What damage does the normal thief trap do? and other trap questions...

Oxford_Guy

What damage does the normal (non-bounty hunter) trap do and what type is this (i.e. is it non-elemental/poison?)?

Also, how many points do you need to put into this for it to be reasonably reliable? Is it as simple as 50 points means 50% chance of successfully laying it? Is there ever a chance of a critical failure (i.e. the character laying it triggers it)? Thanks!

szb

Taken from the excellent thief guide here: http://www.gamefaqs.com/pc/470765-baldurs-gate-ii-throne-of-bhaal/faqs/27550

Unfortunatly it was written for BG2 so it doesn't have info on lvl1 traps, hopefully someone else can help us out there.

Level 6 Trap:
Deals 2d8+5 damage to any enemies within the area
of effect of the Trap when it goes off. This is non-magical damage
so Magic Resistence can't stop it (as is the same for all initial
damage of later Traps).

Level 11 Trap:
Deals 2d8+5 damage to any enemies within the area
of effect of the Trap when it goes off. In addition, for the next
three rounds, it deals 2d6 poison damage per round (hence
resistence or vulnerability to poison also affects the damage).
In addition, this extra damage also disrupts spell casting (like
Melf's Acid Arrow).

Level 16 Trap:
Deals 3d8+5 damage plus 4d8+2 fire damage to any
enemies within the area of effect of the Trap when it goes off.
Like poison, any vulnerability or resistence to fire also effects
the extra damage.

Level 21 Trap:
Deals 3d8+5 damage plus 20 poison damage to any
enemies within the area of effect of the Trap when it goes off.
Plus, enemies must Save vs Death with a +4 bonus or die instantly.
Again, the poison damage can be reduced or increased according to
resistence/vulnerability.

Oxford_Guy

@szb - thanks! Does anyone know what damage/effects traps do when thieves are levels 1-5? Also my other questions (chance of critical failure etc.)?

szb

I'm pretty sure the skill is works as it were a percentage so there is no point in going over 100.
No idea about the critical failure...5% would be my guess.(based on thac0 where critical failure is 5% so it would be consistent)

goodoo

Sadly I can't give you any exact number, but they do an awful lot of damage in my oppinion. Maybe it's somehow related to my difficulty setting, but just one trap laid by Imoen was enough to take half of the hitpoints of any major enemy. Needless to say now that she's level 6 and can lay two traps a day it's enough to severly damage or even kill characters from major encounters (don't want to spoil here).

As for critical failures: Yes they do happen. It's usually not fatal, but still annoying. In my current game Imoen has a score of 60 in set traps and she is starting to lay them reliably.

Oxford_Guy

szb said:

I'm pretty sure the skill is works as it were a percentage so there is no point in going over 100.
No idea about the critical failure...5% would be my guess.(based on thac0 where critical failure is 5% so it would be consistent)

So no point going over 95 then?

Oxford_Guy

goodoo said:

Sadly I can't give you any exact number, but they do an awful lot of damage in my oppinion. Maybe it's somehow related to my difficulty setting, but just one trap laid by Imoen was enough to take half of the hitpoints of any major enemy. Needless to say now that she's level 6 and can lay two traps a day it's enough to severly damage or even kill characters from major encounters (don't want to spoil here).

As for critical failures: Yes they do happen. It's usually not fatal, but still annoying. In my current game Imoen has a score of 60 in set traps and she is starting to lay them reliably.

Great, as I'm not going to dual Imoen and am relying mostly on Monty for stealth activities, I'd like to explore trap usage (never tried before!)

szb

Oxford_Guy said:

szb said:

I'm pretty sure the skill is works as it were a percentage so there is no point in going over 100.
No idea about the critical failure...5% would be my guess.(based on thac0 where critical failure is 5% so it would be consistent)

So no point going over 95 then?

If my 5% guess is correct then your right.
For example hide and move silently has negative modifiers(daylight and some armor types can decrease it), so for those skills it makes sense to have higher then 100. But no such modifiers (as far as I know) for open locks, find traps, set traps, detect illusions.

Oxford_Guy

szb said:

Oxford_Guy said:

szb said:

I'm pretty sure the skill is works as it were a percentage so there is no point in going over 100.
No idea about the critical failure...5% would be my guess.(based on thac0 where critical failure is 5% so it would be consistent)

So no point going over 95 then?

If my 5% guess is correct then your right.
For example hide and move silently has negative modifiers(daylight and some armor types can decrease it), so for those skills it makes sense to have higher then 100. But no such modifiers (as far as I know) for open locks, find traps, set traps, detect illusions.

Okay, thanks. I think (in BG2 anyway) Pick Pockets can benefit from over 100 too

Oxford_Guy

Okay, 2 final(?) questions about traps:

1) Once you've successfully laid a trap, is there any danger of your own party triggering it, or do only enemies trigger it?

2) Still need the trap damage/effects for thief levels 1-5, can anyone help? Thanks

szb

Oxford_Guy said:

Okay, thanks. I think (in BG2 anyway) Pick Pockets can benefit from over 100 too

Right, forgot about pickpockets. Yeah that skill can also benifit form higher then 100.

