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spacce1889
January 2nd, 2012, 18:52
for those that have run several games what is the best way to put traps in. Right now I just put the text in and roll manually. Does it run easier by entering them as a npc or item?

Trenloe
January 2nd, 2012, 20:03
I just enter a trap as a story entry and then enable shortcuts on my map and drag the story entry link to the map so that I can see that there is something there and then get quick access to the entry by clicking on the shortcut "pin". Then run the trap manually as necessary.

If the trap does some physical damage, I suppose you could create it as an NPC and put that in an encounter (so you can quickly add it to the combat tracker). Then, target the characters involved using CT targeting, roll to hit (if needed) and then apply damage. But, usually there are saving throws involved with traps and there's not really any automation from NPC attack entries for this.

As traps are usually a one-shot occurrence (one attack or similar) I just run them manually referring to the text in the story entry. There's no 100% built in automation in the ruleset that could be used for traps so even if you enter them as NPCs you have to handle some aspects manually so there isn't much saving for me trying to enter some aspects of the trap in an NPC.

PoisonAlchemist
January 15th, 2012, 08:26
As neat as automagic traps would be, it's probably fastest, easiest, and most flexible to just enter it manually. My setup is a bit different from Trenloe, I do pin shortcuts by room and on the room entry right after the description is any trap in the following format:

Trap Name (CR 1) mechanical
Perception DC, Save DC
Trigger, Other Info
Damage, attacks, effects ie 1d6 falling into pit.

jkagie
September 10th, 2017, 08:02
Manual is fine, but with an NPC you can set up a power ability that has actions for the save(cast), damage, and effects. If added to the tracker (hidden of course) you can target multiple NPCs and PCs. Otherwise you can drag the save, damage, effect to each target separately.

20420

Trenloe
September 10th, 2017, 14:46
This thread is over 5 years old and there is a lot more functionality in the 3.5e ruleset now.

There's a detailed example of using the trap functionality of the NPC record in his guide: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/wiki/images/b/b7/Adventure-a-Week_Module_Creation_Guide.pdf