Puzzles Dragons like

[Kalrik]

Ok, Great Wyrm Red dragon, who thinks he is a god, rules on high over a flock of loyal, if not terrified, minions. He builds a temple high in the mountains and leads his religion. Then all dragons go away (plot hook) and his temple is left to his minions.

My party is around tenth level: Silver Bloodline Sorceress, Fighter/bard/arcane archer(/shiver), Rogue, and my Healbot cleric. They are heading to this temple. Aside from the physical obsticals in the way of the party, I need some good puzzles. I have done a traps dungeon with lots of locks to make the rogue and sorceress pleased with class features, now I want to test my players ability to think. I figure that my dragon fancied himself an intellectual and locked his temple down with puzzle locks and riddles instead of simple locking doors. Any idea's on nifty traps would be great too. I'm looking to have this be challenging for a tenth level party, but not so hard that it is guarenteed to kill them.

There is a young adult red dragon who has "moved in" waiting for the party in the private quarters of the temple.

[gbprime]

Try looking up the puzzles from the "Myst" series of games on an internet search. They were entirely puzzle based and you could borrow ideas from the various puzzles they presented.

Although, being a chaotic evil entity, the dragon could have set up a Feeblemind glyph at the end of the series of puzzles, guessing that anyone smart enough to navigate all of them would need to be disposed of. :smallamused:

[AslanCross]

1. Moving platforms meant to cross a deep chasm filled with lava. The movement of the platforms is keyed to a religious bas relief made by the dragon's worshipers.

2. "The Maw of (Dragon's name):" By collecting keywords scattered about the temple complex, PCs can gain passphrases for going through a gauntlet of grinders, razor pendulums, and flame jets.

3. A giant game of chess where the PCs are pieces.

4. An observatory wing of the temple complex has dragon-sized astronomical equipment. The coordinates of the dragon's last observations become the combination of a very large lock system that hides away the dragon's hoard. Unfortunately, the last time the equipment was used was a long time ago, so the PCs have to find the notes---AND decipher them.

[gbprime]

Well you want to avoid anything that could be solved by simply rolling a d20 against Knowledge or Disable Device...

[Rainbownaga]

I always found the type of 'puzzle dungeons' like in the first harry potter to be a little silly- giving the would be hoard-stealers everything they need and even obvious clues that even a 12 year old child could work out (let alone 3).

What I did was make puzzles by playing of the trope, basically stealing ideas from harry potter, etc, but making them less obvious

- like the broom/key puzzle but with an animated broom instead and the swarm of keys were somewhat lethal (the door wasn't even locked)

-the potion/barrier puzzle except all the potions are poison and the riddle is a red herring (the barrier was passable with a ring of fire resistance).

[Kalrik]

Indeed I don't want dice to be the deciding factor of this dungeon. The party will have to fight through advanced kobolds, lizardmen, and a troup of rival adventurers, so they will have plenty of dice rolling fun.

I was thinking of using a color scheme puzzle involving orbs colored like the chromatic dragons. Touching a specific combination will open the door, doing it wrong has a penalty. The answer to the puzzle of each door can be found by analyzing the carvings or tapistries in the room. It "sounds" like a cool idea, but i'm having a hard time wrapping my head around how to present it so that the puzzle can be solved.