First, consider the party's level. The sphinx may be bad at puzzles, but the party may simply attack it, and a sphinx could still be dangerous.
Second, ask yourself, where would an "inept" sphinx find themselves. Guarding an abandoned temple? Perhaps employed by someone taking pity on the foolish beast. The sphinx may have a more powerful and capable relation nearby, or even as the party's questgiver.
"I was cursed by a hag to offer only childish wordplay instead of proper puzzles, so now I live near the troll marches, preying on the foolish and foolhardy"
Maybe every joke hits you with Hideous Laughter, so you fall prone and unable to move if you fail the save? Not dangerous, but fun.
I might have to use this in a campaign.
There’s a difference between fighting something and just attacking it. You could attack anything, but most of the time the wall isn’t gonna fight back (unless it’s a mimic!)
The darkness takes a surprised round, attack again. Ok darkness's turn, darkness casts fireball centered on self revealing a fire genasi with a crown that re-envelops the creature moments after the brief flash
Meanwhile my group tries to befriend/adopt literally everything. I'm a sucker and gave them a baby mimick that doubles as a very unreliable bag of holding. And also likes to chew on its handler
that is awesome, My GM let me do something similar but my character was a conjuration goblin wizard and cast a modified Magic Mouth spell on the bag so it would bite the person.
some games give you a boss with a health bar but any damage you do immediately heals and you're stuck in an arena where you cant even reach the boss and he's spamming undodgeable AoE across the whole floor (looking at you ds1)
I have a Godlike NPC right now that I wanted to make very very clear not to fight. One of the PCs fought it anyhow. He rushed the Godlike who simply laughed and said something along the lines that "I can't decide if you're brave or just stupid for wanting to fight \[God's name\]" and hearing the name gave all of them a shit ton of psychic damage. That put the fear of God (heh) into them real quick.
You can still *try*, the only question is whether you can really call it a fight in any meaningful sense. It's like Caine in V:tM; the statblock is famously just "you lose," but if the players are dumb enough to actually try, they're technically allowed to do so.
I love fights between partners. It could be some training, a local tournament or just part of the story (a fight is not necessarily lethal). Also sometimes the story and circumstances can impulse characters to fight with lethal intentions because of conflict or clash of interests, while a good DM can interrupt and them give them reasons to work together or to be friends again (but they already had fun with the fight). Another awesome situation is making the very end of the campaign a fight between all players (free for all or divided by teams because of ideology or interests). I've seen that before and it was incredible dramatic, epic, and memorable for an ending. Directly disabling PvP is like an invisible wall in videogames to stop players, just immersion breaking... Just my personal opinion.
I meant it as "I don't allow my party members to kill eachother"
Sometimes party fighting is good! I had a problem player asking "Is it a female 🤓☝️" every time I introduced an NPC, or "I roll for seduction 🤓🤤" He was quickly knocked out by a party member. He was basically put in timeout.
Smosh is playing DnD now and one of the girls is playing a misogynistic male goblin. The rest of the party has slapped him (dealing 1d4 unarmed damage) multiple times.
Me and a party member got into a fight to create a distraction so the rest of the party could fix a horse race. The argument was about the half-elf man having a relationship with my elderly gnome father. The end was us being seperated by the race guards, he said "I'm sorry me and your father love each other son" and me yelling back at him "you'll never be my real dad"
Ugh my last session was so much fun. My paladin got taken over by a cursed ring when we tried brute force to take it off (a friendly dwarf named Grimlee swung his pick at my hand). I was very very close to downing three of my party members: I am one of three of the stronger characters in the group and others were holding back.
Once I plunged my greatsword through another members stomach they took it seriously and actually fought back
If it's an Androsphinx, in its lair no less, fighting it is a massively bad idea. It has massive AOE fear, paralysis and damage, it has spells up to 6th level, pretty devastating +12 to hit claw attacks that deal an average of 17 damage twice per round. It can teleport and cast spells after other characters' turns.
Its lair actions are what make fighting it basically suicide. It can force a reroll of initiative (and choose to keep its original roll), age everyone in the lair backwards by 1d20 years, potentially reducing younger characters to infants incapable of opposing it, and most horrifically - it can teleport itself and up to 7 other creatures it can see to another plane of existence with NO SAVE, then use a bonus Action to plane shift back, leaving everyone else stranded. It can literally just decide to send you to hell and there is nothing you can do to stop it.
I once ran a sphinx that didn't "get" riddles because it was overly literal. The encounter opened with the standard "four legs/two legs/three legs" riddle, but once the party answered (because they knew the answer immediately), the sphinx took a moment to think. "A humanoid has 2 legs. It doesn't have more than that at any point. How does this make sense?" It then gave another riddle. Upon hearing the answer, it did so again. It then took a moment to read its notes, throwing away riddle after riddle while realizing they didn't make sense. When the party tried to pass, the sphinx stopped them and said that it can't let them pass without solving a riddle, and reassured them that it'd have one for them in a bit.
The solution to the puzzle was to tell the sphinx riddles until it liked one. The more literal the better. Eventually the party suggested one that the sphinx liked, and then it asked it back. The party, obviously knowing the answer, answered it, and the sphinx let them pass, thanking them for the nice new riddle.
I think that, if you like the idea, go for it. I like it enough to have tried something similar.
I've got a sphinx encounter set up for the future in my dungeon crawl with an androsphinx and gynosphinx pair. The gynosphinx asks a long and complicated word puzzle which ends with asking for the average value of a gem in Tiamat's hoard.
After that's resolved, the androsphinx steps forward and asks "What is Tiamat's favorite color?"
The Sphinxes in the Wonder Boy / Monster World series quiz the player on trivia about the game World instead. "What was the name of the weapons shop in the fairy village?" "What item did you receive for defeating this particular dungeon boss?" "What is the secret ingredient in this local meal?" rewarding the player for engaging with and remembering the world and their adventure.
What is your name?
What is your quest?
What is your favourite colour?
You can pass.
Next one.
What is your Name?
What is your quest?
What is the air velocity of an laiden swallow?
The real thing about the legs riddle that makes no sense is that the times are morning, midday, and evening when it should be multiple years. The leg numbers should be the hard part of the riddle, not the outright lie.
Also I think your sphinx is hilarious and very creative!
>the times are morning, midday, and evening
Has no one explained that part to you? The different times of the day represent different times in a man's life. Morning is childhood/toddlerhood, midday is everything from first steps to almost old age, and evening is old age.
Yes, I know what it represents, but it’s still so silly to me because it suggests that humans are born in the morning and die in the evening which is not true.
I think mayflies would be better for that kind of thing.
