Find Traps 5e: Detection, Line of Sight, and Limits
Find Traps has a name that promises more than its rules deliver. I use it as a danger alarm, not a magical pointer: it can confirm that a deliberately created trap is nearby and describe the danger in general terms, but the party must still locate and deal with it.
Find Traps 5e — Quick Spell Reference
| Casting Time | 1 action |
|---|---|
| Range | 120 feet |
| Components | V, S |
| Duration | Instantaneous |
| Concentration | No |
| Ritual | No |
| Classes | Cleric, Druid, Ranger |
| Source | Basic Rules (2014), pg. 241 |
How Find Traps Works
The caster senses the presence of any trap within 120 feet that is also within line of sight. For this spell, a trap is anything deliberately intended by its creator to inflict a sudden or unexpected harmful effect.
The spell names an Alarm spell, a Glyph of Warding, and a mechanical pit trap as examples. A trap can be magical or nonmagical; deliberate design and harmful purpose are what matter.
Find Traps is instantaneous. It checks once when cast and does not continue scanning as the party moves.
What Information Does the Spell Reveal?
Find Traps reveals that a qualifying trap is present and gives the caster a general sense of the danger it poses. The spell does not reveal:
- the trap’s precise location;
- how many traps are present;
- its trigger;
- its exact effect;
- the saving throw or attack bonus involved; or
- how to disarm or bypass it.
“General nature” can support a broad warning such as poison, fire, falling, or magical restraint. It is not a full mechanical description. After the warning, the characters still need observation, ability checks, thieves’ tools, magic, or careful experimentation.
How Line of Sight Limits Find Traps
The 120-foot range is not a sphere that scans through opaque barriers. A trap must be within line of sight, so the spell cannot detect one on the other side of a closed door, around a corner, beneath an opaque floor, or inside a closed container that blocks the relevant sight line.
This requirement does not make the spell pointless: a trap can occupy an area the caster can see without its mechanism being visually obvious. A concealed pressure plate in a visible stretch of corridor can still be the sort of danger the spell is meant to warn about. The DM applies the normal line-of-sight rules to the scene.
The spell does not grant sight in darkness, through heavy obscurement, or through solid cover. Improving visibility before casting can make the 120-foot range more useful.
What Find Traps Does Not Detect
Natural hazards are not traps under this spell’s definition. A naturally weak floor, unstable cave ceiling, ordinary patch of quicksand, or rockslide waiting to happen was not deliberately created to cause sudden or unexpected harm.
Intent matters with constructed objects too. A crumbling staircase is hazardous, but it is not necessarily a trap. If someone deliberately weakened it to collapse beneath intruders, it can qualify.
Find Traps also does not automatically detect every creature lying in ambush. A creature is not itself a trap merely because it plans to attack, though a trap that creature built may qualify.
When Is Find Traps Useful?
The spell is most helpful before entering a visible, suspicious area when knowing whether danger exists changes the party’s decision. A positive result can justify a slow search, another route, or protective magic. A negative result is narrower: it means the spell sensed no qualifying trap within its range and line of sight at that instant, not that the entire dungeon is safe.
Because Find Traps uses a 2nd-level slot and is not a ritual, its information has a real resource cost. It works best when the group has a specific reason to suspect a trap rather than as a routine substitute for exploration.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Find Traps show where a trap is?
No. It reveals a trap’s presence and the general nature of its danger, not its location.
Can Find Traps detect through walls or doors?
No. The trap must be within range and line of sight.
Does Find Traps detect natural hazards?
No. A qualifying trap must have been deliberately intended by its creator to cause sudden or unexpected harm.
Does Find Traps remain active while exploring?
No. Its duration is instantaneous, so it senses only when cast.