Traps (Oblivion)

Sweeping blades traps

For other uses, see Trap.

Traps can be found in many caves, Ayleid ruins, and mines in Cyrodiil. In addition, the planes of Oblivion feature unique traps and hazards. Should a character trigger the trap, the trap can deal a lot of damage, and potentially kill a character, if the character does not move in time. Sometimes, the character is moving fast enough and the trap will not affect the player and may go unnoticed.

Types

Ayleid traps

Elven ruins have traps like those above, but also have unique traps, primarily in large open rooms. There are several variations:

• Gas chambers - When the player enters the center of this room, walls surround the player and poisonous gas begins to emit from a grating in the center of the room. These traps do trivial damage at high levels, but lower level players may want to keep poison resistance potions handy.
• False floor spike traps - When the player steps onto this hole-ridden platform, the floor drops the player onto spikes underneath. Avoid these areas of the floor, jumping corners if necessary.
• Crushing trap - The opposite of the falling floor, when a player steps onto this floor, the floor quickly raises and crushes the player in a ceiling of spikes. Watch for enemies to get caught on these, and look up every once in a while.
• Spiked dragging grate - Typically found on long, elevated bridges, this is a large grate covered in spikes that drags from one end to the other with lightning speed. These are almost always fatal but are easily dodged by stepping into a side hallway after the grate has passed you.
• Dark Welkynd Stones - These look similar to Welkynd or Varla stones. They are proximity activated. When the player gets sufficiently close, they begin to glow red and discharge potentially lethal frost missiles. Move in between cover to stay alive and put on some frost damage mitigation gear, because the missiles are very accurate.

Fort/cave traps

• Blade trap - A pressure block or motion sets of a series of blades which either move guillotine-style or by pendulum swing. These tend to be in hallways and can cause significant amount of damage, even if the player merely touches them. Pendulum blades are easily avoided by timing your steps appropriately. Jump over the guillotine blades as they drop rather than trying to run under them.
• Dart trap - Some areas have holes in the walls which will fire darts at the player if he or she walks in the line of path of the holes. Motion sets off the darts, which can rapidly degrade health. These traps are usually arranged in such a way that there is only one safe means to cross a room. Watch for the holes on the walls and find an alternate route.
• Pressure-plate trap - Some traps are activated by stepping on a circular pressure plate, which usually releases a swinging barrel, log, or spiked ball. One can avoid the trap by jumping over the plate, springing the trap by attacking it, or moving around it.
• Spiked pit trap - Some caves and mines have holes in the ground, sometimes covered by iron grates, that drop into spikes. Although the hole is usually fairly obvious, a player who continually looks straight ahead or upwards will fall into it. Lucien Lachance's home at Fort Farragut is a good example.
• Cave-in trap - As obvious as it sounds, the cave-in trap consists of falling rocks which can triggered by entering an 'unstable' area of the cave (which has a cave-in trap in place). Some cave-in traps merely block off unused tunnels, which the developers put in as sort of an artistic flair, trying to make the environment seem more like a real, dangerous cave.
• Tripwire trap - Similar to pressure-plates, trip rope traps usually trigger a swinging barrel, log, or spiked ball. However, trip ropes can also trigger poisonous gas to emerge from small holes in the ground. Trip ropes can be avoided by jumping over them. They can be manually triggered - it can occasionally be difficult to get your crosshair onto it, but it's doable. Shooting one of the support posts at either end of the rope with an arrow can also trigger it from a distance, but it may not always work.

Interestingly, NPCs may be lured by the player into their own traps, ironically causing them to kill themselves with the trap they set up in order to protect themselves.

Traps in the Planes of Oblivion

• Blade trap - Similar to the two types of blade traps in Tamriel, the Oblivion blade traps come in two main varieties: swinging and falling. The swinging blades in Oblivion, however, usually swing back-and-forth, rather than side-to-side, and run the length of a section of hallway. Sometimes there is a lever accompanying the trap, allowing the player to set it off and run past while it resets. Falling blades preform exactly the same function as they do in Tamriel.
• Minefield trap - In certain planes of Dagon's realm, the ground is covered with small orange disks. These disks will pop up and spin briefly, then explode, letting of a fire damage spell. If you move away before it explodes, one of two things will happen: If you are very far away, it will descend back into the floor and re-bury, whereas if you are still quite close, it will explode (on a much smaller scale) and launch a firewall towards you.
• Fire pillar trap - Some Oblivion planes house large pillars, their tops adorned with a large glowing sphere. When the player enters a clearing in the line of sight of the pillar, the top of the pillar spins for a moment, as if charging up, and releases a fireball toward the player.
• Spike trap - There are two types of spike traps in Oblivion: claw and metallic. The claw traps found outside, springing up out of the ground, usually only hindering the player's progress through the plane. Metallic spikes jut out from the walls, and can be dangerous if the player isn't careful. Metallic spikes are easy to spot though, always poking out from three identical holes in similar locations on the walls.
• Barbed root trap - In caves, the player may encounter types of red roots that lash out, attacking anything near them. They are usually found near entrances into rooms, such as below entrance holes in the floor.

Traps in the Shivering Isles

• Cave plant traps - Certain plants in the caves of the Isles will lunge out from the wall or floor, damaging the player. There is even a type of spore pod that sprays a paralyze effect when the player steps too close to it.
• Statue trap - Some statues of Hungers or Scalons can fire a magic projectile when the player presses a trapped button or enters the trap's line of sight. These types of statues are almost always found underground or in forts.
• False floor trap - In fort ruins, there will sometimes be a square section of floor that opens up, revealing a pit beneath it, while certain others only drop the player onto a spike trap (or in some cases, a dart trap). If you choose to break out of the jail there will be a false floor trap along the way.
• Crumbling trap - Seeing as how the forts in the Shivering Isles are thousands of years old, it's no surprise that some of them fall apart. Pillars can crack and topple onto the player, as well as sections of ceiling, similar the cave-in trap found in Tamriel.