Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Traps - Still Suck

Ok. I forgot how much I hated traps in this game. It's been awhile since my first playthrough, so traps became just an annoyance. Shoot them all from a distance or put pots on grates. Once you know where they are, they're lame and boring. Before you know where they are, they are

SUPER FRUSTRATING AND ANNOYING!

Found a new path near Sazza's cell that leads to the prison. Bunch of dumb torchstalk mushrooms blew the crap out of my main as I was exploring. Absolutely nothing I could do about it because by the time her Perception roll said she spotted them, I was already blown up. They didn't do a ton of damage each, but it was enough to weaken my main quite a bit.

I don't mind your traps. It's the detection of them that sucks. They are totally invisible, which is good, but I NEED to have Perception checks succeed or fail before I make a jump across a gap right on top of them.

I think a Tool Tip should be provided. Stealth is also Cautious Mode. Your character will actively search for traps if Stealthing. If not Stealthing, you use Passive Perception. If you are moving too fast, you may not see a trap.

But then, make sure Passive Perception secretly triggers 60 feet before you reach the trap unless darkness would hinder you. And for the love of all that's good, make sure if people Stealth, they definitely get the check long before they come within trigger range

Yes, the detection range is incredibly small when it comes to traps but I'm sure they'll increase it or tweak it, as there's not a moment to react once the passive roll check starts since by that time you already walked into it ^^

+1 to having a reasonable detection distance for traps, and I like the idea of that range increasing in Stealth/Cautious mode.

Are traps invisible, by the way? I only noticed part way through my last playthrough that I could often see a glow on the ground or other visible cue when there’s a trap (in the case of the torchstalks in the grove you can also see them glowing, though may not know to be wary of that until the first one has blown up in your face). But I’ve not gone back since to see if there’s *always* something to give a clue. And I’m not sure how I feel about that anyway - okay, it’s a nudge to me to slow down and give my guys chance to detect the traps, but it’s annoying when *I* can perceive a trap *right there* but my party can’t.

Any chance you just got super unlucky with your d20 perception checks? Every char makes a perception check separately from my understanding, hence why you let all your team mates walk side by side instead of running ahead.

Overall I agree that cones of perspective should be made larger as your trickery / stealth stat increase. I would be more then happy with a detect trap magical ability [cantrip]. And maybe a spell to disable all detected magic traps. Would make the under dark a lot less annoying to navigate

I saw the icon over her head pop up each time. Success. Boom. And the gosh darn chain system makes it worse. My companions jumped over just as the explosion would go off. One time I exploded and then the Perception check icon appeared and said success. As I was getting up, she said, "What's that now? Best watch out for those.". Um. Ya think? Day late and dollar short sweetie.

I get that if you are running around and jumping and not being careful there should be a higher risk of getting hit by traps. That's actually good. I actually don't like traps in either Pathfinder or Solasta because they are just annoying. You always detect them and can easily disable them as long as you have a good rogue with you. There's no real challenge to them.

What I want is what BG3 has now but just a smidge tweaked. Use that Passive Perception better. Don't have rolls/checks made as the party is running around. If they have a high enough Passive Perception, they automatically spot the trap way in advance. I'm approaching a jump with a trap on the far side. DC is 13. My Passive Perception is 13. The trap appears. My characters all stop abruptly as if I hovered over an enemy. "What's that? A trap.". If DC was 14, I would not detect it and Boom.

But if I'm Stealthing, then rolls are made. DC 15. That's higher than Passive Perception, so I have to roll. I roll 12+4 for Perception. The trap appears a good 20 feet ahead of me. Everyone abruptly stops. But make sure players understand. Stealth = Perception check.

I definitely think the chain movement mechanic makes this worse.

Traps in cRPGs are rarely fun. I think they should concentrate on setting traps rather than springing or disarming them as a more entertaining approach. Having more Battle of the Mounds in Conan style situations, or do Predator at the Goblin camp, or maybe Home Alone with one of the Tief kids to protect the grove? I don't know, searching for pit traps and tripwires is a hallmark I guess, but in cRPG it's always pretty metagame. It would be more fun with PCs and enemies setting traps on the fly, rather than having traps be like non com pathing puzzles, but the encounters are too static for that to really work either. Not sure what they could do to make it more dealing with traps interesting instead of an annoyance.

I don't know. I think the problem is that they overcomplicate them. Make traps invisible. You can't even see them as a player. If Perception is high enough, you stop dead in your tracks and the trap appears. You can then disable with Thieves' Tools using your Proficiency check. Succeed and disarm. Fail by less than 5 and try again. Fail by 5 or more and trap sprung.

In this way, it doesn't matter if YOU know the trap is there. Your characters have to see it to disarm it. If they don't, you can't go that way without triggering the trap. You might have to either forego whatever the traps are protecting or tank the damage.

Traps don't have to be complicated to be valuable in an RPG.

Traps are nothing but a nuisance when losing any amount of HP is as trivial as teleporting to camp and back, or even buying a cheap resurrection.

If resting was restricted and the player didn't have unlimited access to healing, traps would play an essential part in whittling down your resources, unless you have a specialist to deal with them.

That's the nature of traps, to be annoying to say it nicely.

Be happy that larian doesn't throw patrols in your face the moment you step on one. Now that would be annoying on a whole new level. Please do that!

Problem right now is traps don't really do much if anything at all, because the player can just rest up at any time. Ow, i got hit by 10 damage... i guess it's rest time.

If resting and resources was harder to come by, traps would drain player resources and that annoying factor would turn into a challenge. Sadly that's not the case.

But they did improve one trap! Druid cave traps can be turned off now and not just blown up. Not sure why without disarm check. At least it something, nicely done.

