The Bone Pillar D&D Trap - Esper the Bard's Emporium of Esoterica - Dungeons and Dragons Traps

[@raytheerudite5252]

The bone dice are a nice touch. Love Esper’s stuff.

[@WallyDM]

Thanks! And, yep. It has been fun coordinating this with Esper. The Emporium book is magnificient. Cheers!

[@mikemckinney7031]

I love this Bone Pillar trap, and the minis getting a skull shower during the video.

[@WallyDM]

Awww yeah. Making it rain with skull terrain! lol. Thank you Mike!

[@trumblefamily7832]

I added this to a set piece boss battle (4th level, 5e) and it made for a very dynamic encounter! Brilliant idea, Esper! Thanks for the video, Wally! Top quality as always.

[@WallyDM]

Hooray! I'm glad that you and your players enjoyed the encounter. I hope to present another one of Esper's ideas in a few months. Stay tuned!

[@esperthebard]

I applaud you, sir! You really went all out on this one, an excellent presentation here. I quite like the touch of the sinister laughter.

[@WallyDM]

Thank you Esper, I'm glad that you liked how this came out. I am super-stoked to have your book. So many amazing ideas. And... cool that you noticed the sinister laughter. I also included plenty of Magic the Gathering miniatures and art for ya. lol. Cheers, my friend!

[@TomMcSod]

This will definitely be in my next session! I love it's scalability, and the fact that I'm throwing my nerds into a chronomancer/necromancer's dungeon, so it absolutely fits narratively.

[@WallyDM]

Hooray! Perfect timing then? Glad I could help. Cheers!

[@HowtoRPG]

Nice combo Wally and Esper.

[@WallyDM]

Thank you Fred! I'll probably do another one in the future and try to get Esper in the video next time, lol. Thank you again for introducing us!

[@DungeonDad]

This is excellent

[@WallyDM]

Thank you for watching, my friend! I appreciate you. :-)

[@TheAceman1100]

I like this a lot. I think another cool way to scale it would be to have a couple pillars in the room maybe in a boss fight

[@WallyDM]

Oh, dang, absolutely. Having two or three pillars would be a lot of fun (for the DM, anyways). lol. Great idea Aceman!

[@jamesd9015]

Thanks for another great video, Wally! I love the usability of a trap like this, as the whole idea could be changed to suit any scenario. Maybe the players are on a deserted island and rather than a bone pillar, it's like a Totem from an old forgotten tribe. Same could work on a space-bound session with aliens. Any flavour could work with this; countless possibilities to be used anywhere at any level. Great explanations as always!

[@WallyDM]

I love the idea of this being a Totem! Heck yes, that would be super-cool. Thank you for watching! Always good to see my Discord friends in the comments. ;-) Cheers!

[@Lexaire]

It's simple but engaging, and more importantly it offers an interesting paradigm: traps during combats. Always great decision trade offs when there's pressing issues like dealing with the trap during a combat, and you generally need to keep the trap simple or with a defined process to keep things moving during combat. EBEP01-The-Iron-Titan from the Oracle of War AL campaign has a bunch of scenarios like the Bone Pillar.

[@WallyDM]

I also find the trap + combat to be intriguing. Complex traps are relatively new to me and I'm starting to appreciate them more. In fact, another complex trap will be out in 2 weeks. ;-). But yeah, I'm a fan of this one for sure. Simple and easy to run. I'll have to check out those references, I'm not familiar with them. Cheers!

[@biffstrong1079]

Very Cool. Like this one as is.

[@WallyDM]

Yeah, Esper has some really good traps, for sure!

[@FlutesLoot]

Bone Pillar is ready

[@WallyDM]

Ready to crush.

[@NegatveSpace]

I've been trying to think of ideas for an arena one shot, a rival team and traps. While watching your video I thought of how about two side by side gauntlets made up of traps and obstacles, one for the player's characters to go through and one for the rival npcs to go through! At the end could me a plot reward. :)

[@WallyDM]

I love this as an obstacle in a gauntlet. That would be so much fun!

[@TriMarkC]

Hopefully no speed running through, either. They have to deal with each one to get to the next challenge.

[@elmi17]

Imma put this in the Hall of Bones in Ravenloft but adding the dragon skull on top of it to utilize the dragon's breath weapon as another attack option. Thanks for idea my guy ✌️

[@WallyDM]

You are welcome! I am glad that you will be able to use this in your game... and tell your players, I'm sorry. lol. Cheers!

