Buy me a coffeeLurking Ray, Trapper, the Living Floor
“The Trapper waits in plain sight—because the deadliest dungeon monsters are the floor.”
At rest, the Trapper is indistinguishable from natural stone. Its rubbery, leathery body perfectly mimics flagstone, worn bedrock, or cavern floors, complete with cracks, discoloration, and mossy texture. Its hide is mottled gray and brown, with subtle undulations only visible under intense scrutiny. When active, it unfurls into a massive, membranous sheet with muscular ridges and a gaping central orifice lined with crushing tendrils.
Behavior
Trappers are ambush predators with near-perfect patience. They lie motionless for weeks—sometimes months—waiting for prey to pass overhead. Lacking eyes, they sense vibrations and shifts in air pressure. Once prey is detected, they strike with terrifying speed, enveloping the victim in a suffocating embrace. They are entirely solitary and territorial, retreating only when mortally wounded.
Habitat
Found in ancient dungeons, abandoned mines, or the deep Underdark, Trappers prefer high-traffic areas where creatures are likely to walk directly across them—chokepoints, doorways, treasure rooms, and stairwells. They often nest near lingering arcane energy or decaying organic matter, remnants of earlier kills. Though rare, some have been found in ruined temples or demiplanes twisted by aberrant influence.
Modus Operandi
A Trapper’s attack begins the moment a creature steps onto it. It folds upward in a horrifying instant, engulfing and grappling its prey. Inside, crushing pressure and lack of air quickly subdue victims. The creature digests organic material slowly over days, then resumes its camouflage. Intelligent foes may be lured into position by partially exposed treasure—leftovers from earlier kills.
Motivation
The Trapper is driven solely by instinctual hunger. It lacks intelligence, morality, or malice. It does not pursue prey nor flee from battle—it acts only when provoked by vibration or pressure, making it the perfect passive killer. In some warped ecosystems, it is cultivated by aberrations or ancient dungeon architects as a living defense mechanism.
Trapper 5e
Trapper 5e
Trapper, Pathfinder
Trapper
Huge Monstrosity, Unaligned
Armor Class 17 (natural armor)
Hit Points 136 (16d12 + 32)
Speed 10 ft., burrow 10 ft.
| STR | DEX | CON | INT | WIS | CHA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 (+5) | 10 (+0) | 15 (+2) | 2 (−4) | 13 (+1) | 5 (−3) |
Saving Throws Con +5, Wis +4
Skills Stealth +8
Damage Resistances Bludgeoning, Piercing, and Slashing from nonmagical attacks
Condition Immunities Blinded, Prone
Senses Blindsight 60 ft. (blind beyond this radius), Passive Perception 11
Languages —
Challenge 6 (2,300 XP)
Proficiency Bonus +3
False Appearance
While the trapper remains motionless, it is indistinguishable from ordinary stone. A DC 18 Intelligence (Investigation) check is required to discern its true nature.
Suffocating Embrace
A creature engulfed by the trapper cannot breathe. If the creature requires air, it can survive a number of rounds equal to its Constitution modifier (minimum 1) before falling unconscious. After that, it drops to 0 hit points and begins dying.
Reactive Camouflage (Recharge 5–6)
When the trapper is hit by a melee attack, it can immediately blend into its surroundings. Until the start of its next turn, it gains advantage on Stealth checks and attack rolls against it are made with disadvantage if the attacker relies on sight.
Actions
Multiattack
The trapper makes one Engulf attack and one Crushing Fold attack against a creature it has grappled.
Engulf
Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 5 ft., one Large or smaller creature.
Hit: The target is grappled (escape DC 16), restrained, and pulled beneath the trapper’s body. While grappled in this way, the target is blinded and cannot breathe. The trapper can engulf only one creature at a time.
Crushing Fold
Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 0 ft., one grappled creature.
Hit: 21 (6d6) bludgeoning damage. If the target remains restrained, it must succeed on a DC 14 Constitution saving throw or begin suffocating, as described in Suffocating Embrace.
Bonus Actions
Constrict Passage
The trapper tightens its grasp. Until the start of its next turn, creatures it has grappled have disadvantage on checks to escape and cannot be forcibly pulled free by others.
Tactics
- The trapper lies perfectly still in areas of foot traffic such as corridors, near doors, or before treasure chests, using its False Appearance trait to remain undetected.
- On its surprise round, it uses Engulf to trap the nearest creature standing on or adjacent to it.
- It will focus entirely on restraining and crushing its target until the victim is dead or rescued.
- If overwhelmed or injured, it will attempt to retreat and activate Reactive Camouflage to vanish again.
Variant: Treasure Baiter
Some dungeon architects or aberrant overlords use trappers as living traps, embedding shiny coins, weapons, or arcane trinkets in their backs. A character inspecting such items must succeed on a DC 15 Wisdom (Perception) check to notice the creature before triggering an attack.
