Exactly what the title says. Just going to toss random ideas for puzzles I have in here that may or may not be fun or useful to someone somewhere. Players, don't look (Or do; I'm not your DM)
There is a chest that's locked. It is armed with a poison trap. To open it, it requires a 4-digit number to be entered. There is a scrap of paper close to the chest that has the following written on it:
2-1-4-3 Cat's Lives; Suits of a Card Set; Fingers in a hand; Sides of a Dice
Solution: The correct 4-digit number is 4.9.6.5
There are three decorative armors in the room and a locked door. One armor holds a War Hammer. Another armor holds a Trident. The last armor is not holding any weapons. The door opens when the appropriate weapon is placed in the empty-handed armor's hands.
Solution: Any weapon that does Slashing damage and has the versatile property can be placed in the armor's hand to open the door.
A mural depicts 5 dwarves and 3 elves doing various things like farming, mining, weaving and eating. The locked door has small stone pedestal in front of hit that has magic ink and paper. There is a question on the paper: "Why do Dwarves eat more than Elves?". The answer must be written on the paper to open the door.
Solution: Because there are more dwarves than elves.
A marble tablet in front of a locked door depicts Water, Fire and Air. There is a question: "What are the missing elements?". Answering correctly will open the door.
Solution: The marble tablet is showing 3 of 5 elements. The correct answer is naming the missing two: Earth and Aether.
A Golem guards a door. It says, "You must tell me something to pass through this door. Be warned: If you tell a lie, I will kill you with my sword. If you tell the truth, I will kill you with my maul."
Solution: This is a classic one. The correct answer is, "You will kill me with your sword." The golem will crumble.
There is circular platform with three knight statues that are all missing their weapons. The first knight faces the second, the second faces the third and the third faces the first. There is a mural that depicts a battle where knights with swords are killing knights with axes; knights with lances are killing knights with swords and knights with axes are killing knights with lances. On a metal plaque attached to the locked door instructs, "Arm the knights."
Solution: The mural hints at a rock-paper-scissor relation ship. Swords beat axes, lances beat swords and axes beat lances. The weapons are to be placed in the statues hands so that the knight that's facing another knight beats it. So if the first knight holds a sword, the second one should hold an axe and the third should hold a lance.
There is a locked door and a stone slab in front of it. The stone slab says a mostly nonsense puzzle. It can be anything, doesn't matter if its possible or not. The slab instructs the reader to say the answer in to the magic slab unlock the door. No matter what the PCs say, the door will not unlock and instead will throw some kind of hazard at them like a shower of darts or fire.
Solution: The traps are voice activated. Whenever someone shouts anything at the slab, the trap activates. The slab is actually not fixed to the wall and it can be lifted up like a hatch to reveal a compartment in the wall which contains the key to unlock the door.
The room has a locked door, 4 shields on a table next to the left wall and a story on a plaque attached to the right wall. The 4 shields each have an emblem on it. The four symbols of the four shields are: Spades, Clubs, Hearts and Diamonds. On the left wall there is a picture of the grim reaper running with his scythe raised. To the right of the picture of the Reaper, are four pegs for hanging shields on. The Reaper is on the left side of the wall and facing the right. The instructions for the puzzle include, "Arrange the shields in the correct order on the wall" There is a story on the Right wall's plaque:
"There once lived a farmer and a noble. The farmer had a nephew who lived with him and the noble had a son and a daughter. The son of the noble was a gambler of often frequented a club. The farmer's nephew met the gambler in that club one night and they became friends. Soon the nephew met the gambler's sister and the two fell in love. So the farmer worked in the field, the nephew would date the daughter and spend time with the gambler while the noble would stay at his house. One day the noble passed away and left his inheritance to his gambling son. The gambler indulged himself greatly and the fortune slowly began to dwindle. Seeing this situation, the daughter agreed to elope with the nephew and one night the two lovers left town. Enraged by sister eloping with the nephew, the gambler sent some of his goons to the farmer's house. They did not find the nephew there but they beat the farmer with sticks and stones. The farmer died to his injuries hours later. The lovers were heading to the port city but it was quite far and the path was dangerous. They were ambushed by bandits and killed. Months later, the gambler had burned through the family fortune and had wracked up a serious debt. When the debt collectors arrived and he couldn't pay them, he was beaten the same way the farmer was and the gambler died to his injuries.
