I'm reading the Tales dungeon, White Plume Mountain, which so far has been awesome and my players have literally told me they're loving it.
I'm preparing the next session and reading the section on "Geysers and Chains", it says that to climb the chains is a DC 15 Athletics check. That makes sense for holding onto and climbing the chains (or walls), for moving from chain to chain, or platform to platform, but for balance, there is nothing. I would have thought there might be a Dexterity roll, having done similar challenges in real life at those treetop adventure parks. Is it too harsh to impose Dex, say DC 10 Acrobatics check, as well as the DC 15 Athletics roll?
In the absence of Dex rolls, would this mean there are basically 9 DC 15 Athletics checks to make it across the boiling pit? 18 to make it back.
It looks like it is 70 ft from platform to platform and I'd count this as difficult terrain, so 140 ft of movement for everyone except the rogue with second story work, meaning it would take five rounds to cross, or 30 seconds, assuming they succeed all rolls... Does that seem right too?
My Warlock will just cast Fly which will take two of them across, but I need to be prepared for the other two.
I'm no hero in RL, but I can't imagine being able to cross that in 30 seconds!!
According to the text, it is 90 feet from platform to platform. The way I see it, you have to make 10 short jumps from or to a disk that's dangling. I would not simply call it difficult terrain, that would make the entire encounter pointless. Also since the geysers erupt every 5/3 minutes (50 and 30 rounds respectively) you'd want the encounter to last at least that long. I'd let the 5 minute geyser (A) burst as they enter, and then count from there. At minute 3, the other (B) erupts, then at 5 A again, at 6 B again, at 9 B again, at 10 A again, at 12 B again and at 15 both and so on. If they rush in they'll be in for a nasty surprise, but if they study it they should be able to figure out the timing, which is what you want.
No 2 characters can be on the same disc comfortably, so if there are they have disadvantage in order to jump from or to a platform with two characters. They can use the help action to counter this.
If they fail the check, they simply do not move that turn, basically standing still in order to not fall.
If they fail the check by 5 or more, they're dangling from the disk. This gives them disadvantage to their Strength saving throws should a geyser erupt. They'd require a DC 10 Strengthathletics check to climb back up.
If they fail the check by 10 or more, they fall.
Looking at the map, I'd say that disk 3 and 8 are truly "adjacent" to the geysers, and count from there to determine what the DC is for the strength saving throw and the damage. This should keep everything tense enough that the players will be on the edge of their seats, but not too punishing. Hope this helps.
I also just remembered that my wizard player will probably Misty Step across most of it too, so only my Paladin player will be making all the roles. I'm not sure I'm going to be able to make it last the 30 or 50 rounds for the geysers to go off.
Maybe on the way back after the 'encounter' they'll face. That'll deplete their resources and they can't do a long rest for another few hours - though knowing them, they'll just say "We're going to wait in this room until we can do a long rest" ... lol.
I put a d6 and a d8 on the geysers and made them go off if I rolled a 1 every round. I also added giant and phase spiders and 3 driders. *And* a vampire (1 of 2) from the next room grabbed the 1st PC to reach the other side and dragged him in to the darkness shrouded room near the end of the combat (no short rest!). It just seemed too easy, lol!
I put a d6 and a d8 on the geysers and made them go off if I rolled a 1 every round.
I like that idea, definitely spices things up. It breaks the ability for the party to calculate and predict, which may not be what you want, but this can give really cool situations. :) May the odds be ever in your favor (or not, lol)
maybe to late... but in 1st edition 1 minute was 1 round... so the intend here was the geyser to went off every 3 and 5 rounds
possible, but that makes it a little bit too lethal to my taste... I mean... at least 1d6 fire damage every round, going up to 1d10 as soon as you're on a disk... that's harsh...
I'm about 4 years late to this thread, but I thought I'd chime in with a possible way to run the geysers to make or keep it suspenseful.
I know I've not ran this myself as a DM but just a few days ago went through this as a player. Seeing that they go off every 3 to 5 minutes and seeing that the group we ran this for was levels 8 to 9. The room pacing was a bit of a mess an had spent about an hour trying to look up videos that explained this room till finding this thread. I'd figure if I ran this room I would consider tackling this one of two ways.
Idea #1. Use a d6 and d8 for each geyser as a count down either behind the DM screen or visible for the players. When the dice reach 1 the geyers erupts causing the players to roll their saving throws to avoid damage.
Idea #2. This may be more chaotic but adds to the severity of a fun house dungeon. The DM or players rolls a d6/d8 when the PCs movement steps because of a ability check for crossing from platform to platform. When a 6 (on the d6) or 8 ( on the d8) is rolled, the geyser erupts.
I know this is not as the book says for the yawning portal, but this ramps up the tension in a way that allows for better tension.
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I'm reading the Tales dungeon, White Plume Mountain, which so far has been awesome and my players have literally told me they're loving it.