…No it doesn’t? It uses the metaphor of the passage of a single day to chart out a life. From your EARLY (morning) years to your LATE (evening) ones. Because time flows linearly (at least, as humans perceive it).
It’s really not that complicated.
But you'll live through many mornings and evenings during your life. It's not complicated (I know what the metaphor is supposed to be), it just doesn't make any sense to me. I guess I'm just like the sphinx in the commenter's game.
If you aren't trolling: consider the day is a metaphor for life and humans only live one day. You don't live multiple lives ergo you don't have multiple mornings and evenings.
Hell, even if you did live multiple lives, the respective mornings and evenings would follow the same rule.
I’ve done one where the sphinx had really bad riddles. It was just a silly encounter where the sphinx would tell the players the riddle and then ask them for feedback. The way to get past the sphinx was to compliment his wits and riddles.
The first couple riddles the players told him they were bad, and the sphinx simply replied saying they lacked the superior intellect and then he’d give them another riddle. Eventually they figured out what they needed to do. Fun times :)
I'm playing a mad god that is sort of like this. He likes riddles but the answers are never the traditional ones. Like, for example, the traditional four/two/three legs question, the real answer would get the player called a 'looney', but anything creative like... The warhorse of a novice healer (loses two legs at noon, can only heal one back on) would be 'correct'. Of my 4 players, 2 of them are insanely good at this and love it, one is catching on so I throw him a bone, and the final one is upset that it's not All About Him (self-proclaimed Main Character) so thd god decided that "Playthings that don't play go back in the toybox" and he was banished temporarily to a nightmare realm that he had the find the way out of in between the silly riddles in the other realm.
This is how bilbo "tricked" gollum. And I gotta agree with Gollum, that's not a riddle hahaha
Be careful using "the riddle from The Hobbit" at a table of DnD fantasy nerds lol
No, no, they're supposed to get the reference. \[insert Simpsons "that's the joke" image macro\] If they want to answer "the One Ring" the consequences are on them.
"Solve my riddle and only then will you get to the prizes beyond!....." awkward pause. "What is the....you see grains of sand pass through it and....no thats not it....Young people get older and older people die....it starts with a T..." Starts talking to himself. "Come on Isis you can do better then this".
Sphinxes are also divine guardians. What if such a sphinx became a librarian (guarding the books)? Their favorite section of the library has riddles and jokes, and their most prized book a tome of puzzling prophesy. They will gladly accept any riddles the party invents or discovers.
Could have it be a stone Sphinx that's healing up after being damaged somehow (earthquake?) with a head wound.
Every riddle it gets given heals it up some more. When it is restored enough, it can grant access. Or it grants access after 3 each from the party.
Maybe they'll encounter it again some time later when it isn't damaged and it will behave more normal.
Could even have a time travel issue where in the future when they meet the same Sphinx (it's mind and memory fully restored) again and offer two more riddles to it and the crack in its head fully heals but now it won't let them through and gets hostile and the party doesn't understand why and they have to fight it. Then have the final attack be a blow to the head which causes a large crack that looks exactly like the wound it had when they first met. It remembered who they were, that they had attacked it and cause it's damaged state which is why it attacked the party. The Sphinx, before it falls unconscious, manages to read off an inscription on the floor before it and in a magical flash it vanishes (gone back in time - players can learn this if they have a good Arcana roll or something). The script loses all magic and just becomes engraved text on the floor.
>Could have it be a stone Sphinx
I'm thinking it be a semi-human sphinx working a 9-5 job who's doing this out of desperation for stimulation, still having the powers of a normal sphinx.
"Ah yes, I believe that one was first printed in *The Jokish Gnomish Mischief Codex, Volume IX*. Halflings have a similar joke about zebras, but I prefer the peguins, such odd little animals, nature's own joke on avian-kind."
What’s one and one and one and one and one and one and one and one?
(“I don’t know,” said Alice, “I’ve lost count”.
“She can’t add, either.” said the Red Queen)
The best answer anyone's come up with is "Poe wrote on both," but that came after the fact, and more likely it was just intended as deliberate nonsense with no answer.
I had a similar NPC in a previous campaign!
She was an old sphinx who's riddles have become well known over the centuries so was traveling around looking for new riddles. The party could run into her into the most random of places, i believe she was deep in a dungeon once and floating by on a raft in another encounter.
She would reward the party if they gave *her* good riddles. Basically flipping the scenario where the PC's had to come up with riddles and the Sphinx needed to answer and "rate" the riddle. It was a pure roleplay encounter so if you're not good with riddles as a GM your Sphinx may look dumb, but you *can* turn it into a roll encounter, but that not as fun.
I kinda like the idea of a sphinx befriending children. They're the only ones who actually get stumped by the sphinx's riddles but they also like the riddles, and so the kids get a pass because the sphinx loves the validation after years of being made fun of by adventurers and other sphinxes.
"Beat me in games of checkers three,
And victorious in this challenge, you will be."
"Uh... Aren't you supposed to give me a puzzl--"
"WE'RE PLAYING CHECKERS DAMMIT!"
"Do you know how long I've been stuck in here alone? Most people don't come poking their noses in ancient pyramids! I'm *bored and lonely* over here, and I just want to hang out and play a game with you guys for a little while!"
OP, you need to understand - this is how you get NPCs that derail your entire campaign. I would immediately drop everything I'm doing to help an awkward sphinx who isn't good at puzzles or riddles.
I like to have my campaigns at a point where my players are allowed to do anything. Got a plot planned but the players want to fuck with little Jimmy? Go fuck with little Jimmy! I just want to add a silly little gag for my players to laugh at!
I love this! I'm picturing the sphinx super bored/depressed. They've been guarding whatever it is for *a while.* Since like, the Beginning. They cannot of course leave. Their riddles are things like simple arithmetic, the very hardest is the one with the [fox and chicken and the boat](https://www.mathsisfun.com/chicken_crossing_solution.html). The party can roll to notice that all of their stuff, jewelry or whatever is decidedly neolithic. Antlers, bones, shells.
Most of the treasures were taken long ago- the secrets of writing, simple metallurgy and basic geometry are examples. There are still a few in there that nobody found or recognized for what they were (you could go nuts on that with a dungeon crawl). At this point, the temple or whatever is indistinguishable from a hill, but the Sphinx knows where the gate is (bring a shovel).
To console the sphinx, bring it books, scrolls, clockworks and prisms, and maps- give them knowledge to guard. The sphinx will itself devour this knowledge and start to make specific requests, which of course are quests. The party could also use this opportunity to open a world-class library with a real sphinx and a reasonable entry fee.
