Hello Grimtooth fans! Grimtooth hopes you all had a great Thanksgiving. He gives thanks for all the PCs that have walked right into his dastardly traps over the years. And, in the true spirit of Thanksgiving, Grimtooth wants to hear YOUR thanks for the PCs you have killed! We have a new community achievement for you all:

Tell us how Grimtooth killed your PCs!

If we get enough stories of Grimtooth killing your PCs, we'll give all print backers a free sticker! See the Achievement listed below and tell us your stories in the comments!

And while we're here, let's talk about Perception checks in 5E as they relate to traps...

By Benn Ward 

These words were the bane of my GMing days when I ran published 5E adventures for a rogue with the Observant feat and expertise in Perception. What can a trapsmith do when the players—or worse, the adventure—thinks a single skill roll can circumvent an entire trap? Thankfully, in Grimtooth’s collection, we came up with some solutions. 

 

When converting these traps to 5E, we thought about how even detecting a trap can be a puzzle of trial and error. The Detection section in each trap entry outlines where the delvers actually need to be looking to notice the threat and what they see when they do notice it. Then your players have to figure out the trap themselves through some degree of ingenuity, not by simply rolling a die. 

 

We kept in mind that Perception isn’t radar: it doesn’t just ping when danger is nearby! Some traps only reveal themselves if the players realize what to check for. Any delver with a passive Perception 13 or higher can notice the unusual acrid smell coming from the “Gas Passage” trap, but only a character who stops to roll an Intelligence check will deduce before it is too late that they’ve descended into poisonous carbon dioxide. 

 

These traps don’t (usually) have a label that says “trap!” We didn’t simply give each trap a Perception DC and call it done. Instead, we often used more than one Perception DC and provided each DC with a hint about what kind of spring-loaded danger waits ahead. How will your players respond when you describe uneven cobblestones or a door overly tight in its frame? In Grimtooth’s collection, a Perception check doesn’t typically reveal the trap, just the hint of a trap. What happens next is up to the party—and how closely they’ve been paying attention!

 

Finally, Grimtooth’s traps are made for delvers who think the danger is over when they’ve detected the blade slot in the wall. In reality, the trapsmith’s fun is just getting started. Grimtooth’s traps are also made for players who like to think through a trap. And when the trap is sprung, and the delvers successfully avoided those crisscrossing scythe blades, it will be all the more satisfying that they figured out the trap on their own. 

 

A well-placed Perception check won’t ruin these traps. Where would be the fun in that? So when your players finally plummet into that magma-filled pit, they will blame themselves for not taking the heat as a hint—rather than blaming you for placing a death trap under their feet.

Now everyone - tell us your stories in the comments! How have you used one of Grimtooth's traps "back in the day" against your PCs - and preferably killed a few along the way?