your best riddle/puzzle/thingy ever.

[NNescio]

Originally Posted by gooddragon1

Only way I can think to counter this is the cone head trick (shrunk item cone (think traffic safety cone) made of light weight material). What other ways are there?

Also, amfs can't turn corners because they're an emanation so the little slits would only let rays of amf through them...?

Obvious solution: "DM, you don't know how AMF works. Like, at all."

Cover solution: Shrunken hat or tower shield trick. This requires preparation or being lucky enough to have someone with a tower shield not stashed in extradimensional space, and a DM who doesn't know how an emanation is supposed to work will likely object to this solution.

Geometry solution: AMF can't cover a whole 10' by 10' by 10' cube, so have everyone split up and stand in corners. Again, a DM who doesn't know how AMF works may also object to this solution.

Loophole solution: Wizard: "The door is protected by magic! That means it's not covered by the AMF! And I can cast my spells!"

Bruteforce solution: Start digging. And pray you don't die yet. Or that you have a martial initiator on your party.

I don't care solution: cf. any of the many ways to cast in an AMF.

Intended solution: I don't know. Probably something that doesn't involve getting free of the AMF.

[Suddo]

Originally Posted by u-b

Silence puzzle.

I like it. 2 things though:
1) I'd make the warrior a warforged or construct of some sorts.
2) I'd make it not talk and have a plaque that says enjoy the silence. I'd make it in a language someone in the party probably know, actually I'd make in a language I know the party will know via meta-knowledge. So if the wrong person gets trapped he is forced to make noise.

Some things to maybe flare it up:
1) If the party is low level give the construct stupid DR and not have it attack viciously. Maybe just bull rush the character into a wall or trip them.
2) I'd also give the construct some form of silent movement. Probably an enchantment on his armor this will trigger them to take note as the construct doesn't make noise as it moves. Instead of clacking around.

But differently my favorite thus far.

[Phaederkiel]

Last week, I gave my party this diary from the corpse of a villain:

(letter is in german, so it will not have much use to you, if you do not speak german... I include it anyway :)

Spoiler

Die verdammte Karavane ist endlich gesichtet worden! Sie haben wohl geglaubt, wenn sie einen Umweg über den Sarteff machen, finden wir sie nicht! Ich und Regiarix werden gleich losfliegen, vielleicht können wir ja so meinen Wert beweisen. Mir macht allerdings der Himmel etwas Sorgen.

Nachtrag: Was für ein Hundewetter! Mich hat es fast von Regiarix geweht, und man kann keine 10 Fuß weit sehen. Das tu ich mir nicht an. Ich habe Nurkelnaak angewiesen, Sing und Soll in Richtung der Karavane zu schicken. Sie scheinen ein bißchen weniger dämlich zu sein als Lurk und Mev, hat zumindest Jugat gesagt. Ich kann bei solchen Kreaturen keinerlei Unterschied feststellen.
Vielleicht habe ich Glück und sie verbocken es glorreich. Schlecht für die rote Hand, ja. Aber noch schlechter für Nurkelnaak!

_____________________
Inserted letter, heavily scented

Spoiler

Sarvith, mein hübscher,

Ich hoffe doch sehr, daß du besagten "Gegenstand" bereits unserem "Freund" K weitergereicht hast?
Wer schließlich wäre besser geeignet, darauf aufzupassen, als ein weiterer ihrer scheußlichen Sorte...

Ich muß dich hoffentlich nicht daran erinnern, daß du, falls unser "Verbündeter" bei dir inquirieren sollte, wo sein kleiner Schatz steckt, buchstäblich um dein Leben lügst?

Nicht auszudenken, nicht wahr, mein hübscher, was passierte, wenn er wüßte, wo das Kleinod steckt...
Sie würden sich gegenseitig bekämpfen anstatt uns zu unterstüzen, und sollte K unerliegen wären wir alle alle unseres Lebens nicht mehr sicher.
Nicht, daß dich das dann noch stören würde, hättest du dir doch den Zorn Azar Khul´s zugezogen...

Selbstverständlich schreibe ich dir dies als liebende Warnung,
in treuester Ergebenheit
Deine Ulwai.

ps:
Ich erwarte keinesfalls, daß er auch nur einen Fuß vor die Tür setzt. Aber man weiß nie, wozu Angst einen Mann treiben kann...

