A clever trap [Archive] - Wizards Community

A clever trap [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Kensan_Oni
04-03-07, 03:28 AM A trap appropriate for a death cult somewhere

Somewhere in the dungeon, the players will come across a cryptic message in an draconic alphabet, "When you meet death, you should shake it's hand".

Several rooms and one or two encounters later, they should find themselves in a wide corridor. On the other end of this corridor, they see a group of skeletons, wearing armor and carrying weapons. The skeletons are walking down the corridor towards them. As the players draw their weapons, so, too do the skeletons. When the mage casts a spell, one of the skeletons returns in kind. What is going on here?

There is a Mirror of Spell Reflection in this room, with several additional enchantments placed on it. The first one is a simple illusion, that simply does not let flesh be seen in the reflections. Only the skeletons of the creatures before it are reflected. The second one makes the mirror insubstantial. The corridor is 80' long to the mirror, with another 30 feet behind that. That should prevent all but the monks and barbarians from charging on the fist turn. Any spell cast upon the mirror is, of course, returned back upon it's caster. Turns have no effect, as what the party is facing really isn't skeletons.

Against a low level party, this is not much of a trap. Against a high level party, however, this could turn deadly really quickly as soon as the first mage says "Lightning Bolt/Fireball". Overall, this rewards players who keep good track of notes, and asks important questions, like "What are the skeletons armed with?"
AffableDoomwalker
04-03-07, 03:34 AM I like it a lot. Actually, I love it.
stitchy1503
04-03-07, 04:42 AM permission to use this? :P
Kensan_Oni
04-03-07, 10:45 AM It's here, isn't it? Of course you can use it.
AffableDoomwalker
05-03-07, 04:40 AM This needs bumpage. :bump:
orionm42
05-03-07, 10:22 AM Nice idea...but I think it needs a few mechanical clarifications.

For example, your narrative suggests a fireball or lightning bolt would be returned back at the caster. However, both of those are area spells. By rule, spell turning is not effective against area spells.

Also, I probably would not consider this a trap because it does not directly attack the PCs in any way. If you did consider it a trap, you would probably need to assign search and disable device DCs (which don't really make sense here). Also, I am not sure if I would give the PCs experience points for not attacking the mirror.

If I were to use the idea, the mirror would turn only those spells eligible for turning by rule. I would also have the mirror serve some other purpose...for example, it would function as a gate to another plane, a castle of mirrors (home of a BBEG), etc.

With all that said...cool concept!

:)
Sajek
05-03-07, 10:43 AM You should post this on 1001 Clever Traps for Beginners. (http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=674705&page=1)
daggeroflath
05-03-07, 10:51 AM And when it's over you get to loot a mirror of spell-reflection...

Nice. Though I'm worried that the treasure is a bit good for the encounter difficulty.
Thrushfeather
05-03-07, 02:15 PM That's OK, just ream the players in the encounter or two before they reach the mirror, and have the opponents carrying little or no treasure. Then when they get to the mirror they get extra treasure for the relatively easy encounter.

TF
WolfHati
05-03-07, 03:19 PM To grab the mirror the players will have to figure out the nature of the trap. Which may very well include getting hit in the face with one of their own spells, in fact there'd be no reason to assume that there was anything other than an illusion there otherwise.
daggeroflath
05-03-07, 04:06 PM To grab the mirror the players will have to figure out the nature of the trap. Which may very well include getting hit in the face with one of their own spells, in fact there'd be no reason to assume that there was anything other than an illusion there otherwise.

Other than

A) The clue already presented to the group.
B) The stronger probability of the cleric turning undead than the mage casting a spell.
C) It's a mirror... changed or not, it'd take like 3 seconds to go "wait, they're duplicating my movements exactly".

Or does you group just fireball everything you see in a dungeon? (if that's the case then this'd be an incredibly lethal trap, most mages can easily kill themselves with their own spells).
Nakor
05-03-07, 10:30 PM This is definitely a good trap- especially because you can put just about whatever you want behind the mirror.

There could be something that an area-effect spell would trigger, like explosives, to keep them from beating it by accident. Or you could just put a sleeping dragon there.

Or, let's see... acidic gas, a room-sized slime, some type of cannon... you could even make the mirror one wall of some nefarious ant-farm or aquarium.

I like options.
Varia
05-04-07, 06:45 AM Other than

A) The clue already presented to the group.
B) The stronger probability of the cleric turning undead than the mage casting a spell.
C) It's a mirror... changed or not, it'd take like 3 seconds to go "wait, they're duplicating my movements exactly".

Or does you group just fireball everything you see in a dungeon? (if that's the case then this'd be an incredibly lethal trap, most mages can easily kill themselves with their own spells).

More than that, theyre not just duplicating your movements, theyre also wearing the exact same gear. Thats not a subtle thing (especially if ANY of the characters have any distinctive items visible), thats blatantly obvious to even a casual observer. I really cant see it being so obscure as to require a player to specifically ask before being told. As I have said in previous threads, the characters are not (usually...) imbeciles. Any encounter or trap that requires that they behave like they in order for it to work as envisioned is a bad idea.
Ubasrawr
05-04-07, 07:05 AM Maybe if you mod the appearance of the illusion a little bit.
Let them have the identical armor that the players wear, but have them all scratched and used up, maybe even rusted and what not to make it look more believable.

Also as a trap I'd give the spellcasters a Spellcraft check to see if they disbelieve the illusion.
Furthermore, if a cleric uses turn undead, it pretty much fails against the skeletons.
Also the mirror images should act accordinly as a mirror and walk mirror-reflected the way the players do. Player-right foot, skeleton-left foot etc.

Give a search/spot check for the Magic Device, which is the mirror anyways.

