Figuring out an old puzzle

[SnowleopardVK]

The game I encountered this puzzle in has long since finished, and we never really solved it. We figured out bits and pieces, but still have no idea why they worked as they did. I think it might be a cool thing to reuse if I can figure out how it worked though.

Okie dokie, for the setup: We were in a dungeon and came to a large room with a statue of a warrior multiple stories high. There were three "windows" in the statue, one on his sword, one on his shield, and one on the boot of the foot he was stepping towards us with, each window was made of some sort of magic energy. (The high-up ones on the sword and shield had walkways up to them carved into the statue).

The statue had a little dedication marking him as a great warrior who was incredibly paranoid, and who refused to let all but the weakest people into his sanctuaries for fear that even an average one might get lucky and kill him. I think it also said he was "strong of body, but not mind or charm" or something like that.

Well our party at the time, a Fighter, Paladin, Ranger, and Sorcerer (we also had a druid but he was absent that session if I remember correctly) came to the room and looked through the windows into the room beyond. There were six somewhat-fearsome looking monsters through them. We tried breaking the windows, and shooting through them but nothing worked. Then we tried touching them.

Well for the first three of us, they were all completely solid, but the Sorcerer's hand went right through the windows on the sword and shield, and the moment it did each time a blast of energy shot from his hand and hit one of the monsters in the room ahead. One was killed on the spot and one was nearly so judging from how fast we took it down later.

He wasn't able to get through the boot window though. None of us were. Presumably it would have done the same thing as the other two, and being able to reach through all three windows would have cut the upcoming threat in half. In the end we passed through the door and simply fought the remaining four monsters, leaving the puzzle of the last window unsolved behind us.

I have no idea what was stopping us from getting through the third window, or even what was allowing the sorcerer to get through the first two. At the time I'd asked the DM not to tell me the answer afterwards because I wanted to keep thinking about it, but he's since moved and I've lost contact with him.

Any ideas on what the answer might have been?

 

[Mishihari Lord]

It seems likely that each window required a particular ability score to be low to pass through it. By an odd coincidence the web comic "Goblins: Life in their eyes" just had something very similar in it.

 

[TDRandall]

You don't give edition (I'll go 3rd) nor races for the characters (all humans?), but working with parallels to the window locations my guess would be:

Sword - Low BAB required?
Shield - Low AC?
Foot - Slow speed maybe, but not by encumbrance (which would imply more power)? So perhaps a with a lower base speed would have gone through?

 

[SnowleopardVK]

It seems likely that each window required a particular ability score to be low to pass through it. By an odd coincidence the web comic "Goblins: Life in their eyes" just had something very similar in it.

*reads entire webcomic*

Gah, where did all those hours go?

Okay, yes that seems possible. It fits with the bit about him only allowing the weakest through.

I don't remember exact abillity scores but it said he was strong of body so... Str, Dex, and Con would match to sword, boot, and shield. I wouldn't be surprised if the sorcerer had low Str and Con. I also wouldn't be surprised if none of us had low dex. Very possible...

I wouldn't be surprised if the DM had borrowed something from a webcomic, but the ability score window thing looks like it was a pretty recent thing in Goblins. This game happened quite a while ago.

[MENTION=4808]TDRandall[/MENTION]: Uhm... It was either 3.5 of Pathfinder. Can't remember. The fighter was human, the paladin was a half-orc, the ranger was a half-elf, the sorcerer was an aasimar, and the not-present druid was a gnome.

 

[Wycen]

If it was Pathfinder it can't be THAT long ago

Maybe the sorcerer's bloodline gave him the needed quality?

 

[onedtwelve]

I thought Ability score when I read it too. And I'd say that it would be Str Dex and Con. The fighter and ranger would likely have some Str and Con while the sorcerer wouldn't necessarily and all would have Dex, especially if it was a Dex based sorcerer (are there Dex based sorcerers?).

I think that solves your puzzle, and if not, it at least gives you one that looks and acts the same. Put a window on his forehead for Int, one on his eye for Wis and one on his lips for Cha.

 

[SnowleopardVK]

Our druid might have had low, or low-ish dex (forgive me for not remembering party member's ability scores). It would make sense then that our DM planned for us to be able to reach through all three and the absent player threw him off.