Coldin's Trapmaking Guide

[Coldin]

This is a short simple guide to making traps. Since traps can be a bit complicated, I’ve tried to separate it into multiple parts.

For those looking for just the recipes, please go here.

The Basics
First off, there are a few basics every trap-maker should know.

The only way to do any crafting is the Trapmaking feat. At 4th level a rogue is granted this automatically. Other classes can purchase the Trapmaking feat so long as they meet the prerequisites. The trapmaking feat allows two things. It lets a rogue use crafting stations to make traps, and it allows a rogue to harvest parts from the boxes he disables.
Once your rogue has the ability to collect trap parts, you should find your pack beginning to fill with an assortment of parts as you quest. Every box you disable has a chance of bestowing trap parts, and trap boxes are the only place to get parts. Your chance of parts, and how many you receive depend on four things.

1. The level of rogue. (The higher the rogue, the more parts you’ll get)
2. The level of quest. (Again, the higher, the better)
3. The DC of the trap. (Tougher traps generally give you more parts. This has the most effect on the parts you'll receive.)
4. Having Rogue Mechanic I + II (Increases the chances that a trap will give parts)

However, it is always a random amount of parts. These factors just better your chances of getting a larger amount of parts. Sometimes a box will give you 1 part, another time it will give 15. Since you do have a random amount of parts, your best bet to obtaining many parts are to go to quests that have many trap boxes, especially many boxes of the same type of trap, such as Fire or Mechanical. It’s important to note that if a single box controls multiple traps of different types, that box will only give one type of trap part.


There are 8 types of trap parts, each corresponding to their particular type of trap that the box controls.

• Mechanical (Spikes, Blades, ect.)
• Fire
• Electric
• Acid
• Cold
• Sonic
• Force
• Holy (Currently no associated recipes)
• Unholy (Currently no associated recipes)
• Magical (Both Poison and Spell Traps)

In addition to trap parts, there are a few other trapmaking ingredients

• Flasks - Crude, Simple, Unadorned (Only from the Free Agent Vendor located in the Harbor after achieving 75 Free Agent favor)
• Elemental Essences (Available from chests, end rewards, and deconstructing magical items)
• Siberys Dragonshard Fragments (From chests, broken barrels, and collectibles)

All of the parts do stack by type, but I highly recommend heading over to the Twelve and claiming the free small ingredient bag as soon as possible. If you plan to do serious crafting on your rogue, then you’ll want to invest in a larger ingredient bag and potentially a small soul gem bag as well.

[Coldin]

With parts, you can make traps, specifically two types of traps. Mines and Grenades.

Grenades are very much like the various bombs that kobold throwers have, or like the sun flasks during Festivult. They fly in an arch, and can be aimed to hit places a bow might miss. They can also simply be used while targeting, and they will usually hit the monster. Grenades are splash weapons, so it’s best to use them when there are many monsters gathered close together and out of reach.

Mines function in a unique way. When used, you will enter in a short duration and a small device will be placed on the ground. After a second, the mine will set, indicated by a small light switching on. After that, any monster that steps on the mine will trigger the explosion. Since mines can be set up in the midst of combat, they are very useful when surrounded.

The weaker mines only have a blast radius similar to a fireball. The average and large mines however have an area of effect of twice that size. Deadly mines are even larger, with an area of effect that will hit an entire room.

If you plan to use mines regularly, it is important to make sure that DC is as high as feasibly possible. Since the DC is based off the total Disable Device skill, equipping an item to boost the skill is a good practice before setting up traps. Mine DC’s are determined in the following way.

• Normal Rogue : Disable Device Skill* 1/3
• Mechanic I Rogue : Disable Device Skill* 1/2
• Mechanic II Rogue : Disable Device Skill * 2/3

Magical Traps are a very unique type of mine. You can only use a select list of spells from 1st to 3rd level with magical traps, and all of them are focused towards crowd control. Examples include: Grease, Glitterdust, Hold Person, ect. These traps function similarly to mines, except when they activate, the spell is cast. The DC of these traps are dependent on the enhancements the rogue has, the level of the spell, and the rogue's intelligence. Unfortunately, since these are low level spells only, they are not very useful in higher level content.

