Arctic Wilderness SURVIVAL | Icewind Dale DM Guide

[@BobWorldBuilder]

👇 This DM Guide moved from Patreon to DMs Guild! ✨ Complete DM Guide PDF: www.dmsguild.com/product/421704?affiliate_id=1987166 ▶️ Icewind Dale DM Guide Videos: kzbin.info/aero/PL1lMCvJ_l52Wg1IRW__ES0osVXGHv3AgM 📜 Arctic of the Forgotten Realms: www.dmsguild.com/product/310184?affiliate_id=1987166

[@Papa_Mike]

I can say as a fact, at -40 degrees, there is no such thing as thin ice unless it has warmer, moving water beneath it. And that doesn't happen often at that cold of temperatures

[@BobWorldBuilder]

Ahhh, that's a great point! Maybe increase the die rolls for calculating tolerance, or just ignore this rule

[@halfmadfalcon2078]

It says in the book that there are heat vents at the bottom of the ocean. Perhaps there are areas that are directly above such vents where the ice is much thinner?

[@skydrop8809]

Suspension of disbelief is rule #2.

[@wstevegaming593]

Correction around 8:30 -- The probability of an avalanche happening is just the inverse probability of it not happening. So after 4 hours there's only a 68% chance of an avalanche. You'd have to travel 8 hours to get up to a 90% chance.

[@BobWorldBuilder]

Thanks for the assist!

[@cristianhakansson7443]

One way this can become intuitive is if you consider what happens after five hours. If the probabilities added up, you would have a 125% chance of avalanche, which of course is impossible :)

[@fiilthy]

I randomly stumbled across your channel. It's nice when youtube recommends something nice for a change. Good stuff!

[@Jane_8319]

This is super helpful, thank you! I’m not running Icewind Dale but I am going to run a short arctic homebrew game. This is just what I needed.

[@holdenfeldbauer4431]

So pumped for Rime of the Frostmaiden! Arctic survival is one of those things that I think is easy to do poorly, and will make it easy to skip; which is a shame. The icy atmosphere is something I really like, so I think this series will be an invaluable resource for me to run it in a couple months. So, thanks!

[@BobWorldBuilder]

Happy to help! I agree. The environment is designed to play an important role in this campaign. Jeremy Crawford said it's really one of the main villains! And many people will end up skipping it since the rules can be hard to follow, so it was important to me to get this in early in the series! :)

[@justanother2sday]

I am DMing for the first time with this book this weekend!!!

[@MikeLeonard]

Hold on. "Ice isn't difficult to walk on?" Yes, it is. You absolutely have to move half speed to not fall on your ass.

[@MikeLeonard]

Guess how I know... 😆😢

[@BobWorldBuilder]

I think we're agreeing here, haha "ice isn't THAT difficult to walk on." I think if you move at half speed, you should have to make the check. Maybe keeping it difficult terrain but lowering the DC would be a better change. Or still ignoring difficult terrain, but RAISING the DC if characters try to move at normal speed

[@orwin5445]

@@BobWorldBuilder I'd keep the slippery ice as is. Regular ice isn't that hard to walk on, but ice with even a tiny amount of melted water over it is extremely easy to slip on.

[@dungeonmaster3198]

Yeah, I'm from Iowa, can confirm. You can be walking at half speed and fall flat on your ass with 0 warning when you *put a toe* on black ice. Leave it as is.

[@MurTag93]

The book does advise players to seek out boot crampons to better situate themselves on the ice but your point does stand.

[@Hotsauceweird]

I'm dming Rime in a club run out of a local store - I have trouble concentrating to read the book sometimes, plus I'm a new DM, so you're reading out these sections and additional commentary is so helpful

[@midshipman8654]

I think i would like cold weather clothing to instead of just neging the cold check, maybe only making it be roled every 4-6 hours and decreasing the dc to 5-con. that way you still have the feeling of being worn down by the cold weather and that the cloths are helping, but not completely negating, this threat. so every day you roll twice. This also gives you incentive to find shelter in the blizzard.

[@luistestart135]

This video was super helpful! Thank you Bob, I can't wait to see more of Icewind dale

[@BobWorldBuilder]

I'm really glad you think so :) I'm excited too!

