I used a puzzle once that required the party to investigate the magic used in the town, and apply it to the villain.
The town in question specialized in a wizard school I invented called scriptomancy, in which the users use/make spell scrolls or magic runes that they do magic with. Over the course of the game, the part discovers their adversary is a former pupil of this school, and within her lair is a mirror with blood smeared on it. The only way through is to write the rune for "open" on the door in blood to open the portal in the mirror and get to the boss room.
Another puzzle had an ancient tree growing in the center of a small courtyard, with eight pillars surrounding it. The stone of the courtyard was VERY reflective (a mirror), and within each pillar was a gemstone. The tree had a door at its base, with the doorknob missing. Each pillar had a shelf with a crystal orb. The orbs were all identical in size, shape and appearance, but only they key glowed in their reflection on the floor.
Works best in a Dungeon or an alley, where the passage gets real narrow. A dark hole in the wall with to red glowing eyes… If a character stabs a weapon in it, he hits himself from the back, where his weapon comes out of the same hole on the other side. I normally let the player make an attack against humself...
I don't have much in the way of traps or riddles, but an idea Ive used was based on a wizards tower.
The wizards tower seems to be normal from the outside but is bigger on the inside concept. It looks as if it has 3 stories but in fact has 7 or more. The entrance has a single stair case that leads up then branches to the left and right. If the party goes up, either side is fine, they will keep going up an infinite stair case. Once they turn around and go down is when they will finally reach a new room. The room they reach would be based on the time they continued going up. You could have it be that they move up 1 floor for every minute they spend walking up or something along those lines. I used 20 seconds in my campaign.
Also as a bonus trick, if the party turns around before they would have reached the first floor they could return down the opposite side of the branching stair case. Just to confuse them even further.
Add in a couple of enchanted armor that guard the beginning of the stair case and the party will immediately be put on their toes.
In curse of strahd there are a couple of incidents where statues have been magically enhanced with the antipathy/sympathy spell which attracts players. I modified it slightly so that it did a ****ton of damage to anyone who touched it. Because of the environmental circumstances, players had to enter the room one by one and as soon as they saw the statue they made the saving throw. All they had to do was to save and cover the statue with something and everyone would snap out of it as they slowly moved towards the statue with the desire to touch it!
It turned out to be quite powerful...so maybe finetune the damage next time! :P
Here's a relatively easy riddle my party's wizard once had to solve:
In a dungeon, he came into a circular room with four stone statues that are spaced out evenly around the wall, representing a fire, water, stone and air elemental. Each statue had an empty stone bowl in its hands. In the center of the room, there was a stone inscribed with primordial runes. The text read:
"Feed me and I will grow, give me to drink and I will die"
The solution was to light a fire in the fire elemental's bowl (Fire grows if you "feed" it with wood, can be put out with water to "drink"). The statue would then slide into the floor and the player could proceed.
Here's a simple trick you can do with an undead enemy:
When your party fights an enemy group, when the last enemy is alive have him run away. While he runs he drops a weapon usually slightly better than someone in the parties weapon. However, the weapon carries a disease and if the player uses it they get the disease.
Here's a simple trick you can do with an undead enemy:
When your party fights an enemy group, when the last enemy is alive have him run away. While he runs he drops a weapon usually slightly better than someone in the parties weapon. However, the weapon carries a disease and if the player uses it they get the disease.
Magic items that have negative effects are great! I feel like that is the easiest way to completely blind side a player. Especially if someone else in the party recently found a magical item, everyone will be on the lookout for when they get one next!
Similarly simple and elemental, like the riddles above, I once had three normal looking but magically sealed crates in three different sections of a manor house. One crate was warm to the touch, another was slightly damp, and one makes party member's hair stand up with static. If the party cast a corresponding spell on the crate (something related to fire, to water, and to electricity) the lid vanished, leaving the contents accessible.
There was also some glowing moss in the basement. If a character ate the moss they permanently lost one point of wisdom and gained one point of intelligence, though once done the moss stopped glowing and lost its odd properties. Just for fun.
