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Fax Celestis
2010-11-15, 12:37 PM
Cold Dangers

Cold and exposure deal nonlethal damage to the victim. This nonlethal damage cannot be recovered until the character gets out of the cold and warms up again. Once a character is rendered unconscious through the accumulation of nonlethal damage, the cold and exposure begins to deal lethal damage at the same rate.

An unprotected character in cold weather (below 40° F) must make a Fortitude save each hour (DC 15, + 1 per previous check) or take 1d6 points of nonlethal damage. A character who has the Survival skill may receive a bonus on this saving throw and may be able to apply this bonus to other characters as well.

In conditions of severe cold or exposure (below 0° F), an unprotected character must make a Fortitude save once every 10 minutes (DC 15, +1 per previous check), taking 1d6 points of nonlethal damage on each failed save. A character who has the Survival skill may receive a bonus on this saving throw and may be able to apply this bonus to other characters as well. Characters wearing winter clothing only need check once per hour for cold and exposure damage.

A character who takes any nonlethal damage from cold or exposure is beset by frostbite or hypothermia (treat her as fatigued). These penalties end when the character recovers the nonlethal damage she took from the cold and exposure.

Extreme cold (below -20° F) deals 1d6 points of lethal damage per minute (no save). In addition, a character must make a Fortitude save (DC 15, +1 per previous check) or take 1d4 points of nonlethal damage. Those wearing metal armor or coming into contact with very cold metal are affected as if by a chill metal spell.

Ice Effects

Characters walking on ice must spend 2 squares of movement to enter a square covered by ice, and the DC for Balance and Tumble checks increases by +5. Characters in prolonged contact with ice may run the risk of taking damage from severe cold (see above).

Heat Dangers

Heat deals nonlethal damage that cannot be recovered until the character gets cooled off (reaches shade, survives until nightfall, gets doused in water, is targeted by endure elements, and so forth). Once rendered unconscious through the accumulation of nonlethal damage, the character begins to take lethal damage at the same rate.

A character in very hot conditions (above 90° F) must make a Fortitude saving throw each hour (DC 15, +1 for each previous check) or take 1d4 points of nonlethal damage. Characters wearing heavy clothing or armor of any sort take a -4 penalty on their saves. A character with the Survival skill may receive a bonus on this saving throw and may be able to apply this bonus to other characters as well. Characters reduced to unconsciousness begin taking lethal damage (1d4 points per hour).

In severe heat (above 110° F), a character must make a Fortitude save once every 10 minutes (DC 15, +1 for each previous check) or take 1d4 points of nonlethal damage. Characters wearing heavy clothing or armor of any sort take a -4 penalty on their saves. A character with the Survival skill may receive a bonus on this saving throw and may be able to apply this bonus to other characters as well. Characters reduced to unconsciousness begin taking lethal damage (1d4 points per each 10-minute period).

A character who takes any nonlethal damage from heat exposure now suffers from heatstroke and is fatigued.

These penalties end when the character recovers the nonlethal damage she took from the heat.

Extreme heat (air temperature over 140° F, fire, boiling water, lava) deals lethal damage. Breathing air in these temperatures deals 1d6 points of damage per minute (no save). In addition, a character must make a Fortitude save every 5 minutes (DC 15, +1 per previous check) or take 1d4 points of nonlethal damage. Those wearing heavy clothing or any sort of armor take a -4 penalty on their saves. In addition, those wearing metal armor or coming into contact with very hot metal are affected as if by a heat metal spell.

Boiling water deals 1d6 points of scalding damage, unless the character is fully immersed, in which case it deals 10d6 points of damage per round of exposure.

tl;dr Fire elementals can get heatstroke, white dragons can lose limbs to frostbite, and remorhae (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/remorhaz.htm) only live a few days at most.

Discuss.

Worth fixing? Should energy resistance/immunity render you immune to related weather effects?

true_shinken
2010-11-15, 12:44 PM
Sandstorm at least specifically specifies fire resistance helps.

Akal Saris
2010-11-15, 12:47 PM
Not really worth fixing. There's no need to have a rule for things that should be quite obvious unless you were making some bizarre "Pun-Pun rules the universe" world based on RAW.

I was hoping this would be a thread on how to take advantage of escalating weather effects in-game, actually. Like stacking exposure to cold with another fatigue effect to make somebody exhausted, or stacking wind conditions to create a tornado at a very low level.

true_shinken
2010-11-15, 12:49 PM
I was hoping this would be a thread on how to take advantage of escalating weather effects in-game, actually. Like stacking exposure to cold with another fatigue effect to make somebody exhausted, or stacking wind conditions to create a tornado at a very low level.
I though that as well.

Btw, cool new avatar, Fax.

dsmiles
2010-11-15, 12:50 PM
Worth fixing? Should energy resistance/immunity render you immune to related weather effects?

I already use elemental immunity = related weather immunity, and resistance is applied to weather related effects. Works out well (read: less silly).

true_shinken
2010-11-15, 12:53 PM
I just checked. Frostburn also means resistance to energy/related subtype makes you resistant/immune to cold.

So basically, the splats fixed the hilarity.

Fax Celestis
2010-11-15, 12:58 PM
I was hoping this would be a thread on how to take advantage of escalating weather effects in-game, actually. Like stacking exposure to cold with another fatigue effect to make somebody exhausted, or stacking wind conditions to create a tornado at a very low level.

Those are so overdone. Control weather (with or without friendly bard with sympathetic vibration) is responsible for the destruction of many many castles.


So basically, the splats fixed the hilarity.

Which is good, albeit something that should've been errata'd instead of splatted.

lesser_minion
2010-11-15, 01:36 PM
The rules do seem a little silent on what constitutes 'protection', which probably does bear fixing.

But I'm not convinced that it's that crucial.

Person_Man
2010-11-15, 01:53 PM
You should rewrite them for d20r, because I assume that if you continue to write that you'll eventually homebrew your own fully unique game system and campaign world, which I would pay money for.

But other then that, I don't know any DM who follows the rules literally on environmental dangers, drowning, etc. For example, while I'm fond of making my PCs check against heat, cold, disease, etc, I allow anyone with the Endurance feat and ranks in Survival to ignore environmental hazards.

Volos
2010-11-15, 03:04 PM
I love how the weather rules are, as they tend to make greater challenges for my players than most monsters. It has come to the point that I have had to make a CR for certian types of weather, but only if combat or speedy travel is involved. Even certian types of rain reduce visibility and end up adding to the CR of an encounter (imaginary CR, not give them more XP CR).

My latest fiasco with weather was the players getting caught up in the middle of a flencing snowstorm with top wind speeds while flying and having a group of elder air elementals decide it would be cool to suddenly strike them down. I nearly had a TPK, but sadly my players were more resourceful than I, and saved themselves from a freezing, falling, windwirling doom.

Long story short, my players learned that traveling by air may not be the easiest way to get everywhere.

Ernir
2010-11-15, 03:46 PM
What I find most hilarious about the 3.5 weather is that fog is an on/off thing.


Fog
Whether in the form of a low-lying cloud or a mist rising from the ground, fog obscures all sight, including darkvision, beyond 5 feet. Creatures 5 feet away have concealment (attacks by or against them have a 20% miss chance).

So if there's fog, there's PEASOUP FOG.