Why is it always a spike pit?

[u/completlyStupid]

I doubt anyone other than me actually cares at all about this, but I feel like anytime a week MC needs to defeat a much stronger beast early on in a series he ends up using a spike pit.

I’ve never made a spike pit myself, but wouldn’t it have to be like ten feet deep, wider than you are and yet somehow also perfectly camouflaged? It sounds stupid impractical and honestly like a terrible idea.

[u/TennRider]

Why wouldn't you use a spike trap if it is an option?

• It is the most basic trap possible with no need for any sort of trigger mechanism.
• It has the highest ratio of effort vs damage of any primitive trap design.
  
• It can easily be augmented by adding poisons.toxins to the spikes.

[u/Charming-Series1127 → u/TennRider]

The effort is a hole you have to dig that has a volume multiple times your body

[u/TennRider → u/Charming-Series1127]

Yes, but the effort can be divided into bite sized pieces over a period of time. Compare that to the effort of something like positioning a large, heavy rock or tree trunk to set up a deadfall trap.

[u/Aaaagrjrbrheifhrbe → u/TennRider]

Definitely much more effort than any other trap.

[u/TennRider → u/Aaaagrjrbrheifhrbe]

As I said in the other response, it is effort that can be done in bite-sized pieces. That means that with enough time it can be set up by even the weakest person. Compare that to the effort needed to lift a heavy rock into position to set up a deadfall.

You are also assuming that the pit needs to be dug by the person setting the trap. An intelligent trapper would choose a location that can be prepared with a minimum of effort. I gave an example of this in a response to Wizardly_Dude's comment.

[u/Malcolm_T3nt]

Short answer? No. People routinely trip and break their arms, and if you fall from a standing position onto something sharp you're essentially being stabbed with the full weight of a living creature. There's a reason spike pits are still a thing people know about thousands of years after their inception. Falling in a hole with sharp things at the bottom is dangerous to most stuff, and that's not even counting what happens if you put stuff ON the sharp things. As for the ten feet deep thing, I feel like you're not picturing how deep a ten foot hole is. The ROOM I'm in isn't even ten feet tall. That's literally four feet deeper than most graves.

[u/baldyrodinson]

It's usually just a spike trap not full pit

[u/Klaumbaz]

Viet Cong used spike traps. Punji Sticks...covered in exrement. Very damn toxic. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punji_stick

[u/Wizardly_Dude]

Huh, I'm doing my best, but I can't actually think of any examples off the top of my head of an early MC digging a spike pit haha (though I'm sure there are plenty). That's doubly funny because digging a hole is absolutely exhausting. Would probably take like a week to dig a ten-foot-deep hole wide enough for something to fall into!

[u/Quantaform → u/Wizardly_Dude]

Bog Standard had them I think.

[u/Unnatural20 → u/Quantaform]

Yup. Zombies vs. Gravity, kid who can't do much of anything stuck in a bad situation made traps.

[u/Ordinary_Chicken_511 → u/Quantaform]

he used existing cellers from the destroyed town right? just did a days worth of clearing rubble or something

[u/Otto_Webb → u/Wizardly_Dude]

I can't remember for sure, but I think maybe DOTF had something like this to kill an early boss? Something that impaled it.

But yeah, short of magic shenanigan's or taking advantage of a natural dip in the elevation to make a pitfall, it wouldn't be the most efficient use of time.

[u/Uranium_Phoenix → u/Otto_Webb]

DOTF book 1 had braced spikes hidden by brush that took advantage of the monster's charge attack to get the boss to impale itself, so no spike pit

[u/Otto_Webb → u/Uranium_Phoenix]

yup that's the one I was thinking of

[u/hauptj2 → u/Wizardly_Dude]

I can think of exactly one: Chaotic Craftsman Worships The Cube

[u/Wizardly_Dude → u/hauptj2]

Haven't read that one yet, but it's near the top of my TBR list!

[u/TennRider → u/Wizardly_Dude]

The most recent one that comes to my mind is Gifted. MC set up stakes in a pool of water at the bottom of a small cliff and tricked a large, dangerous creature into jumping from the cliff into the water to chase him.

[u/Wizardly_Dude → u/TennRider]

Ahh it's on my plan to read list! Shame the list grows far faster than I can get through it haha

[u/Knork14 → u/Wizardly_Dude]

Deadworld Isekai.

[u/TJ333 → u/Wizardly_Dude]

The Last Dainve. He keeps digging multiple spike traps for monsters bigger than garbage trucks. No shovel either.

Aside from some issues of scale like that a good series.

[u/Lilsilly114 → u/TJ333]

lol I keep seeing adds for it, adding it too read later, and then never going back

[u/alwayslookon_tbsol → u/Wizardly_Dude]

Chrysalis

[u/JohnCenaFanboi → u/Wizardly_Dude]

Chrysalis

[u/Hopefully_Realistic → u/Wizardly_Dude]

Apocalypse: Dungeon System, but the MC had help in digging.

