Old School Role Playing

Fighters in Dungeons and Dragons have been with the game since the very beginning. In the original game Fighting Men, Clerics and Magic Users were the only classes available. Other classes were introduced in the supplements to the game as they were devised. Fighters were called Fighting Men in the original booklets to the game. This title was changed to Fighter in all later editions.

Fighters in Dungeons and Dragons 1st Edition

In Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 1st edition Fighters were one of the core classes. Rangers and Paladins were considered sub-classes of Fighters. The Fighter was built for melee combat and little else. They were the best suited for such combat. They had the ability to use the best armor and all available weapons in the game. They had the largest hit dice (Paladins were equal to them) with a D10 for hit points. They used the best to hit tables. Overall they were a sturdy class and essential to success in the places where monsters lurk.

Any race could play a Fighter in 1st Edition. But some races were limited in what maximum level they could achieve.

Fighters in Dungeons and Dragons 2nd Edition

In AD&D 2nd Edition the Fighter was one of the Warrior group of classes. The class was later expanded upon by the release of the Complete Fighter’s Handbook. This book offered several sub-classes of the Fighter which could be used in game play. Such sub-classes included: Swashbuckers, Noble Warriors and Gladiators.

Fighters in Dungeons and Dragons 3rd Edition

Third Edition changed the Fighter Class substantially. Now Fighter abilities were treated as “combat feats.” These feats changed the nature of the Fighter from a brute force brawler to something else entirely.

Fighters in Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition

Fourth Edition changed the Fighter even more. Now the Fighter used a martial power source for their ability. Fighters chose between two different builds: Great Weapon Fighter and Guardian Fighter. Two more builds were offered in the Martial Power supplement. These builds were Tempest Fighter and Battlerager. The differences between these builds are as follows:

• Great Weapon Fighter – an offense oriented fighter
• Guardian Fighter – a defender
• Tempest Fighter – a dual wielding fighter
• Battlerager Fighter – use axes and hammers and benefit from temporary additional hit points

Fighters in Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition

In Fifth Edition the Fighter chooses from three martial archetypes starting at 3rd level. These archtypes are as follows:

• Champion – focuses on simple power
• Battle Master – focuses on maneuvers
• Eldritch Knight – limited access to magic

Other works have added many other archtypes. These include:

• Purple Dragon Knight – from the Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide
• Arcane Archer – from Xanathars Guide to Everything
• Cavalier – from Xanathars Guide to Everything
• Samurai – from Xanathars Guide to Everything

Fighters are tanks

Yes. I am stealing a word from video games. But it is essentially correct. They are the buffer between the monsters and the weaker members of the group that can deal exceptional damage. Magic Users, Wizards, Sorcerors, Illusionists and others can inflict huge amounts of damage on monsters. But they can do so only if they can stay alive long enough to use their magic to benefit the group. The key to their success is that line of fighters between them and the bad guys. By using their skill in melee combat the Fighter draws the attention of the enemy while the casters begin casting their spells. In this manner the Fighter is an essential character in an adventurer’s party. Now, it is true, that other fighter type classes can fill the same role. But none can fill it in quite the same manner.

Fighters in Dungeons and Dragons can use missile weapons too

They just do not choose to do so very often. But there are times when the enemy is out of reach. And there are times when the enemy is using cover or defending some structure where the Fighter is unable to meet them face to face. When this situation arises the Fighter is more than capable of using a ranged weapon to take down a foe.

Inspirations for the Fighter

The Second Edition Player’s Handbook mentions many examples of Fighters throughout history (and in mythology). Some of these were certainly the inspirations for the class creation:

• Perseus
• Hiawatha
• Beowulf
• Sinbad
• Spartacus
• El Cid
• Alexander the Great
• Charlemagne
• Hannibal

And of course…Knights in general were certainly an inspiration for this class. Dungeons and Dragons Editions mention Knights from time to time. It is more likely that the Paladin would be considered a Knight. But Knights were certainly capable of using heavy armor and were often trained in many different weapons.

