My favorite D&D puzzles (From my campaign)
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- Опубликовано: 21 сен 2024
- Sorry it has been so long since my last upload everybody. Hope you all enjoy this video.
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My favorite one to use is a magical, indestructible door that is immune to magic.
It can't be lockpicked, and the only way to open it is to knock.
It's called the courteous door.
Can I steal this?
Riley Larkin I use a similar one on my special "mindfuck where the entire thing is made up as I go along but keep track of events" mini-campaign. It can be damaged in any way you can think of, but not destroyed. The only way to open it is to have the words "please" and "open" said within 7 words of each other. Example: "You fucking door open damnit! My hand is gone! Please!"
The example was said by a player after half an hour of trying everything else.
Here's a humorous one. Players enter a room with a throwing hammer placed on a pedestal in the middle of it and a sealed stone door o the other end with an inscription saying " A dwarven thrower may break the seal" The only way to open the door is to ignore the hammer and throw a dwarf at the door.
CAN I PLEASE STEAL THIS? lol
nice gonna use this one
My all time favorite is the trick with a narrow dark corridor with one thin ray of light shining in the middle. Everyone who steps into it receives an arrow to the face. Trying to diffuse the trap or even spot it does nothing because there is no trap.
In the end of the corridor there is a goblin with a bow who watches for adventurers to step into the light.
I'm imagining that once someone gets head-shotted by an arrow, the others just sends various projectiles (magic missiles, arrows, someone might even throw their sword) in the direction where the arrow came, killing the goblin.
One of my favorites is a Magic door that opens the opposite way that the player tries to open it.
"I push open the door."
"It doesn't push open."
"Is it locked? I'll use my lockpick."
"Its not locked."
That would be such a mind fuck. I love it!
Raynie Daze I love the concept but how would you get through the door without using dispel magic?
Simple, try opening it the opposite way your first try; if pulling doesn't work, push it open. It gets fun when they return to the door knowing to push/pull then it switches.
That still doesn't make sense because as soon as you tried to push it open it wouldn't open that way due to the enchantment so do you mean the initial try it switches or once per person?
Once per person, then when it closes, it will be ready to fake out the next person. They'll think, "Ok the last person pushed it, I'll pull it." but as they pull, it'll be a push because he tried to pull.
I had this one interesting trap that was basically a test as to how well the party knew each other. So they enter a room, a Half-Orc Barbarian, Human Sorcerer, Half-Elf Bard, Dwarf Cleric, and Halfling Rogue. The room has an enchantment on it, where once you enter the door closes behind you, and a spell causes everyone to go mute, like their mouth is sealed. There are five doors in front of them, each one with an obviously visible pressure plate. The doors open once all the plates are activated, and one member of the party enters a room each. The rooms are randomized to show another member of the party's greatest fear. For example the Half-Elf saw a red dragon because the Halfling's village was burned down by one, etc... Well it ended up once each player left their rooms back into the hallway to solve the puzzle. The goal was to match each party member with their fear, but they couldn't talk, so it was like PTSD charades.
This is genius!
I feel like all of D&D could be described as PTSD charades. Why did you do that? An orc killed my mother! What has that got to do with that halfling you punched? He was wearing green!
Lmao!
I have one that is pretty simple. Well more of a riddle.
The room needs a series of monster statues, one of which is a Beholder,
a number of plates engraved with different words including Beauty
And plaque that reads:
" You enter a room and are surrounded by beast."
" Each bearing claws, each bearing teeth."
" But fear not they aren't flesh and bone."
" Relax, Breath deep they are nothing but stone."
" Each of these creatures may bear treasure or traps."
" But only one will see that you pass."
Then see how quickly the party combines literal and figurative meaning,
in order to come to the answer "Beauty is in the eye of the Beholder"
I love this! May I steal it? :D
Dice & Dinosaurs feel free
Do you have any specific other monsters you use?
@@CameronHimlie i would think ether "beautiful monsters" (like a succubi) or monsters involving treasure (like a dragon)
I have this puzzle where there is a magic door with a stone face on it. On the top of it there is written "The password is owlbear". Thats the only thing players will know. The players can interact with the stone face, and the door only opens if the successfully trick that face into saying the password
That was a puzzle I had in this dungeon as well. I can't for the life of me think how the players got it to open though. I had another one with a face and they had to make it (me) laugh to get it to open.
even though it was a long time ago now, do you maybe remember what they said to make you laugh? as i'm assuming they can't just reference real-world things haha
I laugh at everything my players say, so this would be useless for me, unless I make it so they can’t reference real life (somehow)
When your players expect a secret room you didn't prepare for but now wish you did, that's what loot tables are for. Oh, ya found a little darkened side passage leading to a small room with a loooow ceiling. There's a chest in the middle of it. Boom, free loot for defying expectations.