Wozu Angst einen Mann treiben kann? Ich jedenfalls wünschte, ich hätte dieses verdammte Paket nie erhalten und habe es sofort zu K weitergeschickt. Ich versuche eben, die Verantwortung weiterzugeben, genau wie Ulwai...Nicht daß ich ihr je irgendetwas abschlagen könnte, und sie weiß es ganz genau. Ich zappele in ihrem Netz, ein kleiner Fisch, der hoft, daß gerade er heute abend gebraten werden wird.

man vergleiche es mit Nurkelnaak! Dieser widerliche Wicht, dieser Folterknecht mit Putzfimmel, Braucht Magie, um die Fische zu fangen. Aber nein mein Lieber! Ich kenne lange schon ein besseres Netz! Ich weiß daß du nicht hierbist, um mir zu helfen, sondern um mich zu beobachten...Niemand glaubt, daß ich in der Lage sein bin, irgendetwas ohne Regiarix zu schaffen...


Nurkelnaak darf dieses Buch niemals in die Hände bekommen, er würde sofort eine magische Nachricht zu Karn oder Khul schicken. Oh, daß ich selbst nicht Zaubern kann...

__________________________
Regiarix ist unruhig, er ist genauso unzufrieden mit unserer Stationierung wie ich. Er will Jarmath an die Gurgel, sich seinen Schatz zurückholen... Ich möchte behaupten, daß Jarmath das Gold wohl angelegt hat, er scheint sich einen Thron damit gekauft zu haben...der Gedanke, seinen Schatz mit Zinsen zurückzubekommen, ist daß einzige, was Regiarix davon abhält, den verfluchten Nurkelnaak eines Morgens zu fressen. Und so ertragen wir beide den insolenten Wicht.

__________________________
Diese vermaledeiten Echsen! Nurkelnaaks kleine Zucht ist heute in mein Arbeitszimmer eingebrochen und hat die Eule völlig zerfetzt! Ich hatte sie schon fast fertig! Regiarix versucht mich zu trösten, er will mit mir eine neue jagen. Und immernoch, ich würde um nichts in der Welt mit Ulwai tauschen wollen.


______________________________
Die Karavane ist nicht auffindbar. Ich sollte mich nicht so darüber freuen, daß wir einen Auftrag nicht erfüllen können, aber Nurkelnaaks stiller Zorn ist einfach zu schön anzusehen. Ich lasse einige Bemerkungen fallen, er ärgert sich. Man muß nur Karavane sagen, und er läuft rot an.
Ich hätte nicht gedacht, daß seine Suchmagie überhaupt fehlbar ist. Ich muß herausbekommen, wo seine Grenzen liegen!

(neulich hat er mich beim Jagen unterbrochen. Habe seine Stimme plötzlich in meinem Kopf gehört, obwohl er fast 3 Meilen entfernt war.)

___________________
Mein Päckchen ist heute angekommen! Ich habe mir zwar nur 5 Ladungen leisten können, aber was für Ladungen das sind! Zusammen mit dem Flugring, den mir Regiarix wegen meiner Höhenangst geschenkt hat, fühle ich mich wie ein echter Zauberer...

_____________________
Der Geister-Meister...das beleidigt ja selbst meine Ohren. Wie wird Ulwai´s empfindliches Ohr das wohl finden? Regiarix hat sich jedenfalls halb totgelacht. Nur Nurkelnaak scheint den Humor nicht zu sehen. Er meint, man sollte solches volk nicht unterschätzen. Ob der Bursche immer so humorlos ist? Na, daß kann ja heiter werden.

Full english again from now on :)

There are a real big lot of hints that can be gained about the upcoming campaign:

Spoiler

that the next enemy is a bard (she is an influemancer and has fine ears for language), that she is in a bad position, that said position is talking to a lich (they can deduce that, since they know who the other guy of this sort "k" is, theoretically), that the bad guy´s stole something very important of the lich (his phylactery, if anyone had bothered to make a knowledge check...)

and there are lots of hints about the enemies just defeated:

Spoiler

that the caster was no caster, but used items; what those items were (giving them a free identify); That one of the opponents had the ability to make longranged telephatic contact and probably used it to prepare an ambsh with some high-status-beasttrainer; that said trainer found the other ettin teachable...

and a lot of fluff, which made the perished villain postmortem an interesting guy.

