Riddle ideas for a quest

[AllanniaNevini]

I am running a Champaign where the final destination is a tower with a mana pool in it. Protecting the mana pool are four giants. A frost, fire, storm, and cloud giant.

To get into the room you have to answer a riddle or question individual for each giant. The questions verify whether the person is worthy of entering into the room with the mana pool.

Any ideas as to what the questions should be?

[Malphegor]

There are 5 symbols on a door, accompanied with various translations in various languages. Some seem awkwardly worded to retain the meaning, but the symbols are as follows:

Hat, Hen, Pin, Box, Sun

An inscription is nearby- “26 is what we came from, yet only
5 remain, a most exclusive group, the answer to this puzzle can be found within.”

The answer is of course Vowel, since A E I O U is the letter within these words.

[Heavenblade]

I know it's not really what you asked for, but from my experience riddles rarely work. instead, you can give them an objective that cannot be solved by fighting. something like "reach this protected object". then you can give the option of a riddle, but if the players are unable to answer, they might need to dodge traps, spot a real object in a pile of decoys, physically chase the object throughout the room....this way everyone has something to do

hope that helps!

[Segev]

I am running a Champaign where the final destination is a tower with a mana pool in it. Protecting the mana pool are four giants. A frost, fire, storm, and cloud giant.

To get into the room you have to answer a riddle or question individual for each giant. The questions verify whether the person is worthy of entering into the room with the mana pool.

Any ideas as to what the questions should be?

What is the metric of worthiness? Intelligence? Wit? Memorization of historical riddles?

I'm being a little facetious, here, but my point is that for a riddle to measure worthiness, we need to know what the designers would have considered "worthy." You can design riddles to try to be measures of cleverness, of knowledge, of wit, of wisdom, and even of character (to the extent that you can rely on instinctive answers rather than intellectually examined answers trying to answer what the answerer thinks the riddler was testing for). But to test for any of those properly, you need to know what a "worthy person" looks like.

[RNightstalker]

There are some cool riddles in KOTOR when you take the box to the Hutt on Tatooine that you're not supposed to open lol.

[Phhase]

My tines be long,
My tines be short,
My tines end 'ere
The first report

It's lightning.The last bit refers to how you see the lightning, then hear the thunder.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

"A hill-full, a hole-full, you cannot catch a bowl-full." Fog/mist, for the cloud giant. The giant giving the riddle should make it obvious with some thought, but it's different enough that they'll probably still feel clever for figuring it out.

[jintoya]

What's brown and sticky?
(When they say "a stick, have tangle-foot bags barrage them)

Where is the mimic?
(The room should be full of random furniture)

I'm red, you know my face well and have seen more of me than you can scarcely recall, I see you every time you enter the market and I'm regularly seen performing minor feats of acrobatics, what am I?
(Copper coin)

These are all ones I'd use, but I think straight up riddles are boring, give them something to do that is hard... Like play Russian roulette with a mimic, make the room a zone of peace so they cannot just smash chairs, bring the correct one... Door opens, wrong one... Fight a mimic.

Edit:
One I think could be fun is to have some cloaks of cults from different gods floating around, have one clearly evil, one sorta chaotic and one they can't identify easily, have them choose the most trustable robes.

Answer is the evil cultist robes: you know he's evil and can trust he will act evil, the others are up in the air.

[Bohandas]

If it was just three of them you could use this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hardest_Logic_Puzzle_Ever

[MisterKaws]

Hey, be careful. Champagne is pretty slippery, so you shouldn't run on it.

[AllanniaNevini]

What is the metric of worthiness? Intelligence? Wit? Memorization of historical riddles?

I'm being a little facetious, here, but my point is that for a riddle to measure worthiness, we need to know what the designers would have considered "worthy." You can design riddles to try to be measures of cleverness, of knowledge, of wit, of wisdom, and even of character (to the extent that you can rely on instinctive answers rather than intellectually examined answers trying to answer what the answerer thinks the riddler was testing for). But to test for any of those properly, you need to know what a "worthy person" looks like.
The giants are the four elements and each one judged a different aspect of a person. Each class has a door they are drawn towards. Fire=heart water=soul air=mind earth=body. Each giant would have some sort of question or riddle they would ask the person to judge whether they are worthy to see their destiny (that is what the mana pool shows them)

[Malphegor]

hm, my previous vowel riddle can be modified to fit that, if you squint and spelled soul wrong as 'Sul' like a madman

Fire=heart water=soul air=mind earth=body

wAter/hEart/mInd/bOdy/s...Ul...

"Second of the spelling, perhaps misheard in the telling, of which there is only 5, tell us your answer if you wish to stay alive"

Vowel.