I am still kicking myself for not doing that. I don't even think I was aware of loot tables at the time D:
Back in the days our party ran into similar thing and our Master said "There's a niche in the wall. It looks empty, but you sense the desire to put your hand into it." Once hand is put, small needle jumps out of nearest walls, dealing 1 damage to a player and quite voice hisses "The price was paid". Then hand is removed by the player and a small potion appears levitating in that niche. Only the player that figured the way to open that niche could touch it, every other player's hand would pass through the potion without being able to touch/grab it. The potion itself would stick to the hand of the person and only fall if the smart player drinks it. Once they did, the bottle falls, breaks and cuts (doesn't if saved) the leg regardless of the armour, but the player who drank the potion, gets the set amount of XP on the spot, without having to rest, for thinking out of the initial idea of the room.
Interesting, but a little harsh for players accidentalling a secret room. If I were to use that, I'd at least make sure the damage was guaranteed to be nonlethal. The part with the bottle breaking is completely unnecessary however, as after drinking the potion, it would be completely reasonable for it to just become a mundane bottle, like any other potion bottle.
With the invisible maze. I would’ve added some creepy ass monster that just stares at them through the invisible walls and it try’s to get to them. You could add a bit where it gets really close to a pc and jumps to bite him and jumps into a wall
YES! It would be intelligent and it could have trouble getting through the maze! That's genius!
I was half expecting the vampire puzzle to end with "The vampire spawn fight over the unconscious Monk."
Well that's basically what happened at first. Luckily for him his Vampire spawn friend wrestled him away from the others. Although she was just saving him for herself.
same
I was kind of expecting the rest of the party to go into the room and see the trap reset with the monk now as the 4th vampire spawn
That last puzzle room is so dark. I like how you could nobly deafest the monster, but you could also doom another version of yourself. I love it.
no script needed. You did a great job with this video.
Thank you! :'D
one i created is a dungeon that is the riddle. at the entrance to the dungeon,there is a note in a language of your choice that says to move forward is to go back.every door in the dungeon leads to the room opposite to it.the rooms have doors on all 4 sides.the dungeon is a square grid and you are to get to the center. if they "leave" the grid, simply place them on the other side.they can teleport out if they know the spell, but magic treats the rooms as if they were normal space(if you try to locate the center you will be lead to the door closest to the center, not the actual correct door). the walls and floor of the rooms are made of reflective surfaces.
I did something vaguely similar to a puzzle I didn't mention in this video. I like your idea better though.
I really enjoyed your casual story-telling tone in this video. Thanks for the tips :)
12:50 pro-tip: play a kobold. Volo's guide specifies that they can change their sex like a frog or a dinosaur from jurassic park.
You have no idea how much that means to me because this is the only d&d video I didn't script and it EASILY took me the longest to edit :D also that would have been fucking hilarious. "Ok you are not your original biological sex. What shall you do?" "I change into that sex." "O_O"
dude, I like the stories! i would enjoy another video like this
The one with the invisible walls cracked me up! lol. Also the one with the gender changing mirrors! 😂
Not gonna lie I was kind of proud of the gender changing mirrors add them shattering and spawning enemy's and it's basically like a constant state of panic or confusion (most likely both) for the players
Mankylosaurus Yeah it does seem pretty good
Thank you :D
Loved the vampire one. I would also have saved the Monk but I would have given him vampirism. Secretly of course so the other players can't figure out he's turning.
THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN SO MUCH BETTER THAN WHAT I DID! O_O
The problem with conditions like that are as soon as it’s apparent to the other PCs, a cleric can easily clear it up.
If you really wanted to make the invisible maze puzzle harder, you should have made it where the walls had an electric charge, or were covered in poison, so the party couldn't touch them with their hands.
What you did was really cool though.
That is not a bad idea!
I'd probably be overruled by the group, but my Dwarven Paladin wouldn't be comfortable killing a defenseless vampire spawn and would rather set them all loose and give em a chance at lunch and/or cleanse the world of them in glorious combat.
That sounds epic! And like very good rp. Being a paladin would also definitely help with the ladder :)
Love not only the puzzles, but your enthusiasm. Also, definitely stealing a few of them.
Please take them! They are there to share ;D
it was a half hour video yet when it got to an end i was like allready? :D thanks for the great ideas.
Glad I could help! :)
Had a trap room that's close to your invisible wall room. It was part of a gauntlet of puzzle rooms for an initiation to prove the party's strength of mind in muscle rather than strength of sword. So they had no weapons and most of their combat magic was disabled.
The party entered that room, Elf Cleric, Human Monk, Dragonborn Paladin, and Dwarf Warlock. They had to traverse a room where very floor tile had a different symbol on it. Looking down at the room they had to move vertically towards a line of archers. Moving forward they needed to spell out some word ( I forget exactly what word it was ) but every horizontal line of symbols was in a different language. The only cover they got was a metal table that they flipped over and had to move across the tiles if they didn't want to get bombarded. They did pretty well not getting hit and moving across the room until they came across the Infernal and Celestial section. At which point they just started guessing. Every time they got a tile wrong that bit of floor would fall out underneath them. The monk almost lost the table several times only to be saved by the paladin's Dragonborn strength. While at the same time the Cleric and Warlock are making 50 arcana and history rolls to see if they know anything of those languages so they don't lose the only cover they have. They finally dropped the table at the last letter which was in deep, got pelted with arrows, finally guessed the right letter, and made it to the end where the archers then vanished.
