[.11] Traps and Trap Globes

markusdark

Knight
So just going for a min/max idea here

A 100 XP hobling (level 9) who goes for nothing but Create Traps gets 50 levels in it. With a workshop, that gets them 20 "Elemental Shatters" for a gold, or 40 for 3 gold per logistics period that can be carried/stored indefinitely until used (note this number just keeps going up depending upon how much you want to pay to batch). They fly as easily and also affect an individual just like an alchemy or spell packet but requires the highest level shield (6th level Elemental Shield) to stop it.

Now Stone Elves get the same discount with scrolls although there is the physical requirement to have the 16 square inch paper that they have to touch with the packet before they can use them (I'm ignoring the need to be able to see/read them as they'd be a Master Scrollsmith not needing this). However, the SE can't then use the same ability to blow an entire tavern full of people to bits with the same ability.

Two 25 point explosive traps, using workshop/3 gold, for a total of 50 points of damage or 25 points if the room is considered a size 2, or batch more/make more to cover the tavern size. Sit outside the tavern, arming each trap for 30 seconds and put into a backpack. Walk through the door, they go boom. Every item in the room that isn't strengthened/rendered/etc. - every piece of armor, weapons, coins, scrolls, potions, etc. is now destroyed. Could also do this outside a warded building or circle and once the person is recognized in...

By the same token, if it's known a group/army is coming their way, spend the time arming the now exploding backpack, sit and wait for them to be in the 'area' and take out everyone (or at least all the gear they're carrying). Come across a room filled with things that aren't immediately attacking? Boom goes the Hobling.

Then have a friend come in and feed them a cure light wounds potion. (Might be trickier with the ward/circle thingy but still possible although then both of them would be trapped in said ward/circle)
 
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By the same token, if it's known a group/army is coming their way, spend the time arming the now exploding backpack, sit and wait for them to be in the 'area' and take out everyone (or at least all the gear they're carrying). Come across a room filled with things that aren't immediately attacking? Boom goes the Hobling.

Outside, traps only effect the person triggering the trap. If it is the hobling, then the army is safe. If it is one person hitting the hobling, that one person is hurt. Not a great plan/investment of funds.

Also you missed this gem:
Triggers for Area Traps must be entirely within the same Game Room where they are set and may not cross through partitions or barriers which would impede the effect of the trap.

Looks like no setting in one room and moving to another.
 
Thanks for the clarifications. I misread the "Treat this glade as an underground cave room" in the packet.

And it is a bummer that the trapper does have to enter the room first. But rereading the whole section they only need to spend 30 seconds arming a trap inside of a bag that has a trap container of the appropriate size for the area and then go boom - so it can be done quicker.
 
Absolutely lol. Traps are definitely better in some ways, but definitely worse in others.
 
3 second traps exist.

Weapon traps are reusable, have no damage limit, and hit in an AoE regardless of location.

No one is safe.
 
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People who have that trap dodge ritual are -kinda- safe.
 
I'm not sure your math is correct on the Shatters. Shatter Trap Globes are 20 pp each normally, but with the Master discount they only pay 4/5 the cost. That's still 16 coppers per Globe, or just over 6 Shatters for a gold. Still a lot! But far from 20 for a gold.

In terms of blowing up an entire tavern, well, that's something that can be done today. I don't see a big difference between the current situation and the 2.0 rules from that perspective :) Most taverns are going to be several Game Rooms, and people can certainly (in the extreme case) rig multiple Instant Trapped traps together to blow everything up in that tavern. This seems like something which would probably have PvP and/or Plot repercussions - but the only difference from today is that it becomes somewhat easier to do so; the capability exists in 1.3 as well.

-Bryan
 
Yup, my math was way off. Not sure what the heck happened there although I'm a little out of practice with the rules. It would be 4 gold for the first 25/first batch in my original statement.

However, the trap blowing up thing becomes more than 'somewhat' easy to do. Let us say that a tavern is 10 game rooms large. In order to have everyone affected by an explosive trap in that room, a person would need to walk into the tavern five feet, find a place to set up a trap, arm it for 30 seconds (assuming master trapsmith) then move 5 feet again, set another trap for 30 seconds, and repeat until the entire area was trapped so that when one goes off, they all go off. Assuming that an average 'game room' area is a 20 x 20 square area, that's 40 traps, taking 20 minutes to set up, all the while having no one wonder what all these boxes every five feet were around - unless I am wrong about this as well - like I said, out of practice.

In 2.0, a person would need a bag that could hold 320 cubic inches (8"x8"x5"), sit down in the corner of the tavern for 30 seconds then can affect everyone with the explosion. Although I do not disagree that there should be PvP and/or Plot repercussions from such an act, I also am one who always believes when a rule is written to find out how someone could pervert it enough to upset the game as a whole.
 
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ARB said:
Scroll Traps are a new type of trap which behaves much like a Gas Trap but takes a Battle Magic scroll instead of a Gas.
This is probably a no, but I can't resist asking. If Scroll Traps behave "much like" a gas trap, does that mean you could stack damage scrolls on a single trap much like you can stack damage gas globes? If not, would that be something to consider?
 
Technically you can't stack Damage gas globes in traps in 2.0 because they don't exist, but assuming the rule otherwise works the same (stacking isn't listed in the Gas Trap section as No Longer A Thing), my best guess would be that you could stack multiple Evocation Scrolls into one trap, so long as they were all the same Element (all Flame, or all Ice).
 
I guess the 2.0 equivalent for Gas Damage Globes would be Blast Globes? If stacking for gases is still a thing, it would make sense match your idea with scrolls and state you can only stack Blast Globes if they all have a matching element?
 
I'm not sure Blast Globes can go into Gas Traps, because by technicality they aren't Gas Globes? They use the Elemental qualifier rather than the Poison one, which means if you want to get SUPER picky they don't qualify as a gas that can be put into the trap. I just don't know how picky ARC wants to be about that distinction, so I can't really do more than speculate on that.

@Polare, is there already a rule on this and I missed it, which is making me sound needlessly pedantic?
 
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