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sometimes players get their characters to a flat where they ’ ve crusade everything, and nothing seems to give them excessively much of a challenge. Traps are a great way of reminding the players of the deathrate of their characters. DMs should keep in mind the three basic trap types of annoying/diverting, damaging/debilitating, and fateful. fatal traps should be kept to an absolute minimal though – if they are used at all.
Updated on August 11, 2021, by Jeff Drake: There are no shortages in the types of traps available for DMs to use against a party of unsuspecting players. The original ten traps featured on this tilt were just scratching the coat of what ‘s possible. In an effort to give DMs more options, this number has been updated with five extra entries ( traps ) for DMs to remind players that their characters are far from deity .
As always, if you ‘re a DM you should take this article as a free steer – feel exempt to alter these traps to suit your personal play-style or gamble. besides, always keep in heed that using excessively many traps in your campaigns will make players extremely wary ; which can truly ruin the flow of a D & D seance .
15 The Trusty Pit Trap
The best part about pit traps is that they are highly customizable for a DM. The trap could just open to a hole that has walls that are difficult to climb, or it could open to a short fall onto a layer of spikes – a short fall into a gelatinous cube is besides an mind .
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The bunker could besides drop the party into a burrow system that deposits the party at a place of the DM ’ s choosing. The gun trigger for a pit trap could besides be closely anything, but if the trip is charming the players might spot it more easily via detect magic or a like spell. There may be no gun trigger ; the top of the pit could be illusional .
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14 The Duplicate Mirror
This is triggered by looking into a magic trick mirror ; which creates a duplicate of whoever looks into it – a perfective refreshment of the original. The original ’ randomness items are besides duplicated, but not charming. The duplicate immediately springs out of the mirror and attacks the character .
This bunker could besides have a delay of a few days or weeks, or the twin might be instantaneously teleported elsewhere upon its universe. This duplicate has the inverse alliance of the original and seeks to destroy the original and his/her friends. The duplicate might besides gather a party of adventurers of their own to help in this quest .
13 Teleport Doorway
This devious trap is triggered if person passes through the trapped doorway without the proper “ key ”. The key could be anything – a feather, or copper, or a rhombus worth at least 50 aureate pieces. When passing through the doorway, a character is teleported to a specially organize sphere .
This might be a holding cell ; which hours belated opens into a gladiatorial stadium in which the party must now find themselves fighting. It could besides plainly teleport the character to the entrance of the keep – however, a DM risks a disgust among the players if this is placed besides army for the liberation of rwanda into the keep .
12 Glyph Of Warding And Fire Trap Spells
These two spells are great trap spells for DMs to use – chiefly because they can be used on merely about anything. Glyphs of Warding are a fiddling more unplayful due to the high electric potential damage end product ( 5d6 ) and the fact the damage type can be selected by the caster. Save this type of ambush for higher-level campaigns, as this spell has a good chance of killing lower-level party members .
Fire Trap is a spell from earlier editions that has n’t made its way into Fifth Edition yet. It does army for the liberation of rwanda less damage ( 1d4 +1 per grade ) than the Glyph of Warding spell and must be cast upon an object that opens – like a door, book, or chest. fire Traps are more unmanageable to detect than Glyphs since glyph placed upon an object can be seen with a successful intelligence check .
11 Web Of Flames
This trap can be tailored to the average level or hit sharpen average of the party. The trigger could once again be about anything ; a press plate on the floor, a lever, or a charming barrier work ticket. When the trap is triggered the area is filled with network spells – more than one web while will increase the chances of members of the party being caught .
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then a fireball is cast into the web area. Those caught within the web not only take the fireball damage but the excess damage from the burning web american samoa well. The fireball does not have to be cast immediately. A generous diabetes mellitus might consider giving the party a minute to escape .
10 The Statues Are Alive
place a few statues in a room ; entrance halls are a logical location. They can be android, but can besides be an animal shape – like a wolf or a snake. The gun trigger for the statues animating, or golems if the DM wants to in truth challenge the party, could be if weapons are drawn in the room or if the party is not carrying a “ key ” of some kind .
The trigger might besides be a control word – allowing the hypothesis of the party being able to control the statues/golems. If these statues/golems are in a care for room they might activate if anything in the room is removed .
9 The Compactor
This trap is a particularly devious dungeon trap. The party enters a room and triggers the trap – which can be about anything – and the doors close. on the spur of the moment the ceiling starts moving down towards the deck. alternatively, the walls could begin moving inwards like the trash compactor in Star Wars episode 4 .
This trap is great due to its customization. The DM could have the ceiling motion fast or slow depending on how much meter they wish to give players to find a way out or stop the ceiling from crushing them. This can besides be a good way to introduce an NPC ; who comes along to save the party by turning the trap off from outside the room .
8 Greased Slide
This ambush is best placed in a narrow hallway. Place something of prize, or apparent prize, at the end of the hallway. When the party gets halfway down the hallway the floor tilts down on one end, and dirt begins covering the floor .
