Gimme a few ideas - Dark and Evil Weather

[Eldan]

So, I was looking at the 3.X spell Storm of Vengeance. Pretty terrible, really, but a nice idea, at the core. I was thinking of rewriting it as an incantation, but it would just look better with a few new and, perhaps, more powerful and varied effects.

So, what kinds of magical, evil weather can you think of? Not as rules, not as D&D effects, just, kinds of weather.

The storm itself already can do:

Acid Rain
Lightning Bolts
Deadly Hailstones
Sight-obscuring Rain
Deafening Thunder

All pretty mundane.
My own ideas, to add to that list:

A rain of blood turns all ground into poisonous slime.
Clouds of poisonous gas that choke the life out of all creatures, including plants.
Rain of Fire.
Three days of Darkness.

[peacenlove]

A rain of frogs or locusts would be classic. Bonus points for templated creatures.
The earth bleeds strange liquids (blood, acid or even a lava)
Hallucinating fog.

[Yora]

What's the english name for half molten snow mixed with rain, a bit like crushed ice? Combined with strong wind, that stuff is really nasty to unprotected skin, feels like it ripps your freezing face of.

Another thing that makes being in a storm really miserable is slick ground. Since the rain is caustic, it could make even non-clay ground really slippery like a lesser (or full) grease spell.

[B!shop]

An exhausting mist that makes hard to breathe could be a good after-storm weather effect.

[Yora]

This reminds me of sandstorms. The only thing I ever experienced was trying to cross a sand dune on the danish beach with the wind hitting it just at the right angle and speed to blow sand up and right at us. It was 20 to 30 meters at most, but we had to give it up after just a few meters and had to get a hundred meters down the coast to a spot where there was more ground vegetation.
It was kind of funny in that situation, but being completely surrounded by such conditions for hours in the middle of a dessert would probably be hell.

Which also reminds me of liquification. Sand can only hold so much water. If you force more water into it, the wet sand just turns into water with sand floating in it. Normally the sand particles will settle at the bottom and the water will float on top, so I think normal rainfall doesn't do that. But it seems to be a quite common event when there are earthquakes in sandy areas with lots of waters and the pressure forces the sand and the water to attain just the right ratio. What you have is solid ground almost instantly turning into liquid. It can swallow up people and buildings, and when the area is not perfectly flat, you can get massive landslides. There have been entire towns swallowed up by the sea because of that.

Speaking of landslides

[PersonMan]

What's the english name for half molten snow mixed with rain, a bit like crushed ice? Combined with strong wind, that stuff is really nasty to unprotected skin, feels like it ripps your freezing face of.

It's called sleet, I believe.

Anyways, as far as evil weather is concerned, I'd say that long-term out of season or otherwise mundane weather could be really damaging-try recovering from an acid storm that destroyed half of your village if you can't grow any crops due to massive droughts.

[nooblade]

If you want GRIMDARK, yeah, I dunno. But otherwise.

Look at REAL world weather that's nasty, then put that weather on steroids. When you're familiar with something, I think it gets a little bit more scary. I think it boils down to maybe 4 possibilities, there:

Hot and Dry: Think of all the desert areas. Darkness might be the goal, but you don't need to do it directly--not only could things (sandstorms?) blot out the sun, but also intense heat, thirst, and/or sun could addle some bodies. Plus, mirages will literally bend light so you see blue sky in the ground and think that it's water, so there's a good mix of real illusion and also mind-influence.

Hot and Humid: Think of South Carolina, for example. You get drenched in water and a good fraction of it at any time is your own sweat, and it always feels like the water on you is evaporating. It's like the opposite of taking a shower to clean yourself; you get dirty just by being there. More associated phenomena are hurricanes and thunderstorms, you could easily get your stereotypical "evil cloud" here.

