Post/Author/DateTime	Post
flaminghalfling12 06-21-07, 11:24 PM	in my adventure I have a broken balcony which, if you fail your jump check, you fall down a level. Sine it is in plain sight, does it count as a trap and how do i award experience for it, if at all?
Zaver 06-21-07, 11:30 PM	I wouldn't consider that a proper trap and if you think it deserves any xp at all, I'd give it very low, like 100 or less. It's jumping a hole in the ground.
Mentar 06-22-07, 12:00 AM	Is it just a hole in the balcony or the entire balcony ready to fall? If it's just a hole in the balcony you could consider it a CR1 pit trap. If it's more complex that it could be up to a CR3.
Kouk 06-22-07, 01:11 AM	Traps don't have to have been put their intentionally, they can just be obstacles that have to be overcome. By RAW, a trap has to be magical or mechanical, but I think it is close enough at least. But something pretty low level, probably even less XP than a pit trap as it is already visible that there is a hole there. Some sort of reward for getting across is probably in order (if they actually have to get across) but not much.
Ogg 06-22-07, 11:50 AM	Yeah, basically the CR of a trap comes if it's one you can overcome & if you overcome it. I've given CR rewards based on various difficulities & if they overcame them. Heck, I started one dungeon with the players waking up as recovering slaves of the drow. They were starving & coming out of the effects of being drugged. I gave them CR 1 rewards when they finally overcame the drugs & when they finally obtained food & drink.
arjomanes 06-22-07, 11:58 AM	It depends on how the encounter is set up. For example, if you set up an encounter where the PCs are on a balcony, with a big hole in middle, fighting harpies, well then you need to adjust the CR vs fighting harpies in a meadow. If it's just a hole they can walk around when they aren't being attacked, then it should be pretty low XP or none at all. Environment makes a big difference in the difficulty of encounters and it needs to be accounted for when determining CRs and XP.
Shadowfax7 06-22-07, 01:03 PM	A Pit is a hole. IMO I would award XP to circumvent/jump over the hole/broken balcony as if it was a pit trap with the appropriate falling distance, which depends on how far down the level you fall to is. Under the trap descriptions in the DMG, a pit is presumed uncovered and obvious unless it is camouflaged. A camouflaged pit is at least 1 CR higher. The challenge is in circumventing it, and requiring a Jump check to circumvent it is a challenge.
NeueRegel 06-22-07, 01:40 PM	Wow. I guess I'm old school. (I'm 40 years old, been playing since I was 16 or so). The "idea" that you get experience points for "traps" is a splash in the face, lol. I don't mean to derail the thread, I promise. In our games, a trap is, "You survive or you get hurt or you die". Never had anything to do with experience.
Ogg 06-22-07, 02:21 PM	Wow. I guess I'm old school. (I'm 40 years old, been playing since I was 16 or so). The "idea" that you get experience points for "traps" is a splash in the face, lol. I don't mean to derail the thread, I promise. In our games, a trap is, "You survive or you get hurt or you die". Never had anything to do with experience. Hah, yeah welcome to 3rd edition. Of course you used to get xps for gold! The DMG has CR on all the traps so you can drop them in the old CR verses party level experience chart.
RobbyPants 06-22-07, 04:15 PM	in my adventure I have a broken balcony which, if you fail your jump check, you fall down a level. Sine it is in plain sight, does it count as a trap and how do i award experience for it, if at all? Can they clear it by taking 10? If so, it's not much of a challenge. About the only time an open pit is a real challenge is if you put an invisible wall of force at the other end. :P