Surviving Cold Weather

[Zaharra]

The party is traveling along, weeks from civilization, the DM mentions that the weather is growing cooler, the autumn breeze occasionally sends chills through us as we continue on our journey. We haven't seen non-monsterous humanoids other than each other in months.

We continue on, travelling as far as we can each day, slowly running lower and lower on food until we have to slow to a half pace to all make untrained survival checks to find enough food to survive.

The DM reminds us we're nearly two weeks away from our destination, and asks everyone who doesn't have cold weather gear to roll construction, two players fail the roll and gain a level of exhaustion. None of us have "cold weather gear" it wasn't in the PHB so we didn't think about it.

We travel for another hour, another round of checks, half of us have a level of exhaustion, one of us two levels. The area is a rocky plains, with sparse trees and food, we haven't seen any big game.

What would you do? The party doesn't have the ability to create food magically, no one is trained in survival, no one had "cold weather gear", and the only options appear to be to either try to force ourselves the remaining two weeks of the journey or try to wait out the weather in a makeshift shelter (like a cave) which could be a couple days or for months, we have no way to predict the season.

[zlefin]

what classes are you?
and why did your journey start in the first place?

[Unoriginal]

What equipment do you have, what is your party composition, and which monstrous humanoids (or other monsters) did you see recently?

Do you have sleeping bags?

[Zaharra]

what classes are you?
and why did your journey start in the first place?

Bard/Rogue, Rogue/fighter, Paladin, Warlock, and a Wizard. We lost our last storyline and had to flee, our donkeys died in an encounter and we had to abandon gear that we thought we would have. Mostly rations but some other things too.

[Tanarii]

We lost our last storyline and had to flee, our donkeys died in an encounter and we had to abandon gear that we thought we would have. Mostly rations but some other things too.Oh wow. That sounds like an amazing adventure arc.

It doesn't sound like the weather is bad yet, but bad cold causes a DC 10 Con check every hour, so a low con character will die in 12 hours on average. And foraging in very spares food and water area is a DC 20 check, plus you're automatically surprised if you're attacked while foraging, since you can't use passive perception. With that party I'd expect low Con and low Wis for most characters.

I'd push on. No decent shelter, no cold weather gear, and you'll have to forage in the increasingly worse cold outside under harder to succeed circumstances as the weather gets worse, which means leaving what meager shelter you can find. Sounds like sure death to me.

[Zaharra]

What equipment do you have, what is your party composition, and which monstrous humanoids (or other monsters) did you see recently?

Do you have sleeping bags?

I have my weapons, rope, pitons, ball bearings, thieves tools, and rations. The party has three bedrolls between us and the wizard has tiny hut for stationary shelter.

[Vekon]

Light some fires? Carry around lit torches for warmth if you have them. If not, try to fashion makeshift torches from with branches and twigs. If all of you are attempting this, someone is bound to succeed.

[Unoriginal]

I have my weapons, rope, pitons, ball bearings, thieves tools, and rations. The party has three bedrolls between us and the wizard has tiny hut for stationary shelter.

Nice! With three bedrolls, you should be able to piece together rudimentary clothes to protect against cold for everyone.

Remember clothes are basically nothing but a cylinder for the body and a cylinder for each limb. Using a thick bedroll (which is explicitly warm enough) and some lengths of cloth to tie up anywhere the cold could enter (like the sleeves), you can make something makeshift to cover your whole body and let you move, and there should be enough material for everyone. Rest in the Tiny Hut to recover from exhaustion while the most dextrous character works on the clothes, though.

What kind of monstrous humanoids did you met?

[Tanarii]

I have my weapons, rope, pitons, ball bearings, thieves tools, and rations. The party has three bedrolls between us and the wizard has tiny hut for stationary shelter.
That changes things in regards to shelter, it's effectively a non-issue.

Your biggest problem is going to be foraging in the cold. But unless your DM rules there's bonus for foraging while stationary* , you might as well forage while you travel, then Tiny Hut for 16 hours at the end.

