| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Faramicos |
Posted - 26 Mar 2007 : 22:43:12
I had a rather peculiar experience when i DM'ed a session yesterday. I have played with the same group and roughly the same characters for about 2 years and they are very fond of their characters. So much tougher was the situation i had to make.
I had a player (a mage), who escaped from a fight by feather falling into a deep valley in the highest of the Spine of the World. The area is snowy and hostile. The mage thougt he could escape with aid from his magic, but he was wrong. He had acted to hastily and was forced to stay in the valley in the snow for the night. As little as i wanted to, i had to make him roll some checks to see if he could survive a night in the extreme cold. He failed his checks and as little as i wanted to, i had to make him freeze to death. Nature is a deadly force and i couldn't ignore it this time.
I want to ask you, my fellow DM's, if you have experienced something like it. |
| 11 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Wooly Rupert |
Posted - 29 Mar 2007 : 17:14:54
quote:
Originally posted by boddynock
about temperatures. Does anyone know where I can find a program to change fahrenheit in celsius :-)
The best one I know of is Convert.exe, a freeware unit converter that covers an utter buttload of different measurements. http://joshmadison.com/software/convert/ |
| boddynock |
Posted - 29 Mar 2007 : 17:00:43
about temperatures. Does anyone know where I can find a program to change fahrenheit in celsius :-) |
| sleyvas |
Posted - 29 Mar 2007 : 16:49:38
<<We were dumbfounded, including the DM, at the fact that our bold heroes had all *drowned* in <<the middle of an adventure!
Yep, its amazing the number of times my players (primarily the heavily armored ones) ended up with situations where they either DID drown or came extremely close. The odd part is that as DM half the time I never even foresaw this issues. One of my players typically plays either a fighter, paladin, or priest and he always puts at least 6 or more points into swim based on past adventures.
I also had a party recently with a druid that I allowed a modified feat from Eberron to have a rust monster as an animal companion. Well, they needed to climb a cliff face, so they jury rigged a harness for the rust monster and were hauling it up with them as they climbed. Unfortunately, the psionic dwarf who was hauling things up and down the cliff face using one of his psionic powers wasn't exactly keeping a close accounting of how much time he had left on his spell. When the powers ran out, he fell down the cliff with the rust monster in tow. This of course, pissed off the rust monster who promptly started attacking him, so he used some psionic power to switch places with the party fighter (who almost lost his suit of full plate as a result). Odd how the smallest details can turn an adventure into a memorable experience. |
| Purple Dragon Knight |
Posted - 29 Mar 2007 : 01:49:40
IF this mage had just accrued enough XP to level up to either 3rd, 6th, 9th, level and so on (i.e. enough to gain a feat), I would consider giving him the Cold Endurance feat from Frostburn. That would be a good way to have him 'survive the night...'
Have him wake up in a village of Uthgart barbarians, with the chief's daughter forcing water down his throat, and stroking his 'mysterious black hair' gently...  |
| KnightErrantJR |
Posted - 28 Mar 2007 : 23:28:01
In recent years, in 3.5, I haven't hammered the PCs nearly as much with weather affects as I have in the past. When the ventured into Anauroch, they had magic items to lessen the effects of the environment, mainly so they could concentrate on the mission. That having been said, when they traveled around Mistledale and Cormyr during the winter, I made them check each day that they forced their poor horses to travel, to see if they got injured by unseen hazards in the snow. The party's druid berated them mercilessly for driving their horses in such poor conditions (on the flip side, the Dales don't have the horrid cold in winter that the Savage Frontier does, so the cold wasn't nearly as much of a factor as the snow was).
Speaking of the Savage Frontier, back in my old 1st/2nd edition days I ran quite a few of my campaigns out of Neverwinter, Waterdeep, and Silverymoon, and they definitely came to fear the winter of the North, though I don't know that I actually killed anyone with the cold . . . but it made those frost giant and yeti encounters much more memorable when the party was already freezing and lost from trying to hunt for food. |
| ShadezofDis |
Posted - 28 Mar 2007 : 15:31:10
I don't really find it all that harsh, if the PC wasn't coming up with any solutions to his predicament then that's that.
One thing that might have been good to do is let him survive the night (what about the creatures he was running away from? they could have circled around and found a path down to where he was. . . or at least I assume they could have *g*), taking a significant amount of subdual damage and wake up fatigued. At that point the player would have to figure out how to get out of there (and let me tell you, 4+ feet of snow makes for difficult travel *g*)
Anyhow, it'd depend upon the preparedness of the PC and the ingenuity of the PC if I were running it (I'm a harsh DM though, you do something stupid you're likely to suffer from it *g*) |
| Asgetrion |
Posted - 27 Mar 2007 : 23:13:41
One of my characters once almost died of starvation, when he and another character (a ranger, to boot!) ran out of food (while traveling in the North) and failed every single hunting roll! The desperate DM threw an encounter with a sheep herd, and the lone goat in that herd almost killed us! Picture the ranger approaching the sheep and soothing them, with his short sword hidden behind his back, when the goat we had failed to spot comes charging into his backside with a natural 20! 