Solution: The symbols on the shield represent characters in the story. The spades is the farmer, the hearts is the lovers, the clubs is the gambler and the diamonds is the noble. The picture of the reaper running towards the right indicates the order of deaths: Left is died first and right is died last. The shields have to be placed on the wall in the order the characters died in: Diamonds-Spades-Hearts-Clubs. This will open the door.
There are four statues in the room and a locked door. The inscription on the door reads: "Kill the odd one and you will find the key." The four statues are: a Human, a Half-Elf, a Dwarf and an orc.
Solution: The human, the dwarf and the orc are full-blooded members of their respective races. The half-elf is half elf and half human so smashing that statue will reveal the key.
There is a large hot room with a locked door on the end. In the center of the room is a pool of lava that can be easily walked around. The heat inside the room increases every minute until it becomes lethal. Opening the locked door cools the room down. Hanging above the pit of lava is a key on a hook. The key can be retrieved very easily by using flying, mage hand a stick or by using a weapon as a pole to get the key.
Solution: Using the key on the door doesn't unlock the door. It instead causes fire to be spewed into the room. The real key that unlocks the door is at the bottom of the lava pool. The room is hot and is getting hotter due to magic runes. The lava is an illusion and the pool is actually empty with the key at the bottom of it. Jumping/ touching the pool of lava with a something living (Like touching it with your hand) removes the illusion.
A corridor with banners of different colors on one of the walls lead to a large room with colored tiles. The exit door is on the other side of the colored tiles. The banners on the corridor follows the pattern Red-Green-White-Green-White-Red-White. Stepping on the tiles in the large room causes the person to teleport to the entrance of the large room but in the air. They fall and take damage.
Solution: Stepping on the tiles in the same pattern as the corridors as they go to the exit door does not trigger the teleport. The correct pattern is therefore: Red-Green-White-Green-White-Red-White
Next to a locked door is a slab.The slab has a riddle which when solved, will cause the slab to break and reveal the key. The riddle is: "What walks on 4 legs in the morning, two at noon and three in the evening."
Solution: Another classic riddle. The answer is man. Personally, I get what they're going for but I don't really like this puzzle. I think it's a bit too convoluted if you don't already know the answer :P.
A sphinx that guards the door asks the question: "A ship wrecks in the border of two kingdoms. In which kingdom will the survivor's be buried?"
Solution: They're survivors. Why would they need to be buried?
A hungry Sphinx that hasn't eaten for a bit says to the party: "Answer my question and I will let you pass. If you fail, I will eat you. Now listen well and answer my riddle. Why would a cat and a dog breed to produce a rat?"
Solution: This is a Bullshit question that the Sphinx has come up with out of desperation since the last few times adventurers showed up, they passed the Sphinx's riddle and thus the Sphinx is now starving. Any answer at all will cause the sphinx to declare that the correct answer to the question is "So that clueless adventurers can become a feast for a hungry Sphinx" and then attack. The true solution would be to call out the Sphinx on his bullshit and/or bribe the sphinx with monster meat to get it to let the party pass.
A Sphinx guarding a door will ask a question to the party. It will ask the following riddle which must be answered in order to pass without going into combat:
I have a pet dog. It stands Firm, hard and strong. It drinks but never eats. It never moves by itself. It barks but can't guard the house at all. What is my dog?
Solution: The Sphinx called an Iron Kettle its pet dog. This is another Bullshit question that I came up with a long time ago. It's answer is really stupid. Don't use this riddle. (Or do. I don't know. Maybe if you think it's a neat riddle for whatever reason)
There are three doors. Behind the first door is a room that's covered in magical fire. The second door holds a gang of undead champions. The third door has bunch of vicious saber-tooth tigers that seem to be very aggressive and foaming at the mouth thanks to some kind of disease. There is food and water for the tigers in the room. A talisman is attached to a stone slab in the original room in front of the three doors. Pressing the talisman will progress time forward in the three rooms by 2 weeks and then the stone slab and the talisman will disintegrate.
Solution: Technically, any party can brute force their way through any of the three doors. However, to pass unscathed, they are to press the talisman and then enter the tiger door. The fast-forwarding of time can't do anything to the magic fire or the undead warriors but it will cause whatever disease that's afflicting the tigers to kill them, thus making the third room safe.
