Hey everyone,
Of all the aspects involved in DMing, I think trap design is where I need the more help. Is anybody on here good at designing them?
I've found some online and in books, but my players have had literally no problem in finding and disabling them. They're all level 11 now and the rogue has a DD of 16.
Does anybody want to help me out by providing a walkthrough for trap design or possibly giving me some good ones to consider adding into a Gnoll camp? They're going into the camp in order to free Halflings who have been taken as slaves by the gnolls. They gnolls must have some traps set up to stop their slaves from escaping which will also give the players an added element to tackle while trying to free their captives.
Thanks so much, I really want to learn how to provide better traps for my group :)
In my experience the perception/disable/done traps are altogether lame. Here's two more interesting ones:
That's the problem I've been having. The Ranger's perception is regularly over 35, and the DD is usually over 25, so making traps any form of a challenge never seems to happen. I want to include traps since the rogue really likes using DD, but they just seem like a lame chore rather than an actual hazard.
Hey everyone,
Of all the aspects involved in DMing, I think trap design is where I need the more help. Is anybody on here good at designing them?
I've found some online and in books, but my players have had literally no problem in finding and disabling them. They're all level 11 now and the rogue has a DD of 16.
You're not doing it wrong. CR appropriate traps are almost a "give me" with characters built to deal with them. They're not SUPPOSED to be killing the party.
It's not even about killing the party... I rarely even get to *attack* with them before they're disabled :P
Me: You walk into a room.
Rogue: Does my trap sense go off?
Me: Uh... Not yet. But, well, it will so I might as well tell you there's a trap.
Ranger & Rogue: We look for it.
Me: Roll.
R&R: Huge numbers.
Me: You found it.
Rogue: DD.
Me: Roll.
Rogue: Huge number.
Me: It's disabled. Sigh.
It's not even about killing the party... I rarely even get to *attack* with them before they're disabled :P
If you throw an animal at a druid they bypass it by rubbing its belly.
If you throw undead at an undead lord they control the undead.
If someone tries to run from a ranger in the woods they track them down
and if you throw a trap at a rogue they find it and disable it. All is well with the world.
I do have some experience building traps.
Because your players are so high level you need to up the Perception and Disable Device DCs. You can tweak your trap by reducing the damage a bit and increase the DCs by 5 points, that is a rough equal trade. Give me an actual trap that you want to use and I can more easily tweak it for you to make it inteesting for all involved.
RAW says:
The DC depends on how tricky the device is. Disabling (or rigging or jamming) a fairly simple device has a DC of 10; more intricate and complex devices have higher DCs.
Time
DC1
Example
Simple
1 round
10
Jam a lock
Tricky
1d4 rounds
15
Sabotage a wagon wheel
Difficult
2d4 rounds
20
Disarm a trap, reset a trap
Extreme
2d4 rounds
25
Disarm a complex trap, cleverly sabotage a clockwork device
These mean that finding a complex trap and disarming it takes AT LEAST 3 rounds, and might take as long as 9 rounds. Now that's not a ton of time, but what's happening during all that? Maybe there's a patrol or wandering monster; maybe an environmental effect.
Environments can be living things as well. I had a trap that was simple enough, but it was a delaying tactic in the middle of a vertical shaft that was filled with rising heat and debilitating gasses coming off underground vents. This ment Fog obscuring vision and saves against Fatigue; if the party missed the save they're also operating at a -1 on their rolls.
Finally your players have been playing this way a long time so they may be unwilling to change. But I've started running a lot of traps like Haunts; the PCs get a chance to notice SOMETHING in the area that tips them about the trap - this counts as their Perception check to detect the trap. If they succeed they have a chance to do something about it; attempt to disarm, bypass or simply ignore and keep moving. Anyone who doesn't notice it doesn't get an action. The trap then goes at initiative 10 on the surprise round.
Now this initiative thing presents an interesting twist. I had told my players about the change, gotten their buy in, and then the next game ran a falling log trap in the woods (PCs are level 4 at this time). The bard and the fighter noted the trap but the bard rolled abysmally low on the initiative and was going at initiative 9; the fighter in the meantime got a 13.
Instead of perception/disarm/done, we had the party cross the area of vines that triggered the trap, the log started falling, and before the bard could do anything about it her buddy the fighter shoved her out of the way calling out to the rest of the party. He then took 3d6 damage on the chin while the rest of the party was out of harms way. It ended up being very dramatic.