your best riddle/puzzle/thingy ever.

[big teej]

greetings playgrounders,

I recently designed a puzzle/riddle room that I'm rather proud of, I don't quite have time to detail it right now because a class is about to start, but I plan to later.

in the meantime, I wanna hear about what you consider to be "your best trap/riddle/puzzle/etc."

I want to know
what it is
how it works
how to bypass it (unless you have players on the forums who haven't figured it out)
how you came up with the idea
and anything else you find relevant

have at it :smallbiggrin:

[DonDuckie]

I haven't used it but want to use a variant of the classic two always true/false guards with a single question, just guarding the door of some wizards tower. I don't know what entities are good for this, but I'm thinking illusions or maybe constructs.

But the turn is it's just two jerks trying to delay and annoy intruders.

So when the right question is immediately asked, they don't grasp it and need it explained. :smalltongue:

It's especially good for parties with patience.

[Ancient Mage]

I have not actually used this, as I don't like killing my players. It is an incredibly evil trap found in really old and smart dragons' lairs.

"You walk into the room, out of the thin hallway. The room is about 10' by 10' with a 10' high ceiling. There is a massive iron door on the far side. Suddenly, two things happen at once: The hallway behind you collapses (mechanical trigger, magical detonation in support struts), and your magic fails you (dragon in room ABOVE casting antimagic field, which siphons down through the 5 tiny cracks in the ceiling above the characters)."
Next round: dragon begins casting spells through the cracks in the ceiling, creating a kill-zone. The iron door has a simple lock, which the PC's will probably open. (If a wizard checks the door, it is immune to acid damage via magical protection...). Opening the door unleashes a flood of acid from the acid lake behind the iron door, flooding the room. PC's are killed all at once by dragon, acid and drowning.

I think this covers the "trap" request of yours. There are a handful of ways to escape, and observant PC's should be able to realize several of the tricks in advance, but unwary or brash heroes will die instantly.

-Ancient Mage

[Ksheep]

A trapped corridor that I had seen a while back which I'm tempted to use:

The corridor spirals inward toward a central room. Throughout the corridor are numerous sprung traps (pendulum, saw blades, lightning, pitfalls, etc). At the end, they find a single treasure chest with a corpse lying next to it. The chest has a simple, unsprung poison needle trap. After opening it, they find jewels and gold… and if they remove more than a pound of it (or add more than a pound to it), a pressure pad under it get triggered. This resets all the traps in the corridor, and they have to get out in one piece.

[Venger]

I haven't used it but want to use a variant of the classic two always true/false guards with a single question, just guarding the door of some wizards tower. I don't know what entities are good for this, but I'm thinking illusions or maybe constructs.

But the turn is it's just two jerks trying to delay and annoy intruders.

So when the right question is immediately asked, they don't grasp it and need it explained. :smalltongue:

It's especially good for parties with patience.

have it be an ettin! one head always tells the truth, one head always lies. (and then the ettin is just trolling, as you said)

[big teej]

heh, some of these put mine to shame :smallredface:

but I started this mess, so here it is.

*I would like to note at this point that a slight portion of the reason behind this thread is too find out if I need a better hint, I've used this once before and I can't decide if the clue was too hard, or if the players metagamed and it came back to bite them.... having polled some other people (both gamers and non) it would seem it is metagaming that caused the 2 deaths within this room... but we'll see)

I digress, the solution is spoilered below.

you enter a four sided room, the room is empty except for the following features. to your right is a large altar, covered in runes and sigils and whatnot, the party cleric points out that every single symbol he recognizes is the holy, or unholy, symbol of a diety, but he is not familiar with them all. opposite the altar, inscribed upon the wall, is the phrase "Fear Denies Faith". opposite the door you entered is another plain simple door. what do you do?

and, in the interest of expediency, I will explain a portion of the trap/riddle in advance.

if you attempt to open the door in any fashion (knock spells, touching the door knob, attacking it, etc.) an Astral Construct (lvl 5) appears and attacks the character that made the attempt, ignoring all other characters.

if a character NOT being attacked by the construct attacks the construct, a second construct appears, focused on the offending character.

every time someone either a) tries to open the door without solving the riddle, or b) attacks a construct that's after someone else

they are attacked by progressively stronger Astral Constructs (5th, 6th all the way up to 9th). in the event that the 9th level construct is slain, but they still attempt to pass the door, 2 constructs are then spawned, and the pattern continues.

I believe that is all the necessary information about the constructs...

so, now for the answer (and for those of you who wish to guess please spoiler your guess and/or any tips you may have on giving a better clue)


the only way to try to pass through the door without being attacked is too make some act of devotion at the altar, be it a prayer, singing a hymn, a slogan, sacrificing a party member, etc. it doesn't matter what diety it is for or if it is even genuine, but the act must be made.

the clue is meant to be difficult, however, "how difficult" is something I'm troubleshooting, I'm curious how many people can figure it out before I consider changing it.

anyways... that's mine, and I'm rather proud of it if I say so myself.

[SilverLeaf167]

big teej, your puzzle seems pretty cool and detailed, but it is indeed quite difficult. I don't see anything in the phrase "Fear Denies Faith" that would give any clue on solving the puzzle. Unless this is just some specific reference to something which I don't get, the encounter might very well end in a TPK unless some player tries the real solution just out of desperation OR you give them some other hint.

Don't ask me about what the hint should be. :P

[Arakune]

I'm with SilverLeaf Here.

Also, what prevents them from staying there for a long time and hoard XP?

[SamBurke]

heh, some of these put mine to shame :smallredface:

but I started this mess, so here it is.

*I would like to note at this point that a slight portion of the reason behind this thread is too find out if I need a better hint, I've used this once before and I can't decide if the clue was too hard, or if the players metagamed and it came back to bite them.... having polled some other people (both gamers and non) it would seem it is metagaming that caused the 2 deaths within this room... but we'll see)

I digress, the solution is spoilered below.

you enter a four sided room, the room is empty except for the following features. to your right is a large altar, covered in runes and sigils and whatnot, the party cleric points out that every single symbol he recognizes is the holy, or unholy, symbol of a diety, but he is not familiar with them all. opposite the altar, inscribed upon the wall, is the phrase "Fear Denies Faith". opposite the door you entered is another plain simple door. what do you do?

and, in the interest of expediency, I will explain a portion of the trap/riddle in advance.

if you attempt to open the door in any fashion (knock spells, touching the door knob, attacking it, etc.) an Astral Construct (lvl 5) appears and attacks the character that made the attempt, ignoring all other characters.

if a character NOT being attacked by the construct attacks the construct, a second construct appears, focused on the offending character.

every time someone either a) tries to open the door without solving the riddle, or b) attacks a construct that's after someone else

they are attacked by progressively stronger Astral Constructs (5th, 6th all the way up to 9th). in the event that the 9th level construct is slain, but they still attempt to pass the door, 2 constructs are then spawned, and the pattern continues.

I believe that is all the necessary information about the constructs...

so, now for the answer (and for those of you who wish to guess please spoiler your guess and/or any tips you may have on giving a better clue)


the only way to try to pass through the door without being attacked is too make some act of devotion at the altar, be it a prayer, singing a hymn, a slogan, sacrificing a party member, etc. it doesn't matter what diety it is for or if it is even genuine, but the act must be made.

the clue is meant to be difficult, however, "how difficult" is something I'm troubleshooting, I'm curious how many people can figure it out before I consider changing it.

anyways... that's mine, and I'm rather proud of it if I say so myself.

That's about right, if you ask me. My first thought was, "Fighting=Fear." So, deny fear, AND un-deny faith. Whatever that means.

I don't use traps all too often, but when I do, I choose the Big Red Button.

Players walk into a room with a big red button (or appropriate device) in the center of the room. The has the word "RESET" tied to it. A timer immediately begins, doors lock.

Each time the push the button, the timer re-starts. Trick is, they WANT the timer to run out. It's a timed lock; thirty seconds after entering, the door on the other side opens.

[big teej]

big teej, your puzzle seems pretty cool and detailed, but it is indeed quite difficult. I don't see anything in the phrase "Fear Denies Faith" that would give any clue on solving the puzzle. Unless this is just some specific reference to something which I don't get, the encounter might very well end in a TPK unless some player tries the real solution just out of desperation OR you give them some other hint.

Don't ask me about what the hint should be. :P

the logic (flawed though it may be) that I used was "you must make an act of faith (devotion) to pass"

the phrase is partly meant to throw off the players (as is proper for a trap meant for 18th level characters)



I'm with SilverLeaf Here.

Also, what prevents them from staying there for a long time and hoard XP?

mostlly because I've yet to play with someone who would have thought of that. :smalltongue:

[Igneel]

There is one riddle that I always enjoyed throwing at my math teachers ever since I read it from a book I once read way back in 2001. I don't believe anyone has ever gotten it correctly.