If you enjoyed this article then you might enjoy these:

• Rangers
• Druids
• Paladins
• Monks
• Illusionists
• Bards
• Thieves

The Lich in Dungeons and Dragons is my favorite monster. And they have been around in this game since nearly the very beginning. The Lich was first introduced in the Greyhawk Supplement to Dungeons and Dragons in 1975. The Lich was then expanded upon in Eldritch Wizardry in 1976. The Lich as existed, in some form, in every edition of the game since that time.

Who can become a Lich in Dungeons and Dragons?

The answer to this is not entirely clear. In the Greyhawk supplement it could apparently be both mages and mage/clerics. Later editions seemed to limit this only to mages. I will delve into this subject again later when I discuss the process by which one becomes a Lich.

The Lich in Dungeons and Dragons 1st Edition

In 1st Edition the Lich was one of the listed creatures in the Monster Manual. It describes the creature has being created by powerful and arcane magic. And it mentions nowhere the possibility of anyone but a mage becoming one.

The Lich in Dungeons and Dragons 2nd Edition

The second edition of Dungeons and Dragons includes the creature in both the Monstrous Compendium Volume One and the Monstrous Manual. The creature is greatly expanded upon in the “Von Richten’s Guide to the Lich.” which was produced for Ravenloft.

The Lich in Dungeons and Dragons 3rd Edition

Third Edition lists the Lich in the Monster Manual as a template and is expanded upon in the Epic Level Handbook. In Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 it is included in the Monster Manual.

The Lich in Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition

The Lich is again mentioned in the 4th Edition Monster Manual. The Dungeon Master Guide for this edition gives a process by which one can become a Lich.

The Lich in Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition

The Lich is mentioned in the 5th Edition Monster Manual. It is as powerful a creature in 5th edition as it has been in all of the others.

How does one become a Lich in Dungeons and Dragons?

The process for becoming a Lich is described in several places in Dungeons and Dragons lore. The process was first described in Dragon #26. The article is called Blueprint for a Lich by Len Lakofka.

The process was much expanded upon in 2nd edition in Von Richten’s Guide to the Lich.

The process includes:

• Obtaining a phylactery of the highest quality. This receptacle will hold the life force of the Lich and must be made from expensive materials. Very expensive materials.
• Preparing the potion of transformation. The ingredients of this potion have changed slightly since the Dragon article but are more or less the same. They include a mixture of several poisons. This potion will end the life of the mage and begin the Unlife of the Lich. If this potion is properly made the mage will transform immediately. If it is not….then he or she will die.
• Rituals of sustenance must be performed in order for the Lich to continue in it’s new state. These rituals involve the acquisition of a fresh heart. This heart is used to create a special dust which is sprinkled over the body and in the eyes of the Lich

These rituals and potion are necromantic in nature. This suggests that in these later editions only the mage can transform into a Lich. However….an argument could be made that a Cleric (or other class for that matter) might become a Lich by hiring others to cast the necessary spells that they, themselves, cannot.

Magic use by the Lich in Dungeons and Dragons

The magical abilities and skills of the Lich continue in death. In the Greyhawk supplement it states that a Lich must have been a minimum of 12th level in life but that the average Lich is at least 18th level in ability. The 1st Edition Monster Manual bumps that level minimum to 18th level.

The Alignment of a Lich In Dungeons and Dragons

This too has evolved a bit. In the 1st Edition Monster Manual the Lich is indicated as being Neutral (evil) in alignment. But not Neutral Evil. This suggests that they are neutral but have evil tendencies. The 2nd Edition Monstrous Manual changes this to any type of Evil alignment. This is continued in 5th Edition. Yet there are references to good Liches in some Dungeons and Dragons literature. Specifically in the Monstrous Manual: Monsters of Faerun there is a reference to good Liches existing. So there seems to be some possibility of Liches of other alignments existing. These instances must be exceptionally rare.

What happens when a Lich loses interest in the physical Realm?

In the epic adventure module “Tomb of Horrors” a new variant of the Lich is introduced. It is called the Demilich. Unlike the Lich only a skull or even a skeletal hand will remain. This creature, however, is extremely powerful. It is perhaps more powerful in this form than previously.

