Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Fanatic-Templar 01-14-04, 06:15 PM	In the context of an out-of-campaign game we shall be playing soon, one of my friends and I shall play lv1 Gnome Illusionist BBEGs. The plan is to take the other PCs into the most ridiculous dungeon ever while we watch them through scrying devices ( we have nearly unlimited funding ) to get a good laugh at their expense ( these are our characters' motivations ). Now we need to booby trap the dungeon with traps that do not directly harm the PCs unless they do somethign against it ( barred door that when bashed open takes the PC down a pit, or another such door covered with hidden blades that when the PC tries to bash down, well... ) or simply hinder them. My favorite such trap is this : A great panel besides a locked stoen door ( that is backed on a wall, so it won't be opened ) upon which is written a riddle. But it's just a riddle on a wall. Nothing happens if they solve it. It just like if it were graffiti. Now we're searching for further riddles and traps for these poor, poor, PCs. I'd be gratefull for any suggestions.
Linthar 01-14-04, 06:53 PM	A large crate that is magically enchanted (you said near unlimited funds right?) that is empty but closed and when opened uses magic to teleport the opener in if they fail a will save then shut and arcane lock or something like that. Their are airholes but the crate is hard to open without killing the trapped person.
olshanski 01-14-04, 07:13 PM	That gives me an idea: How about a closed box, that when touched teleports (steals) a small but valuable item that a person posesses... give the trap a "slieght of hand" skill of 20 or something. The box is unlocked, and when the person opens it, they find their own valuable item... sure, its just like one they already have...
Mousse 01-14-04, 07:16 PM	Illusions are your friend :D Personally, I've always wanted to try putting the illusion of some orcs standing in a hallway over a stone wall. I can just imagine the fighter charging only to WHAM! run straight into a wall.
Luminous Crayon 01-14-04, 07:39 PM	An old favorite of mine is a door with a glowing hand of force behind it. When someone opens the door, the hand slaps them around, then pulls the door shut again (resetting the trap). This can happen all day, if your PCs are particularly stubborn. How to get past it? Knock on the door like a polite little adventurer. Silent Image and Ventriloquism are wonderful, wonderful tools for deception and humiliation, as is the occasional Nystul's Aura. Disguise Self makes it easier to play tricks in social settings without the party suspecting that the same person is behind all the mischief. With access to higher-level spells, Magic Mouth, Programmed Image, and Illusory Wall (remember, it can be used as a floor, too!) are among the most versatile.
Fanatic-Templar 01-14-04, 08:33 PM	These are all excellent suggestions. Be certain that your efforts will not go unrewarded : For every trap you mentioned, a PC will be humiliated :devil: This said, keep them coming ! The longer they're down there, the longer I and my fellow BBEG will stay alive... Although we have planned for a way to get rid of the other PCs ( without killing them ) With it comes a riddle : What is the fastest way to get out of a dungeon ? ( remember, everyone is level 1, but we BBEGs have limitless funds )
zifnab2525 01-14-04, 08:54 PM	I believe they've actually got a lock in the Arms and Equipment guide - or maybe it's Song and Silence - that is reversed locked. When the latch appears closed, the lock opens just fine. But by picking and opening the lock, it locks tight despite looking open. If you want to complicate things even further, you can set a trap on the box or door or whatever that activates an Arcane Lock when the item is open. This can even be in response to a Knock spell, just to screw with them. The simplest and yet easily most devistating "trap" I ever ran into (litterally) was an illusionary wall guarding a small dock. The hobgoblin we found in the dockroom decided to flee after we slew several of his buddies, charging right through the wall. Being the good Tyrian that I was I charged after him in hopes of bringing this liutenant of evil to justice. Diving head first in full Banded Mail into a raging river twenty feet deep and one-hundred feet across is about as lethal a death sentence as one can level on you. My DM didn't even anticipate this being a trap until my cleric and our resident monk both fell into it. Then it took me some fifteen consecutive swim checks to not die.