That sounds pretty rad! :) I love making puzzles with different languages it's a neat way to make the players put their heads together
On the vampire spawn puzzle, I would have changed the key to the one that had the shirt over his head since it came across that the party had solved the puzzle with deduction and intuition.
My party on the otherhand probably would have just murdered all the vampires at the same time v-v.
That is legitimately a good idea. They used deduction which was the point of the puzzle. I was a little worried that I was going to easy on them though. I wish I could see what would have happened if I had done that.
Undead goblin ballista? I'm interested.
You are fucking obsessed with canons bruh.
You are not wrong lol I should probably see someone about that.
ye he is hahaha
I wouldve said split up and get them all as close to 1 hp as we can while theyre still chained then kill them all at about the same time
i had designed this giant maze like dungeon my last game. a demon was trying to have the party prove their merit by having them navigate it. it was a circular dungeon that i had made on bristol board that had 5 rings. i put a pin in the middle so that i could rotate each ring independently. the center ring had 4 doors to pick from. each ring after the first had one extra room so that the outer ring had 8 rooms. i would rotate the rings every 5 minutes or when ever they would enter a new room. there was only one correct path to the outer ring the cipher was hidden in the middle room. if they chose the wrong path they would teleport back to the center room. the outer ring had 4 rooms with switches ( correct path) and 4 with boss fights ( bad path). they were breezing threw the content i had set up for that night so on a whim i thought up something right before they entered the maze. i had the demon summon 3 statues ( one for each player) one was covering his eyes, the other his mouth and the last his ears. they had to touch the statue to enter the dungeon. so yeah having a blind fighter, a def crusader and a mute ranger navigate an ever changing maze was hilarious to say the least, made them think of unique ways to deal with the obstacles and made for hours of enjoyment.
My favorite puzzle is where there is a pit in front of the players, and they have to get to the other side. There are a ton of ways to mix it up. The pit could have monsters in it, spikes, lava, magical monsters, or maybe it's actually a rapid stream.
This makes D&D so amazing xD. The acting and fun you have with other friends xD
Simply is a set of funny Dungeons & Dragons stories this also works really well! I found myself laughing through the stories as much as I was taking notes. Thanks for sharing!
And Thank YOU for commenting. I hope the video was helpful :)
My absolute favorite puzzle. First you split the party innocuously or by trap and they end up in a room or somewhere else and can't escape. The second group enters a room with a strange elaborate clockwork device that is a puzzle. The catch is each lever pulled or button pushed to solve the contraption it affects the separated party members. So, say you push a button that has an image of a bee on it. The trapped party gets attacked by a swarm of bees. Those using the device can see what is happening to their friends but they have no idea what is going on. The only way to help them escape is to complete the puzzle. I used the trap on my party over ten years ago and they still talk about it today.
This sounds awesome! It almost reminds me of co-op portal 2 (fantastic puzzle game)
I once had a puzzle for the final dungeon that had to do with moving rooms around to find different entrances. An example would be the last dungeon in Zelda skyward sword. It took my party over six hours to get through it and collect the pieces to open the door to the final boss lol
Younger mustache laden Matt Damon
I've gotten that more than once lol
I did an invisible maze that floods with water once, that was fun.
Dude that sounds brutal and awesome :D
PUZZLES! i need these, i only know of 2 i can use in D&D so far, and they are both pretty pathetic... one is putting 3 vases on pedastles to open a doorway, the other is getting the blessing of 2/3 statues(which have glowing runes in their hands which are red, blue and yellow) to go through each of 3 different gateways(green, purple, orange). accompanied by a tome stating "our hands bear the answers if only you ask. two together can open the way. three at one time will keep you at bay."
The “gentleman’s door” puzzle is a great way to drive your players crazy, and teach them not to trust you.
It’s an empty room with only the door to the next one. Pulling or pushing on the door won’t make it open. It a d the walls are immune to damage.
To get it to open, simply knock. Not any secret code, just a nice, polite knock.
Ok, one of my ideas is a door after a whole bunch of other doors that only open under weird circumstances, like the Courteous Door, the door that has to say Owlbear, the door that opens opposite of the way you first try to open it, and after a whole bunch of doors there's a door that can only be opened in one way... By just opening it. They'll struggle for 10 minutes guaranteed.
Door puzzle are always a great way to mess with people and cause some kind of shenanigans to ensue.
speaking of players doing unexpected things... I was running a White Plume Mountain inspired game. there was a passage way that was friction-less. at both ends of the passage was a deadly pit trap. the players couldn't walk across or they would not be able to stop and would go into the trap. one of my players summoned rocks to call over the far trap, which also creates difficult terrain. great use of that spell.
I have played through white plume mountain (we all died eventually) but I know the exact room you are talking about! My DM let me damage myself with thunderwave to rocket across the pits! That dungeon is scary! I wish we had someone that could have done that instead lol.
