I'm a new DM, and I've been thinking about ways to maybe incorporate puzzles into my campaign's dungeons, preferably ones that tie in with the theme. So far I have:
A foundry/furnace/smithy situation
A power plant
A factory
A high-tech fortress
A ghostly desert ruins filled with undead and a beholder
A castle housing a green dragon (It's meant to be a ruined one, the main castle will be in the alternate dimension)
A castle housing a vampire in an alternate dimension that can only be accessed by looking in a special mirror in a certain way in said castle housing a green dragon
Ruins in a swamp filled with oozes
A dragon's lair in a forest
A frozen dungeon
And a desert with a magical sandstorm and caverns filled with traps
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“The past never changes—and from what I can see, neither does the future.”
I generally advise against explicit puzzles in D&D.
Primarily, this is because they make things weird. A puzzle, that real-world players are solving with their knowledge, experience, and reasoning skills, is a significant break in the player/character dichotomy. You can easily end up with the none-too-swift barbarian solving the puzzle, because their player does the MIT Puzzle Hunt every year, while the 20-int wizard flails helplessly because Wordle is about their player's speed. You're also often facing the verisimilitude break of having to make a puzzle that's solved with our-world knowledge, because that kind of knowledge for the characters isn't known by the players, so you have to substitute.
And, by puzzles, I'm talking about an artificial setup with a specific solution, usually logic, trivia, or word-based. Problems, like "low level party needs to cross a chasm and the bridge is out", usually work fine, because the players can apply their characters' abilities and ways of looking at the world more directly. There's also not only one possible solution.
(And, obviously, people's milage may vary. Some groups like this sort of thing, and the fourth-wall break is no big deal.)
The other problem with puzzles is that they can block a game, where the players are just looking at it and shrugging, while the DM is thinking "It's obvious!". (But that's a more general game-running issue, and not specific to puzzles, though they probably make it more likely.)
(And I like puzzles. Puzzle games are totally my jam. I'm currently working my way through post-win Blue Prince. But they don't work for D&D.)
There an obvious puzzle involves making something, it could be a key, an ancient artifact, or a statue/gift to a deity. Such puzzles usually work best when the players are given a recipe that is written as a poem or with cryptic flowery language they they have to figure out (have a look at old alchemy books for inspiration: e.g. mix blood of the stone [rust] with liquid fire [acid] then heat until the roars of hell can be heard [boil]).
If you want to add some classic logic puzzle to the mix have a set of scales to be used for weighing the ingredients with the numbers worn off, so they have to use equipment/items they are holding as a counter balance to weigh out the right amount of stuff.
A power plant
The obvious puzzle here would be to get energy from the generator to a locked / sealed door to open it. These are pretty hard to do without props, or something visual but give them a series of switches that turn on/off different combinations of indicators, but also allow them to cast lightning-based (or something else) spells to "cheat" the puzzle if they get stuck. You can also add in secondary puzzles like needing to heat up something to repair a power conduit, or use oil/acid to free up a rusted switch, or needing to find a handle to attach to a switch.
A high-tech fortress
Not sure what you mean by "high tech" but passwords are a great place to add in a word puzzle. The simplest way to do it would be basically have them play Hangman but always the same word and every X wrong guesses a trap or monster gets triggers (this has the added bonus of allowing you to put in a meta-reference by having a hanging body inside the room where they need to put in the password).
A ghostly desert ruins filled with undead and a beholder
Undead usually aren't smart so puzzles are usually anachronistic, but a beholder might set up traps or puzzle doors to be solved, just make it feel as insane as possible (check out The Impossible Quiz for ideas).
A castle housing a green dragon (It's meant to be a ruined one, the main castle will be in the alternate dimension)
Castles are a hard one to fit puzzles into, you either need a paranoid wizard or bored lich to have once lived there or a vault full of treasure for there to be a reason for one to exist or a temple / shrine with a god setting the puzzle. They are more suited to environmental / opportunistic puzzles such as sewers designed like a maze with collapsed portions to justify the dead ends with a monster that is attracted to any sounds/vibrations and various hazards (e.g. debris they need to cross over, slippery slime) that would cause the party to make those sounds / vibrations. Or alternatively, towers they need to climb where the stairs have collapsed, or animated armours that demand a password they need to figure out.
A castle housing a vampire in an alternate dimension that can only be accessed by looking in a special mirror in a certain way in said castle housing a green dragon
Mirror-dimension is an obvious puzzle here - have a blocked door or locked chest that can only be opened by doing something in both dimensions at exactly the same time. Could be flipping a switch or turning a key in a lock, the 'puzzle' in this case is figuring out the dual-dimension nature, and then figuring out how to coordinate the two people at the same time.
Ruins in a swamp filled with oozes
Like with the castle, it needs a reason for the puzzle to exist. Maybe the ruins are a shrine to a diety and the party can recieve a blessing by completing the diety's challenge.
A dragon's lair in a forest
Not a good spot for puzzles, you could do environmental challenges - e.g. crossing chasm, climbing cliffs - but puzzles would be limited to goodies within the dragon's horde. You can easily put a puzzle box in there (I'm sure you can find all kinds of examples of puzzle boxes online) that the party have to solve to get the magic item within.
A frozen dungeon
Have you played the sliding puzzle games? Where there is no friction so if you move you keep moving in that direction until you hit something solid, and you have to find the route through the solid objects to get to your objective? That would be a natural fit here.
And a desert with a magical sandstorm and caverns filled with traps
Add a riddle that hints at the various traps and now your traps are a puzzle!
