I am planning a dungeon and have decided for an elemental trap setup.
All the traps can be rendered almost useless if approached right.
Water: you enter a dead end shaft which starts flooding, simply swim up with the water to the exit.
Air: gale force winds blow down a corridor. Enlarge person to the oread, provide soft cover for the rest of party to follow behind him while he blocks the wind (not RAW but makes sense)
Fire: heat metal spell on an area (I know that's not how it works). Simply take off the armor and weapons and then walk through the area.
Earth: ?????
i simply cannot think of an interesting trap that is earth based, that would allow for smarts to bypass it.
HELP
Pits seem like they would be 'earthy'. Maybe have a swarm fill into the pit after someone falls in.
I'm thinking some kind of pit trap, possibly triggered by runes on the floor (so someone observant would notice a particular pattern and think to avoid stepping on them). Or the reverse - a series of marked areas that are the only safe places to stand, the rest being quicksand magically disguised as floor or something.
rennaivx, that is sort of what i am looking for but it seems a bit cliched.
my current thought is to have a rock walkway over a cavern that will break under load, so if the party crosses slowly and spread out they are fine, but if they clump the walkway collapses causing fall damage and other fun stuff.
Portable cave-in?
Portable cave-in?
Expand?
I just randomly got those two words in my mind, but maybe something that works in caverns. I was thinking kobolds at the time.
i suppose you are thinking about a rockfall sort of thing. attach a net to the ceiling, fill with rocks, drop on foes?
Quicksand? Sandstorm type effect? Stone to mud followed by mud to stone? Animate Object on some stone statues?
Quicksand can be solved by rope or some other mundane equipment. Sandstorm by getting behind cover like a summoned wall or the like.
Flying or staying off the floor solves the stone to mud.
Shattering the statues before they animate solves the last.
Sorry, didn't see the second part of what you were looking for.
GM_Arrule, those are good ideas, but how would you allow for a bit of smarts to render them completely useless? all the others have sort of obvious but not ways to bypass them
Maybe have rocks that fall in some sort of predictable pattern, so a character could bypass it either by being quick and reflexive enough to dodge them as they fall or by noticing the pattern and planning a route appropriately.
Summon monster to get earth elementals?
A few things come to mind.
solved by protection from evil.
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How about small rocks, maybe 1/2" across, with grates on the floor that are 1/4" . The rocks fall slowly enough that they don't take damage, but if they fill up the room the players will suffocate. (and make it hard to cast since once it's above their shoulders they'd be pinned).
One way out: transmute rock to mud, or soften earth and stone. Turning the rocks to mud will cause the mud to flow through the grates on the bottom allowing the players to proceed.
or perhaps earthglide or passwall can get them out. or maybe keep on top of the stones until they can get into the chutes that the stones are falling from.
I was going to say have dirt fall on them, Soften Earth and stone may still work to allow the finer dirt/sand to fall (pictures of hourglasses on the walls may give a hint to players on how to get out, hah the room itself could be an hourglass, where casting Soften Earth or Stone only makes it run faster) or Create Pit is an idea that works too.
Berti that is actually exactly the sort of thing i was looking for... only problem is this is all going to be with a lvl 2 party. Also, does it not seem a bit too much like the water one? How would they exit the room with that in it... i suppose it would be difficult terain and you could simply put a door on the far side of the room. It gets buried in the rubble. They have to get to it before it is buried or if they are slow they have yo get there before they die and dig to the door... i would like to avoid having to have the party prepare specific spells
The "Infamous Huge Boulder" trap from Indiana Jones, Raiders of the Lost Arc? or it's copy from UHF? it moves at speed 40ft, so any one that double moves can keep ahead of it, unless they stop to pick up from one of those piles of treasure just laying about along the exit run!
Its sooo cliché. I want to try avoid that