Two of my favorite traps: 1) in a carved stone cavern or mine, a somewhat wider room then the normal passages 45' by 15', well lit by torches (not nessesary, but they where there when i made the trap) 15 and 30 feet in there is a skeleton against the wall holding up the ceiling crossbeam. when the players cross the midline of the room all for skeletons charge dropping the ceiling crossbeams, the skeletons get crushed and the players are now stuck in a partially room, the alarm has been raised. not necessarily lethal, up to you how much damage you want to scale the collapse for, but they are now taped possibly split up. let them panic. i let them dig themselves out but with there being no chance of that collapse going unnoticed they decided to flee, hope it was regarded as an accident, and to find a new way in.
2) this room is covered in gravel the threshold to the room has arcane runes carved into it but there has been some attempt to conceal them, the the doorway radiates abjuration magic, and will attempt to dispel anything walking though it, the gravel of the room radiates transmutation. there is no "trap" per say, but casting dispell magic will end the reduction on all of the gravel in the area causing the reduced boulders to spring back to there normal size, an 'upside down cave in' if you will. also any gravel taken with them players to investigate more carefully later will expand when taken through the doorways, blocking the door, and depending on how vicious you feel attempt to crush the person carying it and at least destroying whatever bag it happens to be in, likely anything else in said bag
Two of my favorite traps:
1) in a carved stone cavern or mine, a somewhat wider room then the normal passages 45' by 15', well lit by torches (not nessesary, but they where there when i made the trap) 15 and 30 feet in there is a skeleton against the wall holding up the ceiling crossbeam. when the players cross the midline of the room all for skeletons charge dropping the ceiling crossbeams, the skeletons get crushed and the players are now stuck in a partially room, the alarm has been raised. not necessarily lethal, up to you how much damage you want to scale the collapse for, but they are now taped possibly split up. let them panic.
i let them dig themselves out but with there being no chance of that collapse going unnoticed they decided to flee, hope it was regarded as an accident, and to find a new way in.
2) this room is covered in gravel the threshold to the room has arcane runes carved into it but there has been some attempt to conceal them, the the doorway radiates abjuration magic, and will attempt to dispel anything walking though it, the gravel of the room radiates transmutation. there is no "trap" per say, but casting dispell magic will end the reduction on all of the gravel in the area causing the reduced boulders to spring back to there normal size, an 'upside down cave in' if you will. also any gravel taken with them players to investigate more carefully later will expand when taken through the doorways, blocking the door, and depending on how vicious you feel attempt to crush the person carying it and at least destroying whatever bag it happens to be in, likely anything else in said bag