Tests of Heros

[ThorneMD]

I am making a dungeon for my players that will effectively be a series of test. I want it to test several aspects of adventuring life. I have the names of the tests, but can't think of the actual tests.

So far:
1. Intellect before Brawn

Enter a room. There is a 10' bridge spanning a chasm. Immediately, any spellcaster knows magic does not work here.
On the bridge stands a behemoth in black armor, with a terrible looking sword. It's eyes glow read as it darkly announces,
"Only a True Swordsman can defeat me."
The creature is not beatable by any means.
The solution: Sheathe your weapon and embrace the guardian, shake his hand, anything like that. If done so, the guardian nods, steps aside, and intones,
"Only a True Swordsman knows that there are things where a sword is useless."


2. A measure of Greed

They are given 3 options

1. Receive a gem that can be priceless in value

2. Receive 5,000 GP (adjust depending on level) each now

3. Receive a map to a great treasure

When I did this the gem was something an alternate material plane race who was now extinct would have paid anything for. The $$$ was real, and the map was real (used to begin the next campaign).


3. The Greater Good

In an otherwise empty room, they players are confronted with a figure (can be anything you want). They are given three options and must choose one; To completely eradicate a race on your world (like elves for instance), to let the figure choose, or to let the choice fall randomly.

Do the players take the responsibility in their own hands, let fate decide, or let someone else take the control.

What I still need:
4. Test of Leadership
5. Test of Wisdom
6. Test of Courage
7. Test of Skill
8. Test of Mercy

Can anyone on the vast network of ENWorld help me? Thanks.

 

[ThorneMD]

bump

 

[godawful]

here's some hopefully not too stupid ideas:
test of leadership- make a player run a minigame (using miniatures) against a foe to protect a relic or king of the hill scenario? make it to where only a very well planned defense will overcome.

wisdom-some sort of arbitration scenario where they can't use detect thoughts or sense motive checks to resolve a dispute where both entities claim innocense over a terrible deed.

courage-some arena style combat with only a loincloth and a stick with a nail in it. i love this cliche'

skill-throw a rubik's cube in front of them and flip a 3 minute egg timer hehe well, using tangible props are cool, and if you can get a reasonably challenging one they can do fairly quickly, it's always fun

mercy-maybe have some really high cr creature battle the party, kill a pc, then he snaps out of it, saying he was geased or quested to kill the first person he saw and he has been imprisioned, now it's over and he's reeeeeeally sorry.

i know this doesn't quite help with the specific type of quests you bring up, and you may not have time to pull this off before your session, but as far as puzzle dungeons go.. i suggest you play SOULREAVER 2 on the playstation 2 console. what's cool is the amount of 3 dimensional puzzles you have to solve. most times, d&d puzzles are pretty 2 dimensional. this game makes you climb around to arrange objects which must all simultaneously reflect light onto a statue, or ride up and down platforms to be able to jump to your destination, ride up and down jets of air to get across a room, climb to a switch, hit it, enter the shadow dimension to enter the doorway that just appeared there... this is the holy grail of 3d/time/alternate dimension puzzles.

 

[amethal]

There are some good puzzles in the various Challenge of Champions adventures in Dungeon. Unfortunately I don't know which issues they were in (and basically they were far too hard for my players!)

 

[jdrakeh]

If you can find it, you may want to check out The Apocalypse Stone by Chris Pramas, as it contains a series of such challenges in it (some of which are quite clever, others of which you'll probably want to ignore).

 

[Bagpuss]

3. The Greater Good

In an otherwise empty room, they players are confronted with a figure (can be anything you want). They are given three options and must choose one; To completely eradicate a race on your world (like elves for instance), to let the figure choose, or to let the choice fall randomly.

Do the players take the responsibility in their own hands, let fate decide, or let someone else take the control.

This one doesn't work in D&D since the players just say something like Red Dragon's as they are all evil, and then say they want the XP for killing them all.

 

[Steverooo]

1. Intellect before Brawn

Enter a room. There is a 10' bridge spanning a chasm. Immediately, any spellcaster knows magic does not work here.
On the bridge stands a behemoth in black armor, with a terrible looking sword. It's eyes glow read as it darkly announces,
"Only a True Swordsman can defeat me."
The creature is not beatable by any means.
The solution: Sheathe your weapon and embrace the guardian, shake his hand, anything like that. If done so, the guardian nods, steps aside, and intones,
"Only a True Swordsman knows that there are things where a sword is useless."

A bad start, IMHO. By having the Guardian announce "Only a True Swordsman can defeat me.", it implies both that swords are the way, and that this is a test for a Fighter-type PC (which the PCs will conclude means high BAB and combat-prowess is required). Also, the "nuking" of PC abilities is generally bad design. It implies that the spellcasters are supposed to "sit this one out". Is that what you really wanted?

If not, move this to the "Test of Wisdom", and try this on for size:

You enter a room, as a metal sheet slides down to block the door behind you. No way out! There is a 10' bridge spanning a chasm. Immediately, any spellcaster knows that magic does not work here, due to an Anti-Magic effect.

On the bridge stands a massive, towering behemoth with six arms, clad in black armor, with a terrible-looking sword. It's eyes glow red as it darkly announces:

"Not by magic, might, nor stealth may I be passed!"

The creature is CR 20.

The solutions: There are many. Ask :Will you let me pass?", Sheathe your weapon and embrace the guardian, Shake his hand, Anything like that. If done so, the guardian nods, steps aside, and intones:

"Only Wisdom teaches that there are challenges where magic, might, and stealth will not win through. An Adventurer must often rely upon his own internal resources."

"Magic, might, nor stealth" pretty much rules out all the PC classes (although some might think that "Faith" = Cleric, Druid, Paladin, or Ranger). Instead of setting up the PCs to think that this puzzle requires swords & combat, this version implies that the obvious answers (Combat, Magic, and/or sneaking past) aren't going to work, this time!

Also, notice that I changed your "unbeatable opponent" to a "mere" CR 20 critter... It is not unbeatable, but the PCs probably can't defeat it! (They may get creative and do something unexpected, though, like sic their pet Rust Monster on it, or trip it so that it falls off the bridge!)

 

[Steverooo]

2. A measure of Greed

They are given 3 options

1. Receive a gem that can be priceless in value

2. Receive 5,000 GP (adjust depending on level) each now

3. Receive a map to a great treasure

When I did this the gem was something an alternate material plane race who was now extinct would have paid anything for. The $$$ was real, and the map was real (used to begin the next campaign).

Sorry? What is this supposed to be testing?

 

[jdrakeh]

This one doesn't work in D&D since the players just say something like Red Dragon's as they are all evil, and then say they want the XP for killing them all.

I think that he might mean a sentient, humanoid, race. Even so, you make a good point - in a world where alignments are strictly interpreted in terms of black and white, a world where all members of a given race actually are evil, mass genocide might be considered heroic. Willing the death of all Orcs in the world of Greyhawk, for example, would likely be viewed as a good deed by nearly all of that world's inhabitants. This actually has a lot to do with why (as a DM) I choose to ingore alignments in D&D, but that's a topic for another thread.

 

[Steverooo]

3. The Greater Good

In an otherwise empty room, they players are confronted with a figure (can be anything you want). They are given three options and must choose one; To completely eradicate a race on your world (like elves for instance), to let the figure choose, or to let the choice fall randomly.

Do the players take the responsibility in their own hands, let fate decide, or let someone else take the control.

Again, what is being tested? What does it have to do with the greater good? Will the figure choose to eradicate nothing, if the PCs refuse to choose? Is it evil??? What is being tested?