Trap Ideas

[JesterOI]

Ideas for type of traps:

Flashbang: Only Blinds and Deafens the targets in the effect area. Reflex save to avoid blindness, Fort save to halve deafness duration.

Damage Traps: basic traps of vaious damage types that smack the target for damage. Reflex save for half damage

Level/Ability Drain Traps: drain level's or abilities. Reflex save to avoid all effects, fort save to suffer half amount of drain.

Death Traps: Epitomy of trapping, requires atleast 24 base points in set trap skill to make. Reflex save to avoid all ill effects, fort save to avoid death but take 50% of current hp and be slowed (as the Slow spell).

Daze/Stun: Movement speed cut in half, no other actions allowed. Reflex save to avoid trap, Will save to cut duration in half.

Paralyze/Hold: Disables target. Reflex save to avoid all effects. Will save to halve duration.

Entangle: Same as Entangle spell.

Grease Trap: same as Grease spell.

Vacuum Trap: Silences all targets hit by removing air in the affected area. Fort save to cut duration in half.

Itching Trap: Concentration skill lowered. Will save for half duration.

[imom411]

Itching Trap: Concentration skill lowered. Will save for half duration.

As for your other traps...among existing traps, ones that require some other save don't also require a reflex save, with good reason. Think about spells. While a negative energy ray/burst does occur in a particular area, and you could make the argument that you could dodge out of that area in order to avoid that damage, that's not the way D&D works. A fireball has a physical manifestation; negative energy/holy spells don't. Similarly, you can dodge Evard's Black Tes...Tentacles but not a gas cloud.

Some of your other ideas are really interesting. I like the itching trap idea. You could even make it for general distraction, lowering ALL skill rolls. A will save would be appropriate, thinking about poison ivy (which I've never had )

I really like the flashbang idea. It's not only useful as a trap, but also something that really could happen--an explosion that creates a lot of light and sound.

Lvl/ability drain traps: Negative energy traps do much the same thing. Minor and average traps do 1 damage to strength, strong does 2 damage to same, and deadly drains 1 lvl, all with increasing fort save DC's. Appropriate, I think.

I'm not crazy about the death traps, but to each their own. As for needing a minimum skill, you could have the set DC be really high, but that's for creating nasty accidents setting the trap. For making it, it's the crafting skill that should be high. Appropriate, because you need high intelligence to craft, but high dex to set it. Also, you can't take 20 when crafting, so even a wizard (unless they take rogue lvls) would have a really hard time with it, as it should be.

[JesterOI]

With the lvl/ability drain traps I was thinking that they would do the drain without doing hp damage, which means they would drain more than a regualr negative energy trap.

[imom411]

Draining more than one level in NS4 is evil. I would not leave an energy drain trap around a PC if I were not planning to attack them, because lvl drain is so difficult to cure (pretty much greater restore--not regular--or death). If the PC still managed to kill the trapper after having been badly drained, they'd be stuck with a very serious handicap for a long time. I think this could increase harrassment and griefing with a rush for skeleton ivories and would make people frustrated with NS4.

[JesterOI]

Can't just look at the power of the trap.
Gotta look at the character skill required to amke it and how much it costs in materials.

If the costs are high enough, why not give them something useful for that cost?