Seven Deadly Sin Traps

[Thunderslash]

I am building a Temple devoted to the 7 Deadly Sins and am currently outlining what the main room traps would be like. I do not want it to simply come down to simple Will Saves vs Sins but something more personal and memorable. Looking for ideas.

For example:
Wrath:
The Pc's enter a room (a 'Wrathful' room) and one PC sees his Ultimate enemy (based on past history of the character). He attacks said enemy. The rest of the party is assaulted by minions of some kind or other-wise blocked by a crevase full of magma that is keeping them away from the affected PC who believes he is fighting a single combat to the death against his most hated foe.

The Trick is that the Ultimate Enemy is (of course) an Illusion generated by a glowing crystal which grows brighter as the combat goes on. All damage the PC is doing to that Illusion is actually done to himself.(Those who live by Wrath only harm themselves after all.) The Illusion is based off the PC's own memory and will be as Evil and Taunting as possible. The PC can make a Will Save each time he s "Hit" at a save of DC 10 Plus the amount of damage done.

The Party can either Immobilize the PC, destroy the crystal or convince the PC that it is an illusion.

[Chakfor]

I'd venture to say that you could use succubi for lust but that may be a bit overdone.

I keep seeing the Maiden of Virtue wing in Karazhan for lust though. A series of chambers that are decked out with lush furnishings slowly fallen into disrepair populated with beings beautiful beyond imagination. Whispering that slowly pervades the thoughts and works on the most primal desires of even the most stalwart party members.

If you're doing a single encounter per wing you could use a half-fiendish succubus/human cleric for the final encounter there.

Envy is easy. Make an incredibly powerful magic item (on par with a minor artifact) that's tailored specifically to two members of the party. Leave it out in the open. Key it ONLY to the temple (so that it can't be used as loot). Watch the party bicker and fight over who is allowed to use it. If the party is smart they'll catch on to the theme and realize that the item itself is causing envy. If they discard the item it crumbles into dust (along with their envy) and they defeat the encounter. If they do not then I'd start making the two characters it is tailored for start rolling will saves after a few hours.

A similar concept could be used for greed. A pile of coins (really worthless lead disks glamored to look like coins) and precious stones (river rocks disguised to look like diamonds, rubies, emeralds) in such quantities as to weigh down the party if they choose to take them all. These coins are enchanted in such a way that their weight transfers to the characters even if they are placed within a bag of holding, a haversack, or a quiver of efficiency. Slow the characters base movement speed by 10ft and give them all the penalties for a heavy encumbrance.

Gluttony would be tough to do without will saves but I'm sure some of the great minds on these boards can help.

[Bwang]

Gluttony is easy: Did the party bring any food? Think exhaustion, fatigue, etc. doing Actual damage. Then they find (glamoured, but rotten) food. Food Poisoning suks rocks...

[matthew ticorat]

Me and a buddy of mine made a dungeon that contained the seven deadly sins so here is what we used for our tests.

gluttony, you enter a feast hall full of food, if the player eat any of the food they gain a temporary bonus to a stat like +1 wis or the like. the players will most likeley keep eating but if they ever choose to stop they must make a will save and the more amount of food they have eaten the higher the save dc to stop.

lust... seccubus.

greed, the players enter a room full of treasure of all sorts. all they must do is make a search check to find what they are looking for, however every item they take has a delayed curse effect that activates when they leave the room. if they take any gold pieces or the like the coins actually eat each other and all other currency on the player leaving only one coin in the players purse the next time they try and buy something or the like.

wrath, big scary monster that was healed by the players attacks and harmed from heal spells

pride, players enter a room with a scale in it. the scale is tipped to one side and the players must sacrifice ability score to the scale to balance it out. the scale would take the core ability score from the player sacrificing to it example rogue would be dex sorcerer would be char etc. but multiple player could sacrifice to the scale. all players who were willing to sacrifice to the scale got their ability scores back when they left the room while the others who didnt sacrifice took the penalties.

sloth, a long trapped hallway that unless the players ran to the back and pulled the lever and ran back to the front were trapped in the hallway behind a series of shutting doors.

envy, we made the players enter a room with a large mirror on the other side. as they looked in the mirror they saw something they truly desired on another member of the party. they were then presented with voices in their heads telling them about how the other players stole their gifts etc and how you had to fight them to get them back.

[Black_Lantern]

Personally I think that making a temple for the seven deadly sins is pretty lame. Considering they will know when they're being tested. You should make an entire campaign devoted to overcoming them and make it in a alternate dimension with warped and twisted realities.
lust:Secret and personal relationships caused by charm effects between your characters would be very interesting.
gluttony:Mind altering effects are your friend here. So is starvation when it comes down to driving them to wanting to eat.
greed: Wealth beyond the compass of imagination, the catch however is the life of some fellow party members. The voices in your head say "Don't let him get past the door with your treasure. He is undeserving and needs to be punished!"
sloth:Make the campaign difficult, so difficult that they want to rest frequently. Have spirits haunt their dreams and rip at the very fabric of their mind.
wrath: Drive them towards hatred of each other! Bring them to the point of madness where no fellow adventurer has gone before!
envy: When rewarding items make sure that they're items that two to three people can use effectively. Make sure to give out unfair advantages to some players at certain times.
pride: Anyone that claims they do more for the team than the rest you should target often in fights. Make him feel the pain of his pride as it suffocates him to death.

