Just wanted to put this out there. I'm running a once off in temple catacombs full of traps and clockworks and I'm looking for some interesting trap and puzzle ideas. I have come up with a few but I'm floundering, particularly when it comes to puzzles. If anyone has any ideas at all that would be fantastic :)
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Okay, so here's something I came up with a few years ago. I'll try to explain as best I can...
The party walks into a typical 30'x30' room to find a statue of some large (10x10,) horrible monster standing near one wall, wearing a valuable piece of loot. Tampering with or removing the loot triggers the wall behind the statue, the section of floor around the statue and the ceiling directly above the statue to descend into a 20'x15' chamber beneath the statue. Think of the floor, wall and ceiling forming a "C" (or a square with a missing side) with the statue sitting inside the "C". Standing on top of the "C" (above the 30x30 room in another 20x15 chamber) is a living version of the monster from the statue. Anyone adjacent to or climbing on the statue when it descends goes into the basement while the people on the main floor get to fight the monster that was hiding in the attic.
The basement chamber features a series of vents close to the top of the walls to the left, right and front of the statue. These holes begin to quickly flood the basement chamber as soon as the room is sealed off. To escape, the trapped characters must find a second trigger hidden on the statue, in the dark, before they drown. Activating the secondary trigger opens a set of small vents along the bottom of the three walls to the left, right and front of the statue. It takes more time to empty the chamber than it does to fill. Once the chamber is empty of liquid, the "C" ascends. Anyone or anything on top of the "C" goes back into the attic chamber.
Once the attic chamber is once again sealed, a third trap activates that is meant to kill anything trapped in the attic including the monster that was originally trapped there if it winds up in the attic again. The only escape is for someone to reactivate the primary trigger on the statue below.
Here's basically how I ran the encounter when my party found the trap. The PCs were around level 12.
1. The statue I used was of a monster called an Ineffable Horror, a creature from the Forgotten Realms Underdark. The monster itself had a template and some extra HD on it to beef it up since a stock horror is only CR7.
2. The loot was a bracelet integral to advancing through the dungeon meaning the party couldn't really choose to leave it behind. It was also securely fastened to the statue and the party had no magical means of removing it from a distance.
3. The primary trigger was a pressure-sensitive release under the bracelet so removing it would set off the trap. The secondary trigger was a twisting ring around one of the thing's tentacles. The rogue failed to detect either of the triggers. I think I set the DC at 35. She had somewhere around a +24 in Perception so I figured she had a better than fair shot at finding them.
4. I gave the rogue and the party's bard a Reflex save to avoid going into the basement. I don't remember the DC, but I do remember the rogue rolled a natural 1 and got sent to the basment.
5. The rest of the party fought the monster and killed it in a few rounds while the rogue searched for the secondary trigger. I had the room fill up with blood in three rounds and slowly drain in about 27 (just a little under the 28 rounds she could hold her breath with a 14 CON.) The rogue survived but she was a bloody mess.
6. The bard was the only creature standing on top of the elevator when it came back up. He made the Reflex save to avoid getting sent to the attic. If he'd gotten trapped up there, I was prepared to have the ceiling of the attic slowly press the trapped creature to death, using its blood to refill the basement's reservoir.
A lot of the trap is easily changed. You can use different monsters for the main floor fight, different liquids and flood times for the basement and different finishers for the attic depending on how deadly you want it to be. If you like the Triple Decker Party Wrecker, I've probably got a few more I could throw at you.
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I have two words for you:
Grimtooth's Traps
Whether you buy the Necromancer 3.5 version, or the original Flying Buffalo versions and add your own stats, it doesn't get any better than Grimtooth's. Seriously, at least get the PDF of the original book. Bonus...it's on sale right now at DriveThruRPG for $4.95.
That sounds less exciting and interesting and more tedious and annoying. :P
If I kill the PCs, I want them to feel like it's their fault. Funnier that way.
RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
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Ah, so a bunch of confusion traps, followed by a BBEG sorcerer who also spams confusion! During a mission where they're escorting helpless orphans!
GENIUS!
GM: Alright AM BARBARIAN, roll for confusion.
AM: *rolls* ...'Attack nearest creature'. But... the nearest creature is Tiny Tim! NOOOOO!!!!!
I've been prepping a module for a one shot (Academy of Secrets) with lots of great traps.
My favorite is a touch activated Contact Other Plane Spell. The victim has a few seconds (ten say) to ask a question of a linked Abyssal Demigod and then has to roll an intelligence check (DC 10) or have his INT and CHA dropped to 8 for two weeks and can't cast arcane spells until those five weeks are up.
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I'm running a game with a location that sounds similar to yours. I didn't really have puzzles, but I used magnetic ceiling trap, wall pulverizer traps in hallways, clockwork soldiers with halberds, an armory with its locking mechanism accessed from a different room, along with the electrified floor inside. Also used a mirror of opposition trap and a CR7 mimic disguised as an armor stand with a jewel encrusted breastplate, then the bodaks appeared. Also used a stone golem sentry. Finally I threw in a haunt with an eyebite effect that was appropriate to the history of the place.
I want to see an antigravity/reverse gravity trap.
