Hello again! Still writing on my first homebrew adventure. At this point my PCs are going to travel for two hours in the icy mountain "Northern Light" (that resides in Icewind Dale) before an avalanche is going to stop their journey up to the top. Now I do not want to only describe the horrible cold condition, or the snowy peaks of mountains close by, or the blizzard slowly coming their way. I dont either want them to "fast travel" for two hours or meet an encounter. I want them to do some kind of interesting skill challenge on the way. Something that makes them work together as a group. Altho Im not sure what kind of challenge to use.
A friend told me to use the skill challenge "to find the best way through the blizzard up the mountain", which sounds interesting and could be alot of fun, however they are walking with an NPC that is guiding them upwards the mountain, and I cannot change that, because his presence on the mountain is very important for the climax of the adventure.
Do you guys have any fun and interesting ideas for a skill challenge, that the PCs dont necessarily need to succeed on?
Do you guys have any fun and interesting ideas for a skill challenge, that the PCs dont necessarily need to succeed on?
A portion of the path up the mountain has collapsed/been buried/is otherwise treacherous. The NPC knows another path around that would be safer but take longer, or they can attempt to get across/through the blocked section by (skill challenge). What you won't tell them is that if they stay on the path they'll get across no matter what, the rolls are just to determine how long it takes
Assuming they take the bare minimum precautions (which the NPC can suggest if they don't), no one will plummet to their deaths or anything, but you could give them a good scare if someone rolls poorly
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Active characters:
Askatu, hyperfocused vedalken freedom fighter in Wildspace (Zealot barb/Swashbuckler rogue/Battle Master fighter) Green Hill Sunrise, jaded tabaxi mercenary trapped in the Dark Domains (Battle Master fighter) Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
When travelling for short amounts of time (a couple days or less) through harsh terrain, I tend to make the travel into a skill challenge! However, your PCs' success or failure should have consequences that affect the course of the story, because no player likes pointless rolls or feeling like their choices don't matter. They will be stopped by an avalanche either way, but the group will be better conditioned to face the avalanche if they do well.
Here are some skills that you could use to represent their efforts to travel in the harsh terrain and below-zero-Fahrenheit temperatures, placed behind a spoiler blind to prevent the post from being ridiculously long:
Strength (Athletics): This one won't run out of uses in this skill challenge. From swimming across an icy river on the foot of the mountain to scaling cliffs or ice sheets blocking the path, Athletics will be a score you make your characters use multiple times. On a failure, a character could fall and take damage or be slowed down.
Dexterity (Acrobatics): Not as useful as Athletics here, but good for passing a smaller range of frozen obstacles.
Dexterity (Sleight of Hand): Doing things that require manual dexterity in cold weather is hard, because your body shuts down blood flow in your fingers to prevent hypothermia. A Sleight of Hand check could be used if a character wants to light a torch, tie a simple knot in a climbing rope, or complete a similar task that usually wouldn't call for a check. On a failure, the task would not be completed, which could lead to consequences. For example, if you can't tie the rope to a piton, you need to hold the rope for your companions, potentially dropping them on a failed subsequent check.
Constitution! You don't see Constitution checks a lot, but travelling in high winds and extreme cold definitely calls for one. On a failed CON check, you could slow down the group's travel down, gain a level of exhaustion or take a penalty to Strength and/or Dexterity. All of this harms you later in the skill challenge and again when you (presumably) save against the avalanche.
Intelligence (Nature): If the group stumbles across some natural feature that could help or harm them, this ability might let them identify it. On a failed check, they could be subjected to the harm or miss out on an opportunity.
Wisdom (Medicine): If a PC gets hypothermia or severe frostbite from the cold, a Medicine check could be made to treat it. However, you should have making such a check take valuable time and expose the party to more effects of the cold if that time is spent.
Wisdom (Perception): Seeing and hearing the trail, potential threats, and even each other is hard in a blizzard. You could call for a Perception check just to make out the path and the guide higher up on the mountain, and have the party get lost and lose time on a failed check.
Wisdom (Survival): At you discretion, this skill might be able to substitute for some INT (Nature) or WIS (Perception) checks made in the skill challenge, as the skill shares a niche with these skills in mountain blizzard survival.
Remember: you shouldn't call for a check if you aren't willing to enact meaningful consequences on a failure. Also bear in mind that making it so that going to a specific location or relying on a specific NPC is the only way to advance the plot. Make sure to double-check that you aren't railroading (restricting player agency for the continuation of a single predetermined storyline) your game. Happy roleplaying, and may the dice be with you!
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Panda-wat (I hate my username) is somehow convinced that he is objectively right about everything D&D related even though he obviously is not. Considering that, he'd probably make a great D&D youtuber.