[Segev]

The giants are the four elements and each one judged a different aspect of a person. Each class has a door they are drawn towards. Fire=heart water=soul air=mind earth=body. Each giant would have some sort of question or riddle they would ask the person to judge whether they are worthy to see their destiny (that is what the mana pool shows them)

Okay; I'm going to assume, then, that "worthy" means "strong in the element/aspect of the giant."

Fire Giant (Heart)
Can you explain
what can grow and never need rain?
What is the fire that burns through the years?
And where is the sorrow deeper than tears?

Answer: Either "Love" for all of them, or each question is "a stone" "love that is true" and "a heart." Stolen from a song where the verse opens "Maiden, maiden, can you explain...", where the last three are the response-verse, though I think the singular first answer is better for a riddle.

Water Giant (Soul)
Whilst through waterless desert you walk,
You meet a tortoise who doesn't talk.
On its back you turned it, stomach bare;
Why didst thou leave it stranded there?

Anything that shows introspection or a determined refusal to accept the premise is a pass. Any indecision or demand for further information demonstrates inability to know oneself and a willingness to be defined by others. This is adapted from the "person or robot?" test in Blade Runner.

Air Giant (Mind)
Once when flying to Melook
My path crossed that of a Wind Duke.
This Duke had seven gorgeous wives
And each of them had seven knives.
Each knife bore seven jeweled agates.
Each precious stone held seven fates.
Wives, knives, gems and fates:
How many flew to Melook's gates?

This is an adaptation of "As I was going to St. Ives," which is an old trick question that invites the listener to multiply seven by seven many times, but the true answer is that only the speaker was going to St. Ives. This version changes "met" to "crossed paths" to try to limit the potential ambiguity of whether the meeting was as the Duke was coming from the city or the speaker overtook them on their way and joined them. However, it may be worthy to be able to do the math and remember the speaker, himself, so if the correct value of 2802 might pass the riddle anyway; this is the riddle of "mind," after all.

Earth Giant (Body)
This one is silent. Before it, instead, stands a labyrinth of glass. Choose your entrance; find your way through to pass.

This is another trick question. There is, indeed, a glass labyrinth. It wraps around on itself and back out the same side. Technically a maze, as labyrinths don't offer split paths, but the split paths here are deceptions. The two entrances are connected, and the exit visible through the glass with a DC 20 perception check on the far side actually has no path that connects the two on the near side to it. So entering it and treating it like a maze leads you back out the other entrance.

It should have monsters in it to fight as random encounters, too.

The solution: the walls are glass. Shatter them and walk through the straightest path you like. This is, after all, the test of body. Might.

[denthor]

I would walk away. Never to return to that tower.

[Segev]

I would walk away. Never to return to that tower.

Snarky reply: sounds like the guardians are doing their job, then!

More serious query: Why? Don't like riddles, or what?

[denthor]

Snarky reply: sounds like the guardians are doing their job, then!

More serious query: Why? Don't like riddles, or what?


No, I do not like riddles. Your right they are doing their job correctly. In a riddle puzzle you must have a particular type of thinking. I am to straight forward to think like that.

I am probably the only one to admit if I ran into the genie with 3 wishes. My reply would be I am not really intelligent enough to make the correct choice of wish.

If forced to my wish would be


I wish to be able to accurately translate any language ever written, spoken into any other language of my choice into written or verbal form of my choice.

Even that means I could not interpret sign language.

[jintoya]

Anyone else ever solve a riddle by digging past the door and punching a hole in the dungeon?
We did that one time, we were punished for it with a "safeguard" that destroys the dungeon (cave of wonders style)

[Segev]

Anyone else ever solve a riddle by digging past the door and punching a hole in the dungeon?
We did that one time, we were punished for it with a "safeguard" that destroys the dungeon (cave of wonders style)

Funny you should mention that: that's actually kind-of the solution I suggest for the Earth riddle. :smallcool:

[Bohandas]

I know it's not really what you asked for, but from my experience riddles rarely work. instead, you can give them an objective that cannot be solved by fighting. something like "reach this protected object". then you can give the option of a riddle, but if the players are unable to answer, they might need to dodge traps, spot a real object in a pile of decoys....

A little like the end of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade with the trick floor and the fake grails

[PoeticallyPsyco]

Fire (heart):

I am a suit no man may wear, neither peasants nor kings, yet no man goes without me, what's remembered by me shall be well known, what lies at me is the reason for things, all may touch me when I am soft, none when I am stone, Lose me and you will falter, yet if I am taken you shall find courage anew. What am I?

Heart.