Trap or not a Trap?

[atomicb]

Imagine several totally obvious bear traps or other non-hidden location traps in a perfectly well-lit room. Then the room swarms with enemies and it's battle time. Even if we're going to leave the traps on the map and presume that the characters retain a decent idea of where they are, it still seems as if there should be more chance of setting one off in the heat of battle, right?

Does it make any sense to try and model these mechanically as traps or do they become a custom battlefield obstruction of some kind? My first thought would be:

If someone if attacked within x feet of the trap, or attacks someone within x feet of the trap, they should make a reflex save to see if they have set it off (and if it is set off, another save for damage).

Thanks for any thoughts.

[GeneticDrift]

If the traps are strong enough people will use combat maneuvers to push others into them or pick them up to throw. Most traps are not 5x5 square sized any way.

Edit: unless the traps were specifically unstable

[Ascalaphus]

Let them trigger on entering the square the trap is in. Note that attempting to push someone into a dangerous square is often harder.

[Silent Saturn]

A field of bear traps would be a great arena for the party to encounter a bunch of small enemies who might not pose them a threat otherwise... especially if one of them has a wand of Hydraulic Push >:-D

[Please Don't Kill Me]

Silent Saturn wrote:

A field of bear traps would be a great arena for the party to encounter a bunch of small enemies who might not pose them a threat otherwise... especially if one of them has a wand of Hydraulic Push >:-D

Thats evil...

[Knight Magenta]

Look at caltrops. You can model it after those.

[atomicb]

I just took a look at caltrops, which turn out to have the closest mechanic I've seen to what I had in mind. Many thanks for the tip.