

What would a trap be to you that would just get on the players nerves to an extreme. Negative levels? Boring. Something to reduce strength? Cliche?

So gimme your best shot, tell me what you think is the most obnoxious, most annoying, and yet most effective "trap" that you could make for DND?

[Demortis]

Well, theres the always deadly, pit of napalm and the fire breathing dragon Or having a wall of force shaped into a cyclinder and in the center is the object of the quest. When dispell magic is cast the room floods with water. Oh, were tryin not to kill the party out right, correct? Well, your gonna have to give me some time on that on

[Oskatat]

i liked this one: you trigger a trap and you are hit with jars of syrup. Not only does it make you look ridiculous and rather sticky (think of the cleaning bill), insects begin to swarm around you. flies, bees, wasps...
now spellcasters have to make concentration checks let some giant wasps or bees enter the scene if you want to... they are in fact the trap. mostly the reply will be "yuk", but it might be funny (untill the giant vermin arrive)

A favorite type of trap of mine was from sourcery, written by terry pratchet, under the motto "my uncle had it build and he had a great sense of humor". First a pole that tapped someone on the shoulder, and a pole from the other side of the corridor attaching a note saying "kick me", then a boot comming out of the wall to kick you. secondly, a pie flying to you at head height. Thirdly a feather duster at armpit height. Fourth, a bucket of whitewhash over the door at the end of the corridor. Finaly 5 feet after the door, a 15 feet length of ceiling, being a single block, dropping down. Both ends inscribed with the text: "laugh this one off"

[Fiberfar]

Trap with wounding on it. Don't have a cleric or some healing available? Ain't that just too bad

[Aegis]

MY personal favorite is a double trap, or as I like to call it, a Silly trap.

Basically, you have two traps, one with a lower DC than the other. The way it works is when the first trap is either sprung, or disabled, that trips the second trap (providing they did not roll a high enough search check to find that one as well, and make the intelligence check to know that is the one to be disabled). The second trap than proceeds to be sprung on the party, which can be pretty much anything you want.

[Tarl the Wicked]

Traps

Use this any way you see fit. Remember the old slap braclet? Some of you may be to young. It was a piece of spring steel (usually wrapped in cloth or plastic) that when straigtened would remain flat with a slight concalve along its length. But with very little pressure would wrap around your arm..
Pick appropriate size (finger to man size, etc) place in appropriate place, apply appropriate spell if desired. Lay them along the entrance to a keep in rows/ now you have your player wounded and/or spelled and with a bad enough roll,, wrapped up.:laugh:

[Kipi]

Well, here is one trap for use. It works best in dungeons, especially crypts.

There is a long tunnel. When player steppes on the trap, solid wall will cut the tunnel just behind the trap in the way that it separates 1-3 characters from the rest of the party. Right after this small room will open just next to door, and monster of your selection attacks characters. The wall blocking the tunnel will disappear only after characters had died (making the creature to attack the rest of the party) or after the creature has died.

How hard this creature is can be decided by DM. If you want to use ridiculously hard creature, go ahead, it's very good way to get rid of annoying player

[Philos]

Not directly deadly but fun

This trap was a lot of fun to use. Not immediately deadly but may prove to be so for some in the party if they aren't careful.

A door opens into a round room (appx 30-40' in dia.) The smooth floor slopes slight down to the center which is about 5' below the entrance level. In the middle is a good collection of armor and weapons (the bait), and a couple of which still have a body in them. On appearance it would seem that a tremendous fight took place in the room. Hidden underneath the pile of armor is a huge lodestone. Once someone with any modest amount of iron or steel on them steps inside the room they appear to start sliding down the smooth floor. But in reality they are being pulled down by the lodestone (magnet). Someone not in armor or in leather may be able to resist it, but studded leather or mail or plate won't be able to. Even just carrying a dagger or sword in hand will pull the wielder down unless they realize what's going on and let go. I ruled that mithral was magical and not iron based so magic armor weapons didn't get sucked down. The victim is now pinned on top of the pile in the center (perhaps a reflex save to avoid any weapons sticking up might be appropriate). The victim also now has to make a choice, remove (and leave) their armor and non-magical weapons or lay there and die. Great way to take some of the fight out of the warriors and get their attention.

