One of my favorites for something guarded by a mage.
A door that has a picture of a person, face, ECT that can talk, and a door handle. The door does one of two things:
Calls Itself all-knowing, boasting of its intelligence. It then asks the party for a riddle it can't solve. No matter the riddle, the door will answer no matter correct or incorrectly, and proclaim itself right. The correct answer would be to compliment the door, it then lets the party through. Example: Monk: "I have a head and a tail, but no body. What am I?" Door: "A snake." Monk: "No! it's a coin." Door: "No, I am correct. I am all-knowing." Wizard: "Of course, there's no way we could give you a riddle you can't solve. You're just too smart. Door: You may enter."
Or, it loudly interrupts the person trying to open the door, prolonging them to open it. The ultimate answer is to just open the door. It's not locked, the door is just there as a distraction.
I made one last session in my GREYHAWK campaign to enter a shrine of Boccob, in the form if an eldritch control panel with 8 Colors if Magic. While it was relatively simple, it took them some time to figure it out.
Before that i made a dwarven sudoku inspired puzzle, replacing numbers with runes.
I find the best way is to make your traps and puzzles made for your party. In my party i have run into ISSUES cause ive made a magical puzzle and then my barbarian just smashes through the area (he has a special ability to carve out earth in massive chunks) so i started to put magic seals on things that prevented him from attacking it but could still be broken if he rolled high enough.
I also have a warlock who uses magic detection for everything, so I started to make the puzzles be magic in ONE area, and have items to find that arent magical themselves. So theyd be able to find the puzzle location but not necessarily the items needed for it.
If your issue is less that they just push through everything and more that they just get stuck and then sit there, as a DM you can just prompt things visually. Maybe theres marks on the door, or runes and engravings. hear what their solutions are and when they try something that you think is cool, then just run with it!! let them make the story with you :D and trust me they love it when their dumb ideas work and youll love it when you realize you dont need to make solutions for everything.
You can always do the classic puzzle with three buttons like the one at the start of Deltarune Chapter 1 as well. I don't really know how to explain it but they're like everywhere.
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My hobbies are D&D, Gaming (PC and Retro), Hobby Rocketry, Taekwondo, Recurve Archery, Modding and Hacking, Reading, and Bird Watching. I'm under 18, in highschool and post in PDT (Pacific Daylight Time). My D&D character is a level 12 Tiefling Warlock named Crimson. If you like similar stuff to me and want to nerd out for a bit feel free PM me, will read it, and probably will respond. I'm the leader of theTiamat's Tavernroleplay thread, please join if you like dragons.
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One of my favorites for something guarded by a mage.
A door that has a picture of a person, face, ECT that can talk, and a door handle. The door does one of two things:
Calls Itself all-knowing, boasting of its intelligence. It then asks the party for a riddle it can't solve. No matter the riddle, the door will answer no matter correct or incorrectly, and proclaim itself right. The correct answer would be to compliment the door, it then lets the party through. Example: Monk: "I have a head and a tail, but no body. What am I?" Door: "A snake." Monk: "No! it's a coin." Door: "No, I am correct. I am all-knowing." Wizard: "Of course, there's no way we could give you a riddle you can't solve. You're just too smart. Door: You may enter."
Or, it loudly interrupts the person trying to open the door, prolonging them to open it. The ultimate answer is to just open the door. It's not locked, the door is just there as a distraction.
I made one last session in my GREYHAWK campaign to enter a shrine of Boccob, in the form if an eldritch control panel with 8 Colors if Magic. While it was relatively simple, it took them some time to figure it out.
Before that i made a dwarven sudoku inspired puzzle, replacing numbers with runes.
The color of Magic
Yellow
Drab
Magenta
Violet
Silver
Black
Jade
Taupe
Answer
Abjuration = Black
Conjuration = Jade
Divination = Drab
Enchantment = Magenta
Evocation = Violet
Illusion = Silver
Necromancy = Yellow
Transmutation = Taupe
I find the best way is to make your traps and puzzles made for your party. In my party i have run into ISSUES cause ive made a magical puzzle and then my barbarian just smashes through the area (he has a special ability to carve out earth in massive chunks) so i started to put magic seals on things that prevented him from attacking it but could still be broken if he rolled high enough.
I also have a warlock who uses magic detection for everything, so I started to make the puzzles be magic in ONE area, and have items to find that arent magical themselves. So theyd be able to find the puzzle location but not necessarily the items needed for it.
If your issue is less that they just push through everything and more that they just get stuck and then sit there, as a DM you can just prompt things visually. Maybe theres marks on the door, or runes and engravings. hear what their solutions are and when they try something that you think is cool, then just run with it!! let them make the story with you :D and trust me they love it when their dumb ideas work and youll love it when you realize you dont need to make solutions for everything.
You can always do the classic puzzle with three buttons like the one at the start of Deltarune Chapter 1 as well. I don't really know how to explain it but they're like everywhere.
My hobbies are D&D, Gaming (PC and Retro), Hobby Rocketry, Taekwondo, Recurve Archery, Modding and Hacking, Reading, and Bird Watching.
I'm under 18, in highschool and post in PDT (Pacific Daylight Time).
My D&D character is a level 12 Tiefling Warlock named Crimson.
If you like similar stuff to me and want to nerd out for a bit feel free PM me, will read it, and probably will respond.
I'm the leader of the Tiamat's Tavern roleplay thread, please join if you like dragons.