• Normal Rogue: 10 + Spell Level + Intelligence Modifier
• Mechanic I Rogue: 10 + Spell Level + Intelligence Modifier + 2
• Mechanic II Rogue: 10 + Spell Level + Intelligence Modifier + 4

Crafting

Crafting the traps is a very simple process provided you have all the ingredients. First you have to find a Crafting Station, one of which is located in the Harbor among all the warehouses. It's marked by many glowing runes, so it should be easy to spot. If your guild is high enough, these crafting stations can be rented on the airship.

The process of crafting is similar to the Mabar and Droamm crafting in the game. You open up the interface and will see a list of the various recipes available. Placing in the various materials will narrow down the list, and when you all the items are inserted, press the construct button. Recipes can still be finicky, so always make sure to check you're making the right trap.




THIS SECTION IS NOW OBSOLETE. TRAP RECIPES NO LONGER REQUIRE SOUL GEMS. I WILL LEAVE THIS HERE FOR THOSE CURIOUS ABOUT THE PAST.
Of special note is the Soul Gems. Since Soul Gems can only be acquired through the use of the Trap the Soul spell, some rogues may find them difficult to obtain. These gems may be found on the AH, but your best bet is to find a wizard or sorcerer to help you. The spell component for the Trap the Soul spell are Khyber Dragonshards. Fragments of these can be found in chests, but Tiny Khyber Shards can also be purchased from the Portable Hole at a small cost. These Tiny Shards can then be combined using a Stone of Change to make Small Khyber Shards, and then again to make Average Khyber Shards.

When used to trap souls, Tiny Shards will capture weak souls (HD 10), Small Shards can capture normal souls(HD 20), and Average Shards can capture Strong Souls (HD 30).

In regards to the trap crafting recipes, soul gems are important in making the strongest versions of traps. Elemental traps must match the same type of elemental soul. For example, a Fire Trap needs a Fire Elemental Soul Gem. Both sonic and force traps have no elemental associated with them, so the gems associated with those types are currently unknown. The pairings are listed below.

• Fire = Fire Elemental
• Acid = Earth Elemental
• Electric = Air Elemental
• Cold = Water Elemental
• Sonic = Magical Beast ~ Courtesy of Ghoste
• Force = Aberration ~ Courtesy of Ghoste

[Coldin]

Recipes


All recipes follow a pattern, so I will outline the basic recipes. In all traps, replace <Elemental> with your element of choice.

Specialty

• Noisemakers
  
  • Recipe: 25 Mechanical Trap Parts
  • Result: 15 Noisemakers (Creates a small noise after several seconds)
  
  

• +X Thieves' Tools
  
  • Recipe: 10, 25, 50, 75, or 100 Mechanical Trap Parts, +X Weapon (Must be a randomly generated weapon)
  • Result: 50 +X Thieves Tools (Only makes up to +5 Thieves' Tools)

• Iron Defender Module
  
  • Recipe: 10, 25, 50, 75, or 100 Mechanical Trap Parts, Handwraps (Must be randomly generated)
  • Result: Iron Defender Module with Identical Enchantments of Handwraps Used
  
  
  

Mines

• Weak <Elemental> Mine
  
  • Recipe: 10 <Elemental> Trap Parts, 10 Mechanical Trap Parts
  • Result: 15 Weak <Elemental> Mines (10d6 Damage)
  
  

• Small <Elemental> Mine
  
  • Recipe: 25 <Elemental> Trap Parts, 10 Mechanical Trap Parts, 10 Siberys Dragonshard Fragments
  • Result: 15 Small <Elemental> Mines (20d6 Damage)
  
  

• Average <Elemental> Mine
  
  • Recipe: 50 <Elemental> Trap Parts, 25 Mechanical Trap Parts, 4 Lesser <Elemental> Essences, 50 Siberys Dragonshard Fragments
  • Result: 15 Average <Elemental> Mines (30d6 Damage, Large Area of Effect)
  
  

• Strong <Elemental> Mine
  
  • Recipe: 75 <Elemental> Trap Parts, 25 Mechanical Trap Parts, 12 Lesser <Elemental> Essences, 100 Siberys Dragonshard Fragments
  • Result: 15 Strong <Elemental> Mines (40d6 Damage, Large Area of Effect)
  
  

• Deadly <Elemental> Mine
  
  • Recipe: 100 <Elemental> Trap Parts, 25 Mechanical Trap Parts, 32 Lesser <Elemental Essences, 250 Siberys Dragonshard Fragments
  • Result: 15 Deadly <Elemental> Mines (50d6 Damage, Huge Area of Effect)
  
