Hey hive mind, I want to run a skill challenge that involves my pc's trying to out run an arctic storm and find the available shelter which is a ruined temple. I've never done this before so trying to wrap my head around it... thanks in advance
Well, here's the thing. If they don't find it, they're all gonna die. Right? If you spark a TPK over a failed skill check, there's a good chance you're gonna seriously upset your players. But it is a cool idea for heightening the tension of the adventure. The trick is to make the players concerned, maybe even scared just a little bit, so they're on the edge of their chairs for a bit, but without actually wiping out the entire party over a skill check. So how do we balance that?
We should start with the assumption that they're gonna find the temple, just don't let the players know that! Have them make two rolls every 30 minutes. First, the party has to make a Survival check, DC 15. Have their best tracker roll with advantage, since they'll all be helping. Each success means they're getting closer, each failure means they're not. How many successes do they need? Don't tell them, because they don't know where they are.
Second, each character has to make a Constitution saving throw every 30 minutes to withstand the arctic chill. Start the DC at 10 and increase the DC by 1 every 30 minutes. Each time someone fails a Con save, they gain one level of exhaustion. One level means disadvantage on skill checks, 2 means their speed is halved, 3 means disadvantage on saving throws, 4 means their max HP is halved, 5 means their speed is zero, and 6 means they are dead. So obviously we can't let them get to 5.
Keep them wandering, and freezing, and rolling every 30 minutes until everyone has at least 1 level of exhaustion and at least one character has 3 levels. Keep an eye on the player's faces, and their demeanor. Once you're satisfied that they have suffered enough, and once they have expressed genuine concern that they might not all survive this storm... that's when the next successful Survival check is the one that finds the ruined temple!
Let them crawl inside and close the door. Let there be some scraps of wood or maybe some charcoal left inside the fireplace. Let them use either magic or Survival to get a fire started so they can warm up and recover and rally their spirits for barely scraping through that storm by the skin of their teeth. Hopefully, if you've got a good poker face, and if you don't let Dorothy peak behind the curtain, someday they will all reminisce about, "Hey, remember that time we all almost froze to death looking for shelter in that storm!"
Good advice above. Dying in a snowstorm is exactly a heroic way to tpk.
But, what level are they? And what’s the party composition? If you have, for example, a ranger with a maxed out survival and someone spamming guidance, they should be able to move really well even at low levels. Or they might just choose to cast tiny hut and wait it out. If they’re high level, do they have access to spells like control weather? I’d ask about teleport, but if they’re could do that, they probably wouldn’t be walking around. Though a well timed dimension door could maybe get the past some hazards. Or a long, skinny wall of force overhead like an umbrella might also really help. I guess my overall point is, expect they may have non-skill related solutions to the problem.
You find yourself caught up by sudden blizzard as you try to out run this artic storm and find shelter before it's too late.
Level: 3 (XP 300)
Complexity: Moderate (requires 6 successes before 3 failures)
Primary Check: Strength, Constitution, Wisdom
ATTACK: Make a DC 13 Strenght (Survival) check as youfend off a threat. Success: You gain 1 success in this challenge. Failure: You gain 1 failure in this challenge and each character must make a DC 10 Constitution saving throw or gain one level of Exhaustion. Creatures with resistance or immunity to cold damage automatically succeed on the saving throw.
DASH: Make a DC 13 Strength (Athletics) check as you push the pace. Success: You gain 1 success in this challenge. Failure: You gain 1 failure in this challenge and each character must make a DC 10 Constitution saving throw or gain one level of Exhaustion. Creatures with resistance or immunity to cold damage automatically succeed on the saving throw.
DODGE: Make a DC 13 Constitution (Survival) check as you endure the cold. Success: You gain 1 success in this challenge. Failure: You gain 1 failure in this challenge and each character must make a DC 10 Constitution saving throw or gain one level of Exhaustion. Creatures with resistance or immunity to cold damage automatically succeed on the saving throw.
HELP: Make a DC 13 Wisdom (Medecine) check as you keep the party warm. Success: You gain 1 success in this challenge. Failure: You gain 1 failure in this challenge and each character must make a DC 10 Constitution saving throw or gain one level of Exhaustion. Creatures with resistance or immunity to cold damage automatically succeed on the saving throw.
SEARCH: Make a DC 13 Wisdom (Perception) check as you guide others in reduced visibility. Success: You gain 1 success in this challenge. Failure: You gain 1 failure in this challenge and each character must make a DC 10 Constitution saving throw or gain one level of Exhaustion. Creatures with resistance or immunity to cold damage automatically succeed on the saving throw.