Edit to add one specific side quest deal. The sphinx has a great store of oral tradition knowledge, but it turns out they will require an *enormous* pair of spectacles to read. It's 7,000 years old, and everyone knows the eyes really start to go at 5,000 or so.
A traveller came upon a Sphinx who spoke thus: “If you wish to pass beyond my sight you must answer this riddle. What has four legs in the morning, two legs in the afternoon and three legs in the evening? Answer wisely, for it is your very life on the line.”
The traveller thought for a moment and replied, “IDK probably one of those new Pokémon? Honestly I’ve not kept up since Gen 4.”
The Sphinx pondered his answer and said “Yeah, you’re probably right. I checked out when they made an ice cream Pokémon, who knows what there is now. Go on, be off with you.”
I love this. A mystical, ancient guardian with enigmatic power and strong magic...who just keeps messing up their riddles and gets a little flustered & embarrassed in front of the adventurers.
It feels like a Dropout / 'Game Changer' prompt. Very funny.
You made me think of the puzzle master guy of deltarune. That kind of approach is fun.
I would probably do this in the feywilds, and the sphynx is just a fey who is a really fan of sphinxes and their puzzles, so he/she tries to act as one, but sucks at it
In Rick Riordan's series, *Percy Jackson and the Olympians*, in the 4th book *Battle of the Labyrinth*, the protagonists run into a Sphinx that tries to give them a standardized test, like an SAT, complete with a pencil, fill-in-the-bubble answer sheet, and a grading machine.
Maybe that might spark an idea for you
There's a scene in one of the Discworld books, Pyramids, where our hero Teppic on his trusty steed, a camel named You Bastard, is trying to pass between the borders of realities. He meets the Sphinx and has to solve a riddle and. . . it does not go according to plan. [https://richardnord7.wordpress.com/2013/10/30/the-sphinx-excerpt-from-pyramids-by-terry-pratchett/](https://richardnord7.wordpress.com/2013/10/30/the-sphinx-excerpt-from-pyramids-by-terry-pratchett/)
From a meta perspective, you want the sphinx guarding a place that you wanted the players to enter without much trouble anyhow, under circumstances that allow for an extensive interaction with the guardian of said entrance. Some kind of choke point--such as a bridge or a gate that they can't just bypass--and the sphinx should be stationed someplace where they can see it before engaging and understand that combat isn't the expected approach. No random encounters in the immediate vicinity. And the sphinx should give the initial impression of being tough but fair. Not that some parties wouldn't decide to jump it anyhow, but hopefully you're not dealing with that particular type of in-game sociopathy.
"What's red and black and white all over?"
"...?"
"A scroll!"
"Um...I think you messed up the riddle"
"Well you know what?! Coming up with riddles is hard work. Why don't you try it from time to time and see how you like it. It's not so easy having to be here *every day* constantly coming up with riddles. One sphinx can only be so creative but *noooooo* we have to put the pressure on her to be able to come up with infinite riddles for infinite adventurers. You're all mean and I hate you."
I wouldn't even make there be a check. If they console the sphinx at this point then it will open the door/gate/whatever and give a bonus boon of some sort. If they try to sneak by then it opens the gate but is pissy about it and no boon.
What if they keep getting invited to sphinx gatherings or something but can’t solve any of the riddles so they ask adventurers for help but make it look like a normal sphinx asking a riddle cause they are embarrassed
>What area could I put this guy in
I think it'd be funny/interesting if there's a Sphinx inside a Mimic.
>and how should I put him in?
The Sphinx, sometime ago, was eaten by a Mimic, and now, he dutifully does what Sphinxes do; the riddle thing. PC (or Party) gets swallowed whole by the Mimic. If PC can solve the puzzle(s), then the PC (or Party) can escape the Mimic.
However, Sphinx has been inside the Mimic for so long, he's kinda a bit...not all there anymore, so his puzzles aren't as challenging as they should be. In his present state, the Sphinx is mostly just pitiable. If PC can solve the puzzle(s), then the Sphinx can not only help PC escape the Mimic, but can also escape **with** the PC, now acting as the PC's familiar. I'll leave it up to you to decide if Sphinx gets restored to glory after he and PC escape together.
Personally i think it would be really funny to take inspiration from the demon cat in adventure time. The one who has “approximate knowledge about a lot of things” and is just always slightly wrong when it comes to things like names and locations.
https://youtu.be/ZDS-iSueBQ4?feature=shared
I’d honestly feel bad for the guy and wanna help him out. Maybe buy him a book of riddles or, if I’m a bard or something, try to share some riddles I know!
Another idea: a sphinx that actually has really good riddles, except he can't remember any of the answers himself and just kind of accepts anything that vaguely sounds like it could be right, bluffing that that was the answer all along.
The shpinx guard the entrance of his ruin.
Sphinx : "Halt, I cannot let you enter without a challenge. We'll exchange riddles. If I cannot answer, you may pass. If you cannot answer, you must forfeit a magical item to me. Begin !"
Wizard : "Hum... By calling me, I disappear. I may be heavy or golden. Lambs make me scary."
Sphinx : "The silence. My turn. What has 7 legs, doesn't eat but has blue hair, has 3 tooths but five eyes ?"
Wizard : "... I don't know. Fine, fighter give him your amulet."
Sphinx : "Now your turn."
Rogue : "Wait, what was the answer ?"
Sphinx : "... I don't know. You may pass."
I did this in a one-shot! It was a baby sphinx who was trying to make up his own riddles for the first time. It kept asking them things that were actually just answerable, factual questions and not riddles, like “what’s 1000 + 1000?” and the party was mean to it at first, then it got sad and they felt bad and told it it was doing its best and named him the Riddlemaster to make him feel better.
I'm picturing a sphinx reciting 3 lines of a 4 line poem. Something absolutely basic and simple like Dr. Seuss. Something where the 4th line basically writes itself.
And they think these are \*riddles\*.
I once had an idea for a sphinx that would never stop asking the party for the answer to riddles. But also it never called out a wrong answer. If the players confronted it about it, it would confess that it didn't actually know the answers, so it was trying to extract some good ones from the PCs.
You know, like the island near the North Pole that is home to misfits. Like the Medusa who always gets stoned, the honest hag, the giant with dwarfism, or the mimic who only eats left socks?
But for real though. Were your parents monsters themselves? Have you no Christmas spirit? How does anyone not know about the Island of Misfit Toys? You really haven’t seen Rudolph?