The players encounter a room with four doors on the four walls. Each of the doors are marked with a cardinal direction. However, entering the doors just ends up leading back to this same room because of magic. They have found a scrap of paper while traveling the rest of the dungeon before they had ended up in this strange room. The paper had a very simplistic and nonsensical rhyme:
billy Wandered in the forest Nala really Needed a rest joey met up with his mom Sue ate, om nom nom Eric argued with his Wife Elise was feeling lost in life bigger brother wrote on a letter to remember the path better
Solution: Going through the doors in a certain order will lead the party out of this room. There are 3 possible solutions to this puzzle. A casting of Anti-magic field or disabling magic by some way would cause the room to lose the magic and two of the doors would end up leading to brick walls. One of the two remaining doors would lead to the room the party came from while the last door will lead to the next room. Alternatively, a successful Investigation or Arcana check would make them realize what the actual puzzle is but not the answer. They can therefore brute-force the answer out by trying every combination. Roll some dice to determine how many hours it would take to find the right one. Finally the actual solution. By paying attention to each capitalized letter in the poem as they appear, you can get the order in which the party needs to go through the doors in order to exit. The letter corresponds to a cardinal direction starting with the same letter. The last two lines of the poem actually hint towards this solution. The correct order is: W-N-N-S-E-W-E.
A hallway with three paintings lead to a large room with two boards and a locked door. The paintings have titles written under them. A painting of a mage controlling fire is titled Pyre. A painting of a black knight is titled Shade and the last painting is of an angel titled Celes. One of the two boards is red while the other is blue. Placed on the red boards are three figurines: one of an angel, one of a knight and one of a mage. A plaque attached to the board states: "Pyre fears Shade; Shade fears Celes; Pyre does not fear Celes. All three must reach the blue land." Only one figurine can be picked up at a time. They must be placed on either of the two boards before another one can be picked up. If the puzzle is failed, the boards shatter and the three figurines grow into full size. Then they attack the party.
Solution: This is a reskin of a classic puzzle. Basically, all three figurines must be moved to the blue board from the red board for the door to open but only one can be moved at a time. The plaque and the paintings tell the PCs which two figurines should not be left alone on a board. The puzzle is failed if the mage and the knight or the knight and the angel are there on either of the two boards while the third figurine is not on any board. The figurines must be moved in this order to ensure the puzzle is not failed:
Move Knight to blue board.
Move Angel to blue board and pick up Knight
Move Knight to red board and pick up Mage
Move Mage to blue board.
Move Knight to blue board.
During the journey though the dungeon, the party had found a children's book that was out of place compared to everything else in the dungeon. The Children's book was titled "Quest Against the Demon King" The book had the story of a girl named Becca who went on a journey to kill a Demon King and save the prince. At a later point in the dungeon the party will come to a child's playroom. There are is a small shelf with some coloring books and a story book in it. Pages from the books are all torn up and so they're not very useful. The story book is "Quest Against the Demon King" though, as mentioned previously, this copy is torn and not very easy to read. a wall, is a xylophone that can't be moved from the wall. There doesn't appear to be any way to progress further from this room.
Solution: Playing the notes on the stuck Xylophone in a particular order to spell the name "B-E-C-C-A" will open a trapdoor in the child's room to progress further. Failing too many times results in a devil/demon being summoned and the party must fight it to also open the way forward.
The party comes to a room with a door sealed by magic. Touching the door will push the person away. On the floor is the outline of a person in the center of a large magic circle. There are various boxes filled with clay parts. The parts are: Head, Left Arm, Right Arm, Left Leg, Right Leg, Torso. All the parts have letters carved on them. Two of the same parts may have same or different letters on them. The letters on the various parts are: R, G, Y, B, P, W. The party had seen a colored painting of a clay golem previously in the dungeon. The clay golem had a White Torso, a Red Head, a Yellow Left Arm, a Pink Right Arm, a Black Left Leg, and a Green Right Leg.
Solution: Attaching the parts to create a clay humanoid and placing the humanoid on the outline will make it come to life. If the correct body parts are used it will open the door and then collapse. The correct parts are: Torso with W, Head with R, Left Arm with Y, Right Arm with P, Left Leg with B, and Right Leg with G.
A Golem guards a door. It says, "You must tell me something to pass through this door. Be warned: If you tell a lie, I will kill you with my sword. If you tell the truth, I will kill you with my maul."
A Golem guards a door. It says, "You must tell me something to pass through this door. Be warned: If you tell a lie, I will kill you with my sword. If you tell the truth, I will kill you with my maul."
What happens if the answer is "something"? ;)
It's up to the DM to decide what would happen with that. If I was a DM though. The golem would do nothing and continue to guard the door waiting for a different answer.