Thaegan gulps her favorite food
In her cave with all her brood:
Hot, Tod, Jin, Jod,
Fie, Fly, Zan, Zod,
Pik, Snik, Lun, Lod,
and the dreaded Ichabod.
Each child holds a slimy toad.
On each toad squirm two fat grubs.
On each grub ride two fleas brave.
How many living in Thaegan's cave?
-Deltora Quest 'Lake of Tears', by Emily Rodda


Thaegan= 1
Children= 13
Toads= 13
Grubs= 26
Fleas= 52
= 105

Plus her favorite food which she gulped= swallowed whole being a single living crow for a total of 106. I personally like to alter it so that at least it sounds like your talking about a dragon, but I digress...

[DonDuckie]

I didn't get it. And I still don't... granted - I'm not good at these puzzles.

"Fear Denies Faith" is weird... (so if meant to confuse, I suppose it's good)

Bravery would be trying the handle, bravery would be joining a fight to protect a teammate.

for 18th level? go for it, even though I don't know what Astral Constructs are...

also, what do they get from detect magic, detect alliance, arcane eye, true seeing, analyze dweomer... if they don't, it's their own fault at that level.

But I would never get it, and I would never stop attacking Astrals Constructs and the door... And if I survived, I would spend a few months trying to figure out how to the trap with me...

[Lapak]

There is one riddle that I always enjoyed throwing at my math teachers ever since I read it from a book I once read way back in 2001. I don't believe anyone has ever gotten it correctly.

Thaegan gulps her favorite food
In her cave with all her brood:
Hot, Tod, Jin, Jod,
Fie, Fly, Zan, Zod,
Pik, Snik, Lun, Lod,
and the dreaded Ichabod.
Each child holds a slimy toad.
On each toad squirm two fat grubs.
On each grub ride two fleas brave.
How many living in Thaegan's cave?
-Deltora Quest 'Lake of Tears', by Emily Rodda


Thaegan= 1
Children= 13
Toads= 13
Grubs= 26
Fleas= 52
= 105

Plus her favorite food which she gulped= swallowed whole being a single living crow for a total of 106. I personally like to alter it so that at least it sounds like your talking about a dragon, but I digress...
I sucessfully got to 105 before opening your spoiler, but the lack of information about what her favorite food is makes the riddle unsolvable. I noted that the CHILDREN are called out as carrying the toads and she wasn't, but since you don't say what her favorite food is it could be a dead rat or a pair of live chickens or a bucket full of 10,000,000 krill. The best possible answer is 'at least 105 and less than an infinite number.'

[DonDuckie]

I sucessfully got to 105 before opening your spoiler, but the lack of information about what her favorite food is makes the riddle unsolvable. I noted that the CHILDREN are called out as carrying the toads and she wasn't, but since you don't say what her favorite food is it could be a dead rat or a pair of live chickens or a bucket full of 10,000,000 krill. The best possible answer is 'at least 105 and less than an infinite number.'

Seconded! I got the same answer.

[Vanzanze]

One I particularly enjoyed was chasing a PC and her trusting NPC into a bank vault that seals almost as well as modern ones do. After failing to blast their way in with dynamite and spells, the ruffians outside decided not to make chase, but rather to wait for the people inside to starve/die of thirst/run out of oxygen and reclaim the prize that way. However, there was an elevator inside that the PC knew a little about, which was enough to prompt her to try and use it to escape.

Of course, this "elevator" was designed to be as much of a trap as anything else, so there was only an up-down indicator for the lever itself, while the lever console was an inch-wide golden plate with lots of little stylistic markings and such. Pulling down on the lever would eventually crush the people, as the 'bottom' of the elevator was really a firm platform, but the rest of the elevator could easily go down around it. Oh, and no lights in the elevator, either, so a lit torch would start smoking up the place.

After careful study of the stylistic markings, she noticed a strange gap in them (a blank part of the gold inlay) about halfway down the right-hand side. Pushing the lever into that gap actually made the elevator slide off to one side and a spring-loaded platform pop out to catch the people inside the car (since they were moving off of the fixed platform). Once this was done, she could easily pull the lever down even further than the original "lever box" would have allowed, which let them arrive (unharmed) at their intended destination: another trapped vault door.

The vault door was a more straightforward trap, but the "false lever box" on the elevator was fun to mess with her.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Ksheep
A trapped corridor that I had seen a while back which I'm tempted to use:

The corridor spirals inward toward a central room. Throughout the corridor are numerous sprung traps (pendulum, saw blades, lightning, pitfalls, etc). At the end, they find a single treasure chest with a corpse lying next to it. The chest has a simple, unsprung poison needle trap. After opening it, they find jewels and gold… and if they remove more than a pound of it (or add more than a pound to it), a pressure pad under it get triggered. This resets all the traps in the corridor, and they have to get out in one piece.

This is in Book of Challenges, and our DM sprang this on us.

From his perspective it was hilarious. We walked right into it, literally, passing up all the "sprung" traps and not even considering they might reset themselves. Getting out...hurt.

Also, you forgot to mention the Flame Strike targeted on whoever touches the chest. Then all the other traps are reset.

[SleepyShadow]

When it comes to traps, riddles, and the general maiming of PCs, I always turn to Grimtooth. Not counting the beloved Dungeon of Doom adventure, I believe the best puzzler would have to be the Bridge at Rue Vincent.

A rickety bridge is suspended over a pool of boiling wax, and in the center of the bridge is a flint golem. Melee attacks made with metal weapons, as well as most notable flashy spells, will cause sparks when the hit the flint golem. The sparks will set the room on fire, as well as quickly consuming the bridge and preventing the party from where they need to go (or better yet the way out).

The trick? Either beat the golem to death with wooden sticks, or just push it off the bridge.

[Raimun]

The best trap is obviously an empty, featureless room with absolutely no traps in it.

As for riddles? I don't know many but I do know this:

What is both death and healing?

Time.

[Igneel]

I sucessfully got to 105 before opening your spoiler, but the lack of information about what her favorite food is makes the riddle unsolvable. I noted that the CHILDREN are called out as carrying the toads and she wasn't, but since you don't say what her favorite food is it could be a dead rat or a pair of live chickens or a bucket full of 10,000,000 krill. The best possible answer is 'at least 105 and less than an infinite number.'

That was the point in the book. The main character was asked this riddle to cross a bridge, get it right he gets to go across, get it wrong he gets killed. Of course the character called out the riddler for not being fair which the riddler gave him the slightly over used riddle "You may say one thing, if its true I will strangle you with my hands, if its false I will cut your head off with my sword". The answer is 'My head will be cut off'.

The only campaign I ever used the earlier riddle for was in one that people knew about the dragon [altered the riddle thusly] that liked to swallow a peasant whole.

[Person_Man]

Passageway is blocked by a massive magically locked metal door.

In front of the door is a large statue of the Goddess of Wisdom, holding a large scale.

The scale is not balanced, because each side of the scale has a number of stones on them.

Each stone has a name (First, Second, Third, and so on) and a math/logic problem inscribed on it. (First: I am twice the weight of the Fifth. Fifth: I am three times the weight of the Fourth minus the Second. And so on). Each stone also has a different color and shape.

Each time the players move a stone from one part of the scale to another, there was a random chance that a painful but not deadly effect would occur. (Fire, electricity, animated objects attacking them, etc. This did not always occur, but it occurred often enough that it implied a pattern of some sort).

Engraved on the statue in an arcane/ancient language that one of the players can read somehow (Draconic, or Decipher Script, or whatever) is written the word "The Key to Progress is Balance, the Key to Balance is Wisdom"

Thus to open the door, the players must balance the scales.

The Solution:

The stones are a red herring, the Logic/Math puzzle itself is unsolvable, and you cannot achieve balance by moving the stones around. To achieve balance, you must remove all of the stones, so that nothing is on them, thus balancing the scales.

I came up with the idea when I was helping two of my players study for the GRE tests on a weekly basis, which at the time required you answer that kind of logic puzzle.

They assumed that I had thrown this into my game as another practice question for the GRE. They were so mentally locked into solving the problem as, and insisted that there must be some sort of pattern to the random effects or a mistake that they had made on their math.

They overlooked the obvious solution for over half an hour before one of the players said "I knock all of the stones off the scales in frustration" - which opened the door.

[Demon of Death]

-Trap Info-

I thought that the answer would be something like Passwall, didn't think anything of the altar, but should have as this is a trap thread, and that would have been too easy.


Engraved on the statue in an arcane/ancient language that one of the players can read somehow (Draconic, or Decipher Script, or whatever) is written the word "The Key to Progress is Balance, the Key to Balance is Wisdom"

Thus to open the door, the players must balance the scales.

That's pretty good, I like it. I got it quickly only because I thought the scales would be off balance if they have any weight most likely, whereas air weighs the same (Excluding Wizards).

[The Random NPC]

I have not actually used this, as I don't like killing my players. It is an incredibly evil trap found in really old and smart dragons' lairs.