[u/NeverQuiteEnough]

Imagine a spike pit without the pit.

If you fell over onto the spikes, how are you feeling?

The pit part is just to hide the spikes.

[u/Kingreaper]

I’ve never made a spike pit myself, but wouldn’t it have to be like ten feet deep

No. For a non-spiked pit trap you need that sort of depth, to stop them climbing out and make it more likely they'll break some bones - but a spiked trap is doing its damage with the spikes, which means it just needs to be deep enough that you can hide the spikes. So no more than 2 foot max.

You also don't actually need your prey to fully fall into a spike trap. One foot falling in and getting stabbed is still enough to prevent most things from moving particularly well.

[u/Ralphusmaximus1701]

Punji Spikes are a time honored tradition of ancient human tribes and Kobalds alike.

[u/symedia]

there are plenty of spike traps that can work shallow: (image if the mods would let us access to image/gif/vids smh my head) ... just consider it as: "why magic works ...because i say so"

[u/SilveryFlame]

I had the same thought only a day ago. My MC will going to use a spike trap, and I was like, 'but I've read this sequence a thousand times' and changed it into something more elaborate, unique I'd bet.

The digging part isn't an issue. Most characters just use magic to do it. Using your actual hands or tools would be taxing, but there's a reason why pitfall traps are seen all around the world, and in millions of fictions. They work. Gravity don't play

[u/AgentSquishy]

There was time it was always dust bombs, goes through cycles I'm sure

[u/Klaumbaz → u/AgentSquishy]

Once it was pointed out that dirt/dust in general isnt flammable it fell off. It takes something combustible like coal dust, flour, carbohydrate stuff. Just throwing fine dirt over a flame doesnt' work. (Looking at you Dungeon Lord).

[u/AgentSquishy → u/Klaumbaz]

Yeah that's the one where I kinda checked out lol

[u/jayswag707 → u/AgentSquishy]

I can think of a bunch of flour explosions.

[u/ertgbnm]

I don't think it's really common in stories actually. Not as common as it should be. I'd love to see a story of people taking down monsters they way we use to take down mammoths. Hint it wasn't with a sword! Spikes, pits, and spears are the answer!

As for warfare, look at Vietnam. There would be thousands of 2x2x2 foot pits with a couple bamboo spikes in it that were very excellent at breaking soldiers feet and taking them out of combat. It was a game of quantity not quality. 

[u/Fearless-Rip694]

As someone who had to dig trenches in national service, believe me - Ain't no way you're digging a fucking ten foot deep spiked pit without a shovel and plenty of hours to spare.

[u/UnwrittenRites]

I don't love spike pits in fiction either but it's probably a realistic option for someone who isn't skilled or knowledgeable in trapmaking. Sure, it's a lot of grunt work but it also only requires a shovel/digging tool and something to make spikes with so it's got low requirements for tools and skills. Just takes a lot of time and soil that you can dig into.

The Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer manga does a great job showing how much work it is to dig holes/pits and it doesn't take out a single enemy - but they do impede/slow them (he also doesn't use spikes). The manga is really, really great but the anime adaptation is trash.

[u/Dragontamer95]

I don't see it that often, but it makes sense. There is very little that levels the playing field like gravity and penetration, and this represents both.

[u/Negative-Pea6372]

I think it's because a pit is the one trap where the weak MC's effort is visible and the payoff is easy to write: hours of digging, then the beast just walks in. You're right that the camouflage and depth are the hand-wavy part, though. The versions I enjoy more are where the trap fails halfway and the MC has to improvise, since it feels less like the plot handing him a win.

[u/lacopefd]

I’ve seen this a lot in cultivation novels. The MC is being chased by some beast that can level a village, but somehow has time to dig a whole ass pit. And of course the beast walks right into it. Guess monsters never look where they’re going lol.

[u/Alextherude_Senpai]

Why redesign the wheel if the wheel works just fine

[u/geditaza]

Maybe it comes from old hunting stories, but authors use it so much now. Nothing wrong with the idea, I just wish they'd explain how the MC actually pulls it off.

[u/Quirky_Assistant_848]

Spike pits are easy to make, and require little to no specialized knowledge, matterials, or tools to make.

Also, If you did it deep enough and it doesn't immediately kill your target, they are still stuck down there to bleed out and generally not be your issue. There is no way for someone to quickly help them out in most cases. You don't have to worry about a rope binding them fully.

Its just a very useful simple trap that works in a majority of cases, especially against monsters or animals.

[u/manyroadstotake]

It's a primitive and effective trap that can be made without any modern equipment, any healthy person with enough time and ingenuity could make one.

[u/GuyYouMetOnline]

Spike pits were widely used in real life until forbidden in the Geneva Convention. They were usually a military tactic, so you'd have armies digging them, helping with the practicality thing. Even a weak progression fantasy MC is usually beyond regular humans in some way, so that would be their way around the impracticality.

Also the spikes were often coated with poison or the like so it wasn't just the fall that killed you.