Campaign Set During Winter

[dededo11]

I am, planning to set a dnd campaign during the winter season (a particularly bad winter season that lasts too long due to the actions of the BBEG). How would the winter season affect the monsters the players encounter (like would they still encounter monsters whose natural environment was the forest if they were in the forest, but it was winter)?

[JackPhoenix]

Depends on the monster in question. Wolves still hunt during the winter, bears hibernate.

[Sparky McDibben]

There's a couple different techniques you can use for this, but it depends on purpose. Are you setting up a random encounter table or is this for a preplanned encounter?

[Chaos_Laicosin]

Taking real world winter as an example: There's no insects, or amphibians, or reptiles as they all either migrate, hibernate, or are otherwise dormant. Many birds migrate, but a few stick around. Many mammals go into hibernation (bears, groundhogs, chipmunks, etc.)
You could add in an increased chance of encountering a "winter" variant of a monster, such as a polar bear or frost giant or white dragon.
Or if you're going for external forces creating a magically enhanced winter, you could add a random chance to bump the stats for monsters to reflect the extra bit of magic in the air.
Or maybe the longer winter makes normally neutral monsters more aggressive since prey has been harder to come by for a longer period of time.
Maybe those aforementioned hibernators are coming out of their hibernation but without their normal spring food supply so they're sluggish, emaciated, and easy to defeat in combat.

Just some random thoughts that popped into my head.

[TyGuy]

What's the nature of this prolonged winter? Would there be a reason to have it "infect" the wildlife? Taking the frost wolf as a starting point and making a bunch of "frost-touched" fauna. The affected creatures are hostile and more deadly.

[CheddarChampion]

There could be some winterized fey about. Or just angry ice spirits.

If the winter stays longer in a very large area, maybe some things from closer to the poles start to come into the "slightly less bone chilling cold." You could add in a remorhaz to terrify almost any group.

Given how difficult terrain might come up more often, ranged attackers could have two times as many rounds before melee types close in.

If a creature has white fur, it would be very hard to spot in the snow. All you need to do to blend in is wear white so camo might be an option.

Intelligent enemies will be more likely to use campfires, giving themselves away at night or when tracking. They will also wear more clothes which might affect their AC. If you want, that is. Maybe they become vulnerable to fire damage?

[Unoriginal]

Reminds me of the second campaign for the old DnD board game.


There could be some winterized fey about. Or just angry ice spirits.


Ice Mephits are perfect for the season.



Intelligent enemies will be more likely to use campfires, giving themselves away at night or when tracking.

Also, when met away from their holdings (or the surrounding thereof), most sapient beings will either be guided by someone with proficiency (or even Expertise) in Survival (maybe with increased WIS, too) or be in trouble.

Most walking creatures become far easier to track, too, between two snowfalls.

[Sorinth]

It depends on the animal/monster. Though in a general sense during winter there is a scarcity of food, so animals/monsters will likely become more aggressive then normal as they will be more desperate for food. This includes humanoids, so your settlements will also probably start to run low on food which would cause clashes over the dwindling resources.

[Martin Greywolf]

The most important bit about winter, rather than what critters attack you, is that you can't get anywhere. Roads are unusable, rivers can't be sailed on, and overland travel is only possible with specialist equipment or animals (even that may be impossible in some conditions), and slowly at that. Even something that would otherwise be easily handled, like wolf attacks getting culled by your local lord, can become a problem because people who handle them can't get anywhere in time.

And may all the gods help you if there's a blizzard.

[Unoriginal]

Kinda feel like all the replies in this thread are the things the PCs hear from NPCs in the first tavern they visit in the land affected by the Winter.