Welcome, Dungeon Master!

Don’t you just adore water puzzles? The fear in your players eyes as the water slowly rises, what a delicious time pressure!

Water can be boiled, frozen, diverted, drank, or drowned in. When I’m feeling particularly cruel I swap in MAGMA, SLIME, SAND or BLOOD. Throw in a few sharks and baby we’ve got a stew going.

The puzzles below can be used individually or combined into a dungeon: a sinking ship, an underwater tomb, a villain’s self-destructing volcanic lair.

Soundtrack: I made this Spotify soundtrack of aquatic puzzle music. Here is a water sound effect that you can slowly increase the volume as water approaches.

Water Puzzle #1. The Fountain

Fountain Dnd Puzzle — You enter a tall cylindrical chamber. Smooth marble walls reach high above and the door closes behind you, disappearing into the wall.
In the center of the room is a tall column that leads to a beautiful fountain. Water pours from the fountain and sprays down onto you before flowing out through grated drains in the floor.
There appears to be sunlight high above, how will you escape this well-ish chamber?

**Solutions:**
Block the drains so the liquid fills the room and swim to the exit.
Break the grates and get sucked through the drain. You’ll be launched into the air!
If your party comes up with another solution, that’s g̶r̶a̶t̶e̶ great!
This first puzzle is easy but very fun. When I tested this puzzle, I made it a blood fountain and my players loved/hated it.

Puzzle #2. Trouble with Your Pipes

A puzzle inspired by Pipes which you can play online. Print the pieces and cut them to create a puzzle grid.

You arrive at a locked door. A large fountain is beside you, a statue of a mermaid holding a vase that pours water onto the tiled floor. The tiles have channels cut into them. Each tile can be rotated.

Across the room, at the foot of the locked door is an empty basin.

Solution

To open the door, rotate the tiles so the water flows through a path.

Notes for the DM

Here is an empty grid you can print and use to make your own puzzles.

This puzzle has alternate rules like this version where all pipes must be used or this version where multiple basins must be filled to beat the level.

If you wanna get real weird with it, check out this Circular Variation and this 3 Fountain Map.

Water Puzzle #3. The Sleeping Wheels

In this puzzle, players must send water surging through pipes to awaken four waterwheels and open the colossal door.

Puzzle for D&D with four large water wheels, pipes and a huge locked door. — *Can you spy the missing lever?*

You step into a vast, flooded chamber. An immense door blocks your path. To it’s side, four colossal water wheels stand motionless like sleeping moss-covered giants. Above each wheel, a massive pipe stretches skyward, climbing up the wall like ivy. At the foot of each water wheel is a lever.

Iron Pipe: This first pipe has it’s lever down. Simply lift the heavy lever and the water will begin to flow.
Copper Pipe: This pipe has it’s lever up but water isn’t flowing!
Marble Pipe: This pipe is missing it’s lever! Find the lever (underwater or stuck inside pipe 4) or craft a makeshift lever. Lift this lever and water shoots out a hole! Patch this pipe to get the waterwheel moving.
Steel Pipe: This one is clogged! You must shoot something into the pipe or climb up to clear the obstruction (a body, treasure or something weird!)

As you lift the final lever, a torrent of water gushes from the pipe and the last water wheel begins to spin. Slowly the massive door creaks open revealing the dungeon beyond!

Players may find an alternate method to move the water wheels like climbing on them or using some spell. As a Goblin, I highly encourage cheating!

Difficult Variation
In this advanced version, the pipes contain: Water, Steam, Fuel and Sewage.
1. Water Pipe: Players must first find the lever for the water pipe
2. Steam Pipe: To make steam, you must first repair the water pipe, then start a fire in a large furnace. This will take some work as the furnace is wet.
3. Fuel Pipe: The fuel pipe has a hole that must be patched, otherwise it will fill the room with gas that will explode if the boiler is lit.
4. Sewage Pipe: The sewage pipe must be unclogged in time. Otherwise it begins to rattle and will burst!

Even More Difficult Variation!

In this version, pipes are labeled with Morse code!
Water: .-- .- - . .-.
Steam: ... - . .- --
Fuel: ..-. ..- . .-..
Sewage: ... . .-- .- --. .
To decode the labels, your players will find a dead body holding a note that includes a Morse code translation. Print this note, wet it, and give it to your players to use as a codex.

Water Puzzle #4. Reflecting Pools

In this puzzle there are 8 reflective pools of water. You players must spot the difference between the reflections and real life to find the pool that leads to the exit.

You enter a large, tranquil chamber bathed in blue light.
Set into the floor are eight pools of water. On the surface of each pool you see a reflection of the room above. High above you is a vaulted ceiling with a beautiful painted mural.
There appears to be no way out from this room. However, looking deep into the water, you see a door at the bottom of each pool.

Water puzzle for D&D. Use reflections to find the exit pool in this dungeon! — **Mural:**
Looking up, you see a beautiful mural painted on the vaulted ceiling above. In the mural, an angel is surrounded by eight doors. She holds a scroll in her right hand on which you can read the words:
**“Look at me and I look at you. I never speak a word but I always tell the truth.”**
answer

Solution:

Looking into the eight pools, players must find the one with an accurate reflection. All other pools are traps!

