Traps and Hazards

There are three ways for a GM to present an encounter with one or more traps: trapped objects, trapped rooms, and trap encounters.

Trapped Objects

The simplest, and perhaps most well known, means of presenting a trap is a single trapped object, such as a trapped door or trapped chest. This is a relatively simple pass/fail test that might inflict a little bit of damage on one or more characters in the party (and potentially an annoying condition), but most often will just slow them down a little and let them know that they are in a dangerous place.

A trapped object could be literally anything, from a doll on a shelf, to a scroll, to a window, but generally, there should be some reason that the object was trapped. Most creatures that trap an object do so with the intention of capturing, disabling, scaring off, or killing someone who attempts to go somewhere they are unwelcome, or who attempts to tamper with something that the owner doesn't want messed with. Of course, some creatures (like goblins) may trap a child's toy just for the sheer evil amusement of leaving it for some hapless child to find.

In any case, there are two skill checks involved with a trapped object:

• a Perception check to spot the trap in the first place, and
• a Disable Device check to disarm the trap.

Detecting the Trap

The perception check is usually an active check, rather than a passive check, though some crude traps might be so obvious that the GM will allow passive checks. The only creatures that are allowed to make the perception check are those who are either touching the trapped object (in the case of an unattended object, like a chest), or those who are adjacent to the trapped object (in the case of a structural object, like a door or window).

As a general rule of thumb, only creatures in the 'danger zone' of the trap can attempt to perceive the trap.

Disabling the Trap

If the trap is perceived by one or more creatures, someone can attempt to disable it before it is triggered. Again, this check can only be made by someone who is touching the object (in the case of an unattended object, like a chest), or those who are adjacent to the trapped object (in the case of a structural object, like a door or window). This is also the case with assisting the skill check -- the assisting character must be touching or adjacent, as appropriate, in order to assist.

There are three possible outcomes:

• No on noticed the trap, and the triggering action is taken (the chest or door is opened), and the trap goes off.
• The trap was noticed, but the disable device check was failed, causing the trap to go off.
• The trap was noticed, and successfully disarmed.

Trapped Object Damage

Trapped objects deal damage depending on a few factors:

• The CR of the trap
• How many targets are affected
• Whether a condition is inflicted, in addition to the damage, or not

A single target trap will typically inflict more damage than a trap that affects an area. A trap that inflicts a status condition will typically deal less damage than one that doesn't. In nearly all cases, the trap should allow a Reflex saving throw versus a CR-appropriate DC, for half damage and no condition.

A multi-target trap will most often affect every creature in an area of effect. Frequently, these areas of effect are small enough to not destroy the other contents of the location (assuming the trapping creature cares about the other parts of the location), but they can be bigger. GMs may wish to scale down the damage a little if the area of effect is large.

The following table provides some sample damage numbers for traps at various CR's:

CR	Single Target	Single Target w/ Condition	Multi-Target	Multi-Target w/ Condition	Save DC
1	1d6	1d4	1d4	1d3	14