Building A Better Puzzle Box

[Palanan]

In my next session or two, an elaborate puzzle box will fall into the party’s hands, containing a key item for advancing the plot. I’d like to make the opening of the box a challenge in itself, but I’m not sure how.

I’ve already given them one puzzle box, in the opening session of the campaign; it was extremely basic and relied too much on a couple of skill checks. This time I’d like something to challenge the players as well as the characters, but I’m having a hard time coming up with anything. Can anyone suggest a good challenge?

[Maat Mons]

There are those boxes that only open when you spin them.

[DeTess]

I’ve already given them one puzzle box, in the opening session of the campaign; it was extremely basic and relied too much on a couple of skill checks. This time I’d like something to challenge the players as well as the characters, but I’m having a hard time coming up with anything. Can anyone suggest a good challenge?

Do your players actually like player-puzzles? If they don't, there's nothing wrong with leaving something like this up to skillchecks. That having been said, here's the first thing that popped in my head for a puzzle.

Make it a magical puzzle box that needs to be taken to a couple of distinct locations, or charged with a particular kind of energy. Where it needs to go or what it needs to eb hit with isn't clearly spelled out, but instead presented a a riddle, or maybe even as something of an in-game research question (We know that the box of Levistus is sealed with a seal he made during hist final travel, but nothing else. Maybe we should try and find out more about this journey and back-track it for answers?).

[unseenmage]

Idea The First - Jiminy Cricket's Wardrobe
The box is actually a veeeery small creature's vault.

The eldritch markings all over it are actually the Mark's left behind by whatever adhesives and foundation originally adhered it to it's original structure.
At some point someone painted the 'box' to accentuate these markings.

Only a diminutive or smaller set of lock picks wielded by a tiny or smaller creature can open it. Or the key. Mildly antimagic materials make Knock or similar not work.


Idea the Second - Soul Siphon
Box is infused with the Thinaun Steel special material and requires a soul, any soul will do, to be opened. The trick is that the box must be in contact with whatever creature's soul is to be used at the same moment that creature is slain.

Once opened the box also contains a method for truly freeing the soul and essentially resetting the lock.

Idea the Third - It's Alive!
"Speak friend, and enter."
The box is a creature of some kind, or maybe just an Intelligent Magic Item incapable of speech. It will only open if asked nicely to do so in a language no one is supposed to know. Illithid or druid or some other squamous tongue should do.

Box is warded with non detection and inside there is a bauble that can be removed which is essentially equipped by the box itself that gives it Mind Blank or similar so the box and its contents are immune to divination etc.

Idea the Fourth - Is On Your Side, Yes It Is
Box is filled with Quintessence making the interior time locked. The unlocking mechanism is in two parts one of which briefly separates and becomes surrounded by quintessence during operation.

A specialized tool is required to maintain contact with this floating slider throughout the entire unlocking procedure.
An extra long lock pick bent just so could do the trick but the actual key would be best.

Idea the Fifth - Hands Off
Box is a standard wooden sliding puzzle lock. Inside is a severed left hand, a mechanical one, which springs to life as if awaiting commands. If the correct command and coordinates are given the hand will dive through the Planar Ring Gate (Planar Handbook) built into the back of the box and into a Bag of Holding elsewhere similarly equipped with the other P. Ring Gate.

The trick is the coordinates. Each P. Ring Gate is numbered and there are a practical multitude strewn throughout every bit of extradimensional storage the ancient mage who built the network owned.

The mage was Lazy, he made loads and loads of Crawling Claws (Monsters of Faerun version), hundreds maybe thousands of them, and used them to fetch whatever he might need from anywhere he had left behind a numbered P. Ring Gate. And he left numbered P. Ring Gates in every bit of extradimensional storage he ever had. Quivers of Elhonna, Handy Haversacks, Envelooing Pits, Familiar Pockets, you name it he had lost one somewhere in the multiverse.

If incorrect orders are given a Crawling Claw swarm (Lost Empires of Faerun version) pours out of the box and attacks.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Randuir
Make it a magical puzzle box that needs to be taken to a couple of distinct locations….

Excellent idea, although unfortunately it won’t work for this particular moment in the campaign.

But you’ve given me an idea for the next phase of the campaign, so it’ll be put to good use.


