D&D 5E Fire Trap

[pukunui]

Hi folks,

My DMG has annoyingly not shown up yet (maybe tomorrow?), so I'm wondering if anyone can tell me what the example traps in the book are. I've heard that there aren't very many, which is kind of disappointing. I'm specifically wondering if there are any specific examples of magical traps.

One of the PCs in my group is going to be searching a wizard's desk at the start of tomorrow night's session, and I want there to be a fire-based magic trap in it. If he triggers it, it could set the wizard's whole office, which is lined with bookshelves full of books and scrolls, on fire. The PC is 4th level.

Thanks in advance.

Cheers,
Jonathan

 

[PnPgamer]

At least how the system works, the traps work well in universal levels. Ie arrow trap is almost as dangerous at level 10 than it was in level 5, when considering chance to hit and overall damage area.

 

[Riley37]

How about this: whoever triggers the trap takes 3d6 fire damage; anyone next to that person takes 1d6 damage; as the fire spreads, anyone who starts their turn in the area or moves through it takes 1d6 fire; eventually, smoke causes obscurement and then suffocation.

Alternatively: Glyph of Warding, holding a Fireball. Potentially lethal. If he dropped to 0 HP, would anyone rescue him, or would his body get charred to ash? (And is the wizard level 5 or higher to cast those spells?)

Is a GoW always visible on whatever it protects?

 

[PnPgamer]

DMG has a fire breathing statue as a trap, dc 15 to spot the pressure plate, 30 ft cone, 4d10, dex for half. It also includes other fun details.

 

[PnPgamer]

The traps are separated into danger levels: Setback, Dangerous and Deadly. save dc and attack bonus depend on how those rise, ie 10-11 is the save dc of a Setback level trap.
It also lists trap damage, and categorized the amount with the danger levels.
Ie. the previously mentioned fire breathing statue is a deadly trap for 1st to 4th level adventurers, but only a setback for 11th to 16th level characters.

 

[pukunui]

Thanks for the tips. After posting this, I had a look through the spells in the PHB. I'm now thinking a glyph of warding with the shatter spell (cast at 3rd level).

Does the DMG talk about hit points for objects at all? I'm guessing your average wooden chair or leather-bound book wouldn't have many hit points but as the wild mage PC demonstrated last session, it's possible to only deal 4 points of damage with shatter ...

 

[Antz7766]

In fact there is. There's a table about object's AC and hit point.

For AC:
Cloth/Paper/Rope - 11
Crystal, Glass, Ice - 13
Wood, Bone - 15
Stone - 17
Iron, Steel - 19
Mithral - 21
Adamantine - 23

For HP:
Tiny (bottle, lock) - Fragile item (2 or 1d4), Resilient item (5 or 2d4)
Small (chest, lute) - (3 or 1d6), (10 or 3d6)
Medium (barrel, chandelier) - (4 or 1d8), (18 or 4d8)
Large (cart, 10-ft.-by-10-ft. window) - (5 or 1d10), (27 or 5d10)

Huge and Gargantuan objects they just have a guideline basically saying just wing it.

 

[Antz7766]

Note also objects are immune to psychic and poison damage. Other damage vulnerability/immunity on objects is up to you. Example was you won't be able to cut a rope with a mace.

 

[PnPgamer]

Hit points for objects vary from being fragile (all dices 1d4 to 1d10) and Resilient (2d4, 3d6, 4d8, 5d10), depending what size they are (tiny small medium or large)
I could go betting that it is possible to destroy a chair with 4 damage shatter, as I would count it as small, and fragile

Leather bound books are definately gone in a shatter, imo.

Objects do not have separate hardness, but an ac value, depending of the material, cloth and paper are ac 11, wood and bone objects are 15, and adamantine is a whopping 23.
AC is of course ignored by shatter spell
DM may also determine that if some type of damage is good/bad against something, ie bludgeoning doesn't work much on rope.

do note that shatter spell doesn't affect magical or equipped objects, ie it doesn't destroy anything on person.

 

[pukunui]

Cool. Thanks guys. I'm aware of shatter's limitations, and that's perfectly fine. I'm more looking to destroy most of the contents in the room so I don't have to try and figure out what all of it is ...

Does a healing potion count as a magic item for the purposes of being shattered, though?