My game is about a necromancer using his minions to escape a labyrinth he is entumbed, so far I can't come up with any good underground cave style puzzles except easy and predictable puzzles like levers to open doors and such. Any ideas usable in a underground cave especially magical ideas would be great. Thank you any who respond

Maybe do one where you have to find keys over the map or do like a identify a object

Try to find a different angle to understand the problem.

For example, instead of thinking about objects, thank what you want that the user should spent their time with?

Think about other problems in caves, how to make light? Have a cup of coffee? A shower? etc

Quite likely none of them will appear in the game, but you may get triggered by other ideas that make more sense in the game.

@Alberth I actually think I'll use the light idea, Thank you for responding

@GerryCraft I will definitely use some item identifying mechanics, thank you for the idea

Maybe you could do puzzles where the necromancer has to sacrifice some minions to open paths, like feeding a minion to a magical creature or using them as weights on pressure plates. It’d make players think about their resources more.

Additionally, what if some puzzles involve combining spells, like using fire to melt ice walls or summoning shadows to reveal hidden paths? Could make it less predictable.

When I come up with puzzles, I usually start with different aspects of the theme, like @alberth mentioned; making a light, etc.

You should also think about what you want to teach the player. What mechanic of the game do you want them to learn and explore? When you figure out that, you can make a simple puzzle to show that mechanic, and then add more variables or combination of mechanics so the player masters what you wanted to show them.

This is done a lot on Braid. A simple concept related to the theme, e.g. slowing down time, is presented. There's a simple puzzle that explores that, like slowing down a falling key so you have an opportunity to catch it. And then more complex puzzles are crafted by extending that basic idea. Playing games like Braid and studying how the creators make puzzles can really help you. A good puzzle game feels like a conversation between the creator and the player.

There are a few Jonathan Blow videos where he talks about game design which might help.

@RandoHuman
First, look what common puzzle games exist. look on Portal or any old NES game.
Control minion and then let him stand in place.
Use different kinds of minions, like ghost summon could go through walls and move small objects, while zombie summon can lift greater objects, skeleton minion can squeeze into small openings where zombie can not
Make some funny evil things, like there are guards in dungeon, what go on alarm if your minion is noticed, so you must stealth kill them with your minions and turn into new your minions. Look for assasin creed 2d games. You control what kind of minion killed guard will be acoding to what abilities you would like to have.
If you want game mechanics or level design help , write me.

@fractali Thank you I will definitely check out those videos

Thank you for the ideas and will do