Wards and magical traps

[Puckohue]

I'm reading the Pavis and Big Rubble Companion vol 5, Beyond Pavis : adventures in the valley of the Zola Fel River. It has a couple of expansions to some of the scenarios in Borderlands & Beyond. Personally I find it very inspiring, and I will use several of the ideas and expansion maps. But often I find it too cheesy (as are some things in the original B&B scenarios), especially when it comes to traps and magic mechanics, things like "When you open the chest a rock falls from the ceiling" (not an actual quote, but almost). I'm ignoring most of that stuff. But still, traps and magic protections are part of the genre, so I'd like to exchange the cheesy stuff for non-cheesy variants.

What ways are there for an adventurer to set a trap, magical or otherwise, around her treasure or room, in accordance with the game rules? The Rune Magic spell Warding can be stacked to do a maximum of 4D3 damage, if I'm not mistaken. The Device skill doesn't give examples of traps that can be constructed.

What would you consider non-cheesy traps and protections?

[jajagappa]

2 hours ago, Puckohue said:

What would you consider non-cheesy traps and protections?

Bound spirits with attack conditions is probably the most likely.

[Akhôrahil]

Outdoors, all kinds of booby traps make sense. Pit traps, tripwires, punji sticks...

indoors, not so much. Why bother with a trap when you can just have a sturdy door?

Edited January 4, 2020 by Akhôrahil

[Sumath]

A trap could be just an alarm that brings guards running or wakes up the dogs. Or a coating on a wall that makes climbers lose their grip half way up.

It could also be something that destroys the contents of a chest if set off (e.g. sensitive documents).

Most traps found within a building ought to be non-lethal, or as @jajagappa notes highly selective in who they affect, and therefore magical in nature.

Edited January 4, 2020 by Sumath

[Zit]

You can get some ideas from the Balastor's Barack or other supplements :

(spoiler)

A bag full of inflamable liquid hanging on the ceiling on which an ignite spell is cast (somebody must be able to cast the spell).

A cockatrice behind a curtain / door / whatever an adventurer would have to remove, or simply hidden in a dark corner
 

But also...

The flaming guardian in Griffin Mountain.

Latrines or any other place infested with disease spitrits (spirits are typical RQ guardians).

Hornets nests belonging to a Gorakiki initiate

A bag holding a one or several whirlwishes with the treasure (or ripping off when opening something)

Undead can trigger traps, like pushing a rock, opening a valve, etc.

 

[Puckohue]

I've had a look at the binding enchantment stuff (p.249f). If I understand it correctly, it would be possible to enchant an item (i.e. a religious idol) with a spell conditioned to be cast on non-initiates touching the idol?

What spell would be a good idea to have cast at people you want to deter/kill?

And when the mp storage in the enchantment has run out, the "trap" is "off" until someone refills it with magic points, right? So the number of times the spell could be cast is rather limited. After the first few looters in the ancient abandoned temple are burned it's probably safe to touch the idol again.

[Puckohue]

A bound spirit is set free when the binder dies. So is it not possible to have an active enchantment in an ancient site where the spell caster died ages ago?

[Sumath]

If you need a trap, narratively, I wouldn't worry too much about compliance with RQG enchantment rules. But if you want to, you could say that a guardian temple spirit (as per RQG Bestiary) that belongs to the god of the ancient site activates the spell and provides the renewable MP for it.

[Joerg]

2 minutes ago, Puckohue said:

A bound spirit is set free when the binder dies. So is it not possible to have an active enchantment in an ancient site where the spell caster died ages ago?

There is a way around that: use a controlled spirit and make it cast the spell binding the spirit in the trap. Spirits don't die of old age.

Both Dominate and Summon spells in sorcery are active spells. With a strict reading of the rules, a sorcerer should be unable to have a guardian spirit acting independently on his behalf without something like a bargain, and he should never be able to have more than one spirit or other creature under his control at any time. But then Urvantan's Tower shows that this isn't the intended use of these spells.

The Humakti spell of "Bind Ghost" doesn't appear to be dependent on the caster being alive.

Undead spirit masters are a sort of loophole here, too.

Thanatari Mad Head ghosts should definitely outlast the decapitation or other methods of demise of their makers.

[Puckohue]

11 minutes ago, Sumath said:

I wouldn't worry too much about compliance with RQG enchantment rules

I know and agree. My players would definately not think "wait... there's no spell like that!". I guess I'm just trying to learn the rules a bit, and asking for inspiration for problems for the adventurers that doesn't feel silly (like the rock falling from the ceiling when the chest is opened).

 

13 minutes ago, Joerg said:

use a controlled spirit and make it cast the spell binding the spirit in the trap

Thanks

[g33k]

On 1/6/2020 at 5:20 AM, Joerg said:

There is a way around that: use a controlled spirit and make it cast the spell binding the spirit in the trap. Spirits don't die of old age.

Also, a Shaman could bargain with a potent spirit to bind a lesser spirit to a trap; then the trap lasts as long as the potent spirit lasts.

A priest could petition their God to bind such a spirit; I presume the trap & binding would need to be something the god really wanted to happen.

[redmoongoddess]

On 1/3/2020 at 12:32 PM, Puckohue said:

I'm reading the Pavis and Big Rubble Companion vol 5, Beyond Pavis : adventures in the valley of the Zola Fel River.

Sorry for the necro, but where, exactly, did you find a copy of this? Ebay?

[Puckohue]

4 minutes ago, redmoongoddess said:

Sorry for the necro, but where, exactly, did you find a copy of this? Ebay?

I found it when I unpacked my RQ stuff. I probably got it at a convention back in the days. Or Ebay, I can't remember. I bought one of the issues from a Swedish collector this winter.