some good puzzles and riddles

[kingcheesepants]

Hello, my players enjoy some good puzzles and riddles in our D&D games and I'm hoping to kick it up a notch with a more puzzle and riddle heavy dungeon as part of a test of mind type of challenge. Do you guys have any favorites or any particularly challenging puzzles or riddles? Not just skill challenges that can be resolved with a skill check and a description of how you succeed or fail (with possible complications) but an actual puzzle or riddle that requires some thinking. The party is level 10 and thus has access to things like flight, water breathing, fabricate etc. Also we're playing online so anything that requires a real world physical object or a handout that can't be replicated with a simple picture or typed note is a no go. And don't worry too much about it being too hard or complex these guys are excessively good at these kind of challenges.

[MadBear]

Hello, my players enjoy some good puzzles and riddles in our D&D games and I'm hoping to kick it up a notch with a more puzzle and riddle heavy dungeon as part of a test of mind type of challenge. Do you guys have any favorites or any particularly challenging puzzles or riddles? Not just skill challenges that can be resolved with a skill check and a description of how you succeed or fail (with possible complications) but an actual puzzle or riddle that requires some thinking. The party is level 10 and thus has access to things like flight, water breathing, fabricate etc. Also we're playing online so anything that requires a real world physical object or a handout that can't be replicated with a simple picture or typed note is a no go. And don't worry too much about it being too hard or complex these guys are excessively good at these kind of challenges.

One that I've enjoyed using is simply this:

When you have 2 of these you have 2. When you have 3 of these you have 3. But when you have 1 of these, it's identical to having none.

The answer to this is Options/Choices. There's probably a way to connect this back to a map of the area. Maybe a deadend hallway with no branches has a secret door or something.

[Segev]

Hello, my players enjoy some good puzzles and riddles in our D&D games and I'm hoping to kick it up a notch with a more puzzle and riddle heavy dungeon as part of a test of mind type of challenge. Do you guys have any favorites or any particularly challenging puzzles or riddles? Not just skill challenges that can be resolved with a skill check and a description of how you succeed or fail (with possible complications) but an actual puzzle or riddle that requires some thinking. The party is level 10 and thus has access to things like flight, water breathing, fabricate etc. Also we're playing online so anything that requires a real world physical object or a handout that can't be replicated with a simple picture or typed note is a no go. And don't worry too much about it being too hard or complex these guys are excessively good at these kind of challenges.

You'd probably have to give them some working over to make them better than they are, but the puzzles and traps in Omu and the Tomb of the Nine Gods from Tomb of Annihilation might be good inspirations for ideas. Your players may even enjoy that whole campaign module.



How about a two-level chamber, where the PCs enter onto the second floor, which is a balcony going all the way around the room, looking down into the first floor. Frescoes on the walls show panels depicting stages of a common story, myth, or fairy tale (pick one you like from real life, or make one up). Between the frescos are masks that look like prominent characters from the story. In the floor below are a bunch of stone statues, in the midst of some portion of the story done in full sculpture, like a play turned to stone in an instant. There are no stairs down, nor up, but nothing prevents arranging their own way down amidst the statues. Any time nobody is looking at the statues, they have changed position - sometimes the entire scene of props has changed, too - so that they're depicting another part of the story. This can happen in an eyeblink, and a careful study of the time will reveal that the statues shifted to a point in the story exactly as much later as if they'd been reenacting it in real time since the last point that they'd been seen.

Looking through the masks has one of three primary effects: If the mask is turned on the room in general, anything anybody else can see is blotted out from the mask-viewer's point of view, causing cones of apparent darkness to stream out of others' eyes. If the mask is turned to look down into the lower floor, the scene seems to be playing out as by flesh-and-blood actors. But they never react to anybody down in there with them, and in fact the cones of darkness extend from the eyes of anybody who isn't a part of the "cast." Finally, if the mask is turned on the frescos, the character sees things as if they were the character the mask represents, in the play down in the atrium. They can't do anything but watch and listen, but they can see and hear as if they were the character they wear the mask of, and see and hear the story unfold.

