Thursday, January 15, 2009

B14 (Upstairs Washroom)

This room contains a silly "gotcha" trap that doesn't really harry the party in any significant way (unless the rat in the room below is left alive long enough to bite any PC unfortunate enough to fall). It does serve as a reminder of the state of disrepair the house has fallen under, however.

Stat block(s):

6 comments:

Unknown said...

This trap is more technically a hazard isn't it?

Also, hi Scott. :D

Scott said...

I thought for quite a while about how to classify this one, but I think trap is the right call. As the DMG explains, "traps tend to be hidden and their danger is apparent only when they are discovered with keen senses or a misplaced step." Even though the collapsing floor was not created with malicious intent, it operates mechanically in the same way that a covered pit trap would - in fact, I based the stat block's design largely upon the sample False-Floor Pit trap in the DMG.

Besides, wouldn't you want your kobold to have a +2 bonus to defenses against the collapsing floor? ;P

Scott said...

Actually, I think you may be right. I'm going to look at some of the other published examples of traps to see if this would be creating an unwarranted exception.

Unknown said...

Scott, I don't think we ever established for certain (and for the public record) whether or not this constitutes a trap or a hazard. Can we get that in writing? :P

Scott said...

Hazard, for sure. If the DMG was ambiguous, reading over a number of other supplements (and especially Open Grave) has cleared it up. The primary distinction between a trap and a hazard appears to be intent of creation. It's pretty hard to see the collapsing floor as an intentionally designed trap unless you make the argument that it was Vorel's spirit that caused the floor to fall apart.

I'll change it to a hazard at the same time I go through and alter the haunts.

Scott said...

The collapsing floor is now properly a hazard.