Here is an oldy but a goody I like to use one after another sometimes. Works best in hallways and small rooms; slide in to pivoting floor. I would normally would use this in towers and temples. There is a large pressure plate in the center or the hallway/ small room. when triggered most if not the whole floor gives way to a slide that leads to a drop onto a large seesaw like floor (usually a round floor). this can end at or near the beginning of the structure, a pit trap, or on a rotating gears or gear trap if in something like a clock tower.
I took an idea from The Princess Bride, and I instituted a game of drinking, with some twists because I always worry about stealing ideas for Dungeons and Dragons.
I made a really short dungeon just for a fun collection of riddles for my players, and they stumbled into a room in a cave that was near empty with a man, a table, and two large chairs, with the man sitting in one. In the room previous, they were told to "Beware the venom of the snake, and the poison of the frog." They approached the table and there were two cups, one with a frog, and one with a snake, as well as two barrels labeled, one with a snake and the other with a frog. He poured each barrel into their respective cups, and then he let them choose which one would drink.
One of my PCs, the Fighter, sat down, since he had the most health (with a battle occurring in the previous room.) My PCs then continued to argue about which was the right goblet to drink from. When I set this riddle up, I thought about how I learned that venom was ok to drink, however, poison was not, and the Rogue PC argued that point exactly. However, the man reassured that neither drink would do them harm or kill them, but was very vague one what would happen otherwise. However, the Rogue threw me for a loop by offering to drink the other glass. Fighter drank the one with the snake and was unchanged. Rogue drank the one with the frog and was turned into a frog for the rest of the dungeon. For the rest of the dungeon he sat in the Fighter's pocket next to his pet rat and was laughed at.
The Riddle/TL;DR: 2 Drinks, one with a magical fun effect that doesn't do too much harm, and a man offering to drink the other with a vague hint of which one could be correct can make a fun experience for both players, and DM
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Can I roll for that?
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I used a puzzle once that required the party to investigate the magic used in the town, and apply it to the villain.
The town in question specialized in a wizard school I invented called scriptomancy, in which the users use/make spell scrolls or magic runes that they do magic with. Over the course of the game, the part discovers their adversary is a former pupil of this school, and within her lair is a mirror with blood smeared on it. The only way through is to write the rune for "open" on the door in blood to open the portal in the mirror and get to the boss room.
Another puzzle had an ancient tree growing in the center of a small courtyard, with eight pillars surrounding it. The stone of the courtyard was VERY reflective (a mirror), and within each pillar was a gemstone. The tree had a door at its base, with the doorknob missing. Each pillar had a shelf with a crystal orb. The orbs were all identical in size, shape and appearance, but only they key glowed in their reflection on the floor.
Hope this inspired someone!
I got labeled for spam for some reason.... Don't know why.
Got a nice trap I like to use:
Works best in a Dungeon or an alley, where the passage gets real narrow. A dark hole in the wall with to red glowing eyes… If a character stabs a weapon in it, he hits himself from the back, where his weapon comes out of the same hole on the other side. I normally let the player make an attack against humself...
I don't have much in the way of traps or riddles, but an idea Ive used was based on a wizards tower.
The wizards tower seems to be normal from the outside but is bigger on the inside concept. It looks as if it has 3 stories but in fact has 7 or more. The entrance has a single stair case that leads up then branches to the left and right. If the party goes up, either side is fine, they will keep going up an infinite stair case. Once they turn around and go down is when they will finally reach a new room. The room they reach would be based on the time they continued going up. You could have it be that they move up 1 floor for every minute they spend walking up or something along those lines. I used 20 seconds in my campaign.
Also as a bonus trick, if the party turns around before they would have reached the first floor they could return down the opposite side of the branching stair case. Just to confuse them even further.
Add in a couple of enchanted armor that guard the beginning of the stair case and the party will immediately be put on their toes.
Hiya!
First of all check out this http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/unearthed-arcana/traps-revisited if you havn't already!