[TismeVader]

2 of my fav traps are the role swap and the glass floor.

the glass floor depends of the average wisdom of the party. you enter in to a vast room with a glass floor and an alter in the middle, as you enter you notice that below the floor is an under ground stream. closer examination of the alter shows that a small golden bell covered in rubies is suspended just above it. get the PC's to make Spot rolls DC 15. they see movement under the glass and what looks like "insert water animal/monster". most normal PC's would leave the room. however a thief would try to steal the bell.
as soon as your hand reaches the bell a high pitched sound starts to ring and the glass starts to break...... what you do after this is up to you. but remember it was their greed that caused it.

the role swap trap is an evil trap. in basicly swaps PC's classes around but keeps the ability scores. for example a party of 6
half orc barb/dwarf fighter/elf sorc/halfling thief/human cleric/half elf monk would change to
half orc sorc/halfling fighter/dwarf sorc/elf thief/half elf cleric/human monk
or you could randomly select there race using the reincarnate spell table:mischief:

[Sabeather]

I really like three kinds of traps my DM has put into our games.

#1 The Jigsaw

The Jigsaw was invented as a navigation trap. you walk around on tons of different colored and shape platforms. step on the wrong one and a random effect (either rotating blades,saws or arrows) pops out from corresponding holes. Also as soon as this happens the DM rolls to see if anything in the room was disturbed by the effect and checks to see if it triggers another trap. Best navigated by something with good dodge or a Magic Detector (the trapped panels count as magic)


#2 The Bolo

The bolo was a trap that he came up with on the spot and is wickedly awsome. The trap is that you walk through a thick web of cord. as soon as you touch one of the cords however a few of them every turn shoot towards the player with a chance to critically hit / k.o. with one hit. (razor sharp twine in a forest of spider webs) what couldnt be funner .


#4 3(My absolute Favorite)

The dragons nest.
The dragons nest doesnt have any actual dragons in it. but the ground is littered with tons of dragon bones. You immedietly take a Strength test to see if you can leap across sections of the dragon bone to make it to the next platform. as soon as a character touches one of the skeletons they must make a will save as a bony hand grasps them by the leg and attempts to trip them into the now moving mass of... RAZOR SHARP BONES!!! WTF.
this is my favorite cause i have ludicrous STR on my char so i leaped from one side of the room to the other and pulled the drop lever (drops all the skeletons into a pit below the floor.).

[gam3snotjobs]

Endless Yuan-Ti

I made this trap up on the fly and fell in love with it. The party enters a 30x30 room with a 10x10 statue of a yuan-ti right in the middle. There is a door behind the statue that is magically shut and cannot be opened. On the back base of the statue are the words "Clad this in iron, yet make peace with it anyway." The answer to this "riddle" is the hand. This riddle is not meant to be verbally answered, in fact any verbal noise at all will trigger the trap. Each time a character speaks, a yuan-ti pureblood emerges from the statue and attacks the players. It's hilarious to watch the players yell in exclamation as they trigger the trap for the first time, and then trigger it again. The purebloods try to charm the players. Our fighter, after being charmed, tried to talk the hexblade out of fighting, which turned into more yuan-ti for the hexblade. The way to "solve" the riddle is to cut off either hand of the yuan-ti statue.

[Ribzlibz]

I got a good one. got this from indiana jones. the cieling falls over the heroes. make a refl;ex save to avoid it. every turn thereafter, the line of destruction moves forward a couple of squares per turn. anything caught in it must reflex to avoid damage. combine this with some obstacles and enemys, and your heroes will clamor to solve this dilemma

[Dysnomia]

Bone Roller Room

I'm not a big fan of traps that hinge completely on a successful save or disarm trap roll, so mine tend to be rather large and complex with lots of possible out comes. I think that this one is rather interesting. It was designed to take precious time away from the party, they only had 14 days to complete the dungeon and they had already rested once after exploring only three rooms. I converted the next room they entered into this trap on the fly to teach them a lesson about taking time constraints lightly.

They entered a 60x60 ft room with the following description (which was originally borrowed from another source before I added the last part) :

"You gaze in the room and hundreds of skills gaze coldly back at you. They're set in niches in the walls in a checker board pattern, each skull bearing a half melted candle on its head. The grinning bones stare vacantly into the room.

Strange platforms of thick stone are scattered about the room. Each is about a foot high and 5 feet on each side. A 2x2 foot block has been carved out of 2 opposing sides on each platform, making each resemble an 'I' or 'H' depending on its orientation. Everywhere that there is not a platform stands a skeleton wearing a brass mask with glowing blue eyes that seem to flicker like fire."