I love this kind of riddle, since it is more applicable to "mature" campaigns than another riddled door in another dungeon. It fits into an campaign without looking out of place, can transport lots of fluff and is very modular (meaning: you get rewards for solving parts of it).




____
about the fear denies faith: i would have casted fear, hoping to kill the influence of the symbols... the Hint is very obscure. Then I would try to one hit the door, ignoring the lvl 4 summon i would likely get. Then I would remove the symbols....

[Feytalist]

Yup, my first thought on OP's puzzle was to cast fear or a similar spell at the altar. Second step would have been to cast calm emotions. Just because

The hint is slightly too obscure, maybe. But then again, if I roleplay a cleric or other devout character, I'm going to go meditate at the altar anyway.

[DigoDragon]

I love incorporating the weirder Grimtooth traps--
The PCs were traveling through a dungeon on their way to the Underdark. The dungeon was built by Elves as a barrier to prevent Drow from reaching the surface, so often the PCs come in on the "back-end" of a lot of traps, often with odd effects.

One trap however, nearly killed the party despite it being the dumbest trap in the dungeon. At a branching corridor stood a large gilded steel door with the face of Correllon carved into it. The nose ring was a large door knocker. There were no apparent door handles or keyholes so lock picking was extremely difficult (DC 40), but the door isn't indestructible....
There was a sign written in Elven asking visitors to "Knock before entering". Whenever the PCs would knock on the door (Or, say "Knock Knock") the door responds audibly: "Who's There?" The door is essentially setting up a knock-knock joke and to open the door you just give it a half-decent joke. I wasn't aiming for high-quality knock-knock jokes here, any decent attempt will do. If you fail to give it a joke, the eyes shoot an Eldritch Blast at you from its eyes (As an 11th level Warlock, with some Essence and Blast Shape abilities at its disposal).

What makes this my best puzzle trap ever was that the party spent an HOUR trying to figure out what this door was asking for. They all assumed incorrectly that it wanted their names, or the name of some important Elven person, etc. So after getting blasted by this door a few times they just attacked it, trading blows and nearly being destroyed by this door until they were able to disable the door's ability to shoot Eldritch Blasts at it (they broke the door's eyes). The puzzle part was still working, but unresolved however.
At that point they just gave up and took a different passage.

After that session I told them the solution and they felt so dumb that they were outwitted by a door. And it made sense in a way that the door was there: The Elves didn't think Drow had a sense of humor. I've been immortalized after that: Whenever the party was in a situation where they needed to get past a difficult obstacle, they call it "The Knock-Knock Joke" scenario.

[The Succubus]

Originally Posted by DigoDragon

I love incorporating the weirder Grimtooth traps--
The PCs were traveling through a dungeon on their way to the Underdark. The dungeon was built by Elves as a barrier to prevent Drow from reaching the surface, so often the PCs come in on the "back-end" of a lot of traps, often with odd effects.

One trap however, nearly killed the party despite it being the dumbest trap in the dungeon. At a branching corridor stood a large gilded steel door with the face of Correllon carved into it. The nose ring was a large door knocker. There were no apparent door handles or keyholes so lock picking was extremely difficult (DC 40), but the door isn't indestructible....
There was a sign written in Elven asking visitors to "Knock before entering". Whenever the PCs would knock on the door (Or, say "Knock Knock") the door responds audibly: "Who's There?" The door is essentially setting up a knock-knock joke and to open the door you just give it a half-decent joke. I wasn't aiming for high-quality knock-knock jokes here, any decent attempt will do. If you fail to give it a joke, the eyes shoot an Eldritch Blast at you from its eyes (As an 11th level Warlock, with some Essence and Blast Shape abilities at its disposal).

What makes this my best puzzle trap ever was that the party spent an HOUR trying to figure out what this door was asking for. They all assumed incorrectly that it wanted their names, or the name of some important Elven person, etc. So after getting blasted by this door a few times they just attacked it, trading blows and nearly being destroyed by this door until they were able to disable the door's ability to shoot Eldritch Blasts at it (they broke the door's eyes). The puzzle part was still working, but unresolved however.
At that point they just gave up and took a different passage.