Traps were always a mechanic which I found problematic in cRPGs - they just don't translate well. Theoretically traps in BG3 work similarly to stuff like Arcane games or Gromrock - but interacting and avoiding traps in clunky top-down view isn't quite the same as doing it from FPS.

I think that Larian games are far more player driven, then character driven - a desire to give player options is pursued, rather then thinking about what a character we made should or shouldn't be able to do. Not that I approve of that, but I am just making an observation.

Yep i think that's the case as well. Makes sense after dos 2, where anyone can do anything.

Agree that traps in D&D are mainly meant to whittle away player resources so the players aren't at full strength for any encounter(s). This doesn't really work in BG3 because of the ease of long resting and the vast amount of healing potions we get. Assuming long resting mechanics and item abundance in BG3 won't change, the nature of traps in BG3 needs to.

Traps should have some notable consequence; if they just waste time then they should be removed from the game. Some examples of decent traps could be:
- Alarm traps, notifying some enemy of your presence.
- Environment affecting traps. E.g, blocking off a passage, forcing you to take a different, probably more dangerous, route. Or the opposite, where you need to disarm the trap in order to pass through (although I would probably classify this as a puzzle, not a trap).
- Traps that affect your gear/inventory. This would require very careful balance. Causing X camp supplies to rot could be okay; completely destroying worn armor is too much and would likely just result in players reloading.
- Traps that deal damage but also instantly start combat, so you don't have time to heal up.

I really like those 3 ideas, especially traps that affect the environment. Those could happen systemically with a destructible bridge next to explosive traps.

Now I think of it, BG3 already has traps that can destroy ladders. More would be welcome.

Same - "what if traps did something else then damage" might be a very cool avenue to explore.

Hey at least they are better then how pathfinder wotr did it. I think traps should perhaps vary. Tier 1-3 traps should just be annoying by wasting a rest, and or perhaps make you take a harder route by collapsing a tunnel etc.

Tier 4-7 traps would leave you unable to long rest. Maybe it would apply a curse similar to corruption in Pathfinder. Or long rest would heal you but only to 40%.

Tier 8-10 traps should be instant kills or summon huge army of mobs that get advantage and surprised round in you. Maybe even knock you prone.

The only purpose of traps in games has always been to irritate. In some games, this is more or less irritating, but in general this is their goal.
As for me, traps from bg3 are the same level as in pathfinder. The only difference is that when they are detected, npc at least try to avoid them.

They could just remove them from the game. It would definitely make the game better.

So many issues that are raised come back to Long Rest being a badly implemented mechanic. Traps aren't the problem, unrestricted resting is the problem. Their implementation of Long Rest just has a ripple effect on many things. They should redesign the resting system first before looking at traps. Or combat balance, class balance, spells etc.

Ok. I'm all for long rest restrictions, but I disagree with you here. Long rest has nothing to do with my characters spotting a trap AFTER it's already been triggered. The Perception check is too late, and I've been blown up before even knowing the trap was there - but I wind up succeeding in Perception?

Also, the implementation and purpose of traps in most games including BG3 is the issue. I'm all for traps. They make sense. However, if they are too easy to spot and disarm, they're just annoying. If they're too difficult to spot and disarm, they're just annoying because you get hurt and wind up having to reload and metagame to avoid them so you can continue the game, thus defeating their true purpose.

An example of a BG3 trap done right is in the dank crypt when you fail to trick the guy at the door. You pick the lock and enter the building anyway and BOOM. Party takes damage from a trap the guard guy set before running to get his friends. Get away from it quick before it goes off again! You can also then disarm it if you have the right equipment. This trap makes sense because you alerted the mercs that you're invading.

The traps I recently discovered that lead to the druid prison also make sense in terms of placement, etc. They are there to keep prisoners from escaping. The issue I had with them was the mechanics. I jumped from one spot to another. Boom! Perception check. "Watch out. There's a trap.". Um. Yeah. Too late. I just lost like 4 HP. If you'd actually made the Perception check like 2 seconds earlier, I'd have paused BEFORE jumping right on top of a bomb mushroom. And the chain system makes it so the whole party gets blown up as well because they all follow you over just as the bomb goes off. But you make the Perception check?

I also think the trap outside the Zhent stash in the Underdark is well done. If you set it off, you can't climb up to explore the stash area. THAT is a good, well-laid trap that makes sense and has good consequences. But again, the Perception check is too late to avoid accidentally setting it off.

I also don't like how Larian allows you to see the check is being done whenever you are to spot traps or anything special in the world. If you let us know there's a check being made, we KNOW something is there, but we can't do anything about it. I'd MUCH more prefer the checks be in secret and only IF someone makes the roll would the game reveal that there is something there. This is something Pathfinder does well, I think. As you're roaming the map, CHING. You spot a chest hidden in the bushes. If all your characters fail the check, it doesn't even let you know the chest is there.

If this is how traps worked, there'd be much less metagaming. You know the trap exists, sure, but you can't see it at all because the PCs failed the check. You may even forget it's there because no check was visible.

I like the traps. I enjoy sneaking forward, carefully and cautiously, exploring the environment. Finding traps and disarming them. It builds up the tension and feels great when I'm immersed.

I also think it makes sense to have the trap go off even when you make a perception check. That, to me, just means you were moving too fast. You noticed the trap at the last minute, but it was too late. You saw it right as you put your foot on it.

It's a signal to slow down in that area. Move forward carefully. Take your time and *FEEL* the tension.

*

I do agree that things like perception checks should happen in the background. It's too much of a "give away" the way it works now, in my opinion.