Folding Trap

Price (Item Level): See table

Body Slot:

Caster Level: 5th

Aura: Faint; (DC 17) transmutation

Activation: Standard (command)

Weight: 1 lb.

This is a small wooden ball the size of a large apple, every square inch of which has been etched with symmetrical Draconic runes.

Several varieties of folding trap exist, each based on one of these sample traps. The known variations on this item, along with each trap’s CR, price, item level, and construction costs are shown on the table below. Each name is hyperlinked to the trap’s statistics.

Once activated, a folding trap is indistinguishable from a normal trap of its kind except for the trap’s magical aura (see below). As a standard action, speaking the word “expand” in Draconic (turalisjth) causes the wooden ball to unfold into a trap that attaches itself to the available supporting framework (floor, ground, trees, walls). Speaking the word “shrink” in Draconic (kosjth), another standard action, while within 30 feet of the trap causes it to fold into a wooden ball once again. A folding trap’s carvings contain a hidden code that reveals the folding trap’s command words. (Decipher Script DC 20)

Table: Folding Traps
Folding TrapCRPrice
(gp)
Item
Level
Cost to Create
gpXPDays
Scything blade13,4008th1,7001364
Wall blade15,0009th2,5002005
Tripping chain27,60011th3,8003048
Ceiling pendulum328,20016th14,1001,12829
Wall scythe434,40016th17,2001,37635

Lore: These devices are usually constructed by kobolds to provide quick installation of traps, as well as to easily carry along useful traps when they are retreating from their lair. (Knowledge [arcana] DC 15 or Knowledge [history] DC 25)

Variants: Other varieties of folding trap might also exist, but they all must involve the use of mechanical traps that have an automatic reset (no arrow traps), don’t represent a significant change to the physical environment (no pits or flooding chambers), and don’t incorporate poison, magic, or living organisms (no toxic blades or brown mold).

Prerequisites: Craft Wondrous Item, create trap, shrink item, creator must have 5 ranks of Craft (trapmaking).

Cost to Create: See table.

Source: Races of the Dragon, page 124.