Traps to target perception?

[Metaphysician]

I have no idea how this would even work. No matter what weird complications are put into a trap, by definition, if the PC succeeds at their Perception check, then they are *succeeding*. "The PC spots a fake lure and is drawn into a kill zone" is still a failed Perception check, not a successful one.

And, as a general rule, it is bad practice for a GM to punish a player for being good at something.

[Hawk Kriegsman]

I totally agree with Metaphysician. Never penalize players for succeeding.

Your trap will work just fine under the normal rules.

Set the traps perception DC. If they beat it that don't fall for the bait. If they don't, the describe what they believe they "see" and hit them with the damage.

As for a sneaky fun trap.

Take a corridor and have one 5 foot hallway section trapped with multiple tripwires (both line and laser). Make the perception DC relatively low and the engineering check relatively high (telling them how complex the trip wire patterns are).

Have the next section of 5 foot hallway be pressure plates with a relatively high perception DC (back in Pathfinder it was a pit trap).

You PC trap spotter / disarmer will invariable jump over the 5 foot section of tripwires and right on to the pressure plates.

Damage and chaos ensues.

[Ellias Aubec]

THere were such traps in PF1 - I believe there were magical sigils that could be disguised and were only triggered when you saw them, meaning the higher the perception, the better chance you had of actually triggering the trap. I thought it was funny as both a player and GM (especially when we were playing and came across it). Something similar in one of the adventure paths where rolling high made you see a horrific being and have to make a will save, whereas if you didn’t see it you were blissfully unaware of it and didn’t have to make the save.

[Metaphysician]

Sure, you can have stuff like that. I would just argue that you *shouldn't*. A successful check should always provide a benefit to the PC, not a detriment. At a bare minimum, success should lead to the player *knowing* about the hazard, and then having the chance to either undergo it or not.

Which is to say, if there are Evil Runes in some ruin that can cause harm by being read? A successful Perception check does not lead to them being read, it leads to the PC spotting the hazard *before* they read one. A failed Perception check means its up to chance whether they read any, kind of like a gaze attack.

[BigNorseWolf]

A hidden glyph or symbol trap if the Dungeon Security Manager is looking to off the perceptive one first before starting in with the traps.