D&D Puzzles that can ACTUALLY be Solved

The elf. Regardless of context. Damn point earred bastards.
- Some imperial soilders some where.

nuh uh, humans are both tall in youth and short when old, fu ur candle

Thought the dungeon, the heroes find several small figures carved from cinnabar. There's a cube, a rectangle, a triangle, a cylinder, a semicircle, and a shape that looks like a rectangle with a semicircular cutout. Deeper in the dungeon, there is a circular white marble door with nooks in shapes that match the cinnabar figures.

Seems simple, but there's a twist you'll never guess...

To make riddles solvables you could give them from 5 to 3 options to answer

Why ALL the puzzles that people propose for DnD are so.. out of place? It's like you're not even playing DnD but literally walked into a puzzle shop.
Why? Why is there a random magical door with a freaking SIGN that tells you how to solve it?? How is that interesting or engaging? How is that not a roadblock designed solely to drag the pacing down?

Puzzles should be a part of the game. They have to have connection to the rest of the world and make sense. Otherwise they just actively make the gaming experience worse

A construct looking like an old man stands there guarding the path, and says, "What's the airspeed of a sparrow carrying a coconut? Asking for a friend." If they ask him "European or African?" he'll say he doesn't know and let them pass. If they say they don't know or give any kind of answer, he'll say "thanks anyway" and let them pass. If they try to fight, it will be Hard, but he'll eventually surrender and let them pass, no matter who's winning.

If someone has a torch, then anyone with darkvision can see in colour as well, just a note

"Harold the wizard is the guinea pig in this scenario. He's good at throwing Fireballs and that's about it."
That's called a sorcerer. You described a sorcerer and encompassed their entire being into 2 sentences and yet you managed to mistake it for a Wizard.
I'm highly offended.
I would cast Repel Maidens on you, it's even prepared, but, would it change anything?

Finally some GOOD puzzles. When ever I try to look for DnD puzzles, the only thing that comes up are riddles, or the same riddles pretending to be an in world interactive puzzle.

"Beauty is in the eye of the Beholder!"
Meanwhile, a thief with their dagger out, ready to gauge an eye of the Beholder to solve the puzzle...

Thanks now I have to go play MvC2

Trolley problems would be way interesting with a player who has very consistent morals for their character.

“The elf and the dwarf are children, but one will kill someone in 10 years!”

“I’ve been killing nonstop the last 3 weeks, whats the big deal?”

90% of those weren't even PUZZLES

Most parties I've seen would still at least try Fireball as a solution to any puzzle. Then again, several would struggle with an unlocked door.

i used the spike door and one of my players just jumped into the spikes...no questions asked😂

one I like is the Never Ending Stairwell...party finds themselves on a stairwell that never seems to end and no matter which they go, they are always going up (or down depending on how mean you want to be, throw some exhaustion in there if they are ascending the stairs). As long as at least one person can see the stairs, they will never end...Solution is to simply have all characters close their eyes and the exit will manifest.

Have you ever gotten a splinter in DND and took one damage or is that just me?

The spike door puzzle is more of a way to mess with your players than an actual puzzle

Once i give them classic pazzle of 2 guards, one telling truth and another only lie.
They solved it... But picked the wrong way anyway. 💀

We had a puzzle where you roll a wheel and might reveive punishment. All results are punishment. The lords of cosmic Law despise those who rely on chance.

I like things like failing elevators and bad wiring. I'm not sure who would construct a theme park of puzzles.

Fieldworks are fun. Murderhobos like to build ponton bridges and excavate.

