What spells can be put in a magical trap?

Help me here, but I was not able to find any place that says what type of spells can be put into a trap.

Can they be ranged? If so short medium or long?
Can the spells be touch spells?
Can they be personal spells?

The first two are yes, I am sure, though personal spells.

Hmmmm. Can I have a trap of invisibility purge? As the PCs walk around an evil temple invisible they step near a proximity trigger trap removing their invisiblity. Or better yet the trap is outside the evil priests chamber so as he steps out the evil guy triggers his own trap and purges the area of invisbility.
In this case would the invisiblity purge be targeted on the square the trap goes off in, or the creature that triggers it has it attached to them so as they move the invisbility purge moves with him?

Then this strikes of how about a See Invis trap. You walk across it and get see invis cast on yourself.

How about a serious of traps setup to buff your BBEG: Shield, See Invis, Righteous Might, Divine Power, Fly, and haste. All in a row in his room. He hears people outside he walks the path and instant buffed??!?!?!?

You can do the whole magical walkway of buffs but building it as a trap wont work because they are intended to be hazards that are dangerous, not fancy magical hallways that make your BBEG harder to kill.

In fact used the right way this kind of thing would end up trivializing the encounter as soon as your PC's ran through it. Not to mention labeling it as a trap would create a XP farm that the PC's could pass through, get buffed and then gain XP.

That being said traps are nearly 100% GM fiat, it is simply up to you to figure out what CR they are so you can assign XP and that is what the spell guidelines are for, nothing else.

Yes, don't get too caught up in the mechanics of making these kinds of traps.

If you want such a thing, put it in the dungeon and be done with it. No, don't give XP for receiving a beneficial spell from a trap, but do give XP for someone disabling the trap if they want to.

You don't need to worry about all the mechanics. You're the DM, just build what you want. But remember that once the PCs have killed the BBEG, they just might take his home for their new base of operations, and you're going to be awfully frustrated when they start running through all the 'buff' traps and then teleport themselves into dungeons, fully buffed for free.

And a side note that you didn't ask, but someone will: What if PCs want to make their on buff-o-rama traps? Simple. Just use the guidelines for creating magic items and treat each trap as an unlimited use-activated spell trigger magic item and price it accordingly. That will slow them down.

And if they complain that this is more expensive than just building a trap, you can point out that their magic items can't be disabled by a rogue.

I am asking the question because I am trying to figure out the rules as they are written.

Potions state you cannot make them of personal spells, but I could not find any place that says traps cannot. Just states spells can be used.

The reason being I run a DND tournament that uses the rules to the best of our ability that is legal but lethal. The players do the same back at us when creating their characters.

A few see invis 'traps' for the creatures would go a long way in reving up the deadliness of the encounters.

Just wanted to see if anybody knew of an errata or did I miss something that states no use of beneficial or personal spells.

There aren't any restrictions on trap spells, other than they must affect a target other than yourself. And even that's not a rule, just common sense.

There aren't any restrictions on trap spells, other than they must affect a target other than yourself. And even that's not a rule, just common sense.

Not quite true.

Magic traps are further divided into spell traps and magic device traps. Magic device traps initiate spell effects when activated, just as wands, rods, rings, and other magic items do. Creating a magic device trap requires the Craft Wondrous Item feat.

Spell traps are simply spells that themselves function as traps. Creating a spell trap requires the services of a character who can cast the needed spell or spells, who is usually either the character creating the trap or an NPC spellcaster hired for that purpose.

So, the easy type is the Spell Trigger trap. This is a Symbol spell, or Explosive Runes. The spell itself is the trap. Not much thinking has to go into this one. Cast your Symbol and walk away.

So the type in question is the Magical Device trap. But this says it works just like these other magic items. Basically, 50gp x CL x SL for a one-shot trap, and 10x that amount for a resetting trap.

Yes, by these rules, someone could make an unlimited trap (way more chanrges than any wand in existence) and it will cost him 1/5 the price of a 50 charge wand. He could get a million charges of See Invisible for 1/5 the price of a wand of See Invisible.

Outrageous!

But, you can't take your trap with you on an adventure. And if anyone wants to make a little doll-house sided chest and trap it with a buff spell and carry it around to buff themselve forever, I wouldn't call that a trap - I would call it a magic item and use the construction prices listed there.

There is no rule (that I can find) specifically forbidding the use of beneficial spells in traps.