"You walk into the room, out of the thin hallway. The room is about 10' by 10' with a 10' high ceiling. There is a massive iron door on the far side. Suddenly, two things happen at once: The hallway behind you collapses (mechanical trigger, magical detonation in support struts), and your magic fails you (dragon in room ABOVE casting antimagic field, which siphons down through the 5 tiny cracks in the ceiling above the characters)."
Next round: dragon begins casting spells through the cracks in the ceiling, creating a kill-zone. The iron door has a simple lock, which the PC's will probably open. (If a wizard checks the door, it is immune to acid damage via magical protection...). Opening the door unleashes a flood of acid from the acid lake behind the iron door, flooding the room. PC's are killed all at once by dragon, acid and drowning.

I think this covers the "trap" request of yours. There are a handful of ways to escape, and observant PC's should be able to realize several of the tricks in advance, but unwary or brash heroes will die instantly.

-Ancient Mage

An antimagic field doesn't propagate through walls (or in this case floors) that don't have at least a 1 foot hole in them.
Edit: Also, how is the dragon casting in an antimagic field?

[gooddragon1]

I have not actually used this, as I don't like killing my players. It is an incredibly evil trap found in really old and smart dragons' lairs.

"You walk into the room, out of the thin hallway. The room is about 10' by 10' with a 10' high ceiling. There is a massive iron door on the far side. Suddenly, two things happen at once: The hallway behind you collapses (mechanical trigger, magical detonation in support struts), and your magic fails you (dragon in room ABOVE casting antimagic field, which siphons down through the 5 tiny cracks in the ceiling above the characters)."
Next round: dragon begins casting spells through the cracks in the ceiling, creating a kill-zone. The iron door has a simple lock, which the PC's will probably open. (If a wizard checks the door, it is immune to acid damage via magical protection...). Opening the door unleashes a flood of acid from the acid lake behind the iron door, flooding the room. PC's are killed all at once by dragon, acid and drowning.

I think this covers the "trap" request of yours. There are a handful of ways to escape, and observant PC's should be able to realize several of the tricks in advance, but unwary or brash heroes will die instantly.

-Ancient Mage

Only way I can think to counter this is the cone head trick (shrunk item cone (think traffic safety cone) made of light weight material). What other ways are there?

Also, amfs can't turn corners because they're an emanation so the little slits would only let rays of amf through them...?

[WhamBamSam]

snipI managed to work out the solution on my own without much trouble, but I'd have probably been a little disappointed to learn that it was the DM's intention all along. Also, I'd likely be making the fighter fool around with the stones a bit if it wasn't written on the wall in particular detail, just to be sure of what made the trap go off and because it'd be funny to watch him get zapped.


snipI'm going to agree with what some other people have said that the hint doesn't give much to go on. My guess is that I'd end up "solving" it by eventually getting frustrated and shouting out something to the effect of "God damn it! Let us through!" which should work based on your description.

[big teej]

That's about right, if you ask me. My first thought was, "Fighting=Fear." So, deny fear, AND un-deny faith. Whatever that means.
.

soooo is that a vote for "the hint works"
or a vote for "the hint is in need of work"

? :smalltongue:



I didn't get it. And I still don't... granted - I'm not good at these puzzles.

"Fear Denies Faith" is weird... (so if meant to confuse, I suppose it's good)

Bravery would be trying the handle, bravery would be joining a fight to protect a teammate.

for 18th level? go for it, even though I don't know what Astral Constructs are...

also, what do they get from detect magic, detect alliance, arcane eye, true seeing, analyze dweomer... if they don't, it's their own fault at that level.

But I would never get it, and I would never stop attacking Astrals Constructs and the door... And if I survived, I would spend a few months trying to figure out how to the trap with me...

it is meant to confuse and mislead, but not to the degree of impossibility.

astral constructs are Psionic's answer to "Summon Monster X"

as for the rest of the spells.... this is my inexperience DMing casters showing, but....

the only "magical aura" stuff I have set in stone is "the door and the altar radiate heavy magic"

for the record, though I don't think it matters too much, the dungeon was created by an epic level arch-mage, so there's alotta stuff that simply doesn't function properly within it.
for example, in many rooms, you can't alter the material of the dungeon (no shape stone for instance)
and in the entire dungeon you cannot teleport out, you can teleport within the dungeon, but not out of it.

but I digress.
in short, "I'm not quite sure what my response to those spells would be" I would obviously grant them any information the spell should give them, unless it fell under the perview of "that cheats the riddle"



I'm going to agree with what some other people have said that the hint doesn't give much to go on. My guess is that I'd end up "solving" it by eventually getting frustrated and shouting out something to the effect of "God damn it! Let us through!" which should work based on your description.

to respond to your guess.
yes, actually I probably would have let that work, assuming I knew you were speaking IC.



so what would you recommend as a better hint?

[Dr.Epic]

Not really a riddle, but for awhile, my characters were wondering what this magic ring did. They got it among the loot of a queen they killed. The mage in the group burst into her throne room and hit her with a magic missile powerful enough to kill the queen. They later learned what the magic ring did:

It granted the wearer complete immunity to magic missile.:smallwink:

[KoboldCleric]

The best advice I can give to anyone using a "riddle/puzzle/thingy" is to never have only one right answer. Ultimately, everyone at the table wants the game to progress, and it's very unlikely that your players think the same way you do, so you're better off leaving it a tad open-ended and rewarding players for interesting or surprising "solutions" to your puzzles, even if it's not the one you had in mind.

[Madara]

what it is: A sliding door
how it works: Its a hidden door, which is made of stone and blends in with the wall, the important part is that there is no handle, and you have to slide it to the side.
how to bypass it (unless you have players on the forums who haven't figured it out): It's a sliding door..
how you came up with the idea: I was ammused at what happens to the party when they accept things: that all doors have a door nob...
and anything else you find relevant: It took my party 30min of game time to figure it out, feel free to cut them off after a bit. :smallsmile:

[Crasical]

A lot of grimtooth traps seem like DURR, GOTCHA to me, rather than something the players can reasonably be expected to encounter and bypass.


That said, this trap still makes me smile.

http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/3023/cagebridge.jpg

[u-b]

Never used it, but think it should be good. Probably encountered exploring some ancient crypt, necromancer's base or such.

A room, entry to which is unblocked. On the other side there is a passage blocked by steel grate. Beside it, to the left, stays motionless human-sized figure in full plate, armed with a greatsword. If studied long enough it appears to visual means to be just a piece of furniture.

First a person to enter the room triggers following events:
1. Figure steps away from his place (from beside the the grate to directly before it)
2. The way into the room gets blocked by steel grate shutting down escape and possibly separating it from the rest of the party
3. Figure says: "Listen to the silence"

If everyone remains silent for some time (like two minutes):

4. Figure steps away from directly before exit grate (and now stands to the right of it)
5. It says: "Enjoy the silence"
6. Exit grate is opened

When everyone leaves the room, the armored figure assumes its original position and process can be repeated.

If party fails to remain silent when asked, the figure says them to "Join the silence" and attacks. If attacked, figure fights back.
The figure is a skeleton of appropriate HD. Magicks present (these might be detected):
1. Magic mouth on the skeleton
2. Zero or more enchantments on its equipment as appropriate for the level (on the cheap side)
3. Inflict X wounds auto-reset trap where skeleton stands, with silent magical alarm

The rest of this room's equipment is mechanical. That works one way only. Exit by some other, probably more convenient, means. The alarm is present to magically ping the creator of this room every time the skeleton moves on or off the inflicting trap (if killed on the trap, that pings too). Whether the creator is in a position to act on that... good question.

[NNescio]

Only way I can think to counter this is the cone head trick (shrunk item cone (think traffic safety cone) made of light weight material). What other ways are there?

Also, amfs can't turn corners because they're an emanation so the little slits would only let rays of amf through them...?

Obvious solution: "DM, you don't know how AMF works. Like, at all."

Cover solution: Shrunken hat or tower shield trick. This requires preparation or being lucky enough to have someone with a tower shield not stashed in extradimensional space, and a DM who doesn't know how an emanation is supposed to work will likely object to this solution.

Geometry solution: AMF can't cover a whole 10' by 10' by 10' cube, so have everyone split up and stand in corners. Again, a DM who doesn't know how AMF works may also object to this solution.

Loophole solution: Wizard: "The door is protected by magic! That means it's not covered by the AMF! And I can cast my spells!"

Bruteforce solution: Start digging. And pray you don't die yet. Or that you have a martial initiator on your party.

I don't care solution: cf. any of the many ways to cast in an AMF.

Intended solution: I don't know. Probably something that doesn't involve getting free of the AMF.

[Suddo]

Silence puzzle.

I like it. 2 things though:
1) I'd make the warrior a warforged or construct of some sorts.
2) I'd make it not talk and have a plaque that says enjoy the silence. I'd make it in a language someone in the party probably know, actually I'd make in a language I know the party will know via meta-knowledge. So if the wrong person gets trapped he is forced to make noise.

Some things to maybe flare it up:
1) If the party is low level give the construct stupid DR and not have it attack viciously. Maybe just bull rush the character into a wall or trip them.
2) I'd also give the construct some form of silent movement. Probably an enchantment on his armor this will trigger them to take note as the construct doesn't make noise as it moves. Instead of clacking around.

But differently my favorite thus far.

