What does it cost to construct a hazard?

Question

Oftentimes in a campaign, the PCs will want to construct (or take ownership of) a structure in order to use it as a fort or base of operations. Or maybe they want to build a dungeon of their own for some reason. They might want to build hazards, or have them built.

How much time, money, and resources does it cost to construct a hazard?

Some thoughts:

• Hazards have a level, but no price. The Gamemastery Guide has cost-by-level for permanent magic items and consumables (GMG 85). Perhaps this could be used to help approximate price.
• Snares have prices, but snares and hazards are mechanically different. Though they do seem to generally follow the aforementioned consumable price table (Core 589, GMG 85).
• I figure the standard crafting rules could be used, unless the hazard is exceptionally simple or complex, in which case the days required may be adjusted. Special tools may be required for architectural modifications.

Answer 1

Hazards are not available for Crafting by PCs

Hazards are generally not craftable. Snares are really the only way for a PC to create traps, and hazards are not snares. However, as the GM, you can change their availability or offer ways to create them. The ways you can do this are:

• Selectively choose hazards to make available as snares. Pick which hazards you would approve of PCs using as snares. Give the hazard the snare trait and then allow the PCs to Craft them using the normal rules. The price would follow the standard pattern of snare prices as shown below.

    Level   Price
    1       3 gp
    2       5 gp
    3       9 gp
    4       15 gp
    6       40 gp
    8       75 gp
    10      180 gp
    12      320 gp
    14      900 gp
    16      1,500 gp
    20      10,000 gp
  

• Ad hoc hazard creation. Published adventures often provide ways for PCs to create hazards and other items using the Crafting skill, but outside of the normal rules of the Craft activity. Such hazards usually don't have a cost and use materials that the PCs have on hand. However, these hazards should be no more than level 1 or level 2 and use the average DC for a hazard of that level.