I once ran a party through a museum. In the taxidermy room, they found a stuffed animal rearing up on two legs with a plaque that read, "Burmese Tiger Trap" and through the chest of the stuffed tiger was the magical sword they were looking for. One character pulled out the sword and was viciously clawed by the mechanically actuated tiger. - We still laugh about that one twenty years later.
Only way to top the bear trap idea would be have the Bear roar as it appears and anyone who has something akin to Speak to Animals active hears "After 10,000 years, I'm free!"
@@b0baf00t8 If I had to guess, some players will pick up anything they think can be even minorly useful. A trap you can possibly redeploy likely counts.
Honestly, having the players find an immovable rod holding up a boulder or holding down a switch could be a good trap in and of itself. Good environmental storytelling too.
This reminds me of a trap I used in a fire temple dungeon I ran. There is a wall of flame blocking the path, and in front of it, a selection of potions, one of which has a flame seal. There is an inscription above the flame saying to trust in [Fire god's name]. Drinking any of the potions will make you take damage from walking through the flames. The one with the flame seal will catch you on fire immediately. If you trust the flames and ignore the potions, you will be unharmed
I would have no issue running into (or, as a DM, running) this trap at the end of a dungeon. It'd be a kooky surprise! And if the trap isn't designed to kill but only subvert, then it'd be a lesson for the group to think things through before rashly acting. ...Then, in a different dungeon, make stalling/indecision its own trap. Hardened adventurers became that way somehow, right?
Or the room with the button that locks both doors and starts a countdown. Press the button and the timer resets. Let it run out and the doors open. This will unlock the far door.
Have you ever played Super Mario Bros.? The first level has a pyramid structure over a death pit. But right before it is the same structure, but without a pit, so you can practice. Put another double trap, that does very little damage, at the start of the dungeon, so the party knows what they are in for.
This kind of trap should have some kind of riddle so that players can have a chance of outsmarting "THE ARCHITECT". Maybe the dungeon begins with a frase like "only the one who faces the danger up close can survive the fiery hell of cowardice" or something like that
Back when I used to play a LARP, a favorite trapping method of mine was to have the tripwire or pressure plate set off a trap at the location where the rest of the group would wait "at a safe distance" while the rogue checked the area. I got a lot of people that way. - Another fun one was the chest that had what looked like switches and wires in it, but really only help dummy trap parts. The real trap was set off when someone lifted the box off of the trap.
Potentially good idea for rolling boulder traps: Square hallway, spherical boulder. If a player asks, tell them there should be enough space at the sides of the boulder to lay down and let it roll past you. If you're standing up, you get hit. If you're in the middle of the hallway, you get hit. But if you squeeze down at the sides, you don't. In your description, emphasize the SQUARE nature of the hallway, to make it clear that a spherical boulder would leave little untouched spaces in the corners. The rest is up to the players. Use with caution, though.
I like using redundant traps. Traps so old they no longer work. The blowpipe holes spit spiderweb and dust instead of darts. The trapdoor drops but jams halfway or the rolling rock gets stuck in a bunch of thick moss growth. Mix this up with the odd still working trap and also traps that have already been triggered, skeletons riddled with darts or impaled on spikes. It makes a dungeon feel more realistic and ancient.
I Would like to think the trap master would also build clues into his/her work to reward the most perceptive of tomb raiders. Gives the dungeon some history and begins to weave the mystery of the architects of the dungeon to the players.
My favorite trap might just be the stair snare. Effectively, certain stairs on a staircase have trapdoors in them, with spikes facing downward that cling to adventurer's feet, forcing them to either outsmart it and get out by covering the spikes, or take the pain and rip out their foot violently. If you really want to lay on the pressure, add a pressure plate at the bottom that sets a boulder rolling down the stairs, or have a monster patrolling that could find the Adventurer in this dangerous state. This trap could be found by noticing that only half of the steps are worn, or that a resident monster of the dungeon actively avoids half of the steps. Another, more punishing version of this, are spears that stick out from the backsides of each step on a descending staircase, such that you can only see them if going upwards. Each step with these spear-holes pointed at them is a big pressure plate.
Super great video. You got a new subscriber! Quick point of clarification: I think using more dice of a smaller size decreases variation since they’ll trend toward the average more. If you want more variation or swingy results you want fewer larger dice. Great video can’t wait to see more!
This one kind of touched on one of my big problems with using traps... My players tend to be completely oblivious to the idea that traps could exist in my game until they run into the first one. Then they become super paranoid about everything. Wanting to examine and re-examine everything else they encounter for at least the rest of the session, slowing the game to a crawl. I would love to actually use more traps, but not at the expense of any kind of pacing in the game.
Oh boy. I have an idea for an Illusionist wizard that has a dungeon and its going to combo real and fake things. This video and the Illusory traps video have given me so many more ideas. They will have plenty opportunity to figure out there is a heavy illusion usage from the BBEG well beforehand too. So by the time they get through the first few rooms they will be questioning what is real and what is not.
I will occasionally bait my obvious traps with potent consumables like potions of Giant Strength, Healing, or Dragon Breath. It's a fun way to entice the players into knowingly taking the risk while not worrying overmuch about longterm balance.
You have an amazing channel and an excellent way of being both succinct and detailed at once. your layout is genius and I think it's only a matter of time before your channel explodes. Any DM who is missing out on your videos is doing themselves a disservice. Awesome work.