After that session I told them the solution and they felt so dumb that they were outwitted by a door. And it made sense in a way that the door was there: The Elves didn't think Drow had a sense of humor. I've been immortalized after that: Whenever the party was in a situation where they needed to get past a difficult obstacle, they call it "The Knock-Knock Joke" scenario.

Truly, there is nothing more terrifying than a DM with a sense of humour.

[TheTick]

Honestly love the Knock-Knock trap. I'd've been laughing maniacally every time I had to roll damage for the Eldritch blasts.

The scale-balancing trap is great too, and that's exactly how I'd want it to play out.

[Seharvepernfan]

In a first level dungeon of a long-forgotten beholder-ish god, the high priests bedroom (this place is long abandoned) was blocked by a stone door, except there was no way to open it. It had carvings in it that depicted a curved landscape under a sky full of stars, with a full moon in the middle. When approached, all the stars lit up and gave off a faint blue light.

To open the door, you had to touch the star-lights that were part of a certain constellation (the beholder - the full moon is the "eye"). Once all were touched, the door would fade away. If you touched any of the wrong stars, you were hit with shocking grasp (1st).

The party I was DMing for had a bard, and the bard used bardic knowledge to recognize the constellation. The higher the roll, the more of the constellation is revealed. The bard ended up rolling something like 15, which I decided was good enough to look at a drawing I made of the constellation while deciding which stars to touch.

I admit that it was heavy handed, what with their being no other way to get through (except smashing through the stone, which actually was an option), and being hit with a full first level spell every time they goofed, but it ended up working just fine. They got zapped aplenty, but the paladin and cleric were able to heal the damage.

[Diarmuid]

Originally Posted by Feytalist

Yup, my first thought on OP's puzzle was to cast fear or a similar spell at the altar. Second step would have been to cast calm emotions. Just because

The hint is slightly too obscure, maybe. But then again, if I roleplay a cleric or other devout character, I'm going to go meditate at the altar anyway.

Your cleric of a "goodly" god would go pray at an altar that has symbols for "evil" deities on it, even if it had symbols for your god? Maybe I'm just paranoid from very tricksy DM's but I know better than to simply pray at any altar I see.

[big teej]

Originally Posted by KoboldCleric

The best advice I can give to anyone using a "riddle/puzzle/thingy" is to never have only one right answer. Ultimately, everyone at the table wants the game to progress, and it's very unlikely that your players think the same way you do, so you're better off leaving it a tad open-ended and rewarding players for interesting or surprising "solutions" to your puzzles, even if it's not the one you had in mind.

yea, that's what I kept telling my players.

"the answer is narrow in focus, but infinite in possibility"

Originally Posted by Feytalist

Yup, my first thought on OP's puzzle was to cast fear or a similar spell at the altar. Second step would have been to cast calm emotions. Just because

The hint is slightly too obscure, maybe. But then again, if I roleplay a cleric or other devout character, I'm going to go meditate at the altar anyway.

Spoiler

well I tend to play with purely martial/mostly martial parties, so I will never rely on a character having a specific spell, or even type of spell, to bypass something.

Originally Posted by Diarmuid

Your cleric of a "goodly" god would go pray at an altar that has symbols for "evil" deities on it, even if it had symbols for your god? Maybe I'm just paranoid from very tricksy DM's but I know better than to simply pray at any altar I see.

hmmm, well then, I think at this point I'll introduce the logic one of my players used to solve the riddle.


"as an old school player, I know better than to touch anything covered in runes, I mean come on, it's probably trapped to the 9 and back.... but I will deny my fear of being disintegrated, and touch the symbol of my diety"

[Feytalist]

Originally Posted by Diarmuid

Your cleric of a "goodly" god would go pray at an altar that has symbols for "evil" deities on it, even if it had symbols for your god? Maybe I'm just paranoid from very tricksy DM's but I know better than to simply pray at any altar I see.

The way my logic goes, it's an altar dedicated to all gods. If my character's patron's symbol is on there, it's dedicated to him, regardless of any other symbols. My character wouldn't care about them. And my devout character would go pray there, regardless.