Cold and Dry: I dunno about this one, it seems like a nice day, probably because there's some extreme I haven't been exposed to. There wouldn't be snow or clouds unless you want to say that it's a little bit wet, or it's wet higher up. This could be pretty close to a vacuum, I guess. Living things might freeze if the pressure (not a vacuum) and temperature are right but otherwise it could be pretty bad to know that you're slowly dying without really "feeling" it. With all our anesthetic medicines, numbness just doesn't seem "evil" though. There's also asphyxiation, a little more scary but still short. You might get really philosophical here and say that evil isn't about the presence of some thing as much as about the absence of a specific thing... But examples with weather don't really go into this well because bad weather is just so bad.

Cold and Humid: The classic blizzard land. I'm much less familiar with this one, but I imagine it wouldn't be much fun to lose your extremities to frostbite. Or arguably Seattle is worse.

[Yora]

Antarctica is actually one of the driest places on earth. Sure, there is solid H20 on the ground everywhere, but there pretty much no humidity in the air.

[SamBurke]

One word: Tornadoes. Those things outmatch hurricanes in damage output, ease of creation, speed, and manageability. A good level 15-ish wizard could throw those around and wreck a magical metropolis. Everything (Stone or otherwise) within the edges of a half-mile whirlwind is wrecked, thrown, and ripped. Talk about Area spells.

[PersonMan]

There's also freezing rain. Even if you have shelter, it can make it very dangerous/difficult to go outside afterwards. Combine that with, say, heavy snow and you can shut down entire towns.

[Volthawk]

Going into supernatural stuff, I could see a kind of life/energy draining rain, the kind that kills and then those victims raise as roaming undead. Since undead can move around and hunt, it means that simply being under some cover won't be enough to evade it - the weather may not kill you, but the undead are a danger regardless of you evading the weather. So yeah - instant zombie apocalypse, just add weather.

[LibraryOgre]

What's the english name for half molten snow mixed with rain, a bit like crushed ice? Combined with strong wind, that stuff is really nasty to unprotected skin, feels like it ripps your freezing face of.

Sleet.

Having spent this summer in drought-stricken Texas, I'd add "Heat Lightning". The air is thick, the sky is dark with low clouds... and lightning strikes the ground, often starting fires.

[Venom3053000]

i remember the colbert report talking about Lightning during a snow storm some time ago that's something no one wants.

[Reaper_Monkey]

What's the english name for half molten snow mixed with rain, a bit like crushed ice? Combined with strong wind, that stuff is really nasty to unprotected skin, feels like it ripps your freezing face of.

Yeah, rain and snow at the same time is sleet (not to be confused with just really cold rain that rapidly drains heat on contact, nor hail which is actually frozen rain). Although phrased as "half molten" it just makes me think of little drops of magma... which would also hurt a lot to be fair.

To also add some fun weather effects however:

• Blinding sheet lightning.
• Ball lightning, which can be played a number of different ways.
• Razorwind - small particles of grit being blow at very high speeds as the wind suddenly surges at random intervals, or think sandblaster for it dialled up to 11.
• "Heavy" rain - as in monsoon rain that literally increases encumbrance as is soaks everything you're wearing, for added supernatural make it thick slime droplets instead of water that creates an increasing layer of sticky gunk on everything.
• Skybound wind - Wind that gusts from the floor upwards, just long enough to get your airborne before letting you drop back to the ground with a thump.

[*.*.*.*]

Lightning rain! It rains drops of lightning!



/derp

[Tvtyrant]

Thick hail during a tornado can turn the hail into bullets that destroy everything for miles. Make the hail shaped like objects and you suddenly have a really creepy storm. This is also associated with a green sky, and can create rainbows around the tornado.

[Cespenar]

Entering silly mode:

1) "Lite" air. Basically, low on oxygen. Increases fatigue, etc.

2) Air pressure can be dialed to both ways, to your taste.

3) Scalding hot sun + heavy smoke clouds = spontaneous combustion.

4) Hot temperature + pockets of marsh gas = random explosions, which never cease to be fun.

5) Geysers are fun too.
5a) Poisonous geysers.
5b) Steam geysers.
5c) Lava!
5d) Hot subterranean waters + freezing outside temperature = instant ice tomb.
5e) Bug/ant/etc. swarm geysers?

6) Solar radiation?

7) Heavy hail + lightning bolts = hailstones exploding in your face.

