The cleverest traps to take advantage of characters' weaknesses and render their strengths unhelpful
Let me caution you first: This might be a bad idea. "Render their strengths unhelpful" equals "no fun." The characters were designed to have agency, impact, strength, and fun. Taking this away is not fun. It's about as interesting as reading the phone book (if you remember what that was).
To the point, there are challenging traps that still require skill use, thinking, awareness, and maybe planning. Riddles are a staple here because no matter how strong the character is, the riddle won't budge. Any hidden traps must be considered carefully by the DM. Too low of a Perception DC, and it's not going to affect anyone. Too high of a DC, and the players will again feel like their character designs and plans aren't useful or fun. Now, how can you use BOTH to your advantage? Make a hidden trap with a low Perception DC right next to a hidden trap with a higher DC. "We'll step around the easy pit trap!" Then, BAM, they get hit by a log that pushes them into the trap anyway. This works ONCE at most, by the way.
To make a serious point, I suggest that you design relatively complex traps such that one character's disadvantage might be balanced by another character's strength. The key to success is the choice of who goes where, and which skills ad strengths are applicable in different parts of the trap. That might be fun. It's still difficult, but with enough thought and cooperation, it becomes possible.
The cleverest traps to take advantage of characters' weaknesses and render their strengths unhelpful
Let me caution you first: This might be a bad idea. "Render their strengths unhelpful" equals "no fun." The characters were designed to have agency, impact, strength, and fun. Taking this away is not fun. It's about as interesting as reading the phone book (if you remember what that was).
To the point, there are challenging traps that still require skill use, thinking, awareness, and maybe planning. Riddles are a staple here because no matter how strong the character is, the riddle won't budge. Any hidden traps must be considered carefully by the DM. Too low of a Perception DC, and it's not going to affect anyone. Too high of a DC, and the players will again feel like their character designs and plans aren't useful or fun. Now, how can you use BOTH to your advantage? Make a hidden trap with a low Perception DC right next to a hidden trap with a higher DC. "We'll step around the easy pit trap!" Then, BAM, they get hit by a log that pushes them into the trap anyway. This works ONCE at most, by the way.
To make a serious point, I suggest that you design relatively complex traps such that one character's disadvantage might be balanced by another character's strength. The key to success is the choice of who goes where, and which skills ad strengths are applicable in different parts of the trap. That might be fun. It's still difficult, but with enough thought and cooperation, it becomes possible.
I agree - the point of deadly traps is to force players to work together. I think I worded the introduction poorly, I meant difficult traps that require players to be creative to find ways around them.
The cleverest traps to take advantage of characters' weaknesses and render their strengths unhelpful
Let me caution you first: This might be a bad idea. "Render their strengths unhelpful" equals "no fun." The characters were designed to have agency, impact, strength, and fun. Taking this away is not fun. It's about as interesting as reading the phone book (if you remember what that was).
To the point, there are challenging traps that still require skill use, thinking, awareness, and maybe planning. Riddles are a staple here because no matter how strong the character is, the riddle won't budge. Any hidden traps must be considered carefully by the DM. Too low of a Perception DC, and it's not going to affect anyone. Too high of a DC, and the players will again feel like their character designs and plans aren't useful or fun. Now, how can you use BOTH to your advantage? Make a hidden trap with a low Perception DC right next to a hidden trap with a higher DC. "We'll step around the easy pit trap!" Then, BAM, they get hit by a log that pushes them into the trap anyway. This works ONCE at most, by the way.
To make a serious point, I suggest that you design relatively complex traps such that one character's disadvantage might be balanced by another character's strength. The key to success is the choice of who goes where, and which skills ad strengths are applicable in different parts of the trap. That might be fun. It's still difficult, but with enough thought and cooperation, it becomes possible.
I agree - the point of deadly traps is to force players to work together. I think I worded the introduction poorly, I meant difficult traps that require players to be creative to find ways around them.
The Goonies is a great example of this, the Pipe Organ needed the skills of the girl who could read music, the One-Eyed Willie Trap could only have been avoided by the protagonist. That being said, you don't want to try to fit The Goonies into a 16th level adventure with a party of warlocks and paladins with flight spells.
So, time to figure out what your parties strengths are and to play into those strengths for the traps, but not for the trapped, it'll make sense in a second. Say your party is a bunch of dex based rogues, a bard and a cleric. You want to introduce tension into the scenario, have the cleric trip a trap that one of the rogues can then, on a successful Dex Save, prevent the Cleric from getting hurt by, maybe he pulls the cleric out of the way of the whirling blade. Conversely, have the rogue get caught in a trap that will smash him into paste if the answer to a riddle isn't whispered into a statues ear, a Trap that effectively has a Wisdom Save, which the Cleric would be proficient in. So in this way you're playing into both an individual characters weaknesses, and also into the parties strengths.