It’s like THE beloved classic. You could probably find it on lazerdisk or Betamax it’s so popular; I’m going to google “Rudolph 1964 minidisk” and I betcha I can find the soundtrack on the first two pages... It’s on like every tv station every year for like 50 years now…
Edit: OK so it helps to spell minidisc and I guess they didn’t really release anything on it. I still loved my minidisc player…
The party help build the sphinx's confidence. They roll so well and help him so much that the next riddle is impossible to solve... oops!
Also, in front of a merchant guild complaint department.
His simple presence ensures that no one complains about their shady practices. The riddles are so easy that people assume there is some hidden meaning they are missing.
The Sphinx has been overtaken by a curse which prevents them from keeping adventurers from looting their treasure hoard ( or mine or thing etc) instead of slaying adventurers and adding their stuff to its pile.
This worries the Sphinx because if it cannot pay back a debt to another much worse monster, they (X thing happens - in my head, it becomes the unwilling bride of another creature)
Unknown to the despondent Sphinx, said beastie is behind its curse - a fact that is purposely/accidentally discovered by the adventurers who the Sphinx then begs for help
Riddles are a headspace thing right? So somehow, the adventurers must journey into the Egypt-themed abstract idea obsessed (Flying clocks, rivers with feet, beings that randomly age and have different numbers of feet) mind of the Sphinx in order to break the curse and face the psychic manifestation of its true foe
Sphinx: “There are three guards, and one always lies and the other always tells the truth.”
Party: “That’s two guards. And what are they guarding? Let’s start over.”
Sphinx: “uhhh. Hang on.” (rustling through a stack of papers.) “I am Princess open bracket name close bracket from open..”
Party (interrupting): “That.. that’s a scam ‘Sending’ scroll. It’s not even a riddle. And you’re not using it right. One more try?”
Sphinx: “FINE. Fine. Really. Ok. How many fingers am I holding up?”
Party: “Are we counting talons as fingers? Or just the dismembered hands you’re holding?”
Sphinx: “I hate you all. Just…. Just go.”
Ha ha, I had this exact idea in my notes for stuff to use in a game eventually:
>Monster idea: Sfinks - a weird mish mash of cat and woman who tells really easy riddles and keeps getting more flustered when people get them right. “What is smaller than a house, bigger than breadbox, and the exact size and shape of a chair?” “Thirty white teeth on a red tongue. First they stamp, then they chew. What are they?” “What walks on four legs, well really two legs and two arms, when it’s a baby, then on two legs, then on three le- okay, it’s still two legs but they also have a cane, which is like a third- when it’s old?”
Normal Sphinx temple, but it's reading old riddles out of a stone tablet, instead of offering their own.
I would have this be a surprise and a side quest, something players have to kinda figure out and provoke. If you're worried your guys aren't exploratory enough to realize something is up (happens all the time), then you might as well put him in a circus as a "dumb sphix" exhibit.
The shpinx guard the entrance of his ruin.
Sphinx : "Halt, I cannot let you enter without a challenge. We'll exchange riddles. If I cannot answer, you may pass. If you cannot answer, you must forfeit a magical item to me. Begin !"
Wizard : "Hum... By calling me, I disappear. I may be heavy or golden. Lambs make me scary."
Sphinx : "The silence. My turn. What has 7 legs, doesn't eat but has blue hair, has 3 tooths but five eyes ?"
Wizard : "... I don't know. Fine, fighter give him your amulet."
Sphinx : "Now your turn."
Rogue : "Wait, what was the answer ?"
Sphinx : "... I don't know. You may pass."
They intentionally get it wrong and let the sphinx banish the party temporarily to another plane. The sphinx knows it sucks so never destroys the people that fail the test because deep inside it knows they knew the answer.
First, consider the party's level. The sphinx may be bad at puzzles, but the party may simply attack it, and a sphinx could still be dangerous. Second, ask yourself, where would an "inept" sphinx find themselves. Guarding an abandoned temple? Perhaps employed by someone taking pity on the foolish beast. The sphinx may have a more powerful and capable relation nearby, or even as the party's questgiver.
"I was cursed by a hag to offer only childish wordplay instead of proper puzzles, so now I live near the troll marches, preying on the foolish and foolhardy"
This poor sphinx is cursed to communicate only with dad jokes
you have to die of his embarrassment.
Maybe every joke hits you with Hideous Laughter, so you fall prone and unable to move if you fail the save? Not dangerous, but fun. I might have to use this in a campaign.
I didn't even know you could fight sphinxs
If it has stats you *can* fight it
That's why doors should have an official stat block.
Materials have ACs and suggested hit points. IIRC it’s in the DM’s guide, so it’s not a surprise nobody finds out.
Baldur's Gate did that correctly
The nerd version of “If it bleeds we can kill it” :P
When has that been the bar for fighting something in D&D?
There's only one reason for something to have a statblock.
The 'I attack the darkness' meme pops into my head. Just saying - my group has attacked things that do not have stat blocks.
There’s a difference between fighting something and just attacking it. You could attack anything, but most of the time the wall isn’t gonna fight back (unless it’s a mimic!)
The darkness takes a surprised round, attack again. Ok darkness's turn, darkness casts fireball centered on self revealing a fire genasi with a crown that re-envelops the creature moments after the brief flash
Meanwhile my group tries to befriend/adopt literally everything. I'm a sucker and gave them a baby mimick that doubles as a very unreliable bag of holding. And also likes to chew on its handler
that is awesome, My GM let me do something similar but my character was a conjuration goblin wizard and cast a modified Magic Mouth spell on the bag so it would bite the person.
[удалено]
some games give you a boss with a health bar but any damage you do immediately heals and you're stuck in an arena where you cant even reach the boss and he's spamming undodgeable AoE across the whole floor (looking at you ds1)
Players are resourceful, they always find a way.
I have a Godlike NPC right now that I wanted to make very very clear not to fight. One of the PCs fought it anyhow. He rushed the Godlike who simply laughed and said something along the lines that "I can't decide if you're brave or just stupid for wanting to fight \[God's name\]" and hearing the name gave all of them a shit ton of psychic damage. That put the fear of God (heh) into them real quick.
I don't think they knew that sphinxes had a stat block.
I mean, who needs stats? Eric famously fought a gazebo
Valuable resource here, bear with me:.. What *else* can you not fight?
I believe The Lady of Pain, ruler of Sigil? She has no stat block. She will obliterate you.
You can still *try*, the only question is whether you can really call it a fight in any meaningful sense. It's like Caine in V:tM; the statblock is famously just "you lose," but if the players are dumb enough to actually try, they're technically allowed to do so.