Nobody ever thinks anything of stalactites until they're suddenly dropping towards the ceiling 70 feet above them.
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I want to see an antigravity/reverse gravity trap.
Then you should like...
The rope and wood bridge looks strong and, from one side, appears to be securely fixed. The other side is too far away to tell. Obviously, there are few ways to properly inspect much of the middle of the bridge without getting onto it, but crafty adventurers might figure out a way to detect one of the few to several trapped boards near the middle of the bridge that are set to activate a Reverse Gravity effect in the room. Setting off the trap flings the securely fastened suspension bridge up like a slingshot, shooting anyone standing on it into the air. Attempts to hang onto the bridge are made difficult by the force of the spell and creatures shot off the bridge take double the normal "falling" damage as they splat against the ceiling. Anyone climbing or reaching for a ladder at this time is also in for a rude surprise.
The rungs of the ladders on both sides of the room are split in the center and hinged on the sides so that downward pressure causes them to lock into place but upward pressure causes them to separate. Thus, anyone holding onto the ladder when the trap goes off suddenly reverses pressure on the rungs and is flung into the air taking the normal amount of falling damage when they hit the ceiling. From the ceiling, any survivors might think to grab one of the L-shaped hooks in anticipation of the Reverse Gravity spell shutting down. That would be a mistake.
Some of the L-hooks work on the same principle as the ladder rungs, only in reverse. An internal spring keeps the hooks bent, but downward pressure or anyone bending against the spring causes the hooks to slip and straighten. When this happens, a pin above the spring pokes a trigger in the ceiling that causes portions of the ceiling to fall open against the walls like a bunch of pizza slices. Above the ceiling is a pool of caustic acid that, up to now, has been dammed up by the ceiling.
Anyone setting off a trapped L-hook on the ceiling while gravity is reversed tumbles into the acid as the pizza slices fall up and then they fall back down to the spiked pit (along with all that acid) when gravity resets. If the ceiling is opened when gravity is normal, the acid splooshes all over everything below destroying the bridge after a handful of rounds in the process.
Like the other trap I posted, multiple Perception checks are required to spot every trigger and trapped surface in the room. This makes it alot of fun with players who relax after they detect the first trigger, assuming there's only one trap in the room. Set Reflex saves for anyone trying to cling to the bridge when it slingshots or to reduce damage by getting out from under the acid or shielding it away when it falls.
Passing the save to cling to the bridge should negate the double damage from the slingshot effect and reduce the damage to normal if the person falls off while trying to climb off the bridge. If you don't want to use acid, try sharp, heavy rocks or anything else that can smash the bridge. If you don't want to destroy the bridge, use sharp, light rocks or a stationary hazard like more spikes.
If you want to be a real jerk, you can make this a Bridge to Nowhere trap by making the exit on the other side of the pit a false door or an illusion.
*I named this trap after an old Atari 2600 game where you used a see-saw to fire a clown up into the air to catch balloons. If you didn't get under the clown and springboard him back into the air on his way down he went kersplat.
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If you ever need any idea's for great traps try taking a look at the old AD&D module Tomb of Horrors. That had some great traps.
Another great trap I used once was a prismatic spray trap. I do not remember all the trap details, but it magically reset itself every round unless it was disarmed.
All I had to do was put it in the center of a hallway, at the other end was a monster sounding the alarm, and every one of the characters ran straight across the room. I killed 1, turned one character to stone, and then sent one of the companions to another plane. The best part about the character sent to another plane was she was the one carring most of the wizards equipment, including the spell book.
Complexity is overrated. Put in lots and lots of traps that hit you with DEX-damaging poison, then have the epic final fight be against hard-to-reach archers.
That is great, I like it a lot.
Don't forget, the end is against highly mobile archers, and the pcs must be hit by slow or something to hamper their movement.
If you ever need any idea's for great traps try taking a look at the old AD&D module Tomb of Horrors. That had some great traps.
Another great trap I used once was a prismatic spray trap. I do not remember all the trap details, but it magically reset itself every round unless it was disarmed.
All I had to do was put it in the center of a hallway, at the other end was a monster sounding the alarm, and every one of the characters ran straight across the room. I killed 1, turned one character to stone, and then sent one of the companions to another plane. The best part about the character sent to another plane was she was the one carring most of the wizards equipment, including the spell book.
One that got one party member and kept another busy was a summon trap in front of a door, in a pyramid. So this symbol in the floor keeps summoning monsters. They are tough, it won't stop, once one is dead another is shortly summoned. Now there are deep pits on either sides of this walkway. Some monsters may throw the players off. You could also throw in spring floor traps (thanks Kagero) to get them into the pit.
It ended with the fighter cleric being crushed to death by a giant snake. He had laughed at the other enemies that came through, but not that snake. Then the pc that got out of one of the pits finally destroyed the summoning stone floor.
A hallway full of traps, and xerans coming through the wall vomiting magma at people. Keh keh keh keh!
Xerans are a buffed version of xorns.
I'm partial to traps triggered by the process of disarming the previous trap...
Otherwise I personally prefer old fashion traps to "spells on a tripwire".
I agree Grimtooths is the final word on awesome traps.
Rated by lethality...
You can't go wrong.