The skeletons will not attack the party unless they enter one of their squares or otherwise try to pass one.

The platforms look like this from the top:

...........
|.... ....|
~|F|~
...|F|...
|...........|


Each platform has a lever in both of the holes (marked by the ~) and a door to a small furnace which is in the center section of the block (marked by the F). The furnace is fueled by the bones of the skeletons and the first platform already contains some bones so the party can figure this out easily. The lever causes the platform to flip to the next square, crushing the skeleton that stands there, assuming the furnace is full. A crushed skeleton cannot be used for fuel. If the platform looks like an 'I' it flips horizontally, if it looks like an 'H' it flips vertically. The PCs can stand in the holes to prevent themselves from being thrown 1d4X5 through the air when the platform suddenly wrenches upright then topples over, have them take fall damage if you want. If that PC happens to land in a skeleton square they will have to fight it alone, or the party will have to fight their way over to him. Also the PCs might try to catapult one another from platform to platform which is hilarious. Each time a platform is moved, one of the skulls springs from the wall and forms another skeleton to fill the space where the platform previously was. Skeletons that have been killed in battle by the players are also replaced in this manner. Two platforms can never occupy the same space.

The goal is, obviously, to use the platforms to crush your way through the room, only fighting when it is necessary to refill the furnace (I made this every 1d4+1 uses of the lever). Remember that each platform can only move vertically OR horizontally, so it is necessary to carefully plan out the path that is taken. I allowed the party to sleep safely on the platforms. If they had killed a skeleton in one of the squares another replaced it immediately so they could not rest on squares without platforms. Make the skeletons difficult enough that one at a time is somewhat challenging for the party, but easy enough that the party is able to face 4 or 5 of them in a row before needing to rest to replenish spells and abilities. Remember, I designed to this room to take time, not lives.

I've attached a pdf file that contains the layout of the room. A V indicates a platform that can only move vertically along the grid, an H indicates a platform that can only move horizontally. The entrance and exit are on the north and south side of the room respectively, on the west.

The solution is pretty simple, though the last step requires the party to split up. You can use any arrangement of platforms that you like so long as there is a solution (or you could force your party to fight their way through the last few spaces).

Give this one a try if your players enjoy problem solving and a good fight. Awarding experience for this trap requires some judgment, don't allow the party to farm XP from the skeletons, but do give some XP for the skeletons that they need to fight. If the party decides to try to farm XP, make the skeletons progressively harder as they respawn, a player death will move them right along.

[Lord_Chaos]

time is a factor

As you enter the room you see a hourglass floating above a crystal ball in the center of the room holding a human head (or what ever visual face you prefer) and a very sturdy looking door on the opposite side of the room(it is locked and cannot be picked. As you cross the thresh hold of the doorway a stone slab drops and magically seals you in from that exit no way of dis-spelling it. now the head comes alive with a wicked laugh and then tells you that "you only have 60 seconds(time may vary at DM's descretion) to find the key to the steel door that leads to your salvation for beyond that door is a table holding the antidote for the poison that you have been infected with when you entered this room.Live or Die champion(s)" the head no longer is alive and (this part may vary based on number of players and thier levels)for this example say 15 Kobalds materialize and the floating hourglass turns over and the time starts one of the kobalds (or what ever monster you choose) has the key on a chain around its neck if you can see it.

I know its very "SAW" inspired but it works.

[Mirage_376]

Now Really

I think I share this thread starters annoyance with traps. Stat tests, combat traps and overly elaborate kill machines are all together too common.

This is why I propose two easy rules for traps.

1. Is it too expensive/elaborate. Why on earth would someone hire mages for elaborate teleport traps, ruby studded gold widgets or giant cavernous pits filled with exotic monsters. Really? Heres how I picture the conversation going:

Architect: right so they enter into the room here and if one of them notices there is a silver key hanging from a mythryl chain enchanted by lightning curse and the riddle on this podium in the center says....

Boss: umm, how bout we just lock the door and burn them all unless there me?

Architect: Okey dokey

2. What is it meant to do? Is your trap in some kind of temple that's meant to weed out the greedy or stupid? Or are your traps just designed to kill anyone stupid enough to be there (the Indiana Jones). Is your trap meant to allow those with proprietary knowledge in like a club, or fort? Whatever the purpose your trap should be sculpted accordingly. If it's testing their intelligence or virtue(and theres little cause to do unless the scenario is elaborate.) then contrived riddles and devices are fine. If it is meant to kill them, like the traps meant to kill the grave robbers of the pyramids. Then it should do so without mercy (after a failed spot check or two). But more than likely, it's a trap to protect something that someone wanted to get by later. Especially if you're dealing with a lair or stronghold. In this case there should be a way around the trap, only people who know it will get though, but die if they don't. The point of a trap is to kill people, not inconvenience them.