[Phaederkiel]

Last week, I gave my party this diary from the corpse of a villain:

(letter is in german, so it will not have much use to you, if you do not speak german... I include it anyway :)





Die verdammte Karavane ist endlich gesichtet worden! Sie haben wohl geglaubt, wenn sie einen Umweg über den Sarteff machen, finden wir sie nicht! Ich und Regiarix werden gleich losfliegen, vielleicht können wir ja so meinen Wert beweisen. Mir macht allerdings der Himmel etwas Sorgen.

Nachtrag: Was für ein Hundewetter! Mich hat es fast von Regiarix geweht, und man kann keine 10 Fuß weit sehen. Das tu ich mir nicht an. Ich habe Nurkelnaak angewiesen, Sing und Soll in Richtung der Karavane zu schicken. Sie scheinen ein bißchen weniger dämlich zu sein als Lurk und Mev, hat zumindest Jugat gesagt. Ich kann bei solchen Kreaturen keinerlei Unterschied feststellen.
Vielleicht habe ich Glück und sie verbocken es glorreich. Schlecht für die rote Hand, ja. Aber noch schlechter für Nurkelnaak!

_____________________
Inserted letter, heavily scented
Sarvith, mein hübscher,

Ich hoffe doch sehr, daß du besagten "Gegenstand" bereits unserem "Freund" K weitergereicht hast?
Wer schließlich wäre besser geeignet, darauf aufzupassen, als ein weiterer ihrer scheußlichen Sorte...

Ich muß dich hoffentlich nicht daran erinnern, daß du, falls unser "Verbündeter" bei dir inquirieren sollte, wo sein kleiner Schatz steckt, buchstäblich um dein Leben lügst?

Nicht auszudenken, nicht wahr, mein hübscher, was passierte, wenn er wüßte, wo das Kleinod steckt...
Sie würden sich gegenseitig bekämpfen anstatt uns zu unterstüzen, und sollte K unerliegen wären wir alle alle unseres Lebens nicht mehr sicher.
Nicht, daß dich das dann noch stören würde, hättest du dir doch den Zorn Azar Khul´s zugezogen...

Selbstverständlich schreibe ich dir dies als liebende Warnung,
in treuester Ergebenheit
Deine Ulwai.

ps:
Ich erwarte keinesfalls, daß er auch nur einen Fuß vor die Tür setzt. Aber man weiß nie, wozu Angst einen Mann treiben kann...


Wozu Angst einen Mann treiben kann? Ich jedenfalls wünschte, ich hätte dieses verdammte Paket nie erhalten und habe es sofort zu K weitergeschickt. Ich versuche eben, die Verantwortung weiterzugeben, genau wie Ulwai...Nicht daß ich ihr je irgendetwas abschlagen könnte, und sie weiß es ganz genau. Ich zappele in ihrem Netz, ein kleiner Fisch, der hoft, daß gerade er heute abend gebraten werden wird.

man vergleiche es mit Nurkelnaak! Dieser widerliche Wicht, dieser Folterknecht mit Putzfimmel, Braucht Magie, um die Fische zu fangen. Aber nein mein Lieber! Ich kenne lange schon ein besseres Netz! Ich weiß daß du nicht hierbist, um mir zu helfen, sondern um mich zu beobachten...Niemand glaubt, daß ich in der Lage sein bin, irgendetwas ohne Regiarix zu schaffen...


Nurkelnaak darf dieses Buch niemals in die Hände bekommen, er würde sofort eine magische Nachricht zu Karn oder Khul schicken. Oh, daß ich selbst nicht Zaubern kann...

__________________________
Regiarix ist unruhig, er ist genauso unzufrieden mit unserer Stationierung wie ich. Er will Jarmath an die Gurgel, sich seinen Schatz zurückholen... Ich möchte behaupten, daß Jarmath das Gold wohl angelegt hat, er scheint sich einen Thron damit gekauft zu haben...der Gedanke, seinen Schatz mit Zinsen zurückzubekommen, ist daß einzige, was Regiarix davon abhält, den verfluchten Nurkelnaak eines Morgens zu fressen. Und so ertragen wir beide den insolenten Wicht.

__________________________
Diese vermaledeiten Echsen! Nurkelnaaks kleine Zucht ist heute in mein Arbeitszimmer eingebrochen und hat die Eule völlig zerfetzt! Ich hatte sie schon fast fertig! Regiarix versucht mich zu trösten, er will mit mir eine neue jagen. Und immernoch, ich würde um nichts in der Welt mit Ulwai tauschen wollen.


______________________________
Die Karavane ist nicht auffindbar. Ich sollte mich nicht so darüber freuen, daß wir einen Auftrag nicht erfüllen können, aber Nurkelnaaks stiller Zorn ist einfach zu schön anzusehen. Ich lasse einige Bemerkungen fallen, er ärgert sich. Man muß nur Karavane sagen, und er läuft rot an.
Ich hätte nicht gedacht, daß seine Suchmagie überhaupt fehlbar ist. Ich muß herausbekommen, wo seine Grenzen liegen!

(neulich hat er mich beim Jagen unterbrochen. Habe seine Stimme plötzlich in meinem Kopf gehört, obwohl er fast 3 Meilen entfernt war.)

___________________
Mein Päckchen ist heute angekommen! Ich habe mir zwar nur 5 Ladungen leisten können, aber was für Ladungen das sind! Zusammen mit dem Flugring, den mir Regiarix wegen meiner Höhenangst geschenkt hat, fühle ich mich wie ein echter Zauberer...

_____________________
Der Geister-Meister...das beleidigt ja selbst meine Ohren. Wie wird Ulwai´s empfindliches Ohr das wohl finden? Regiarix hat sich jedenfalls halb totgelacht. Nur Nurkelnaak scheint den Humor nicht zu sehen. Er meint, man sollte solches volk nicht unterschätzen. Ob der Bursche immer so humorlos ist? Na, daß kann ja heiter werden.



Full english again from now on :)

There are a real big lot of hints that can be gained about the upcoming campaign:

that the next enemy is a bard (she is an influemancer and has fine ears for language), that she is in a bad position, that said position is talking to a lich (they can deduce that, since they know who the other guy of this sort "k" is, theoretically), that the bad guy´s stole something very important of the lich (his phylactery, if anyone had bothered to make a knowledge check...)

and there are lots of hints about the enemies just defeated:

that the caster was no caster, but used items; what those items were (giving them a free identify); That one of the opponents had the ability to make longranged telephatic contact and probably used it to prepare an ambsh with some high-status-beasttrainer; that said trainer found the other ettin teachable...


and a lot of fluff, which made the perished villain postmortem an interesting guy.

I love this kind of riddle, since it is more applicable to "mature" campaigns than another riddled door in another dungeon. It fits into an campaign without looking out of place, can transport lots of fluff and is very modular (meaning: you get rewards for solving parts of it).




____
about the fear denies faith: i would have casted fear, hoping to kill the influence of the symbols... the Hint is very obscure. Then I would try to one hit the door, ignoring the lvl 4 summon i would likely get. Then I would remove the symbols....

[Feytalist]

Yup, my first thought on OP's puzzle was to cast fear or a similar spell at the altar. Second step would have been to cast calm emotions. Just because :smalltongue:

The hint is slightly too obscure, maybe. But then again, if I roleplay a cleric or other devout character, I'm going to go meditate at the altar anyway.

[DigoDragon]

I love incorporating the weirder Grimtooth traps--
The PCs were traveling through a dungeon on their way to the Underdark. The dungeon was built by Elves as a barrier to prevent Drow from reaching the surface, so often the PCs come in on the "back-end" of a lot of traps, often with odd effects.

One trap however, nearly killed the party despite it being the dumbest trap in the dungeon. At a branching corridor stood a large gilded steel door with the face of Correllon carved into it. The nose ring was a large door knocker. There were no apparent door handles or keyholes so lock picking was extremely difficult (DC 40), but the door isn't indestructible....
There was a sign written in Elven asking visitors to "Knock before entering". Whenever the PCs would knock on the door (Or, say "Knock Knock") the door responds audibly: "Who's There?" The door is essentially setting up a knock-knock joke and to open the door you just give it a half-decent joke. I wasn't aiming for high-quality knock-knock jokes here, any decent attempt will do. If you fail to give it a joke, the eyes shoot an Eldritch Blast at you from its eyes (As an 11th level Warlock, with some Essence and Blast Shape abilities at its disposal).

What makes this my best puzzle trap ever was that the party spent an HOUR trying to figure out what this door was asking for. They all assumed incorrectly that it wanted their names, or the name of some important Elven person, etc. So after getting blasted by this door a few times they just attacked it, trading blows and nearly being destroyed by this door until they were able to disable the door's ability to shoot Eldritch Blasts at it (they broke the door's eyes). The puzzle part was still working, but unresolved however.
At that point they just gave up and took a different passage.

After that session I told them the solution and they felt so dumb that they were outwitted by a door. And it made sense in a way that the door was there: The Elves didn't think Drow had a sense of humor. :smallamused: I've been immortalized after that: Whenever the party was in a situation where they needed to get past a difficult obstacle, they call it "The Knock-Knock Joke" scenario.

