Traps

Traps can be made using craft: trapmaking, but as they operate differently from many other crafted items and can also feature in combat, they will be described in more detail here.

Traps can be simple, mechanical, or magical. Simple traps are things such as pits filled with spikes, deadfalls, and simple hunting snares. Mechanical traps involve multiple moving parts, and include needle traps, tripwires which trigger a calamitous event, pressure plates, and bear traps. Magical traps are either magically activated or cause a magical effect, and often require magical skill to set up.

Traps will cause an effect, which usually requires a resistance to avoid. The DC to find the trap if searching for it is equal to the DC to avoid the trap. The DC to disarm a trap is the same again. Failing the DC to disarm a trap by more than 5 causes it to go off. Disarming usually applies to mechanical or magical traps, and is done in order to acquire the mechanisms, or to hide the fact that someone has passed through an area.

Simple Traps:

Setting up simple traps does not require a craft check, as they are not complex operations. A craft check may be used to increase the DC of the trap, as described below. Simple traps have variable DCs, and these may be increased based on outside factors. A pit-trap, concealed to look like the floor of the passage, may have a Spot DC opposed to the Disguise check which hid it, and a DC 25 GR for any creature which steps on it. A pit trap may not be disarmed save by filling in the pit, but must be somehow circumvented.

Mechanical Traps:

Making more complex traps requires the feat Craft Traps. Creating a mechanical trap requires a craft check, with a tinker check required to install it if it is not constructed in place. If the trap is part of a larger item (such as a lock, door, or chest), the check DC may be added to or kept separate from the DC or the larger item. The tinker DC to install a trap is the same as the tinker DC to disable it. The craft DC to make a trap is calculated the same as any other craft DC. A simple needle trap is DC 25 to install or disarm, while a pressure-plate activated poison gas trap is DC 35. If the check to disarm the trap fails by more than 5, the trap is activated.

Some mechanical traps make an attack as part of their activation, while others require a resistance. Traps which launch projectiles, usually arrows, darts, or spears, make an attack roll. The trap’s bonus to hit is equal to half the Tinker check required to disarm it, rounded down. Thus a pressure-plate trap which fires arrows with a DC 30 to disarm launches arrows that are at a +15 to hit. Needle traps and area of effect traps require a resist to avoid, usually F or G, although every trap is different. More examples of traps and DCs may be found in the appendix on traps.

Mechanical traps may often be disabled by clever players circumventing the trap, without a tinker check required. This usually involves destroying or triggering the trap while out of harm’s way. Thus a hallway full of pressure plates which cause arrows to be fired may be neutered by striking the plates with a long pole until arrows stop being fired. This has the disadvantage of taking a far longer time, and is often a noisy activity, so is not usually an option when stealth is a high priority.

Simple traps may become mechanical by way of the triggering mechanism. A deadfall triggered by jostling a tree is simple, one triggered by means of hidden tripwire or snare is mechanical. All traps may be made more complex or dangerous by adding new elements, such as magical concealment, mechanical triggers, or secondary effects (such as noisemakers which let the surrounding environs know a trap has been triggered).

Magical Traps:

Creating magical traps requires the feat Create Magic Traps. Magical traps have some element in their construction wherein magic is used, either in the triggering of the trap or its effect. Runes which explode when read or pits of spikes hidden by illusions are magical traps. These traps all require magical ability to create, and usually involve the casting of several spells, or the use of spell-storing items. These traps may be disarmed without the use of magic, although this is difficult. A purely magical trap may be rendered completely harmless by the use of the spell *Dispel Magic*. As with mechanical traps, many of these traps may be circumvented without needing to make a Tinker check if the players are clever and have time enough to destroy or trigger the trap creatively. Creatures with the feat Create Magic Traps who cast spells as part of setting a magical trap can have the spell’s effects triggered by the activation of the trap. Doing this requires casting the spell as a ritual (even if it is not normally tagged as a ritual spell) and spending 50gp per spell level on ground gemstones as reagents which are consumed in setting the trap.

Using Traps:

Traps should exist to serve a purpose; no heavily used road or oft traveled door will be held by traps, and those traps which do exist in a long forgotten tomb should be ones which will still work despite long years without maintenance. A pit full of alligators loses its luster if all the reptiles have long since starved to death. Further, traps should be used in the context of campaign and party; was the fight to rob the bank far too easy? The bank’s chests are trapped, some with magic, others by the simple expedient of putting angry vipers in the chests with the gold. Has the entire party decided to play as brigands? Then a noble manor or ancient tomb with traps galore might be a suitable challenge. If the entire party is composed of warriors, this is not recommended. Traps should be placed with the same care as enemy monsters, and for a similar purpose; to make the challenges required to get a treasure commensurate to the reward, and to make for an interesting adventure.

This table lists common (and less-than common) traps and their resist DCs, along with descriptions of how they operate for some of the more outlandish ones.