But that's simply how I would interpret it.

[georgie_leech]

Originally Posted by Feytalist

The way my logic goes, it's an altar dedicated to all gods. If my character's patron's symbol is on there, it's dedicated to him, regardless of any other symbols. My character wouldn't care about them. And my devout character would go pray there, regardless.

But that's simply how I would interpret it.

...How can an altar be devoted/focused on everything? Isn't that just a generic, featureless altar?

[FMArthur]

Wow, you guys are way cleverer than me or my DMs. I try logic puzzles from time to time and they never really... work. The players either don't solve them or aren't interested. There's a sweetspot of solvability and intrigue but we never hit it.

The best I've done is still just having a massive boulder held above a hallway by extremely decrepit-looking supports and placed so that it blocks the way if knocked down. No trick, no trap. Still took up an inordinately long amount of game time while I frantically scribbled down the upcoming encounters in a game I had to wing completely.

[Kol Korran]

in one of my adventures i made a fun trap/ puzzle of a sort. the party was exploringa dead giant's crypt. on the way to the final hall they saw various things that appeared like... dysfunctional traps (like a corridor with stone dragon heads in the walls, gaping but... doing nothing). there were all kind of such things the party came to consider as "flavor pieces". to the dungeon.

when they reached the final room, they expected a big fight, most likely with the undead giant (and there was a tomb). but there was no fight, the treasure came free!

... only 1 round later the door behind them locked in place, (que in some ominous threats in giant for tomb raiders) and they could hear all kind of rumbles from beyond, in the dungeon.

the dungeon was changing to provide a "get back" dungeon, with many of the inactivated stuff becoming activated, and all kind of other "themed" changes.

oh, and there was a portal to the water plane (closed) in one of the first rooms, it just opened and water was feeling the dungeon, rapidly. the entire dungeon was one big time ticking (sort of) trap

that was a fun session!

i know i'ts not strickly a puzzle, but close enough? the party had to think fast in order to deal with the challenges fast, choose the quick route (as well as try and figure out what "modifications" were made)

[DigoDragon]

Originally Posted by The Succubus

Truly, there is nothing more terrifying than a DM with a sense of humour.

I'd like to sig that if you don't mind.


One of the players in my group came up with a terribly good pun as a twist to the old "Find the corner in the round room" puzzle. The puzzle set up is similar, except that in addition to the handful of lost souls/dead bodies in the perfectly round room there is one person in good health who is investigating the cause of death of all the late adventurers in this room. The puzzle has a sign that reads: "Find the coroner in this room".

[NowhereMan583]

Originally Posted by big teej

("Fear Denies Faith" trap)

This seems a little too straightforward to me. There are only two things in the room: an altar and a door. Trying to open the door results in getting attacked, and since the attackers multiply, trying to outfight them is futile, so obviously you've got to do something else first. The only other thing in the room is the altar. And, of course, there's really only one thing you do at an altar -- you perform acts of worship. I'm not sure the clue's even necessary.

On the other hand, in order for this whole thing to make any sense within the game universe, you'd have to establish some sort of thematic connection with the building/dungeon/whatever in which it is placed. Otherwise, it just looks like "this is here because we needed a puzzle in this room".

[Murillio]

Never used this riddle myself but a DM I had used it during one of our campaigns. Only half the party was involved since we were split. The party members had to solve three riddles/puzzles in order to escape this was my favorite.

The riddle is called Petals Around the Rose.

The one and only hint: the riddles name.

Five d6 are needed. The DM rolls the dice and gives you the answer as an example -- without giving up how to get the answer. Then says you can have an infinite amount of example tosses but only one true toss with which you have to answer correctly or lose.

Spoiler

The solution: You count up the 'petals' and the total is your answer.
Rolling 1: 0
Rolling 2: 0
Rolling 3: 2
Rolling 4: 0
Rolling 5: 4
Rolling 6: 0

[Afool]

What would the "petals" refer too?

[Deadlights]

I am surprised no one has mentioned the hyper cube yet.



Maybe a little cliché by now?

[Sutremaine]

Originally Posted by Igneel

How many living in Thaegan's cave?
-Deltora Quest 'Lake of Tears', by Emily Rodda

Spoiler

One. Only Thaegan lives there, as it's described as her cave. The rest are either having dinner there or being dinner.