I use these kinds of traps early on in a campaign to build up the team spirit of the characters, that way the players aren't having to meta game the bonds of friendship, after all, it's easier to be friends with, and fight alongside, the guy who kept you from getting your head lopped off by a whirling saw blade.
1#: Put your trap ideas down, stating the class meant to 'fail' at the challenge and the class meant to help them. Go to whatever detail you want, listing all the damage or just saying how the mechanics work.
Anything from Book of Challenges. Even if the stats are from 3e, the mechanics of the traps are what's important here.
You want grindhouse dungeon traps that are designed to not be overcome? Try Grimtooth's.
There are a couple of, what I think, are well put together kobold dens with traps from DMDave if you are a supporter or subscriber.
Really just a fan of any location that might cause a PC to maneuver up a vertical tunnel while a Gelatinous Cube descends the same tunnel from above them. Constrained spaces can have a limiting effect on PCs abilities and, IMO, intelligent monsters and lair owners would know that and exploit it. Designing difficult traps isn't about working against your PCs strengths so much as it is causing the PC to have to get creative with the use of those strengths. If a PC can breathe underwater, give them a reason to. It sure won't help the rest of the party that can't!
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” - Mark Twain - Innocents Abroad
I had an idea for a trap that would swap the minds of two players. Ideally, the condition would be reversed if they both took any psychic damage simultaneously. Until then though, they would swap character sheets. Feedback?
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Hi, I am not a chest. I deny with 100% certainty that I am a chest. I can neither confirm nor deny what I am beyond that.
I used to portray Krathian, Q'ilbrith, Jim, Tara, Turin, Nathan, Tench, Finn, Alvin, and other characters in various taverns.
There is a single book left on the shelf in this room. Trigger - open/close book. Effect - spell - activated, casts blindness/deafness as an 8th level spell. Target opening book + 7 others - all must make a DC 12 CON save throw. If fails, they are blinded for 1 minute. Each turn try and make DC 12 save (spell will end). Countermeasures: a DC 12 INT (arcana or history check) recognizes the book as a rare or unique tome, one that might be trapped: casting detect magic reveals an aura of abjuration magic around the tome, and dispel magic disables trap.
Floor, mosaic of a fog. Trigger - character that walks across mosaic triggers trap. Effect - spell - the glyph of warding (true polymorph) hidden inside the mosaic is triggered - DC 15 WIS save throw or be transformed into a frog lasting 1 hour or until target have 0 hit points ---> at stats are equal to that of a frog, only your alignment and personality is retained. HP are that of a frog too.
Walkway, triggered by stepping on. Effect - poison needle - razor sharp and can pierce armor that isn't magical - DC 15 CON save throw or become poisoned - all stats dropped by 1/2 for several hours.
A lock. Trigger - successfully picking a lock. Acid slim blast - DC 15 DEX save throw or have hands covered in sticky adhesive. Failed save, the target any ability checks using DEX and attacks at a disadvantage until removed. To remove, 10 minutes of vigorous scrubbing with SOAP AND WATER or soaked in a gallon of alcohol for 1 minute.
Well, there are some ideas - just focus on what kind of damage you want to do, else HOW you want to HINDER your player characters :-)
I agree completely and making traps or anything else specifically to counter/render useless the parties skills will frustrate your party.
Try something like a chest that is covered by a cloth. The cloth could be trapped (contact poison, "rug of smothering", etc) or under the cloth is a glyph of warding that is triggered when a player removes the cloth. The players can still be creative and use mage hand or some other mechanism to avoid the trap, but they must be cautious and creative.
The cleverest traps to take advantage of characters' weaknesses and render their strengths unhelpful
Let me caution you first: This might be a bad idea. "Render their strengths unhelpful" equals "no fun." The characters were designed to have agency, impact, strength, and fun. Taking this away is not fun. It's about as interesting as reading the phone book (if you remember what that was).
To the point, there are challenging traps that still require skill use, thinking, awareness, and maybe planning. Riddles are a staple here because no matter how strong the character is, the riddle won't budge. Any hidden traps must be considered carefully by the DM. Too low of a Perception DC, and it's not going to affect anyone. Too high of a DC, and the players will again feel like their character designs and plans aren't useful or fun. Now, how can you use BOTH to your advantage? Make a hidden trap with a low Perception DC right next to a hidden trap with a higher DC. "We'll step around the easy pit trap!" Then, BAM, they get hit by a log that pushes them into the trap anyway. This works ONCE at most, by the way.
To make a serious point, I suggest that you design relatively complex traps such that one character's disadvantage might be balanced by another character's strength. The key to success is the choice of who goes where, and which skills ad strengths are applicable in different parts of the trap. That might be fun. It's still difficult, but with enough thought and cooperation, it becomes possible.