What exactly is a Lich’s Phylactery?

It is a receptacle for holding the life force of the Lich. It can consist of a metal box, an amulet, a ring, a trinket, or some other device. Typically this phylactery is very expensive to make. Phylacteries in value of 120,000 or more gold pieces are not uncommon for Liches.

The appearance of a Lich

The Lich is not uniform in appearance. There are differences between them. These differences may well be the result of the process in which they transform themselves. In general, though, they will have a skeletal appearance. Their form will appear decayed and ancient. Liches have empty eye sockets but sometimes tiny points of light can be seen inside of the hollow cavity.

The Lich can easily be mistaken for other types of lesser undead such as wights, skeletons and mummies. But they are vastly more powerful than any of these. They are highly intelligent. They have plans within plans. And they still posses the same magical abilities and spells as they did in life. Only in Lich form it is likely that the Lich will have acquired many more magical items and much more magical knowledge than it had in life. That is because now the Lich is virtually immortal. It spends much of it’s time in these magical pursuits.

The Lair of a Lich

The Lich is not unaware that it’s existence to others is abhorrent. Therefore it takes great measures to defend itself from destruction. It will have lairs in dark and deep places guarded by traps, magic and other creatures.

Self Defense for the Lich

So how does a Lich survive for hundreds or thousands of years with all of these adventurers exploring dungeons across the realm? Very carefully.

The Lich is super intelligent. It will set death traps and false entrances to it’s tomb to fool and destroy others who would hunt it. The Tomb of Horrors is a good example of this technique. The Lich (actually Demilich by the time he is hunted in that adventure) has false entrances which are deadly traps. One could easily die in that adventure before reaching the real tomb.

The Lich plans for it’s eventual confrontation. It knows that others seek to destroy it. And it will take precautions to avoid this.

In my own campaign the Lich Malcon the Firebringer has been confronted twice by adventurers. And he survived both times despite being physically destroyed. This is because he hid his phylactery well so that others could not destroy his life force completely. The first time he was destroyed the adventurers did not recognize the nature of his phylactery. They saw it as a pretty treasure and sold it at market. After all….they were there to get treasure. And it was very valuable. The second time he was physically destroyed he had placed 666 phylacteries (or receptacles that looked like one) around his tomb. The adventurers naturally did not find and destroy all of them. Only one was the real phylactery and it was not found.

In addition to death traps and hiding the phylactery the Lich is also a master of other undead creatures. There are so many possibilities for guardians that any list would naturally be incomplete. But there is no reason that only undead creatures could serve a Lich. It’s very nature virtually guarantees that it is going to be the most powerful thing in a dungeon. As a result, any other creatures that wish to survive there, will almost certainly do service for the Lich.

The Lich almost certainly knows it’s own physical weaknesses. It will put many guardians between it and the delvers so that it can use it’s spells safely at a distance. And since the Lich is a high level magic user these spells can be awesome weapons of mass destruction. Some potential spells that a Lich will want to use first might include:

• Power Word Kill – Why take chances? Just use this spell and kill someone almost immediately.
• Power Word Stun – Lower level version of the power word. It is still a brutal quick use spell that will disable one of the enemies immediately
• Death Spell/Finger of Death
• Disintegrate – another nice instant kill spell (unless saving throws are made)
• Mirror image – why show one face when you can show several? This low level spell is a must for the Lich that wants to survive to become a Demilich someday
• Cloudkill – Why not throw it out in the middle of the melee? It is not like the Lich’s undead guardians are going to care about it. They are likely to be immune to it’s effects anyway
• Dimension Door/Teleport – in case things go badly
• Clairvoyance, clairaudience, other types of scrying – to see what your new friends are up to before they reach the final destination

Of course, since the Lich will have had hundreds, or thousands, of years to prepare for such encounters it will have researched and created many magical items for it’s defense. It is likely to be in possession of evil artifacts as well. These items may give the creature an edge over it’s enemies that is totally unexpected. It is also possible that in this time the creature may have discovered new spells never seen before by mortals.

As the Lich is incredibly intelligent it will immediately recognize the most dangerous of it’s enemies and target them. This will likely be the spell casters in the group. And the Lich will act accordingly.

