Im designing an underwater temple and need a puzzle or two for a 1-shot to give our current DM a break.
The temple itself was up until recently being used as a hospital for a plague outbreak before a dam being destroyed drowned half a village, the temple included, and its only been submerged for about a month. So there hasnt really been time for wildlife to really fully settle in, no coral growth, plant growth, any of that, its a fairly recent ruin. The temple itself wasnt really anything special, no special gods or anything (right now), and right now a Necromancer is residing in it, attacking the town. To give you an idea, the two puzzles I have are a few torches need to be lit (which is harder due to being constantly underwater) and a reverse pressure plate, where pressure needs to be relieved for the plate to move up (thousands of tons of water on top of it makes that harder). I have an encounter where an undead mage is trying to heat the water in the room for fire dmg, and a booby-trapped treasure chest that casts dispel magic when opened to take away a players water breathing.
So im just looking for maybe one or two other puzzles where water itself is the real obstacle. Open to other ideas too.
What about something along the lines of an obstacle course using the water currents to push or pull objects/players? You could also have an item or something they need to progress at the bottom of a column of water; they have to swim down, but something is constantly pushing the water up like a reverse whirlpool
A plaque hospital should have a quanantine area, so somewhere that the doors close behind the party and something caustic gets poured into the water around them. They have to either cast a spell on each PC capable of curing disease/poison to cause the quanantine system to deactivate, or they have to find and destroy the control mechanism and then dilute the "soap".
For water-based puzzles the only one you haven't got is a strong current that either throws them out of the temple or pulls them down into a deep black abyss with monsters in it.
Alternatively you could to something where they need to freeze the water -> like a crack in a wall to the next room they need to split open.
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Im designing an underwater temple and need a puzzle or two for a 1-shot to give our current DM a break.
The temple itself was up until recently being used as a hospital for a plague outbreak before a dam being destroyed drowned half a village, the temple included, and its only been submerged for about a month. So there hasnt really been time for wildlife to really fully settle in, no coral growth, plant growth, any of that, its a fairly recent ruin. The temple itself wasnt really anything special, no special gods or anything (right now), and right now a Necromancer is residing in it, attacking the town. To give you an idea, the two puzzles I have are a few torches need to be lit (which is harder due to being constantly underwater) and a reverse pressure plate, where pressure needs to be relieved for the plate to move up (thousands of tons of water on top of it makes that harder). I have an encounter where an undead mage is trying to heat the water in the room for fire dmg, and a booby-trapped treasure chest that casts dispel magic when opened to take away a players water breathing.
So im just looking for maybe one or two other puzzles where water itself is the real obstacle. Open to other ideas too.
THANK YOU.
What about something along the lines of an obstacle course using the water currents to push or pull objects/players? You could also have an item or something they need to progress at the bottom of a column of water; they have to swim down, but something is constantly pushing the water up like a reverse whirlpool
A plaque hospital should have a quanantine area, so somewhere that the doors close behind the party and something caustic gets poured into the water around them. They have to either cast a spell on each PC capable of curing disease/poison to cause the quanantine system to deactivate, or they have to find and destroy the control mechanism and then dilute the "soap".
For water-based puzzles the only one you haven't got is a strong current that either throws them out of the temple or pulls them down into a deep black abyss with monsters in it.
Alternatively you could to something where they need to freeze the water -> like a crack in a wall to the next room they need to split open.