Most of the time there is no puzzle. You need to excavate a bunch of gravel. It takes time and shovels.

as a chaotic half-elf, i obviously choose to dispose of the elf policeman
because fuck the police

The easier the puzzle the harder it is for my party 😂

I’ve never played the game, but I’m interested,so I have no idea if this would work. My idea for a more complex puzzle is for when players need to find something. You’ll need to creatively hide a magnet somewhere at least close to what they need to find, then give them a compass. Compasses usually use magnets to work, so the compass should point to the magnet

If you're playing DnD with morons just don't put in puzzles

one way to help with riddles is to make the answers multiple choice - like say they have to use the right token in the slot to open the door then let them find 3-4 tokenss with close but wrong options and if you want to make it harder, wrong answers deliver an electric shock or summon a low level monster they have to face

A riddle would only make Sense If it comes from an Idiot npc who annoys the party

I got the two riddles almost immediately. XD Fun ones! The rest of the list had some real good ones too!

This was simply terrible.

I find that puzzles don't really make a lot of sense most of the time in DND. Like absolutely, you can make a dungeon of a litch or something that just wants to mess with people so they make funny riddles and what not just to troll, or you can make a dungeon that a legendary hero of old made to hide his legendary items only for those who are worthy, kind of like they did in baldur's gate 3. But if it's like a red dragon lair or any other fully serious evil creature that just wants to employ their plans uninterrupted or kill the party, then there's no reason for a puzzle instead of just straight up traps. I've only had this problem one time with my current dm where we were put in a magical prison and there was all this hoopla but the cell door was open the whole time with no explaination or reason for that to be. I guess the warden just forgot to lock the door huh. We legit just walked out and had to fight a bunch of guards who were in other rooms not watching the prisoners or anything. He also massively overestimated the power of our team and had to cut out the other half of his dungeon because we were completely out of resources and he didn't think we would need even a short rest after 4 full encounters.

It's been a year or so and I'll say he's gotten a lot better giving us reasonable encounters, realistic scenarios, and more flexible dungeon designs so he can trim or add where he needs/wants to make it more fun. We still never get to short rest though.

That riddle could have had many answers. I would have answered a pencil, and I see no reason that can't be the answer.

A lit candlestick

Love from a PackTatics and Vaush fan!

For the riddle, I guessed a pencil, but a candle is a really good one too.

one puzzle i had used on my players is called "The Story Room" I typed out a story of three heroes and what they did to beat a great foe. detailing the one thing they did, and equipment. then in the room where three magically animated statues that you had to give the correct stone equipment hanging on the wall and then tell the statue what to do. if you do it right, the statues reenact the story then reveal the path forward. i am sad to say it took longer than i thought, and they had the story there in front of them. they just had too look at it.

"Because your party will never be able to figure it out"

Me doing riddles for fun with my family before I joined a campaign for the first time and that, one time, resolved one without even reading it entirely because they were "is blind" in it:

I might be tempted to use the “Build Your Own Puzzle Puzzle” in my own campaign

Then reward the clever players with a puzzle golem to fight at the end. Leave plenty of warnings that dire danger awaits and grows stronger after every puzzle solved.

one time my dm had a sudoku puzzle, never called it sudoku, but that was what it was

took 23 fucking minutes

For the river puzzle I would just walk through it with the ungodly amount of athletics and lack of stuff that I have

I thought I was so smart when he gave the riddle about being tall when I’m young and short when I’m old. My answer was a pencil, and I was so proud of myself until he said candle. Not gonna lie I feel kind of cheated.

I was hoping in the 2nd Anime DND book you could have a Race/Lineages or Subclasses of a Mecha.
I was hoping it would be something like Guyver the bio-booster armor or Gundam or evangelion.
your fist book was pretty cool.

I think it would be really cool if you added Mecca and Aliens like the Saiyans from Dragon ball Z.

Here’s a puzzle: get one of those block shape things for babies, and tell your party to put all the blocks in their correct holes
The trick is that they all go in the square hole and when a incorrect choice is made whoever put the block in takes 1d4 damage

Why would there be a red light/green light puzzle when traffic lights haven't been invented yet?

What do you use for your outro music??? Is it your own song or someone else's? I would would very much like to know what it is,

look up "potentates of the rose"

Balling puzzle