[The Succubus]

I love incorporating the weirder Grimtooth traps--
The PCs were traveling through a dungeon on their way to the Underdark. The dungeon was built by Elves as a barrier to prevent Drow from reaching the surface, so often the PCs come in on the "back-end" of a lot of traps, often with odd effects.

One trap however, nearly killed the party despite it being the dumbest trap in the dungeon. At a branching corridor stood a large gilded steel door with the face of Correllon carved into it. The nose ring was a large door knocker. There were no apparent door handles or keyholes so lock picking was extremely difficult (DC 40), but the door isn't indestructible....
There was a sign written in Elven asking visitors to "Knock before entering". Whenever the PCs would knock on the door (Or, say "Knock Knock") the door responds audibly: "Who's There?" The door is essentially setting up a knock-knock joke and to open the door you just give it a half-decent joke. I wasn't aiming for high-quality knock-knock jokes here, any decent attempt will do. If you fail to give it a joke, the eyes shoot an Eldritch Blast at you from its eyes (As an 11th level Warlock, with some Essence and Blast Shape abilities at its disposal).

What makes this my best puzzle trap ever was that the party spent an HOUR trying to figure out what this door was asking for. They all assumed incorrectly that it wanted their names, or the name of some important Elven person, etc. So after getting blasted by this door a few times they just attacked it, trading blows and nearly being destroyed by this door until they were able to disable the door's ability to shoot Eldritch Blasts at it (they broke the door's eyes). The puzzle part was still working, but unresolved however.
At that point they just gave up and took a different passage.

After that session I told them the solution and they felt so dumb that they were outwitted by a door. And it made sense in a way that the door was there: The Elves didn't think Drow had a sense of humor. :smallamused: I've been immortalized after that: Whenever the party was in a situation where they needed to get past a difficult obstacle, they call it "The Knock-Knock Joke" scenario.

Truly, there is nothing more terrifying than a DM with a sense of humour.

[TheTick]

Honestly love the Knock-Knock trap. I'd've been laughing maniacally every time I had to roll damage for the Eldritch blasts.

The scale-balancing trap is great too, and that's exactly how I'd want it to play out.

[Seharvepernfan]

In a first level dungeon of a long-forgotten beholder-ish god, the high priests bedroom (this place is long abandoned) was blocked by a stone door, except there was no way to open it. It had carvings in it that depicted a curved landscape under a sky full of stars, with a full moon in the middle. When approached, all the stars lit up and gave off a faint blue light.

To open the door, you had to touch the star-lights that were part of a certain constellation (the beholder - the full moon is the "eye"). Once all were touched, the door would fade away. If you touched any of the wrong stars, you were hit with shocking grasp (1st).

The party I was DMing for had a bard, and the bard used bardic knowledge to recognize the constellation. The higher the roll, the more of the constellation is revealed. The bard ended up rolling something like 15, which I decided was good enough to look at a drawing I made of the constellation while deciding which stars to touch.

I admit that it was heavy handed, what with their being no other way to get through (except smashing through the stone, which actually was an option), and being hit with a full first level spell every time they goofed, but it ended up working just fine. They got zapped aplenty, but the paladin and cleric were able to heal the damage.

[Diarmuid]

Yup, my first thought on OP's puzzle was to cast fear or a similar spell at the altar. Second step would have been to cast calm emotions. Just because :smalltongue:

The hint is slightly too obscure, maybe. But then again, if I roleplay a cleric or other devout character, I'm going to go meditate at the altar anyway.

Your cleric of a "goodly" god would go pray at an altar that has symbols for "evil" deities on it, even if it had symbols for your god? Maybe I'm just paranoid from very tricksy DM's but I know better than to simply pray at any altar I see.

[big teej]

The best advice I can give to anyone using a "riddle/puzzle/thingy" is to never have only one right answer. Ultimately, everyone at the table wants the game to progress, and it's very unlikely that your players think the same way you do, so you're better off leaving it a tad open-ended and rewarding players for interesting or surprising "solutions" to your puzzles, even if it's not the one you had in mind.

yea, that's what I kept telling my players.

"the answer is narrow in focus, but infinite in possibility"


Yup, my first thought on OP's puzzle was to cast fear or a similar spell at the altar. Second step would have been to cast calm emotions. Just because :smalltongue:

The hint is slightly too obscure, maybe. But then again, if I roleplay a cleric or other devout character, I'm going to go meditate at the altar anyway.


well I tend to play with purely martial/mostly martial parties, so I will never rely on a character having a specific spell, or even type of spell, to bypass something.






Your cleric of a "goodly" god would go pray at an altar that has symbols for "evil" deities on it, even if it had symbols for your god? Maybe I'm just paranoid from very tricksy DM's but I know better than to simply pray at any altar I see.

hmmm, well then, I think at this point I'll introduce the logic one of my players used to solve the riddle.


"as an old school player, I know better than to touch anything covered in runes, I mean come on, it's probably trapped to the 9 and back.... but I will deny my fear of being disintegrated, and touch the symbol of my diety"

[Feytalist]

Your cleric of a "goodly" god would go pray at an altar that has symbols for "evil" deities on it, even if it had symbols for your god? Maybe I'm just paranoid from very tricksy DM's but I know better than to simply pray at any altar I see.

The way my logic goes, it's an altar dedicated to all gods. If my character's patron's symbol is on there, it's dedicated to him, regardless of any other symbols. My character wouldn't care about them. And my devout character would go pray there, regardless.

But that's simply how I would interpret it.

[georgie_leech]

The way my logic goes, it's an altar dedicated to all gods. If my character's patron's symbol is on there, it's dedicated to him, regardless of any other symbols. My character wouldn't care about them. And my devout character would go pray there, regardless.

But that's simply how I would interpret it.

...How can an altar be devoted/focused on everything? Isn't that just a generic, featureless altar?

[FMArthur]

Wow, you guys are way cleverer than me or my DMs. I try logic puzzles from time to time and they never really... work. The players either don't solve them or aren't interested. There's a sweetspot of solvability and intrigue but we never hit it.

The best I've done is still just having a massive boulder held above a hallway by extremely decrepit-looking supports and placed so that it blocks the way if knocked down. No trick, no trap. Still took up an inordinately long amount of game time while I frantically scribbled down the upcoming encounters in a game I had to wing completely.

[Kol Korran]

in one of my adventures i made a fun trap/ puzzle of a sort. the party was exploringa dead giant's crypt. on the way to the final hall they saw various things that appeared like... dysfunctional traps (like a corridor with stone dragon heads in the walls, gaping but... doing nothing). there were all kind of such things the party came to consider as "flavor pieces". to the dungeon.

when they reached the final room, they expected a big fight, most likely with the undead giant (and there was a tomb). but there was no fight, the treasure came free!

... only 1 round later the door behind them locked in place, (que in some ominous threats in giant for tomb raiders) and they could hear all kind of rumbles from beyond, in the dungeon.

the dungeon was changing to provide a "get back" dungeon, with many of the inactivated stuff becoming activated, and all kind of other "themed" changes.

oh, and there was a portal to the water plane (closed) in one of the first rooms, it just opened and water was feeling the dungeon, rapidly. the entire dungeon was one big time ticking (sort of) trap

that was a fun session!

i know i'ts not strickly a puzzle, but close enough? the party had to think fast in order to deal with the challenges fast, choose the quick route (as well as try and figure out what "modifications" were made)

[DigoDragon]

Truly, there is nothing more terrifying than a DM with a sense of humour.

I'd like to sig that if you don't mind. :smallsmile:


One of the players in my group came up with a terribly good pun as a twist to the old "Find the corner in the round room" puzzle. The puzzle set up is similar, except that in addition to the handful of lost souls/dead bodies in the perfectly round room there is one person in good health who is investigating the cause of death of all the late adventurers in this room. The puzzle has a sign that reads: "Find the coroner in this room". :smallamused:

[NowhereMan583]

("Fear Denies Faith" trap)


This seems a little too straightforward to me. There are only two things in the room: an altar and a door. Trying to open the door results in getting attacked, and since the attackers multiply, trying to outfight them is futile, so obviously you've got to do something else first. The only other thing in the room is the altar. And, of course, there's really only one thing you do at an altar -- you perform acts of worship. I'm not sure the clue's even necessary.

On the other hand, in order for this whole thing to make any sense within the game universe, you'd have to establish some sort of thematic connection with the building/dungeon/whatever in which it is placed. Otherwise, it just looks like "this is here because we needed a puzzle in this room".

[Murillio]

Never used this riddle myself but a DM I had used it during one of our campaigns. Only half the party was involved since we were split. The party members had to solve three riddles/puzzles in order to escape this was my favorite.

The riddle is called Petals Around the Rose.

The one and only hint: the riddles name.

Five d6 are needed. The DM rolls the dice and gives you the answer as an example -- without giving up how to get the answer. Then says you can have an infinite amount of example tosses but only one true toss with which you have to answer correctly or lose.


