Best trap/curse?
Ok ok, so Im baiting this a bit here. Im starting off a campaign for the first time as a DM, and I'd really like to have a stunning setup for the "dungeon crawl" portion of the campaign. Sooooo... in order to gets some OOOooOOOoooOOOhhh, or the ever welcomed "holy ****", I wanna hear your best/favorite trap or cursed item. Anything from death dealing to just damn funny. So let the posting BEGIN!
My last DM wasnt the type of person who thought beyond the fights into roleplaying or consequences for actions. But one of the people in our group was a sucker for a nice looking sword (who isnt eh?), so when we came along the said "nice looking sword", he snagged it up. But of course, it was cursed, the sword desintegrated and our half orc was cursed with having to constantly talk in questions. We had plenty of fun with that until he got the curse removed.
Prenn Registered User
Posts: 4793
(11/19/03 1:13 am) Reply
Re: Best trap/curse?
Do you want a trap, or do you want a curse? They're widely different.
If you want to be a jackass, walking through the entrance to the dungeon could set off an anti-matter explosion and unravel the prime material plane. lol pwned and all.
Green slime in glass darts, inverted/shifted gravity plates, the heavy door that takes more than one person to open, but it swings open top to bottom or bottom to top with a rod in the center, so if a dwarf and human press on it, it'll never open, the sword that permanently changes the wielder's gender, etc.
Registered User
Posts: 2368
(11/19/03 5:19 pm) Reply
Re: Best trap/curse?
Permanent gender changes are kinda lame, actually. Things end up being too awkward. You're much better off to go with something like the "opposite speech" where people say the opposite of what they meant to. Or randomized perception swaps, where people suddenly see their enemies as friends and vice versa.
-- Marauder Arafain Entreri, 65 Deceiver
-- Arafein Soulstriker, 54 Champion Relic (deceased)
-- Arafax Kokorozan, 20 Monk Giantfriend (missing)
-- Formerly of Requiem of Souls and Crusaders of Plilo
-- Formerly of The Rathe Server, now of Zebuxoruk
-- My ghetto gear "Once, in the old west, a gentleman shot a professional gunfighter in the back. When asked why he didn't give the other chap a chance to draw, he replied, 'Well, he's dead and I'm alive and that's how I wanted it to be." -- from Red Planet, Robert A. Heinlein
Re: Best trap/curse?
A rather amusing, though difficult to roleplay, possibility is that of a curse that causes a PC to fall in love with his or her hated arch-enemy. Hilarity and Hijinx would ensue
Or a cursed item that randomly replaces one of the PC's weapons... and generates a clone of the enemy (instead of doing damage) upon which it scores a hit. This item switches places with whichever weapon it imitates, so it would be an interesting challenge just trying to figure out which weapon is the cursed item.
Or a cursed helm that causes the wearer to speak in Morse Code...
"What's that?"
"Beedeedee beee beedeebeeee..."
"Ha ha ha!"
Weapons that transport the wearer to a random location each time they land a hit, cloaks that ALWAYS get in the way, an amulet that casts Fireball 1x/day at a random time... whether its targeted or not...
Re: Best trap/curse?
Cursed weapons were always a joke though. Had a fighter once that LOVED his cursed weapon. 1ed. It says that "Whenver you enter combat the cursed weapon become the one you are wealding". So he found himself a cursed battle axe-1, he was never unarmed and only had a penalty of 1 to hit. Seemed more of an advantange than a disadvantage, expecially when being disarmed because you were taken prisoner was commonplace.
Edit: Us prisoner reason, Having weapons in town was illegal.
Edited by: Urusai at: 11/19/03 8:02 pm
Caldiien Registered User
Posts: 10
(11/19/03 9:18 pm) Reply
Re: Best trap/curse?
There's a series of books out there called Grimtooth's Traps that has a lot of very nice traps that can be used in any game system with minor modifications. Most of the traps there are lethal though, but there is a version that has some nonlethal ones, called Grimtooth's Traps Lite or something like that. You can probably find it at any gaming store, or you might even be able to order them online or something along those lines.
Re: Best trap/curse?
Whenever I come up with curses or cursed items, I try to think first of what their origin was, and, indeed, if they were meant to be curses in the first place. Some of my favorite "cursed" items arent really cursed at all... they are nice items with unfortunate side effects.
A few examples :
1) The Sword of Rage : A magical sword that can induces a homocidal rage in whomever wields it when it draws blood. (even the wielder's own blood will do.. a small cut at the start of battle can do wonders) The Upside : Enraged characters gain maniacal strength and a complete disregard for their own safety. Strength adds bonus damage, disregard adds bonus to hit and guarantees success on any morale checks.