[Din Riddek]

The one that stumped my PCs the most recently was I challenged them to make "me" (the npc) laugh. ey either had to tell a joke or a funny story, and after I declared the challenge they sat looking at me baffled for a couple minutes before any attempts.

They at least tried to roleplay by either making a joke based in the fantasy world or something that happened to their characters.

[_flint_]

Originally Posted by Venger

have it be an ettin! one head always tells the truth, one head always lies. (and then the ettin is just trolling, as you said)

Chimeric Ettin/Troll!

Wouldn't "Faith denies fear" make more sense?
Also, add more things to the room to throw off the party. Mabey tapsetries depicting monsters, a statue of a god with am inscription on the base, a silver holy symbol to a specific god (apart from the one on the statue), or pools of holy/unholy water


Remembered a trap that my DM threw at us; There was a large door with runes all over it. When we tried to open it, a hellhound spawned. What we didn't realize was that it also sent us back in time 5 seconds, meaning that the hellhounds kept multiplying and refreshing. We got lucky and smashed through the time travel part of the door, so we only had to fight it once

[doko239]

Not my own ideas, and not riddle-based, but Tomb of Horrors is basically a blueprint for how to build ingenious and incredibly annoying traps:

Spoiler

- The hallway with 3 or 4 successive pit traps; the hallway eventually leads to a dead end, and the only way to proceed is a secret door at the bottom of one of the pits;

- The statue with the black opening in its mouth just big enough to crawl through (which is actually an Orb of Annihilation);

- The locked adamantine door with the sound of someone screaming for help from the other side; when the party eventually forces their way through the door, they find a dimly-lit hall with another door on the other side. As soon as they pass more than halfway down the hall, the floor begins to tilt forward, spilling them into a pool of lava;

- The fake lich BBEG in the fake ending, who upon dying triggers an illusion of the tomb collapsing; the party will run to escape, and the rest of the tomb will be undisturbed.

[SimonMoon6]

I like this riddle:

Make a DC 20 INT check. If you succeed, you know the answer to the riddle.

[Kallisti]

In a hidden safe behind a portrait in a dragon's lair we were trying to rob, we found an L-shaped hole in the wall. The bottom part of the L had a mirror on it, and we could see a key at the top of the L.

Like an idiot, I reached in to fetch the key without stopping to wonder why there would ever be such a setup in the first place. It was pretty much my first campaign; I had not yet learned to be wary of traps.

Needless to say, the image in the mirror was an illusion. The top of the L contained, not a key, but a Sphere of Annihilation.

I was just lucky my ranger didn't lose his shooting fingers.

[killianh]

I made up a more D&D related version of Einstein's Riddle (it was one of the first logic grid puzzles) in a room where they had

a) 3in of water
b) infinite shocker lizards (no more than 5 at a time) and sonic traps
c) the pieces of the puzzle were in stone slabs that took full round actions to place
d) if placed wrong the block would shatter, you were hit with the sonic trap, and a new copy of it would drop in a random part of the 60x60 room.

The logic grid has 25 blocks so it took a while and most of their resources to survive. They both loved and hated me after that.

[kulosle]

Whats the bit with the hyper cube room? I haven't seen that before.

Also which riddle are you talking about when you say Einstein's Riddle? The only one I know of is who has the fish and that doesn't seem to be what you're talking about.

So two fun riddles/puzzles

The Three Doors

Spoiler

The party is being through a dungeon by an encounter they feel is too much for them to handle. They arrive at a dead end with 3 doors and a tablet that reads

Place your hand on me and say one thing. If its false door 1 will open, if its true door 2 will open.

Each door is labeled 1-3
1) Behind me is a nice thing.
2) Behind me is the best thing.
3) Behind me is the thing you want.

What you as the DM needs to know: Behind door number 1 is a lot of treasure but they still end up having to do the fight. Behind door number 2 there are magical items that will make the fight much easier and cost twice as much gold as there is behind door number 1. Behind door number 3 is the way out. The 3rd door also closes right away so they don't have to do the fight.

Spoiler

You open the 3rd door by saying "Door 3 will not open" which opens doors 1 and 3.