HELP: Make a DC 11 Dexterity (Acrobatic) check as you look for steady path. Success: The next D20 Test for a primary check made in this challenge has Advantage. Failure: The next D20 Test for a primary check made in this challenge has Disadvantage.
HIDE: Make a DC 11 Dexterity (Stealth) check as you seek cover for the party. Success: The next D20 Test for a primary check made in this challenge has Advantage. Failure: The next D20 Test for a primary check made in this challenge has Disadvantage.
INFLUENCE: Make a DC 11 Charisma (Persuasion) check as you direct the party. Success: The next D20 Test for a primary check made in this challenge has Advantage. Failure: The next D20 Test for a primary check made in this challenge has Disadvantage.
SEARCH: Make a DC 11 Intelligence (Nature) check as you predict weather pattern. Success: The next D20 Test for a primary check made in this challenge has Advantage. Failure: The next D20 Test for a primary check made in this challenge has Disadvantage.
STUDY: Make a DC 11 Intelligence (Investigation) check as you deduce best conditions. Success: The next D20 Test for a primary check made in this challenge has Advantage. Failure: The next D20 Test for a primary check made in this challenge has Disadvantage.
Success: If the characters earn 6 successes before 3 failures, they find shelter in a ruined temple.
Failure: The character have lost themselves during the artic storm, each loosing half their Hit Dice and being exhausted. Other consequence could happen at the DM's discretion for exemple, a party member could be lost and require the party to find it after the storm passes.
So my way of doing this would be to utilise the Chase rules from the DMG. Roll initiative once you've described the storm and its inevitable approach. Have players also roll (as a free action) Perception, Nature, or Survival Checks to scan the horizon for any appropriate shelter. Set the DC relatively low...maybe an 8 or 10. On success the party notice the temple as the best option. It is between 300ft and 400ft away.
For the first 3 rounds, the storm will move in at 60ft every turn. Thankfully the storm is starting off 120ft away from the party.
If a character ends their turn in the storm's radius they must make CON saving throw to be able to withstand the cold. The DC is 10. 2hp of cold damage on a failed save, 1hp of cold damage on a success.
If a player character starts their turn in the storm's radius they must make a DEX saving throw to avoid the hail raining down inside the storm. DC 12. 4hp of bludgeoning damage on a fail, 2hp on a success.
This should in theory motivate the player characters to want to dash away from the storm and toward the shelter. They can dash freely for a minimum of 3 turns, and they'd have to fail their exhaustion saves as per the Chase rules twice before their movement gets halved. This means that actually the party are highly likely to survive, but that they get to utilise existing game mechanics to actually help their situation.
As GM you can also put your finger on the scales a little by varying the pace of the storm. You could literally decide that the storm descends and the player characters immediately are within the storm. Likewise you can vary the storm's pace so as to give the players a better or worse chance of being caught within in. Either way the pace is what will determine survival. You could choose to alter damage and DCs of course...perhaps the deeper inside the storm, the harsher the conditions. But the way I've outlined keeps it real simple, uses existing rulesets, and allows for corrections by the GM to prevent unfair TPKs by bad dice rolls.
There's little to no reason it would be a TPK. Ignore those claiming it would result in that.
Hey hive mind, I want to run a skill challenge that involves my pc's trying to out run an arctic storm and find the available shelter which is a ruined temple. I've never done this before so trying to wrap my head around it... thanks in advance
The basic premise of a skill challenge is that there are multiple steps each one requires a number of successes to complete, and multiple skills could be used to overcome each step. You as the DM can suggest the most obvious skills to use to overcome the step, but players can use their creativity to come up with ways that other skills could be used to over come the step or they can use spells or other limited resources to succeed/reduce the DC for someone else to succeed. There should also be some kind of threat that progresses if the party fails.
So for an arctic storm....
Step 1: They see the on coming storm and need to find potential shelter or route away from it. Obvious Skills: Perception, Survival. Successes needed: 2 -> first success spots some dark shapes in the distance -> second success determines one of those dark shapes in the temple.
Step 2: A frozen lake blocks the path, and going around it will cost them multiple failed rounds. Obvious Skills: Acrobatics, Dex save (to balance/run across), Survival (to spot where the ice is thick enough to cross) Successes needed: equal to the number of characters in the party.
Step 3: The door to the temple is blocked by snow. Obvious Skills: Athletics, Anything that creates fire. Successes needed: 2 -> first success gets the door open a crack -> second success pulls it open enough for everyone to get through.