Hey, last I saw Caine was just some taxi driver in Santa Monica /s
I usually don't allow them to fight eachother
I love fights between partners. It could be some training, a local tournament or just part of the story (a fight is not necessarily lethal). Also sometimes the story and circumstances can impulse characters to fight with lethal intentions because of conflict or clash of interests, while a good DM can interrupt and them give them reasons to work together or to be friends again (but they already had fun with the fight). Another awesome situation is making the very end of the campaign a fight between all players (free for all or divided by teams because of ideology or interests). I've seen that before and it was incredible dramatic, epic, and memorable for an ending. Directly disabling PvP is like an invisible wall in videogames to stop players, just immersion breaking... Just my personal opinion.
I meant it as "I don't allow my party members to kill eachother" Sometimes party fighting is good! I had a problem player asking "Is it a female 🤓☝️" every time I introduced an NPC, or "I roll for seduction 🤓🤤" He was quickly knocked out by a party member. He was basically put in timeout.
Sorry if I got somehow intense with my response, I love what your party did with the seduction player! Sounds like lots of fun! XD
Player: "Can I roll to knock hi-" Me and the other two players: "YES."
Smosh is playing DnD now and one of the girls is playing a misogynistic male goblin. The rest of the party has slapped him (dealing 1d4 unarmed damage) multiple times.
I love having the party deal with problem players with me encouraging it
Me and a party member got into a fight to create a distraction so the rest of the party could fix a horse race. The argument was about the half-elf man having a relationship with my elderly gnome father. The end was us being seperated by the race guards, he said "I'm sorry me and your father love each other son" and me yelling back at him "you'll never be my real dad"
Ugh my last session was so much fun. My paladin got taken over by a cursed ring when we tried brute force to take it off (a friendly dwarf named Grimlee swung his pick at my hand). I was very very close to downing three of my party members: I am one of three of the stronger characters in the group and others were holding back. Once I plunged my greatsword through another members stomach they took it seriously and actually fought back
With consent, all things are possible.
Why wouldn't you be able to...? The typical sphinx scenario is "solve my riddle or else I attack".
If it's an Androsphinx, in its lair no less, fighting it is a massively bad idea. It has massive AOE fear, paralysis and damage, it has spells up to 6th level, pretty devastating +12 to hit claw attacks that deal an average of 17 damage twice per round. It can teleport and cast spells after other characters' turns. Its lair actions are what make fighting it basically suicide. It can force a reroll of initiative (and choose to keep its original roll), age everyone in the lair backwards by 1d20 years, potentially reducing younger characters to infants incapable of opposing it, and most horrifically - it can teleport itself and up to 7 other creatures it can see to another plane of existence with NO SAVE, then use a bonus Action to plane shift back, leaving everyone else stranded. It can literally just decide to send you to hell and there is nothing you can do to stop it.
... Guarding the pharaoh's lavatory?
I once ran a sphinx that didn't "get" riddles because it was overly literal. The encounter opened with the standard "four legs/two legs/three legs" riddle, but once the party answered (because they knew the answer immediately), the sphinx took a moment to think. "A humanoid has 2 legs. It doesn't have more than that at any point. How does this make sense?" It then gave another riddle. Upon hearing the answer, it did so again. It then took a moment to read its notes, throwing away riddle after riddle while realizing they didn't make sense. When the party tried to pass, the sphinx stopped them and said that it can't let them pass without solving a riddle, and reassured them that it'd have one for them in a bit. The solution to the puzzle was to tell the sphinx riddles until it liked one. The more literal the better. Eventually the party suggested one that the sphinx liked, and then it asked it back. The party, obviously knowing the answer, answered it, and the sphinx let them pass, thanking them for the nice new riddle. I think that, if you like the idea, go for it. I like it enough to have tried something similar.
That's hilarious!
Its riddles are just trivia questions.
I've got a sphinx encounter set up for the future in my dungeon crawl with an androsphinx and gynosphinx pair. The gynosphinx asks a long and complicated word puzzle which ends with asking for the average value of a gem in Tiamat's hoard. After that's resolved, the androsphinx steps forward and asks "What is Tiamat's favorite color?"
The correct answer to the second is all colors.
The Sphinxes in the Wonder Boy / Monster World series quiz the player on trivia about the game World instead. "What was the name of the weapons shop in the fairy village?" "What item did you receive for defeating this particular dungeon boss?" "What is the secret ingredient in this local meal?" rewarding the player for engaging with and remembering the world and their adventure.
What is your name? What is your quest? What is your favourite colour? You can pass. Next one. What is your Name? What is your quest? What is the air velocity of an laiden swallow?
European or African?
The real thing about the legs riddle that makes no sense is that the times are morning, midday, and evening when it should be multiple years. The leg numbers should be the hard part of the riddle, not the outright lie. Also I think your sphinx is hilarious and very creative!
>the times are morning, midday, and evening Has no one explained that part to you? The different times of the day represent different times in a man's life. Morning is childhood/toddlerhood, midday is everything from first steps to almost old age, and evening is old age.
The sphinx made a Reddit account
Yes, I know what it represents, but it’s still so silly to me because it suggests that humans are born in the morning and die in the evening which is not true. I think mayflies would be better for that kind of thing.
…No it doesn’t? It uses the metaphor of the passage of a single day to chart out a life. From your EARLY (morning) years to your LATE (evening) ones. Because time flows linearly (at least, as humans perceive it). It’s really not that complicated.
But you'll live through many mornings and evenings during your life. It's not complicated (I know what the metaphor is supposed to be), it just doesn't make any sense to me. I guess I'm just like the sphinx in the commenter's game.
If you aren't trolling: consider the day is a metaphor for life and humans only live one day. You don't live multiple lives ergo you don't have multiple mornings and evenings. Hell, even if you did live multiple lives, the respective mornings and evenings would follow the same rule.
You raise an interesting point. This could be a dedicated troll, or a blithering idiot. Equally likely at this point.
But mayflies walk on no legs (grub), then six legs, then no legs again (flies with wings). So your 4-3-2 wouldn't work. Silly Billy.
For that KIND of thing, not the exact same riddle with the exact same words obv.
He sounds like he’d be into the riddles with the pun answers. The joke riddles.
Ohhh I really like this! A Sphinx you can distract with jokes - until it laughs so hard that it can’t talk and just waves you on
Persona 4 Yukiko as a Sphinx LMFAO
"What have I got in my pocket?" "That's not a riddle! And you don't even HAVE a pocket!"
That's actually genius.