*at first thought, this seems reasonable. But doing it while traveling might actually make you more likely to find sources of food. So YDMMMV. Either way, the DMG says DCs are for foraging while traveling.

[Zaharra]

What kind of monstrous humanoids did you met?

Bugbears & goblins mostly, and there was an orc warband we fought. None of them were particularly friendly and we didn't leave any of them alive.

[Unoriginal]

Bugbears & goblins mostly, and there was an orc warband we fought. None of them were particularly friendly and we didn't leave any of them alive.

Err, well, those aren't "monstrous". Most of the time, anyway (some orcs are half-demons).

But in any case, they should have gears fitting for the area, and survival equipment.

[hymer]

Have the people suffering stay in the tiny hut for the whole day, while those doing well forage for food. That should give them a chance to recover from a level of fatigue, while risking no exposure.

[Lunali]

Normal cold weather can be handled with simple traveler's clothes, explicit cold weather gear is only needed for truly cold weather (below 0F/-18C). Weather this cold is unlikely (though possible) in the first few weeks of winter.

Normal travel is 8 hrs, including 8 hrs a day of rest, there's plenty of time to forage for food while traveling at a normal pace, though if it's that cold, the DC is probably 15 or 20.

[Sigreid]

This is why I think survival is the critical adventurer skill.

Don't forget that if they bard has at least 2 levels in bard they get half their proficiency in survival though.

[Derpy]

Weeks from civilization, ill equipped, two weeks (presumably) to journey's end, low on supplies.

Some things I think I can answer (or at least give an opinion on) without knowing more, other things require more knowledge. for example, surviving on tundra or steppes is different then surviving in a forest; surviving a freezing rain is different then a blizzard, and even though I could give a great wealth of knowledge about surviving in a forest it would be meta knowledge to your character.

First point, do you know where you're going? It sounds like serious off road as there is no one civilized for weeks in either direction and with the lack of outdoorsmenship your party seems to have then even knowing direction in a trackless environment is tough; if you miss your destination that might be it. Missing a weeks walk destination means you could miss it by a days walk or more either side and, here's the kicker, never know it. Admittedly, I don't know the world, don't know what you'd hit beyond it or near it, if anything.

Second point, some more 'uncivilized' creatures live in the area. Presumably either they can survive the area year round, or are migratory; either way they should have, at the very least, a base camp which could provide tools, shelter (not that you need it with the tiny hut magic), fuel, food, water, beasts of burden, and who knows what else. It might be a tough fight that could lead to a lifesaver, or maybe too many enemies to handle. Knowing nothing else, my first act would be to trade or raid the locals.

Third point, seems you lost out big where you came from so going back doesn't seem an option, you're poorly equipped for the current environment and this is before true winter. If dealing with the locals like I previously stated reveals they are year-rounders it might be possible to survive the winter, either with what you take off them or trying to survive in the manner they do and with the tiny hut it might even be comfortable, if cramped. Presumably they are equipped to survive something that happens every year, and have enough stocks laid up for their tribe which is probably larger then your party. If they are migratory it presents a few problems; their stocks will be lower (they're headed to more accommodating climates with resources) and geared toward less hostile climate; I don't think they'd provide enough to survive the winter in that case, I would bet on trying to reach your goal before true winter if they are migrating.

Finally, tiny hut is your savior in this situation. A comfortable climate area that is dry regardless of what is going on outside is better then any cave you could find. Finding a cave might still help, I'd not want to cook in the tiny hut, and a cave provides a strategic point to defend in case of hostile locals. Even if you have to travel very slowly and hut up to recover that thing should prevent you from expiring from anything other then lack of food or water, or a lack of a lack of enemies. Making clothing out of sleeping bags (as Unoriginal stated) makes sense to me, because you have the tiny hut they aren't really needed as sleeping bags anyway for anything other then comfort. Survival should always trump comfort. They don't have to be pretty, just functional in this situation. Also, if it snows then water is easy, just pack your waterskin with snow and store it under your clothes. Body heat will melt it while you walk. Food is more difficult, but a person can survive much longer with just water then with just food.

