This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.
The original was posted on /r/osr by /u/workingboy on 2025-11-12 14:20:05+00:00.
- Gravestone Door
A door that appears to be little more than a huge gravestone set onto hinges with a doorknob welded to it. A grinning skull is set above the inscription: "This door may not be opened by the living."
Attempting to pry the door open triggers the necromantic enchantments set onto the door, dealing 2d6 negative energy damage to anyone touching the door.
A living person trying to open the door will always find it locked. It must be opened either by some contrivance where a living person is more than 30' from the door (wizard's hand from 35' away) or by some non-living creature. A zombie or a golem could do it.
- Witching Hour Door
An iron door without lock or knob. It is inscribed with a witch on a broom flying over an hourglass. (Lore bids will reveal that 3:33 is the "witching hour.")
If the clock in the room (or an adjacent room, to make the puzzle harder) is set to 3:33, the door will open.
- Watchful Door
As the players enter, they hear this door snap close. As they approach, they see an ornate door beautifully inscribed with a peacock. All of the eyes on the peacock's tail are animated and watching the PCs. Each eye stares back at the players, obviously making eye contact. The door has neither handle nor key.
If the door is put to sleep, it will open. Alternatively, it will open if it doesn't see anyone--if the entire party is invisible.
Or, even more simply, if the players actually all close their eyes, the door will open, too. It only watches for eye contact.
- Four-Part Door
Like a Zelda door, you can tell there's something supposed to be here. But searching for the right brick to press has proved fruitless. In the four corners of this room are four Grecian statues, each holding a strange object in their hands: a sort of flat rod in peculiar shapes. Maybe they look something like: L / \ ⅃
The statues can be slid with an effort. If put together, the four statues statues outline the frame of a door and the door appears.
- Snail Door
The door is made out of a colossal snail's shell. The shell is practically immune to any sort of mundane harm. In the center of the room is an empty brazier.
Actually, the snail shell is a living but painfully slow flailsnail. Lure the flailsnail out by filling the brazier (actually its feeding trough) with rotten fruits and vegetables: it will come out willingly and move from blocking the passage.
5.5 Same Idea, Different Gimmick
The passage to the catacombs is too large to open by mortal hand. Instruments of torture litter the antechamber. Inside the iron maiden is a petrified Nosferatu, a chain around its throat. The chain projects from the back of the iron maiden into the wall. A labyrinth is traced into the stone of the floor, culminating into a small stained basin in the very center.
Filling the basin with blood causes the petrified Nosferatu to animate. It drags itself and the iron maiden across the floor and laps at the blood. As it pulls the chain, the door opens. For now, at least.
- Honeymoon Door
A heavy iron door, painted pink. It has neither key nor handle, but has a glass heart set in its middle.
In the middle of the room is an inscription surrounding a 10' radius circle. Above the circle is a skylight. The inscription reads: "Join hands, beloved, at noon / and pass on to your honey'd moon"
If two married people join hands in the middle of the circle when the sun shines through the skylight (at noon), the light reflecting from their diamond rings will beam into the glass heart on the door, causing it to open.
Luckily, any directed light will do the same. A bull's-eye lantern would work.
- Regent's Door
A scrap of map swears there's a door in the cliff face here, but it will only open in the presence of the King Under the Mountain.
Unfortunately, there's no good way to trick the enchantment. The dwarven spells are too strong. You'll either have to bring the current king of the dwarves (and his halfling retainer) to the door. Or, worse, you might have to dig up the bones of old Thror and present them to the door. Either will open it.
- Turn Undead Door
The door isn't a door. It's a presence projected from the twin statues of wraiths that flank the archway. An evil will that cannot be overcome, forbidding entry.
Across from the door is a more hopeful statue: a cleric, an empty vial in their hands, raised in rebuke.
A cleric in the party can Turn Undead to temporarily quell the evil will that stops the PCs from crossing the threshold. If no cleric is in the party, the cleric statue's vial can be filled with holy water, which will have a similar effect for 24 hours.
- Dead Can Dance
The door into the cathedral is a stone door inscribed with a danse macabre. It has neither key nor handle. In the courtyard, the skeletons of the executed hang from large bells like grim clappers.
If the skeletons are moved or pulled, the bells still ring. Each bell is a different tone. Playing the funeral march (A - A - A - A - C - B - B - A - A - A♭ - A) opens the door.
- Wind Door
A stone door without latch, carved in the face of a blowing wind.
Elsewhere in the dungeon are four statues shaped like the four winds. Turning the statues changes the direction that wind flows through the room.
The wind door opens when a "circuit" of wind is conducted through the dungeon from room 1 into the room with the wind door.
Bonus: Candelabra Door
(A similar theme to the last door where the key to opening the door is exploring the dungeon and interacting with features in different rooms.)
A bronze door depicting a maiden fleeing from a castle with a candelabra in her hand. In the chamber, there is an unlit candle on a sconce set in a niche on the wall.
If the candle is lit, one of the candles on the door glows.
There are several such niches and candles throughout the dungeon. Light all seven before any one candle burns out to open the candelabra door.
(Originally posted at my blog and reposted here for your convenience)
