I have a barbarian in my game who took a rank of Craft: traps. Unfortunately, I'm very fuzzy on how to make and use traps. For instance, she wanted to make a snare trap out of a rope on the fly to catch a boar. Or she might want to make a pit trap. I don't think those things would take a whole week...? Or cost even as much as 250gp? I'm very confused. How do you deal with Craft: traps? What should they cost if their CR is less than one?
Take the snare trap. What should it cost, and how long would it take to make? How do you determine the DC of a Reflex save to avoid it?
I have a barbarian in my game who took a rank of Craft: traps. Unfortunately, I'm very fuzzy on how to make and use traps. For instance, she wanted to make a snare trap out of a rope on the fly to catch a boar. Or she might want to make a pit trap. I don't think those things would take a whole week...? Or cost even as much as 250gp? I'm very confused. How do you deal with Craft: traps? What should they cost if their CR is less than one?
Take the snare trap. What should it cost, and how long would it take to make? How do you determine the DC of a Reflex save to avoid it?
Honestly, the Craft skill was designed to make more refined items. I don't have the book in front of me but believe that the table in the book uses mechanical traps as an example. Yes, a simple rope snare would be technically be considered mechanical but I agree -- it certainly wouldn't take you a week's worth of work.
As a DM, I would allow the PC to roll a simple craft check (assuming that he/she already has the rope for a snare trap or a shovel to dig a pit trap) and set a DC for success/failure. If you also had decent skills in Survival, I would probably even be willing to grant you a bonus if this was done in a natural setting.
I'll recheck the book tonight but that would be one way of handling it. Disclaimer: I'm sure that others may object to this but seems like a better compromise to me while still keeping the spirit of the game.
Yeah, I was recently searching through the boards on this topic, myself, as I am making a ranger for a campaign who wants to be able to make simple traps such as snares, deadfalls, camouflaged tiger pits etc. and not mechanical traps, or the like. I assume it should be handled easily under survival, but I want options to take to my DM, in case he thinks that might be stretching the rules for too much gain (I *do* plan on using them to set the occasional ambush etc.).
Two old prestige classes from 3.5 might shed a little light on this topic for you. See Trapsmith and Combat Trapsmith from the Complete ______ Line of books. The first mixes some arcane ability with trapfinding/making, the other has rules for deploying traps in combat.
Two old prestige classes from 3.5 might shed a little light on this topic for you. See Trapsmith and Combat Trapsmith from the Complete ______ Line of books. The first mixes some arcane ability with trapfinding/making, the other has rules for deploying traps in combat.
The latter would probably be of especial interest to the barbarian. Thanks. :)
To answer the OP's question: the DC of a trap depends on it's CR (see "Traps & Hazards" in your Core Rulebook or PSRD), and crafting attempts can be made by the day, not by the week, at your option (doing so just requires that you increase the Craft DC by a number equal to the number of days in a week).