So I’ve been wondering about ways to make traps work more effectively. Wait, wait, go back a bit. Why do we even have traps?
What’s the point?
There’s a cynical soundbite out there for how people see traps as working in D&D: “We have to have traps to give the rogue something to do. We have to have a rogue to deal with the traps.” Basically it’s a circle of redundancy. If things really end up like that, it’s clearly a problem.
The first part of the adage is clearly cynicism. The second part is a bit true, though. Traps are built into a lot of prewritten adventures, and a party without a rogue is more or less powerless against them. That seems bad. Other obstacles offer multiple ways to deal with them: at least three classes can do arcane casting, healing, scouting and combat, plus scrolls or potions as get-arounds. Traps pretty much just have rogues.
