In general, it is not possible to buy poisons or traps on the open market and they cannot be selected as starting goods. Occasionally one can find a poisoner or sadistic trapsmith in vile dens of villainy, but they are not expected to be found commonly or easily (essentially, as the story requires). You should not build a character around the conceit that you will have access to poison or trap vendors. The most common way to obtain poisons and traps is by crafting them.

For the sake of balance GMs should not make poisons or traps available to players if the DC of the item in question is greater than 20 + the party’s level.

Things like poisons and traps are in a unique design space. They are items and items are not tied to your level, nor should they be (see: “Mountains Don’t Get Harder to Climb” in the GM section). A bomb thrown by a commoner explodes just as hard as one thrown by a 20th level adventurer and that presents a unique challenge in making those items as relevant at level 1 as they are at level 20. The crafting of poisons and traps can limit what you can make but not what you can use.

The maximum DC a poison or trap you can craft is equal to 10 plus your base bonus in the relevant skill. For example: If you have +10 in Fieldcraft, the highest DC your poison can have is 20.

To craft a poison or trap you follow the normal crafting rules (covered in the skills section); generally a trap or some poison can be made during a short rest.

Refresher: To craft an item you must spend money on material (the cost of the base item), spend time to craft it, and then attempt a skill check. If you succeed, the item is crafted. If it fails you can attempt it again by spending more time.

Poisons, venoms, toxins, and other chemicals that have adverse reactions on the body are referred to as “poisons”.

You cannot attempt to craft traps with a DC above 10 plus your base bonus in the relevant skill. For example:If you have +10 in Tech Lore, the highest DC your traps can have is 20.

If you fail the save you are affected by the poison and get a new save every minute until you either resist it or die. Its effect ends when you have successfully saved against the poison once.

Traps are a key part of adventure design and present challenges to adventurers without the need for creatures. A trap is defined as any hidden mechanism (natural, mechanical, or otherwise) designed to waylay or harm those who trigger them. These can be as simple as a snare made out of a pulled back tree-branch or a quickly covered pit and can be as complex as magical or technologically advanced devices of tremendous power.

A trap is triggered by the means described in its entry. This could be a creature entering a particular area, opening a particular door or chest, or failing a puzzle. Upon triggering it imparts the damage or other effect upon the target of the trap.

This is the effect the trap has when triggered. While this is most commonly damage imparted to the creature who triggered it, it can also be other things like spells, conditions, opening or closing doors, etc.

A “generic trap” is one that is hidden in some fashion, can be disabled, and deals damage. It has a level, bonus, DC, cost, trigger, target(s), and damage.

• Level: This is the level of the trap.
• Bonus: This is the value used for any roll the trap makes. It is a measure of its quality.
  • A generic trap’s bonus is: Level + 5.
• DC: This is used when you try to spot, disarm, or craft a trap.
  • A generic trap’s DC is: Bonus + 10 (or level + 15)
• Cost: This is how much a trap costs to make or buy.
  • A generic trap’s cost is: Level x 50 GP.
• Trigger: How the trap is triggered.
  • A generic trap is triggered by a creature touching an object.
• Target(s): Who the trap affects when it is triggered.
  • A generic trap affects the person who triggered it.
• Effect: This is how much damage a trap deals or what effect it has when triggered.
  • A generic trap deals 1d8 damage per 2 levels.
• Reset?: Does the trap reset, and how long does it take to reset. Does it require some resources? Does it only reset under certain circumstances? Etc.
  • A generic trap does not reset. It can be used once and then fails.

This “generic trap” can be modified in various ways to make a near infinite number of deadly contraptions. See “Creating Traps” in this chapter for ways to modify a generic trap. You can also find premade traps later on too!

• Damage Type: Traps deal either slashing, bludgeoning, or piercing damage.
• Bonus Explanation: A trap is assumed to be “Professional” at whatever it is doing and is assumed to have a 2 in its relevant stat. Therefore its bonus is Level + 5.
• Traps Making Checks: If a trap is supposed to do something (it's part of its form or function) it is treated as if it were Professional and has a +2 in the ability modifier. If it isn’t something it was made to do, it automatically fails such a check. A scythe lashing out from the wall trap can make an attack roll, but it can’t play someone in chess.
• Object: A trap is an object.
• Unaware: If you are unaware of a trap, it targets your unaware AC.

Very few traps will be obvious and out in the open; their designers want to catch people off guard after all. Most of the time you’ll have to make a skill check in order to spot a trap. This can be accomplished using Perception (Detect: Hidden) or Technology Lore (Detect: Trap). It should be noted that Perception won’t directly point out a hidden trap, just let you know that there is one nearby.

The most direct way to avoid a trap is to not trigger it. Once you figure out what sets the trap off you can simply not do that; don’t step on the pressure plate, don’t take the ruby off the pedestal, and avoid the rug that covers the pit trap.

If avoiding the trap isn’t an option, you’re going to have to try to disable it. This involves a Technology Lore (Disable Traps or Locks) check, taking 1 minute of time. A GM can decide that a particularly complex trap takes more time to disable. If time is an issue, we recommend making the disabling of the trap a skill challenge (see Skill Challenges for more details).

If all else fails, figure out if the trap resets; if it doesn’t, you can have someone in the party set it off and hope they survive. Of course, if the trap seals off routes or does something other than dealing damage, this may not be a popular option.

You use Technological Lore to craft traps. Like with all items you spend the cost of the item in materials and then set to work. Crafting one trap can be done during a short rest.

In some instances you can use other skills to craft traps. For example, it might be appropriate to use Fieldcraft to craft basic hunting traps (typically with a level of 5 or less) out of the environment or the Aquatic skill to rig up something like crab pots to catch crustaceans at sea.

You cannot attempt to craft poisons with a DC above 10 plus your base bonus in the relevant skill. For example: If you have +10 in Fieldcraft, the highest DC your poison can have is 20.