Protecting Your Items

You have the coins. You have the gear. Magic items out to wazoo. But threats lurk behind every corner and in every space. Shadows are suddenly sinister as your mind runs wild with who might be after your treasures. Bandits lurk along every road waiting to pounce. You have it all now so its time to protect it.

Or if you are a DM with naughty murder thieves in your group well... still time to protect it. We can do this in a few ways: Traps, Spells, Guardians, and Obstacles. Before we really dive into those though I want to take a moment to discuss why. Why would whoever possess an item want to protect it? This seems like a kind of non-issue question but without knowing the answer to it we really hamstring ourselves. Everything your NPCs do should have a reasoning behind them, even if its just a DM trying to right the ship, with ideally the reasoning tied directly into who they are. An evil wizard protecting his spellbook from trespassers is going to do things differently then a scared cleric on the run from unholy beings hiding a holy relic till a worthy champion comes.

But lets jump back over to our categories, we will tackle flair and embellishments for immersion later. Didn't think I'd let you off the hook that easy did you? For examples of Traps and all different ways those can be built and used go check out a post I did called 'DEX Saves, It's Trap Time'. I go into a lot of detail about making your traps top notch in there so I won't repeat that particular rant here. I will however rant a bit how not every trap is good in every scenario and how not every scenario is good for a nice trap.

They need to fit into your space, your NPC builds and your world. Acid splashing traps probably aren't acceptable as a means of protection in a civilized city limits. But ain't nobody stopping a goblin in a cave from using it to go ham on adventurers who venture in. What happens in your world should have consequences and reasoning, this should remain true through encounters (yes even random ones). Okay sure maybe there is an acid splashing trap in a castle or manor in a large city. But why would the person go through such drastic means? What is the reaction in the community, or just the guards, after it happens. Its going to be big news and cause some ruckus but maybe that was the whole point.

What if those good old trappies just aren't enough to protect your precious booty? Well lets up our game a little bit and talk about what spells you can use to just layer on that protection. Now honestly for the inventive and maybe partially sadistic spellcaster there are so many things you can do, the higher level the scarier. Just think of a Glyph of Warding holding Abi-Dalzim's horrid wilting or Summon Greater Demon. You could go to keeping would be bandits out from the beginning with Leomund's Tiny Hut which honestly is truly a classic must have. Layer on a Magic Circle or even an Alarm and you've got a really decent protection on the go. The main point here is don't be afraid to mix and match outside of the norm. Remember with your DM its overkill till it ain't.

The protection party isn't complete of course till we invite our own guests to it. You want to make sure there is someone there to greet those intruders, give 'em a little handshake and send them on their way. Cause that's totally how that encounter will go. Not a knock down dragged out fight because they really want the shiny even though they are way to under leveled for this shit yet.

Some of my personal favs of course being Faithfull Hound (also technically a spell), a bound Spectator, animated objects (gotta love a smothering rug), Golems, classic Elementals like a Water Weird. You can have the old school loyal or bound creatures who willingly (to varying degrees) guard the things. Or you could have the bound and imprisoned creatures who may or may not be chained up or simply let loose to have their havoc where they may. I've got to say my players just love when there are unchained hell hounds just bounding around the dungeon trying to snack on their little yummy bits. Again, Imma sound like a broken record, don't be afraid to go crazy outside the lines with this one. Cause PCs love coming across a Turtle Dragon palling around with Water Weirds bound in an underground lake protecting the island in the middle from unwanted visitors in order to keep the horded gold of centuries of kingdoms. *stares at camera* Not that I would ever do that and make my PCs afraid of any body of water larger then a puddle. Nooooope~.

Then there was but one, Obstacles. But JustKay aren't traps, spells and guardians all obstacles? Why yes annoyingly observant ethereal being of the internet providing a great pivot point for this post. All of those things technically fall under a definition of an obstacle between thieving murder hobos and loot. What I mean though when I separate out the term obstacle for this layering goodness are things from the environment, the outside world, or beyond the PCs control that prevent or hamper them during the attempt. A tower loaded down with traps, spells and some tough guardians is far more difficult when that tower is in a volcano as apposed to a distant meadow. The fact that your PCs don't have the gear they need to in order to survive the trek there and back, and aren't near a place that would have the supplies, is another one created from circumstance. A war breaking out between the group and a lost treasure hampers or straight up prevents the distance from being traversed, and might even cause that side quest to be forgotten about. Look this is just another way for me to remind you that this world you built effects those in it and visa versa so you might as well use it to your advantage.

Remember when it comes to protection just layer it on, all about the layers here. Think of it like a multi-tiered protection cake filled with capture and possible death. Honestly you will get alot of your limits as far as layering the different traps, spells, guardians and obstacles based off of your world. Things like this are inherently, say it with me now, immersion into your game! Who is protecting what and where are all simple quick questions that give a framework for you to go all Jackson Pollock on. A mad wizard protecting his gathered, possibly stolen, spells of destruction and research into continuing life beyond mere mortal coils. That scary lady is definitely going to go about protection in a more helter skelter way then the Kobolds worshiping a young dragon and gathering treasure under their direction. You've spent a long time on your world DMs let it shine through even the little choices and things. Things don't function or interact in a single separate universe from each other. So don't let your bad guys, your PCs or yourself forget that more then one thing can come for the PCs (or NPCs should you be challenging your DM to break through) at a time. But again, unless you are purposefully doing it for emphasis on evil~, MAKE IT FIT THE THINGS! Even sometimes then make it fit the things...just in a rule breaker kind of way. Like when the rich noble gets out of jail and you are stuck headed toward the gallows though your crime was way less then his. Fuck that guy, insta-villain nemesis.

With that little rambling over with, I’m JustKay your regular DM Dalliance on the web and I’ll see you next post.