I had something like this. There was a stone door in a dungeon that was well-kept by sentient and crafty undead, though it was very old. A hole in the wall had a button in it, but the players were rightfully suspicious. The pressed it with a stick, and knives popped out and stabbed the stick. The door opened a little, but ground to a halt. When the first player skinnied through the gap, they broke a tripwire hidden inside the door and it released a swinging blade trap. Because they were squeezing through the space, the Dex save was at disadvantage, but they got lucky anyways.
I’m gonna try to describe the room this is in. “You walk into a somewhat decorated room, with pillars set halfway into the walls on either side. In the front you see a lone, ornate pedestal with an idol standing on it.” Have the players make a DC 10 perception check if they approach the pedestal any closer than 20ft from it. On success, say: “Above the pedestal at the back of the room, you see a boulder held up by shelves coming out of the wall, which serve to also loosely camouflage the edges of the boulder.” If the players get a result on the roll of a modified 20 or higher, or a natural 20, say this after: “You also notice the floor around the pedestal is slightly convex, with the bowl shape similarly sized to the boulder.” If they succeed with a natural 20 on the perception check or inspected the pedestal with a successful DC 16 investigation check, add this finally: “The pedestal seems to have a very small gap around where it would connect to the base.” If the players inspect the pillars or walls, have them make a DC 16 perception or investigation check. If they succeed, say this: “The pillars half set into the wall seem to have tiny holes all over them, stopping at about 10 feet up.” If the players trigger the trap by touching the idol without dispelling the magic on it, then the boulder begins rolling downwards, dealing 10d6 damage to anyone it hits if they fail a DC 12 dexterity save or don’t run, before stopping at the pedestal and pushing it downwards. Give the players one round to do things before the pedestal is fully pushed downwards, at which point the boulder comes to rest in the slightly concave floor and jets of fire come from the pillars, dealing 3d4 fire damage to anyone who fails a DC 16 dexterity save, or half to anyone who succeeds. The fire then stops a moment later, as it’s run out of fuel. Now that the trap is over, the holes in the pillars are obvious and require no check, and the pillars can be unlocked with a successful DC 16 dexterity check, advantage if using thieves tools. Inside, players will find the fuel tanks and a reset mechanism. If a player succeeds on a DC 14 investigation or arcana check, they can see that this mechanism can raise the pedestal and clamp the boulder in place if it is pushed back up, as well as priming the flamethrowers and magical receiver connected to the idol.
In a trickster setting, even the trap effect could be deceptive. E.g., after the boulder depresses the pedestal clouds of dust wheeze from holes in the wall. "I guess that trap didn't age well!" However, the dust marks those in its area of effect with monster bait. Even just smelling strongly of feces for a week could be an unpleasant trap result suitable for potty humor with zero lethality.
Good video, but note that many small dice have _less_ variance than a few large dice. E.g.: 4d10 has a mean of 22 and a standard deviation of 5.74, while 9d4 has a mean of 22.5 and a standard deviation of 3.35. And 2d20 has a mean of 21 and a standard deviation of 8.15. Which means that if you want to have more control over the actual damage, roll more and smaller dice.
I would love to run this in a dungeon that's super fire themed. Like, *everything* is fire. The party walks in and is expecting flames, and sees a boulder. Ideally they should see something is up, but the payoff of "wait, where's the fire" turning into "oh, there it is" would be quite humorous.
Idea I got from the thumbnail of this video. Players enter the corridor(one of the first in the dungeon), but once they take the item there is a set of 2 portculi that fall behind them and then trapping them. ... the boulder actually doesnt move, the trap is actually them being trapped and the easiest path forward being forced to somehow move the boulder(the grabbed item hint hint). I'd be a pretty devious trap in terms of "the people from the party who are cautious about this trap would be forced to take another route". Imagine those 2 player coop puzzles in platformer games.
I think these kinds of traps can be singular so long as it makes sense and has reason for smart players to realize. For this example a riddle or simple phrase along the line of "Only cowards run from stone cold facts presented before them" or having contextual story telling about a leader who punished troops who fled instead of stood their ground, possibly this is a training facility and the room was a test for who had "rock hard determination"
Old cartoons did a doorbell version of this. As there are no doorbells in D&D you'd have to use a lever. There is a door with a lever. In front of the door is a sign that says trap door. So they step to the side to [pull the lever. But the side is where the trap door is.
My favorite trap, one that I invented entirely due to improvising within a single session, is a door to a room filled with bones Whoever opens the door is marked, and each round a number of skeletons form from the bone piles and singlemindedly attempt to grapple the marked creature, dragging it into the room and closing the door This room cannot be opened from the inside, so any lone adventurer is just going to suffocate or starve to death, adding their bones to the pile. But, as a member of a party, another PC could easily open the door to let them out, potentially retriggering the trap It's simple, non-lethal, and establishes that the creator of the dungeon is old and cruel enough to employ a trap that uses the slow passage of time to kill its victims
@@reson8 again, I made this up on the fly, of course it's not perfect But if you're traveling in a party, you could spring the trap, fail all the saving throws, get stuck in the room for all eternity,......... And have the ranger simply open the door to let you out, wasting 0 resources And now you know it's trapped And then the puzzle becomes: how to get everyone out of the room and close the door so the skeletons stop trying to drag a party member into the room Failure means someone else just opens the door and you try again
@@reson8 once the door is closed, the creature is no longer marked Usually doesn't matter when you're trapped for eternity, but if someone else just opens the door after it's closed, you can just walk out while the skeletons ignore you in favor of the newly marked creature They're skeletons. They have one job
@@fenixmeaney6170 Perhaps, but if you've been grappled by 5 or 6 skeletons chances are you won't break free of all of those grapples. If someone else opens the door and you're released, the same thing happens to them. Can magic open the door? Can the mark be removed from the door with dispel? There are ways around this but probably not for a low-level party.