You can use this for a number of purposes, but one of the things that you could do is hide clues to another puzzle - like bits of a password, or clues to a mystery, or factoids necessary to understand another problem or solution - in the atrium, but have it be inaccessible except from the perspective of one particular character. If you have several, different characters could have exclusive (or some overlapping) access to different clues and cues. Figuring out where the clues might be based on knowing the story and things that you SHOULD be able to know if the story just covered it, because it's obvious one or more of the characters would see it, would be part of the puzzle. Then getting the right mask and wearing it through the story to the right point.

Another use would be to have some sort of item that needs retrieving but which can't be seen except in the live-action scene, and so switching masks out to see through them while guiding a ghost-like PC who's down in the atrium to get the item could be interesting.

[clearstream]

Hello, my players enjoy some good puzzles and riddles in our D&D games and I'm hoping to kick it up a notch with a more puzzle and riddle heavy dungeon as part of a test of mind type of challenge. Do you guys have any favorites or any particularly challenging puzzles or riddles? Not just skill challenges that can be resolved with a skill check and a description of how you succeed or fail (with possible complications) but an actual puzzle or riddle that requires some thinking. The party is level 10 and thus has access to things like flight, water breathing, fabricate etc. Also we're playing online so anything that requires a real world physical object or a handout that can't be replicated with a simple picture or typed note is a no go. And don't worry too much about it being too hard or complex these guys are excessively good at these kind of challenges.
In another thread someone was proposing riddles about real world things like time and age, and I was thinking maybe it would be good to present players with riddles about in-game things like character classes, spells, magic items or monsters. For example -

My healing hands and one night stands
Would be the stuff of legend
You can't go wrong, when you hear my song
But my best is best unmentioned

That seems quite easy, but you can see the principle.

[clearstream]

Hello, my players enjoy some good puzzles and riddles in our D&D games and I'm hoping to kick it up a notch with a more puzzle and riddle heavy dungeon as part of a test of mind type of challenge. Do you guys have any favorites or any particularly challenging puzzles or riddles? Not just skill challenges that can be resolved with a skill check and a description of how you succeed or fail (with possible complications) but an actual puzzle or riddle that requires some thinking. The party is level 10 and thus has access to things like flight, water breathing, fabricate etc. Also we're playing online so anything that requires a real world physical object or a handout that can't be replicated with a simple picture or typed note is a no go. And don't worry too much about it being too hard or complex these guys are excessively good at these kind of challenges.
A classic is the formidable door with three levers in the wall beside it - one glass, one wooden, one iron. All the levers trigger traps. The door isn't locked. Experienced players are not so likely to fall for it, of course.

[kingcheesepants]

In another thread someone was proposing riddles about real world things like time and age, and I was thinking maybe it would be good to present players with riddles about in-game things like character classes, spells, magic items or monsters. For example -

My healing hands and one night stands
Would be the stuff of legend
You can't go wrong, when you hear my song
But my best is best unmentioned

That seems quite easy, but you can see the principle.

Yes, I was thinking more along the lines of traditional riddles but one or two more game centric riddles could be good. I'm also considering having some more jokey type riddles such as, What do you call a halfling divination wizard on the run from the law? A small medium at large. Or less game centric but in the same jokey format, When is a door not a door? When it's ajar. An ancient copper dragon is the organizer of this particular dungeon so it's fitting to have a few light hearted riddles interspersed within as well. I like your idea of having some red herring levers that just trigger traps, but the group never opens doors or pulls levers or pushes buttons within dungeons unless absolutely necessary. They'll always have an unseen servant or mage hand do it while they stand back. Although now that I think about it that might be the kind of behavior that can be leveraged against them somehow...


You'd probably have to give them some working over to make them better than they are, but the puzzles and traps in Omu and the Tomb of the Nine Gods from Tomb of Annihilation might be good inspirations for ideas. Your players may even enjoy that whole campaign module.