  

Grenades

• Weak <Elemental> Grenades
  
  • Recipe: 10 <Elemental> Trap Parts, 25 Crude Vials
  • Result: 25 Weak <Elemental> Grenades (2d6 Damage, Reflex Save - 12)
  
  

• Small <Elemental> Grenades
  
  • Recipe: 25 <Elemental> Trap Parts, 25 Crude Vials, 10 Siberys Dragonshard Fragments
  • Result: 25 Small <Elemental> Grenades (6d6 Damage, Reflex Save - 16)
  
  

• Average <Elemental> Grenades
  
  • Recipe: 50 <Elemental> Trap Parts, 25 Simple Vials, 4 Lesser <Elemental> Essences, 50 Siberys Dragonshard Fragments
  • Result: 25 Average <Elemental> Grenades (12d6 Damage, Reflex Save - 20)
  
  

• Strong <Elemental> Grenades
  
  • Recipe: 75 <Elemental> Trap Parts, 25 Simple Vials, 12 Lesser <Elemental> Essences, 100 Siberys Dragonshard Fragments
  • Result: 25 Large <Elemental> Grenades (20d6 Damage, Reflex Save - 24)
  
  

• Deadly <Elemental> Grenades
  
  • Recipe: 100 <Elemental> Trap Parts, 25 Unadorned Vials, 32 Lesser <Elemental> Essences, 250 Siberys Dragonshard Fragments
  • Result: 25 Deadly <Elemental> Grenades (30d6 Damage, Reflex Save - 28)
  
  

Magical Traps

• Magical Traps*
  
  • Recipe: 1 Scroll, 10, 25, or 50 Magical Trap Parts, 10-25 Mechanical Trap Parts
  • Result: 15 Magical Traps
  
  

*Note about Magical Traps: Magical traps can only be made with scrolls of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd level debilitation spells. This includes the following:

• 1st Level Spells
  
  • Daze
  • Cause Fear
  • Grease
  • Hypnotism
  • Sleep
  
  

• 2nd Level Spells
  
  • Blindness
  • Glitterdust
  • Hypnotic Pattern
  • Resistible Dance
  • Scare
  • Touch of Idiocy
  
  

• 3rd Level Spells
  
  • Deep Slumber
  • Dispel Magic
  • Halt Undead
  • Hold Person
  • Slow
  
  

[Coldin]

A short collection of various other information about traps. Feel free to respond to this thread with your tips and tricks.


Tips & Tricks

• Mines can be used in combat without being interrupted. Very useful when surrounded by many monsters.
• Mines will not draw agro towards you. Grenades will. Especially handy when you wish to defeat a monster without alerting it’s friends.
• Placing a noisemaker near a set mine is a great way to lure a monster onto a trap without giving away your position.
• Noisemakers can be used for moving a monster away from a lever, out of a doorway, or around a corner for a stealthy kill.
• Grenades are launched in an arc. Enough practice, and monsters can be hit where conventional ranged weaponry would be blocked.
• Grenades are treated like darts for the monster attacked, meaning sneak attack damage can be dealt assuming all other requirements are covered.
• Having trouble finding small Khyber shards for Trap the Soul? Tiny gems can be purchased in the Portable Hole.

Looking for trap parts? Try these quests.

• Taming the Flames: Many Fire and Earth Elementals. Great place to collect soul gems.
• Gwylan’s Stand: Many Mechanical Traps, and assorted Elemental Traps.
• Church and the Cult: Several Fire Traps, several Cold Traps, and a few Mechanical Traps.
• Relic of a Sovereign Past: Many Magical Traps, though not till the very end.
• Vault of Night: Many Mechanical Traps and several Electric Traps.
• Monastery of the Scorpion: Very many mechanical traps, easy to get to with little fighting.
• Made to Order: Has a lot of different elemental mines to disable. Note that you might need a group to get to them all. - Thanks Adken!
• Eyes of Stone: Has a good number of Cold Traps in the library
• Siegebreaker: End fight has several different types of elemental traps to disable several times. Might want to bring someone to fend off the other monsters. - Thanks DaJonez!

Have any other places that you know have a lot of traps? Reply to the thread or send me a PM and I'll add them to this list.

[Quarterling]

Well hurry! I've been farming Monastery of Scorpion for mechanical parts, and I want to know how I can use them.

200 parts in under an hour btw, it's good stuff.

