Comments on: What’s Your Favourite Trap?

By: Pig

Pig — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 16:29:58 +0000

I haven’t encountered anything that beats the sheer elegance and simplicity of a Sphere of Annihilation in a statue’s gaping mouth.

By: Tycho Brahe’s Underdeep: Lethal Traps « Jonathan Drain’s D20 Source: Dungeons & Dragons Blog

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 16:40:19 +0000

[...] What’s Your Favourite Trap? [...]

By: Quicksilver

Quicksilver — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 18:10:43 +0000

To all who say “tehehehe, this trap is low CR but its so deadly” including commentors and author, any situation that increases the basic lethality of the trap also increases the CR. 3d6 at level one is obviously a possible deathtrap, and should be treated as a higher CR. The guards and wards “hiding” all sorts of other traps/monsters increase their CR because the encounter is *harder*.

My favorite trap’s include the deadly (high cr) teleport straight up at maximum distance. The resident wizard could just send a few shadows or abjured air elementals up to collect the bodies after a while.

The other fave is the “little girl cries about her cat up in a tree” when the party is good-aligned. The girl being a fey or some shapeshifting creature, the cat being a familiar or something that can be be left there. The heroes try to help, the treant the cat is stuck in attacks when the weakest hero is in range (evil druid or bad guy attack).

By: Frog

Frog — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 17:21:50 +0000

My favorite “naked teleport” leaves the victim’s possessions in an untidy pile and teleports a small pile of dust into the place they were standing…

By: Lofwyr

Lofwyr — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 00:47:44 +0000

I’m partial to the ‘modified teleport naked spell’. You know, the kind where only the character but not his stuff — including clothes — gets teleported 15 feet above the middle of the ocean where lots of dire sharks will hear him/her spash down in…or in the middle of a slavers’ stockade…or the local Baron’s daughter’s private chambers (with an audible alarm spell going off for the guards to hear, it the daughter & ladies-in-waiting aren’t present to scream their heads off)..or in the middle of a busy tavern…or an orc camp.

The beauty of those are they don’t have to be lethal…well, not inherently anyway. After all, the orcs won’t have initiative to begin the raping just right away.

It also separates the party…they might now know what happened to their buddy for quite a while. To be equally effective for higher level parties you have to have a target trap that prevents outbound teleportation, sending spells and stuff like that.

By: DeathTrapDM

DeathTrapDM — Thu, 22 May 2008 07:28:34 +0000

1. A false floor, underneath which is a pit 40′ deep with 20′ of Greek Fire and 2 nets covered in Alchemical Fire Part A & B (the oil that ignights when it comes into contact with the matching oil) the net burns quickly and deposits PC into oil pit that cant be extinguished easily. Does the PC hold his breath and hope his allies can get the fire out, or does he try to climb up the shear walls while covered in burning oil…

2. A large intricately carved statue of a Celestial hero (any cleric/paladin would recognize) with a sign that states simply “Sacrifice will be Rewarded” several Alters sit arround the room with carved openings aproximately the size of (put items you want the party to loose for the next fight here). if items are placed upon all the alters the alters become covered over with stone and magically sealed, then the statue comes to life and attacks the party (turning more demonic at the same time)

By: bg

bg — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 13:53:20 +0000

My two favorites-

Again, a variation on the simple pit trap, easy to jump over. Invisible wall of force on the other side.

The other, which is a party-killer:

After fighting their way through an underground dungeon, battling nefarious monsters, the players come upon a large room with a beautiful, obviously magical, golden door. Behind the door? A magma vent.

By: Ben

Ben — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 10:55:21 +0000

Bridget Indeed

By: Method

Method — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 02:41:18 +0000

Guards and Wards magic trap.
Fills a ridiculously large area with magical fog, magic mouths, stinking clouds, webs on staircases, and other fun stuff.

Oh, and it’s not a very high CR, so it doesn’t give anyone that much experience, either. And it lasts a few hours.

It can make a properly-designed dungeon into a hell for players. The spell is in the PHB, look it up. Level six sorcerer/wizard spell.

By: Nilmandir

Nilmandir — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 03:08:53 +0000

The bottomless pit/endless fall trap is a personal fave. I usually add a percentile modifier that the character hits bottom in a spike pit after so many falls. Another fave is the hidden in plain sight one. A classic. Hidden in a book or a treasure box. If the group contains a high level Healer, the trap will be a poison arrow or a Dimension Door to a hell plane for 1d20 minutes. Simple, classic, effective.