Weaknesses of the Lich in Dungeons and Dragons

There are few weaknesses to these creatures. But they can be arrogant. And this can be their undoing. They will often not see mere mortals as being terribly dangerous to their survival. And they may dismiss them as no threat at all.

Their physical bodies are not extremely sturdy. They have limited amounts of hit points (depending upon the edition played). And they do not do excessive damage with physical attacks. If silenced the creature could be rendered ineffective completely.

And if the phylactery were to be discovered….the creature can be destroyed forever.

The Lich in Dungeons and Dragons can be a fearsome enemy and an arch villain

The Lich is likely to be behind many of the evil goings on in the realm. It always has plans in motion. With so much time on it’s hands it will be plotting new atrocities while conducting current ones. They are a foul creature and should be destroyed by those capable of doing so at the earliest opportunity.

Famous Lich from Dungeons and Dragons published adventures and literature

There are many such Lich out there. So many, in fact, that I am not so sure they can truly be classified as a “rare” encounter. But some of these Lich include:

• My own Malcon. Of course I had to list him first. If I failed to do this he would turn me into something truly nasty.
• Acererak from Tomb of Horrors. Ok. He was actually a demilich in that adventure but he was a Lich long before that.
• Vecna from the Greyhawk campaign.
• The Githyankee Lich Queen Vlaakith
• Kaangax from Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows of Amn
• Lyran from Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance II
• Vongoethe from Baldur’s Gate II: Throne of Baal

There are, of course, so many more. I could not possibly list all of them here. One should merely understand that if you enter the darkest and deepest places under the earth you might very well run into one. And that might be the last thing you ever see.

If you enjoyed this article then you might enjoy these:

• Undead in Dungeons and Dragons
• Beholders in Dungeons and Dragons
• Mind Flayers in Dungeons and Dragons
• Intellect Devourers in Dungeons and Dragons
• Displacer Beasts in Dungeons and Dragons

Villains & Lairs III Free is produced by Savage Encounters for Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition. Contributing authors for this product include: Casey Bax, Celeste Conowitch, D.W. Dagon, G.M. Lent, Hannah Rose, Janek Sielicki and Jeff C. Stevens.

This product is intended to help the overburdened dungeon master by providing a selection of detailed non player characters to use in a campaign. These characters can be used as villains, quest givers, patrons, allies or in many other ways.

Each character comes with a full statistics block and a detailed background. The character’s history, motivations and weaknesses are presented for the dungeon master to use as needed. Each character is far more than a wooden npc. Each comes with extensive background. Some come with specially made artifacts and magic items.

What I like about Villains & Lairs III Free

It is a very professionally made product. There is extensive artwork. And each NPC is presented in a beautifully made format.

Villains & Lairs III Free presents several characters which are well designed. Each of these characters can be plugged easily into a campaign without modification. This can save a dungeon master a great deal of time and effort.

This product is pay what you want. It says free in the title but it technically is not. But essentially it is free if you choose not to pay anything for it. You can find it on Drivethrurpg at the following link:

Villains & Lairs III Free

What I do not like about this product

Not a lot. I suppose it could be longer. And include more NPCs. But since it is free…….

Would I recommend this product to others?

Of course. It is basically free. So why not download it and use it? It could save you time. It could give you some good ideas for your own non player characters. It is definitely worth downloading and looking at.

Would I use Villains & Lairs III Free with my own players?

If I was running 5th edition at my own gaming table I definitely would use this product. Right now I am running 1st edition AD&D so I can see little use for it in that campaign. But as I write works, occasionally, for 5th Edition I likely will take ideas from this product to use in my own 5th edition adventures.

Traps in Dungeons and Dragons are a terrifying part of the dungeon delver’s life. Dungeons are dark and dangerous places. Those who live in these places do not like trespassers coming in and killing their friends and stealing their treasures. Those who adventure in these dark and deep places know to expect such dangers and prepare for them accordingly.

Traps have been with the game since the very beginning. The possibility of monsters hiding in every room seemed unlikely. It was only natural that some rooms would be empty, some rooms would have strange tricks and magical effects and some rooms would contain traps.