I'm making a gauntlet! A bored and retired adventurer-artificer turned their ship into a non-lethal dungeon for adventurers to conquer. The winning party gets uncommon/rare utility magic items. Filling the dungeon with tricky traps and over glorified pranks would be exactly what it needed. And so the only way you could truly die would be if you utterly messed up.
Increasing dice quantity and decreasing dice size actually decreases variability, not increases. There are fewer possible results, and the nodes of highest probability are more pronounced.
I like these videos, insightful and too the point with wonderful illustrations too boot. Keep doing what you’re doing guys. You’ve earned another subscriber and I’m sure more to come.
Lol A mimic on the pedestal, a temple of some deity who values intelligence as well as bravery. Once the boulder is out of the way the final treasure room of that floor of the dungeon is revealed and reachable by climbing the slope that previously held the boulder. Now I've just gotta figure out a way to get them to brave the hallway again after the boulder and such settle.
This is a great guide and I'll definitely try to utilize this in the future. I know these videos takes a lot of work and effort to make, so I understand the need to keep things streamlined, but I'd LOVE if we got another example, perhaps towards the end. Now we got one singular example of 'a trap' that we can use. I'd really like it if at the end of the video, after using your first trap example to walk us through the principle step-by-step, you'd quick-fire us through a 2nd, completely different trap example built on the same principles as the first, to showcase the variety of situations that this principle can be applied to. That would help rattle us viewers imagination.
About to be running a guild mission based campaign in PF1e. Will definitely be using this trap for one of the missions (probably a Trick House, or maybe carnival Fun House theme). Thank you for this playlist. My modifications: The slab holding the boulder has broken, revealing it in the cieling. Corridor 15ft wide. Flame jet cones doing 1d4 damage each, no more than 2 overlap at most. The scary part is the reflex saves to avoid catching fire from the flaming tar like substance.
“Don’t use this trap at the end of a long dungeon before a rest point.” “Lol,” said I. “Lmao.” My policy is simple. “If he dies, he dies” and my party likes it that way.
Unless it's a themed "Trial by Tricks & Traps" dungeon (take a look at the marvellous XCrawl setting by Goodman Games) you have to ask yourself (as the players most certainly will) why the trap is there, and what the objective is. To protect the treasure, or a a lure to kill trespassers? Also, why hasn't anyone set it off before or, if they have, who is doing the reset (and how are they getting that big boulder back into the ceiling cavity) and clean-up. In 5e, with so much magic being available, and with characters gaining high levels of power so quickly, surely many locations would be found and looted in fairly short order.
These sort of traps are contextual to be sure and are, by nature, more cynical. At their core, the design philosophy of such a setup is to trick people (not players, keeping this example IC) into believing they've already spotted the trap, and so prematurely letting their guard down. Such traps, in world, seem like they'd more likely be built with the gullible in mind, where greed and hubris are what get folks in trouble, those who spot the less-than-hidden trap and don't get suspicious. By that context, they also seem better suited towards early portions of a dungeon, the kind designed to catch basic grave robber or "I'll just have a peek inside" too curious folk. As a DM, I would expect players to hopefully catch on that the obvious trap is so easily detected that it has to be a cover for something, even if they have difficulty discovering what. Part of the key to keeping players from expecting such a bait and switch all the time is to make the "decoy" trap at a level of detection of "if it's too good to be true, it probably is"; basically, if everyone's skills or rolls seem like it'd be harder to miss than see, or they didn't even need a roll to see a clearly key trap element, that ought to ward off (to most players) the notion that every trap is a bait and switch.
rolling more lower sided dice doesn't artificially increase variation; it lowers it. which is great if you don't want to accidentally ohko a party member because your trap rolled max damage instead of average damage.
As a break from DMing, occasionally we'd meet and just design traps or mazes or some other thing that might be in a dungeon. I got to use these whenever I felt appropriate in the campaign. Woe unto the party if the players forgot how to deal with the traps they had designed...
i remember when i made such an obvious trap, i putted fresh cooked chicken in the middle of a garden, imagine it like forest, and one of my players touched it and all of them falll down in arena meeting important npc s for the lore, then that one player wanted to go down on one of them cuz he was sexy? and it was maybe one of the funniest encounters we ever had...
The treasure is 65' away. The treasure weighs 11 pounds. There is a localised anti-magic field forming a 1" corona around the treasure. As your mage hand grasps the treasure, another mage hand appears and holds yours. Your turn :)
If i ran into a room with such trap, the obviousness of the trap would tip me off, it makes no sense for any dungeon builder to make a trap that is so obvious and easy to figure out. It indicates that the trap being so obvious is the design of the real trap, drawing attention to some very specific part of it to hide the real trap. An adventurer that fails to realise this obvious psychological trick is the kind that dies young anyway, so it also makes sense for them to die in this trap.
