What stories do you have from using traps and hazards in your own games? Which are your favorites? Let us know! Pre-order *Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft* now on D&D Beyond: dndbeyond.link/vrtrap Pre-order *Candlekeep Mysteries* now on D&D Beyond: dndbeyond.link/cktrap
I had a giant acid pool once. My players were chasing a cult that worshipped a alcohol deity and the ogre brewmaster had made a mistake and their wading pool was acid. A player thought he could run up and explode the liquor with his fire sword, only to be shocked when his weapon was partially melted by acid. I thought describing it as bubbling and green was pretty clear, plus he didn’t want to wait to overhear the ogre be chastised for his mistake.🍕
I actually used the complex traps to recreate the dragon-tank from Chrono Trigger, making his weapons be like an armor a top of a very large creature for a final boss in a game so the players could destroy the traps to make the fight easier.
I once ran a 17th level combat against Zariel in the Nine Hells on a huge suspended metal platform over a lake of lava, and had her cut the chains holding the arena with legendary actions. I did a Ship combat in my hombrew world when the players had to commandier a ship, fight harpies and dodge a randomly moving tornado on the grid. And than there was that one fight against some arctic orc rangers on a collapsing iced-over lake. These are the best ones that come to mind
Wet roofs and the sides of castle walls wouldn't affect a monk's unarmored movement ability, but a character with spider climbing boots doesn't have that. Falling off the castle would be intensely bad.
The best trap I ever ran was created by an ancient wizard to protect his hidden phylactery. The cave system had three separate paths that led to the same huge room, each of which had a false tile covering a pressure plate. When triggered, a visible yellow wall (actually a sphere) appears behind you, locking you into the chamber (and probably separating you from your friends). The barrier cannot be physically breached. The phylactery itself was immune to cold, lightning, and necrotic damage, so magic got _weird_ when cast through the barrier. Most evocation spells that dealt damage were blocked outright, as were transmutation, abjuration, and divination spells. When healing evocation spells were used, they actually dealt psychic damage instead, while psychic damage (the sole evocation damage that got through) healed the target. The trap could be disabled by a simple (and obvious) lever on the far side, but I delayed that by having the isolated player get ambushed (and ultimately knocked unconscious) by a group of low-level enemies that had low health and low damage output. This increased the tension of the trap, as the isolated player knew he was potentially going to lose his character by attrition if they couldn't figure out the trap, and the other players were frantically trying EVERYTHING to get through the barrier. The players eventually figured out the psychic = healing aspect and that instantly brought the bard and sorcerer back into the fight (both of whom felt useless) to viciously mock and mind-spike their ally back to consciousness, then keeping him alive until he could clear the remaining enemies and disable the trap. It was a GLORIOUS half hour of panicking from my players and they loved every minute of it. The bard was even rewarded with a cursed tome that much later converted them into a warlock (player's request) and increased their intelligence in the process. To me, ordinary traps are bland, but puzzle-traps are an AWESOME way to challenge my players without giving them the opportunity to get lost in analysis paralysis or sidechat while one player finds/disarms traps or solves all the puzzles. I hope this helps someone else as well!
@@laschicvalisca2481 I showed the DM the movie, 'Wild Hearts Can't be Broken'. and we compromised, he let me climb up the ladders with skill checks and when we got to the top of the tower I had to survive jumping into the moat. ruclips.net/video/pO-MhyIbn8c/видео.html
Funny when she said the kids just asks if they can use another caster's spell book to cast spells. Someone tries that in my games it wouldn't work because every wizard uses a different notation. So, even if the character can decipher the notation there is a chance they could trigger a trap hidden in the notation which would cause 4d6 psychic damage depending what they rolled on the arcana check to read it.
If you want to bullet proof loop holes in your encounters, run them for a group of 12 year olds. They will think of things you have never considered. (Ex: Taking Xanathar's fish to get him close enough to suicide bomb him to take him down to like half health for the rest of your party . . . .)
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What stories do you have from using traps and hazards in your own games? Which are your favorites? Let us know!