3. It should work. The physics should be easy apart from elaborate magic, (see point one.). A room that drops the roof is great, but what if the monster needs that passage. Kinda useless right? Such traps should be reserved for dead ends that the monster, and those with it, would never use. "crushed adventurer paste for dinner"

This in mind, here are some examples.
- a pitfall, with a nicely visible tripwire in front of it. Nine times of ten, the PC's will try to jump over the tripwire.
- Suppose you've got spells, Bang for your buck? How about a pool of water with a floater attached to a trigger. Once three medium characters or more enter the water, an ozlikies freezing sphere drops. (spelling wrong I don't care) . If the characters see it they can catch it, (taking full damage) or let it go, immobilizing the party in ice. An excellent trap if the villain wants to interrogate
- Finally, Nothing more fun than having the key to a door being deep in an arm sized hole in the wall. You can try to pick the lock (serious penalty for one hand and no light). More than likely, if you don't have the key, you are armless. In a dungeon, that's good as dead.

Thanks Bye

[Demortis]

Well, not all villians are mentally stable. Take for example, The Joker, and The Riddler. Both are nutters. Both would go all out for a laugh. When I DM'ed in the past, none of my villians were mentally stable. Why, because everyone wants to use logic and think it through. I wanted the party to trust in there "skills" and make "Leaps of Faith". The main party I DM'ed for didnt trust each other. After a month of the hell I put them through they wouldnt allow anyone else into the party unless there was a good reason Besides, sometimes its just worth putting in the most random, insanely built trap. Not everyone wants to be able to get back the loot they left there. They just wanna see how many people will foolishly waste their lives on it. The trap, like good jokes, are all in the delivery One wrong step and theres a Great Wyrm Red Dragon's corpse where the rogue once stood.

[one]

I just thought of these:

When [adventurers] walk past a certain point in a hall, each step they take causes a wall to slowly lower (by magic or mechanics is up to you) until they are effectively trapped in the hallway. Remind 'em to watch their backs.

Alternatively, you could lock them OUT of the dungeon instead of trapping them IN it. Have an entrance or door be blocked/destroyed when a player makes advances towards it. Simple? yes. To make things interesting, you could have this occur more than once, making the players fearful of approaching doors. Nothing like a little paranoia to keep people on edge.

[Brandoom]

The non-trap

The non-trap alignment changing sentient relic:

A sword perhaps, with something terribly interesting written on it. Like "I bring death to fools," or "Folly's Bane." The item is sentient and LE or whatever you want it to be. It shocks-burns-acidifies any alignment other than its exact opposite to near death or death, your choice. This is because its only true purpose is to corrupt the good and it enjoys this tremendously - or maybe it pleases its creator, an evil demigod or some such thing, and it gains this power from its alter. Conversly, if it is anti-evil it wants to purify the most evil player in the party.

When a character of opposite alignment grasps it apparently nothing happens until the weapon telepathically speaks-compels-charms them into doing things they would never, ever, do in character, or tries to convince them that it is actually a relic of their own god. This can be tremendous fun, because now the DM gets to role play the item, the player gets to have a terribly powerful relic, and the other players do not know what is up until they realize their companion is under the sway of the item. The relic is supra intelligent and will try to kill (or "purify") the other party members with guile rather than just chopping them up, because it doesn't want to be discovered until it is out of its prison/alter/whatever and has complete control over its holder, say after ten missed saves or after some ritual is preformed. You could assume total control of the player and use him as an NPC, but this is not nearly as much fun as playing the intelligent item and messing with them.

This is a great way to make anti-paladins, anti-druids, anti-whatevers.

You can tailor this item to the most annoying player in the party and whenever they do something really annoying you can force them to save or take over their mind and make them do the opposite thing. This works because the item gives them some awesome bonus that they just cant live without and do not want to give up, or let their party take away.

Its the non-trap that just keeps on giving.

It also introduces a new story line where perhaps the party has to seek out a cleric of some mad demigod and convince him to free their friend, all while their friend is trying to kill them, and probably not their friend anymore, unless they are smart enough to figure it out.