I had the whole trap as a test of bravery, with murals of brave knights on the walls and a riddle on the alter, it said. To gain this blade stand your ground and be brave Only cowards shale meet there grave
using many smaller dice actually REDUCES randomness, rather than increasing it compared with fewer, larger dice. adding dice drastically reduces the chances of an extreme outcome, because ALMOST EVERY DIE would need to get an extreme result, and those probabilities shrink exponentially. the chance of a d10 rolling max (10) damage is ⅒, but the chance of 3d4 rolling max (12) is ¼³, or 1/64. this can be generalized as 1/d^n, where d is the die used and n is the number of dice. every die added cuts the chance of a max or mix result by 1/d. it's one of the reasons adding dice to an attack is a mixed bag compared to increasing dice size, because you sacrifice the chances of max damage for consistency. that consistency is usy worth it, and the lack of dice and consistency at level 1 leads to a lot of tpks, as characters are more likely to utterly fail to perform
Well, sure, but if any skill check has a DC higher than 20+modifer you're either being an asshole to the party or they somehow got in WAAAAAAAY over their head at a low level. Or you're playing 3.5/Pathfinder
Make it an elemental dungeon. Have the first trap be the bridge, but let it be a narrow, earthen walkway. Give the phrase, “Do not trust the Earth, but let the air be your friend.” For the second trap (the one in this video), have flames painted on the columns on the sides of the room where the fire will be, and give them the phrase, “Fear not the Earth, for it is the Fire that is your enemy.”
Traps traps everywhere but really there some useful stuff for playing Rainbow 6 siege trap games ... (kinda joking but not really) since there is some really good tips for that even I subconsciously knew some of them. But like there used to be an operator with obious trap in siege a big red laser trap but ppl complain about it and the laser got remove. But personally I like the old version quite alot it was a 1 hit kill but it was super easy to spot. Not a trap your suppose to hit at all. But it was an interesting design because the thing was playing the trap. AKA useing yourself to protect the trap and whene someone was looking to destroy it because they where too careless and just wanted it destroy before looking into the next room you could cut them off guard with there aim off. whene and you had a clear shot. It kinda remind me of this kinda trap actually. (super easy to spot but the trap isn't what hurt it the second trap being it.) Any way I miss old Kapkan's trap they where quite funny but I think them hadeing the multiple trap on 1 door ability make him more interesting a bit (I still think I would pref old version tho)
I'm not sure about the claims regarding more lower dice vs. Fewer higher dice. Comparing 3d4 with 1d12, the former has less viability, since it's results cluster around the average, and a higher average overall.
3d4 and 1d12 have the same average result...over time. If you're only making one roll, you have 1/12 chance at any number on the d12, but 3/4 chance at any number on 3d4.
Personally as a dark souls fan and as a professional asshole, I like to fuck with them. The learning curve I’d give them has a similar curvature of a brick wall.
Maybe as a bravery test to prove that you're worthy of the thing on the pedestal. Or the creator treats it like a gameshow that they watch through scrying sensors.
A perception DC of 10 you might as well not have a check at all. You'd need a negative modifier on your perception not to see it. Passive perception is always the lowest you can roll on a perception check. 10+wismod+additional mods (like proficiency, advantage[+5], disadvantage [-5])
I have always wonder how you trap's enthusiast people apply all this ideas in your games. 🤔 Can we see you playing a short camping or something? To make an example of how to "fix" a catastrophic result, out of naive players and bad decisions.
Honestly, we don't really fix bad results. Most of our players are veterans, so if they make a poor decision, they're fine living with it. With newer players, we expect our veteran players to guide their choices when they're first starting out. We feel that "bad" decisions are all part of the game; if players always made the "right" choices, the game wouldn't be very interesting.
Damage for traps is something that should make sense for the type of trap and it's purpose. Some traps are designed to catch targets, some are designed to block area's and some are designed to kill. If the purpose of the trap is to kill then damage should be lethal.
My favorite trap juke is a very obvious bear trap that spawns a bear when disarmed
I once ran a party through a museum. In the taxidermy room, they found a stuffed animal rearing up on two legs with a plaque that read, "Burmese Tiger Trap" and through the chest of the stuffed tiger was the magical sword they were looking for.
One character pulled out the sword and was viciously clawed by the mechanically actuated tiger.
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We still laugh about that one twenty years later.
Only way to top the bear trap idea would be have the Bear roar as it appears and anyone who has something akin to Speak to Animals active hears "After 10,000 years, I'm free!"
What persuades your players to disarm it instead of just stepping over it?
@@b0baf00t8 If I had to guess, some players will pick up anything they think can be even minorly useful. A trap you can possibly redeploy likely counts.
Honestly, having the players find an immovable rod holding up a boulder or holding down a switch could be a good trap in and of itself. Good environmental storytelling too.
The real trap is to eat up all of my time as I try to figure out how I'm going to get that free immovable rod.
Don't get me wrong let means my average barbarian would pick up the boulder after having the wizard cast enlarge
This reminds me of a trap I used in a fire temple dungeon I ran. There is a wall of flame blocking the path, and in front of it, a selection of potions, one of which has a flame seal. There is an inscription above the flame saying to trust in [Fire god's name]. Drinking any of the potions will make you take damage from walking through the flames. The one with the flame seal will catch you on fire immediately. If you trust the flames and ignore the potions, you will be unharmed
Lovely.
Dope, I love it!
Just let there be a rope hanging from the ceiling with a sign saying "Don't pull the rope." Take a wild guess what happens, 99 out of a 100.
I would have no issue running into (or, as a DM, running) this trap at the end of a dungeon. It'd be a kooky surprise! And if the trap isn't designed to kill but only subvert, then it'd be a lesson for the group to think things through before rashly acting.
...Then, in a different dungeon, make stalling/indecision its own trap. Hardened adventurers became that way somehow, right?
Or the room with the button that locks both doors and starts a countdown. Press the button and the timer resets. Let it run out and the doors open. This will unlock the far door.
Have you ever played Super Mario Bros.?
The first level has a pyramid structure over a death pit. But right before it is the same structure, but without a pit, so you can practice.