Of course any smarter players will notice the trap at once, but hey reward the smarter players once in a while.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Kensan_Oni 04-03-07, 03:28 AM	A trap appropriate for a death cult somewhere Somewhere in the dungeon, the players will come across a cryptic message in an draconic alphabet, "When you meet death, you should shake it's hand". Several rooms and one or two encounters later, they should find themselves in a wide corridor. On the other end of this corridor, they see a group of skeletons, wearing armor and carrying weapons. The skeletons are walking down the corridor towards them. As the players draw their weapons, so, too do the skeletons. When the mage casts a spell, one of the skeletons returns in kind. What is going on here? There is a Mirror of Spell Reflection in this room, with several additional enchantments placed on it. The first one is a simple illusion, that simply does not let flesh be seen in the reflections. Only the skeletons of the creatures before it are reflected. The second one makes the mirror insubstantial. The corridor is 80' long to the mirror, with another 30 feet behind that. That should prevent all but the monks and barbarians from charging on the fist turn. Any spell cast upon the mirror is, of course, returned back upon it's caster. Turns have no effect, as what the party is facing really isn't skeletons. Against a low level party, this is not much of a trap. Against a high level party, however, this could turn deadly really quickly as soon as the first mage says "Lightning Bolt/Fireball". Overall, this rewards players who keep good track of notes, and asks important questions, like "What are the skeletons armed with?"
AffableDoomwalker 04-03-07, 03:34 AM	I like it a lot. Actually, I love it.
stitchy1503 04-03-07, 04:42 AM	permission to use this? :P
Kensan_Oni 04-03-07, 10:45 AM	It's here, isn't it? Of course you can use it.
AffableDoomwalker 05-03-07, 04:40 AM	This needs bumpage. :bump:
orionm42 05-03-07, 10:22 AM	Nice idea...but I think it needs a few mechanical clarifications. For example, your narrative suggests a fireball or lightning bolt would be returned back at the caster. However, both of those are area spells. By rule, spell turning is not effective against area spells. Also, I probably would not consider this a trap because it does not directly attack the PCs in any way. If you did consider it a trap, you would probably need to assign search and disable device DCs (which don't really make sense here). Also, I am not sure if I would give the PCs experience points for not attacking the mirror. If I were to use the idea, the mirror would turn only those spells eligible for turning by rule. I would also have the mirror serve some other purpose...for example, it would function as a gate to another plane, a castle of mirrors (home of a BBEG), etc. With all that said...cool concept! :)
Sajek 05-03-07, 10:43 AM	You should post this on 1001 Clever Traps for Beginners. (http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=674705&page=1)
daggeroflath 05-03-07, 10:51 AM	And when it's over you get to loot a mirror of spell-reflection... Nice. Though I'm worried that the treasure is a bit good for the encounter difficulty.
Thrushfeather 05-03-07, 02:15 PM	That's OK, just ream the players in the encounter or two before they reach the mirror, and have the opponents carrying little or no treasure. Then when they get to the mirror they get extra treasure for the relatively easy encounter. TF
WolfHati 05-03-07, 03:19 PM	To grab the mirror the players will have to figure out the nature of the trap. Which may very well include getting hit in the face with one of their own spells, in fact there'd be no reason to assume that there was anything other than an illusion there otherwise.
daggeroflath 05-03-07, 04:06 PM	To grab the mirror the players will have to figure out the nature of the trap. Which may very well include getting hit in the face with one of their own spells, in fact there'd be no reason to assume that there was anything other than an illusion there otherwise. Other than A) The clue already presented to the group. B) The stronger probability of the cleric turning undead than the mage casting a spell. C) It's a mirror... changed or not, it'd take like 3 seconds to go "wait, they're duplicating my movements exactly". Or does you group just fireball everything you see in a dungeon? (if that's the case then this'd be an incredibly lethal trap, most mages can easily kill themselves with their own spells).
Nakor 05-03-07, 10:30 PM	This is definitely a good trap- especially because you can put just about whatever you want behind the mirror. There could be something that an area-effect spell would trigger, like explosives, to keep them from beating it by accident. Or you could just put a sleeping dragon there. Or, let's see... acidic gas, a room-sized slime, some type of cannon... you could even make the mirror one wall of some nefarious ant-farm or aquarium. I like options.
Varia 05-04-07, 06:45 AM	Other than A) The clue already presented to the group. B) The stronger probability of the cleric turning undead than the mage casting a spell. C) It's a mirror... changed or not, it'd take like 3 seconds to go "wait, they're duplicating my movements exactly". Or does you group just fireball everything you see in a dungeon? (if that's the case then this'd be an incredibly lethal trap, most mages can easily kill themselves with their own spells). More than that, theyre not just duplicating your movements, theyre also wearing the exact same gear. Thats not a subtle thing (especially if ANY of the characters have any distinctive items visible), thats blatantly obvious to even a casual observer. I really cant see it being so obscure as to require a player to specifically ask before being told. As I have said in previous threads, the characters are not (usually...) imbeciles. Any encounter or trap that requires that they behave like they in order for it to work as envisioned is a bad idea.
Ubasrawr 05-04-07, 07:05 AM	Maybe if you mod the appearance of the illusion a little bit. Let them have the identical armor that the players wear, but have them all scratched and used up, maybe even rusted and what not to make it look more believable. Also as a trap I'd give the spellcasters a Spellcraft check to see if they disbelieve the illusion. Furthermore, if a cleric uses turn undead, it pretty much fails against the skeletons. Also the mirror images should act accordinly as a mirror and walk mirror-reflected the way the players do. Player-right foot, skeleton-left foot etc. Give a search/spot check for the Magic Device, which is the mirror anyways. Of course any smarter players will notice the trap at once, but hey reward the smarter players once in a while.