Ticking Clock: Every round the players must make a CON save or take cold damage.
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Hey hive mind, I want to run a skill challenge that involves my pc's trying to out run an arctic storm and find the available shelter which is a ruined temple. I've never done this before so trying to wrap my head around it... thanks in advance
Well, here's the thing. If they don't find it, they're all gonna die. Right? If you spark a TPK over a failed skill check, there's a good chance you're gonna seriously upset your players. But it is a cool idea for heightening the tension of the adventure. The trick is to make the players concerned, maybe even scared just a little bit, so they're on the edge of their chairs for a bit, but without actually wiping out the entire party over a skill check. So how do we balance that?
We should start with the assumption that they're gonna find the temple, just don't let the players know that! Have them make two rolls every 30 minutes. First, the party has to make a Survival check, DC 15. Have their best tracker roll with advantage, since they'll all be helping. Each success means they're getting closer, each failure means they're not. How many successes do they need? Don't tell them, because they don't know where they are.
Second, each character has to make a Constitution saving throw every 30 minutes to withstand the arctic chill. Start the DC at 10 and increase the DC by 1 every 30 minutes. Each time someone fails a Con save, they gain one level of exhaustion. One level means disadvantage on skill checks, 2 means their speed is halved, 3 means disadvantage on saving throws, 4 means their max HP is halved, 5 means their speed is zero, and 6 means they are dead. So obviously we can't let them get to 5.
Keep them wandering, and freezing, and rolling every 30 minutes until everyone has at least 1 level of exhaustion and at least one character has 3 levels. Keep an eye on the player's faces, and their demeanor. Once you're satisfied that they have suffered enough, and once they have expressed genuine concern that they might not all survive this storm... that's when the next successful Survival check is the one that finds the ruined temple!
Let them crawl inside and close the door. Let there be some scraps of wood or maybe some charcoal left inside the fireplace. Let them use either magic or Survival to get a fire started so they can warm up and recover and rally their spirits for barely scraping through that storm by the skin of their teeth. Hopefully, if you've got a good poker face, and if you don't let Dorothy peak behind the curtain, someday they will all reminisce about, "Hey, remember that time we all almost froze to death looking for shelter in that storm!"
That's what we live for!
Anzio Faro. Protector Aasimar light cleric. Lvl 18.
Viktor Gavriil. White dragonborn grave cleric. Lvl 20.
Ikram Sahir ibn-Malik al-Sayyid Ra'ad. Brass dragonborn draconic sorcerer Lvl 9. Fire elemental devil.
Tayn of Darkwood. Human Life Cleric. Lvl 10.
Good advice above. Dying in a snowstorm is exactly a heroic way to tpk.
But, what level are they? And what’s the party composition? If you have, for example, a ranger with a maxed out survival and someone spamming guidance, they should be able to move really well even at low levels. Or they might just choose to cast tiny hut and wait it out. If they’re high level, do they have access to spells like control weather? I’d ask about teleport, but if they’re could do that, they probably wouldn’t be walking around. Though a well timed dimension door could maybe get the past some hazards. Or a long, skinny wall of force overhead like an umbrella might also really help.
I guess my overall point is, expect they may have non-skill related solutions to the problem.
Skill Challenge: Artic Storm
You find yourself caught up by sudden blizzard as you try to out run this artic storm and find shelter before it's too late.
Level: 3 (XP 300)
Complexity: Moderate (requires 6 successes before 3 failures)
Primary Check: Strength, Constitution, Wisdom
ATTACK: Make a DC 13 Strenght (Survival) check as youfend off a threat. Success: You gain 1 success in this challenge. Failure: You gain 1 failure in this challenge and each character must make a DC 10 Constitution saving throw or gain one level of Exhaustion. Creatures with resistance or immunity to cold damage automatically succeed on the saving throw.
DASH: Make a DC 13 Strength (Athletics) check as you push the pace. Success: You gain 1 success in this challenge. Failure: You gain 1 failure in this challenge and each character must make a DC 10 Constitution saving throw or gain one level of Exhaustion. Creatures with resistance or immunity to cold damage automatically succeed on the saving throw.
DODGE: Make a DC 13 Constitution (Survival) check as you endure the cold. Success: You gain 1 success in this challenge. Failure: You gain 1 failure in this challenge and each character must make a DC 10 Constitution saving throw or gain one level of Exhaustion. Creatures with resistance or immunity to cold damage automatically succeed on the saving throw.