In curse of strahd there are a couple of incidents where statues have been magically enhanced with the antipathy/sympathy spell which attracts players. I modified it slightly so that it did a ****ton of damage to anyone who touched it. Because of the environmental circumstances, players had to enter the room one by one and as soon as they saw the statue they made the saving throw. All they had to do was to save and cover the statue with something and everyone would snap out of it as they slowly moved towards the statue with the desire to touch it!
It turned out to be quite powerful...so maybe finetune the damage next time! :P
Here's a relatively easy riddle my party's wizard once had to solve:
In a dungeon, he came into a circular room with four stone statues that are spaced out evenly around the wall, representing a fire, water, stone and air elemental. Each statue had an empty stone bowl in its hands. In the center of the room, there was a stone inscribed with primordial runes. The text read:
"Feed me and I will grow, give me to drink and I will die"
The solution was to light a fire in the fire elemental's bowl (Fire grows if you "feed" it with wood, can be put out with water to "drink"). The statue would then slide into the floor and the player could proceed.
"A true victory is to make your enemy see they were wrong to oppose you in the first place. To force them to acknowledge your greatness." - Gal Dukat
Here's a simple trick you can do with an undead enemy:
When your party fights an enemy group, when the last enemy is alive have him run away. While he runs he drops a weapon usually slightly better than someone in the parties weapon. However, the weapon carries a disease and if the player uses it they get the disease.
My room may be cold, but my heart is also cold.
Locking Sinkhole Boots: When put on, player sinks into the boots up to their knees, then the boots lock on. Boots only unlock when submerged.
+2 to AC, Character size is now Small, -2 to all Dex based skills.
Similarly simple and elemental, like the riddles above, I once had three normal looking but magically sealed crates in three different sections of a manor house. One crate was warm to the touch, another was slightly damp, and one makes party member's hair stand up with static. If the party cast a corresponding spell on the crate (something related to fire, to water, and to electricity) the lid vanished, leaving the contents accessible.
There was also some glowing moss in the basement. If a character ate the moss they permanently lost one point of wisdom and gained one point of intelligence, though once done the moss stopped glowing and lost its odd properties. Just for fun.
Here is an oldy but a goody I like to use one after another sometimes. Works best in hallways and small rooms; slide in to pivoting floor. I would normally would use this in towers and temples. There is a large pressure plate in the center or the hallway/ small room. when triggered most if not the whole floor gives way to a slide that leads to a drop onto a large seesaw like floor (usually a round floor). this can end at or near the beginning of the structure, a pit trap, or on a rotating gears or gear trap if in something like a clock tower.
I took an idea from The Princess Bride, and I instituted a game of drinking, with some twists because I always worry about stealing ideas for Dungeons and Dragons.
I made a really short dungeon just for a fun collection of riddles for my players, and they stumbled into a room in a cave that was near empty with a man, a table, and two large chairs, with the man sitting in one. In the room previous, they were told to "Beware the venom of the snake, and the poison of the frog." They approached the table and there were two cups, one with a frog, and one with a snake, as well as two barrels labeled, one with a snake and the other with a frog. He poured each barrel into their respective cups, and then he let them choose which one would drink.
One of my PCs, the Fighter, sat down, since he had the most health (with a battle occurring in the previous room.) My PCs then continued to argue about which was the right goblet to drink from. When I set this riddle up, I thought about how I learned that venom was ok to drink, however, poison was not, and the Rogue PC argued that point exactly. However, the man reassured that neither drink would do them harm or kill them, but was very vague one what would happen otherwise. However, the Rogue threw me for a loop by offering to drink the other glass. Fighter drank the one with the snake and was unchanged. Rogue drank the one with the frog and was turned into a frog for the rest of the dungeon. For the rest of the dungeon he sat in the Fighter's pocket next to his pet rat and was laughed at.
The Riddle/TL;DR: 2 Drinks, one with a magical fun effect that doesn't do too much harm, and a man offering to drink the other with a vague hint of which one could be correct can make a fun experience for both players, and DM
Can I roll for that?