Puzzles vs. Puzzle Monsters

I generally am not a big fan of puzzles in D&D. I tend not to run many, except if they’re in a published adventure I am using. But I do like running puzzle monsters—monsters, that is, which have a puzzle element to their statblock. Puzzle monsters can bring a sense of exploration to a combat scene and shake up the monotony of constantly fighting to the last adventurer or monster standing.

Puzzle Monster: The Vorthropod (Tome of Beasts 3)

The Vorthropod is a lava lobster. It is one of those fantastically unique and weird monsters from Kobold Press, and it has a clear puzzle element in its stat block. The Vorthropod has two states: molten and hardened. When it is outside of lava for too long, its shell hardens. While hardened it becomes slower, its AC increases and it gains vulnerability to bludgeoning damage. It becomes molten again if it touches lava or takes fire damage. While molten touching the Vorthropod means taking fire damage.

For the PCs fighting the Vorthropod this means making tactical decisions: Should we keep the Vorthropod hardened or molten? Which weapons can we use most effectively in its current state?

Revealing the puzzle in the monster

For most puzzles in D&D, when we reveal the solution, the puzzle is over. For puzzle monsters, however, when we tell the players what’s going on, the challenge only begins!

We tell the players early on in the fight (perhaps after the first PC’s turn) about the puzzle element of the monster. In the case of the Vorthropod, the first PC acts and all the characters notice the changing shell of the monster. We actually tell them the mechanical changes of a hardened and molten shell, so that they can make informed decisions about fighting it.

Trap Monster: The Hydra

The hydra is a classic puzzle monster. Or perhaps its better described as a trap monster. Chop off one of its five heads, and two more grow in its stead. Mechanically, this happens whenever the hydra takes 25 or more damage in a single turn, unless the hydra takes fire damage.

Here we can play a little more with hiding the puzzle element because it’s less complex than the Vorthropod hardened/molten shell. The characters only notice additional heads growing after the first head was chopped off. In fact, we can tell the players that when they deal less than 25 damage in a turn, they can see the one head almost being chopped. Then, when they concentrate their efforts on dealing more damage in a single turn, they experience the horror of seeing additional heads growing.

That’s what makes the hydra more of a trap monster than a puzzle monster: It has hidden features which reveal their detrimental effects over the course of a combat.

Improvising puzzle monsters

How can we take the idea of puzzle monsters and use them spontaneously at the table? Sometimes, we might want to spice up a combat without having a puzzle monster statblock at hand! Let’s first take the idea of the vorthropod and distill it down to the basics. Here’s how to improvised a “dual state” puzzle monster:

• The monster has two forms with slightly different statistics in each, like the molten/hardened shell of the vorthropod.
• Come up with a pair of binary states for the monster. For example: hard/soft, enraged/serene, flying/grounded, charging/releasing, enchanted/mundane.
• Then improvise changes to statistics which fit each of the two states, like adjusting AC, resistances/vulnerabilities, extra damage on attacks, spell resistance, or a damaging aura.
• Lastly, come up with what makes the puzzle monster change state. For example: heat/cold, wet/dry, concentrating/not-concentrating, a certain amount of damage taken in a single round, a certain type of damage taken…
• Tell the players these details about the dual state after the first character’s turn.

Improvising trap monsters

We can also improvise trap monsters! They require a hidden feature which provides a setback for the characters back in the middle of combat. Here’s the steps to improvising a trap monster:

• The monster has a hidden feature which the characters trigger and which they can disable.
• Come up with the hidden feature. For example: extra heads/claws/tails grow, gain an extra attack, deal extra damage, unlock a breath weapon, summon minions, unlock a teleport ability…
• Decide what logically triggers and disables the hidden feature. For example: dealing a certain amount of damage in a single turn, dealing a certain damage type, being close to the monster, moving while within sight of the monster, making ranged attacks against the monster, casting spells at the monster…
• Reveal the trap once it’s triggered, and drop hints about how to disable it, if necessary.

Mixing combat and exploration

Using simple puzzle monsters or trap monsters, allows us to inject variety into an otherwise one-dimensional combat encounter. We’re spicing up combat with a pinch of exploration. The dynamics of the combat encounter change, and players get to figure out how to deal with the puzzle monster or trap monster.