The solution: You count up the 'petals' and the total is your answer.
Rolling 1: 0
Rolling 2: 0
Rolling 3: 2
Rolling 4: 0
Rolling 5: 4
Rolling 6: 0

[Afool]

What would the "petals" refer too?

[Deadlights]

I am surprised no one has mentioned the hyper cube yet.

http://unicorn.us.com/alex/dnd/hypercube_topo.jpg

Maybe a little cliché by now?

[Sutremaine]

How many living in Thaegan's cave?
-Deltora Quest 'Lake of Tears', by Emily Rodda

One. Only Thaegan lives there, as it's described as her cave. The rest are either having dinner there or being dinner.

[Din Riddek]

The one that stumped my PCs the most recently was I challenged them to make "me" (the npc) laugh. ey either had to tell a joke or a funny story, and after I declared the challenge they sat looking at me baffled for a couple minutes before any attempts.

They at least tried to roleplay by either making a joke based in the fantasy world or something that happened to their characters.

[_flint_]

have it be an ettin! one head always tells the truth, one head always lies. (and then the ettin is just trolling, as you said)

Chimeric Ettin/Troll!

Wouldn't "Faith denies fear" make more sense?
Also, add more things to the room to throw off the party. Mabey tapsetries depicting monsters, a statue of a god with am inscription on the base, a silver holy symbol to a specific god (apart from the one on the statue), or pools of holy/unholy water


Remembered a trap that my DM threw at us; There was a large door with runes all over it. When we tried to open it, a hellhound spawned. What we didn't realize was that it also sent us back in time 5 seconds, meaning that the hellhounds kept multiplying and refreshing. We got lucky and smashed through the time travel part of the door, so we only had to fight it once

[doko239]

Not my own ideas, and not riddle-based, but Tomb of Horrors is basically a blueprint for how to build ingenious and incredibly annoying traps:

- The hallway with 3 or 4 successive pit traps; the hallway eventually leads to a dead end, and the only way to proceed is a secret door at the bottom of one of the pits;

- The statue with the black opening in its mouth just big enough to crawl through (which is actually an Orb of Annihilation);

- The locked adamantine door with the sound of someone screaming for help from the other side; when the party eventually forces their way through the door, they find a dimly-lit hall with another door on the other side. As soon as they pass more than halfway down the hall, the floor begins to tilt forward, spilling them into a pool of lava;

- The fake lich BBEG in the fake ending, who upon dying triggers an illusion of the tomb collapsing; the party will run to escape, and the rest of the tomb will be undisturbed.

[SimonMoon6]

I like this riddle:

Make a DC 20 INT check. If you succeed, you know the answer to the riddle.

[Kallisti]

In a hidden safe behind a portrait in a dragon's lair we were trying to rob, we found an L-shaped hole in the wall. The bottom part of the L had a mirror on it, and we could see a key at the top of the L.

Like an idiot, I reached in to fetch the key without stopping to wonder why there would ever be such a setup in the first place. It was pretty much my first campaign; I had not yet learned to be wary of traps.

Needless to say, the image in the mirror was an illusion. The top of the L contained, not a key, but a Sphere of Annihilation.

I was just lucky my ranger didn't lose his shooting fingers.

[killianh]

I made up a more D&D related version of Einstein's Riddle (it was one of the first logic grid puzzles) in a room where they had

a) 3in of water
b) infinite shocker lizards (no more than 5 at a time) and sonic traps
c) the pieces of the puzzle were in stone slabs that took full round actions to place
d) if placed wrong the block would shatter, you were hit with the sonic trap, and a new copy of it would drop in a random part of the 60x60 room.

The logic grid has 25 blocks so it took a while and most of their resources to survive. They both loved and hated me after that.

[kulosle]

Whats the bit with the hyper cube room? I haven't seen that before.

Also which riddle are you talking about when you say Einstein's Riddle? The only one I know of is who has the fish and that doesn't seem to be what you're talking about.

So two fun riddles/puzzles

The Three Doors
The party is being through a dungeon by an encounter they feel is too much for them to handle. They arrive at a dead end with 3 doors and a tablet that reads

Place your hand on me and say one thing. If its false door 1 will open, if its true door 2 will open.

Each door is labeled 1-3
1) Behind me is a nice thing.
2) Behind me is the best thing.
3) Behind me is the thing you want.

What you as the DM needs to know: Behind door number 1 is a lot of treasure but they still end up having to do the fight. Behind door number 2 there are magical items that will make the fight much easier and cost twice as much gold as there is behind door number 1. Behind door number 3 is the way out. The 3rd door also closes right away so they don't have to do the fight.

You open the 3rd door by saying "Door 3 will not open" which opens doors 1 and 3.

The problem with this one is getting them to run away from the fight. My advise is to make one or two players so afraid that they are force to flee. And the rest of the party should follow because they can't face them on their own.

The Greatest Sin

Warning: This riddle is not for everyone. Groups have broken up over less. It requires good in character role playing, PC characters who believe strongly that you are always right, and patience.

It's very important that you players don't feel like they have to get this puzzle done quickly, but they must know that there is a huge pay off to getting it done. There are multiple ways to present this riddle to the party. It works differently depending on how your rewarding them.

Inform the party in what ever fashion you see fit. For us it was a voice that said "All of you must answer, who committed the greatest sin? Think carefully your lives depend on it." In the room there was a book that told a story of three people A B C. Person A and B had an arranged marriage, but A and C were in love before A and B had been arranged to be married. Person A wants to stay true to the marriage, but Person C gets Person A drunk and they sleep together. Person B finds out and divorces Person A. The divorce strips person A of all honor and birthrights so person A commits suicide. Person B realizes it's Person C's fault. Person B tries to kill Person C but C kills B in self defense.

If the players read further into the book, there is a short bio of each person. Person A is the noble responsible for a lot of the nations trouble, Person B is a horrible person in general, and Person C is a sex addict because of how abuse as a child.

When they go to give an answer if they get it wrong everyone who said something gets hit with your preferred damaging spell, make it so it does about 1/4th of their life.


All party members have to give the same answer, any answer. The point of this riddle is to just get everyone to argue about morality. The lord of the dungeon is listening the whole time to learn how the PCs think. If you want to be really mean you can have there be an NPC with them so that you can make the argument go how you like, either by making the NPC agree or disagree strongly with what ever is the most popular opinion to make the argument end sooner or later.

[DigoDragon]

This thread made me realize I come up with really silly puzzles. Here's another puzzle I've actually used.

The party enters a dungeon and comes across an antichamber. At the other end of the room are three doors. In front of each door is a knight with a pike. A sign in the room reads:

"One door leads in, the other two lead to your doom. These knights know which door is safe, but beware!
One knight always tells the truth.
One knight always tells a lie.
And one knight stabs you for asking tricky questions."


Although I knew which knight was which, I didn't really have an answer to this going into the adventure. The bard solved it quickly by shouting "If you're an idiot, raise your hand!"
The knight who lies raised his hand, since it did not think itself an idiot, but lied by saying it was... which then meant it was which contradicts the idea he only lies...

I declared the lying knight's head exploded and the party decided to just take his door.
It was the correct one. :smallbiggrin:

[Loxagn]

The party follows a string of clues left by a villain to a locked door. As they approach, marks light up on the door, forming words. An hourglass flips over, giving them a time limit of fifteen minutes in which to do something. The words form a riddle:

Priceless to all, yet unwanted, unloved
Pearls before swine, an absolute void of
The thing we all want, at the end of the day
Now tell me the answer, or you'll be dismayed.

Should the party fail to answer within 15 (real-life) minutes, the words will change.

The answer, of course, doesn't really matter. I've wasted fifteen minutes of your time, and that's more than enough to make a getaway when your pursuers aren't even going in the right direction.
Better luck next time, gentlemen!
~[Villain's Name Here]

I do love playing trickster villains.

As for the door, well. It was a janitor's closet.

[Rallicus]

It was pretty simple. Three switches. The results would vary depending on what order you pushed them in.

There was a 20 foot spiked pit between the switches and the other side of the room.

The party pushed every single combination besides the one that would bring out the bridge for them to cross. Frustrated, the leader of the party, a dwarf fighter, decided he was fed up with this puzzle nonsense that seemed to be getting them nowhere. He took off his armor, ran across the floor in his undies, and leapt from the edge over the spiked pit.

He rolled a 1, tripped on his run and fell face first into the spiked pit. So naturally, the party jumped in after him, like a bunch of lemmings. Most died.

I feel it's my best puzzle because it literally frustrated my group to the point where they committed suicide.

In remembrance of my goofiest party, I drew this horrible picture. Yes, the monk was Krillin from DBZ with Super Saiyan hair and yes, the dwarf wore a crown he found for no real reason other than looking cool.

RIP, Suicidal Lemming Party:

http://www2.picturepush.com/photo/a/8255565/img/8255565.jpg

[Doughnut Master]

A room of modest area with great vaulted ceilings with an opening at the top, 22 feet in the air. The room is full of treasure and marked by the words:

"Pity the honest man, for he is forced struggle while the greedy drown in gold."