While the character will not mindlessly attack friend and foe alike, he will fight without regard for his own safety or condition (he gets a penalty to defence, may not retreat, may not initate a tactical withdrawls, will charge into melee regardless of the odds or the likelyhood that he is being "pulled" into an ambush, and will not pause offensive operations to heal or use any other non-damage causing magic) The sword may only be sheathed out of combat.
Options :
Allow a will check to resist the effects. The character may voluntarily fail the will check if he chooses.
Make the will check harder for each hp/# of hps of blood the sword has drawn since its last sheathing. If no resisting foes are present, the will check gets both easier overall, and gets easier each subsequent round. An enraged character who fails this will check will do things like disregard surrenders, hack up unconsious or otherwise helpless foes, or mutilate already dead bodies, in that order of preference. If no living foes are present, the character will become unenraged after a few combat rounds (1 minute?) and the sword will have to draw fresh blood to allow the rage to reposess him.
Have a character who fails his will check by enough become berzerk instead of enraged. The difference is that a berzerk character doesnt make any distinction between friend and foe.
2) The Feedback Staff : A magical staff that allows its wielder to channel any harmful (ie hp damage causing) spells through it if he so chooses. The positive effect of channeling through the staff is as follows : The target will always fail his save if a save is called for. If no save is called for the spell will do maximum damage. The down side of channelling through the staff is that the wielder of the staff also suffers the effect that his target does. In the case of Area effect spells, the caster suffers the base damage of the spell, not the total damage (ie 10 ogres in a 30hp fireball = 300 total damge, but only 30 base damage) and only the caster suffers the effect (there isnt another fireball centered on the caster) Any immunites or resistances he may have are bypassed. (100% fire resistance doesnt allow the caster to channel fire spells with no ill effects!)
Options :
Allow the caster to save for half damage.
Allow the caster to do maximum damage AND force an automatic fail on enemy saves if he takes double feedback.
3) Collar of the Fishes : A number of these tight fitting neckpiece were created for/by a band of adventurers who had taken a royal commission to deal with an infestation of rogue mermen. The adventurers were paranoid about the possibility of drowning as a result of their water-breathing magics being taken or dispelled, so they wove into the collars a number of binding and resistance magics so that would not happen. Once put on, the collar may not be removed without the use of special magics (remove curse would do) and it is unusually difficult to dispell. Powering these additional protections, however, required a tradeoff, as the mage making them was not strong enough to simply add them outright to a fully functioning waterbreathing spell. The wearer of the Collar may -only- breathe water while wearing it.
4) Amulet of the Beholder, AKA The Watchful Eye Amulet : Made by a court wizard who lusted after the daughter of the king, who, quite obviously, had no interest in him. His secret lust warped his soul, and eventually, in his bitter lonliness, he vowed that if she would not love him, he would see to it that nobody ever loved her. Knowing that any simple curse he laid on her would be detected and removed in short order, due to her position of prestige and wealth, he chose a more subtle approach to vengance.
To that end, he dissembled his lust and hatred, and created for her a jeweled amulet bearing an eye motif, and enchanted it with powerful protective magics to "watch over" her. In order, he said, to keep the amulet from being stolen or snatched away (which would leave her vulnerable) he added to it a binding spell, such that the amulet could not be removed against her will. Unbeknownst to her or her father, though, there was an additional magic : The amulet would seem comely to all who observed it, but its wearer would seem less so. Her beauty would seem hollow, her laugh annoying, her conversation trite, and so on. If the amulet were subjected to a curse detection, the binding spell would explain any positive result, allowing the true curse to remain hidden.
Game effect : Wearer is never "suprised", and has the protection equivalent of chain armor (not cumulative with actual armor) but... they also suffer a -4 charisma in all situations, and a -10 in romantic ones(3 minimum)
Edited by: Swipey at: 11/20/03 1:32 am
Re: Best trap/curse?
I like cursed items that don't nessecarily need a lot rules to function, just some roleplaying and imagination. For example, take a blood drinker, a sword that steals HPs and adds them to the PC weilding the weapon. The PCs HPs may exceed his maximum, but the hitpoints disipate at 1 HP/per, and blood drips from the sword as this happens.
Now, take this sword. Add the usual curse characteristics. Must be used in battle if a weapon will be used, can't be disposed of, using the weapon can cause an alignment shift depending on how bad the weapon is. Pretty standard. But now, add your flare. Instead of the HPs dripping out at 1hp per round, excess hitpoints stay for a half day unless taken by damage, but at night, the character leaks blood from his all his pours, his eyes, everywhere. This can promote a variety of RP reactions from you the GM, and the players, and is definetly a handicap for roleplaying, and puts some of the bite back in a cursed weapon besides "Oh gee, I'm only +2 to hit now instead of +4".
"Your majesty, we have slain the foul beast that has tormented the country side for..."