I'm working on a puzzle that's a magic door that's opened by taking a magical quill and handwriting the password onto the surface of the door and to find the password the party has to find the pieces of a poem that when put in the right order form an acrostic that has the password.
It could be like a haiku! XD
Oh man, now I have another idea...
What if I took those hole-making wall rings... And put them on the door at the end of the first puzzle!
Also, what would happen if a character stepped through a mirror before it was broken, but after the cannon fired, and then the mirrors broke afterwards?
I probably also would've seen if I could set fire to the four vampires all at once if I couldn't figure the puzzle out.
The 4D mirrors are kind of freaky to me... But really cool at the same time.
They only work on specific kinds of stone.I might actually have just said "You are this now. But a simple casting of lesser restoration or similar spell can return you to normal."
That may have worked if you had a powerful enough spell.
Thank you :D
What if they had just killed all the vampires at the same time? Maybe a synchronized staking? :P
There were 3 of them and 4 vampires so they would have had to deal with at least 1 but I would have liked to see them do that.
The party in the invisible maze could've thrown the ballista bolts throuh the walls to kill the undead gobbo, I think. Take their time after that.
I probably would have let the fighter at disadvantage because they would be a little unwieldy but she was the only one who would have the strength.
A monk could try to catch the bolt, and then throw it back.
These puzzles are dope thank you man. I’m going to use these in a mega dungeon at my next session where the exit to a dungeon is a tower that they go up and each room up is another one of these puzzles
Oh my god this video allowed me to finally finish my dungeon for my next sesion
That's awesome! I hope the puzzles work out for you :)
Mine is where you have to convince a stubborn dwarf with charisma and trickery to unlock a un openable door
I had an idea for a trap where the party has entered the tomb of a legendary tinkerer and the place is full of traps and obstacles that would be next-to-impossible for them to cross on their own, but right near the entrance is a room full of parts so anyone trying to get in has to build some mechanisms and/or contraptions in order to get through. Things like building a gear system from a lever to a door, creating a way of propelling a mine cart up a steep rail, and for the finale: using parts to assemble siege weaponry in a giant battle against a huge construct. I’m contemplating whether or not to have the player’s get a small force of automatons on their side, considering it’s a brains over brawn thing, so showing their ability as a commander over their ability as a warrior makes sense.
That actually sounds pretty fun! You should totally make that into a dungeon! XD
I plan to, just as soon as my party levels up a bit
Put Will-O-Wisps in the invisible maze
I have some of these that I've stolen but there are a few I came up with myself. Here are some of my favourites of mine. Note: I like to screw with PC's heads a bit.
1. Party reaches a dead end with a mirror that shows the room and their shadows being cast but not them. On its frame is inscribed, ‘Here you are and here you stay, until you learn to pay your way. Your first can be had for a song, your second for a drink, your third for a meal, your fourth for a ring, and your last at the brink.’
They have to make offerings to move on. The first must sing, the second must offer a drink, the third must offer food, the fourth must offer something valuable, and the fifth must offer something related to death. However any of them can shortcut the puzzle by giving the mirror the answer to the riddle: a kiss.
2. The party is advised by someone who seems not entirely sane that 'the true path is not the path, but by the way...' If they try to ask what they mean the person has no idea what they are talking about. Further along they find a rail bridge they have to cross with what look like safety railings on the sides. The trick is that the only safe way to cross the bridge is to move along the railings because the middle part is energised to power the carts that would normally move over it. They get shocked if they try to walk it normally.
3. The party comes upon an oddly clean glass room with undulating walls. Whenever anyone or anything makes a sound in the room they hear a loud bang and experience a sonic thrust directed at the sound's source from the far door. All they have to do is make stealth checks, but whenever they fail they tumble against the entry and take some tiny damage. For bonus points, have a cap pistol hidden under the table and fire it when they get hit by it for the first time.
4. This one is kind of like your magnet room. The party comes to a long hallway made of a smooth slick material formed into panels. Some of the panels have things sticking out of them. Moving faster than a careful walk causes the PCs to fall and have to get back up.
You premake four maps, one for the floor, one for the ceiling, and two for the walls. If there is enough light they can see an hourglass at the far end of the room. Every 10-15 seconds or so the hourglass flows completely and spins. Roll a 1d4 to find out which one is now the floor. Gravity shifts so that one is now the floor. Adjust dificulty by adjusting length of hallway and damage of sharp bits sticking out of panels.
Speaking of mirrors... Not a puzzle per-se, but more of a reward-treasure kind of thing, inspired by Path of Exile's Kalandra's Craft prophecy.
(The flavor text for the prophecy in the game goes as "A grand treasure fractures like a dropped mirror, yet somehow goes unharmed.")
There is a magic mirror in the room, I personally imagine it like a mounted one, size of a person, but do as you see fit. This mirror itself could maybe even be the reason why the players are here, the "great magic item they heard of".