How about a two-level chamber, where the PCs enter onto the second floor, which is a balcony going all the way around the room, looking down into the first floor. Frescoes on the walls show panels depicting stages of a common story, myth, or fairy tale (pick one you like from real life, or make one up). Between the frescos are masks that look like prominent characters from the story. In the floor below are a bunch of stone statues, in the midst of some portion of the story done in full sculpture, like a play turned to stone in an instant. There are no stairs down, nor up, but nothing prevents arranging their own way down amidst the statues. Any time nobody is looking at the statues, they have changed position - sometimes the entire scene of props has changed, too - so that they're depicting another part of the story. This can happen in an eyeblink, and a careful study of the time will reveal that the statues shifted to a point in the story exactly as much later as if they'd been reenacting it in real time since the last point that they'd been seen.

I'll check out the tomb of annihilation and see if I can't adapt some of the stuff in there for the group. I usually find that official modules run on the easy side or are less puzzles and more just skill checks, but occasionally they'll have some good stuff (I ran white plume mountain a while back and was pretty happy with that one overall except that some of the puzzles were just straight skippable with flying). And I like your idea of the moving statues and the mask, it's your classic clue in the painting but with a couple extra steps to add a little flair and dynamism.


One that I've enjoyed using is simply this:

When you have 2 of these you have 2. When you have 3 of these you have 3. But when you have 1 of these, it's identical to having none.

Short and sweet and can be easily integrated into a room as a hint to find a key or whatever. Not bad.

[Green.Grizzly]

Sometimes a classic lever puzzle can have your players second guessing themselves.

A good one I found involved three levers and two doors. The correct combination led to treasure, the wrong combination also led to treasure (albeit cursed).

"One side repeats, the second is not left, right comes after left, but left does not come after right"

Left, Right, Centre, Right

[ScoutTrooper]

If you can deliever on suspense, and maybe follow their actions with 'sinster sounds' around the party. I had success and some fun with this one

https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?625854-An-Elevator-s-gearbox-quot-Trap-quot

[Segev]

Sometimes a classic lever puzzle can have your players second guessing themselves.

A good one I found involved three levers and two doors. The correct combination led to treasure, the wrong combination also led to treasure (albeit cursed).

"One side repeats, the second is not left, right comes after left, but left does not come after right"

Left, Right, Centre, Right
I don't think that's a unique solution to the logic puzzle.
I believe "left, center, right, right," would be an equally valid solution. As would "left, right, right" with no center pull at all. Not that that would work with the levers, necessarily, but that the clue is insufficient to uniquely identify "left, right, center, right" as the correct combination.



The puzzles and traps in the chapters of ToA with Omu and the Tomb itself are not just skill checks. They have some serious issues (not the least being that brute forcing them is often superior to trying to solve them "correctly," both in terms of sensibility and risk), but they are at least solid foundations of ideas. They just sometimes take some work to make doing them the intended way a) something you can figure out and b) worth bothering with. On the other hand, this means they don't have "one true way"ism clogging them up! But creative solutions often make the puzzle remain obtuse or even invisible. (And at least one does have a "one true way" method with no alternate solution and a really stupid clue that also should have been stumbled across by the denizens of the temple in which it lies long ago.)

[DwarfFighter]

Caesar cipher-like codes usually satisfactory for the players to solve, and you can add a fantasy element to it by using runes of your own invention instead of the classic A=B, B=G, C=K character-jumble.

First write your message. It usually works best if you try to use common short words like "the", "a" or "of" only sometimes. Also, if the message includes a name of a character or place the players are familiar with, usually also makes them happy to recognize.

For example:

BY THE HIGH PRIESTS ORDER BRING ALL PRISONERS TO THE BLACK SANCTUARY SO THEY MAY BE SACRIFICED IN MABRAXAS NAME THE PASSWORD OF THE DAY IS COMFORT

Replace each instance of a given letter with the same rune of your own design and you have a mysterious note for the players to match their wits with.

-DF