Edit: 8) Ooh! Combine your three days of darkness idea with heavy thunderstorms, and you can have moments like a sudden lightning revealing the horde of creatures/what-have-you which have snuck up near the party almost to touching range.

[theflyingkitty]

Tornados/cyclones/sudden gusts of wind which carry/made of fire/sharp ice/nipping toothy creatures/etc

[Notreallyhere77]

Ants. It rains ants. Fire ants, wood ants, any kind, all kinds. It doesn't matter which, but ants are falling from the sky, getting into your house and your food and your clothes and your drinking water and your dog's fur and your hair and your shoes and it doesn't stop and it doesn't relent and it lasts for hours and then it lasts for days and time has no meaning until it finally stops.

Your crops, if any, are gone. Your livestock, if any, is gone. Your house is still infested. Everything the ants got into, they are still there. And it's not just your house or your farm. It's not just you. It's everyone in the village, the town, the city. Maybe the whole kingdom. It's awful. It's evil. And it's never going to be the same after this.

How's that for evil weather?

[Funkyodor]

How about cats and dogs. It's horrid and funny at the same time. Buried alive after being knocked unconscious by falling animals. Like an epic mix of monster summoning and weather control.

[Volthawk]

How about cats and dogs. It's horrid and funny at the same time. Buried alive after being knocked unconscious by falling animals. Like an epic mix of monster summoning and weather control.

Flaming dogs, the Sheogorath way.

[Yora]

6) Solar radiation?

Head on gamma ray burst right on the planet from a nearby star. Nuclear winter would be a childrens birthday party against that.

[Mustard]

Saltwater rain. Perhaps not extremely evil, but if you have enough of it, it's sure to cause problems, particularly if something is causing it long term. It may come just a couple times a week, caking the ground and outdoor structures with thicker and thicker layers of salt. So, what are those townspeople going to do about their crops? And the increasing salinity of groundwater?

[Krazzman]

How about a.....Bladestorm :D

A Elemental rain (it rains little elementals)?
A Plant altering rain (Tree alters to treant, herb to poisonous herb and so on)?


Have a nice Day,
Krazzman

[Eldan]

Mutagenic rain in general is a nice idea. As are animals.

Hmm. "This kind of rain casts Summon Monster 1 in the entire area of the spell, every 20 feet".

[Lord Loss]

How ''Evil'' do you want this rain to be?

Regular, possible weather that harms peopl,e, or stuff like...

Rain of Innards?
Black/Purple Lightning that actively seeks out people and destroys their souls (not sure how to balance that one)?
Snow that sticks on Good individuals and weighs them down, suffocates them, or even forms into creatures/hands that fore their heads into them into the snow or otherwise kills them?

[Eldan]

Evil was perhaps not the right word. But, well, what do you think of when you hear "Storm of Vengeance"? Certainly not a normal storm with a bit of acid rain that lasts for a minute or less.

[Ravens_cry]

One word: Tornadoes. Those things outmatch hurricanes in damage output, ease of creation, speed, and manageability. A good level 15-ish wizard could throw those around and wreck a magical metropolis. Everything (Stone or otherwise) within the edges of a half-mile whirlwind is wrecked, thrown, and ripped. Talk about Area spells.

Do you know what's better than tornadoes?
Fire Tornadoes.
Do you know what is worse?
They are real.

[GungHo]

Moaning winds. Not wind that is blowing so fast by a corner/aperture that it sounds like it's moaning. But actual moaning winds. Not sexy-time moaning (though if it sounded like your parents, that could work). As the storm goes on, it almost sounds like there are words being spoken. However, you can't make it out because it's like there are twenty people all speaking at once.

When lightning flashes, it looks like there are faces staring at you. Not resolved faces... but the kinds of faces you see in clouds or in a pane of glass that's drying off. They're never in the same place, but they're all very similar.

Make the rain feel lukewarm and oily. It doesn't have to do anything to your skin like give you a rash. But it feels filthy and tastes like grease and burns your eyes.

[JohnnyCancer]

A tornado that swept through a battlefield and is tearing up the countryside with rusted and broken weaponry while depositing spontaneously animated skeletons and zombies in its wake.