Put another double trap, that does very little damage, at the start of the dungeon, so the party knows what they are in for.
We have ;) www.masterthedungeon.com/mario-dungeon-design/
I love this idea for a trickster dungeon, and the rules established for it.
This kind of trap should have some kind of riddle so that players can have a chance of outsmarting "THE ARCHITECT". Maybe the dungeon begins with a frase like "only the one who faces the danger up close can survive the fiery hell of cowardice" or something like that
Quick correction at around 4:30... Rolling a lot of small dice with the same average a few big dice gives you less variance on the damage, not more.
This trap is simple but devious and subverts normal thinking. I love it.
Back when I used to play a LARP, a favorite trapping method of mine was to have the tripwire or pressure plate set off a trap at the location where the rest of the group would wait "at a safe distance" while the rogue checked the area.
I got a lot of people that way.
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Another fun one was the chest that had what looked like switches and wires in it, but really only help dummy trap parts.
The real trap was set off when someone lifted the box off of the trap.
note: more smaller dice makes the variation lower, not higher. It will stay closer to the average, most of the time.
Very cool ideas! 👍👍
Building on the trickster theme I'm wondering if the boulder itself was somehow secretly the real treasure all along 😁
Potentially good idea for rolling boulder traps: Square hallway, spherical boulder. If a player asks, tell them there should be enough space at the sides of the boulder to lay down and let it roll past you. If you're standing up, you get hit. If you're in the middle of the hallway, you get hit. But if you squeeze down at the sides, you don't.
In your description, emphasize the SQUARE nature of the hallway, to make it clear that a spherical boulder would leave little untouched spaces in the corners. The rest is up to the players.
Use with caution, though.
I like using redundant traps. Traps so old they no longer work. The blowpipe holes spit spiderweb and dust instead of darts. The trapdoor drops but jams halfway or the rolling rock gets stuck in a bunch of thick moss growth. Mix this up with the odd still working trap and also traps that have already been triggered, skeletons riddled with darts or impaled on spikes. It makes a dungeon feel more realistic and ancient.
Am I the only one drawn to one of the characters wearing such a fabulous ball dress to a dungeon crawl, those are some priorities I can respect
I Would like to think the trap master would also build clues into his/her work to reward the most perceptive of tomb raiders. Gives the dungeon some history and begins to weave the mystery of the architects of the dungeon to the players.
What a great trap idea!
I bet WallyDM would appreciate this one.
Love the advice and visual aids ! 10/10 for "Sen's House of Traps"
My favorite trap might just be the stair snare. Effectively, certain stairs on a staircase have trapdoors in them, with spikes facing downward that cling to adventurer's feet, forcing them to either outsmart it and get out by covering the spikes, or take the pain and rip out their foot violently. If you really want to lay on the pressure, add a pressure plate at the bottom that sets a boulder rolling down the stairs, or have a monster patrolling that could find the Adventurer in this dangerous state. This trap could be found by noticing that only half of the steps are worn, or that a resident monster of the dungeon actively avoids half of the steps. Another, more punishing version of this, are spears that stick out from the backsides of each step on a descending staircase, such that you can only see them if going upwards. Each step with these spear-holes pointed at them is a big pressure plate.
Reminds me of the last game I DMd. Every time I sat down to write, I would say to myself "nothing is as simple as it seems".
Side quests included a "haunted house" that was actually just one magical item that could telekinesis other objects.
Based on your suggestions on where and when to use this trap, you sound like a much nicer DM than I am. Gimme that save or die stuff!
A trickster god's temple; the chest on the pedestal is locked and full of 10gp worth of golden glitter that's launched out when it's unlocked.
Super great video. You got a new subscriber! Quick point of clarification: I think using more dice of a smaller size decreases variation since they’ll trend toward the average more. If you want more variation or swingy results you want fewer larger dice. Great video can’t wait to see more!
This one kind of touched on one of my big problems with using traps... My players tend to be completely oblivious to the idea that traps could exist in my game until they run into the first one. Then they become super paranoid about everything. Wanting to examine and re-examine everything else they encounter for at least the rest of the session, slowing the game to a crawl. I would love to actually use more traps, but not at the expense of any kind of pacing in the game.
Perhaps you can reassure them by setting the tone as they explore. If a trap is upcoming, use some gentle foreshadowing to prime them.
Oh boy. I have an idea for an Illusionist wizard that has a dungeon and its going to combo real and fake things. This video and the Illusory traps video have given me so many more ideas. They will have plenty opportunity to figure out there is a heavy illusion usage from the BBEG well beforehand too. So by the time they get through the first few rooms they will be questioning what is real and what is not.
I will occasionally bait my obvious traps with potent consumables like potions of Giant Strength, Healing, or Dragon Breath. It's a fun way to entice the players into knowingly taking the risk while not worrying overmuch about longterm balance.
You have an amazing channel and an excellent way of being both succinct and detailed at once. your layout is genius and I think it's only a matter of time before your channel explodes. Any DM who is missing out on your videos is doing themselves a disservice. Awesome work.
The designs at the base of the columns looking like flames felt like kind of a hint.
I had something like this.
There was a stone door in a dungeon that was well-kept by sentient and crafty undead, though it was very old. A hole in the wall had a button in it, but the players were rightfully suspicious. The pressed it with a stick, and knives popped out and stabbed the stick. The door opened a little, but ground to a halt. When the first player skinnied through the gap, they broke a tripwire hidden inside the door and it released a swinging blade trap. Because they were squeezing through the space, the Dex save was at disadvantage, but they got lucky anyways.
I love the Sens Funhouse bit at 1:30
I’m gonna try to describe the room this is in.
