Introduction

Adventurers will find themselves tested in many ways during their careers seeking fame, fortune, justice, and truth. Some of these tests will challenge their strength, agility, spellcasting knowledge, and combat skills. Other encounters will require diplomacy, conversation, observation skills, and social interaction. A rare challenge presents elements of both and requires deeper thinking and analysis. Puzzles meant to guard treasure and secrets present a unique challenge to characters and players. While these puzzles may be designed to prevent intruders from entering places where they are not welcome, they also suggest a worthy reward lies on the other side.

Mirror, Mirror is a free sample from Puzzles, Predicaments, and Perplexities, a collection of ten original puzzles for your Dungeon & Dragons 5th Edition campaign. These encounters are designed to be inserted into your adventures at any point with minimal preparation needed. Each puzzle is presented with a description of how it works, its solution, and several hints that can be provided to the players if they are having trouble solving it. The hints are designed in a way to direct the players towards the solution without giving away the complete answer directly. The full solution should not be revealed to the players until all the hints have been exhausted and it has become apparent the puzzle will not be solved. It is our hope this will be a rare occurrence, as the answers to unlock the solutions should become evident by slowly revealing more about each puzzle using the provided clues.

Scaling The Puzzle Difficulty The puzzles, as presented, are intended for Tier 1 (levels 1-4) characters. However, they are easily adaptable for all levels. Some simple adjustments can be made to scale the difficulty up for higher level characters. Adjusting the DC for related skill checks is the most convenient method for changing the difficulty of a puzzle. The recommendation would be to increase the DC by 2 points for each Tier over 1. For example, a check that is described here as requiring a successful DC 13 Wisdom (Perception) check would become a DC 15 for Tier 2 (levels 5-10) characters, DC 17 for Tier 3 (levels 11-16) characters, and DC 19 for Tier 4 (levels 17+) characters. Keep in mind that, ultimately, the players should succeed in solving the puzzle. It should be challenging, but not impossible. Adjusting the DC of the associated skill checks is one way to tune the difficulty of the challenge. The puzzles included can also be comprised of a trap component to punish characters for attempting incorrect solutions. These traps are meant to increase the sense of danger and urgency around finding the proper solution to the puzzle. The inclusion or exclusion of these traps also provide a technique for adjusting the difficulty of the puzzles. For lower-level characters or newer players, the puzzle itself may provide enough of a challenge without the extra threat of a fireball landing on their heads if they press the wrong button. For higher-level characters or experienced players, that threat can transform a tedious exercise in pattern identification into a potentially deadly encounter. Several of the puzzles have a sidebar entitled Raise The Stakes that includes optional additions to make the encounter more difficult or dangerous. Appendix A includes a table with suggested traps that can be scaled to match the level of the party.

Opening Doors and More By their very nature, these puzzles are constructed as mandatory obstacles for the adventurers to overcome by finding the correct solution. For many of these puzzles, that is represented by a locked door that can only be opened by solving the puzzle. While a locked door may be the most common and logical choice as a barricade forcing the party to engage with the puzzle, a variety of options can be substituted as best suits your particular campaign or adventure. Some other options for successfully solving a puzzle include: Opening a locked chest.

Uncovering a hidden message.

Transporting the party to an alternate plane.

Unlocking the shackles of a chained prisoner.

Closing a magical portal.

Revealing an invisible artifact. There is also an opportunity to chain together several of the puzzles so that they connect with one another. For example, the two keys needed for the Triangle Lock can be found in a closed chest that can only be opened by solving Colors and Clatter and behind a door guarded by Sand Sculptures.