But traps are not limited to rooms. They can be found in many places in a dungeon. Traps can be found in hallways, stair cases, rooms, treasure chests and containers, ceilings and even in the wilderness itself. Nowhere is safe. And that is the point. No place in the dungeon should be safe. Not even places that do not appear to have monsters guarding them.

Room Traps in Dungeons and Dragons

Room traps can consist of many types of dangers. Not every trap is really a man made hazard. Sometimes a ceiling might be weak or there could be a hole in the floor created by age or some long forgotten event. These types of dangers are just as dangerous to the delver as a man (or monster) made trap.

Some room traps might include things like these:

• Crushing walls
• Crushing ceilings
• Walls or ceilings that move and also project sharp objects like spears or spikes
• Rooms that fill with sand
• Rooms that flood with water
• Vents that spray gas or dump acid and flaming oil
• Chutes that drop players to other levels of the dungeon
• Elevator rooms that move the whole party up or down a level or several levels
• Collapsing ceilings
• Stone blocks that drop from the ceiling
• Floors that are only an illusion
• Floors that tilt
• Pit traps

Of course this list is not all inclusive. There are many other types of traps one could find that might endanger all of those in a room.

Stair Case Traps in Dungeons and Dragons

One entering the dungeon for the first time should be cautious. One should not expect that entering such a place is safe. The way it could easily be trapped. Often such dark and dangerous places have multiple entrances. Those who dwell inside of the dungeon may well trap the more obvious places of entry and then use less obvious entry points for their own travel.

Some possible forms of staircase traps include:

• Collapsing stairs
• Stairs that turn into slides and drop the party immediately into combat (or into spikes waiting below)
• Hollow stairs that trap a single player or perhaps damage the leg of the trapped person
• Stairs that are actually only an illusion (and actually are a dead drop)

Hallway Traps in Dungeons and Dragons

The passages in the dungeon are not safe to travel without taking precautions. Someone in front of the party would be wise to be probing ahead with a ten foot pole. Failing to take such a simple precaution can quickly lead to disaster. Many a dungeon delver has met their doom for failing to do so.

Some possible hallway traps one might encounter could include:

• Pits
• Pits with spikes
• Pits with locking trap doors
• Walls that fire arrows, darts or spears
• Rolling boulders that are sitting on a ledge down some dark passage
• Passages which shift
• Portcullis which drop from the ceiling to block the way
• Trip wires and loose trigger stones in the floor which cause vents to dump oil or acid

Door Traps in Dungeons and Dragons

Sometimes even the doors one finds in the dungeon are not even safe. Sometimes they are trapped. Sometimes….they are the trap. Some possiblities:

• The door which is actually a mimic
• Doors which resist
• Doors which fall down when touched revealing some monster beyond the door which the adventurers would have preferred not to meet in this way (medusa perhaps?)
• One way doors which do not allow exit
• Springing doors which open and then slam shut on a delver
• A door which teleports the first person to touch it somewhere away from the rest of the party
• The guillotine doorway

Traps in Dungeons and Dragons have different purposes

Not every trap is intended to be a death trap to those who encounter them. There are many possible purposes for traps in Dungeons and Dragons. Some possible purposes might include:

• To wound or maim enemies and burn resources
• To capture intruders
• To sound an alarm that intruders are present
• To kill
• To channel enemies in a specific direction
• To protect treasures from theft
• To make a creative puzzle or obstacle

Traps in Dungeons and Dragons that wound or maim

Wounding, maiming and burning enemy resources is a basic purpose of the trap maker. When others enter a dungeon it is likely that they will have healing resources available to them. Causing them injuries may force the intruding dungeon delver to use up some of their healing spells and magic early and force them to leave the dungeon earlier than planned.

Such traps are often merely an annoyance rather than a serious danger. Some of these types of traps might include:

• Pits
• Vents
• Scything blades
• Arrows, spears, darts
• Poison gas (of all types)

Traps in Dungeons and Dragons that capture or confine

Sometimes the trap maker merely wants to capture intruders. Such intruders can be tortured, questioned or killed at leisure later. Many a dungeon has prison cells still filled with the bones of those who were taken prisoner.