Originally Posted by unseenmage
*Ideas Five*

Each of these is great, and the fifth one tops them all. (Do I recall correctly that you had some crawling-claw shenanigans in your interstellar campaign?)

As it happens, I’ve done some more thinking since I first posted, and I’ll be using a puzzle box made of gold alloy with a dragon motif. The puzzle theme will be gold dragons, and the first step in solving the box will be to set it in a fire.

This should activate the actual riddle, puzzle, or test, but I’m still at a loss for what to use here. Any suggestions along a fire/gold dragon theme?

[unseenmage]

...

Each of these is great, and the fifth one tops them all. (Do I recall correctly that you had some crawling-claw shenanigans in your interstellar campaign?)

As it happens, I’ve done some more thinking since I first posted, and I’ll be using a puzzle box made of gold alloy with a dragon motif. The puzzle theme will be gold dragons, and the first step in solving the box will be to set it in a fire.

This should activate the actual riddle, puzzle, or test, but I’m still at a loss for what to use here. Any suggestions along a fire/gold dragon theme?
Crawling Claws were used exactly as described by my first artificer whom had been granted access to infinite wealth and a +7 LA by the GM.

The riddle could refer to all things going to dust with time, even material wealth hinting that the now activated puzzle be sprinkled with gold dust.

Possible that the heat metal spell could replace fire and that the real purpose is to mould a golden key from the dust and a hidden groove on the box.

Any gold key or fire breath weapon could auto open it too.

IIRC copper dragons actually hold riddle contests, in Faerun anyway, though I dont know if that helps.

Hmm, what do gold dragons cherish? Because that could be the criteria against which worthiness to open their toys is measured.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by unseenmage
The riddle could refer to all things going to dust with time, even material wealth hinting that the now activated puzzle be sprinkled with gold dust.

Possible that the heat metal spell could replace fire and that the real purpose is to mould a golden key from the dust and a hidden groove on the box.

Any gold key or fire breath weapon could auto open it too.

IIRC copper dragons actually hold riddle contests, in Faerun anyway, though I dont know if that helps.

Hmm, what do gold dragons cherish? Because that could be the criteria against which worthiness to open their toys is measured.

Good thoughts all, thanks.

As for what gold dragons cherish...according to the Monster Manual, they "hate injustice and foul play, often embarking on self-appointed quests to promote good."

So, justice and fairness would seem to be paramount virtues for them. But how do you treat a puzzle box fairly?

[unseenmage]

Good thoughts all, thanks.

As for what gold dragons cherish...according to the Monster Manual, they "hate injustice and foul play, often embarking on self-appointed quests to promote good."

So, justice and fairness would seem to be paramount virtues for them. But how do you treat a puzzle box fairly?

Hmm, dragons to me are inherently a) arrogant and b) greedy.
They are paragons of physical/magical might and tend to hoard wealth after all.

It could be considered perfectly fair to a dragon to require draconic might or intellect to accomplish a task. I mean, it's no one's fault if their standards are high compared to humans, right?

Box could require draconic magic to solve and the more solved it gets the more draconic strength it requires to manipulate as it gets heavier and heavier.

[liquidformat]

Good thoughts all, thanks.

As for what gold dragons cherish...according to the Monster Manual, they "hate injustice and foul play, often embarking on self-appointed quests to promote good."

So, justice and fairness would seem to be paramount virtues for them. But how do you treat a puzzle box fairly?

I like unseenmage's idea about draconic might and the puzzle box getting progressively heavier as the puzzle gets closer to being solved.

As far as justice and fairness you could have it be an LG aligned item that adds progressively worse (maybe permanent) negative penalties to anyone 'solving' the puzzle that isn't LG.

It seems pretty reasonable that after the box is heated the riddle appears in draconic, even though it is an obscure language it is the most important language to dragons.

[unseenmage]

Hmm, the box getting heavier works too for containing something 'not meant for wyrmlings' especially if being of a higher size category negates some or all of the weight.

[Segev]

A puzzle box has two things that need to be done for each step:

1) The person must comprehend what the next step is, and
2) he must be able to peform the step.