I'm preparing the next session and reading the section on "Geysers and Chains", it says that to climb the chains is a DC 15 Athletics check. That makes sense for holding onto and climbing the chains (or walls), for moving from chain to chain, or platform to platform, but for balance, there is nothing. I would have thought there might be a Dexterity roll, having done similar challenges in real life at those treetop adventure parks. Is it too harsh to impose Dex, say DC 10 Acrobatics check, as well as the DC 15 Athletics roll?
In the absence of Dex rolls, would this mean there are basically 9 DC 15 Athletics checks to make it across the boiling pit? 18 to make it back.
It looks like it is 70 ft from platform to platform and I'd count this as difficult terrain, so 140 ft of movement for everyone except the rogue with second story work, meaning it would take five rounds to cross, or 30 seconds, assuming they succeed all rolls... Does that seem right too?
My Warlock will just cast Fly which will take two of them across, but I need to be prepared for the other two.
I'm no hero in RL, but I can't imagine being able to cross that in 30 seconds!!
According to the text, it is 90 feet from platform to platform. The way I see it, you have to make 10 short jumps from or to a disk that's dangling. I would not simply call it difficult terrain, that would make the entire encounter pointless. Also since the geysers erupt every 5/3 minutes (50 and 30 rounds respectively) you'd want the encounter to last at least that long. I'd let the 5 minute geyser (A) burst as they enter, and then count from there. At minute 3, the other (B) erupts, then at 5 A again, at 6 B again, at 9 B again, at 10 A again, at 12 B again and at 15 both and so on. If they rush in they'll be in for a nasty surprise, but if they study it they should be able to figure out the timing, which is what you want.
I'd run it in such a way that:
Looking at the map, I'd say that disk 3 and 8 are truly "adjacent" to the geysers, and count from there to determine what the DC is for the strength saving throw and the damage. This should keep everything tense enough that the players will be on the edge of their seats, but not too punishing. Hope this helps.
Subclass: Dwarven Defender - Dragonborn Paragon
Feats: Artificer Apprentice
Monsters: Sheep - Spellbreaker Warforged Titan
Magic Items: Whipier - Ring of Secret Storage - Collar of the Guardian
Monster template: Skeletal Creature
That's awesome, thanks RAJdeBoer.
I also just remembered that my wizard player will probably Misty Step across most of it too, so only my Paladin player will be making all the roles. I'm not sure I'm going to be able to make it last the 30 or 50 rounds for the geysers to go off.
Maybe on the way back after the 'encounter' they'll face. That'll deplete their resources and they can't do a long rest for another few hours - though knowing them, they'll just say "We're going to wait in this room until we can do a long rest" ... lol.
I put a d6 and a d8 on the geysers and made them go off if I rolled a 1 every round. I also added giant and phase spiders and 3 driders. *And* a vampire (1 of 2) from the next room grabbed the 1st PC to reach the other side and dragged him in to the darkness shrouded room near the end of the combat (no short rest!). It just seemed too easy, lol!
Subclass: Dwarven Defender - Dragonborn Paragon
Feats: Artificer Apprentice
Monsters: Sheep - Spellbreaker Warforged Titan
Magic Items: Whipier - Ring of Secret Storage - Collar of the Guardian
Monster template: Skeletal Creature
It went off only once, but it hit almost the whole room, so it worked well!
maybe to late... but in 1st edition 1 minute was 1 round... so the intend here was the geyser to went off every 3 and 5 rounds
possible, but that makes it a little bit too lethal to my taste... I mean... at least 1d6 fire damage every round, going up to 1d10 as soon as you're on a disk... that's harsh...
Subclass: Dwarven Defender - Dragonborn Paragon
Feats: Artificer Apprentice
Monsters: Sheep - Spellbreaker Warforged Titan
Magic Items: Whipier - Ring of Secret Storage - Collar of the Guardian
Monster template: Skeletal Creature
I like having the vampire reach out and grab a PC. That will increase the tempo in a hurry.
I'm about 4 years late to this thread, but I thought I'd chime in with a possible way to run the geysers to make or keep it suspenseful.
I know I've not ran this myself as a DM but just a few days ago went through this as a player. Seeing that they go off every 3 to 5 minutes and seeing that the group we ran this for was levels 8 to 9. The room pacing was a bit of a mess an had spent about an hour trying to look up videos that explained this room till finding this thread. I'd figure if I ran this room I would consider tackling this one of two ways.
Idea #1. Use a d6 and d8 for each geyser as a count down either behind the DM screen or visible for the players. When the dice reach 1 the geyers erupts causing the players to roll their saving throws to avoid damage.
Idea #2. This may be more chaotic but adds to the severity of a fun house dungeon. The DM or players rolls a d6/d8 when the PCs movement steps because of a ability check for crossing from platform to platform. When a 6 (on the d6) or 8 ( on the d8) is rolled, the geyser erupts.
I know this is not as the book says for the yawning portal, but this ramps up the tension in a way that allows for better tension.