Yeah, I agree. It is a bit complex. It's essentially 3 puzzles compounded into one. The 2-1-4-3 indicates the position while the second line with words indicate the actual number.
1.Cat's Lives = 9 2.Suits of a Card Set = 4 3.Fingers in a hand = 5 4.Sides of a Dice = 6
The 2-1-4-3 basically says that the digits: 9,4,5,6 need to be rearranged in the order: 4965 to get the actual correct code.
You can make it simpler by removing any of the layers that's present here. Like remove the 2-1-4-3 entirely and just have the code be 9456.
I haven't really added anymore puzzles for a while. That's because I didn't really have any good puzzle ideas. Anyway, I had some and added two letter themed puzzles.
Also PSA to DMs who might want to use any of these or any puzzles: If your party is struggling with the solution, then consider making their next answer the "Right answer" or giving them some other way to progress. Puzzles are fun but not when it grinds the game to a halt because the party isn't giving an answer that matches with the "Solution" and there's no other way to progress. So puzzles are fun but don't let them stop the game from progressing for too long.
Awesome puzzles! I especially liked the one about "killing the odd one," the one about the survivors and the two kingdoms, and the one with the three doors and the talisman. I feel like all could lead to very interesting roleplaying.
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All stars fade. Some stars forever fall. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Homebrew (Mostly Outdated):Magic Items,Monsters,Spells,Subclasses ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If there was no light, people wouldn't fear the dark.
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Exactly what the title says. Just going to toss random ideas for puzzles I have in here that may or may not be fun or useful to someone somewhere. Players, don't look (Or do; I'm not your DM)
Solution: The correct 4-digit number is 4.9.6.5
Solution: Any weapon that does Slashing damage and has the versatile property can be placed in the armor's hand to open the door.
Solution: Because there are more dwarves than elves.
Solution: The marble tablet is showing 3 of 5 elements. The correct answer is naming the missing two: Earth and Aether.
Solution: This is a classic one. The correct answer is, "You will kill me with your sword." The golem will crumble.
Solution: The mural hints at a rock-paper-scissor relation ship. Swords beat axes, lances beat swords and axes beat lances. The weapons are to be placed in the statues hands so that the knight that's facing another knight beats it. So if the first knight holds a sword, the second one should hold an axe and the third should hold a lance.
Solution: The traps are voice activated. Whenever someone shouts anything at the slab, the trap activates. The slab is actually not fixed to the wall and it can be lifted up like a hatch to reveal a compartment in the wall which contains the key to unlock the door.
Solution: The symbols on the shield represent characters in the story. The spades is the farmer, the hearts is the lovers, the clubs is the gambler and the diamonds is the noble. The picture of the reaper running towards the right indicates the order of deaths: Left is died first and right is died last. The shields have to be placed on the wall in the order the characters died in: Diamonds-Spades-Hearts-Clubs. This will open the door.
Solution: The human, the dwarf and the orc are full-blooded members of their respective races. The half-elf is half elf and half human so smashing that statue will reveal the key.
Solution: Using the key on the door doesn't unlock the door. It instead causes fire to be spewed into the room. The real key that unlocks the door is at the bottom of the lava pool. The room is hot and is getting hotter due to magic runes. The lava is an illusion and the pool is actually empty with the key at the bottom of it. Jumping/ touching the pool of lava with a something living (Like touching it with your hand) removes the illusion.
Solution: Stepping on the tiles in the same pattern as the corridors as they go to the exit door does not trigger the teleport. The correct pattern is therefore: Red-Green-White-Green-White-Red-White
"What walks on 4 legs in the morning, two at noon and three in the evening."
Solution: Another classic riddle. The answer is man. Personally, I get what they're going for but I don't really like this puzzle. I think it's a bit too convoluted if you don't already know the answer :P.
"A ship wrecks in the border of two kingdoms. In which kingdom will the survivor's be buried?"
Solution: They're survivors. Why would they need to be buried?
"Answer my question and I will let you pass. If you fail, I will eat you. Now listen well and answer my riddle. Why would a cat and a dog breed to produce a rat?"
Solution: This is a Bullshit question that the Sphinx has come up with out of desperation since the last few times adventurers showed up, they passed the Sphinx's riddle and thus the Sphinx is now starving. Any answer at all will cause the sphinx to declare that the correct answer to the question is "So that clueless adventurers can become a feast for a hungry Sphinx" and then attack. The true solution would be to call out the Sphinx on his bullshit and/or bribe the sphinx with monster meat to get it to let the party pass.