"If I die, I can live with that." ~Luke Hart, the DM lair
Have the players come across a jury-rigged plank 'path' that runs up the side of the mountain, the guide can tell them it will take a day off of their journey and the locals use it all the time. They can choose not to take it, but have the guide gently encourage them (a trick I like to pull is pretend role a passive perception check before I present the choice - the party often thinks they struck lucky).
If they take the path they will have to walk in single-file but things proceed optimistically until the party hears a clatter behind them. The plank path is falling behind them and it's catching up. Start by having the final person in the line roll an easy dexterity (acrobatic) check. This guy will have to roll 6 checks in total, running through 11 - 16. After 2 rolls, have the person in front of him start to roll, beginning at 11 ( he will have to roll 4 times), after another 2 rolls have the next person in line start to roll (he will have to check twice). You can make it harder if you want. See if any of the party at the front offer any help - throw a rope, etc. Decide what check they will need to make, but be generous (for quick thinking). If anyone fails a roll, again, allow party members at the front an opportunity to help. If they all succeed, allow them to continue, with time taken off their journey.
If no help is given, the party member falls 20ft onto an earlier part of the path, taking damage. The path is no longer traversable. If any party member falls, the other members find a ledge, but they will have to climb down and continue along the regular path. This will add an extra day to their journey.
Have the players come across a jury-rigged plank 'path' that runs up the side of the mountain, the guide can tell them it will take a day off of their journey and the locals use it all the time. They can choose not to take it, but [...]
This is how my group has generally done "journey"-type sequences. Instead of just making some skill rolls, they get a couple of choices along the way. Do they try to scale the steep rock face and risk some falls, or take the long and winding path that tests their endurance? Do they try to use the dilapidated rope bridge* to cross the chasm, or circle around and hope they can find a safer way? If the DM does it just right, they'll get the party to debate in character which path(s) they're better equipped to handle, and strategize how they're going to do it.
* For the bridge, maybe give some special recognition to the fighter if they remember that their plate armor weighs 65 pounds and they put it in the bag of holding before they proceed.
Wow, amazing, its mindblowing how much effort you guys put into the answers, Im very greatful for this. This table of check you have provided will I save anduse as a template for both this one and future adventures. And yes I will definitly think about how to make sure Im not railroading them, I imagine that I will become better and better at it the longer I DM for.
I Also did put in a homebrow Freezing condition i found online that i thought looked very promising and yet simple. Where the idea is to make them roll con saving throws every hour and if they fail they gain one level of freezing each time, where every level gives setbacks and eventually could cause hypothermia.
This is a very cool idea, as I mentioned in an earlier answer I was thinking that maybe they could pass through (if they choose to) a glacier-pass. Which I can make this type of scenario. That the last one has to roll athletic checks to find a sturdy part after a sudden crack in the glacier. And then the next one and next one, and let the first two that went through the glacier be safe but can provide ropes or maybe spells that could help the PCs behind.
Once again, very greatful for the quick response and advice Im getting here. Much love!
* For the bridge, maybe give some special recognition to the fighter if they remember that their plate armor weighs 65 pounds and they put it in the bag of holding before they proceed.
Alright thank you. Although do you mean that the plate armor could eventually hurt him in the fall unless he has taken it off or that he is more steady during the walk?
Thanks for the reply and the large ego boost! I get a lot of "talking to a wall" impressions when I write my posts, and I'm glad this one helped you and your game.
Now, a note about the "freezing" condition. You absolutely can use this, but it seems more like a condition monsters apply than a natural hazard. Take, for lack of a better example, the scene in the movie Frozen where Anna gradually becomes weaker after being struck in the heart with icy magic. The freezing condition reminds me more of that than of freezing to death on a mountain. To represent that, I'd use the exhaustion system in the basic rules, possibly alongside the "extreme cold" rules on page 110 of the Dungeon Master's Guide.
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Panda-wat (I hate my username) is somehow convinced that he is objectively right about everything D&D related even though he obviously is not. Considering that, he'd probably make a great D&D youtuber.
"If I die, I can live with that." ~Luke Hart, the DM lair
* For the bridge, maybe give some special recognition to the fighter if they remember that their plate armor weighs 65 pounds and they put it in the bag of holding before they proceed.
Alright thank you. Although do you mean that the plate armor could eventually hurt him in the fall unless he has taken it off or that he is more steady during the walk?
I actually meant if the bridge is really old and not holding together very well, the characters may want to reduce their weight as much as possible, to reduce the chance that it will break underneath them while they're crossing.
This was something a player thought of instantly in a game I was running, when I hadn't thought of it at all, and I was impressed. There were rope ladders, narrow planks to balance on, and similar obstacles, none of which were well built, so they needed an Acrobatics check to proceed on that path. I lowered the "safe crossing" DC by 1 or 2 for that player because they were thinking ahead and I like to reward cleverness... and then it didn't matter because they rolled really high anyway. (Because of course they did, right?)