[@JohnThurner]

Regarding moving only 4 hours a day, you're forgetting that the aurora also provides dim illumination, and the aurora happens every day starting at midnight and lasting "several hours." How a DM chooses to interpret "several" is up to them, but I put it up to my party and they said several hours means 6, so they can actually have 6 hours of uninterrupted travel if they ignore the clocks, or 10 hours if they break it up and take their long rests in the afternoon.

[@BobWorldBuilder]

That's a good point! Not to mention full moons are considered dim light too!

[@edwardbirdsall6580]

Avalanche: Druid wild shapes into a giant badger which can tunnel out of snow and can sniff around to find anyone still buried in the snow. Also have characters tied together and each person has a 30 to 50 foot length of rope tied to their body so if the are under the snow the rope may still be exposed on the surface. Makes finding them easier. When crossing thin ice remove pack and drag it by rope behind you. Walk with your 10 foot pole in both hands. If you fall through the ice the odds are the hole will be just about your size and the pole should stop you from falling under the ice and keep your head above water./

[@KanjoNights]

The thing that I find strange is that while there is a rule for Extreme Cold, the party is given cold weather gear at the beginning of the campaign. I believe the book also states that this cold weather gear does not impact the PC's ability to wear their normal armor as well. So what's the point of even having the Extreme Cold check if the characters always succeed by default?

[@StoneWinds]

This is the campaign that makes a good Ranger player, playing a genuine Ranger build, the MVP of the party. Its a great lesson for players and DMs on how to get the most out of the Ranger class, and challenge parties that dont have one in all their campaigns.

[@Jimiai]

Chose this as my first campaign to DM. Hope I can keep my DM entertained as he did for me these past few years.

[@ChrisHansen6900]

Small size Ranger with a dog companion so it would be ok to rule them only needing 1 dog to pull sounds amazing.

[@Commentoidiota]

Thank you so much for this. Having to search things on different books at the same time is a chore. I'm glad you're willing to do this work for the rest of ud

[@BobWorldBuilder]

It was a chore, but it was kinda fun! Glad it was helpful!

[@CohenWiggins85]

This helped me so much with my home brew campaign setting that was also an eternal wintert hellscape, thanks so much

[@eateymcfeety3417]

Great video! If I'm honest I never really thought about how awesome an Artic campaign could be until I found this channel. You've completely inspired me to try and run one!

[@BobWorldBuilder]

That's amazing! Before my Patreon group voted for it, I never considered it either!! So I'm really glad this book came out with such great resources for this environment :)

[@Subcomandante73]

Artic setting is great, sadly this adventure book is a complete mess of lazy writing, instant deaths, deus ex machina's, and a nonsensical 'story'. It will take a DM a LOT of work to fix, at which point just start with a blank sheet and make something a lot better on your own.

[@cristobalcid4160]

Thank you very much! I have my session the friday, this arrived at perfect time

[@BobWorldBuilder]

Awesome! Happy to help 😊

[@Galf506]

I was going to post the whole cold shock response thing ,but I saw it was your post on reddit that got that reply, hah! People check out that reddit thread linked by Bob in the first comment, there's an excellent reply about cold shock and how to handle frigid water, 100% worth it!

[@BobWorldBuilder]

I'm pretty sure there's a comment about it here too! haha

[@prtwriter4660]

3:05 so you bring up a good point. On CR (Yeah i know) Mighty Nein recently had hold their breath. Matt had determined by their con mod how long they could last in the non Breathable area. So i agree, Con mod should determine how long a player can survive (+1=1round or 1min)

[@BobWorldBuilder]

Yeah, it's funny to me what elements WotC decides the heroes will struggle with like any human would (walking on ice), and what they can easily overcome like superheroes (polar plunge). Now I'm thinking of a very goofy video series where I try these activities to determine my own DCs and house rules for these challenges lol

[@beatacrochets]

I like the modification for getting caught in avalanches. Thanks!

[@BobWorldBuilder]

You’re welcome! I’m glad you found it helpful :)

[@towelforty2]

I'm going to be running this is a couple months for some returning 4e veterans and this series is definitely going to help me run a published adventure

[@BobWorldBuilder]

Woo! Glad to have you on board!

