The DM has many options when it comes to obstructing the party, but what beats a classic trap? These are ten of the most devious ones to use in D&D.

Although the players might disagree, there are many reasons for a DM to use traps when playing Dungeons & Dragons. First, it is a great way to keep things lively. Sometimes an adventure can get monotonous, or perhaps it wasn’t as challenging as the DM originally thought. A trap suddenly springing on the party will certainly get their attention and make the players more alert.

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Sometimes players get their characters to a level where they’ve fought everything, and nothing seems to give them too much of a challenge. Traps are a great way of reminding the players of the mortality of their characters. DMs should keep in mind the three basic trap types of annoying/diverting, damaging/debilitating, and fatal. Fatal traps should be kept to an absolute minimum though – if they are used at all.

Updated on August 11, 2021, by Jeff Drake: There are no shortages in the types of traps available for DMs to use against a party of unsuspecting players. The original ten traps featured on this list were just scratching the surface of what's possible. In an effort to give DMs more options, this list has been updated with five additional entries (traps) for DMs to remind players that their characters are far from immortal.

As always, if you're a DM you should take this article as a loose guide - feel free to alter these traps to suit your personal play-style or adventure. Also, always keep in mind that using too many traps in your campaigns will make players exceedingly wary; which can really ruin the flow of a D&D session.

The best part about pit traps is that they are highly customizable for a DM. The trap could simply open to a hole that has walls that are difficult to climb, or it could open to a short fall onto a bed of spikes – a short fall into a gelatinous cube is also an idea.

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The trap could also drop the party into a tunnel system that deposits the party at a place of the DM’s choosing. The trigger for a pit trap could also be nearly anything, but if the trigger is magical the players might spot it more easily via detect magic or a similar spell. There may be no trigger; the top of the pit could be illusionary.

This is triggered by looking into a magic mirror; which creates a duplicate of whoever looks into it – a perfect recreation of the original. The original’s items are also duplicated, but not magical. The duplicate immediately springs out of the mirror and attacks the character.

This trap could also have a delay of a few days or weeks, or the duplicate might be instantly teleported elsewhere upon its creation. This duplicate has the opposite alignment of the original and seeks to destroy the original and his/her friends. The duplicate might also gather a party of adventurers of their own to help in this quest.

This devious trap is triggered if someone passes through the trapped doorway without the proper “key”. The key could be anything – a feather, or copper, or a diamond worth at least 50 gold pieces. When passing through the doorway, a character is teleported to a specially prepared area.

This might be a holding cell; which hours later opens into a gladiatorial arena in which the party must now find themselves fighting. It could also simply teleport the character to the entrance of the dungeon – however, a DM risks a revolt among the players if this is placed too far into the dungeon.

These two spells are great trap spells for DMs to use - mainly because they can be used on just about anything. Glyphs of Warding are a little more serious due to the high potential damage output (5d6) and the fact the damage type can be selected by the caster. Save this type of trap for higher-level campaigns, as this spell has a good chance of killing lower-level party members.

Fire Trap is a spell from earlier editions that hasn't made its way into Fifth Edition yet. It does far less damage (1d4 +1 per level) than the Glyph of Warding spell and must be cast upon an object that opens - like a door, book, or chest. Fire Traps are more difficult to detect than Glyphs since glyphs placed upon an object can be seen with a successful intelligence check.

This trap can be tailored to the average level or hit point average of the party. The trigger could once again be almost anything; a pressure plate on the floor, a lever, or a magical barrier work fine. When the trap is triggered the area is filled with web spells – more than one web spell will increase the chances of members of the party being caught.

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Then a fireball is cast into the webbed area. Those caught within the webs not only take the fireball damage but the extra damage from the burning webs as well. The fireball does not have to be cast immediately. A generous DM might consider giving the party a minute to escape.

Place a few statues in a room; entrance halls are a logical location. They can be humanoid, but can also be an animal shape – like a wolf or a snake. The trigger for the statues animating, or golems if the DM wants to really challenge the party, could be if weapons are drawn in the room or if the party is not carrying a “key” of some kind.

The trigger might also be a command word – allowing the possibility of the party being able to control the statues/golems. If these statues/golems are in a treasure room they might activate if anything in the room is removed.

This trap is a particularly devious dungeon trap. The party enters a room and triggers the trap - which can be almost anything - and the doors close. Suddenly the ceiling starts moving down towards the floor. Alternatively, the walls could begin moving inwards like the trash compactor in Star Wars episode 4.

This trap is great due to its customization. The DM could have the ceiling move fast or slow depending on how much time they wish to give players to find a way out or stop the ceiling from crushing them. This can also be a good way to introduce an NPC; who comes along to save the party by turning the trap off from outside the room.

