End laming of random area traps

[Gnome on the Strange]

It's been said by the DMs before that you are not meant to deal with combat random events by sneaking past and looting the end boxes.

However, I've seen evidence the opposite case occuring.  People with no trap or lock skills going for the non-combat random areas where the only problem is traps and locks. I'd consider using summons to remove all the traps when you have no Disable as lame as sneaking past an army to beat the combat ones.

This could be mechanically prevented by just making the majority of them into persistent traps that won't vanish when triggered. People could still get a small reward for discovering the event, but would actually need skills to beat the intended challenge.

[Caster13]

I would say that there's a difference between intentionally springing a trap and sneaking past an army. A trap is one sort of challenge, an army another. There's also a difference between skill points and skills. Problem solving is a skill.
 
I've found a fair number of the Abandoned Hideout areas myself. I didn't bother using a summon to trigger the traps because I didn't have that many summon spells prepared. Instead, I just triggered the trap myself, took the damage, and then healed myself with bandages. Even if the traps are made persistent, one would just have to make sure not to open that same crate more than once.
 
If the DMs only intend for these Abandoned Hideouts to be completely accessed by rogues with skills in open lock, they'd make all of the crates locked instead of just the chest.

[ScottyB]

We even have summon items called Trap Springer-something-or-others (I forget the exact name). It's an RPG convention as old as time.

[Caster13]

2000.

[VanillaPudding]

We even have summon items called Trap Springer-something-or-others (I forget the exact name). It's an RPG convention as old as time.

Yeah, this. This kind of falls back to an old topic on archery and luring but you can't expect people not to use logic (in most cases). If you spot a trap and have no means to disable it but have a magical summon that can, why not?

[Gnome on the Strange]

Unlike the AI for archers though, this can be covered by simply having traps that don't go away. The trap triggering interrupts box opening, so a persistent trap effectively "locks" the box until it is removed. Make the majority of random area traps work like this and "Shit, I need a burglar here" for a traps random becomes as important as "shit, I need warriors" for a combat one. This would promote using teamwork or having the skills to be an explorer, rather than "Whoops, looks like yet another random emptied by a Druid with summons".

[Box]

I am pretty sure they have  the ability to tell who lamed the area, if they hear about it.  So if you notice it has been done just mention it to a DM and if they are so inclined they can check the logs.

I personally would be pretty sour if I found a random exploration area, fought my way through it and then some stupid trap meant I could never take the reward because nobody in my merry band of explorers has disable trap.

[ScottyB]

A druid that throws summons at traps is going to get spellfailure the moment we see it.*

Wizards get delicious evil points.

* Probably. I dunno. I don't log in, anyways. But you better have a good reason!

[BoomdaddyBP]

I actually haven't seen anyone utilize a summon for traps in a long time. Most people are willing to take the damage (which is a big risk in the first place) and I don't see why you would want to make all the randoms rogue only? Sounds silly as there are enough of them that you can only get the good stuff by having a true sneak. The only issue I've ever had is recently when someone decided to sneak pass an extremely difficult undead and its minions and after using enormous supplies to defeat them, finding out that such had been done.

[Drakill Tannan]

Anything openable by open lock skill should be openable by the knock spell too.

[Barehander]

There's really no need to make party forming any more difficult on a small server such as this. You can "promote" teamwork and versatile parties all you want, but it won't happen if there aren't people around.

[FleetingHeart]

Not having the right people for the job is no excuse to lame something.

To be clear though, my only view of 'laming' these is if all the loot is gone and none of the monsters are dead.

If you just can't do it right, don't do it at all.

[Ebok]

I personally would be pretty sour if I found a random exploration area, fought my way through it and then some stupid trap meant I could never take the reward because nobody in my merry band of explorers has disable trap.

Totally had this problem. Thankfully a DM was helpful since really... we were lucky to survive the fight to begin with. Traps are one thing. Locks on non-bash-able (non-"Knock-able") items means you either have a rogue in your team (which isn't always possible) or you simply get nothing.

perma locks make me sad and want to multiclass rogue with everything. :(

If you just can't do it right, don't do it at all.

You cant tell until the end of some of these. But yeah, kill them shits, or the group that comes in after thinking they're going to get some fun, gets robbed. This is also not cool.

[Gippy]

Just make it so druids can't do random areas. Problem solved!

[Gnome on the Strange]

This has gone off from my original topic, so i'll restate. i wasn't talking about combat encounters but the non-combat ones that are literally a room of trapped chests.  I'd say that for those, getting a trapper (which need not be a rogue, lots of my pcs have had crossclass lock or traps or a familiar) should be as necessary as having a goon for combat ones. If you can bash anything, and just soak any random trap, why would anyone bother with open lock or disable? Also having locked chests has led to interesting stuff on combat encounters like trying to dig up a lockpicker without revealing the location to a looter.