Spike Traps, WAAAAAY too powerfull!

[Telchar of Nogrod]

They should not have put this ability in the game. It unbalances the game too much. It's instant death. I noticed in WK level 5, the cleric spirits were immune to them. I hope more monsters are later on as well. I installed TOB after the Underdark. Now, I am in Hell after the Tree of Life, ready for the final showdown with Johnny boy. I don't feel bad about using the traps because they are legitamate; but, the satisfaction of winning a tough battle is nowhere to be found. I usually end up redoing the battle anyway. I guess it just shows how clever a thief can be. Brains over brawn. Of course, your feedback is what I'm looking for.

[The.Relic]

Well I definately understand what you are saying. They are extremely powerful. On the plus side though I have to say that at least, I take the time to set a trap or two now, whereas before I didn't even bother. The other traps didn't really do squat to high level opponents, and by that time, your party could pretty well handle all lower level enemies without using them at all. At least now I will expend the time and effort to set a spike trap and a time stop trap or two. And I have to admit that when I do go to this extreme, I usually have my dual Bounty Hunter/Mage handle the entire affair by himself, which makes up for the potential overbalance IMO.

[Ted Bigfoot]

Using traps teaches tactics. It definately is brains over brawn. a bit of thinking to replace the mindless hack 'n' slash.

I agree with The.Relic, my solo thief/mage places much emphasis on laying traps. Spike traps are by far the most deadly. However, they only target one opponent, whereas exploding and time trap allows you to hit multiple targets.

Although traps are powerful the thief may only set them out of sight of other creatures. Hence, surprise attacks leave the theif at his/her most vulnerable.

I think they are a good addition to the thief's weaponry.

[jabidas]

Dont like em, dont use em. Never realy have a theif high enough in level to use them myself.

[SixOfSpades]

The cheesiest things about traps in general:
1) They'll hit ANYTHING, not matter what the beast is protected from
2) They have such a HUGE trigger radius--A bad guy walks within 20 feet of a Trap, and his leg is bitten off.
3) You can lay all of them on top of each other in a big stack that will instantly kill anything in the game.

My suggested fixes:
1) Make Traps count as a +whatever weapon, based on the level of the Thief that set it, or perhaps on his Set Traps score. When setting each Trap, the Thief also has the option to make it count as a Normal weapon, in terms of what it can hit.
2) Cut the trigger radius by 75%, so the bad guy has to get within 5 feet of it to set it off. (They are triggered magically, you know, not by stepping on them. That's how they can hit Beholders and other flying enemies.)
3) Make it so that setting a 2nd Trap within the trigger radius of a Trap already in place will set off both Traps, doing damage to the Thief in the same manner as failing his Trap-setting roll would.

And get rid of the "You may not set any more traps in this area" thing. Fix #3 takes care of the cheese.

[Deathcow]

i like your idea about not having traps too close or they both set off...but an easy way to get around that is to just make a line of traps and lead your enemy over all of them

theyre dumb enough to walk over every one of them [img]smile.gif[/img]

[SixOfSpades]

Oh, yeah--I've been less than pleased with Time TRaps, but then I've only beaten ToB once. Jan didn't have much fun with them against Yaga-Shura, as I didn't really have time to pull a Time Stop or anything like that, and I think Big Yaga was immune to Jan's Backstab (could have been Jan's poor THAC0, but I thought THAC0 didn't matter during a Time Stop.)

Also, using them against Balthazar was a big mistake. I thought, "Hey as long as I'm making Balthazar follow me around this merry-go-round, I'll have him step on a Time Trap and let Jan lower his Magic Resistance." Bad Move. That's how I find out that Balthazar is immune to Time Stop....but my PC gets frozen in place like everyone else. Ouch.

[Xenturi]

I couldn't agree with you more telchar, so far nothing seems immune to them, I have tried using them against:
Demegorgon 7 spike traps= he died instantly
Every creature that had to be summoned, EX milisan died of 7 spike traps and it was the last battle, I felt a little strange when the solar came and I hadn't even broken a sweet.