Detect magic cantrip destrying my game


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Sovereign Court

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If people can ruin your traps with Detect Magic, you're using them wrong. A lot of the fun in traps is about people finding traps, then trying to get past them in creative ways.

A simple trap that unloads once is the beginning. Players find it, then send in a disposable (summoned) animal to trigger it without hurting themselves.

A next step is traps that reset after a while. Players send in a chicken, then get fried themselves unless they learn that they have only a 12 second window before the trap rearms.

Another one is traps that you really shouldn't trigger. Players try to set off the trap with a chicken, a loud noise rings out that warns enemies down the hall to start buffing. Or escape with the treasure/virgin. Now the party should try to learn the command word to safely bypass the trap.

Another one is traps in places where the party doesn't have all the time in the world to find and cope with them. Party opens a door to a room with lots of fancy banners, spots enemies, wins initiative, and tries to get in some sneak attack damage while enemies are flat-footed. However, rushing directly at them, PCs get zapped because you should be crossing this tiled floor with knight-steps. After they spot the enemies peculiarly navigating in combat, they catch on.

Think of traps as puzzles. Don't get upset when the players notice there is a puzzle (find the trap); make the puzzle interesting.


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If detect magic is an issue you must really hate permanent arcane sight.


Ascalaphus wrote:

If people can ruin your traps with Detect Magic, you're using them wrong. A lot of the fun in traps is about people finding traps, then trying to get past them in creative ways.

A simple trap that unloads once is the beginning. Players find it, then send in a disposable (summoned) animal to trigger it without hurting themselves.

A next step is traps that reset after a while. Players send in a chicken, then get fried themselves unless they learn that they have only a 12 second window before the trap rearms.

Another one is traps that you really shouldn't trigger. Players try to set off the trap with a chicken, a loud noise rings out that warns enemies down the hall to start buffing. Or escape with the treasure/virgin. Now the party should try to learn the command word to safely bypass the trap.

Another one is traps in places where the party doesn't have all the time in the world to find and cope with them. Party opens a door to a room with lots of fancy banners, spots enemies, wins initiative, and tries to get in some sneak attack damage while enemies are flat-footed. However, rushing directly at them, PCs get zapped because you should be crossing this tiled floor with knight-steps. After they spot the enemies peculiarly navigating in combat, they catch on.

Think of traps as puzzles. Don't get upset when the players notice there is a puzzle (find the trap); make the puzzle interesting.

Don't forget the trap that is simply a delayed action (~2-5 rounds) trap or the displaced action trap that triggers on said chicken but hits the adventures 20 feet back.


I put, in the Cleaves, an unsafe safe. If someone fails to pick the lock, it teleports to above the other party members cowering behind.

What if the illusionist sends in an invisible silent image first. It radiates magic, but isn't solid. It's pretty much just a wad of magic.


The lesson of all this is that traps are best when used by creative GMs, and not simply "find, bypass, move on with no trouble". XD


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GM Rednal wrote:
The lesson of all this is that traps are best when used by creative GMs, and not simply "find, bypass, move on with no trouble". XD

Actually, I think the lesson learned is that DM's who get pissed because they don't get to kill the party with the plethora of traps that makes up his campaign, get kicked off the table and replaced. ;)


Again nonmagical traps are just as deadly as magical ones. Have seen something like five where the room kills the PCs if they fail to disarm it properly. Nothing remotely magical about them at all. One was designed to where if every PC was in the room when it tripped it couldn't be disarmed from the inside but could be escaped with only a couple of options.


Also, don't just spam traps.
Like monsters, a room or area should have one major or a few minor traps.

If an abandoned temple was trap happy, maybe the residents tripped most of them, and died in the process.:p

Grand Lodge

I just want to note one thing which I don't think has been addressed yet which is ideally the party should be likely to disarm or evade a trap. Unless your players complained about it I'm willing to bet they felt good about getting by a device without being harmed. If you want to make a scary tap to put the party on their toes follow all the great advice that has been given but if these were just meh traps lazily left around then there is no reason to be upset that they didn't get to go off.

I totally agree on the Detect Magic all the time though. I would just explain to the party that having it on all the time, once you account for time taken and vagueness of information received, is simply not worth it.

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