Good luck.

[Mad_Saulot]

Eat the Warlock!

[Laserlight]

Assuming one of your casters has Prestidigitation, they can use that to warm up to 1 cubic foot of non living material. If you have a water skin or canteen, now you have a hot water bottle.

Based on using Presti to flavor food, you may be able to give a scent to bait. Smell of apples should attract something your rogue can shoot for food.

If the casters have Find Familiar, summon them as owls or hawks. In addition to hunting, they can help you navigate if you send them aloft and look through their eyes.

[JackPhoenix]

If the casters have Find Familiar, summon them as owls or hawks. In addition to hunting, they can help you navigate if you send them aloft and look through their eyes.

Familiars can't attack, so they won't be hunting anything.

[BreaktheStatue]

Familiars can't attack, so they won't be hunting anything.

If the warlock is pact of chain, they can.

Also, is eating the monstrous races considered cannibalism or otherwise taboo? They're humanoid, but they're not THAT humanoid.

[Unoriginal]

If the warlock is pact of chain, they can.

Also, is eating the monstrous races considered cannibalism or otherwise taboo? They're humanoid, but they're not THAT humanoid.

Eating sapient beings is taboo, yes, no matter their shape. Lizardfolks don't care.

[Sigreid]

Eating sapient beings is taboo, yes, no matter their shape. Lizardfolks don't care.

At least in most of our world's cultures it's taboo...unless you are in a desperate survival situation with no other source of food. Most cultures don't require you to starve to death to avoid cannibalism.

[djreynolds]

Are you 5th level?
I assume because of tiny hut, then the paladin can't cast 3rd level spells yet, like create food and water.
But the paladin could use locate object and maybe find needed supplies that way?
Locate wood, clothes, etc.
But the paladin can purify food and water still

[Keravath]

Firebolt (if your wizard has it) should be great for catching and cooking squirrels or any other small ground creatures at the same time and all you need to do is see your target within 120' ... which should make hunting much easier assuming that there is anything to hunt in the first place.

Your paladin can have purify food and drink which means that ANYthing you can catch you can eat ... you won't need to worry about diseases or parasites which is actually a major concern, especially with water you find on the ground.

If your wizard or bard has prestidigitation you can actually make whatever you have to eat taste good. Prestidigitation can also make the food warm so between purify food and drink and prestidigitation you can actually make raw or burned food actually safe to eat and taste good.

The paladin actually can also cast detect poison and disease in case there is any doubt remaining.

Prestidigitation can also be a partial answer to the cold.

"You chill, warm, or flavor up to 1 cubic foot of nonliving material for 1 hour."

Clothes are non-living material and you can fit ALOT of clothing into a cubic foot. In addition, the spell says that you can affect up to 1 cubic foot but it does not state how that is distributed so you could just cast it on the clothes a person is wearing. Typical clothing is much less than 1" thick ... but even at 1" ... you can keep 12 square feet of worn clothing warm for an hour with one casting of this spell. You can maintain three of these long term effects at once so two characters with prestidigitation can keep your entire party in warmed clothing which will go a long way to counteracting the effect of cold weather.

Mage hand from an arcane trickster rogue is a great way to catch small animals within 30'. Rogue hides and uses his bonus action to move the hand to grab the creature weighing less than 10 pounds and lift it off the ground.

Having Leomund's Tiny Hut makes the entire shelter problem non-existent ... so you only need to worrying about food/water and warmth. Some spells can help with the lack of warm clothing (unless your DM wants to rule otherwise just to cause you some problems) ... but you will have to spend quite a bit of your time searching for food ... but luckily the spells you have should make this relatively easy. Even vicious mockery from the bard is likely enough to kill small creatures ... you just need to see them with 60 to 120'. If the fighter has a long bow (and sharpshooter) he can hit small creatures out to 600' without problems (150' otherwise). Why does this matter? Most animals aren't paying close attention to threats that are over 100' away ... so they should be much easier to see ... and if you can see them ... they can become food.

