Trap and Hazard creation

[Melanikus]

Is there any guidance anyone can offer on 'in-game' creation of traps and hazards by players and NPCs?

I know that the ranger class can have access to snares for setting up traps, but my wizard PC is asking about creating something similar to (okay, exactly the same as) the fireball trap in the hazards section. They want to spring an ambush.

I could not find any player facing rules on this, so I fudged a bit and allowed it. However I said that it would take some time (5 hrs) and he would effectively have to create a magic-holding rune that he then could cast a spell into. I had him pay out for rune-creation components, make an Expert DC Crafting Check followed by an Expert DC Arcane check, cast the spell, and we called it good.

However, I don't know if this was really the best way to do it. I mean, what's to stop him creating 10 of them over 5 days or so as long as he has got the money and time and then just leading hapless monsters into his trap-city of doom.

Also, I'd like to use this as a framework for working out what an NPC (or group of NPCs) could reasonably come up with in a fixed amount of time if they know the players are headed their way.

I'd really appreciate some guidance on the logistics of in-game trap creation and an idea for stopping it becoming something they can do over-and-over.

Cheers.

[Staffan Johansson]

The Fireball Rune in particular is essentially a glyph of warding with a fireball in it. The numbers aren't quite the same, but it's close enough.

As for more complex traps, I think the reason there aren't any player'facing rules for making them is that any such rules will inevitably have weirdness in them. So creating traps beyond what you can do with Snares and glyphs of warding is very much a DM fiat thing. The rules that do exist (in the GMG) are intended more to make a trap a nice challenge for the PCs than allow PCs to create any themselves.

[Ascalaphus]

Glyph of Warding covers a lot of this, with the interesting limitation that you can have only so many glyphs. That doesn't sound entirely reasonable - a wizard with more money than sense should be able to buy them at industrial scale, right? But there's a game balance concern too, hence the limit.

Over the years a variety of game firms have tried to write rules for players making traps, but it turns out to be really hard to write well-balanced rules for that. Because while the GM writing a dungeon is trying to create a fun, reasonably challenging obstacle course, that's not what a player building traps is doing.

A player building traps is trying to win. Ideally, the setup will be as unfair and unbalanced as possible, guaranteeing the destruction of enemies.

[Melanikus]

Ascalaphus wrote:

Glyph of Warding covers a lot of this, with the interesting limitation that you can have only so many glyphs. That doesn't sound entirely reasonable - a wizard with more money than sense should be able to buy them at industrial scale, right? But there's a game balance concern too, hence the limit.

Over the years a variety of game firms have tried to write rules for players making traps, but it turns out to be really hard to write well-balanced rules for that. Because while the GM writing a dungeon is trying to create a fun, reasonably challenging obstacle course, that's not what a player building traps is doing.

A player building traps is trying to win. Ideally, the setup will be as unfair and unbalanced as possible, guaranteeing the destruction of enemies.

I had not even considered Glyph of Warding (although I did try looking up Exploding Runes, to no avail).

I think that this will have to fill the requirements as I really don't want something that they can abuse.

Thanks for your help.