Attrition
“…a mere annoyance, but it erodes the strength of the party.” (Gygax 1978)
The second challenge is of attrition. Most traps have the potential to kill outright and no combat can be lightly taken. Traps stripping the PCs of all their possessions are particularly cruel.
Party Size and Men-at-Arms
“Overall, the pattern is very clear: the minimum player size is almost always 6 players, and the maximum averages out to 9.” (Hann 2021)
Larger party sizes of 6+ were fairly common. Players with multiple PCs or even Gygaxian sized weekend sessions. Accumulate hirelings for each player and there’s plenty of fodder for the Tomb to chew through. The extra bodies provide padding against a TPK.
Health and Healing
“For each day of rest, 1 hit point of damage is restored.” (Gygax 1978)
All healing had to be from magical means. There were no hit dice on a short rest, nor would long resting heal any appreciable amount. As you saw last time, a 5e fighter has nearly double the hp pool of the 1e fighter, along with the aforementioned resources.
Poison
“For those who wonder why poison does either killing damage (usually) or no harm whatsoever…” (Gygax 1978)
If someone asked me, where did all the deadlines go from the Tomb, I’d say poison. Poison being nerfed is where the deadlines went. About half the instant death traps are poison based. All it took was a single failed save.
Entrance to the Tomb
1e:
Pits: The pit lids are counterweighted, meaning they’ll close again after something has fallen through. Poking them only reveals them 66% of the time. If stepped on, our fighter will fall 90% of the time and incur 5% (3 hp) fall damage plus 5% (3 hp) spike damage per 0-3 spikes (1 spike on avg). For each spike, failing a save vs poison results in death. The fighter will make the save 65% of the time.
| Instant kill % | 32% |
A: No notes
B: The path has to be studied from the entrance to the far southern end at the fork. You will then “suddenly” understand the barely visible “runes”. It’s not a language to read piecemeal. Think of it more like a spell that only activates once the whole of it is imbibed.
5e:
Pits: Our fighter will spot the trap 50% of the time. If stepped on, they fall 100% off the time. 3% (3 hp) fall damage plus 10% (11 hp) spike damage. On a failed save vs poison the fighter takes an additional 19% (22 hp) damage. The fighter will save 65% of the time.
| Instant kill % | 0% |
Fresco
1e:
The poison needle is in the catch. Pushing on the catch with a dagger pommel causes the needle to pierce the pommel. If the box is not examined, then save vs poison. The fighter will save 65% of the time.
| Instant kill % | 35% |
Only the lid of the pit can be discovered, and only by true seeing, but it does not reveal its function. This pit is 30’ deep and so would deal an additional 12% (7 hp) falling damage over the standard spike pit.
5e:
The needle protruding from the wall seems to have been added in some revision, making the trap more complicated than it needs to be. The needle trap deals 11% (12 hp) damage.
| Instant kill % | 0% |
The fall is an additional 6% (7 hp) damage over the standard spike pit.
Arch of Mist
1e:
The stones only glow if a PC is on the path and within 1’. The stones as written don’t respond or otherwise give clues when touched.
5e:
The stones only glow if a PC is on the path and within 2’.
Face of the Devil
1e:
The sphere is fixed and cannot be moved like the magic item. The sphere annihilates any matter that passes through it. Losing a limb is lethal without immediate high level magic.
5e:
The fighter has a 5% chance of discovering the nature of the trap
There is no guidance if spell effects are matter. It’s up to the DM if mage hand or the like is annihilated. As the sphere is supposed to be a hole in reality, I would suggest to the player that the hand has moved beyond its 30’ range when it enters the sphere. The same for a familiar or any other ability that has a limited range.
There is no guidance on losing a limb. It’s up to the DM how much damage losing a limb is. I would suggest it automatically reduces a PC to 0 hp. Any amount of healing will heal the remaining flesh. Refer to the lingering wounds table.
Forsaken Prison
1e:
Because the levers need to be moved simultaneously up or down or nothing happens, we can suppose it’s the movement that causes a result and not the position. Including the neutral position, each lever can make 8 unique movements. There are 584 combinations of movements that can be done. Being humans, and seeking patterns, it’s likely that the all up or all down combination will be discovered sooner rather than later.
Falling into the pit causes 95% (55 hp) fall damage. Whether they survive or not, the pit closes again after 10 minutes.
The secret door leading to the three chests is only mentioned on this side. It is unclear if it’s discoverable from the chamber side. I take the phrasing of the means of discovery to indicate that elves won’t spot it passively. Only if the player says they’re actively searching are they able to discover it on a successful roll.
The egress to the spike pit is a magical one-way phase door as seen later in the dungeon.
5e:
Falling into the pit causes 48% (55 hp) fall damage.
The fighter will spot the secret door 25% of the time.
Credits
Jeff Dee
1981 Tomb of Horrors Cover Art
https://wwjdee.blogspot.com/
Kieth Hann
Party Size and Old-School Play
https://osrsimulacrum.blogspot.com/2021/01/party-size-and-old-school-play.html
I’m with you on the attrition. I think some of the other readings are overly literal or unnecessarily harsh.
The way I see it, there is actual writing on the floor tiles. It’s in small print so you need to be close and it will be widely spaced. If you want to read the whole thing, you have to move along the whole path quite closely, falling into a few pits along the way.
The kill chance of the needle traps is only that high on paper. If the players are that high level and not expecting poison needle traps on every lock, they have been playing a different game.
I don’t know how it is in 1e, but in B/X there is always a 1-on-6 chance of spotting a trap and there is some paragraph about a trap not triggering 50% (?) of the time. From what I read, nobody seems to use that m, but it’s in the rules. I think that might be appropriate in this case, because it gives a chance that someone in the back line (or multiple people) fall in the pit at once.
I scanned through the 1e DMG and PHB, but I didn’t see anything about a base chance a trap does not trigger. These two traps, the needle and the pits, have their specifics listed in the module.
The needle trap is always found if the box is searched, and always triggers if precautions aren’t taken. It harkens back to skill play, where the player is meant to find alternate means instead of rolling dice. It’s like how the west false entrance specifically says there’s no saving throw.
The pit trap does have a percentage chance not to fall in, but it still triggers. Being as the pits are 10’ square I do enjoy the idea of catching multiple PCs at once. And that was possible back in the day with how turns were organized, which I’ll cover in my next post.
I only have the OSE SRD to hand, not the actual B/X rules, although I understand that they are largely the same: https://oldschoolessentials.necroticgnome.com/srd/index.php/Dungeon_Adventuring#Traps
Searching a 10’ square takes 10 minutes, you have 1-in-6 chance of finding the trap (elves and thieves have more) - whole not written there, I would say this is for a generic search. If you’re doing something particularly appropriate for discovering the trap, the chance should be higher or automatic.
When you trigger the trap, there is a 2-in-6 chance it actually goes off.
Re: Needle trap: my point was exactly about skill based play: The Tomb of Horrors is targeted at experienced players, who would almost certainly see the needle trap coming, given how prevalent they were in those days.