The inscription/Quest-Giver/Statue-NPC/Legend-Song/OuterWordly-Voice/Whatever let's the players know (directly or by deduction/riddles) that they must throw their single most valuable possession against the mirror... When they do so, the mirror breaks with a tremendous sound, like if reality itself shattered... For a split of a second the players feel as if it was their bones and minds the ones being shattered into a million broken pieces... The item thrown against the mirror also felt as if it broke, like a piece of glass, but it didn't, not exactly... There are now 2 "pieces" of it, but each piece is the whole object. Basically bringing "duping" to the Tabletop table.
So let's say the warrior throw his +2 Flaming Longsword... In the floor, behind the frame of the now broken mirror, among the not existent pieces (they broke into the new item), there are now two +2 Flaming Longswords, both exactly equal to every last dent, stain and tiny detail with the exception that one of them is mirrored: it's dent/hole/curvature/whatever is on the left instead of on the right, the runes inscribed in it can't be read normally (you would read them normally in a mirror) etc...
If you want, you can also make it break into four +3 Flaming Longswords. The original one, the mirrored one, and one that looks like the original but has reversed reflections. And if it needed a fourth one that looks mirrored AND has its reflections reversed. Even if you decide that they will function exactly as the original one (won't break easier or be cursed or anything) don't straight tell to the players which one is which unless they do examine them. If the warriors picks "any of them", make it so it has a 50% chance to pick a mirrored one and feel something "weird" with its sword (since its grip/etc is reversed).
I guess keeping it at just the original and a single copy is a good and fun enough reward; but if they throw something less valuable that what you were expecting (like let's say a Ring of Protection +1) you can give them four copies instead (or as many as you see fit).
You can even have a table with the reward you want to give them. As in "An item valued up to 10.000gp". So if they throw something that is 9.000 to 15.000gp, they get only an extra copy, if its around 4.000 to 8.000, they get two extra opies. etc.
As extra flavor make it so the "mirrored" copies are completely invisible (even when using True Sight) when you try to look for their reflection in a mirror (since they are kinda the ones that you would originally see in a mirror and somehow they came from the "mirror dimension" into our own, and you can't see them reflected because they left it to be on "this side").
If the players decide to throw their halfling friend against the mirror because the "true treasure was friendship all along" or just enjoy doing so, feel free to "dupe" the Halfling and make an adventure or something weird out of it. There is now an NPC that looks exactly like the Halfling does on a mirror, with the same level/skills/etc (up to you if its an evil version, a reversed-moral version, or just a honest-to-God same person). On a side note, the Halfling now has no reflection at all (like a Vampire).
I did the 4 vampires at one of my games and the players got very creative ahaha! Thanks!!
No problem. Glad it went well :)
Dude. These puzzles are awesome!
Thank you! :)
I faced a trap similar to the invisible wall trap, but instead of a ballista goblin, our room slowly filled with water every round so would eventually drown and as the water was murky, if you were submerged you had a percentile roll to swim in a random direction.
That sounds awesome. I might edit that maze for water.
Okay setup:
One Room, one Invisible bridge over a large dark hole (for style reasons, actually has no puzzle value), 2 long rods with a flared end (describe flower or spiderweb or whatever) 3 indents with large balls of light/energy/whatever and on the other side of the bridge a large door that has an indent that is slightly smaller (some medium roll to notice) (actually 83.3% if you wanna do it perfectly but to allow for some error 4/5 is fine ;D but dont tell them the exact value!) the size of the ones on this side.
The balls of light can be carried with the long rods, but every % of the way they lose % of their size/light/or whatever, speed is no factor. so carrying a ball of light across extinguishes it millimeters before the indent
The door opens if they put in a ball light that is large/bright enough to fill the indent.
The Puzzle resets after a few minutes.
Solution:
The light can be combined if it would result in 100% or less. if you do it at the half way point you are at 100% at 50% of the way so 50% would get there, if you combine the other ball as soon as they would add up to 100% you get there with 50%+33.3%
"Repeating of course" I'm assuming lol. That's pretty good though!
my favorite is the party walks into a room this two doors one leads to a room with a lever in it's center, while the other is locked (leading farther into the dungeon) in the first room there is a crack in the wall that looks as if this a thick layer of paint cracked and chipped off with more stone underneath and some were (either in one of the rooms or earlier in the dungeon) there is a weirdly serenaded dagger (it is irregular in the lengths of the sharp bumps that make it serenaded) but only serenaded on one side of the blade.
if you want to solve it give a few guesses and then read on
to solve the puzzle you flip the lever and it makes a sound in the other room specifically from the crack. upon inspecting the crack, is is now deeper and the players can't see the back of the hole. by slotting in the dagger like a key and turning it, it unlocks the door to the rest of the dungeon
I like that a lot! I might use that in the future if it's alright with you :D
Errr, just FYI, it's a *serrated* knife/dagger. Not serenaded. A serenade is a song. So a serenaded dagger is a dagger that someone just sang a song to.
You gave me some great ideas for my Star Wars/ unique mixed campaign. Thank you!
No problem. Glad I could help :)
Dice & Dinosaurs, I look forward to more RPG content from you, and hopefully we'll have some campaign videos to share soon too.
