The best kind of trap is a trap that can hide in plain sight, perhaps even be on display: Upon a blackwood table stands a glass cylinder with something inside. Two everburning torches set behind the cylinder cause the object contained in the cylinder to cast a long shadow across the room. The shadow twists […]
Trapsmith: Trapped Curio Read More »
Every trapsmith knows that a trap is little more than a complicated piece of furniture or decoration until it springs to life and reminds people why no one comes down this way. That is why, over the years, many clever trapsmiths have found ways to bait their traps or even install traps into tempting targets
Bait & Switch: Tempting the Greedy Read More »
Adapted from Scott Murray’s “Spiked Pits, Poisoned Arrows, and Healing Words” from Kobold Quarterly #12. As discussed the previous article, traps can impede a party in more ways that just a poison arrow or a snare. Boon traps are generally magical devices that provide bonuses rather than penalties. They may not target adventurers intruding on
Boon Traps for Pathfinder RPG Read More »
A small subset of the trapsmithing community looks at nature for inspiration. One of the early successes was the development of the box of brown mold. Box of Brown Mold (CR 2) Type mechanical; Search DC 22; Disable Device DC 16 Trigger touch (opening the box); Reset automatic Effect 5-ft. cold aura (3d6 nonlethal cold
Trapsmith: A Fusillade of Fungus Read More »
Trapsmiths constantly obsess about dismemberment and decapitation, always imagining better ways to cut into the flesh of interlopers. Two standard designs are the scything blade and wall blade trap. Scything Blade Trap (CR 1) Type mechanical; Search DC 21; Disable Device DC 20 Trigger location; Reset automatic Effect atk +8 melee (1d8/×3) Market Price 1,700
Trapsmith: The Bite of Steel Read More »
Every trapsmith loves poison, and poison loves trespassers. Standard poison delivery systems—part of every trapsmith’s portfolio—are the poison dart and poison needle traps. How can something this simple be improved? With careful attention to detail and with massive overkill. Poison Dart Trap (CR 1) Type mechanical; Search DC 20; Disable Device DC 18 Trigger location;
Trapsmith: This is Your Friendly Poison Delivery System Read More »
With a mighty creak, the doors swing inward, and you find yourself at the castle’s topmost level, its roof open to the stormy sky. In a moment, you take in the scene: shelf after shelf of severed limbs and bottled organs, four great posts of steel and brass crackling with unnatural power, a hulking body
It’s a Trap: the Baron’s Laboratory (Paragon Tier) Read More »
Knockers try to be benevolent, but sometimes, things just don’t go their way, and they need to take action. Not blessed with great strength, the knockers have, like their kobold cousins, turned to defense, and they have an astonishing array of traps and techniques handed down from generation to generation. Some clans and individual families
It’s a Trap: This is Knocker Style Read More »
Water is essential to life. It nourishes plants, it slakes thirst… But it also smothers with its icy embrace and boils flesh from bones. Never underestimate water. One of the first water themed traps you’ll come across is the classic water-filled room. Water-Filled Room Trap (CR 4) Type mechanical; Search DC 17; Disable Device DC
It’s a Trap: the Water Bath Read More »
Notable for the soft humming it emits, a magnet stone is a polarized black mineral that has been handy to alchemists, invaluable to city defense planners, and lethal to countless adventurers. While it occurs naturally in veins beneath the mountains of the realm, magnet stones are most often encountered as jagged, obelisk-shaped stalagmites that form
Hump Day Hazard: Magnet Stone Read More »
Art by Marc Radle Mass is a wonderful thing. Sometimes, even a glancing blow from something massive like a boulder, tree trunk, or swinging block of stone is enough to send a victim flying through the air. Armor offers little resistance against these massive impacts. Swinging Block Trap (CR 1) Type mechanical; Search DC 20;
Trapsmith: Knocking Your Block Off Read More »
Common in places touched by the cold grasp of shadow, shadowcreep ice is an unnatural substance that freezes in areas of darkness and melts when exposed to light. Rumored to have first dripped from the stalactites of a grotto inhabited by an undead primordial, this hazard has claimed the lives of numberless adventurers who had
Hump Day Hazard: Shadowcreep Ice Read More »
(Illustration by Marc Radle) Bone-crushing boulders chasing frightened adventurers: a classic scene, usable in any campaign. The rolling rock trap is designed to enable that classic scene. Rolling Rock Trap (CR 1) Type mechanical; Search DC 20; Disable Device DC 22 Trigger location; Reset manual Effect Atk +10 melee (2d6) Market Price 1,400 gp
Trapsmith: Rocks Fall! Read More »
Goblins favor the ambush, because then, for a brief moment in time, goblins have the upper hand. A successful ambush is the stuff of legend among goblins, and with each recounting the tale becomes taller and pride fills the scrawny chests of the surviving goblins. Pride in one’s work is a rare and precious thing
Trapsmith: Smoke and Mirrors, Goblin Style Read More »
Every good trapsmith knows about the three C’s: Cheap, Crude and Cruel. Every wise trapsmith knows that goblins excel at designing traps based on the three C’s and as a result, many retain the services of a goblin as a servant or assistant. Neighbors may complain, but consulting a goblin’s expertise is usually worthwhile, as
Trapsmith: The Skull-On-A-Rope Read More »
Nothing is quite so important to a trapsmith as novelty and invention in design. For in their war against trespassers, new tricks tip the balance of power in the trapsmith’s favor. This is why some trapsmiths favor the art of alchemy: in the alchemical world, innovation takes place at an extraordinary speed, providing new tools
Trapsmith: Shadowspores Read More »
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