The key to puzzles in D&D is to have a way for players to brute force it if they get stuck, just with a negative penalty if they do so (e.g. taking damage, costing spellslots, etc..)
I'm a new DM, and I've been thinking about ways to maybe incorporate puzzles into my campaign's dungeons, preferably ones that tie in with the theme. So far I have:
A foundry/furnace/smithy situation
A power plant
A factory
A high-tech fortress
A ghostly desert ruins filled with undead and a beholder
A castle housing a green dragon (It's meant to be a ruined one, the main castle will be in the alternate dimension)
A castle housing a vampire in an alternate dimension that can only be accessed by looking in a special mirror in a certain way in said castle housing a green dragon
Ruins in a swamp filled with oozes
A dragon's lair in a forest
A frozen dungeon
And a desert with a magical sandstorm and caverns filled with traps
“The past never changes—and from what I can see, neither does the future.”
I generally advise against explicit puzzles in D&D.
Primarily, this is because they make things weird. A puzzle, that real-world players are solving with their knowledge, experience, and reasoning skills, is a significant break in the player/character dichotomy. You can easily end up with the none-too-swift barbarian solving the puzzle, because their player does the MIT Puzzle Hunt every year, while the 20-int wizard flails helplessly because Wordle is about their player's speed. You're also often facing the verisimilitude break of having to make a puzzle that's solved with our-world knowledge, because that kind of knowledge for the characters isn't known by the players, so you have to substitute.
And, by puzzles, I'm talking about an artificial setup with a specific solution, usually logic, trivia, or word-based. Problems, like "low level party needs to cross a chasm and the bridge is out", usually work fine, because the players can apply their characters' abilities and ways of looking at the world more directly. There's also not only one possible solution.
(And, obviously, people's milage may vary. Some groups like this sort of thing, and the fourth-wall break is no big deal.)
The other problem with puzzles is that they can block a game, where the players are just looking at it and shrugging, while the DM is thinking "It's obvious!". (But that's a more general game-running issue, and not specific to puzzles, though they probably make it more likely.)
(And I like puzzles. Puzzle games are totally my jam. I'm currently working my way through post-win Blue Prince. But they don't work for D&D.)
There is a list of a couple puzzles at the end of tasha's
There an obvious puzzle involves making something, it could be a key, an ancient artifact, or a statue/gift to a deity. Such puzzles usually work best when the players are given a recipe that is written as a poem or with cryptic flowery language they they have to figure out (have a look at old alchemy books for inspiration: e.g. mix blood of the stone [rust] with liquid fire [acid] then heat until the roars of hell can be heard [boil]).
If you want to add some classic logic puzzle to the mix have a set of scales to be used for weighing the ingredients with the numbers worn off, so they have to use equipment/items they are holding as a counter balance to weigh out the right amount of stuff.
The obvious puzzle here would be to get energy from the generator to a locked / sealed door to open it. These are pretty hard to do without props, or something visual but give them a series of switches that turn on/off different combinations of indicators, but also allow them to cast lightning-based (or something else) spells to "cheat" the puzzle if they get stuck. You can also add in secondary puzzles like needing to heat up something to repair a power conduit, or use oil/acid to free up a rusted switch, or needing to find a handle to attach to a switch.
Not sure what you mean by "high tech" but passwords are a great place to add in a word puzzle. The simplest way to do it would be basically have them play Hangman but always the same word and every X wrong guesses a trap or monster gets triggers (this has the added bonus of allowing you to put in a meta-reference by having a hanging body inside the room where they need to put in the password).
Undead usually aren't smart so puzzles are usually anachronistic, but a beholder might set up traps or puzzle doors to be solved, just make it feel as insane as possible (check out The Impossible Quiz for ideas).
Castles are a hard one to fit puzzles into, you either need a paranoid wizard or bored lich to have once lived there or a vault full of treasure for there to be a reason for one to exist or a temple / shrine with a god setting the puzzle. They are more suited to environmental / opportunistic puzzles such as sewers designed like a maze with collapsed portions to justify the dead ends with a monster that is attracted to any sounds/vibrations and various hazards (e.g. debris they need to cross over, slippery slime) that would cause the party to make those sounds / vibrations. Or alternatively, towers they need to climb where the stairs have collapsed, or animated armours that demand a password they need to figure out.
Mirror-dimension is an obvious puzzle here - have a blocked door or locked chest that can only be opened by doing something in both dimensions at exactly the same time. Could be flipping a switch or turning a key in a lock, the 'puzzle' in this case is figuring out the dual-dimension nature, and then figuring out how to coordinate the two people at the same time.
Like with the castle, it needs a reason for the puzzle to exist. Maybe the ruins are a shrine to a diety and the party can recieve a blessing by completing the diety's challenge.
Not a good spot for puzzles, you could do environmental challenges - e.g. crossing chasm, climbing cliffs - but puzzles would be limited to goodies within the dragon's horde. You can easily put a puzzle box in there (I'm sure you can find all kinds of examples of puzzle boxes online) that the party have to solve to get the magic item within.
Have you played the sliding puzzle games? Where there is no friction so if you move you keep moving in that direction until you hit something solid, and you have to find the route through the solid objects to get to your objective? That would be a natural fit here.
Add a riddle that hints at the various traps and now your traps are a puzzle!
The key to puzzles in D&D is to have a way for players to brute force it if they get stuck, just with a negative penalty if they do so (e.g. taking damage, costing spellslots, etc..)