Some rogues and rangers are masters at setting traps and possess a seemingly limitless pool of creativity from which they pull their sometimes cruel and always efficient designs for constructing traps.
Quick Trap Creation
Starting at 3rd level, you can quickly create simple traps without spending any money on supplies, provided you are in a setting where supplies can be found. You can’t place a trap in the same location as another. Choose the trap you create from the Trapsetter Traps list below; you can choose any trap you meet the prerequisite for each time you create a trap. Creative players might design new traps, but such designs must be approved by the GM.
All simple traps are mechanical traps. These simple traps do not last long; once created, a simple trap remains active for 1 hour. The ability check DC to notice a simple trap or to disarm one, as well as the DC of any saving throw allowed by the trap, is determined by your Intelligence modifier. Any attack rolls a trap makes are based on your Intelligence modifier. A quick trap can’t trigger again once it has been triggered unless you use your action to reset it while within 5 feet of it.
Trap DC = 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Intelligence modifier
Trap attack modifier = your proficiency bonus + your Intelligence modifier
Trapsetter Traps
If a quick trap has prerequisites, you must meet them to deploy it. You must use the listed number of actions while within 5 feet of a trap’s location to deploy it.
Anklewrencher
Prerequisite: firm earth or soft stone terrain, a tool that can work stone if in soft stone
Creation Time: 1 minute (10 minutes in soft stone)
You dig a shallow, 5-foot wide pit and then obscure the pit with loose debris. A Medium or Small creature that moves through a square with an anklewrencher has a 50% chance of stepping in the hole; if this occurs, the creature stumbles and must cease movement for the round and has its speed reduced by 15 feet for 3d20 minutes or until it regains hit points in any way. A successful Dexterity saving throw prevents this speed reduction but not the cessation of movement for the round.
Pits
Mechanical trap
Four basic pit traps are presented here.
Simple Pit. A simple pit trap is a hole dug in the ground. The hole is covered by a large cloth anchored on the pit's edge and camouflaged with dirt and debris.
Prerequisite: a digging tool
Creation Time: 10 minutes
The DC to spot the pit is 10. Anyone stepping on the cloth falls through and pulls the cloth down into the pit, taking damage based on the pit's depth (usually 10 feet, but some pits are deeper).
Hidden Pit. This pit has a cover constructed from material identical to the floor around it.
Prerequisite: a digging tool
Creation Time: 30 minutes
A successful DC 15 Wisdom (Perception) check discerns an absence of foot traffic over the section of floor that forms the pit's cover. A successful DC 15 Intelligence (Investigation) check is necessary to confirm that the trapped section of floor is actually the cover of a pit.
When a creature steps on the cover, it swings open like a trapdoor, causing the intruder to spill into the pit below. The pit is usually 10 or 20 feet deep but can be deeper.
Once the pit trap is detected, an iron spike or similar object can be wedged between the pit's cover and the surrounding floor in such a way as to prevent the cover from opening, thereby making it safe to cross. The cover can also be magically held shut using the arcane lock spell or similar magic.
Spiked Pit.
Prerequisite: a digging tool, wood for spikes, knife to sharpen
Creation Time: 30 minutes
This pit trap is a simple, hidden, or locking pit trap with sharpened wooden or iron spikes at the bottom. A creature falling into the pit takes 11 (2d10) piercing damage from the spikes, in addition to any falling damage. Even nastier versions have poison smeared on the spikes. In that case, anyone taking piercing damage from the spikes must also make a DC 13 Constitution saving throw, taking an 22 (4d10) poison damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.
Sapling Snare
Prerequisite: rope or vine, a strong and supple plant
Creation Time: 1 minute
You set a snare in a 5-foot square to tie a victim to a branch or tree. If a Medium or Small creature moves through this square, it triggers the trap, which causes the creature to become restrained. A successful Dexterity save avoids the trap effect. Otherwise, a creature must make a successful Strength(Athletics) or Dexterity(Acrobatics) check against the trap’s DC as an action to break free. Alternately, the creature can destroy the snare with a weapon that deals slashing damage as an action.
Spring Spear
Prerequisite: 5th level, a sharp but small object or weapon, a branch
Creation Time: 4 rounds
You affix a sharp object to a branch or other flexible limb. When a creature steps into the 5-foot square in which the spring spear is hidden, the spring spear makes a trap attack roll against the target. If it hits, the spear deals 1d6 piercing damage + your Intelligence modifier. Many trapsetters use poison to enhance a spring spear’s effects.
Tripline
Prerequisite: rope, vine, or wire
Creation Time: 2 rounds
You run a length of rope or other cord along the ground at ankle level. The tripline is five feet long. If a Medium or Small creature moves into this square, it must make a successful Dexterity save to avoid being knocked prone by the tripline.
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