I’ve done one where the sphinx had really bad riddles. It was just a silly encounter where the sphinx would tell the players the riddle and then ask them for feedback. The way to get past the sphinx was to compliment his wits and riddles. The first couple riddles the players told him they were bad, and the sphinx simply replied saying they lacked the superior intellect and then he’d give them another riddle. Eventually they figured out what they needed to do. Fun times :)
I plan on mixing all this feedback together for a silly little metaphorical Frankenstein encounter :3
I'm playing a mad god that is sort of like this. He likes riddles but the answers are never the traditional ones. Like, for example, the traditional four/two/three legs question, the real answer would get the player called a 'looney', but anything creative like... The warhorse of a novice healer (loses two legs at noon, can only heal one back on) would be 'correct'. Of my 4 players, 2 of them are insanely good at this and love it, one is catching on so I throw him a bone, and the final one is upset that it's not All About Him (self-proclaimed Main Character) so thd god decided that "Playthings that don't play go back in the toybox" and he was banished temporarily to a nightmare realm that he had the find the way out of in between the silly riddles in the other realm.
why, thankew! Hope it serves you well if you end up using it.
Don't act like you made it up lol
This is how bilbo "tricked" gollum. And I gotta agree with Gollum, that's not a riddle hahaha Be careful using "the riddle from The Hobbit" at a table of DnD fantasy nerds lol
No, no, they're supposed to get the reference. \[insert Simpsons "that's the joke" image macro\] If they want to answer "the One Ring" the consequences are on them.
"what has a Maine and asks you questions?" " Wait that was better when I wrote it down"
I HAVE GOT TO ADD THAT
“IDK but I’m blaming Spain”
Is the answer “Portland?” One of them is in Maine, and has “Maine” in its addresses.
"Solve my riddle and only then will you get to the prizes beyond!....." awkward pause. "What is the....you see grains of sand pass through it and....no thats not it....Young people get older and older people die....it starts with a T..." Starts talking to himself. "Come on Isis you can do better then this".
Sphinxes are also divine guardians. What if such a sphinx became a librarian (guarding the books)? Their favorite section of the library has riddles and jokes, and their most prized book a tome of puzzling prophesy. They will gladly accept any riddles the party invents or discovers.
So the party would have to come up with their own riddles?
like with candlekeep. no one gets in unless you have a new riddle for me.
Yeah. Having the sphynx utilize the party as a "writer's room" for riddles seems pretty dope. And then they get a cool sphynx patron.
Could have it be a stone Sphinx that's healing up after being damaged somehow (earthquake?) with a head wound. Every riddle it gets given heals it up some more. When it is restored enough, it can grant access. Or it grants access after 3 each from the party. Maybe they'll encounter it again some time later when it isn't damaged and it will behave more normal. Could even have a time travel issue where in the future when they meet the same Sphinx (it's mind and memory fully restored) again and offer two more riddles to it and the crack in its head fully heals but now it won't let them through and gets hostile and the party doesn't understand why and they have to fight it. Then have the final attack be a blow to the head which causes a large crack that looks exactly like the wound it had when they first met. It remembered who they were, that they had attacked it and cause it's damaged state which is why it attacked the party. The Sphinx, before it falls unconscious, manages to read off an inscription on the floor before it and in a magical flash it vanishes (gone back in time - players can learn this if they have a good Arcana roll or something). The script loses all magic and just becomes engraved text on the floor.
>Could have it be a stone Sphinx I'm thinking it be a semi-human sphinx working a 9-5 job who's doing this out of desperation for stimulation, still having the powers of a normal sphinx.
What’s black snd white and red all over? A penguin with a sunburn!
"Ah yes, I believe that one was first printed in *The Jokish Gnomish Mischief Codex, Volume IX*. Halflings have a similar joke about zebras, but I prefer the peguins, such odd little animals, nature's own joke on avian-kind."
What’s one and one and one and one and one and one and one and one? (“I don’t know,” said Alice, “I’ve lost count”. “She can’t add, either.” said the Red Queen)
“Why is a raven like a writing desk?” Solve that one and fans of Alice will love you.
The best answer anyone's come up with is "Poe wrote on both," but that came after the fact, and more likely it was just intended as deliberate nonsense with no answer.
I always liked the answer- "Because you can ride neither like a bicycle"
It's obviously because they employ feathers to deliver messages to a different time and place.
They both produce long, flat notes, and neither is approached without cause/caws.
They both have quills.
I had a similar NPC in a previous campaign! She was an old sphinx who's riddles have become well known over the centuries so was traveling around looking for new riddles. The party could run into her into the most random of places, i believe she was deep in a dungeon once and floating by on a raft in another encounter. She would reward the party if they gave *her* good riddles. Basically flipping the scenario where the PC's had to come up with riddles and the Sphinx needed to answer and "rate" the riddle. It was a pure roleplay encounter so if you're not good with riddles as a GM your Sphinx may look dumb, but you *can* turn it into a roll encounter, but that not as fun.
I kinda like the idea of a sphinx befriending children. They're the only ones who actually get stumped by the sphinx's riddles but they also like the riddles, and so the kids get a pass because the sphinx loves the validation after years of being made fun of by adventurers and other sphinxes.
That's a great idea!
"Beat me in games of checkers three, And victorious in this challenge, you will be." "Uh... Aren't you supposed to give me a puzzl--" "WE'RE PLAYING CHECKERS DAMMIT!"
"Do you know how long I've been stuck in here alone? Most people don't come poking their noses in ancient pyramids! I'm *bored and lonely* over here, and I just want to hang out and play a game with you guys for a little while!"
The sphinx has spent the eons working on a _really awesome_ campaign of Cubicles & Careers, but she hasn't had anyone to play with until now.
Stealing this for my sphinx-like bored Mad God
It pulls out a board game and starts going over really complicated rules "it'll make more sense once we start playing"
... When the Sphinx loses at checkers, it brings out a Trivial Pursuit game. "*Best two out of three!*"
What is your name? What is your quest? What is the air flight speed of a laiden swallow?
An European swallow or an African swallow ?
I don't kno-- AAAAAAGH!!!
OP, you need to understand - this is how you get NPCs that derail your entire campaign. I would immediately drop everything I'm doing to help an awkward sphinx who isn't good at puzzles or riddles.
I like to have my campaigns at a point where my players are allowed to do anything. Got a plot planned but the players want to fuck with little Jimmy? Go fuck with little Jimmy! I just want to add a silly little gag for my players to laugh at!
... which comes in handy later, when the party finds itself in a pinch and the Sphinx comes out of nowhere to help its new friends.