• One way doors that allow entry but not exit
• Portcullis that slams down blocking the exit
• Cage traps
• Net traps
• Steel walls that slide down behind a door
• Teleporters that send delvers to a prison cell

Alarm Traps in Dungeons and Dragons

A trip wire, snare or a loose stone in the floor can be connected to something that does no harm at all to the delver but merely makes a very loud noise. Such traps alert guards that adventurers are present. The guards can then set up an appropriate ambush. Such noise traps might include:

• Gongs
• Rock slides
• Stone blocks falling
• Magic mouths which begin screaming when intruders arrive

Death Traps in Dungeons and Dragons

And of course…some traps are intended to kill. Why get one’s hands bloody when you can let the trap do the work for you? Sometimes it is just a good idea to set up some hazards that can be fatal to intruding adventurers who make a mistake.

Some possible death traps might include:

• Crushing walls and ceilings
• Deep pits with poisoned spikes
• Spheres of Annihilation in the mouth of a demon face on the wall (See Tomb of Horrors)
• Huge falling stone blocks
• Contact poison on treasure or coins

There are so many possible death traps one can put into a dungeon. Obviously players do not like seeing their beloved character slain by such traps. Even if it warms the heart of the dungeon master one should probably not put such traps in play without some possible way to escape from it.

Traps in Dungeons and Dragons that channel adventurers

Sometimes the designs of a villain are to force the adventurers to travel in a direction that is more dangerous than the ones they might otherwise choose. Setting up traps can lead to this. Such traps might include:

• Portcullis that drops and blocks a path
• Falling blocks
• Shifting passages
• Teleporters
• Caltrops that drop (and might be poisoned) in a particular path
• Whirling blades (blade barriers)
• Rolling boulders
• Flooding rooms and passages

Protecting treasure with traps in Dungeons and Dragons

The purpose of adventurers in entering dungeons and catacombs and lost tombs is to find treasure. Gold, gems and magic items are what drive the adventuring trade. Without such treasures one would not risk life and limb to explore such places. There are many possible ways to protect treasure with traps. Some possible ways are:

• Poison darts firing from a chest or from some other point in the room
• Poison gas spraying from the lid of a chest
• Magical rune traps painted on the inside lid of a trap or on the first page of a spell book found
• Poison needles that prick the finger of the thief that is picking the lock of a treasure container
• Contact poison on the treasures themselves
• Jaw traps that snap shut on someone reaching into a chest
• Chests which are not really chests at all but are instead a mimic (or killer mimic)
• Vipers or cobras placed inside of a chest to bite anyone opening it

Traps in Dungeons and Dragons that are a puzzle or obstacle

In order to break up the monotony of hacking and slashing monsters in every room and stealing their treasures dungeon masters often like to place puzzles and tricks in their dungeons. Sometimes these puzzles come in the form of an obvious trap that must by bypassed in some way in order to advance the goals of the delvers. The trap is obviously a hazard. The solution to removing or disabling the trap is the real puzzle. And it is not open and obvious.

There are literally thousands of such traps in various documents available on the web and in published sources. My own favorite is, of course, Grimtooth’s Traps in the many different editions. I mentioned these wonderful books in a prior article on this site many months back. If you do not own one you should look into them. They are written to be not system specific. And they have many complex and elaborate traps to confuse, maim and kill your delvers.

Traps of this type might include:

• The heat induction hallway from White Plume Mountain
• Sconces in a hallway that flip upside down and dump flaming oil from them when a trigger stone is stepped on
• Metal walls which are actually an electro-magnet and literally rip the metal armor from adventurers walking down the hallway
• Rooms with floors that tilt towards the weight placed upon them but appear to have something valuable on the far side of the room (or perhaps just have another passage)
• Swinging ropes across a chasm in the dungeon
• Bridges across chasms in a dungeon that might be real and might be an illusion

There are so many possibilities of traps that could be puzzling or merely an obstacle that I cannot possibly list all of them.