P.S. If there are tribes of various humanoids in the area then it is clear that there HAS to be food to forage. ALL of these tribes have to eat something ... they don't eat each other ... at least most of the time :) ... so if the DM tries to say there is no food then there likely can't be any villages or humanoids of any sort around either.

Anyway, if you have 2 weeks to your destination then I would just press on using spells to prevent the checks your DM is requesting ... unless you don't have any of the useful spells already mentioned.

P.P.S. Pretidigitation is a must have cantrip since it can be applied in many situations. (Never mind the utility of cleaning all your clothes :) .. no more camp vermin problems :)).

[Laserlight]

Familiars can't attack, so they won't be hunting anything.

It's worth asking your DM, but even if you get a No, they can certainly spot any deer, rabbits, mammoth, burrowing whales, etc.

[djreynolds]

Also next time you encounter.... anyone.... you do not have to kill them. At least try to talk with orcs or goblins and bugbear.

Its real easy for the paladin to talk while the rogue sneaks around, its never a waste of time

You can pay them as a guide, they are surely not two weeks out and probably have some encampment/village near by or days away.

The charm spell, friends, persuasion check

Later on... when paladin is not watching... then the rogue can kill them in their sleep and take all their stuff.

[Derpy]

Firebolt (if your wizard has it) should be great for catching and cooking squirrels or any other small ground creatures at the same time and all you need to do is see your target within 120' ... which should make hunting much easier assuming that there is anything to hunt in the first place.

Your paladin can have purify food and drink which means that ANYthing you can catch you can eat ... you won't need to worry about diseases or parasites which is actually a major concern, especially with water you find on the ground.

If your wizard or bard has prestidigitation you can actually make whatever you have to eat taste good. Prestidigitation can also make the food warm so between purify food and drink and prestidigitation you can actually make raw or burned food actually safe to eat and taste good.

The paladin actually can also cast detect poison and disease in case there is any doubt remaining.

Prestidigitation can also be a partial answer to the cold.

"You chill, warm, or flavor up to 1 cubic foot of nonliving material for 1 hour."

Clothes are non-living material and you can fit ALOT of clothing into a cubic foot. In addition, the spell says that you can affect up to 1 cubic foot but it does not state how that is distributed so you could just cast it on the clothes a person is wearing. Typical clothing is much less than 1" thick ... but even at 1" ... you can keep 12 square feet of worn clothing warm for an hour with one casting of this spell. You can maintain three of these long term effects at once so two characters with prestidigitation can keep your entire party in warmed clothing which will go a long way to counteracting the effect of cold weather.

Mage hand from an arcane trickster rogue is a great way to catch small animals within 30'. Rogue hides and uses his bonus action to move the hand to grab the creature weighing less than 10 pounds and lift it off the ground.

Having Leomund's Tiny Hut makes the entire shelter problem non-existent ... so you only need to worrying about food/water and warmth. Some spells can help with the lack of warm clothing (unless your DM wants to rule otherwise just to cause you some problems) ... but you will have to spend quite a bit of your time searching for food ... but luckily the spells you have should make this relatively easy. Even vicious mockery from the bard is likely enough to kill small creatures ... you just need to see them with 60 to 120'. If the fighter has a long bow (and sharpshooter) he can hit small creatures out to 600' without problems (150' otherwise). Why does this matter? Most animals aren't paying close attention to threats that are over 100' away ... so they should be much easier to see ... and if you can see them ... they can become food.

P.S. If there are tribes of various humanoids in the area then it is clear that there HAS to be food to forage. ALL of these tribes have to eat something ... they don't eat each other ... at least most of the time :) ... so if the DM tries to say there is no food then there likely can't be any villages or humanoids of any sort around either.