PCs enter, they can take what they like. After 1 minute, the door seals and the room begins to fill with water at a rate of 2 feet per round. Also every round, the weight of whatever treasure the PCs took doubles, even if it is being held in a bag of holding or some other space. Taking 1lb of treasure, after 11 rounds, the pcs are making swim checks with an additional 2048 lbs of gold on them.

[Rogue Shadows]

I don't typically go for clever traps so much as clever placement. For example, there was a kobold outpost being raided once by the PCs. At one point, they come across a room filled with a bunch of dead, former adventurers, a few kobolds (also dead), and a treasure chest. They make the logical assumption that the treasure chest is trapped, search it, find the trap, and disarm it.

Being Player Characters, they then proceed to loot the dead adventurers, and that's where the real traps were: the surviving kobolds, who had slain the former adventurers, had trapped the corpses, even (especially!) the kobold corpses.

[Malimar]

[Knock-knock trap]

This is fantastic and I'm stealing it.


Here's one I've used in my dungeon. The players said they loved it. It's a complex yet straightforwardly solvable logic puzzle and doesn't rely on any guesswork or DM assumptions:


You come to five doors, all in a line. Each door is inscribed with a sign.

The first door: "There is a dangerous golem behind every door but one. Neither the brass golem nor the stone golem is behind this door, and the iron golem is not adjacent to this door."

The second door: "Each golem is enchanted to breathe an element. The electricity-breathing golem is not adjacent to this door, but the acid-breathing golem is."

The third door: "The four golems are: a clay golem; a stone golem; a golem that breathes electricity; and a golem that breathes acid. The brass golem is not adjacent to this door, nor is the fire-breathing golem."

The fourth door: "Neither the iron golem nor the clay golem are adjacent to to this door, though one of them is adjacent to the golem that breathes acid, and the golem which breathes cold is adjacent to this door."

The fifth door: "The brass golem doesn't breathe cold or electricity. The cold- and fire-breathing golems are not adjacent to one another, but the electricity- and acid-breathing golems are."


(You bypass it by figuring out which door doesn't have a horrible golem with a breath weapon behind it. Or, if you're very high level, by opening doors at random and killing any horrible golems with breath weapons that you find.)

[kulosle]

5 Doors solution

Door 1: fire breathing clay golem
Door 2: empty
Door 3: acid breathing brass golem
Door 4: electricity breathing iron golem
Door 5: cold breathing stone golem

Did I get that right?

[Invader]

I haven't used it but want to use a variant of the classic two always true/false guards with a single question, just guarding the door of some wizards tower. I don't know what entities are good for this, but I'm thinking illusions or maybe constructs.

But the turn is it's just two jerks trying to delay and annoy intruders.

So when the right question is immediately asked, they don't grasp it and need it explained. :smalltongue:

It's especially good for parties with patience.

Helmed Horrors!

[Malimar]

Did I get that right?

Yup. Gain 400XP. :smalltongue:

[Invader]

The PCS walk into a room with 3 pedestals in the center and a large iron door on the far side. Inscribed on the door "The door shall open when the puzzle is solved". On each of the pedestals is item; A bag of sand, a small mirror, and flask of ordinary water (really these items can be any mundane item), on each wall there is an ancient arcane rune (not magic, not readable as its just scribbling).

This is where it gets really hard or really easy. The items and runes don't actually do anything and the rogue (if you have one) will surely try to pick the lock (which there isn't one on the door). In fact the door is not locked at all and all they have to do is try to open it and it will open right up.

You'd be surprised the amount of time and effort a party will put into figuring out something that has no solution. Think of it as a "can't see the forest through the trees" kinda thing.

[Deadlights]

The PCS walk into a room with 3 pedestals in the center and a large iron door on the far side. Inscribed on the door "The door shall open when the puzzle is solved". On each of the pedestals is item; A bag of sand, a small mirror, and flask of ordinary water (really these items can be any mundane item), on each wall there is an ancient arcane rune (not magic, not readable as its just scribbling).

This is where it gets really hard or really easy. The items and runes don't actually do anything and the rogue (if you have one) will surely try to pick the lock (which there isn't one on the door). In fact the door is not locked at all and all they have to do is try to open it and it will open right up.

You'd be surprised the amount of time and effort a party will put into figuring out something that has no solution. Think of it as a "can't see the forest through the trees" kinda thing.

Fluff text could use a little sprucing up, but otherwise awesome way to piss off a room of people.

I am also found of doors that slide up or sideways when you'd expect them to swing open.

[Doc_Pippin]

A favorite for the greedy character punishment is to set up an alter with a great prize and a sign that says do not take. The Item is keyed to set off a reverse gravity spell if taken and the ceiling is covered in spikes.

:smallamused:that will teach you to steal Boccob's Item Familiar you cheap Rogue

[Invader]

Fluff text could use a little sprucing up, but otherwise awesome way to piss off a room of people.

I am also found of doors that slide up or sideways when you'd expect them to swing open.

Yeah I was to lazy to get very creative lol. Everyone always asks if the door is locked but no one ever tries opening it :smallbiggrin:

[NM020110]

Hmmm...I don't really have any notable ones for in a game...I could make one, though.

Works best if the players have reason to believe that there is a great treasure at the location, though it could also work as an unexpected discovery.

You see a pedestal in the middle of the room. Upon it is a slab, covered in runes. On the far side of the room is a massive adamantine gate, sealed and locked to an excessive degree, and covered by an unidentifiable abjuration, but not otherwise protected.

Deciphering the slab (DC 30 decipher script check, or use the appropriate spell) yields the following information:

Beyond this gate lies the folly of a man who made a wish. Open the gate at the world's peril.

Behind the gate lies several million gold pieces. There is no barrier to removing them, and no guardians appear if the coins are removed. Nothing happens as a result of the actions taken regarding the coins, and the coins detect as non-magical.

Every week, the coins split into nearly identical copies. The abjuration spell on the vault suppresses this.

[Sutremaine]

Everyone always asks if the door is locked but no one ever tries opening it :smallbiggrin:
Wait, what's your answer to that question?

[VGLordR2]

Wait, what's your answer to that question?

I expect that the answer would be something to the effect of "Take a wild guess". It's not lying, and if they do guess wildly, they'll get it right.

[T.G. Oskar]

Perhaps not the best per se, but one recent puzzle I placed on my players was as follows:

In one room, there's a door that needs to be opened, and seven seats surrounding a room. To a side, there's three liquids of different colors, and to a side there's a machine that delivers vials where the liquids could be placed. The area is called a "refreshment" area, and the liquids are actually potions to be drinked. However, if poured into one of the seats, the chair took the color of the potion. Each seat had a distinctive letter: clockwise starting from 6 o'clock was W, then G, then B, then V, then R, then O, and finally Y.

While I can't really remember the effect of every potion right now (I wish I could write it down better), the three main liquids were colored red, yellow and blue. The potions could cure wounds (as a Cure Light Wounds potion), turn someone invisible, provide a deflection bonus to AC (as per Shield of Faith cast by a 1st level character), amongst others.

The trick, of course, is that each vial could be filled up to three times, and that combinations of potions could be done. You could either intensify the effect of the potion, or mix colors to create new ones. For example: red and yellow make orange, red and blue make violet, blue and yellow make green, and all three colors make black.

Solution is as follows:
The puzzle was that each seat had to be colored correctly. If the seat was colored correctly, it shone with the corresponding color. Coloring each seat correctly opened the door.

As you may have imagined, the letters correspond to colors: W(hite), G(reen), B(lue), V(iolet), R(ed), O(range), and Y(ellow). Essentially, all primary colors and all secondary colors, plus White. As you can combine primary colors to create secondary ones, and since the seats took the color of the potion created, the idea was to use three primary color potions, three secondary color potions (the combination of two primary color potions), and the combination of all three color potions (making black).

However, as you can see, there's no white potion. That's because the real trick was to color the seat with the opposite color. Thus, the W(hite) seat has to be colored with the black potion, the G(reen) seat with the red potion, and so forth. If following the pattern, with the exception of the W(hite) seat and the lack of Indigo, you had all the colors of the rainbow; in fact, the way the seats are arranged from G(reen) to Y(ellow) implies the pattern of the rainbow.

Of course, it doesn't end there. You see, the refreshments are not free, so the group had to pay, and while the potions were free, the vials were not (IIRC, 75 gp). Thus, after many a trial and error, a voice tells the total cost of refreshments. The party negated to pay, so the enforcer (a Flesh Golem) was sic'ced upon them. The group's strong enough to deal with a Flesh Golem, though, so it ends up with free potions and bonus XP.

My problem with puzzles is that I give very, VERY little clues on how it works, and you need to try, do mistakes, and have a brutal talent for intuition (or a good amount of Int and a nice d20 roll). Were my puzzles riddled with better clues, they'd be pretty awesome.

[DigoDragon]

The answer, of course, doesn't really matter. I've wasted fifteen minutes of your time, and that's more than enough to make a getaway when your pursuers aren't even going in the right direction.
Better luck next time, gentlemen!