I agree - the point of deadly traps is to force players to work together. I think I worded the introduction poorly, I meant difficult traps that require players to be creative to find ways around them.
The Goonies is a great example of this, the Pipe Organ needed the skills of the girl who could read music, the One-Eyed Willie Trap could only have been avoided by the protagonist. That being said, you don't want to try to fit The Goonies into a 16th level adventure with a party of warlocks and paladins with flight spells.
So, time to figure out what your parties strengths are and to play into those strengths for the traps, but not for the trapped, it'll make sense in a second. Say your party is a bunch of dex based rogues, a bard and a cleric. You want to introduce tension into the scenario, have the cleric trip a trap that one of the rogues can then, on a successful Dex Save, prevent the Cleric from getting hurt by, maybe he pulls the cleric out of the way of the whirling blade. Conversely, have the rogue get caught in a trap that will smash him into paste if the answer to a riddle isn't whispered into a statues ear, a Trap that effectively has a Wisdom Save, which the Cleric would be proficient in. So in this way you're playing into both an individual characters weaknesses, and also into the parties strengths.
I use these kinds of traps early on in a campaign to build up the team spirit of the characters, that way the players aren't having to meta game the bonds of friendship, after all, it's easier to be friends with, and fight alongside, the guy who kept you from getting your head lopped off by a whirling saw blade.
I hope this helps!
Came up with the rules for this thread:
1#: Put your trap ideas down, stating the class meant to 'fail' at the challenge and the class meant to help them. Go to whatever detail you want, listing all the damage or just saying how the mechanics work.
2#: Follow 1#.
Anything from Book of Challenges. Even if the stats are from 3e, the mechanics of the traps are what's important here.
You want grindhouse dungeon traps that are designed to not be overcome? Try Grimtooth's.
There are a couple of, what I think, are well put together kobold dens with traps from DMDave if you are a supporter or subscriber.
Really just a fan of any location that might cause a PC to maneuver up a vertical tunnel while a Gelatinous Cube descends the same tunnel from above them. Constrained spaces can have a limiting effect on PCs abilities and, IMO, intelligent monsters and lair owners would know that and exploit it. Designing difficult traps isn't about working against your PCs strengths so much as it is causing the PC to have to get creative with the use of those strengths. If a PC can breathe underwater, give them a reason to. It sure won't help the rest of the party that can't!
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” - Mark Twain - Innocents Abroad
I had an idea for a trap that would swap the minds of two players. Ideally, the condition would be reversed if they both took any psychic damage simultaneously. Until then though, they would swap character sheets. Feedback?
Hi, I am not a chest. I deny with 100% certainty that I am a chest. I can neither confirm nor deny what I am beyond that.
I used to portray Krathian, Q'ilbrith, Jim, Tara, Turin, Nathan, Tench, Finn, Alvin, and other characters in various taverns.
I also do homebrew, check out my Spells and Magic Items
"That is not dead which can eternal lie, and with strange eons, even death may die"
Here are some ideas:
There is a single book left on the shelf in this room. Trigger - open/close book. Effect - spell - activated, casts blindness/deafness as an 8th level spell. Target opening book + 7 others - all must make a DC 12 CON save throw. If fails, they are blinded for 1 minute. Each turn try and make DC 12 save (spell will end). Countermeasures: a DC 12 INT (arcana or history check) recognizes the book as a rare or unique tome, one that might be trapped: casting detect magic reveals an aura of abjuration magic around the tome, and dispel magic disables trap.
Floor, mosaic of a fog. Trigger - character that walks across mosaic triggers trap. Effect - spell - the glyph of warding (true polymorph) hidden inside the mosaic is triggered - DC 15 WIS save throw or be transformed into a frog lasting 1 hour or until target have 0 hit points ---> at stats are equal to that of a frog, only your alignment and personality is retained. HP are that of a frog too.
Walkway, triggered by stepping on. Effect - poison needle - razor sharp and can pierce armor that isn't magical - DC 15 CON save throw or become poisoned - all stats dropped by 1/2 for several hours.
A lock. Trigger - successfully picking a lock. Acid slim blast - DC 15 DEX save throw or have hands covered in sticky adhesive. Failed save, the target any ability checks using DEX and attacks at a disadvantage until removed. To remove, 10 minutes of vigorous scrubbing with SOAP AND WATER or soaked in a gallon of alcohol for 1 minute.
Well, there are some ideas - just focus on what kind of damage you want to do, else HOW you want to HINDER your player characters :-)
Good luck.
I agree completely and making traps or anything else specifically to counter/render useless the parties skills will frustrate your party.
Try something like a chest that is covered by a cloth. The cloth could be trapped (contact poison, "rug of smothering", etc) or under the cloth is a glyph of warding that is triggered when a player removes the cloth. The players can still be creative and use mage hand or some other mechanism to avoid the trap, but they must be cautious and creative.