Oxford_Guy

Oxford_Guy said:

Okay, 2 final(?) questions about traps:

1) Once you've successfully laid a trap, is there any danger of your own party triggering it, or do only enemies trigger it?

2) Still need the trap damage/effects for thief levels 1-5, can anyone help? Thanks

Also:

3) If enemies trigger one of your traps, can you be caught in the damage?

szb

Oxford_Guy said:

Oxford_Guy said:

Okay, 2 final(?) questions about traps:

1) Once you've successfully laid a trap, is there any danger of your own party triggering it, or do only enemies trigger it?

2) Still need the trap damage/effects for thief levels 1-5, can anyone help? Thanks

Also:

3) If enemies trigger one of your traps, can you be caught in the damage?

1. Only enemies can trigger them
3. Nope, it will only damage your enemies... well there is the explosive trap high level ability, I'm not sure about that one. Thats the only trap that might damage you too, but all the others are safe.

Pantalion

Short of code diving the sucker, there's simply no documentation about what effects traps can put out. I can say it appears to be straight AOE Piercing (I believe it may be "magical" but I'm unsure) damage with no particular effect. How about Shadowkeeping a 100 Trap Setter with 255 Set Snares, then seeing the damage range against Candlekeep's Watchers?

szb

I did a small test, level 1 thief and set 25 traps and heres the result:
10, 15, 15, 13, 15, 14 ,12 ,13, 15, 15, 14, 9, 15, 11, 14, 18, 8, 15, 12, 18, 17, 15, 11, 9

Smallest damage was 8, largest 18. Sample size is small but I already got bored doing this much.

Oxford_Guy

szb said:

I did a small test, level 1 thief and set 25 traps and heres the result:
10, 15, 15, 13, 15, 14 ,12 ,13, 15, 15, 14, 9, 15, 11, 14, 18, 8, 15, 12, 18, 17, 15, 11, 9

Smallest damage was 8, largest 18. Sample size is small but I already got bored doing this much.

So 8-18 damage,

The level 6 trap does 2d8+5 damage, which is 7-21

8-18 (which of course could have lower or higher limits with that small sample size) could be something like 2d6 +8? i.e. 8-18? Though I'd be surprised if there is a +8 in there, given that the level 6 trap only gets a +6 (albeit to 2d8).

Anyway, up to 18 damage is still pretty nice for a low-level trap!

BTW does anyone know if the trap damage can damage creatures that can only be damaged by +1/+2/+3 weapons?

szb

Yeah its quite possible that the lvl1 trap does the same damage as the lvl6 one, and I didn't reach the
limits due to variance.

I'm quite sure they can damage anything. I recall using them a lot in my earlier BG2 game and I don't remember any case where they were not effective...maybe against some golem types (adamantine I think) who were immune to piercing damage, but the poison effect still worked there.

Oxford_Guy

szb said:

Yeah its quite possible that the lvl1 trap does the same damage as the lvl6 one, and I didn't reach the
limits due to variance.

I think you might be right, it could just be the number of times you can use set trap in a day that changes at level 6 (from once to twice).

szb said:

I'm quite sure they can damage anything. I recall using them a lot in my earlier BG2 game and I don't remember any case where they were not effective...maybe against some golem types (adamantine I think) who were immune to piercing damage, but the poison effect still worked there.

Cool, traps sound quite useful...

Mokona

Ah, I do love a good trap thread

Nukenin

As the good Admiral would say…

"IT'S A TR—"
*Nukenin is felled by a fish*

Prince_of_Lies

Oxford_Guy said:

Cool, traps sound quite useful...

They are rather powerful if used properly. They can also be exploited on creature spawn points, or on non-aggressive enemies (they go aggro, traps activate). Kangaxx comes to mind.

Oxford_Guy

Prince_of_Lies said:

Oxford_Guy said:

Cool, traps sound quite useful...

They are rather powerful if used properly. They can also be exploited on creature spawn points, or on non-aggressive enemies (they go aggro, traps activate). Kangaxx comes to mind.

BTW In BGEE the highest thief level you can reach is 10, so would be max of two traps/day at the "level 6" effectiveness - good, but not OP

szb

Prince_of_Lies said:

Oxford_Guy said:

Cool, traps sound quite useful...

They are rather powerful if used properly. They can also be exploited on creature spawn points, or on non-aggressive enemies (they go aggro, traps activate). Kangaxx comes to mind.

Wasn't that fixed in some TOB patch? I seem to recall the you could no longer place traps next to non hostile dragons and the like because they would turn hostile.

Oxford_Guy

BTW in TOB I think they also introduced a limit of max 7 traps in an area

Prince_of_Lies

@szb, Nah, you still could. I used it on Firkraag, the black dragon with the scroll for Crom Faeyr, and if the CHARNAME was evil, I also liked to use it on the silver dragon in the Underdark (only when other methods didn't work and I was fed up).

@Oxford_Guy, True, but it still deals a significant amount of damage before they can even react.