Pools are based on the 8 schools of magic. The spell “Detect Magic” may help solve the puzzle.

Divination Pool - In this reflection the angel is weeping. Touch this water and the most tragic moment of your life! This causes severe psychic damage.
Conjuration Pool - In this reflection the snakes in the mural slowly begin to move. Look into this pool for too long and the snakes will swim out from the reflection and attack! Enter this water and be surrounded by snakes!
Enchantment - Looking into this pool, everything looks accurate but it hypnotically swirls. You’ll need to break the enchantment or fall in and drown!
Illusion Pool - In this reflection you see yourself with everything you ever wanted. Riches, love, anything! But it’s not real, there is no pool here, just a floor.
Abjuration Pool - This reflection is perfectly accurate. Enter this pool and you may exit.
Transmutation Pool - This pool gives the room a greenish hue. Touch the water and it will transform into acid, lava, blood, poison, ice and cause damage.
Necromancy Pool - In this reflection the angel has grown old and died. As you look at her body it slowly looks at you. She flies toward you and out of the water, crawls the body of someone you killed. (Insert a guard or some villain your players killed who they now must fight again.)
Evocation Pool - In this pool, you see an accurate reflection but the water feels warm. It gets hot. Touch it and it begins to boil.

Water Puzzle #5. Wizardly Waterfall

This simple puzzle was beloved by my players. Play a fun song as they ride the waterfall up the mountain.

You are at the foot of a raging waterfall. The cliff wall is too slippery to climb. You notice some obscure language carved into the stone…
“Take a cup, fill it up. What goes down, must go up.”

Solution:

Drink a cup of the water and the waterfall will reverse direction allowing you to ride it to the top!

As always - if players find another solution, go with it.

Notes for the Dungeon Master:

Make it fun:

Play an energetic song and vividly describe the moment your party is swept into the current and careens up the waterfall!

Swap out the language:

“You see the glow of Dwarvish runes carved into the cliff.”

One of your players will remember they speak Dwarvish! Hand that player a piece of paper with the riddle written on it.

You can substitute Dwarvish for an elegant Elvish script or a scrawl of goblin writing. Players always love to use their random languages.

No cup? No problem:

Your players may not have a cup! No problem, nearby they’ll find or make a cup-shaped rock. If they want to cup their hands, that works too.

Water Puzzle #6. Moonlight Ritual

Your players may even meet a God in this temple providing a chance to level up or get some epic loot.

The light of the moon shines just to the side of the water basin in this Dungeons and Dragons puzzle — You enter a beautiful temple and find this message in the stained glass:
**“When the light of the full moon shines into the Holy pool, you shall meet God.”**
The bad news is yesterday was the full moon! The beam of moonlight is *just* missing the pool of holy water. Will you wait a month for the next full moon?

Solutions:

Use a shiny surface (armour/weapon/coin) to reflect the moonlight into the pool.
Push the pool into the moonlight.
Wait a full month for the next full moon!

Notes for the Dungeon Master:

Succeeding in this puzzle can simply open a door or the beam of moonlight can hit the reflecting pool and split into a rainbow which illuminates the room and starts the Stained Glass Puzzle!

Water Puzzle #7. Water Jug Puzzle

Die Hard Water Jugs Math Puzzle — *Watch your players relive math test trauma with this puzzle from* *Die Hard 3*

You find a massive bomb ready to blow! To disarm the bomb you must place the correct amount of water on a scale.

Question 1. Medium Difficulty

You have two jugs. One is 3 gallons and the other is 4 gallons. You must place exactly 2 gallons on the scale.

Question 2. Die Hard

You have two jugs. A 3 gallon and a 5 gallon jug.

You must place a jug with exactly 4 gallons on the scale. You may pour out or refill jugs in a fountain.

Question 3. Very Hard

You have a 12 gallon jug of dragon milk and two empty jugs of 8 and a 5 gallons.

You must place a jug containing 6 gallons of milk on both sides of the scale. You may not spill or refill jugs.

Solution 1.

Pour the 3 jug into the 4 jug once and you’ll leave 1 gallon of empty space. (3 plus negative 4 equals negative 1)

Do it again and you’ll have 2 gallons remaining in the smaller jug. (3 plus negative 1 equals 2!)

Solution 2.

Pour the 5 jug into the 3 jug leaving 2 gallons.

Pour those 2 gallons into the 3 jug and leaving 1 gallon of space.

Pour the 5 jug into that gallon of space and and you have exactly 4 gallons!

5-3=2 3-2=1 5-1=4

Solution 2.

(12, 0, 0)
(4, 8, 0) – pour from 12 into 8
(4, 3, 5) – pour from 8 into 5
(9, 3, 0) – pour from 5 into 12
(9, 0, 3) – pour from 8 into 5
(1, 8, 3) – pour from 12 into 8
(1, 6, 5) – pour from 8 into 5
(6, 6, 0) – pour from 5 into 12

Credit for this solution

More water puzzles are in the works, Leave a comment below to let me know how these went at your table! Subscribe at the bottom of this page to get more free puzzles in your inbox.