I'm just curious, do you justify these elaborate dungeons in some way within your game world? Are there a lot of bored insane wizards, some sort of portal into pandemonium, or are these some sort of elaborate hero training exercise like the danger room from X-men.
They're all in a lich's castle and HE was bored out of his skull (lol undead pun) and over 100 years made all these crazy things.
I hope you dont mind if I incorporate some of these puzzles into my campaign.. bored goblin tinkerer or something. I thought about it when you mentioned the undead goblin, maybe he has some way only he can move around the dungeon and set off traps (kind of like death run)
I know i may be a bit late to the conversation but look up something called tuckers kobolds i'm sure it will be to your liking!
we had a great cryptogram one. so we walk into this temple, it seems to be split in two, the right is the sun and the left some other deity. At the front of each there is some numbers written on the wall and symbols around it. Nothing else. We had to solve the two (both of which had different ciphers) on just that. Took 5 of us about 40 minutes which was actually quite quick. They were both riddles which we then had to speak the answer aloud to to unlock two separate hidden compartments. It task and a half.
I've never actually tried using a cryptogram. I should make something like that.
Yeah, it's great to try and solve! I think that's the one that we got physical items from- one was some keys to unlock the next area and the other was a box of treasure. That was really nice because the possessive characters were fighting over the objects (especially the Rogue Dragonborn who's flaw is he can't resist shiny things). It really helps to have physical objects. I can't remember what we did to get hold of it, but we also got a little box, we were so cautious about opening it as there has been lots of traps. The DM handed us this box, we open, "does anything happen?" "well it's exactly that box in front of you, so no."
I've since remembered that I actually have a puzzle box laying around, so I've handed it over to the DM, I'm sure all the other players are going to love me for that xD especially when he finds some way to stop my character trying to open it. Can't wait to see how long that one takes us.
But yeah, I'd highly recommend giving physical items, such as notes from NPCs as they don't take too long to prepare and can help bring things to life.
Dude fuck yeah! I have always wanted to hand my players a physical puzzle box to solve. To the point where I looked up puzzle box videos on youtube lol. Also your party sounds awesome.
Mankylosaurus yeah, they're a great bunch c: the puzzle box went well- the DM introduced a npc to our group, so my character sent the time the others were solving the box talking to them and being overly interested in mundane objects around the room xD they did really well with the box, we barely had to hint them, just warn them if they were trying to force the box the wrong way and then tell them that they could use a little more pressure on it. They seemed to enjoy it. I would suggest this for at least a one off. We are doing a one off session on a different campaign and I'm preparing a letter of introduction from my guild because that's something my character has c:
Your DM sounds like a good planner. I would not have known how to handle one of the players knowing the answer to a puzzle.
Though it is generally better to keep characters alive, sometimes odds are against them. In the vampire spawn room story, monk should've died.
He absolutely should have but I wanted to give it to him because he was being really clever.
I probably would have killed him, and had him come back and fight them later as a villain. (I probably would have given the PC the chance to control what he does in the fight too, if he wanted, given that he can play objectively)
I don't know if you're still responding to this video, but if it's okay with you I'd love to use the mirror puzzle.
I was just wondering though; how would you 'balance' the monster to not end up with a TPK?
Obvious example, but if I put Tiamat 3 reflections away from a party of level 4's, they're totally toast.
What I was thinking, take the appropriate CR for the party, and then multiply for the number of reflections it's away.
Because each reflection is basically a fresh combat for the PCs but the same for the monster.
So if the party could take CR10, could I put a CR40 4 reflections away?
I'm asking because I want the monster coming at them down the mirror tunnel to be an obvious threat, something that _would_ easily TPK them if they fought it head on. But if the monster makes it through all the mirrors into the "real" universe, I want it to be weakened enough so the players have a chance.
Also, breaking the mirror will absolutely be a way to "solve" the puzzle, but the PC doing it will be cursed with bad luck until a remove curse/restoration spell.
And they'll have to live with the knowledge that whatever monster was coming at them through the mirror is still out there somewhere in a parallel universe looking to get them, and when it pops up next, it'll have healed back up nicely.
I'll let you use my mirror puzzle if you let me use the bad luck debuff ;) I wouldn't tell them they have it though (muwahaha) maybe just roll like 1d4 and subtrack it from their rolls. I would only do it to people you know won't get mad though or describe it in a way where they can realize something is up but not know exactly what.
I was thinking of giving them disadvantage on their (non-damage) rolls based on a DC check, perhaps 15ish? So if they have to make a roll, I roll for a DC15 behind the screen, if I made it they have disadvantage. And I feel like (depending on the character) it's an easy or very easy DC arcane/history/knowledge what ever check to recall that breaking mirrors brings bad luck.
So if they get mad and are like "DM wtf, why do I get disadvantage on stuff.", have them roll knowledge, and tell them: "Well dumb dumb, you broke a very large mirror. Everyone knows that's bad luck.".