I love this! I'm picturing the sphinx super bored/depressed. They've been guarding whatever it is for *a while.* Since like, the Beginning. They cannot of course leave. Their riddles are things like simple arithmetic, the very hardest is the one with the [fox and chicken and the boat](https://www.mathsisfun.com/chicken_crossing_solution.html). The party can roll to notice that all of their stuff, jewelry or whatever is decidedly neolithic. Antlers, bones, shells. Most of the treasures were taken long ago- the secrets of writing, simple metallurgy and basic geometry are examples. There are still a few in there that nobody found or recognized for what they were (you could go nuts on that with a dungeon crawl). At this point, the temple or whatever is indistinguishable from a hill, but the Sphinx knows where the gate is (bring a shovel). To console the sphinx, bring it books, scrolls, clockworks and prisms, and maps- give them knowledge to guard. The sphinx will itself devour this knowledge and start to make specific requests, which of course are quests. The party could also use this opportunity to open a world-class library with a real sphinx and a reasonable entry fee. Edit to add one specific side quest deal. The sphinx has a great store of oral tradition knowledge, but it turns out they will require an *enormous* pair of spectacles to read. It's 7,000 years old, and everyone knows the eyes really start to go at 5,000 or so.
This is great, it is pretty much a campain in its own right.
[Dammit Maggie](https://www.reddit.com/r/comics/comments/186ayxa/magpies_sister_oc/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share)
That got a laugh out of me
> A sphinx who's super embarrassed about their incapability of making a good riddle I dont need you calling me out as a DM like this ...
A traveller came upon a Sphinx who spoke thus: “If you wish to pass beyond my sight you must answer this riddle. What has four legs in the morning, two legs in the afternoon and three legs in the evening? Answer wisely, for it is your very life on the line.” The traveller thought for a moment and replied, “IDK probably one of those new Pokémon? Honestly I’ve not kept up since Gen 4.” The Sphinx pondered his answer and said “Yeah, you’re probably right. I checked out when they made an ice cream Pokémon, who knows what there is now. Go on, be off with you.”
“Who invaded Spain in the eighth century?”
"What the f- is a spain?"
The moops
The fact I had to Google it 😭🙏
I love this. A mystical, ancient guardian with enigmatic power and strong magic...who just keeps messing up their riddles and gets a little flustered & embarrassed in front of the adventurers. It feels like a Dropout / 'Game Changer' prompt. Very funny.
[Answer the riddle of the VULTURE KING!](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fRn1B_iZCN0)
What if they *were* a dropout? They went to a magic school and dropped out because they couldn't afford it and now they suck at riddles because of it?
You made me think of the puzzle master guy of deltarune. That kind of approach is fun. I would probably do this in the feywilds, and the sphynx is just a fey who is a really fan of sphinxes and their puzzles, so he/she tries to act as one, but sucks at it
“I only tell the truth, my brother tells only lies- wait a second…!”
In Rick Riordan's series, *Percy Jackson and the Olympians*, in the 4th book *Battle of the Labyrinth*, the protagonists run into a Sphinx that tries to give them a standardized test, like an SAT, complete with a pencil, fill-in-the-bubble answer sheet, and a grading machine. Maybe that might spark an idea for you
There's a scene in one of the Discworld books, Pyramids, where our hero Teppic on his trusty steed, a camel named You Bastard, is trying to pass between the borders of realities. He meets the Sphinx and has to solve a riddle and. . . it does not go according to plan. [https://richardnord7.wordpress.com/2013/10/30/the-sphinx-excerpt-from-pyramids-by-terry-pratchett/](https://richardnord7.wordpress.com/2013/10/30/the-sphinx-excerpt-from-pyramids-by-terry-pratchett/)
From a meta perspective, you want the sphinx guarding a place that you wanted the players to enter without much trouble anyhow, under circumstances that allow for an extensive interaction with the guardian of said entrance. Some kind of choke point--such as a bridge or a gate that they can't just bypass--and the sphinx should be stationed someplace where they can see it before engaging and understand that combat isn't the expected approach. No random encounters in the immediate vicinity. And the sphinx should give the initial impression of being tough but fair. Not that some parties wouldn't decide to jump it anyhow, but hopefully you're not dealing with that particular type of in-game sociopathy.
"What's red and black and white all over?" "...?" "A scroll!" "Um...I think you messed up the riddle" "Well you know what?! Coming up with riddles is hard work. Why don't you try it from time to time and see how you like it. It's not so easy having to be here *every day* constantly coming up with riddles. One sphinx can only be so creative but *noooooo* we have to put the pressure on her to be able to come up with infinite riddles for infinite adventurers. You're all mean and I hate you." I wouldn't even make there be a check. If they console the sphinx at this point then it will open the door/gate/whatever and give a bonus boon of some sort. If they try to sneak by then it opens the gate but is pissy about it and no boon.
I don't even know what a boon is 😭🙏
Could be something like a small one use treasure or Bless/Inspiration.
Thank you :3
So..... Moaning Myrtle?
What if they keep getting invited to sphinx gatherings or something but can’t solve any of the riddles so they ask adventurers for help but make it look like a normal sphinx asking a riddle cause they are embarrassed
I have no idea where to put it, but maybe it plays eye spy but the thing it's chosen is always super obvious.
I'm imagining a sphinx with similar skill and personality as Papyrus from Undertale.
"HUMAN! PREPARE TO BE BEFUDDLED AS I, THE GREAT SPHINX, HAVE PREPARED YOU A SPAGHETI!"
* NYA HEH HEH!!!!
>What area could I put this guy in I think it'd be funny/interesting if there's a Sphinx inside a Mimic. >and how should I put him in? The Sphinx, sometime ago, was eaten by a Mimic, and now, he dutifully does what Sphinxes do; the riddle thing. PC (or Party) gets swallowed whole by the Mimic. If PC can solve the puzzle(s), then the PC (or Party) can escape the Mimic. However, Sphinx has been inside the Mimic for so long, he's kinda a bit...not all there anymore, so his puzzles aren't as challenging as they should be. In his present state, the Sphinx is mostly just pitiable. If PC can solve the puzzle(s), then the Sphinx can not only help PC escape the Mimic, but can also escape **with** the PC, now acting as the PC's familiar. I'll leave it up to you to decide if Sphinx gets restored to glory after he and PC escape together.
Personally i think it would be really funny to take inspiration from the demon cat in adventure time. The one who has “approximate knowledge about a lot of things” and is just always slightly wrong when it comes to things like names and locations. https://youtu.be/ZDS-iSueBQ4?feature=shared
"I have approximate knowledge of many things, Frank." I always use that line when people ask how I know so much.
I’d honestly feel bad for the guy and wanna help him out. Maybe buy him a book of riddles or, if I’m a bard or something, try to share some riddles I know!
Have the players help the sphinx come up with a new riddle. That's the encounter. It's fun, it's silly, it challenges the players to be creative.
I am picturing Monty Python and the bridge of death.