Anyway, if you have 2 weeks to your destination then I would just press on using spells to prevent the checks your DM is requesting ... unless you don't have any of the useful spells already mentioned.

P.P.S. Pretidigitation is a must have cantrip since it can be applied in many situations. (Never mind the utility of cleaning all your clothes :) .. no more camp vermin problems :)).

A lot of good points here, Only thing I would really stress as a counter-thought is this...
Wizard, "I use firebolt to fry a squirrel"
DM, "roll survival"
Wizard, "but i'm attacking something"
DM, "no, you're hunting for food, I don't care how or with what you use, it's still survival. You have to track it, or find it while not scaring it away and those are survival skills, not combat attacks." (unless DM points out local fauna for flavor, in which case I'd jump on doing a quick blast, hey DM said it was there, in sight) Then again, maybe the DM isn't preparing them for a few sessions of 'Hatchet' or 'Castaway' and goes 'okay, sure, you bagged a squirrel.' I don't suppose trying can hurt too much, but I wouldn't bet too heavily on it.

Same for mage hand, plus mage hand cannot attack so grappling a small animal would be DM dependent (I'd rule it cant personally, and I think that's RAW. I'm sure someone will correct me if it's not). The problem with hunting isn't doing the damage, it's getting to the goal in the first place. In dense forest your sight can be really limited, and things can hear or smell you a mile away. In other biomes game can be really scarce especially if everything is moving to winter mode, hibernation and hunkering down. Tribes who survive through full time hunting in their own 'backyard' are a world away from city slicker (or what seems to be, from the OP description) adventurers doing it part time while traveling full time through land they don't know and are not prepared to be in.

Other then that, paladin purification is common sense (though raw food is still nasty to eat), prestidigitation to heat things makes sense (wish I had thought of it on clothing, that's nice. might even start doing that in some of my games for winter/summer AC/heating on the move), checking food with magic makes sense, tiny hut is a godsend in this situation, and beating up or trading with the locals can enable the party to use their (seemingly) more city, social, and combat oriented skill set to survive; because, in my opinion, getting food is still the biggest issue facing OP. If water becomes an issue, you might even have a Bear Grylls moment about if purify food and drink works on urine.

What other people said about familiars, assuming it's a familiar that knows how to track or hunt, I'd try to leverage that into a bonus on finding food, advantage on whatever check at the least. Once again, maybe survival is not the DM's focus and it'll turn into a gimme.

[Calimehter]

A lot of good points here, Only thing I would really stress as a counter-thought is this...
Wizard, "I use firebolt to fry a squirrel"
DM, "roll survival"
Wizard, "but i'm attacking something"
DM, "no, you're hunting for food, I don't care how or with what you use, it's still survival. You have to track it, or find it while not scaring it away and those are survival skills, not combat attacks."

+1 to this.

Much of what was described in that referenced post was "this is what a successful Survival check/passed CON save looks like when we want to describe in detail what a successful roll *actually* involves for your characters".

With that said, if the players actually came up with that same level of detail for creative spell use and presented it as an action plan for what they were attempting to do to . . . I would very much grant Advantage to the saves/checks. The checks/saves don't assume aid from spells of any kind, so it seems fair to give some credit to using them to make a difference.

+1 also to the plan to steal/trade for resources from the humanoid 'random' encounters. They are certainly not all out there starving along with the PCs, they should have something keeping them afloat if they are out there at all.

[rlc]

Cannibalize the weakest character until there's only one of you left

[JackPhoenix]

Cannibalize the weakest character until there's only one of you left

Then consume your limbs starting the least useful one.

[Sigreid]

Is it time to say "Make fun of the people who play rangers now."?

[NorthernPhoenix]

I don't have a lot of suggestions atm, but I find the topic interesting since I find the "extreme" weather rules in the DMG insufficient for truly extreme (-40c/+40c and beyond) weather.