This trap is best placed in a narrow hallway. Place something of value, or apparent value, at the end of the hallway. When the party gets halfway down the hallway the floor tilts downward on one end, and grease begins covering the floor.

A good trigger for this trap would be a pressure plate or tripwire. The grease may either be magically created, or it can be fed into the room by tubes that are opened when the room tilts. The victims slide down the hallway toward whatever the DM wishes to have waiting. Spinning blades are one possibility – but again, a gelatinous cube always livens up the night.

Nearly every player who runs a thief gets complacent at some point. Their chance at opening locks eventually gets so good that failure is not likely. This leads to hubris. DMs wanting to punish the party's thief for this hubris can use the age-old, time-tested, spring-loaded poison needle trap.

These can be placed inside the lock itself, making them more difficult to detect. The poison can be adjusted by the DM as well - it could be a minor poison that causes minimal damage. It could also be a particularly nasty poison that causes a debilitating condition. Alternatively, instead of a single needle, they could spray out like a blast from a shotgun - making the whole party potentially pay the price for the thief's hubris.

To ensure the entire party, or at least most of them, are caught in this trap use a weight-sensitive floor in the trapped room. After 400 – 500 pounds, over what is already in the room, are added to the floor the trap is sprung. Anything with magnetic properties begins being pulled to the ceiling, the speed/strength of this magnetic attraction is up to the DM.

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This will affect most weapons and many armor types. A character wearing metal armor will be pulled toward the ceiling. Enemies native to the area might be waiting to ambush the trapped party members with wooden spears topped with sharpened stone heads. There could also be something unpleasant waiting for the party when they reach the ceiling.

The party enters a room overgrown by vegetation covering the walls and growing up through the large hole in the ceiling. If the party is underground use some type of fungal structure instead.

Waiting above this hole are several creatures known as cave fishers, and they have their adhesive filaments hanging down into the room. If a party member touches one of these filaments they become stuck while the creature “reels them in." The cave fishers might place their filaments near something that humanoids willingly approach – like a pile of treasure or a long-dead body.

Another creature that likes setting traps for its victims is the Umber Hulk. These beasts are excellent at tunneling through solid rock, and will often carve out a tunnel leading to a well-traveled passage. They leave only a thin rock wall and wait for something to walk by - at which point they will burst through that thin rock wall and attack.

Umber Hulks are no joke to deal with in a fight either. Even high-level parties can be brought low by an Umber Hulk ambush due to their ability to cause confusion in their victims. A group of Umber Hulks ambushing a party and simultaneously using their confusion ability is beyond devious. It is, as Billy Butcher would say, diabolical.

This trap is best placed in a confined area like a short hallway or small room. There are lighted torches along the walls with little holes above them; the DM might also have statues holding the torches. When the trap is triggered, the entrances to the area are sealed and flammable oil begins pouring out of the holes (or mouths if statues are used) above the torches – which ignites the oil.

It is up to the DM to decide how fast the room fills with this flaming oil, and if there will be anything for the party to climb onto to get away from the flaming oil. The oil can be turned off, and the room unsealed, by activating the lever located in the middle of the ceiling.

This is a trap that is hard for the players to predict. Upon entering a prepared area the victim is encircled by a wall of flame (as per the spell) 13’ in radius – creating a small area in the center where the victim won’t take damage. A magic mouth appears on the floor in front of the victim and asks a riddle, or for a password.

If the riddle is answered correctly the wall of flames disappears. This could be placed in a hallway, forcing every member of the party to have to answer a new riddle. If the answer is wrong the wall of flames begins shrinking toward the center – after one round the victim starts taking damage.

The party enters a 10x10x10 room with a small hole in the floor in the middle of the room, with a hole in the ceiling directly above it. Around the hole on the floor is a ring of pressure plates that are well hidden. As soon as someone steps on one of the pressure plates, the exits to the room are closed and a portable hole falls from the hole in the ceiling into the hole on the floor - which has an open bag of holding waiting in it. Just be sure not to put the pressure plates too close to the hole as this would give the players a chance to interrupt the trap.

When a portable hole is put into a bag of holding it creates a portal to the Astral Plane that sucks all objects within ten feet into it - including the party. This is another trap that is best reserved for higher-level parties because the Astral Plane is extremely inhospitable to outsiders.

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Graduate of Sam Houston State University -- Class of 2011 B.A. in History, minored in Political Science I have lived in the Houston TX area my whole life; love the winters...hate the summers. I have conducted scholarly research on, and written about, the use of ballooning for reconnaissance purposes during the U.S. Civil War, tort reform, voter initiatives and referendums, the formation of civilization, Ancient Rome, Mesopotamia, and the major religions. I am also an avid gamer and have researched the history of electronic entertainment extensively.