I would suggest the mirror puzzle but the mirrors are indestructible and magic + magic can make things go through them but the AU yous only know that the one in front of them does so when one AU set of yous die then the mirror brakes and the wrath/dragon gains 1 strength but -1 agility so everytime it gets stronger but with strength comes the lack of agility this might not make much scence but the wraith is gaining power from distroying you and he used that power to break and go through the mirrior but gains 1 strength and in every AU the wraith can be dammaged by attack the spot it's in in the other AU and that teleports the magic through the mirrors and attacks the wraith (thats why magic can make things go through them) so you will gain 25%HP everytime an AU you dies and thats about it
That would probably be a good idea for a higher level party going through the dungeon
Ok I'm gonna feel dumb for asking, but how do you solve the mirror puzzle without breaking a mirror. I feel like there is no solution unless there is some trick to shake up the way the mirrors act in each zone that I haven't noticed. Every touching corner would be the same as the others touching it while every touching side is the opposite gender. I just feel like I'm missing something.
Well if you don't break the mirrors you have X number of lives against the one creature and it's health will carry over. So it's like 1v5 but it's always 1 on 1 where the player just widdles down the creatures health
could you show the solution of the mirror switch gender puzzle... i find it quite hard to solve.
Well I have an idea for a puzzle of some sorts, but I would like to run it by some of you guys.
Imagine a door with text on it, but they are all in another language (or alphabet, font...whatever) and then I will make a sheet with the exact same text (as in, on a real piece of paper) and give that to my players. Only the players that speak the language of that sentence will get the alphabet (font) with their common (English) counterparts, and my players have to figure out the answer in real life, while (optional) being attacked by some entities, what I want to achieve is that while one player is figuring out the puzzle they cannot fight, so the other players have the task of defending the puzzeling player and since everyone is needed to translate the text they have to switch it up, making for changing and interesting combat situations as well. Since one player is out of the fight at all times they would have to switch up their strategy.
I might make them roll a int. check or something like that to see if they know some of the letters on the spot, which would give the intellegent (or lucky) players an edge....
Let me know what you think.
Jack Oosterkamp, This seems really cool! While I don't have a lot of DMing experience myself, I think that combining puzzling with combat is a really cool idea. One problem I see is that the players might just solve the puzzle after beating the enemy. But what if the door was the enemy? I hope you find a good solution to the problem I've hopefully made aware to you!
Endless weaker enemies might keep them on their toes.
That sounds awesome! And the puzzle will shut off the mouth in the ceiling that keeps puking up zombie kobolds or something to that nature. You could even put the ceiling in the initiative order and have 1d6-2 (or 1) creatures spew out on it's turn.
Dice & Dinosaurs yes when the door opens, the celing will be closed.
my favourite one is when the party enters the room there is a guy hanging on the wall on the other-side of the room he is hanging by shackles to his arms and legs and as the party comes closer the shackles tighten like a rack and he begs for mercy and screams in pain and there is no way for the party to stop it
That's horrific! I LOVE IT! ;)
Ok one of my favorite puzzles I came up with is one my players still yell at me for. They were in a room with a dead body displayed prominently. The body had its eyes sewn open with an equilateral cross between the eyes. Behind the body were three pathways labeled in Roman numerals I II and III (1,2, and 3). The solution is eye + eye= I+I=1+1=2. It took them 15 minutes to figure out 1+1.
probably because you were equating eyes to the letter I and then the letter I to the Roman numeral for 1. None of which makes sense in a world where the English and Roman numerals don't exist. The characters would have seen
(o+o)
The Gazebo can not be entered here. I attack the Gazebo. Your attacks are futile. I rape the gazebo. Roll for sanity.
4:30
INstead of reflecting sound... why didn't you just make the canon into a light source and the slabs into reflective mirrored surfaces?
The puzzle is actually a reference to a Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker puzzle that does exactly that but I didn't want it to be the same thing so I just made it sound instead :)
Lucky players having their fun and creative DM being Matt Damon
My players are very much not lucky but I appreciate you saying that :)
And they didn't try using the ballista bolts as javelins?
I don't think they would have been super effective (proficient) with them :( I would have let them but probably with disadvantage.
Sounds like all of your dungeons are of the “made by an Insane Mage” type.
Yep! and his name is Smankylohorus (No relation) lol
Hello! I’m planning a campaign for this coming weekend for my niece’s birthday. I’d like to create a magnetic room. Do you have more of a description for how your ran the room? I’ve only DM’ed one game before. I’m curious if you have the rules of the room or how you ran it. Thanks!!!
It basically boils down to strength saves every turn if the characters are wearing or carrying metal. Or dexterity saves if they are not. The problem is if the swords keep multiplying then those saves are going to become harder and harder with each round. So it forces the players to make the most of their turns. The room would need to have it's own initiative. Sorry for the late response.
In the vampire room, I would have had this happen. After the female vampire drank the blood she would have gained enough strength from that to break out of her chains. I would have made her breaking free her action and had the players roll for initiative and let them go in order. The female vamp had her turn first this round and that was a surprise round of breaking free.
Oh my god that would have been amazing! XD I should have done that!
