Ideas on how to use (and when) to use difficult terrain

[Lupine]

So, whenever someone asks how to make encounters more interesting, or is seeking general DM advice, one of the most frequent pieces of advice is "use difficult terrain"

But.... Many of us DMs (myself included) are really bad about doing that. Either we just don't think about how to do it, simply don't or just slap certain areas as "difficult terrain" and roll on.

This is especially true of groups that play over webcam.

How do you run difficult terrain? What are your favorite examples of difficult terrain?

[HappyDaze]

So, whenever someone asks how to make encounters more interesting, or is seeking general DM advice, one of the most frequent pieces of advice is "use difficult terrain"

But.... Many of us DMs (myself included) are really bad about doing that. Either we just don't think about how to do it, simply don't or just slap certain areas as "difficult terrain" and roll on.

This is especially true of groups that play over webcam.

How do you run difficult terrain? What are your favorite examples of difficult terrain?

Had a battle on the deck of a pirate ship. Lots of pirate mooks (bandits) in that fight, and when they went down, their bodies became difficult terrain making it tough to get around the corpse-littered deck easily and encouraging the Acrobatics-trained PCs to take to the ropes.

[Kane0]

Fallen trees, wading-depth water, slick ice, landslide rubble, street trash, sown caltrops, all forms of difficult terrain. In particularly rough areas up to half of even the majority of space could be difficult.

Throw in some elevation differences and the odd bit of cover and you have a much more interesting battleground.

[da newt]

It isn't necessary, but it adds flair, realism, and something to drive tactics.

Some of my most memorable battles were in a Robinson family style tree house with 1 person wide rope bridges in between platforms built around the tree trunks - it made moving into melee a chore, and every platform had a central column in the way.

Another was a battle with a dragon wyrmling in a swamp where solid ground was rare, the water was human waist deep so half speed - the gnome was swimming, but the lizard folk minions were unaffected and the damn dragon was flying around.

It makes stuff more interesting. So does a hazard - fire, lava, cliff, well, lake, elevation differences, etc and cover is fun to try to take advantage of and frustrating to get past if 'they' have it.

A pet peeve of mine is empty rooms - in your lifetime, how often do you go into a room of any sort that doesn't have furniture or anything in it? Where are the tables, chairs, beds, chests, etc? We often ignore these sorts of things for simplicity's sake.

Sometimes rooms should be small or weirdly shaped, but there should also be some balance so the SS can show off, the Tabaxi can sprint around, the paladin can charge on his steed, and you can have epic my party vs a hoard battles ...

[Man_Over_Game]

The trick isn't to add Difficult Terrain itself - it doesn't really change all too much past level 5 - but it DOES give players more to think about.

Whenever you create a battle map area, you need to ask yourself: What environmental effects can happen?


Are there vines that can catch people or allow people to climb up them?

Is the floor littered with the husks of giant caterpillars from a Druid's final gambit?

Can the players barely see their feet as they dodge around wolves?



Just simply asking yourself to write down 3 interesting things on every battle map is enough. It might come in the form of Difficult Terrain, or it comes from a row of braziers that are perfect for wrecking havoc.

You'll often find that Difficult Terrain is something made. Maybe that brazier lit the carpet on fire and made a flaming path of burning coals. Or maybe those vines dropped a bunch of snake-like carnivorous plants to the ground that leech onto anything that comes close. Don't limit your imagination to "Difficult Terrain".