HELP: Make a DC 13 Wisdom (Medecine) check as you keep the party warm. Success: You gain 1 success in this challenge. Failure: You gain 1 failure in this challenge and each character must make a DC 10 Constitution saving throw or gain one level of Exhaustion. Creatures with resistance or immunity to cold damage automatically succeed on the saving throw.
SEARCH: Make a DC 13 Wisdom (Perception) check as you guide others in reduced visibility. Success: You gain 1 success in this challenge. Failure: You gain 1 failure in this challenge and each character must make a DC 10 Constitution saving throw or gain one level of Exhaustion. Creatures with resistance or immunity to cold damage automatically succeed on the saving throw.
Secondary Check: Dexterity, Intelligence, Charisma
HELP: Make a DC 11 Dexterity (Acrobatic) check as you look for steady path. Success: The next D20 Test for a primary check made in this challenge has Advantage. Failure: The next D20 Test for a primary check made in this challenge has Disadvantage.
HIDE: Make a DC 11 Dexterity (Stealth) check as you seek cover for the party. Success: The next D20 Test for a primary check made in this challenge has Advantage. Failure: The next D20 Test for a primary check made in this challenge has Disadvantage.
INFLUENCE: Make a DC 11 Charisma (Persuasion) check as you direct the party. Success: The next D20 Test for a primary check made in this challenge has Advantage. Failure: The next D20 Test for a primary check made in this challenge has Disadvantage.
SEARCH: Make a DC 11 Intelligence (Nature) check as you predict weather pattern. Success: The next D20 Test for a primary check made in this challenge has Advantage. Failure: The next D20 Test for a primary check made in this challenge has Disadvantage.
STUDY: Make a DC 11 Intelligence (Investigation) check as you deduce best conditions. Success: The next D20 Test for a primary check made in this challenge has Advantage. Failure: The next D20 Test for a primary check made in this challenge has Disadvantage.
Success: If the characters earn 6 successes before 3 failures, they find shelter in a ruined temple.
Failure: The character have lost themselves during the artic storm, each loosing half their Hit Dice and being exhausted. Other consequence could happen at the DM's discretion for exemple, a party member could be lost and require the party to find it after the storm passes.
So my way of doing this would be to utilise the Chase rules from the DMG. Roll initiative once you've described the storm and its inevitable approach. Have players also roll (as a free action) Perception, Nature, or Survival Checks to scan the horizon for any appropriate shelter. Set the DC relatively low...maybe an 8 or 10. On success the party notice the temple as the best option. It is between 300ft and 400ft away.
This should in theory motivate the player characters to want to dash away from the storm and toward the shelter. They can dash freely for a minimum of 3 turns, and they'd have to fail their exhaustion saves as per the Chase rules twice before their movement gets halved. This means that actually the party are highly likely to survive, but that they get to utilise existing game mechanics to actually help their situation.
As GM you can also put your finger on the scales a little by varying the pace of the storm. You could literally decide that the storm descends and the player characters immediately are within the storm. Likewise you can vary the storm's pace so as to give the players a better or worse chance of being caught within in. Either way the pace is what will determine survival. You could choose to alter damage and DCs of course...perhaps the deeper inside the storm, the harsher the conditions. But the way I've outlined keeps it real simple, uses existing rulesets, and allows for corrections by the GM to prevent unfair TPKs by bad dice rolls.
There's little to no reason it would be a TPK. Ignore those claiming it would result in that.
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The basic premise of a skill challenge is that there are multiple steps each one requires a number of successes to complete, and multiple skills could be used to overcome each step. You as the DM can suggest the most obvious skills to use to overcome the step, but players can use their creativity to come up with ways that other skills could be used to over come the step or they can use spells or other limited resources to succeed/reduce the DC for someone else to succeed. There should also be some kind of threat that progresses if the party fails.
So for an arctic storm....
Step 1: They see the on coming storm and need to find potential shelter or route away from it.
Obvious Skills: Perception, Survival.
Successes needed: 2
-> first success spots some dark shapes in the distance
-> second success determines one of those dark shapes in the temple.
Step 2: A frozen lake blocks the path, and going around it will cost them multiple failed rounds.
Obvious Skills: Acrobatics, Dex save (to balance/run across), Survival (to spot where the ice is thick enough to cross)
Successes needed: equal to the number of characters in the party.
Step 3: The door to the temple is blocked by snow.
Obvious Skills: Athletics, Anything that creates fire.
Successes needed: 2
-> first success gets the door open a crack
-> second success pulls it open enough for everyone to get through.
Ticking Clock: Every round the players must make a CON save or take cold damage.