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Hello again!
Still writing on my first homebrew adventure. At this point my PCs are going to travel for two hours in the icy mountain "Northern Light" (that resides in Icewind Dale) before an avalanche is going to stop their journey up to the top. Now I do not want to only describe the horrible cold condition, or the snowy peaks of mountains close by, or the blizzard slowly coming their way. I dont either want them to "fast travel" for two hours or meet an encounter.
I want them to do some kind of interesting skill challenge on the way. Something that makes them work together as a group. Altho Im not sure what kind of challenge to use.
A friend told me to use the skill challenge "to find the best way through the blizzard up the mountain", which sounds interesting and could be alot of fun, however they are walking with an NPC that is guiding them upwards the mountain, and I cannot change that, because his presence on the mountain is very important for the climax of the adventure.
Do you guys have any fun and interesting ideas for a skill challenge, that the PCs dont necessarily need to succeed on?
Regards / James
A portion of the path up the mountain has collapsed/been buried/is otherwise treacherous. The NPC knows another path around that would be safer but take longer, or they can attempt to get across/through the blocked section by (skill challenge). What you won't tell them is that if they stay on the path they'll get across no matter what, the rolls are just to determine how long it takes
Assuming they take the bare minimum precautions (which the NPC can suggest if they don't), no one will plummet to their deaths or anything, but you could give them a good scare if someone rolls poorly
Active characters:
Askatu, hyperfocused vedalken freedom fighter in Wildspace (Zealot barb/Swashbuckler rogue/Battle Master fighter)
Green Hill Sunrise, jaded tabaxi mercenary trapped in the Dark Domains (Battle Master fighter)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
When travelling for short amounts of time (a couple days or less) through harsh terrain, I tend to make the travel into a skill challenge! However, your PCs' success or failure should have consequences that affect the course of the story, because no player likes pointless rolls or feeling like their choices don't matter. They will be stopped by an avalanche either way, but the group will be better conditioned to face the avalanche if they do well.
Here are some skills that you could use to represent their efforts to travel in the harsh terrain and below-zero-Fahrenheit temperatures, placed behind a spoiler blind to prevent the post from being ridiculously long:
Strength (Athletics): This one won't run out of uses in this skill challenge. From swimming across an icy river on the foot of the mountain to scaling cliffs or ice sheets blocking the path, Athletics will be a score you make your characters use multiple times. On a failure, a character could fall and take damage or be slowed down.
Dexterity (Acrobatics): Not as useful as Athletics here, but good for passing a smaller range of frozen obstacles.
Dexterity (Sleight of Hand): Doing things that require manual dexterity in cold weather is hard, because your body shuts down blood flow in your fingers to prevent hypothermia. A Sleight of Hand check could be used if a character wants to light a torch, tie a simple knot in a climbing rope, or complete a similar task that usually wouldn't call for a check. On a failure, the task would not be completed, which could lead to consequences. For example, if you can't tie the rope to a piton, you need to hold the rope for your companions, potentially dropping them on a failed subsequent check.
Constitution! You don't see Constitution checks a lot, but travelling in high winds and extreme cold definitely calls for one. On a failed CON check, you could slow down the group's travel down, gain a level of exhaustion or take a penalty to Strength and/or Dexterity. All of this harms you later in the skill challenge and again when you (presumably) save against the avalanche.
Intelligence (Nature): If the group stumbles across some natural feature that could help or harm them, this ability might let them identify it. On a failed check, they could be subjected to the harm or miss out on an opportunity.
Wisdom (Medicine): If a PC gets hypothermia or severe frostbite from the cold, a Medicine check could be made to treat it. However, you should have making such a check take valuable time and expose the party to more effects of the cold if that time is spent.
Wisdom (Perception): Seeing and hearing the trail, potential threats, and even each other is hard in a blizzard. You could call for a Perception check just to make out the path and the guide higher up on the mountain, and have the party get lost and lose time on a failed check.
Wisdom (Survival): At you discretion, this skill might be able to substitute for some INT (Nature) or WIS (Perception) checks made in the skill challenge, as the skill shares a niche with these skills in mountain blizzard survival.
Remember: you shouldn't call for a check if you aren't willing to enact meaningful consequences on a failure. Also bear in mind that making it so that going to a specific location or relying on a specific NPC is the only way to advance the plot. Make sure to double-check that you aren't railroading (restricting player agency for the continuation of a single predetermined storyline) your game. Happy roleplaying, and may the dice be with you!
Panda-wat (I hate my username) is somehow convinced that he is objectively right about everything D&D related even though he obviously is not. Considering that, he'd probably make a great D&D youtuber.
