Post/Author/DateTime	Post
drakintana 08-10-05, 01:52 AM	Like many dms I sometimes have problems whene coming up with brilliant puzzles constructed by ancient races or mindboggling tactics performed by those above average intelligent races. Being merely human and not an great wyrm with tousands of years of experiance I'ld like to pull together everbodys best and brightest puzzles, or perhaps those confusingly simple monster tactics. So just post away.(Here I'll even give you a cookie :cookie: ) :D
TheChilliGod 08-10-05, 02:03 AM	Great wyrm? Pff, you should try being a demigod. It gives you whole worlds of better insight. And I'll take that cookie, if you don't be minding. 1) Rock Paper Scissors. You know who beats who. This comes from some magic illusion trap thingy that shows a hand not unlike the one from Bigby's spells. The hand plays that game with you. Lose, and it Crushes you, then wants another go. Win, and it goes away. Either roll a d3 to determine what the hand does or play it yourself. 2) "I cut down trees, I eat my lunch, I go to the lavatory, on Wednesday I go shopping, and have buttered scones for tea!" Who is he? Answer: He's a lumberjack and he's okay!
Rathje 08-10-05, 02:07 AM	One thing I've been considering is having a dungeon with reverse riddles. They come up to a door and a statue of a head beside it says "Shadow." They search through the dungeon and come across something (let's say an inscription on the wall) that says "I'm your follower in the light, Yet I'm invisible in the night At various sizes I appear I won't harm you, have no fear." The party has to go to the statue of a head and repeat what the inscription said. At some points they'll get a number of quotes or answers at the same time and have to match them up.
drakintana 08-10-05, 10:12 PM	Mmmmmm! cookie :bump:
Unca_Laguna 08-10-05, 10:44 PM	In my champaign, I included the drow a bad-guys but I don't know anything about drow (my friend has some R.A.Salvatore he'll let me borrow soon). so I just made up my own stuff about the drow, emphasizing the man-hating elements of their matriarchal society. this led to this puzzle: the PCs encounter a statue. the statue depicts an anatomically correct, nude, male elf. the base of the statue has two words printed on it in undercommon, "perfect me". I play with (and am myself) a bunch of sickos. Naturally, one my players gets the joke and castrates the poor statue. the statue is hollow and water flows out of it's "injury". there isn't any symbolism about the water, I just like to have a logical way the puzzles work. the statue drains to the apropriate level, activating an unseen device which opens a hidden door to some secret treasure. cool huh?
Elric Of Melnibone 08-11-05, 06:13 PM	One of tactics I like to use is the combination encounter....ie two stone golems and 6 carrion crawlers this is a nasty encounter and follows a symbiotic line of thought that is reasonable...stone golems dont eat and so attract carrion crawlers(golems are ordered to attack people only) in turn the carrion crawlers paralysis makes it easy for the stone golems to do thier jobs. The abandoned pirates ship laden with gold dabloons.......can you say HUGE MIMIC:) Basically any undead combined with a water trap.
SwitchUK 08-11-05, 06:51 PM	I tend to avoid thought-based puzzles, where possibly, instead preferring to go all Indiana Jones on my players. The reasoning is this: Kag, the half-orc barbarian, has an INT of 5, an' 'e talks loik dis, an' is more 'an a bit stoopid, an' e' can't coun' pas' Two. Even da uvver 'alf-orcs used ta call 'im "fickie Kag." Dere were a sayin' around da village - as fick as dat Kag, cuz Kag's reely reely stoopid. 'e'd lose a battle uv wits wiv a rock, dat's how dumb 'e is.... and so on. His player is a medical student and cellist. When faced with any kind of a logic puzzle, Kag's approach would be to stare at it for a while, maybe try and eat part of it, and then hit it and see what happens. His player could probably answer it. This is not true to the spirit of RPing. On the other hand, a challenge involving jumping over the gorge, bashing the goblin archers on the other side, and then catching and hauling on the length of rope thrown to him so that the rogue with plenty of ranks in "handle rope" and "balance" can run across the gorge, along the rope, and then tie the rope to something securely so that the fighter and the wizard can then shimmy across with DC 10 climb checks... THAT'S something that Kag could handle very well, and it tests the PC's abilities, rather than the logic skills of my players.
drakintana 08-14-05, 10:29 PM	Thanks for those suggestions but I know that there are still many more where those came from. Keep em comin. :D