[@TriMarkC]

Very nice mod to this idea!

[@122MrShorty]

i love traps like this where there are multiple solutions for creative players.

[@WallyDM]

Me too! This one definitely covered a lot of bases and was well thought out. Cheers!

[@Vaggumon]

Oh... looks like I'm buying a new book.

[@WallyDM]

The book is really, really good. For sure.. Esper definitely put a lot of his life's work into it. Cheers!

[@M33f3r]

Would be cool if the number and type of skulls in it changed depending on how hard of a trap. A really basic one would be 3 goblin skulls. A really max level one would be a dozen dragon skulls or something

[@WallyDM]

Ooooh, I love the idea of different sized skulls, as well! Thank you for sharing. :-)

[@dr.feargood2669]

I like this; very scaleable and would fit into any dungeon. Map-making time.

[@WallyDM]

Excited to see what you come up with!

[@vger9084]

Cool video, I think I can work this into a Star Wars game as a Sith dark side construct.

[@WallyDM]

That is awesome that you can use this in a Star Wars game! So cool. Thank you V'ger!

[@vger9084]

@@WallyDM D6 SW doesn't have a wisdom attribute so I'm thinking that the Terrible Cackling will be an Intimidation vs the PC's (Knowledge) Willpower skill. A 🎲 on the Wild die would have them flee the room for 1D6 rounds(until they get their courage up).

[@greatmoustache8731]

Interesting trap idea. I could see a few ways to potentially scale it or modify it, and some fun ways to tie into lore for the world depending on location. Thanks for sharing it.

[@WallyDM]

Thanks my friend! Glad you enjoyed the trap. :-) Glad to have you back. Cheers!

[@TriMarkC]

I’d love to see the build for these traps! BTW the display cases on far L & R could also be part of this as a scaling element. Perhaps if the main Bone Pillar is physically destroyed, those two are charged by the necrotic energies released. Since only semi-complete, they don’t have all the same properties, but the each get part of the original’s abilities.

[@WallyDM]

Oh wow, I really like that idea for the display cases. It's a great way to extend the encounter if the bone pillar goes down to fast. Great ideas, thank you! And, glad you enjoyed the trap. Feel free to offer any suggestions on what type of trap you'd like to see next and I'll see what I can do. :-) Welcome to the channel, cheers!

[@b0baf00t8]

Cool trap. And I like your ideas for scaling this trap up.

[@WallyDM]

Glad you liked the idea. Thank you. :-) Cheers!

[@RIVERSRPGChannel]

This is a good trap I like the scalability too

[@WallyDM]

Thank you Rivers!

[@minimoose7890]

"Muahahaha!"

[@WallyDM]

Love me some evil laughs. :-)

[@cassiacmueller]

I like this one a lot! Will def try to use it in out upcoming session

[@WallyDM]

Hooray! Also, great to see you. Hope you have been doing well. :-)

[@cassiacmueller]

@@WallyDM I am doing great! Hope u as well 😄

[@WallyDM]

@@cassiacmueller Good to hear! And yep, I've been busy, but doing good. Cheers!

[@dbretton]

It's this really a trap?

[@WallyDM]

Yes. This is a "complex" trap, which is different from a normal trap. _"Complex Traps work like standard traps, except once activated they execute a series of ACTIONS each round. A complex trap turns the process of dealing with a trap into something more like a Combat encounter. When a complex trap activates, it rolls Initiative."_

[@dbretton]

​@@WallyDM Would a stone golem be considered a trap?

[@WallyDM]

@@dbretton You might be able to play with some grey area with this. Perhaps the Stone Golem is created to remain stationary, but to attack when its perimeter has been breached. However, it is still going to roll for iniative as opposed to complex traps that have set initiatives per their description. Also, complex traps can be disabled through countermeasures, whereas golems typically are not. Most traps are set in place, where golems can move, and complex traps can have multiple functioning parts that act on set initiative of 10 or 20. But yeah, some grey area with constructs and traps. THis was an Interesting question that made me think a bit. I appreciate that. Cheers!

[@mmardh799]

spooky!

[@WallyDM]

Indeed! Thank you. :-)

[@brugernavnhvaderdet]

LOL, i saw the thumbnail and thought of the magic card the art is from. It is a terrible card, so i thought you would be talking about how it looks cool but is a "noob trap".

[@WallyDM]

lol, yes. This is from the card "Skull Storm", I believe. It's funny how a lot of terrible MtG cards have kick-ass artwork. Thank you for watching. Cheers!