Arctic Campaign Lethality

[dededo11]

Has anyone ever played in a campaign set primarily in cold weather or arctic conditions? If so, how many characters did you lose to the extreme cold?

[GlenSmash!]

I haven't played much in an environment like that, but I would like to with rime of the frostmaiden coming out.

(But I'll probably play a Goliath which are naturally adapted to cold)

Things like being an Arctic favored terrain ranger or having a ring of warmth would help.

[NoxMiasma]

I played in a campaign where 2 characters died of hypothermia, but we basically did a prison break out of a mountain and in to the arctic with nothing but the (not warm) clothes on our backs. Proper cold weather gear slows the rate at which you need to make saves, and carrying tinder/firewood or knowing how to make an insulating snow shelter mean you aren't making saves every hour through the night. The thing to remember, though, is that any level of exhaustion can spiral pretty quickly.

[Keravath]

With the right skills and equipment, you shouldn't need a check of any sort most of the time.

On the other hand, if your party doesn't have warm weather gear, no useful spells, and no relevant skills then survival becomes an issue.

Some spells can really help traveling in the cold.

- Leomund's Tiny Hut - the ideal night time shelter ... don't adventure in the wilds of any sort without a character who can cast it. Recasting it gives shelter through blizzards or storms that last more than 8 hours.

- Prestidigitation could be very useful
"You chill, warm, or flavor up to 1 cubic foot of nonliving material for 1 hour."
"If you cast this spell multiple times, you can have up to three of its non-instantaneous effects active at a time"

The total volume of your armor is less than 1 cubic foot (it covers the body but is typically less than 1/4" thick ... usually a lot less. So you can either fold up the clothes then put them on or (DM dependent) just warm up the cubic foot of clothes while you are wearing them ... AND they stay warm for an hour. So the spell could provide essentially heated garments for up to 3 characters. (Of course it is a DM call on how this would work but personally, I would tend to give advantage on any cold related checks if wearing warmed clothes.)

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[Hal]

The rules for extreme cold say that you automatically succeed on any saving throws as long as you're wearing cold weather gear. If you're sticking with that, then cold weather survival is literally a check box, pass/fail system you're not likely to deal with if the players come prepared or have access to anywhere they can buy clothing.

[Vogie]

I'd use the food/water consumption and Exhaustion mechanic to better control how the characters fare. issues with keeping warm, keeping the fire going, et cetera. My only campaign that went to an arctic environment quickly teleportation circle'd to a desert environment rather than stick around... because I didn't have anything prepared for that, the bastards.


The rules for extreme cold say that you automatically succeed on any saving throws as long as you're wearing cold weather gear. If you're sticking with that, then cold weather survival is literally a check box, pass/fail system you're not likely to deal with if the players come prepared or have access to anywhere they can buy clothing.

That really sounds like they're winking towards DMs that slashing damage can potentially shred one's cold weather gear

[Duff]

Many years ago I played in a 2nd Ed D&D (with some bits still kept from 1st ed). The setting ranged south from the northern icecap over tundra to areas warm enough to support forests. Winters were brutal, overland travel was snow shoes and dogsleds except our ranger who could ski. Summers were pretty normal for a NorthWest Europe-ish Fantasy RPG
We were all locals, village raised, so our characters knew how not to die. We certainly needed to make survival checks when one of the characters was knocked through the ice in a fight and when we got caught in a storm, but never failed any of them enough to die.

[Edea]

Not in 3.5 D&D. Non-supernatural cold is just generally not a threat in those games; hell, endure elements is a level 1 spell and virtually all casters have it on their list.

Also, Frostburn is one of the most...gruyere supplements in 3.5's history (and that's saying a lot), so many DMs from that era kinda got turned off to this idea altogether.

[LudicSavant]

Not in 3.5 D&D. Non-supernatural cold is just generally not a threat in those games; hell, endure elements is a level 1 spell and virtually all casters have it on their list.

Also, Frostburn is one of the most...gruyere supplements in 3.5's history (and that's saying a lot), so many DMs from that era kinda got turned off to this idea altogether.

What does "gruyere" mean?

[Edea]

What does "gruyere" mean?

It's a type of Swiss cheese.

Not half as stinky as that book, though...

[greenstone]

Yes I have. It sucked. Every morning ingame, we had to organise the "caster Alice spends this many slots casting protection from elements on that half of the party and caster Bob does the rest" mucking around.

All it did was halve the ability of the two casters while adding no fun to the game.

[NorthernPhoenix]

The rules for extreme environments in the book are very bad, but with a little tweaking i find them to be a lot of fun. Generally, i start with conditions, move up to exhaustion stacking at a variable rate, and finally, ticking damage in truly extreme situations. Different equipment and precautions can mitigate these down one or more steps depending on what's going on, that sorta stuff.