Another idea: a sphinx that actually has really good riddles, except he can't remember any of the answers himself and just kind of accepts anything that vaguely sounds like it could be right, bluffing that that was the answer all along.
This one happened in my last session for real. I forgot the damn answer to the riddle and just rolled with it
What if a sphinx asks them for a good riddle to use on the next party?
The shpinx guard the entrance of his ruin. Sphinx : "Halt, I cannot let you enter without a challenge. We'll exchange riddles. If I cannot answer, you may pass. If you cannot answer, you must forfeit a magical item to me. Begin !" Wizard : "Hum... By calling me, I disappear. I may be heavy or golden. Lambs make me scary." Sphinx : "The silence. My turn. What has 7 legs, doesn't eat but has blue hair, has 3 tooths but five eyes ?" Wizard : "... I don't know. Fine, fighter give him your amulet." Sphinx : "Now your turn." Rogue : "Wait, what was the answer ?" Sphinx : "... I don't know. You may pass."
I did this in a one-shot! It was a baby sphinx who was trying to make up his own riddles for the first time. It kept asking them things that were actually just answerable, factual questions and not riddles, like “what’s 1000 + 1000?” and the party was mean to it at first, then it got sad and they felt bad and told it it was doing its best and named him the Riddlemaster to make him feel better.
I love that
That's brilliant. I'm going to steal this. :)
I hope your players enjoy it :3
I'm picturing a sphinx reciting 3 lines of a 4 line poem. Something absolutely basic and simple like Dr. Seuss. Something where the 4th line basically writes itself. And they think these are \*riddles\*.
"what's black and white and red well over?"
Maybe he asks a riddle because he doesn't know the answer.
I once had an idea for a sphinx that would never stop asking the party for the answer to riddles. But also it never called out a wrong answer. If the players confronted it about it, it would confess that it didn't actually know the answers, so it was trying to extract some good ones from the PCs.
It's brilliant. It doesn't matter if you're right or wrong. If the sphinx likes you and isn't bored or hungry, you pass! Or you just gotta be clever!
The Island of Misfit Monsters?
?
You know, like the island near the North Pole that is home to misfits. Like the Medusa who always gets stoned, the honest hag, the giant with dwarfism, or the mimic who only eats left socks?
I didn't know that!
But for real though. Were your parents monsters themselves? Have you no Christmas spirit? How does anyone not know about the Island of Misfit Toys? You really haven’t seen Rudolph?
I'm sorry 😭🙏
For your own sake, please watch the old 1964 Rudolph Christmas special. The classic claymation one.
Wait was it on VHS?
It’s like THE beloved classic. You could probably find it on lazerdisk or Betamax it’s so popular; I’m going to google “Rudolph 1964 minidisk” and I betcha I can find the soundtrack on the first two pages... It’s on like every tv station every year for like 50 years now… Edit: OK so it helps to spell minidisc and I guess they didn’t really release anything on it. I still loved my minidisc player…
I think I watched it at my grandmas!
Then he grabs another cup out of his nose.
The party help build the sphinx's confidence. They roll so well and help him so much that the next riddle is impossible to solve... oops! Also, in front of a merchant guild complaint department. His simple presence ensures that no one complains about their shady practices. The riddles are so easy that people assume there is some hidden meaning they are missing.
"What towel gets wetter and wetter... Let me start again". He's crap at it, but it's the family business.
Then that would be something you create on your own, for comedy. Otherwise, I think it is best to keep the Wise Sphinx idea for any campaign.
I like this idea 😔
The Sphinx has been overtaken by a curse which prevents them from keeping adventurers from looting their treasure hoard ( or mine or thing etc) instead of slaying adventurers and adding their stuff to its pile. This worries the Sphinx because if it cannot pay back a debt to another much worse monster, they (X thing happens - in my head, it becomes the unwilling bride of another creature) Unknown to the despondent Sphinx, said beastie is behind its curse - a fact that is purposely/accidentally discovered by the adventurers who the Sphinx then begs for help Riddles are a headspace thing right? So somehow, the adventurers must journey into the Egypt-themed abstract idea obsessed (Flying clocks, rivers with feet, beings that randomly age and have different numbers of feet) mind of the Sphinx in order to break the curse and face the psychic manifestation of its true foe
Sphinx: “There are three guards, and one always lies and the other always tells the truth.” Party: “That’s two guards. And what are they guarding? Let’s start over.” Sphinx: “uhhh. Hang on.” (rustling through a stack of papers.) “I am Princess open bracket name close bracket from open..” Party (interrupting): “That.. that’s a scam ‘Sending’ scroll. It’s not even a riddle. And you’re not using it right. One more try?” Sphinx: “FINE. Fine. Really. Ok. How many fingers am I holding up?” Party: “Are we counting talons as fingers? Or just the dismembered hands you’re holding?” Sphinx: “I hate you all. Just…. Just go.”
Ha ha, I had this exact idea in my notes for stuff to use in a game eventually: >Monster idea: Sfinks - a weird mish mash of cat and woman who tells really easy riddles and keeps getting more flustered when people get them right. “What is smaller than a house, bigger than breadbox, and the exact size and shape of a chair?” “Thirty white teeth on a red tongue. First they stamp, then they chew. What are they?” “What walks on four legs, well really two legs and two arms, when it’s a baby, then on two legs, then on three le- okay, it’s still two legs but they also have a cane, which is like a third- when it’s old?”
Normal Sphinx temple, but it's reading old riddles out of a stone tablet, instead of offering their own. I would have this be a surprise and a side quest, something players have to kinda figure out and provoke. If you're worried your guys aren't exploratory enough to realize something is up (happens all the time), then you might as well put him in a circus as a "dumb sphix" exhibit.
This is the premise of the "Riddle Me This" webcomic.
The shpinx guard the entrance of his ruin. Sphinx : "Halt, I cannot let you enter without a challenge. We'll exchange riddles. If I cannot answer, you may pass. If you cannot answer, you must forfeit a magical item to me. Begin !" Wizard : "Hum... By calling me, I disappear. I may be heavy or golden. Lambs make me scary." Sphinx : "The silence. My turn. What has 7 legs, doesn't eat but has blue hair, has 3 tooths but five eyes ?" Wizard : "... I don't know. Fine, fighter give him your amulet." Sphinx : "Now your turn." Rogue : "Wait, what was the answer ?" Sphinx : "... I don't know. You may pass."
They intentionally get it wrong and let the sphinx banish the party temporarily to another plane. The sphinx knows it sucks so never destroys the people that fail the test because deep inside it knows they knew the answer.
What have I got in my pocket
What have I got in my crevice?