Solution: The Sphinx called an Iron Kettle its pet dog. This is another Bullshit question that I came up with a long time ago. It's answer is really stupid. Don't use this riddle. (Or do. I don't know. Maybe if you think it's a neat riddle for whatever reason)
Solution: Technically, any party can brute force their way through any of the three doors. However, to pass unscathed, they are to press the talisman and then enter the tiger door. The fast-forwarding of time can't do anything to the magic fire or the undead warriors but it will cause whatever disease that's afflicting the tigers to kill them, thus making the third room safe.
Solution: Going through the doors in a certain order will lead the party out of this room. There are 3 possible solutions to this puzzle. A casting of Anti-magic field or disabling magic by some way would cause the room to lose the magic and two of the doors would end up leading to brick walls. One of the two remaining doors would lead to the room the party came from while the last door will lead to the next room. Alternatively, a successful Investigation or Arcana check would make them realize what the actual puzzle is but not the answer. They can therefore brute-force the answer out by trying every combination. Roll some dice to determine how many hours it would take to find the right one. Finally the actual solution. By paying attention to each capitalized letter in the poem as they appear, you can get the order in which the party needs to go through the doors in order to exit. The letter corresponds to a cardinal direction starting with the same letter. The last two lines of the poem actually hint towards this solution. The correct order is: W-N-N-S-E-W-E.
Solution: This is a reskin of a classic puzzle. Basically, all three figurines must be moved to the blue board from the red board for the door to open but only one can be moved at a time. The plaque and the paintings tell the PCs which two figurines should not be left alone on a board. The puzzle is failed if the mage and the knight or the knight and the angel are there on either of the two boards while the third figurine is not on any board. The figurines must be moved in this order to ensure the puzzle is not failed:
Solution: Playing the notes on the stuck Xylophone in a particular order to spell the name "B-E-C-C-A" will open a trapdoor in the child's room to progress further. Failing too many times results in a devil/demon being summoned and the party must fight it to also open the way forward.
Solution: Attaching the parts to create a clay humanoid and placing the humanoid on the outline will make it come to life. If the correct body parts are used it will open the door and then collapse. The correct parts are: Torso with W, Head with R, Left Arm with Y, Right Arm with P, Left Leg with B, and Right Leg with G.
I will also be editing the first post of this thread to add new ideas whenever I get them.
I'm always looking for a good repository of riddles and puzzles, so keep this going if you can :)
Thank you. I will try.
A Golem guards a door. It says, "You must tell me something to pass through this door. Be warned: If you tell a lie, I will kill you with my sword. If you tell the truth, I will kill you with my maul."
What happens if the answer is "something"? ;)
It's up to the DM to decide what would happen with that. If I was a DM though. The golem would do nothing and continue to guard the door waiting for a different answer.
4 new puzzles added.
I like most of these except the first one. Seems a bit too complex, or I read it wrong.
Yeah, I agree. It is a bit complex. It's essentially 3 puzzles compounded into one. The 2-1-4-3 indicates the position while the second line with words indicate the actual number.
1.Cat's Lives = 9
2.Suits of a Card Set = 4
3.Fingers in a hand = 5
4.Sides of a Dice = 6
The 2-1-4-3 basically says that the digits: 9,4,5,6 need to be rearranged in the order: 4965 to get the actual correct code.
You can make it simpler by removing any of the layers that's present here. Like remove the 2-1-4-3 entirely and just have the code be 9456.
Added two more puzzles.
I haven't really added anymore puzzles for a while. That's because I didn't really have any good puzzle ideas. Anyway, I had some and added two letter themed puzzles.
Also PSA to DMs who might want to use any of these or any puzzles: If your party is struggling with the solution, then consider making their next answer the "Right answer" or giving them some other way to progress. Puzzles are fun but not when it grinds the game to a halt because the party isn't giving an answer that matches with the "Solution" and there's no other way to progress. So puzzles are fun but don't let them stop the game from progressing for too long.
Awesome puzzles! I especially liked the one about "killing the odd one," the one about the survivors and the two kingdoms, and the one with the three doors and the talisman. I feel like all could lead to very interesting roleplaying.
All stars fade. Some stars forever fall.
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Homebrew (Mostly Outdated): Magic Items, Monsters, Spells, Subclasses
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If there was no light, people wouldn't fear the dark.