One of my players is playing a 15th-level character. (Wizard 3/Rogue 3/Arcane Trickster 9). He has the trap spotter rogue talent. He also has a VERY high perception skill check modifier.
I'm finding that just about every trap the party encounters at this point is moot. Unless the trap can be triggered from over 10' away, he's automatically spotting them and able to disable them at range.
Sometimes traps just don't seem spottable to me (e.g. an alarm spell), yet all traps have a perception DC, even magical ones with nothing to see. I've thought of 0-ruling that some traps just aren't perceivable before being set off, but that seems unfair to me.
Is this just a product of a rogue being really good at what he does? Are there some rules I am neglecting to take into account?
What advice can I get that will makes traps dangerous/fun in my campaign again?
Thanks,
Atavar
Traps typically represent:
a. attrition of hp and healing potions
b. obstacles
c. something for the rogue player to fiddle with
So...with those three things in mind, what can you throw at your adept player that will be fun and enjoyable in the narrative of the adventure?
Ideas:
- The PCs are being chased/are pursuing, and don't have time to check for traps
- To borrow from the movie "Blown Away" (with Tommy Lee Jones), the player is up against someone using traps to "send a message". This guy is good. Real good. In-fact, he's a bit of a virtuoso (mythic level?), one of the best of his generation. This guy wrote the book on traps. The player will have to not just roll to detect and disarm, he's got to solve the riddle of each trap, because the guy who set them believes each of his creations is "poetry". And he starts coming after the one adventurer who seems able to disarm them.
- Use a deathtrap ooze. They're oozes that take the shape of deadly traps, effectively making said trap "intelligent".
- Use a haunt in conjunction with a trap. Nothing like the dread of the underworld seeping into your bones when you're trying to figure out how to stop the blades from going "snicker-snack".
- Disarming a trap takes time. An unattended trap is much easier than one being manned and monitored by bad guys. Have the PC roll to disarm portions of a trap
- Disarming doesn't necessarily mean shutting a trap off, it could mean making it ineffective or rendering it a null threat. Think of murder holes in a castle hallway, or a shifting floor where the mechanism is hidden. Perhaps "disarm" means he needs to sneak down to some level where he can get at the mechanism. This means taking risks on his own.
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I never have "traps" in the old term. I prefer more interactive traps.
(also, I break the rules and make it only those with trapfinding can even SEE magic traps as traps.)
but, instead of having a hidden fireball trap. I make it a "as you come into the room, you see the McGuffin of your quest. You also see across the floor sections with spinning contraptions of Blades moving along them, on the walls there are nozzles that spew forth fire at almost apparent random intervals." ect. ect. Now, rogues can jump about and disarm these traps. OR, players can make skill checks to "dodge" them. (dangerous) OR a character can make a high knowledge engineering (or sluightly higher) knowledge dungeenering check to figure out the timing of the fire trap and move past safely.
The character has invested a rogue talent and a lot of skill ranks into being able to detect traps. He should be able spot most of them, that's why he's made that investment. Detecting and disarming traps is kind of the rogue's thing. Even then, there's still a risk of missing them if he rolls poorly. I would continue to throw in traps, expecting that he will find them, to avoid negating his character build choices completely.
Putting traps in a room where the party encounters enemies can make things interesting. They may know about the trap, but without time to properly disarm it, it becomes an obstacle they must avoid during the fight. Maybe they trigger it anyway to get to a better position to fight. Or perhaps they trigger it on purpose to damage the enemy. Maybe the enemy wants to trigger it (undead creatures might trigger a poisonous cloud trap, knowing it won't affect them).
He doesn't even need Trap Spotter. In fact, Trap Spotter doesn't do anything at all for the character. It saves the GM (and other players) from the player's incessant "I check for traps".
Besides, he could just spam Sift and effectively "take 15" on his checks instead.
I have been wondering, do natural hazards count as spotable traps? Like ice that may be a bit thinner than you expected, an old & fragile bridge, and other "enviromental" dangers? They can still have DCs (easily) but spotting them might be more complicated (K (engineering) to know the bridge is fragile, K(nature)/survival to know the ice is thin, etc.)
I'm not fan of traps in general so I dont intend to use them much, unless a character is built around making traps. But yeah, traps arent much of a challenge... either they are easily detected & dispatched, or they hurt everyone a bit & irritate them, or they kill everyone. I'd rather send a group of enemies.
Traps are really only useful (IMO) when used in conjuction with something else. Such as a group of enemies. Think of a trapped floor where a very obvious mosaic of squares will shoot gouts of fire all around the room. And it's guarded by a few fire elementals and an young red dragon. Sure, the rogue can disable each trapped square, and it may become useful to do so. But, this makes a combat more interesting and provides multiple avenues to approach an encounter.
This is what high level rogues do. Sorry, but it's like complaining that a high-level fighter usually hits on his first iterative attack...
Now, as others have said, he may not have the time to disarm them. But a trap by itself should be a joke to such a character.
Trapspotter is more that a way to avoid saying "i check for traps". You don't spend any time searching
Agreed. And it goes back to my post of "what does the trap bring to the fun of the adventure?" If traps become trivial thanks to the player's building skills, then it's time to think outside the box, and make the traps challenging in a fun way so that you're not penalizing the player for his choices, yet you're rewarding him for being an expert.