EDIT: Wow, that's fast! +1

[dranreb]

Reserved for Coldin.

[Coldin]

Well hurry! I've been farming Monastery of Scorpion for mechanical parts, and I want to know how I can use them.

200 parts in under an hour btw, it's good stuff.

EDIT: Wow, that's fast! +1

Hehe. I tried to get my data up as quickly as I could, but a lot my editing in word didn't transfer over.

Edit: I plan to add more in the next couple days as I can. But I figured I'd post what I have so people had a reference for recipes and such.

[lord_odin]

I made 5 small acid mines, and im pretty sure it just took 25 acid parts + 10 mechancial + 10 siberys dragonshards which then gave me the 5 mines, I'll make some more later to make sure it took 10 mechancial, opposed to the 25 mechanical you have written down in your formula. Also my rogue is a level 20 assassin 3 and i was farming the Hiding in plain sight quest on Elite and the first trap gave me acid parts, 2nd trap gave me mechancial, 3rd trap dependin on where and what it was gave me either fire parts or mechanical, the 4th trap gave me mechanical. I got 0-10 parts at each trap location.

[Coldin]

I made 5 small acid mines, and im pretty sure it just took 25 acid parts + 10 mechancial + 10 siberys dragonshards which then gave me the 5 mines, I'll make some more later to make sure it took 10 mechancial, opposed to the 25 mechanical you have written down in your formula. Also my rogue is a level 20 assassin 3 and i was farming the Hiding in plain sight quest on Elite and the first trap gave me acid parts, 2nd trap gave me mechancial, 3rd trap dependin on where and what it was gave me either fire parts or mechanical, the 4th trap gave me mechanical. I got 0-10 parts at each trap location.

I'm pretty sure it was 25 mechanical, but there's a chance I could be wrong.

As for those HIPS traps. The first box you run into controls the acid/poison traps. It will always give your acid parts. The second box controls the spike trap, so that will give you mechanical parts.

As far as trap boxes controlling several different types of traps, I think the only way to know what parts it will give is to simply disable it and record it somewhere.

[Alexandryte]

Mind terribly if I copy this info over to the ddowiki Coldin?

[Coldin]

Mind terribly if I copy this info over to the ddowiki Coldin?

I planned to do it myself tomorrow, but feel free as long as you give me credit.

(You can take credit for things on a wiki, yes? )

[Alexandryte]

Aye. Listed you as the source already.....currently wikifying it.

[Coldin]

I made 5 small acid mines, and im pretty sure it just took 25 acid parts + 10 mechancial + 10 siberys dragonshards which then gave me the 5 mines, I'll make some more later to make sure it took 10 mechancial, opposed to the 25 mechanical you have written down in your formula. Also my rogue is a level 20 assassin 3 and i was farming the Hiding in plain sight quest on Elite and the first trap gave me acid parts, 2nd trap gave me mechancial, 3rd trap dependin on where and what it was gave me either fire parts or mechanical, the 4th trap gave me mechanical. I got 0-10 parts at each trap location.

You are correct. It is only 10 mechanical trap parts. I'll have to verify the other mine recipes later to see if they are 25, or 10. Thanks lord_odin.

[lord_odin]

your welcome, but really Thank you Coldin for putting together this guide. It really helps to understand on what all is needed to craf your gernades/mines. Now with your guide in place, all the rogues of ddo can enjoy making things go BOOM. So thanks again Coldin for your guide.

[Alexandryte]

Aye...ty Coldin ^_^ (Editing done for tonight)

[Coldin]

Alright. I verified a few of the recipes, and changed the ones that had incorrect values. I also updated some of the formatting in hopes it will be easier to read.

If anything is unclear, or you think there's something else this guide needs, please let me know.

[LeLoric]

Coldin, do we know if tha magical traps use the same dc base as the mines? Or is there another formula here?

[Coldin]

Coldin, do we know if tha magical traps use the same dc base as the mines? Or is there another formula here?

From what I can tell, magical traps actually use the DC from the scroll being used. So a glitterdust trap is only going to have a DC of 12.

[Rabbi_Hordo]

I'll +1 ya in 24 hrs after I reset! LOL

Great Job!

[LeLoric]

From what I can tell, magical traps actually use the DC from the scroll being used. So a glitterdust trap is only going to have a DC of 12.

Ouch that's really weak especially since magical parts seem to be the hardest to get.