Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Chimpadin Feb 17, 2012 13:58:33	I have set up an adventure where the PCs need to find a tomb of a long dead evil wizard (cliche I know) to retrieve a map. I have plenty of combat encounters planned, but I like to put in plenty of rooms with non combat elements too. So far I have - Ghosts of dead king & queen block access to a door unless they are convinced to open it - Doors in chamber lock and water starts to pour in, players end up fighting undead in the water (ok this is a combat encounter) - Room with 4 statues, door only opens to proceed when 4 correct items placed in the statues hands. In all cases there is an alternative route if the players don't manage it.  I'm looking for a few more ideas, though. There needs to be benefit to solving the puzzle or penalty for failing it, which could just be the PCs looking for a different route.
#2 phoenix_fire Feb 17, 2012 14:32:51	Do a floor puzzle! There's a great one in the Book of Challenges called Warding of the Dead, which has a room covered in a bunch of floor tiles that have different depictions of various undead on them. Each type of tile (skeleton, zombie, ghoul, etc.) does something different when it's stepped on, and the players need to navigate the safest route. We had a bag of tricks when we played through this room, so we just threw cats at the tiles until we knew what each one did. It was glorious!
#3 blademaelstrom Feb 17, 2012 18:05:31	Another variant on the floor puzzle is a chess-themed puzzle, using either living statues or undead as enemy pieces - if they can solve the riddle and take the safe path, they get to avoid combat with the opponents, but they have to battle a different "piece" for each portion of the riddle that they ignore. --BladeMaelstrom
#4 cha-ika Feb 22, 2012 16:38:45	A good but simple oneis to ahve a door that is impassable without the proper key, which is hidden somewhere else in the dungeon. I realize how obvious this is but It comes from a real and frsutrating experience I had as a DM... A pre-written campaign I was running had one such door, but it lacked the information of where to find the key. SO i had to kinda make something up, which ended up being a ruby they had found earlier in the tomb was the key and it glowed as it got closer to the door. Now this simplicity allows for much variation. For instance you could give them a really good magical weapon or a really valuable item that's wirht four times it's weight in gold and have it be the key. Said item could be destroyed in the process of opening the door. Likewise if your kind of sadistic you could set up an emotional involvement. Since this is the tomb of a evil wizrd have the key be a little girl or boy that the Party rescues and start forming a bond with. When they come across the door make it plain that the child must be sacrificed in order to open the door. Either literally with blood needed to open it, or simply that upon touch both the child and door vanish. Like i said, simple, but diverse.