Trapper
Huge monstrosity, unaligned
Armor Class 14 (natural armor)
Hit Points 168 (16d12 + 64)
Speed 10 ft., climb 10 ft.
| STR | DEX | CON | INT | WIS | CHA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 29 (+9) | 12 (+1) | 19 (+4) | 14 (+2) | 15 (+2) | 15 (+2) |
Skills Perception +8, Stealth +7
Damage Resistances cold, fire
Condition Immunities prone
Senses blindsight 30 ft., darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 18
Languages
Challenge 7 (2,900 XP)
Special Traits
- False Appearance. While the trapper is attached to a ceiling, floor, or wall and remains motionless, it is almost indistinguishable from an ordinary section of ceiling, floor, or wall. A creature that can see it and succeeds on a DC 20 Intelligence (Investigation) or Intelligence (Nature) check can discern its presence.
- Spider Climb. The trapper can climb difficult surfaces, including upside down on ceilings, without needing to make an ability check.
Actions
- Buffet. Melee Weapon Attack: +12 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 18 (2d8 + 9) bludgeoning damage.
- Envelop. One Large or up to 4 medium creatures within 5 feet of the trapper must succeed on a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw or be grappled (escape DC 15). Until the grapple ends, the target takes 17 (4d6 + 3) bludgeoning damage plus 3 (1d6) acid damage at the start of each of its turns. While grappled in this way, the target is restrained, blinded, and can’t breathe.
ABOUT
Trappers are thought to be distant relatives of the lurker above. Unlike their relatives, however, trappers mimic the floor of a building, dungeon, or other structure. By manipulating their body structure while covering the floor, trappers can form a box that resembles a small trunk or chest. This is usually enough to lure would-be-adventurers to their doom.
Section 15: Copyright Notice
Rappan Athuk © 2018, Frog God Games, LLC; Authors Bill Webb, Clark Peterson, Skeeter Green, Tom Knauss, Lance Hawvermale, WDB Kenower, Casey Christofferson, and Greg Raglund; based on the original creation of Bill Webb.
Trapper
The stone floor ripples and shakes as a toothy, gnashing maw opens in its center, and then the edges of the room curl up and inward to reveal an underside of wriggling tendrils and fetid digestive juices.
Female lurking rays, known as trappers, are the masterminds of their race. Too large to fly (and often gravid with wriggling young), the intelligent trappers scrape themselves out depressions in the floor of regularly traveled chambers and then lie in them, changing their coloration and texture perfectly to blend with the rest of the floor, and sometimes even creating protrusions in the shape of items they know to be valuable to their prey creatures. When a lulled individual steps onto the trapper’s surface, the ray twists itself up around it, smothering and beating its victim senseless before drawing it into its maw for slow digestion.
Though quite intelligent even by human standards, trappers devote almost all of their mental faculties to perfectly remembering every sensory detail about their surroundings in order to make their chameleon-like disguises all the more cunning and difficult for their prey to resist.
Trappers can grow to be 15 feet from tip to tip, and weigh nearly 2,000 pounds when fully fed.
Trapper CR 8
XP 4,800
N Huge aberration
Init +5; Senses blindsense 10 ft., darkvision 60 ft., scent; Perception +25
DEFENSE
AC 21, touch 9, flat-footed 20 (+1 Dex, +12 natural, –2 size)
hp 123 (13d8+65)
Fort +10, Ref +5, Will +11
Defensive Abilities amorphous; DR 10/piercing or slashing; Resist cold 10, fire 10
Weaknesses light sensitivity
OFFENSE
Speed 10 ft., climb 5 ft.
Melee slam +17 (3d6+15 plus grab)
Space 15 ft.; Reach 10 ft.
Special Attacks constrict (3d6+15), smother (see lurker above)
STATISTICS
Str 30, Dex 12, Con 19, Int 14, Wis 17, Cha 13
Base Atk +9; CMB +21 (+25 grapple); CMD 32 (can’t be tripped)
Feats Blind-Fight, Combat Reflexes, Great Fortitude, Improved Initiative, Skill Focus (Perception), Skill Focus (Stealth), Toughness
Skills Climb +18, Knowledge (dungeoneering) +15, Perception +25, Sense Motive +16, Sleight of Hand +14, Stealth +19 (+27 in rocky areas), Survival +15; Racial Modifiers +4 Stealth (+12 in rocky areas)
Languages Aklo, Common, Undercommon
ECOLOGY
Environment any underground
Organization solitary or batch (1 plus 20–30 executioner’s hoods)
Treasure standard
Section 15: Copyright Notice
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Bestiary 4 © 2013, Paizo Publishing, LLC; Authors: Dennis Baker, Jesse Benner, Savannah Broadway, Ross Byers, Adam Daigle, Tim Hitchcock, Tracy Hurley, James Jacobs, Matt James, Rob McCreary, Jason Nelson, Tom Phillips, Stephen Radney-MacFarland, Sean K Reynolds, F. Wesley Schneider, Tork Shaw, and Russ Taylor.