Trap lethality

[Duranamir]

I just got insta killed by a Strong fire trap, not sure whether this is the result of a bug or extreme bad luck. This is despite having protective magics up including stoneskin, dragonskin etc...

Duranamir

An old mining room
N-An old mining r E-An old mining r W-A sloping low-c
The walls of this large room bear the marks of many mining
picks. Here and there, veins of various metal and even tiny veins
of precious gems can be spotted. The remains of broken weapons
mixed with bleached humanoid bones form small piles of debris
here and there on the ground, especially near the walls.
You see An old mining room.
You see A sloping low-ceiling tunnel.
...Everything begins to fade to black.

You feel yourself leaving your body... rising up into the air, you feel
more free than you have ever felt before...

However, before your deity comes to collect your soul, you feel a strange
pulling sensation as strange and colorful mists swirl around you...
A sloping low-ceiling tunnel
E-An old mining r D-Ancient burial
This low-ceiling tunnel slowly slopes down towards dark places.
Moans and the faint noises of feet scraping against the rocky ground
can be heard coming from farther down. Several small humanoid bones
litter the ground here and there, as well as rotting kobold-sized
corpses.
A thick black ring lies here. (perfect)
A dark metal katana lays here. (perfect)
You spring a strong fire trap.
Your stone skin absorbs some of a strong fire trap's damage.
A strong fire trap's hit nearly removes your head.
You sense that your patron is displeased by your actions.

[Nylo]

It looks like this might just be an unfortunate critical to the head, often a cause of that? That said it looks like it might possibly be doing untyped damage, rather than fire, which should deal damage equally over the body, by my understanding. I don't have any idea how this particular one is coded though.

[Raona]

I think Nylo's got this right.

Testing details: Room 29487
This trap should, and does seem to, dish out 30d4 damage, but it is localized to one body location, and this one hit Duranamir's head. 70-some points of damage to the head is enough to kill almost anyone, I think.

What might need fixing here is the localized damage. Can anyone confirm that fire damage should be all-body, rather than localized, and have no chance of severing, per d20?

[Solaghar]

Problem is that if traps aren't directed to one body part, then they are rarely anything other than an annoyance. Even 30d4 isn't much to a level 50 character unless it hits everything on an arm or leg to take them off.

[Nylo]

Agreed, and it's nice to see traps back ingame. Make us think a bit more beforehand, and maybe increase the usefulness of thieves again. As for full body damage vs. specific body part - SRD doesn't differentiate between them, it's a homebrew rule. I just see a fire trap as being a giant flamethrower - it's not something you can target just their head with. A quick fix might be renaming it? Because if it's not dealing fire damage, which could be blocked by energy immunity, then the name is a bit misleading. As it echoes hitting stoneskin, it seems to be dealing physical damage.