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WraithMagus

On the one hand, this is a free way to make any existing traps you might have better. The only limitation is no more than one casting of this spell per trap, you can cast on downtime days, and traps and this spell generally last until used or disabled. (Rusting or rotting? No, no, the ten thousand year old ruins still have working machinery based on hemp rope and exposed iron operates just as smoothly as the day it was made because... good craftsmanship?) If you're making traps and have this spell, there's no reason not to use it on every single trap you make. On the other hand, this only improves traps in the strictly mechanical dice rolls only way. (It also raises CR, which I'm sure the players really care about how much xp they're giving the bandits who invade their homes...) If you make a trap where it floods the whole room with water after five rounds unless they can break down a door or climb out, you probably don't have an attack roll or saving throw to improve and the mechanisms that operate the flooding are probably out of reach if you're in the trap. If the trap is a thick layer of polish on a smooth stone floor near a cliff edge with no railing a fight with flying monsters is meant to happen near, what's the disable device roll or attack roll on this trap that requires an acrobatics check? Basically, if you're trying to do anything with your traps other than the later Paizo style of "I perception the room." "You spot a trap." "I disable device the trap. \[roll\] 32." "The trap vanishes. Take 350 xp." which doesn't add any actual player involvement or creative choice to the game, this spell becomes more restricted or irrelevant, at least as-written. (If you want to come up with some sort of equivalent, like making the floors slicker and imposing a +5 to acrobatics checks, that's probably easier, but the more you deviate from the model of traps just being hazard squares you can skill check to make turn into normal squares, the harder it is to adjudicate this spell being relevant.) (And then, of course, you get into the even more fuzzy realm of what really qualifies as a "trap". A few rocks on an unsteady platform designed to drop when someone walks underneath is a deadfall trap, so is a dilapidated building about to collapse a "trap" if you try to deliberately lure someone into one? I remember reading a dungeon-themed manga where a cleric was using a detect traps-style spell to assure herself the path was safe before immediately getting stabbed by a spring-loaded sword behind the first door she opened. She'd relied entirely on a spell to detect "traps", but traps are usually constructed magically in that world, and the spell detects the magic, so a hand-made trap (which the main character did to save on his magic budget) wasn't detectable with that spell and didn't count as a "trap" even if it functioned as one and everyone who wasn't relying on magic could see it coming easily...) Also, it's a kobold racial spell, and the usual disclaimers about racial spells apply. That is, racial spells are "secrets" of a race, but everybody can cast them if they obtain them. And how likely do you think it is that no kobold wizard has ever had their spellbook looted from their cold, dead hands after their tribe has been exterminated with extreme prejudice for having really annoying traps? How likely are those looters going to be to never let a "kobold secret" spread, or are they going to just announce it far and wide just to spite the buggers? It's a GM choice thing, but it makes little sense to say that some spells are only known by some races when they're on the wizard spell list.


HildredCastaigne

> operates just as smoothly as the day it was made because... good craftsmanship? It's because it is a dungeon trap. All craftdwarfship is of the highest quality.


Marisakis

In response to the point you're making about this being a race-specific spell, I think lore (though it might be Forgotten Realms lore) goes that kobolds are dragonblooded, and that therefore wizards will be exceedingly rare compared to spontaneous casters like bards and sorcerors, when it comes to the arcane side of magic. So finding this magic just lying around is gonna be rare. Then again, here are ways to steal spells from slain enemies, [blood transcription](https://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/b/blood-transcription/) specifically, to get this knowledge out of kobold society anyway.


WraithMagus

That's been in D&D in some way or another since around 3e. (In parts of 1e, keep in mind, kobolds will little dog-people, so WotC has had to really rethink them, mostly because if you think little lizard people are sympathetic in spite of being originally a kill-on-sight race, wait until you make them little schnauzers. Many of the games and stories that copied early D&D took [this vision of them](https://regalgoblins.fandom.com/wiki/Kobold).) Volo's Guide to Monsters definitely had a lot of text expounding on this idea of them, though. Anyway, the main thing I'd point out against that is, well, are you familiar with the [Drake Equation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drake_equation) and [Grabby Aliens](https://grabbyaliens.com/)? Rarity in a prerequisite doesn't mean things don't happen, just that outbreaks are more spread out, and once something starts spreading, it only stops once total saturation is achieved. How well-guarded a secret is only delays the time before the first outbreak, but it's like a roll of the dice every individual that has the spell, and eventually, you crap out. The nuclear bomb had more secrecy than any program that ever existed outside a conspiracy theory, and its secrecy was blown before the nuclear bombs were even complete. You can read how to make a nuclear bomb in a public library now, it's not actually contained information.


UteLawyer

It's a little weird that the spell is instantaneous, but you can only have 1 improvement cast per trap. For duration of instantaneous spells, the PFSRD says, "The spell energy comes and goes the instant the spell is cast, though the consequences might be long-lasting." I have no idea how anyone would describe in world what exactly is happening when you try to improve a trap a second time.


Ichthus95

Largely an NPC spell because players are rarely if ever playing on the defensive, and the few options to have quickly-deployed player-based traps aren't very good. There's also the issue of PCs building traps being extremely expensive (unless the GM rules it's simple enough to be ΒΌ the cost) and thus not really worthwhile... But on the other hand, custom auto-resetting magic traps can be extremely broken without GM oversight. Still, the spell does serve its purpose very well. Infinite duration and no material component cost is very nice, so you can just burn your downtime slots on this.


Electric999999

Not really an NPC spell, the cost is irrelevant for them, so the GM can just use a higher CR trap to begin with.


Electric999999

If you ever use a trap, this is an easy +2 DC, very nice. PCs don't usually use traps though. As for enemies, it changes the trap CR, so you can just use a higher CR trap instead, since noone is actually paying for them.


WraithMagus

There technically is a backdoor reason to use this spell, though. Remember that magic traps are *stupidly* expensive, so I've had times where I just went around systemically disabling and salvaging most of the traps (plus the massive adamantine-coated gates I made top priority to salvage because they were 5 tons of steel and coated with adamantine worth 54k gp apiece), and wound up selling something like 190k gp of traps and gates only to find they protected 60k gp of treasure in the vault. \[Sings Silas Stingy to himself.\] We were about level 7 IIRC and did gain a level, and actually behind on WBL before that, but blew straight past with about 50k per character and had enough to reach WBL for level 12 or something... If you're actually consistent in the worldbuilding, then not having to pay tens of thousands of gp to raise the DC by 2 is a way to keep from breaking WBL's back over the value of trap's knee. Otherwise, brave adventurers will brave tombs full of deadly treasure hoping to find the priceless traps within.


Emotional-Slip2230

Hi! as the spell say's it increase the CR of the trap by 1. so..if I cast the spell on a trap before my rogue disable device it? or..if I cast it on a trap I want to sell?