Compound Traps

I was watching the writers of Robot Chicken play D&D on d20source.com, and I started thinking about traps. As others have pointed out before (I think it was one of the goals in 4th edition to eliminate this problem), traps in 3.x run the risk of being nothing more than random annoying resource drains. It does seem a little obnoxious that, no matter what description of the trap I give, it still takes the requisite search, followed by disable device checks to get past it. Scythe coming out of the wall? Search, Disable Device. Pass, you get by; fail, you get hit. Poison dart getting shot in your face? Search, Disable Device. Wash, rinse, repeat.

While I was watching the 15th episode, which includes a sarcophagus surrounded by a magic circle of runes, I started thinking about the idea of compound traps. A trap with a number of parts, each of which can be disabled with a certain type of skill or knowledge, is infinitely more interesting. It makes the players feel more involved.

For example, how about a trap similar to the one depicted in the footage:
A magical chest is locked shut on top of a tall statue in the center of the room.
It is surrounded by two concentric rings of runes.
The first ring contains a powerful summoning spell that cannot be disabled.
The second ring contains a powerful defensive spell (maybe a glyph of blasting or some such thing) that is triggered a number of rounds after the glyph is crossed. This second cannot be disabled, or maybe it can only be disabled from inside the summoning glyph.

Disabling the trap then becomes a full party maneuver. While the rogue dashes in and starts scrambling up the statue (climb checks), he knows he only has a few seconds before the inner rune-circle activates to unlock the treasure chest (open lock) or break it loose from its housing atop the statue (disable device, break). Meanwhile, the rest of the party is dealing with whatever nasty monsters have been summoned by the first rune-circle. Perhaps the wizard has been able to identify the effects of the rune-circles (arcana, history). Perhaps the cleric can identify some religious connotation to the whole shebang (religion). Maybe the warriors could bypass the whole thing by slamming into the statue hard enough to knock it over and send the treasure spewing all over the room like a busted pinata - although they still have to deal with the summoned creatures.