Aranael 01-14-04, 10:05 PM	My Favorite trap is something along the lines you mentioned. There will be a large door at the end of a room, and some sort of switches, or something (whatever you want- levers, panels, buttons would even work), and a door at the end. A plaque above the door will read, in fancy script (perhaps even an ancient language?) "When the light shines pure, the door will open". Now, on the door are around 50 to 100 lights, and to get all of the lights to go on, the PCs have to solve a Real Life combination riddle, where perhaps pressing one button lights one light, but extinguishes others, or putting a lever in various positions has an effect on the light it controls, and the ones surrounding it, the possibilities are endless here, the real point is only that it is a true pain in the behind. The door will not open, not even a knock will do the trick, but there does not appear to be a lock to pick. The trick is, of course, that it will not open until the room is entirely filled with light ("when the light shines pure"), which (thanks to an opening in the roof and several mirrors (a hint for them, if they even notice them (search DC 25 to 30, you could have the gnomes have removed them, if you want to be Really cruel))) normally happens around noon. The puzzle is just to help people pass the time while they wait. Several torches, a Light spell, or something similar can get the job done at Any Time, though. ** Another great one is to put them in a room where a large sign warns them "Liars will be severely punished" and another warns them "You must answer to pass", and where they can sense, if they try, detection spells keyed to misdirection etc. On a stone pedastle in the middle of the room are two levers, and a question. "Will you pull a lever?" Now, the one marked Yes, is of course stuck, and if they succeed against a strength check to try to pull it (even with oil, the gnomes have been tinkering/ it is a cruel joke, and the one is not really a lever, having no hinge), all they do is break it. Invariably, someone will pull the lever saying "no, I will not pull a lever". What you want to do from there is up to you, put I suggest you punish them "most severely" :smirk:
The Stray 01-14-04, 11:24 PM	hee hee hee...these are some gems I've been dying to use in my own game... The Endless Stairwell... This trap is fiendish. It's a spiral stairwell with a dimensional door at the top that opens up at the bottom. Make sure that the stairwell continues long enough and is tall enough that it isn't immediatly obvious that once the chracters reach a certain point they're teleported to the bottom of the stair...great fun when they open the door and realize they're in the same room they just left. The Honest Sign... Have writing on the wall that is too small for the characters to read from a distance. When they get close and read it, they read: DO... NOT... READ... THIS! The message, of course, is written in Explosive Runes...:D
Taran Alvein 01-14-04, 11:59 PM	I like long, greased slides at the top of the castle/tower, that send the characters speeding to the bottom. Not, of course, before the slide does lots of twisty-turny stuff, as well as a few loop-the-loops. I'm personally partial to doors where, to open them, you have to answer a riddle. Get the riddle wrong, and you suffer a little damage. Take too long thinking of an answer, and everyone suffers a little damage. Clerics shine when I use traps like these. You can keep them running about with a trick like this: The party comes to a hallway that branches left and right. Now, these two hallways are rounded, both of them curving to the same room. However, it is done so in a manner so that it is not obvious. Now then, the party finds a single stone tablet in the room, which stands upright. The tablet merely says "Wrong! Try the other side!" Now, the party may assume that this means to go to the "other" room. In fact, it's saying to search the other side of the tablet. And lo and behold! At the base of the tablet's back side is a small button that opens the way!