"If I die, I can live with that." ~Luke Hart, the DM lair
Have the players come across a jury-rigged plank 'path' that runs up the side of the mountain, the guide can tell them it will take a day off of their journey and the locals use it all the time. They can choose not to take it, but have the guide gently encourage them (a trick I like to pull is pretend role a passive perception check before I present the choice - the party often thinks they struck lucky).
If they take the path they will have to walk in single-file but things proceed optimistically until the party hears a clatter behind them. The plank path is falling behind them and it's catching up. Start by having the final person in the line roll an easy dexterity (acrobatic) check. This guy will have to roll 6 checks in total, running through 11 - 16. After 2 rolls, have the person in front of him start to roll, beginning at 11 ( he will have to roll 4 times), after another 2 rolls have the next person in line start to roll (he will have to check twice). You can make it harder if you want. See if any of the party at the front offer any help - throw a rope, etc. Decide what check they will need to make, but be generous (for quick thinking). If anyone fails a roll, again, allow party members at the front an opportunity to help. If they all succeed, allow them to continue, with time taken off their journey.
If no help is given, the party member falls 20ft onto an earlier part of the path, taking damage. The path is no longer traversable. If any party member falls, the other members find a ledge, but they will have to climb down and continue along the regular path. This will add an extra day to their journey.
This is how my group has generally done "journey"-type sequences. Instead of just making some skill rolls, they get a couple of choices along the way. Do they try to scale the steep rock face and risk some falls, or take the long and winding path that tests their endurance? Do they try to use the dilapidated rope bridge* to cross the chasm, or circle around and hope they can find a safer way? If the DM does it just right, they'll get the party to debate in character which path(s) they're better equipped to handle, and strategize how they're going to do it.
* For the bridge, maybe give some special recognition to the fighter if they remember that their plate armor weighs 65 pounds and they put it in the bag of holding before they proceed.
Reply to AntonSirius:
This is great advice, thinking about doing a glacier-pass that will make them do all kinds of rolls. Thank you!
Reply to: Panda_wet
Wow, amazing, its mindblowing how much effort you guys put into the answers, Im very greatful for this. This table of check you have provided will I save anduse as a template for both this one and future adventures. And yes I will definitly think about how to make sure Im not railroading them, I imagine that I will become better and better at it the longer I DM for.
I Also did put in a homebrow Freezing condition i found online that i thought looked very promising and yet simple. Where the idea is to make them roll con saving throws every hour and if they fail they gain one level of freezing each time, where every level gives setbacks and eventually could cause hypothermia.
Link to the freezing condition: https://nerdarchy.com/this-new-5e-dd-freezing-condition-puts-characters-on-ice/#:~:text=Freezing occurs in stages.,has disadvantage on saving throws.
Once again, thank you alot for your resources!
Reply to Holton_Coalfield:
This is a very cool idea, as I mentioned in an earlier answer I was thinking that maybe they could pass through (if they choose to) a glacier-pass. Which I can make this type of scenario. That the last one has to roll athletic checks to find a sturdy part after a sudden crack in the glacier. And then the next one and next one, and let the first two that went through the glacier be safe but can provide ropes or maybe spells that could help the PCs behind.
Once again, very greatful for the quick response and advice Im getting here. Much love!
Alright thank you. Although do you mean that the plate armor could eventually hurt him in the fall unless he has taken it off or that he is more steady during the walk?
Thanks for the reply and the large ego boost! I get a lot of "talking to a wall" impressions when I write my posts, and I'm glad this one helped you and your game.
Now, a note about the "freezing" condition. You absolutely can use this, but it seems more like a condition monsters apply than a natural hazard. Take, for lack of a better example, the scene in the movie Frozen where Anna gradually becomes weaker after being struck in the heart with icy magic. The freezing condition reminds me more of that than of freezing to death on a mountain. To represent that, I'd use the exhaustion system in the basic rules, possibly alongside the "extreme cold" rules on page 110 of the Dungeon Master's Guide.
Panda-wat (I hate my username) is somehow convinced that he is objectively right about everything D&D related even though he obviously is not. Considering that, he'd probably make a great D&D youtuber.
"If I die, I can live with that." ~Luke Hart, the DM lair
I actually meant if the bridge is really old and not holding together very well, the characters may want to reduce their weight as much as possible, to reduce the chance that it will break underneath them while they're crossing.
This was something a player thought of instantly in a game I was running, when I hadn't thought of it at all, and I was impressed. There were rope ladders, narrow planks to balance on, and similar obstacles, none of which were well built, so they needed an Acrobatics check to proceed on that path. I lowered the "safe crossing" DC by 1 or 2 for that player because they were thinking ahead and I like to reward cleverness... and then it didn't matter because they rolled really high anyway. (Because of course they did, right?)