I am *SO* stealing this for my current campaign's tricky BBEG. XD
That was truely brilliant. *applause*

[dethkruzer]

I actually gave my near epic-level PC a riddle as a plot hook, roughly translated, the riddle went something like this:

Do not awaken the Sleeping Forest.
Poor forest, poor forest.
Do not awaken the Sleeping Forest.
Eyes of stone are watching.
Come, come to the Sleeping forest.
Lost amidst a web of deception.
Do not awaken the Sleeping Forest.
Poor forest, poor forest.

A warriors sword, or kings gold.
Might of an archmage, or magic of the gods.
Do not awaken the Sleeping Forest.
The mother of the black rose is watching.
Do not awaken the Sleeping Forest.


The riddle actually equal parts reference and warning, as it kinda hints toward the true nature of the forest. The forest is locked within a demi-plane, and is only accesible in the middle of a certain desert, during the night. The presence of the hidden portal has a tndency to cause sleep walking, and travelers stayng at a nearby oasis have occasionally woken up within the forest, but the storries the tell are generally scoffed of as either lies or dreams.

[Invader]

Wait, what's your answer to that question?

"There's no visible locking mechanism". If PC's think it's magic they'll almost always try to figure out the puzzle before trying the door.

[Loxagn]

I am *SO* stealing this for my current campaign's tricky BBEG. XD
That was truely brilliant. *applause*

Thank you, thank you.

It works best in a campaign where there haven't been any 'solve riddle to get x' problems before, especially if the villain is a known master deceiver.

Ooooh, they hated me for that.

Not that I didn't give them opportunity. Wizard even made a decently high Int check, enough to earn the private message 'This really doesn't seem right to you. Why would he tell you where he went?'.
He didn't say anything until it was too late.


On a related note, one of my earlier campaigns featured a series of explosive traps spread out on a tiled floor, with colored clues as to how many traps were in the vicinity of each tile (a la Minesweeper).
I had forgotten that the wizard had an item familiar with Fire Resistance (a suitcase made of sapient pearwood. Yes, I let him have it because it was funny.). It took the paladin stepping on a trap twice before the wizard just made his box waddle over all the traps in the room. I was very put out.

[Trasilor]

Just used this Trap.

Corridor, 5' wide, 10 feet high, 30 feet long.

Each end of the of the corridor is stone door 6 inches thick.

Trap:
Once PCs reach second door, first door slams shut and metal bars 3 inches thick (like a portcullis) go through the door (PC did not bother to search the Door as it was unlocked). Cloudkill (CL 9 DC 18) spell goes off in the centered in the middle of the room.

Even if the PCs break down the door, they then have to cut through the steel bars. All while in the middle of a cloudkill spell.

After 10 rounds, the floor gives way and drops PCs onto several Gelatinous cubes, which begin to dissolve them (Ref save to either latch onto wall -clime check to stay/move - or to land on narrow walls separating cubes). Successful save requires Balance check to move or attack.

The dungeon had special property that eliminated any form of teleportation

My PCs liked this trap.

[Flame of Anor]

My PCs liked this trap.

Your PCs are pretty hardy folk.

[strawdenberg]

This thread inspired me to write a riddle just because I love to rhyme. I have not playtested this anywhere, so here goes nothing:


A plump, round, friendly creature offers the party a passage through an impenetrable obstacle (massive door, dimensional travel, solid rock, whatever) only if they can guess his name. (Don't forget to make the creature fat enough.) There are substantial rewards to be had if they guess right, tough luck if they guess wrong. This should not be an obstacle they must pass in order to get forward in the campaign, just an additional reward.

It's up to DM to decide, if the creature can be tricked to give up its name


(Use cheerful voice and gaudy gestures when you read the poem.)


Welcome friends, gather around!
The fanciest place you surely have found.
You need no swords, just guess my name,
and I shall lead you to fortune and fame!

T is for the taste, of berries and flour.
O is sweet odor, that lasts for an hour.
F is for fat, I'm single by fate.
O is obese: please, one more plate.

Decipher last letter and spell out my name.
You have three guesses, take time with this game.
And don't try to bribe me, the cake is a lie!
All that I am, is the first piece of pie.

Answer:

The clue to this riddle is (drumsolo) pie! And the whole riddle is pretty much all about pie (and something being round). You can have the party write the given letters down: T O F O _

It is best if your party is at least remotely interested in the most basic concepts of math. Can you guess the name now?


Pie pronounces practically the same as Pi...
3.1415...
Three One Four One Five...

So yes: the creature's name is Tofof.



And to answer your obvious question: yes, my second name is Shakespeare.

[Amburst]

Passageway is blocked by a massive magically locked metal door.

In front of the door is a large statue of the Goddess of Wisdom, holding a large scale.

The scale is not balanced, because each side of the scale has a number of stones on them.

Each stone has a name (First, Second, Third, and so on) and a math/logic problem inscribed on it. (First: I am twice the weight of the Fifth. Fifth: I am three times the weight of the Fourth minus the Second. And so on). Each stone also has a different color and shape.

Each time the players move a stone from one part of the scale to another, there was a random chance that a painful but not deadly effect would occur. (Fire, electricity, animated objects attacking them, etc. This did not always occur, but it occurred often enough that it implied a pattern of some sort).

Engraved on the statue in an arcane/ancient language that one of the players can read somehow (Draconic, or Decipher Script, or whatever) is written the word "The Key to Progress is Balance, the Key to Balance is Wisdom"

Thus to open the door, the players must balance the scales.

The Solution:

The stones are a red herring, the Logic/Math puzzle itself is unsolvable, and you cannot achieve balance by moving the stones around. To achieve balance, you must remove all of the stones, so that nothing is on them, thus balancing the scales.

I came up with the idea when I was helping two of my players study for the GRE tests on a weekly basis, which at the time required you answer that kind of logic puzzle.

They assumed that I had thrown this into my game as another practice question for the GRE. They were so mentally locked into solving the problem as, and insisted that there must be some sort of pattern to the random effects or a mistake that they had made on their math.

They overlooked the obvious solution for over half an hour before one of the players said "I knock all of the stones off the scales in frustration" - which opened the door.


My first thought- pull off all the stones so i can riddle out what each one weighs approximately.

[whibla]

I do like this thread. So many excellent ideas. I especially liked the knock knock door, suggested by DigoDragon (thanks!), and came up with a slight, and perhaps slightly more tricky, variation:

"As you're walking down the tunnel, you see a faint glow ahead of you. Approaching, you see the tunnel opens out into a largish, roughly hemispherical cavern, gleaming with cool phosphoresence. In the cavern wall opposite you is a large stone door, carved with a face in calm repose. The rest of the wall surface is covered in incredibly life-like pictures of animals. There must be hundreds of them. There are rats, cats, dogs, and horses; sheep, goats, pigs, and cows; farmyard animals, fantastical animals, and animals you have no name for. There is an inscription above the door that reads Knock Twice. The cavern is empty apart from the shattered skeletal remains of a couple of humanoids. Their bones have been picked clean by scavengers, and there is nothing of interest on them. What do you do?"

If a PC knocks twice, or says "knock knock" the door's eyes will open, and it will ask "Who's there?" In response to any answer that is not in the form "a animal-name" the eyes will close again. If the PC's do answer in this form, for example "a dog" the door will ask "A dog who?" Regardless of what they say at this point* the eyes will close, and one of the pictures on the wall, of the same type as they originally answered, will seem to leap off the wall, acting as a fiendish or celestial animal, similar to one summoned by the Summon Monster spells. It will attack the party. It will disappear if they kill it, or after 10 rounds, which ever comes first.
The 'correct*' answer is a goat, and the conversation should go something like this:
PC: Knock knock.
Door: Who's there?
PC: A goat.
Door: A goat who?
PC: Ah, go to the other side (or simply 'the other side').
"The door smiles, and swings open, revealing a tunnel, leading into the distance..."
*You can ofc allow the door to open for any sufficiently humorous answer, or allow the door to be broken down - possibly with random animals animating off the walls as the door is attacked...

This next one is also a relatively low EL:

"You turn the corner, and just ahead of you the grey worked stone of the walls and floor changes, abruptly, into pure white marble, the corridor stretching into the distance as far as you can see." Ask for spot checks. Regardless of the rolls...* "You see a faint inscription on the wall that reads: The way ahead is fraught with danger, turn round now, and do not linger, if you walk back you will not see, the end of all, the worst of me. What are you going to do?"

*A sufficiently high spot check might allow a PC to notice that the marble corridor stretching into the distance is in fact a cunningly crafted illusion (Programmed Image, DC 20+). A Medusa is sealed behind a glass wall 30' beyond the illusion, which is simply a two-dimensional effect. If anyone steps forwards through the illusion they will meet the Medusa's gaze. The illusion will vanish after 10 rounds (think one minute in real time...). The floor just in front of the glass wall is in fact a permanent teleport circle, which will transport anyone stepping onto it to the next part of the dungeon. The solution is simply to turn 180 degrees, and walk backwards, through the illusion, and down the corridor, thus avoiding her gaze...but, they'd better not linger...