Traps involving animals and monsters

Some traps might include animals or even monsters. Why use a blunt instrument when you can really have fun with your delvers? Some of these traps might include:

• Traps which are manually set off by monsters in a dungeon in ambush
• Pit traps with wolves, hell hounds or displacer beasts waiting below
• Trip wires which close off all of the exits but release horrible beasts in the room with the intruders
• Loose stones in the floor which open up gates in the dungeon and release many new wandering monsters to plague the adventurers
• A gelatinous cube or black pudding waiting at the bottom of a pit
• Green slime placed conveniently over an archway

One of my favorite encounters in my games has been when a party of my players had gotten rather powerful in level. They pretty much were at a point when they marched through dungeons kicking ass and taking names. Nothing was much of a danger to them any more. Until they met a small group of kobolds……

These kobolds were waiting at the far side of a room. A couple of them held torches. The others held swords. They were taunting the adventurers as they arrived and waiting for the delvers to close in and melee.

My adventurers were cocky. They had no fear of a few kobolds. So they charged in swords swinging. And fell into a thirty foot pit which stretched out in front of the kobolds. The pit was filled with oil. And the kobolds dropped their torches in.

The spell casters and others in the back row watched their friends burn in horror as another group of kobolds sprang on them from behind………

Triggers that set off a trap

Traps in Dungeons and Dragons are often triggered by some device. Often these triggers are unseen by the delvers as they pass through the dungeon and they inadvertently set the trap off. Some triggers might include:

• Trip wires
• Weighted levers
• Pressure plates
• Loose cobble stones
• Flawed support beams
• Scales

The Dreaded “Click”

No traps in dungeons and dragons are as terrifying to the player character as the dreaded “click.” The delvers have their thief picking a lock and suddenly hear a click from the treasure chest…..or from the lock….or from behind them…..

Sometimes less is more. The adventurers will desperately fear what this click might be. Or worse…they might hear grinding gears somewhere off in the dungeon and not know what this means.

Sometimes just to mess with my own players when they tell me that they are opening a door I will tell them that they hear a click……. pause for a bit…… and then tell them that the door opens. This drives them crazy. And it makes them paranoid about traps.

Magical Traps in Dungeons and Dragons

I personally am not that big a fan of traps that just magically zap a player for damage. I do use magic in some traps such as the teleporters. But those do not just magically damage individuals. Now magical runes in a book or a chest are certainly used by me. But one walking into a room and getting zapped by a lightning bolt are not really that exciting for the player or the dungeon master so I use that sort of thing very sparingly.

Some traps in Dungeons and Dragons are more deadly than they should be

Sometimes the unpredictable actions of your players can make a trap more deadly than it should be. Or it can make a deadly trap not deadly at all. The reality in a role playing game is that players do not always do what is expected.

That same high level group that I mentioned in my story about the kobolds earlier had another deadly encounter with a trap that involved no monsters. This trap was deadly. And I fully expected that perhaps one player might die from it if the party was not careful. But instead….the entire party died. From a single trap.

The party came upon a crypt in a dungeon. At this point the party was high level and very powerful. They feared very little in the dungeon. So they did not even bother checking for traps on the crypt. They had already encountered a vampire in a similar crypt earlier. So they just shoved the lid off of this one. But the lid was very heavy. So all of the party crowded around the crypt and shoved off the lid.

The crypt released poison gas into the room. Everyone was close to the crypt so all needed to make a saving throw versus poison or die in 1D4 rounds. Poison in 1st edition was pretty brutal. Save or die is typical for 1st edition poison use. Naturally I assumed that one or two people might be close to the crypt when the trap went off. But all of them were clustered around it. All made their saving throw rolls. None rolled higher than a five. Total party kill. From sheer stupidity.

If you enjoyed this article then you might enjoy these:

• Thieves in Dungeons and Dragons
• Torture Devices in Dungeons and Dragons
• Sieges in Dungeons and Dragons
• The Tax Man in Dungeons and Dragons
• Psionics in Dungeons and Dragons
• Illusions in Dungeons and Dragons
• Illusions in Dungeons and Dragons Part Two