Pre-order *Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft* now on D&D Beyond: dndbeyond.link/vrtrap
Pre-order *Candlekeep Mysteries* now on D&D Beyond: dndbeyond.link/cktrap
I had a giant acid pool once. My players were chasing a cult that worshipped a alcohol deity and the ogre brewmaster had made a mistake and their wading pool was acid. A player thought he could run up and explode the liquor with his fire sword, only to be shocked when his weapon was partially melted by acid. I thought describing it as bubbling and green was pretty clear, plus he didn’t want to wait to overhear the ogre be chastised for his mistake.🍕
I actually used the complex traps to recreate the dragon-tank from Chrono Trigger, making his weapons be like an armor a top of a very large creature for a final boss in a game so the players could destroy the traps to make the fight easier.
I once ran a 17th level combat against Zariel in the Nine Hells on a huge suspended metal platform over a lake of lava, and had her cut the chains holding the arena with legendary actions.
I did a Ship combat in my hombrew world when the players had to commandier a ship, fight harpies and dodge a randomly moving tornado on the grid.
And than there was that one fight against some arctic orc rangers on a collapsing iced-over lake.
These are the best ones that come to mind
Wet roofs and the sides of castle walls wouldn't affect a monk's unarmored movement ability, but a character with spider climbing boots doesn't have that. Falling off the castle would be intensely bad.
Joe keeps saying he's the temporary face, but if he doesn't stop doing such a good job we might just settle for him...
The best trap I ever ran was created by an ancient wizard to protect his hidden phylactery. The cave system had three separate paths that led to the same huge room, each of which had a false tile covering a pressure plate. When triggered, a visible yellow wall (actually a sphere) appears behind you, locking you into the chamber (and probably separating you from your friends). The barrier cannot be physically breached. The phylactery itself was immune to cold, lightning, and necrotic damage, so magic got _weird_ when cast through the barrier. Most evocation spells that dealt damage were blocked outright, as were transmutation, abjuration, and divination spells. When healing evocation spells were used, they actually dealt psychic damage instead, while psychic damage (the sole evocation damage that got through) healed the target. The trap could be disabled by a simple (and obvious) lever on the far side, but I delayed that by having the isolated player get ambushed (and ultimately knocked unconscious) by a group of low-level enemies that had low health and low damage output. This increased the tension of the trap, as the isolated player knew he was potentially going to lose his character by attrition if they couldn't figure out the trap, and the other players were frantically trying EVERYTHING to get through the barrier.
The players eventually figured out the psychic = healing aspect and that instantly brought the bard and sorcerer back into the fight (both of whom felt useless) to viciously mock and mind-spike their ally back to consciousness, then keeping him alive until he could clear the remaining enemies and disable the trap. It was a GLORIOUS half hour of panicking from my players and they loved every minute of it. The bard was even rewarded with a cursed tome that much later converted them into a warlock (player's request) and increased their intelligence in the process.
To me, ordinary traps are bland, but puzzle-traps are an AWESOME way to challenge my players without giving them the opportunity to get lost in analysis paralysis or sidechat while one player finds/disarms traps or solves all the puzzles. I hope this helps someone else as well!
Used to play a Centaur, the BBEG seeded his base with lots of ladders to get from floor to floor, FMCL.
Big oof. How did you get through it? A Bag of Holding, or something else?
@@laschicvalisca2481 I showed the DM the movie, 'Wild Hearts Can't be Broken'. and we compromised, he let me climb up the ladders with skill checks and when we got to the top of the tower I had to survive jumping into the moat. ruclips.net/video/pO-MhyIbn8c/видео.html
I'm really liking these videos. Keep up the great work.
Funny when she said the kids just asks if they can use another caster's spell book to cast spells. Someone tries that in my games it wouldn't work because every wizard uses a different notation. So, even if the character can decipher the notation there is a chance they could trigger a trap hidden in the notation which would cause 4d6 psychic damage depending what they rolled on the arcana check to read it.
Of course the right title should have been: "It's a trap, get the axe!"
Also alcohol on floor makes fire spells more complicated due to its flammable nature.
If you want to bullet proof loop holes in your encounters, run them for a group of 12 year olds. They will think of things you have never considered. (Ex: Taking Xanathar's fish to get him close enough to suicide bomb him to take him down to like half health for the rest of your party . . . .)
This video is a trap.
They didn't talk about any traps at all. All they talked about was environmental Hazards and skills challenges.
It's traps all the way down.
So that's what the Kuo-Toa were all along.
These feel so odd with out Todd. Still a good video but something feels missing.
Regardless thank you for all the work you folks put in.
Man, I miss Todd, Lauren, and James