I did make an NPC with it, focused entirely on making/setting traps. Course, the party bypassed them all by picking to go through the jungle along a different path, but if they had stuck closer to the road, they would encountered trespasser's boots, spiked log traps, all the jungle-fighter type traps. Course, I get a second chance with it, they left him alive (cowardly little guy he was) and if we go back to that adventure, he's gained a few levels in Alchemist since.
I haven't played him yet, but I did put together a trapsmith with the Quick Trapsmith and Cunning Trigger talents. The plan was to make mechanical AoE traps like the Electricity Arc sample trap on page 420 of the Core Rulebook. He would build them with the automatic reset option so once he had the trap set he could activate it every round as a swift action and still get his regular attacks. I picture him carrying around metal briefcases that when set on the ground and opened act like little turrets, shooting fire or electricity when he activates them with Cunning Trigger.
You definitely want either yourself or a party member capable of moving the enemy around the battlefield so your foes can be moved into the area of the trap again and again.
I did the same thing with quick trapsmith and cunning trigger, along with a couple of other skills and feats, Use Magic Device, Craft (alchemy), Master Alchemist, Mastercraftsman (traps), and Craft Wonderous Item. This allowed me to crate magical traps and alchemy based traps that would reset.
Designing your own trap using the rules in the core book yield some good results. For instance, who cares if it is easy to disable and even if it is easy to spot, they still have to be searching for it. Then all the CR can be focused on damage/DC.
Have you ever seen an alchemy bomb trap? Thunderstone, flash powder, (insert favorite poison here), smokestick, and tanglefoot. ALL AT ONCE! I thoroughly enjoyed myself.
Trap on!
I did the same thing with quick trapsmith and cunning trigger, along with a couple of other skills and feats, Use Magic Device, Craft (alchemy), Master Alchemist, Mastercraftsman (traps), and Craft Wonderous Item. This allowed me to crate magical traps and alchemy based traps that would reset.
How were you able to make magical traps, such as a Burning Hands Trap, if you did not know the spell required? Yes you had a caster level, but how did you learn spells to implement them into the trap in the 1st place?