“You walk into a somewhat decorated room, with pillars set halfway into the walls on either side. In the front you see a lone, ornate pedestal with an idol standing on it.” Have the players make a DC 10 perception check if they approach the pedestal any closer than 20ft from it. On success, say: “Above the pedestal at the back of the room, you see a boulder held up by shelves coming out of the wall, which serve to also loosely camouflage the edges of the boulder.” If the players get a result on the roll of a modified 20 or higher, or a natural 20, say this after: “You also notice the floor around the pedestal is slightly convex, with the bowl shape similarly sized to the boulder.” If they succeed with a natural 20 on the perception check or inspected the pedestal with a successful DC 16 investigation check, add this finally: “The pedestal seems to have a very small gap around where it would connect to the base.” If the players inspect the pillars or walls, have them make a DC 16 perception or investigation check. If they succeed, say this: “The pillars half set into the wall seem to have tiny holes all over them, stopping at about 10 feet up.” If the players trigger the trap by touching the idol without dispelling the magic on it, then the boulder begins rolling downwards, dealing 10d6 damage to anyone it hits if they fail a DC 12 dexterity save or don’t run, before stopping at the pedestal and pushing it downwards. Give the players one round to do things before the pedestal is fully pushed downwards, at which point the boulder comes to rest in the slightly concave floor and jets of fire come from the pillars, dealing 3d4 fire damage to anyone who fails a DC 16 dexterity save, or half to anyone who succeeds. The fire then stops a moment later, as it’s run out of fuel. Now that the trap is over, the holes in the pillars are obvious and require no check, and the pillars can be unlocked with a successful DC 16 dexterity check, advantage if using thieves tools. Inside, players will find the fuel tanks and a reset mechanism. If a player succeeds on a DC 14 investigation or arcana check, they can see that this mechanism can raise the pedestal and clamp the boulder in place if it is pushed back up, as well as priming the flamethrowers and magical receiver connected to the idol.
I love the couple traps pictured in these animations. Thank you.
In a trickster setting, even the trap effect could be deceptive. E.g., after the boulder depresses the pedestal clouds of dust wheeze from holes in the wall. "I guess that trap didn't age well!" However, the dust marks those in its area of effect with monster bait. Even just smelling strongly of feces for a week could be an unpleasant trap result suitable for potty humor with zero lethality.
Good video, but note that many small dice have _less_ variance than a few large dice. E.g.: 4d10 has a mean of 22 and a standard deviation of 5.74, while 9d4 has a mean of 22.5 and a standard deviation of 3.35. And 2d20 has a mean of 21 and a standard deviation of 8.15. Which means that if you want to have more control over the actual damage, roll more and smaller dice.
This is basically “How to build a troll level" for dnd and I'm all for that
I would love to run this in a dungeon that's super fire themed. Like, *everything* is fire. The party walks in and is expecting flames, and sees a boulder. Ideally they should see something is up, but the payoff of "wait, where's the fire" turning into "oh, there it is" would be quite humorous.
Idea I got from the thumbnail of this video.
Players enter the corridor(one of the first in the dungeon), but once they take the item there is a set of 2 portculi that fall behind them and then trapping them.
... the boulder actually doesnt move, the trap is actually them being trapped and the easiest path forward being forced to somehow move the boulder(the grabbed item hint hint).
I'd be a pretty devious trap in terms of "the people from the party who are cautious about this trap would be forced to take another route". Imagine those 2 player coop puzzles in platformer games.
I think these kinds of traps can be singular so long as it makes sense and has reason for smart players to realize. For this example a riddle or simple phrase along the line of "Only cowards run from stone cold facts presented before them" or having contextual story telling about a leader who punished troops who fled instead of stood their ground, possibly this is a training facility and the room was a test for who had "rock hard determination"
"Behold then a reward for the Brave for the cowardly shall burn in Avernus" -Inscription before the Hall of Boulder Trolling
Old cartoons did a doorbell version of this. As there are no doorbells in D&D you'd have to use a lever. There is a door with a lever. In front of the door is a sign that says trap door. So they step to the side to [pull the lever. But the side is where the trap door is.
As soon as I saw that first corridor, the only thing I could think of was the beginning of Raiders of the Lost Ark.
My favorite trap, one that I invented entirely due to improvising within a single session, is a door to a room filled with bones
Whoever opens the door is marked, and each round a number of skeletons form from the bone piles and singlemindedly attempt to grapple the marked creature, dragging it into the room and closing the door
This room cannot be opened from the inside, so any lone adventurer is just going to suffocate or starve to death, adding their bones to the pile. But, as a member of a party, another PC could easily open the door to let them out, potentially retriggering the trap
It's simple, non-lethal, and establishes that the creator of the dungeon is old and cruel enough to employ a trap that uses the slow passage of time to kill its victims
How would the party know the door was trapped? Seems like a dnd version of the Novichok poisoning in the UK a few years ago.
@@reson8 again, I made this up on the fly, of course it's not perfect
But if you're traveling in a party, you could spring the trap, fail all the saving throws, get stuck in the room for all eternity,......... And have the ranger simply open the door to let you out, wasting 0 resources
And now you know it's trapped
And then the puzzle becomes: how to get everyone out of the room and close the door so the skeletons stop trying to drag a party member into the room
Failure means someone else just opens the door and you try again
@@fenixmeaney6170 I like the idea, but it will kill the party one by one if whomever opens the door can't avoid the skeletons.