A dependable gun trigger for this bunker would be a blackmail plate or tripwire. The dirt may either be magically created, or it can be fed into the room by tubes that are opened when the room tilts. The victims slide down the hallway toward whatever the DM wishes to have waiting. Spinning blades are one hypothesis – but again, a gelatinous cube always livens up the night .
7 Poison Needles
about every player who runs a thief gets complacent at some indicate. Their opportunity at opening locks finally gets so dependable that failure is not likely. This leads to hubris. DMs wanting to punish the party ‘s thief for this hubris can use the age-old, tested, spring-loaded poison phonograph needle trap.
These can be placed inside the engage itself, making them more unmanageable to detect. The poison can be adjusted by the DM as well – it could be a minor poison that causes minimal damage. It could besides be a particularly cruddy poison that causes a enfeeble condition. alternatively, rather of a single needle, they could spray out like a blast from a shotgun – making the whole party potentially pay the price for the thief ‘s hubris .
6 Fun With Magnets
To ensure the entire party, or at least most of them, are caught in this trap use a weight-sensitive shock in the trap room. After 400 – 500 pounds, over what is already in the board, are added to the floor the bunker is spring. Anything with magnetic properties begins being pulled to the ceiling, the speed/strength of this magnetic attraction is up to the DM .
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This will affect most weapons and many armor types. A character wearing metallic element armor will be pulled toward the ceiling. Enemies native to the area might be waiting to ambush the trap party members with wooden spears topped with sharpened stone heads. There could besides be something unpleasant waiting for the party when they reach the ceiling .
5 Let’s Go Fishing
The party enters a room overgrown by vegetation covering the walls and growing up through the large hole in the ceiling. If the party is underground use some type of fungal structure rather .
Waiting above this trap are several creatures known as cave fishers, and they have their adhesive filaments hanging down into the room. If a party member touches one of these filaments they become cling while the creature “ reels them in. ” The cave fishers might place their filaments near something that humanoids willingly approach – like a pile of gem or a long-dead soundbox .
4 Umber Hulk Ambush
Another animal that likes setting traps for its victims is the Umber Hulk. These beasts are excellent at tunneling through solid rock, and will much carve out a tunnel leading to a well-traveled passage. They leave only a thin rock ‘n’ roll wall and wait for something to walk by – at which point they will burst through that thin rock wall and attack .
Umber Hulks are no jest to deal with in a crusade either. even high-level parties can be brought humble by an Umber Hulk ambush ascribable to their ability to cause confusion in their victims. A group of Umber Hulks ambushing a party and simultaneously using their confusion ability is beyond devious. It is, as Billy Butcher would say, devilish .
3 The Furnace
This trap is best placed in a limit area like a curtly hallway or small room. There are light torches along the walls with fiddling holes above them ; the DM might besides have statues holding the torches. When the bunker is triggered, the entrances to the area are sealed and flammable oil begins pouring out of the holes ( or mouths if statues are used ) above the torches – which ignites the vegetable oil .
It is up to the DM to decide how fast the room fills with this flame oil, and if there will be anything for the party to climb onto to get away from the flame oil. The oil can be turned off, and the room unsealed, by activating the lever located in the middle of the ceiling .
2 The Magic Mouth
This is a bunker that is hard for the players to predict. Upon entering a disposed area the victim is encircled by a wall of flare ( as per the spell ) 13 ’ in radius – creating a small area in the center where the victim won ’ t take wrong. A charming mouth appears on the floor in front of the victim and asks a riddle, or for a password .
If the riddle is answered correctly the wall of flames disappears. This could be placed in a hallway, forcing every member of the party to have to answer a fresh riddle. If the answer is wrong the wall of flames begins shrinking toward the center field – after one round the victim starts taking wrong .
1 Portable Hole Into The Bag Of Holding
The party enters a 10x10x10 room with a humble hole in the floor in the middle of the room, with a hole in the ceiling directly above it. Around the trap on the floor is a resound of press plates that are well hide. angstrom soon as person steps on one of the pressure plates, the exits to the room are closed and a portable hole falls from the hole in the ceiling into the fix on the floor – which has an open pocket of holding waiting in it. equitable be sure not to put the blackmail plates besides close to the hole as this would give the players a luck to interrupt the trap .
When a portable hole is put into a bag of holding it creates a portal site to the Astral Plane that sucks all objects within ten-spot feet into it – including the party. This is another trap that is best reserved for higher-level parties because the Astral Plane is extremely inhospitable to outsiders .
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About The Author
Jeff Drake
( 160 Articles Published )
alumnus of Sam Houston State University — class of 2011 B.A. in History, minored in Political science I have lived in the Houston TX area my whole animation ; love the winters … hate the summers. I have conducted scholarly research on, and written about, the use of ballooning for reconnaissance purposes during the U.S. Civil War, tort reform, voter initiatives and referendums, the formation of refinement, Ancient Rome, Mesopotamia, and the major religions. I am besides an avid game and have researched the history of electronic entertainment extensively .
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