Aucturos 01-15-04, 01:45 AM	Have the PC's walk up to a door in a room under the effects of "reverse gravity" or some such, so you walk on the ceiling, jump towards the floor... etc, etched in stone is a very odd statement/riddle, with the promise of opening the door if the answer is guessed correctly of course. The riddle being, "Up is Down, East is West, the Door is Pull, ace the Test." Now, just because they walk on the ceiling, it doesn't mean that the door doesn't open by pulling it, as even a reverse in gravity wouldn't affect that... But if they fall prey to the riddle and Push the door open, gravity suddenly goes haywire and they fall into the middle of the room between the ceiling and floor. The next best way to get through the door then? Push yourself off of something (make sure that there isn't anything to latch or grab onto on the other side, so no rope tying tricks or fish hook fiasco's)... If they had only pulled it, they would've made it through lickety split to the normal gravity room right after the hall they go down... D'oh! :smirk:
LordArkan 01-15-04, 03:37 AM	For escape: Try setting up an illusion of the BBEGs running away. Hopefully, the PCs try to follow, and you'll be fine. OR, since you have limitless funds and you're both small size, you can try squeezing through ring gates (Escape Artist DC 13), the exit of which can be up to 100 miles away. :D Traps: I was always a big fan of the trap in Return to the Tomb of Horrors that consisted of a lever and a panel that said "PUSH ME". Pushing the lever caused a trap to go off, while pulling the lever caused an even worse trap to go off. Naturally, following the directions by pushing the panel itself would cause a secret door to open. ;) The one in the module was for high level characters, with pushing the lever dealing electricity damage, and pulling the lever causing the floor to suddenly rise up and crush anyone in that stretch of hallway. You can tone it down by having someone push the lever to set off a ray of frost, or pull it to cause a 10' pit to open beneath them.
Winsome 01-15-04, 11:24 AM	An Invisibility trap that makes the victims armour, weapons, gear and clothing invisible, but not their bodies. Naked adventurers walking round falling into other humourous traps.
Iver Gearsham 12-09-04, 11:17 PM	Make a room were all the pcs get duplicated after entering the room with a bang and flash of light every body is shuffeled around and the copys Repeat everything they say and do as they do it and if attacked defend themselves calling for aid from thier "friends" with a Merciful effect in the room so no real damage is done.
Chronomodra 12-10-04, 01:44 AM	A simple pit. Fill it if spikes if you wish, but the important thing is to make it only 5-10 feet wide, so that most adventurers will figure they can easily jump over it. About halfway across the pit, place an invisible hanging wall, or even better, a strong but nearly invisible wire that requires a high spot check to be seen. Clothesline! One DM I had put us through a riddle dungeon. In each room, there was an enchanted skull that would state the typical riddle of "I blah blah blah, I blah blah blah, I blah blah blah, etc. etc. What am I?" If we got the riddle wrong, the skull would explode, dealing 3d6 damage to everyone. Even when we seemingly thought we had the riddles solved correctly, we'd get blown up. Then, around the 4th or 5th room, after the skull finished its riddle, someone blurted out in frustration, "YOU'RE A @#%#@ TALKING SKULL!!!" At which point the skull said, "Awwww..." and all the rest of the doors in the dungeon opened. Then there was the 'trap' that made adventurers think they could copy anything in their inventory, when in reality it took their items and replaced them with two minor creation doubles that disappeared after 10 minutes or so. Make a room that has VERY POWERFUL magnets in it. Your full-plate-wearing warrior will hate you. Then there's the dreaded 5x5 intersection. You have a 5x5 room with doors on all sides opening inward. This makes it impossible to have two doors open at once and still have the room be navigable. Thus, adventurers have to go through this room one at a time, closing and opening doors behind them. When each adventurer is alone in the small room, you can do something devious to them using magic, either with damaging spells, simple illusions, or by shifting which door exits to where. Once the characters figure out what happens in the room whenever the doors are closed, they'll dread ever using that room. But since it's an intersection, they'll probably have to travel it quite a bit. Then of course there are various 'gimpy magic' traps you could use that aren't technically feasible but interesting to watch. Like having all the adventurers spontaneously change age/gender/race/etc., or even switch bodies with each other so that the fighter is in the wizard's body, etc. Happy torturing.
iKitten 12-10-04, 01:54 AM	Cursed mirrors are a nice one. Anyone who smashes a mirror they find in a dungeon deserve's what's coming. Anyone standing next to them is just out of luck. I've some personal experience with that.