@@reson8 once the door is closed, the creature is no longer marked
Usually doesn't matter when you're trapped for eternity, but if someone else just opens the door after it's closed, you can just walk out while the skeletons ignore you in favor of the newly marked creature
They're skeletons. They have one job
@@fenixmeaney6170 Perhaps, but if you've been grappled by 5 or 6 skeletons chances are you won't break free of all of those grapples. If someone else opens the door and you're released, the same thing happens to them. Can magic open the door? Can the mark be removed from the door with dispel? There are ways around this but probably not for a low-level party.
Happy new year. I like this one! I'll be sure to use this at some point.
I'm making a gauntlet! A bored and retired adventurer-artificer turned their ship into a non-lethal dungeon for adventurers to conquer. The winning party gets uncommon/rare utility magic items.
Filling the dungeon with tricky traps and over glorified pranks would be exactly what it needed. And so the only way you could truly die would be if you utterly messed up.
Increasing dice quantity and decreasing dice size actually decreases variability, not increases. There are fewer possible results, and the nodes of highest probability are more pronounced.
I like these videos, insightful and too the point with wonderful illustrations too boot. Keep doing what you’re doing guys. You’ve earned another subscriber and I’m sure more to come.
Lol A mimic on the pedestal, a temple of some deity who values intelligence as well as bravery. Once the boulder is out of the way the final treasure room of that floor of the dungeon is revealed and reachable by climbing the slope that previously held the boulder. Now I've just gotta figure out a way to get them to brave the hallway again after the boulder and such settle.
My Favorite thing is as players are walking say “click” or make clicking noise. As they set off trap.
This is a great guide and I'll definitely try to utilize this in the future.
I know these videos takes a lot of work and effort to make, so I understand the need to keep things streamlined, but I'd LOVE if we got another example, perhaps towards the end.
Now we got one singular example of 'a trap' that we can use. I'd really like it if at the end of the video, after using your first trap example to walk us through the principle step-by-step, you'd quick-fire us through a 2nd, completely different trap example built on the same principles as the first, to showcase the variety of situations that this principle can be applied to. That would help rattle us viewers imagination.
About to be running a guild mission based campaign in PF1e. Will definitely be using this trap for one of the missions (probably a Trick House, or maybe carnival Fun House theme). Thank you for this playlist.
My modifications: The slab holding the boulder has broken, revealing it in the cieling. Corridor 15ft wide. Flame jet cones doing 1d4 damage each, no more than 2 overlap at most. The scary part is the reflex saves to avoid catching fire from the flaming tar like substance.
Nice idea !
My level 5 Warlock got a one hit KO from full health to relentless endurance from a trap. I was livid.
LoL She has a Wicked mind, Love it, Boulder sets off the real trap.
“Don’t use this trap at the end of a long dungeon before a rest point.”
“Lol,” said I. “Lmao.”
My policy is simple. “If he dies, he dies” and my party likes it that way.
I hope you know that I'm probably not the only one who gets the image of Ivan Drago saying that behind a DM screen from that post.
@@josephperez2004 I can ONLY hear that phrase in his voice.
It's a blessing, and a curse. (meant to be heard in Monk's voice)
Thanks for the video! Im not good on thinking about traps like that...
Another thought provoking show with great artwork. Hope your Holidays were restful and joyous
Unless it's a themed "Trial by Tricks & Traps" dungeon (take a look at the marvellous XCrawl setting by Goodman Games) you have to ask yourself (as the players most certainly will) why the trap is there, and what the objective is. To protect the treasure, or a a lure to kill trespassers? Also, why hasn't anyone set it off before or, if they have, who is doing the reset (and how are they getting that big boulder back into the ceiling cavity) and clean-up. In 5e, with so much magic being available, and with characters gaining high levels of power so quickly, surely many locations would be found and looted in fairly short order.
These sort of traps are contextual to be sure and are, by nature, more cynical. At their core, the design philosophy of such a setup is to trick people (not players, keeping this example IC) into believing they've already spotted the trap, and so prematurely letting their guard down. Such traps, in world, seem like they'd more likely be built with the gullible in mind, where greed and hubris are what get folks in trouble, those who spot the less-than-hidden trap and don't get suspicious. By that context, they also seem better suited towards early portions of a dungeon, the kind designed to catch basic grave robber or "I'll just have a peek inside" too curious folk. As a DM, I would expect players to hopefully catch on that the obvious trap is so easily detected that it has to be a cover for something, even if they have difficulty discovering what. Part of the key to keeping players from expecting such a bait and switch all the time is to make the "decoy" trap at a level of detection of "if it's too good to be true, it probably is"; basically, if everyone's skills or rolls seem like it'd be harder to miss than see, or they didn't even need a roll to see a clearly key trap element, that ought to ward off (to most players) the notion that every trap is a bait and switch.
rolling more lower sided dice doesn't artificially increase variation; it lowers it. which is great if you don't want to accidentally ohko a party member because your trap rolled max damage instead of average damage.
As a break from DMing, occasionally we'd meet and just design traps or mazes or some other thing that might be in a dungeon.
I got to use these whenever I felt appropriate in the campaign.
Woe unto the party if the players forgot how to deal with the traps they had designed...
i subbed just for the art ^^
i remember when i made such an obvious trap, i putted fresh cooked chicken in the middle of a garden, imagine it like forest, and one of my players touched it and all of them falll down in arena meeting important npc s for the lore, then that one player wanted to go down on one of them cuz he was sexy? and it was maybe one of the funniest encounters we ever had...