That having been said, it's a gross violation of common sense and the glaringly obvious intent of having traps.

That having been said, for a one-off, anything goes, non-campaign tournament, sure, why not. Go crazy. Whatever makes for a fun and challenging time.

Some other thoughts:

1. A purge invisibility "trap", especially in the middle of a long hallway with a guard post at the other end, would make perfect sense as a defensive measure.

2. A negative energy "trap" (or a positive energy one) would be an interesting combination of a trap that would be beneficial to some, dangerous to others. By which I mean, in a room filled with undead opponents.

3. The image of a mighty champion striding down an enchanted hallway, being buffed as he/she went along, is a pretty cool one, even for PC use. Off the top of my head, that would be a one charge per day, unslotted item. The fact that it would be immobile (which ordinarily would make it cheaper) would be countered by the fact that the item could never be stolen (which would make it more expensive).

Edited: Added a few words.

I'm a bit confused on the not being able to take a trap with you thing... i thought that you can make portable traps to be placed at your leisure? Thought I read that somewhere, but I cannot seem to find that info now. Whether I'm right or wrong, would love to know :)

Something that grants a beneficial effect is not a trap. Sounds like you are trying to ramp up the CR on critters unfairly.

I'm a bit confused on the not being able to take a trap with you thing... i thought that you can make portable traps to be placed at your leisure? Thought I read that somewhere, but I cannot seem to find that info now. Whether I'm right or wrong, would love to know :)

There's a rogue talent in the APG that lets them do this. That leads me to believe that by default you can't.

Ah, thanks very much.

I think any spell should be able to be made into a trap, the problem is that traps as described are only made for nefarious ends, but they do contain all the relevant information for creating permanent beneficial castings of a spell, which would most definitely be incorporated into any sort of large scale castle or keep (create food and water, heroe's feast), but I wouldn't allow the trap costs for beneficial spells, or make them work like wands or something like that.

I'm a bit confused on the not being able to take a trap with you thing... i thought that you can make portable traps to be placed at your leisure? Thought I read that somewhere, but I cannot seem to find that info now. Whether I'm right or wrong, would love to know :)

there are a couple different portable trap examples in the adventurers armory, one is a bear trap and the other a trespassers boot.

mdt wrote:

There aren't any restrictions on trap spells, other than they must affect a target other than yourself. And even that's not a rule, just common sense.

Not quite true.

Pathfinder Core Rulebook, Traps wrote:

Magic traps are further divided into spell traps and magic device traps. Magic device traps initiate spell effects when activated, just as wands, rods, rings, and other magic items do. Creating a magic device trap requires the Craft Wondrous Item feat.

Spell traps are simply spells that themselves function as traps. Creating a spell trap requires the services of a character who can cast the needed spell or spells, who is usually either the character creating the trap or an NPC spellcaster hired for that purpose.

I can't find it just now, but I thought that there was a limitation on wands/scrolls/potions/etc that you can't make them with spells that have a target of 'you', which was what I was getting at.

Other than that, there's really no restriction on the trap spells. You have to build them in different ways, but that's all.

So far it looks like most people agree that you can make traps out of any spell.

While it is legal it does not follow common sense rules.

The next question to be pondered is would personal spell traps like invisiblity purge allow a save? In the spell description it has nothing listed since it is a personal spell.
Opinions?

My opinion is that it would allow a Will save to negate and SR. A person coming across it may feel a spell going off so they would get a will save. They do not know that it is beneficial. Though invisibiltiy purge is not beneficial to an invisible rogue.

Setting the DC at 10+spell level+minimum modifier to cast spell

So far it looks like most people agree that you can make traps out of any spell.

While it is legal it does not follow common sense rules.

The next question to be pondered is would personal spell traps like invisiblity purge allow a save? In the spell description it has nothing listed since it is a personal spell.
Opinions?

My opinion is that it would allow a Will save to negate and SR. A person coming across it may feel a spell going off so they would get a will save. They do not know that it is beneficial. Though invisibiltiy purge is not beneficial to an invisible rogue.

Setting the DC at 10+spell level+minimum modifier to cast spell

If it is centered on the victim, I would allow a Will save to resist. If it was centered on the trap, I would allow a reflex save to dive out of the way. Either way, they would be based off of the following from the book:

"Magic traps permit a saving throw in order to avoid the effect (DC 10 + spell level × 1.5)."

So a trap with invisibility purge, would have a save DC of 14. (well 14.5 rounded down).