Is this Kobold Trap innovation going too far?

Question

I still feel rather new to D&D and had to leave my group for a while. Now I feel fit enough to go back and am creating a character to return with.

I have a question regarding innovating on Kobold Traps. As I understand them:

A kobold trap is made by tying a tripwire to a small crossbow armed with a bolt

The idea I had in regards to this is to either tie a wooden whistle to the point of a bolt or to replace it altogether, making a crude version of what's known in the real world as a signaling arrow. With this, my character would be able to set up a tripwire as a sort of early warning signal, as the whistle would screech through the sky when triggered.

To further this, by trying different sounding whistles to 4 kobold tripwires, he could create a perimeter that would tell if enemies are coming from the north, south, east or west. Is this going too far for an adventurer, or is this staying within the realm of possibility within D&D?

Note: My experience with DMs seem to like to differentiate the game to real-world solutions, hence my hesitation.

Answer 1

It's going to be up to your DM

There is a lot here, but ultimately, what you're asking is how much real world engineering and knowledge can you bring to the table.

And that's going to be a mix of your character's background and how your DM is running the table.

A DM will work with you on your backstory and class and the two of you can determine whether or not your character can do something. If it's determined then you can, then you can. If not, then you can ask if there's a way to learn it and how (or if it's just time to move on.)

There's quite a few things to build

It's also important to note that you'd need to have an understanding of:

• Mechanical knowledge of Kobold traps* - I don't know how widespread that knowledge is.

• Signaling arrows - These would be a homebrew item in and of themselves.

• Appropriate terrain - WHether or not it's possible to string these traps across the distance you're asking for will also be DM/terrain dependent.

• Handling misfires - How this will work is also up to the DM

• Handling discovery - What happens if there is an active enemy that discovers them.

But stating you can doesn't mean that it's a guaranteed success. Understanding proficiency, tool proficiency, and having those tools available may still require a dice roll via a DC check for the creation of whatever it is you're making.

Don't get discouraged with a "no"

Mundane answers for in-game questions may be removed just to keep it interesting and reasonable. But that's entirely up to the DM and how they're looking to fill out their world and have you as players and characters interact with it. It might be that they don't want to get into the details of homebrewing new items, or it could be that they want to give characters with access to magical systems like the spell Alarm more of a purpose.

The use of alarm

As you've noted, the Ranger does have access to alarm, although they'll have to expend a spell slot to cast it since they don't have Ritual Casting. If your concern is to prevent ambush, then alarm does this quite well. It's a smaller coverage of just a 20' cube, but it can either make an audible sound or a mental alert. There's a lot you can do there and it seems to fulfill your requirements without having the DM try to create homebrew/houserules.