I love Sen’s Funhouse
I cast mage hand and grab the treasure at the end of the hall
The treasure is 65' away. The treasure weighs 11 pounds. There is a localised anti-magic field forming a 1" corona around the treasure. As your mage hand grasps the treasure, another mage hand appears and holds yours. Your turn :)
Great video, thanks! Subbed.
Wanna be a real meanie - make the loot a potion of fire resistance.
I like your avatar’s hair drawn style.
Used in the royal Jesters tomb
Ah, Grimtooth. How I miss thee...
Maybe just hold the pedestal down until the fuel runs out?
If i ran into a room with such trap, the obviousness of the trap would tip me off, it makes no sense for any dungeon builder to make a trap that is so obvious and easy to figure out.
It indicates that the trap being so obvious is the design of the real trap, drawing attention to some very specific part of it to hide the real trap. An adventurer that fails to realise this obvious psychological trick is the kind that dies young anyway, so it also makes sense for them to die in this trap.
I had the whole trap as a test of bravery, with murals of brave knights on the walls and a riddle on the alter, it said.
To gain this blade stand your ground and be brave
Only cowards shale meet there grave
using many smaller dice actually REDUCES randomness, rather than increasing it compared with fewer, larger dice. adding dice drastically reduces the chances of an extreme outcome, because ALMOST EVERY DIE would need to get an extreme result, and those probabilities shrink exponentially. the chance of a d10 rolling max (10) damage is ⅒, but the chance of 3d4 rolling max (12) is ¼³, or 1/64. this can be generalized as 1/d^n, where d is the die used and n is the number of dice. every die added cuts the chance of a max or mix result by 1/d. it's one of the reasons adding dice to an attack is a mixed bag compared to increasing dice size, because you sacrifice the chances of max damage for consistency. that consistency is usy worth it, and the lack of dice and consistency at level 1 leads to a lot of tpks, as characters are more likely to utterly fail to perform
So if you roll a single d10 you're 6 times more likely to do max damage that if you roll 3d4? I'll take those 3d4...
@@reson8 yes, and also around 6x as likely to do minimum damage
I get irritated when I see a skill check roll exclaim "Nat 20!" because skill checks dont have crits, just attack rolls.
Well, sure, but if any skill check has a DC higher than 20+modifer you're either being an asshole to the party or they somehow got in WAAAAAAAY over their head at a low level.
Or you're playing 3.5/Pathfinder
Yeah I have a player who will get made when his -1 perception doesn’t see something very hard to see with a nat 20
This is true, a homebrew that most don't realize
Make it an elemental dungeon. Have the first trap be the bridge, but let it be a narrow, earthen walkway. Give the phrase, “Do not trust the Earth, but let the air be your friend.” For the second trap (the one in this video), have flames painted on the columns on the sides of the room where the fire will be, and give them the phrase, “Fear not the Earth, for it is the Fire that is your enemy.”
As a DM I don't like traps if I build it how the dungeon calls for I kill the party, or I build it with light DMG and/or no follow up.
don't make bolder chan angry
Traps traps everywhere but really there some useful stuff for playing Rainbow 6 siege trap games ... (kinda joking but not really) since there is some really good tips for that even I subconsciously knew some of them. But like there used to be an operator with obious trap in siege a big red laser trap but ppl complain about it and the laser got remove. But personally I like the old version quite alot it was a 1 hit kill but it was super easy to spot. Not a trap your suppose to hit at all. But it was an interesting design because the thing was playing the trap. AKA useing yourself to protect the trap and whene someone was looking to destroy it because they where too careless and just wanted it destroy before looking into the next room you could cut them off guard with there aim off. whene and you had a clear shot. It kinda remind me of this kinda trap actually. (super easy to spot but the trap isn't what hurt it the second trap being it.)
Any way I miss old Kapkan's trap they where quite funny but I think them hadeing the multiple trap on 1 door ability make him more interesting a bit (I still think I would pref old version tho)
Sen's Fortress! 💖
I'm not sure about the claims regarding more lower dice vs. Fewer higher dice. Comparing 3d4 with 1d12, the former has less viability, since it's results cluster around the average, and a higher average overall.
3d4 and 1d12 have the same average result...over time. If you're only making one roll, you have 1/12 chance at any number on the d12, but 3/4 chance at any number on 3d4.
Personally as a dark souls fan and as a professional asshole, I like to fuck with them. The learning curve I’d give them has a similar curvature of a brick wall.
Super Mario Maker troll level
As the builder of this trap, why not have the fire fill the entire corridor?
Maybe as a bravery test to prove that you're worthy of the thing on the pedestal. Or the creator treats it like a gameshow that they watch through scrying sensors.
A perception DC of 10 you might as well not have a check at all. You'd need a negative modifier on your perception not to see it.
Passive perception is always the lowest you can roll on a perception check. 10+wismod+additional mods (like proficiency, advantage[+5], disadvantage [-5])
Why wouldn’t it just be both tho?
I have always wonder how you trap's enthusiast people apply all this ideas in your games. 🤔
Can we see you playing a short camping or something? To make an example of how to "fix" a catastrophic result, out of naive players and bad decisions.
Honestly, we don't really fix bad results. Most of our players are veterans, so if they make a poor decision, they're fine living with it. With newer players, we expect our veteran players to guide their choices when they're first starting out. We feel that "bad" decisions are all part of the game; if players always made the "right" choices, the game wouldn't be very interesting.
@@masterthedungeon this is the best mindset. There is no "100%" completion in dnd
Damage for traps is something that should make sense for the type of trap and it's purpose. Some traps are designed to catch targets, some are designed to block area's and some are designed to kill. If the purpose of the trap is to kill then damage should be lethal.