Yeah, fresh eyes and hindsight. Oh well. We DMs have so much on our minds and plates that it is amazing that we can do everything that we do. Anyways, good vid and stuff. :-)
working together with mirror universe versions of your character is a cool idea :)
This man likes his cannons 😂
vamp puzzle is awesome. tnx
No problem :)
i thought, they could just have all killed one vampire spawn, leaving 1 remaining, which i think would be easy
I can't remember if I had a counter measure for that or not. It may have worked.
Party walks into a large room and the door closes behind them. They didn't bother to see if it's locked. Completely pitch black because everyone had dark vision so nobody brought a lantern. Fighter stepped on a pressure plate that locked the door and shattered the glass above them releasing regular angry fire ants. The key was on the door frame outside the room.
You get a like and sub just for the Strawhat Jolly Roger bro. FREEDOM!!!
Thank you! :D
Cool ideas. I will steal some.
So what was the correct way to solve the first puzzle with the canon. From what I can see, their are only 5 gold rings but 6 walls to get through
Your puzzle with the Vampire Spawn could have been solved with Locate Object even when you used that method with the armor. If the player was smart, then they would have easily been able to realize that the creature that doesn't appear to have a key in it is different from the other three, and may have the actual key that solves the puzzle.
That's where the tiniest bit of mercy in my original design was lol
Is it just me or does this dude look like Matt Damon?
You are not the first person to make that comparison lol
You should add more cannons.
No such thing as too many cannons! lol
I found it helpful to make a deck of cards with random events and one of monsters; some say draw 2 monsters, if they do i draw 2 monster cards or open chest and more. It help when players go off script and i need a quick idea. Im going to expand on my random decks to make the dm obsolete.
That's effing genius. I wouldn't be surprised if you could sell those. They seem like something really nice for a DM to have.
Then it's just a card game, lol.
The DM will never be fully obsolete. By the time you get to making cards for world building, for NPC generation... You'll start to realize you're doing the DM's job.
That game already exists. It’s called Munchkin.
Kaizoku oni - ore wa naru! Nice One Piece stuff on the wall :D
ISHONI KAIERUZO! ROOOOOOOOBIN! Thank you. Love your YT avatar.
Dungeon delve into dungeons that are there for no reason are the best 👍😀 maybe a mage at the end. Maybe a whole country where economy and geography don't matter, cities grow around mages dens and the mad stuff you can find there thanks to decades of magic research twisting the ecosystem and minerals.
For the sword magnet room puzzle, how much damage would the players take? Do you have a standard number for when the swords multiply or do you roll for all the swords?
You roll for ALL the swords. Instead of them trying to beat AC though you just have the person start making dex saves once their are a fare amount of swords.
Is it bad that when I DM I just wing everything so I can keep up
Not at all! As long as everyone is having fun!
These Are Very Creative!
Couldn't the monk catch and throw the bolts back, or have the other players pick them up off the ground and shoot or throw them as well
They were like small tree sized bolts think like a really thick spear. I would have really let anyone throw them but without something to fire it it probably would have been with disadvantage or at the very least with no proficiency bonus.
Dice & Dinosaurs Thank you for the clarifications, I just assumed since A. The druid was able easily pick up and wave around the bolts and B. It was a balista designed for a goblin
The invisible maze is kind of dumb you could just put you hand on the wall and just stay with the wall until you find the door.
Yeah. It was the first stretch of the dungeon so I didn't want to make it too crazy
Dice & Dinosaurs makes sense then
*return the slab*
Or suffer my curse~!
If all the vampire spawn are helpless...coup de gras all at once?
Monsters in the mirror, I'd turn the one with the monster to face another mirror. You'd be sacrificing two of you, but you don't have to break them.
it's me or the mirror switch gender puzzle seems unsolvable? i mean, only i f you're able to pass through the corners of the mirror as well, you can solve it otherwise... i'm having hard time reaching the end with my original gender.
I believe you have to go into the corners of the room but in all honesty I could have made it that way on accident. I remember when I put it in the game I didn't draw it right and I made it unsolvable. So basically make sure you count mirrors before using this puzzle lol.
I kept trying myself and I couldn't solve it as drawn neither.
My guess is that you would need to have a broken mirror somewhere (so a double-sized room) and let players use that area to switch things around.
Make it so they can't break mirrors at all (they are more like portals), but that one is somehow broken.
That sound puzzle doesn’t work. That’s not how sound works.
It's magic
You should give timestamps in teh description.
I should! I will get around to that...eventually DX
Thanks these help alot
Thanks to these i fell saver going into my first d&d game as DM
Awww! I'm so happy I could help out with that. I still get nervous whenever I DM so always good know I could help someone out with that.
dude you really like mirrors.. lol
Why not just make something up on the fly?
Always a viable option
Stealing the magnet room
Steal away kind sir! :) glad you like the idea.
I taken 2
I play om roll 20 and see through wall is easy
I would like to send you a new monster
Dm player character?
Nah. Idk why I said "my" monk/druid/fighter they were my friend's characters O_o
One piece bro