[sieylianna]

It's been done before, so you're going to have a tough time making it original. Succubi are definitely overdone for lust. If the players know that it is the temple of the 7 deadly sins, they are going to use that knowledge and I think the session will be a let down.

[Thunderslash]

I have not told them the theme. Let them figure it out on their own. Succubi are too damn easy. I have seen this theme before, Yes, but have not used it myself....so for this group it should be new. I also did not want to make it easy, predictable, or simple. Walking into a room and simply making a Will-save is too darn easy and boring. Was trying to think of something new for the situation. Saw an entry on a
website for a monster type called Sinspawn and wanted to use them in an adventure. The last one (Lust) I am thinking of using a Harpy-Preistess. Have to decide how, though.

[Brambleman]

Greed: two ideas
The first is simple, pile of loot with a contact poision or heat metal curse on it.

The second is more subtle. Give them an opstacle, such as a climb or swim (nulify magic like fly). Before this, give them a pile of valuable, but impractical loot, like gems. Curse these items like a stone of weight or reduced speed. They will hinder any character who picks them up, and cannot be discarded, put down, or spent. But the catch: you can willingly accept the cursed item from another, and relieve them of its burden.

At the end of the obstacle, have the cursed weight lift itself from those who charitably relieved the burden of others. They can keep the newly uncursed gems. But those who clung greedily to their loot will be still burdened with cursed items they cannot spend.

[Brambleman]

A Second thought. What if you instead keyed it to the party demonstrating the opposing virtue to conquer the appropriate sin.

Greed: An Adamentine door with no knob blocks your pass. Each character must sacrifice a valued item to it and it shall be to them as insubstantial as smoke. If your sacrifice is deemed unworthy: lose the item to no effect.

Wrath/Pride: Fight an impossibly tough guard. But try diplomacy and humility and you may pass

Lust: Monster time, this one is hard to model in-game. succubus are overdone but maybe harpys, and a sheer drop for good mesure. Or a nymph, or lillin, ect....

[Vrecknidj]

Do I get in trouble from plugging a resource? (Mods -- feel free to axe this post, I'm not sure on the protocol and no violation is intended.)

Pathways Magazine issue #1 had a few bad guys that focused on sins. The Eyes of Sin article might be worth mining for ideas.

http://paizo.com/store/byCompany/r/ritePublishing/pathfinderRPG/pathways

All the issues are free.

[Steelfiredragon]

greed..... one of the seven deadly sins...

on the latest eipsodes of thundercats, the tower of omen's had death traps in it.

the greed trap could be gotten from that episode.

the room had a pool in it filled with water and gold in the pool.beams of light were going into the pool.

the two thunder kittens reached in the pool and the waves caused by their arms disrupted the light beams and the room filled with water....

anyway its a decent trap for a greedy person...

though the gold in the pool, could be replaced by just about anything that apc could be greedy for.

[sieylianna]

Thunderslash wrote:

The last one (Lust) I am thinking of using a Harpy-Preistess. Have to decide how, though.

If you want to play with their heads and you think they can handle it, you could adapt the old girdle of feminity/masculinity. have a room with a sex change trap - it would work well if they have a NPC along with them - the kindly old priest becomes a hot chick. It could have an interesting effect on their adventure.

[Steelfiredragon]

lust

use illusions to cover an elboratly decroated chamber.

the inhabitants of this room would all need to be chained.
use harpies, enriyes, or succubus or hags.

though if one were wanting to take a stretch on the cliched suv=ccubus, you could make the party cross over an overpath that crossed over the room in the middle. on one side there is succubus and the other are enriyes. the key is at the top of the stairs thats in the middle of the overpath.

though it works well if the pcs doesnt free the harem, and goes down and wastes time, or if the pcs just walk on by.

good thing is, it works well enough if one side contains Harpies and the other hags....

or a mixture of them ..

[Bwang]

Greed = Treasure

Somewhere in 3.x is a coin golem/animated pile of coins/something.

Dang! Now it's gonna bug me till I find it and I have other things to get done!

[Steelfiredragon]

I remember that one... in one of the later mms iirc.

hate that golem though....

but it works for greed too....

just like have a room full of what appears to be 5000 ores of gold in it.

you gather them all and find out its Iron Pyrite.

[Matt Stich]

What about using a rakshasa bloodline sorcerer (or any bloodline that beguiles and tricks opponents) for lust? Pump charisma like no tomorrow and say she's just a beautiful woman. She lures them into a chamber filled with illusions of beautiful women/men but they are actually ((insert terrifying monster here).

[Steelfiredragon]

let them be chained succubus and enriyes....

mr. Stich and it would be an awesome trap...hahaha

[Xaaon of Korvosa]

Well for green, make all the treasure cursed of course, and it will randomly teleport something into their pocket, bag, backpack, etc, perhaps make it a rare coin, PCs will sell it, only to have it come back later...it will seem they're thieves.

Alternately, have random encounters increased because subconsciously other things want the item even though they don't know what it is...they just have to have it.

Lust could be similar...a curse of lust...that the character gains as an aura. Hey, PC goes to see the King, King's daughter decides she likes him...sneaks out to see said character...throws herself at him...and OH HI YOU HIGHNESS!!! NO NO I wasn't violating your daughter!!!

Wrath, Aura of Wrath, you gain an aura, when you're fighting intelligent creatures, and kill one of them, the rest all rage and come after you!