The problem with this one is getting them to run away from the fight. My advise is to make one or two players so afraid that they are force to flee. And the rest of the party should follow because they can't face them on their own.

The Greatest Sin

Spoiler

Warning: This riddle is not for everyone. Groups have broken up over less. It requires good in character role playing, PC characters who believe strongly that you are always right, and patience.

It's very important that you players don't feel like they have to get this puzzle done quickly, but they must know that there is a huge pay off to getting it done. There are multiple ways to present this riddle to the party. It works differently depending on how your rewarding them.

Inform the party in what ever fashion you see fit. For us it was a voice that said "All of you must answer, who committed the greatest sin? Think carefully your lives depend on it." In the room there was a book that told a story of three people A B C. Person A and B had an arranged marriage, but A and C were in love before A and B had been arranged to be married. Person A wants to stay true to the marriage, but Person C gets Person A drunk and they sleep together. Person B finds out and divorces Person A. The divorce strips person A of all honor and birthrights so person A commits suicide. Person B realizes it's Person C's fault. Person B tries to kill Person C but C kills B in self defense.

If the players read further into the book, there is a short bio of each person. Person A is the noble responsible for a lot of the nations trouble, Person B is a horrible person in general, and Person C is a sex addict because of how abuse as a child.

When they go to give an answer if they get it wrong everyone who said something gets hit with your preferred damaging spell, make it so it does about 1/4th of their life.

All party members have to give the same answer, any answer. The point of this riddle is to just get everyone to argue about morality. The lord of the dungeon is listening the whole time to learn how the PCs think. If you want to be really mean you can have there be an NPC with them so that you can make the argument go how you like, either by making the NPC agree or disagree strongly with what ever is the most popular opinion to make the argument end sooner or later.

[DigoDragon]

This thread made me realize I come up with really silly puzzles. Here's another puzzle I've actually used.

The party enters a dungeon and comes across an antichamber. At the other end of the room are three doors. In front of each door is a knight with a pike. A sign in the room reads:

"One door leads in, the other two lead to your doom. These knights know which door is safe, but beware!
One knight always tells the truth.
One knight always tells a lie.
And one knight stabs you for asking tricky questions."


Although I knew which knight was which, I didn't really have an answer to this going into the adventure. The bard solved it quickly by shouting "If you're an idiot, raise your hand!"
The knight who lies raised his hand, since it did not think itself an idiot, but lied by saying it was... which then meant it was which contradicts the idea he only lies...

I declared the lying knight's head exploded and the party decided to just take his door.
It was the correct one.

[Loxagn]

The party follows a string of clues left by a villain to a locked door. As they approach, marks light up on the door, forming words. An hourglass flips over, giving them a time limit of fifteen minutes in which to do something. The words form a riddle:

Priceless to all, yet unwanted, unloved
Pearls before swine, an absolute void of
The thing we all want, at the end of the day
Now tell me the answer, or you'll be dismayed.

Should the party fail to answer within 15 (real-life) minutes, the words will change.

The answer, of course, doesn't really matter. I've wasted fifteen minutes of your time, and that's more than enough to make a getaway when your pursuers aren't even going in the right direction.
Better luck next time, gentlemen!
~[Villain's Name Here]

I do love playing trickster villains.

As for the door, well. It was a janitor's closet.

[Rallicus]

It was pretty simple. Three switches. The results would vary depending on what order you pushed them in.

There was a 20 foot spiked pit between the switches and the other side of the room.

The party pushed every single combination besides the one that would bring out the bridge for them to cross. Frustrated, the leader of the party, a dwarf fighter, decided he was fed up with this puzzle nonsense that seemed to be getting them nowhere. He took off his armor, ran across the floor in his undies, and leapt from the edge over the spiked pit.

He rolled a 1, tripped on his run and fell face first into the spiked pit. So naturally, the party jumped in after him, like a bunch of lemmings. Most died.

I feel it's my best puzzle because it literally frustrated my group to the point where they committed suicide.

In remembrance of my goofiest party, I drew this horrible picture. Yes, the monk was Krillin from DBZ with Super Saiyan hair and yes, the dwarf wore a crown he found for no real reason other than looking cool.

RIP, Suicidal Lemming Party:

Spoiler