About: Book of Gears (3.5e Sourcebook)/Dangerous Locations

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It is an undeniable truth that hunting goblins in a dank warren filled with dead falls and snares is both more exciting and more dangerous than hunting the same goblins in an open field. However, it must be stressed that the way 3rd edition D&D has traditionally dealt with this -- to give CRs to individual traps as if they were enemy monsters in their own right -- is both unsatisfying and unplayable. The fact is that you probably are never going to tell a story about the time your party was shot at by an arrow trap, it just isn't interesting in the same way that overcoming an evil necromancer or slaying a greedy dragon is.

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rdfs:label	Book of Gears (3.5e Sourcebook)/Dangerous Locations
rdfs:comment	It is an undeniable truth that hunting goblins in a dank warren filled with dead falls and snares is both more exciting and more dangerous than hunting the same goblins in an open field. However, it must be stressed that the way 3rd edition D&D has traditionally dealt with this -- to give CRs to individual traps as if they were enemy monsters in their own right -- is both unsatisfying and unplayable. The fact is that you probably are never going to tell a story about the time your party was shot at by an arrow trap, it just isn't interesting in the same way that overcoming an evil necromancer or slaying a greedy dragon is.
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abstract	It is an undeniable truth that hunting goblins in a dank warren filled with dead falls and snares is both more exciting and more dangerous than hunting the same goblins in an open field. However, it must be stressed that the way 3rd edition D&D has traditionally dealt with this -- to give CRs to individual traps as if they were enemy monsters in their own right -- is both unsatisfying and unplayable. The fact is that you probably are never going to tell a story about the time your party was shot at by an arrow trap, it just isn't interesting in the same way that overcoming an evil necromancer or slaying a greedy dragon is. And why is that? It's essentially because an arrow trap is not an encounter, it's an attack. Just a single salvo in an ongoing battle between you and the dungeon, not a battle in and of itself. And when looked at in that manner, the problem becomes obvious: a glyph of warding is a single spell. Overcoming it is like making your saving throw against the same Cleric's hold person, it's simply wildly inappropriate to stop the action and play the battle complete music at that point. So what do we do about it? Well, just as one does not stop and record a victory every time you bypass a summoned monster or overcome an opponent's thrown javelin, we shouldn't be worrying about the CR of individual traps. No, we should be concerned only with the CR of areas that have traps in them. For one thing, this means that we don't have to have endless arguments over whether people should get the XP for bypassing the symbol of pain on the door if they came in through the floor. For another, the act of avoiding that stupid argument really helps to encourage characters to play things a bit smarter and not simply run through the "Hallway of Leveling" where they go up a level every thirteen traps and get to 20th level in less than 150 doors.

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