Another time our 4th level characters were traveling through the Underdark, and tried to cross a rope-bridge over a deep ravine. We heard the sound of rushing water at the bottom of the ravine. All went well, except for the sorcerer's familiar (a Killmoulis) that failed its check and fell. The sorcerer jumped after it, catching his familiar and they hit the water together. Both dropped into negative hit points and lost consciouness. We rushed to the other side of the ravine, and the rogue stripped his clothes and started to climb down to rescue them (DC 15). His skill check was 14! He fell, tumbled succesfully, and still dropped into negative HPs. So it all depended on my ranger. He started climbing down, and *also* came up with 14 on his climb check! He fell with same results (we had been fighting against a throng of goblins). We were dumbfounded, including the DM, at the fact that our bold heroes had all *drowned* in the middle of an adventure! Then one of us said: “Look at the bright side – now we know how all those magic items end up lying in river bottoms, cave shores and monster lairs in the Underdark!” (referring to the fact that quite a lot of useful items seem to be mysteriously/randomly scattered around in dungeons, at least in most published adventures)
Many years ago I also played a wizard (5th level), whom the sadistic DM intended to travel through Anauroch. He had thought of using all those survival rules for desert conditions, and had meant that after a hellish journey my character would end up being rescued by the Bedine (which would have started the next session’s adventure). Maybe it had been intuition, but my wizard has recently developed a spell that the DM had completely forgotten about (maybe because my wizard had developed quite a few spells recently). It was a spell that conjured a feast for two people – sort of like a low-level magic-user’s version of the Heroes’ Feast. When I cast the spell for the first time, his jaw dropped. The description clearly said: “…Conjures a table filled with a magnificent banquet for two people. Both the food and drink may be chosen by the caster, and nourish both persons for a full day.” Well, it didn’t help against the blistering heat of the sun, or the terrible cold in the night, and eventually I *was* rescued by those Bedine…  
Later on my wizard would become a famous cook in Scornubel (he also had the Cooking profiency) when he employed this spell while working at a “high profile” restaurant (and earned quite a lot of gold to fund his spell research!) |
| Asgetrion |
Posted - 27 Mar 2007 : 22:43:50
quote:
Originally posted by Lemernis
I think it's most satisfying for all (DM and players) when ways are found to keep the PC alive through ingenuity. For example, perhaps the mage could have used Burning Hands to create a snow cave in which to at least avoid exposure to deadly windchill, etc. Or as DM you could have given him a real cave nearby to have taken shelter in. There's also 'out of the frying pan into the fire' types of rescues. Maybe a couple of monsters in the mountains happen along and find him unconscious before he frees to death; because they are secretive about or protecting something, they then decide to take him back to the lair to interrogate him; he then becomes a prisoner/slave, etc. But yeah, sure enough, some extreme risks are going to result in death.
These are very good suggestions! This is how I would have handled it, if the player tried to make some effort, i.e. find some shelter or a cave or ravine, dig into snow or find some use for spells such as Burning Hands or Prestidigation etc.
On the other hand, if the player seemed cocky or confident that I, as DM, would protect his character against every non-combat hazard, I would have made him roll.
I especially like to throw those '...into the fire'-type of encounters at my players, because if they try but fail to come up with a way to survive, it feels balanced to give them a fighting chance (typically spotting a group of monsters by a campfire... or the cave they found has monstrous inhabitants). I usually let them choose whether they risk all or try to find another way to survive.
As a player, I have learned to choose my spells carefully, and whether I am playing a cleric or a wizard, I usually have at least one resist elements in my daily repertoire. |
| Lemernis |
Posted - 27 Mar 2007 : 14:06:02
I think it's most satisfying for all (DM and players) when ways are found to keep the PC alive through ingenuity. For example, perhaps the mage could have used Burning Hands to create a snow cave in which to at least avoid exposure to deadly windchill, etc. Or as DM you could have given him a real cave nearby to have taken shelter in. There's also 'out of the frying pan into the fire' types of rescues. Maybe a couple of monsters in the mountains happen along and find him unconscious before he freezes to death; because they are secretive about or protecting something, they then decide to take him back to the lair to interrogate him; he then becomes a prisoner/slave, etc. But yeah, sure enough, some extreme risks are going to result in death. |
| Xysma |
Posted - 27 Mar 2007 : 03:45:33
Tough decisions are part of DMing and I don't mean to second guess you decisions, but I find it relatively hard for a character to freeze to death if they are prepared for the cold.
I recently ran my group through Monte Cooks's A Frigid Demise and they had to swim through icy cold water (32 degrees F). Unprotected, they had to make a Fortitude save every 10 minutes or take 1d6 subdual damage. At any point they failed the save they got hypothermia, which made them fatigued. The rules for surviving in cold weather detailed in Frostburn are similar, for cold weather (0-40 degrees F) a character must make a Fortitude save (DC 15 +1 per previous check)each hour or take 1d6 subdual damage. Cold weather damage is negated with a simple cold weather outfit. For severe cold (-20 to 0 degree F) the Fortitude save is made every 10 minutes, but this damage can be negated with a cold weather outfit and fur clothing. To have killed a character from cold, either the temperature was far lower than those listed here (which is likely in the Spine of the World), or the party was ill prepared for cold weather adventuring, or both.
That being said, without the risk of death the game can get out of hand with players thinking no harm can come to them, so yes I've killed quite a few characters. However, most of the player deaths I've encountered (caused) came from traps as Kentinal mentioned or from monsters or NPCs. Environmental hazards are important and can add much to a game, but generally, my players are aware of any such hazards and prepare for them. I have had a few characters drown, but never had one die from exposure. |
| Kentinal |
Posted - 26 Mar 2007 : 23:16:08
Killing characters does occur from tike to time. Most I have seen die was to traps though.
Leaving the party is always a risk, but I do wonder if perhaps you frooze the character to death too quickly. The mage should have had some other spells that might have aided survial one cold night (after all he was on top of the Spine before he jumped and dressed for it I infer) in the snow. It might be interesting on how you handled the survivial rolls, perhaps DCs set too high or player rolled too low.
You might consider reviewing your decsions concerning this death. Perhaps it clearly is a clean death, just I get the impersion you might have decided to punish the mage for leaving the party. |
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