Skill checks related to architecture and engineering, arcana, reigion, spellcraft, and even perception and disabling devices can be used as tools to find out what each step is. The "deeper" in the puzzle box the step is, the harder it is to find (maybe a +5 or +10 to the DC for each step that has yet to be completed before the one being studied can be attempted).

Once you know the step needed for the next one in the chain, it's a simple matter of applying it. The requirements could be a DC X open locks check, which may or may not be achieved with knock, or they could be a particular bit of Use Rope, or they could require highly accurate stabbing with a sword-like implement (attack roll, proficiency with a sword a requirement), or they could need particular chemicals applied, or an Int check or Linguistics check to piece together the combination lock (once the identifying check even identified that there WAS a combination lock and what its markers were).

So if you had to do each of the steps above in order, you could discover the combination lock and it's need for a Linguistics check with a -20 to the Perception roll to notice the markers and their providence, because there are 4 other steps that have to come first. The open locks check could be identified with no penalty, because it's the first one. Once it's open, the next one is at no penalty, and the penalties for the others are 5 lower than before. (So the final combination lock could be ID'd with only a -15 to the check.)

Of course, even if you identify all of the steps required, you can't do any of the later ones until you successfully pull off the first.

So a particularly devious box might have a VERY hard to discern (high base detection DC) first step, and easier-to-figure-out later ones, leaving people saying, "I know what I have to do, but I can't figure out how to do it, because THIS is in the way!"

Giving a +2 circumstance bonus for knowing the step following the one you're on might be valid to help figure out the current one, too.

In this way, you have a skill check for each step, and then a specific thing that needs doing - which may involve additional skill checks, or spellcasting, or taking it to an expert, or going to a particular location, or finding a special key on a side-quest...whatever you want it to be depending on how hard the box is supposed to be to open - so that the box has non-skill check things possible in its process, and problem-solving skills the players can bring to bear without having to play "solve the puzzle" themselves.

[ericgrau]

In my next session or two, an elaborate puzzle box will fall into the party’s hands, containing a key item for advancing the plot. I’d like to make the opening of the box a challenge in itself, but I’m not sure how.

I’ve already given them one puzzle box, in the opening session of the campaign; it was extremely basic and relied too much on a couple of skill checks. This time I’d like something to challenge the players as well as the characters, but I’m having a hard time coming up with anything. Can anyone suggest a good challenge?

Don't make them sit there until they solve it, especially if they don't like puzzles. Do let them work on it while doing other adventuring stuff.

Perhaps something that can be opened the intended way or with a game effect, such as Augury 20+ questions, or Divination one word answers for clues.

You might find 6 popular puzzles and put them on the faces. Solve all 6 before the box inside opens.

And/or include D&D game effects. Perhaps one face is a wall of force, and only disintegrate can destroy it... do make the other faces immune to magic and most methods of destruction if you do. Another face could be one of the colors from a prismatic wall. Another face might be a golem weakness, etc. Give knowledge checks only related to this info, not the answer. You: "One face is invisible yet hard. (spellcraft) You think it's made of force." You: "One face is opaque and shimmering blue." PC: "Is it like a spell effect?" You: "(spellcraft) You think it's like a prismatic wall." (describe the blue face or let him look it up) You: "One face seems to be made of soft clay, yet you cannot peel it away." PC: "Is it something geological? I have knowledge (nature)" You: "No, it seems almost alive, try arcana. (roll). It seems like the body of a clay golem." Roll 1 random thing the PC knows about clay golems, which may or may not help. A high roll, a fellow PC, an NPC or a library could give more info on clay golems. Move earth, disintegrate or earthquake could all work to remove the face, with matching DM fluff description. Etc. One check might give all attacks, all resistances & weaknesses (what the PCs need), or all other special abilities. Don't give the whole answer, and at minimum make them poke and prod before you allow any knowledge check. They'll probably have to experiment a bit before realizing that you need to use the weakness of each face to remove it. General knowledge about the face includes multiple things besides the weakness. After 2-3 such faces it might get dull, so you might vary it up with different challenge types (besides creature/spell), and/or regular puzzles/riddles, and/or something else.

[Thurbane]

...has anyone suggested Cubic Gate (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/wondrousItems.htm) yet?

"You solved the box, we came."

You could sub-in a Kyton (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/devil.htm) and/or Excruciarch for a Cenobite. :smalltongue: