heat

[awa]

is it just me or does d&d treat the environment as super deadly
simple example in 90 degree weather you need to make a dc 15 fort save every hour or take d4 subdual dam.

assuming an average farmer (level 1 commoner) with 2 to 3 hp that gives an excellent chance of him collapsing after only an hour in the sun, a few seconds of google indicates Iraq's average temperature in the summer is 100 degrees which would make it effectively unlivable.

The starvation and dehydration rules also seem to kill of commoners pretty quick to.

[Ashtagon]

90 °F is 33 °C. That is actually pretty hot. And people (elderly people, to be sure) really do die every year from exposure to these temperatures.

But what protects against that? "protection level 1" is enough to render you immune to that. For a human commoner, that means any one of Heat Endurance feat, endure elements spell, or a desert outfit.

Those first two are probably out of their reach. That third one though? Common as muck in climates where it'd be needed. Now combine that with common-sense practices such as not actually standing outside in direct sun at midday in hot climates (siestas aren't just a Hispanic thing), and you'll find that the climate informs you of the culture.

[sleepyphoenixx]

These are for naked characters. Sandstorm and Frostburn have clothing appropriate to hot/cold locations, which will make them easily survivable.
Just as people in places like Iraq do. People in places like that also tend to stay in the shade during the hottest hours of the day and do physically demanding work in the morning & evenings.
100°F will knock you out rather quickly in real life too if you go around in it unprotected and without water.

The rules for dehydration are a little too quick but not that much. Dehydration kills rather quickly in RL too.
The only thing that's definitely too fast is the starvation rules, because you can last without food a lot longer than without water.
But D&D is a dungeon-crawling game, not a life simulator, so i'm not too bothered.

You're also assuming that a healthy, physically fit adult is a 10 Con commoner. I'd say someone that spends their life farming would have better physical stats than that - 12-14 Con sounds more realistic to me, and anyone with a few years of adult life behind them is probably at least 2nd or 3rd level. Especially if they're living in a harsh environment.

[awa]

example commoners don't fit that at all.

[Erit]

Example commoners can also readily be slain en masse by the common housecat. All sins are equal on that front.

[prufock]

is it just me or does d&d treat the environment as super deadly
simple example in 90 degree weather you need to make a dc 15 fort save every hour or take d4 subdual dam.

assuming an average farmer (level 1 commoner) with 2 to 3 hp that gives an excellent chance of him collapsing after only an hour in the sun, a few seconds of google indicates Iraq's average temperature in the summer is 100 degrees which would make it effectively unlivable.

The starvation and dehydration rules also seem to kill of commoners pretty quick to.

The stock-standard Endurance feat grants a +4 bonus against environmental temperature - a good choice of bonus feat for a human who lives in such a climate.

A DC 15 Survival check will grant you +2 to +4 against heat dangers.

A simple desert outfit (6 gp) or parasol (3 gp) negates the need for this save at all.

[John Longarrow]

DMs need to understand hot/cold weather to be able to adjudicate what should happen. The rules as written don't really take into account how quickly people adapt to different climates.

A someone who's had to run around in hot/hilly conditions with as much gear as the average 1st lvl fighter (or more) I can honestly say running out of water is the biggest issue. You can easily go through a gallon of water a day, something not reflected in D&D. Heat doesn't really affect you too much in and of its self. Its how quickly you dehydrate that gets you.

[DeadMech]

In a game that didn't get very far off the ground I noticed this problem. Though it was with the cold. We were in prison after orcs captured a city and our goal was to escape while the bulk of the army was gone. So we planned out our prison revolt. We'd have to then flee in the middle of winter before the army came back.

I did some math after some rules browsing and came to the conclusion that their would probably not be a single npc alive at the end of our march due to everyone freezing to death. Which made my character's objections to burning down the orc barracks full of non-orc slaves seem rather pointless.

[prufock]

I can honestly say running out of water is the biggest issue. You can easily go through a gallon of water a day, something not reflected in D&D. Heat doesn't really affect you too much in and of its self. Its how quickly you dehydrate that gets you.
It actually does (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/environment.htm#starvationAndThirst). As per Sandstorm, the base number of hours you can go without water is halved each time you go up a temperature band (so 12 hrs + con in the "hot" band, 6+con in the "severe" band, etc).