"Good lord man, don't bleed on the royal personage!"
Or better, if you running a medieval type campaign where superstition is rampant, and disease is plentiful, PCs could be run out of town after town because the townsfolk think they carry the plague.
Just an example of where a little creativity can make a curse obnoxious, dangerous, and worthy of attention and respect by players.
Re: Best trap/curse?
My DM has only thrown in a few cursed items from time to time. Onewas a suit of armor that changed the wearers sex and couldn't be removed. Comical due to the PC's vast complex that women were inferior. Even funnier when he got bolted and it fried all of the cloth out from under the armor. It's the first time I've ever seen anyone roll a chafing check. Another PC got a sword that "talked" to those around. PC was a rogue and the sword always spoke the weilders true intensions. So much for bluff....
As for traps, haven't seen too many other than the usual fireball rigged door or traped chest.
Registered User
Posts: 2369
(11/20/03 4:08 am) Reply
Re: Best trap/curse?
Quote:PC was a rogue and the sword always spoke the weilders true intensions. So much for bluff....
Now that's a cursed item!
-- Marauder Arafain Entreri, 65 Deceiver
-- Arafein Soulstriker, 54 Champion Relic (deceased)
-- Arafax Kokorozan, 20 Monk Giantfriend (missing)
-- Formerly of Requiem of Souls and Crusaders of Plilo
-- Formerly of The Rathe Server, now of Zebuxoruk
-- My ghetto gear "Once, in the old west, a gentleman shot a professional gunfighter in the back. When asked why he didn't give the other chap a chance to draw, he replied, 'Well, he's dead and I'm alive and that's how I wanted it to be." -- from Red Planet, Robert A. Heinlein
Re: Best trap/curse?
Dunno if it's really a "trap" or a "curse", well actually im sure it aint. But throwing in a crypt thing ( they teleport you away)can be annoying, but then who wants a split up party to deal with and dice to dodge?
Maybe a Naga with the riddle thang?
Quote:out at 1hp per round, excess hitpoints stay for a half day unless taken by damage, but at night, the character leaks blood from his all his pours, his eyes, everywhere. This can promote a
Reminds me of this bag of healing we had once. "Yabbit Bag of Healing" Yabbits (creature specific to the campaign) had regenerative blood if used properly. So this bag could produce blood that you apply to a wound and it heals it a few points.
Well after one particularally bad scuff one of the party was near death from a massive number of minor wounds. Because the wounds were received in defense of a prince they let us stay at a room in the castle. Whats the first thing the party did, went about tending out wounded member.
Well the prince had a healer sent. (Mundane healer, magic was rare in the area due to necromancy. Can you see where this is going) Healer opens the door and sees the group of us gathered around the bunk of the wounded man and the whole bed is drenched in blood, our hands are all bloody, and we have a bag with blood pouring out of it.
Needless to say we were kicked out.
Yrion Registered User
Posts: 232
(12/10/03 5:43 pm) Reply
Re: Best trap/curse?
helm of alignment change. can only be removed if wearer wants to or is dead. always got a good laugh at our parties.
Re: Best trap/curse?
That reminds me of an adventure. I think it was actually a module.
The group came to a room with a mural on the wall, the mural had several colored circles on it and a hole. One of the party members, curious as to what was in the hole, stuck his head in it. ... Sphere of annihilation.
Still an inside-joke now adays. "Hey guys, theres a hole over here." "Well look inside, what do you see."
MARBH Registered User
Posts: 1196
(12/23/03 11:18 am) Reply
Re: Best trap/curse?
Grimtooths was a endless supply of mean traps.
I like the floor that was thin wood slats with the slate tiles all placed over it, but with a 4x4 section that was solid at entrance.
Re: Best trap/curse?
Was reading through the posts and I realised how repetitive I sound in this thread. How many times am I going to say "That reminds me". Am I getting old or am I just in a nostalgic mood? Sheesh.
Re: Best trap/curse?
armour that casts re-incarnate whenever some one puts it on, and then forms to the new size. Can't be removed with out a remove curse spell, and then goes off once a day.
toss in a -1 to wisdom each time (will saves are both over 20) and BAM, a nice game of reincarnation rolutte(sp)!
now, for some fun traps...
anything that won't allow a reflex save. trigger is in the middle of the room and the doors seal shut type of thing.
or traps where you would have rather failed the saving through then make it.
like falling into a dirt pit, or having the ceiling crush you.
or have small gems that shatter when you step on them to have different spell effects. like grease, or web. Good way to introduce magical gernades!
Re: Best trap/curse?
Or put a bucket of photosensitive explosives in the bad guy's safe. -He- knows to only open the sucker after locking the door (so nobody walks in) and turning the lights out....
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