[@nonya9120]

Geezer here... Having lived on the tundra.. North coast of Alaska.... I have some real life experience. Arctic adventure.. It's a game so ok.. There is magic so use it or stay some place warm... Game on.

[@BobWorldBuilder]

That's awesome! I'd love to hear what you think of some of these rules and how they compare to real world experience!

[@nonya9120]

@@BobWorldBuilder That will require a bit of time... Life so often interferes with hobby time .. But OK.. Give me a bit to put it down.. Drafted a half page on less than 1/2 of what comes to mind.. Thanks for the shout out... Keep on creating brother.. Game on.

[@moorefamily4891]

Love this! I’m looking to pick up ice wind dale when I can afford it and I’m really looking forward to using your videos to help me run the icy, hostile atmosphere.

[@BobWorldBuilder]

Excellent! Glad to have your support! :) I'll try to keep an eye on the amazon page and let everyone know if there's a price drop, but I always encourage people to pick up books from their local game stores!

[@moorefamily4891]

Bob World Builder Thanks so much! I’ll visit my local game store when I can :)

[@nilsjonsson4446]

Love the video! I'll be a player in this campaign and try to avoid story spoilers. I'd love it if you put a warning in the video or the description about spoilers, and a time stamp to skip ahead to continue the rest of the video. (I know that there aren't spoilers in this video, this is about future upload).

[@BobWorldBuilder]

This one and the one coming next week are pretty spoiler-free, but I most guides in the series will be for DMs' eyes only!

[@caelan97]

Ah, I'm getting Don't Starve and The Long Dark flashbacks already!

[@BobWorldBuilder]

Precisely 👌🏻

[@memcgee1226]

Excellent content! Picked up the seemingly daunting book to plan the campaign. This really helps!

[@BobWorldBuilder]

Nice :) Glad you found this useful!

[@andrewblack1928]

Outstanding Guide! Getting ready to run this Campaign and your videos are excellent

[@BobWorldBuilder]

Glad you like them! :)

[@maxherzog3287]

Just found you Bob! I got Icewind Dale for Christmas this year and it's nice to compare the ideas you have to what I have as a way to make this campaign really work. My girlfriend plays the ranger in my party and oh boy is that and important class to have.

[@MrBrianofarrell]

Some great pointers here, I really need to put all of these weather effects into one place because as you say, it is jumping around books to find them. I don't want to skimp on them, as they are absolutely part of the adventure. I am leaning towards encouraging my players in creation towards not skimping on CON in particular, but also STR.

[@BobWorldBuilder]

When I finish the pdf for Patreon, I’m going to try to keep it to one page. Great tip for thinking about these scores when creating characters! I will definitely mention that in next week’s video :)

[@wkblack]

Wow, thank you! This is brilliant!

[@corbentimms9443]

Red dragonborn ranger with cold weather clothing would probably be good in this, good at survival in the area, can use firebreath to get out of being buried or to heat up

[@BobWorldBuilder]

True... but dark vision is definitely good to have here!

[@madotom8829]

Dragonborn sucks with ranger though, almost no crossover of useful stats or abilities. I'm a fan of the idea of an Aarakocra ranger, being able to fly above an avalanche or scout ahead to spot danger seems far more useful in tundra than most campaigns.

[@corbentimms9443]

Both true, unless youre playing a super burly macho tracker strength based ranger and your dm allows wildemount characters, ravenite got your covered

[@corbentimms9443]

Granted thats a pretty specific character build, could be fun and pretty useful

[@jeremymagsamen3265]

@@madotom8829 just gotta wait for the new stuff in Tashas if worried about having everything optimized.

[@matthewboland5598]

Yay! Finally rangers get a chance to shine and prove their worth! #goRangers

[@BobWorldBuilder]

Getting their time in the sun ☀️...so to speak haha

[@reyntime8735]

*or lack thereof

[@ddanford1]

I’m making a note for myself when I walk through these rules with my players. Skip 6:00 to 6:45

[@BobWorldBuilder]

Love the efficiency!

[@ddanford1]

@@BobWorldBuilder Love the content!

[@tombsenpai9431]

Great video. But your party shouldn't be doing mountain travel at level 1. It's recommended in the adventure for them to be level 4 before heading out. So they're a little more rare

[@BobWorldBuilder]

You're absolutely right! I didn't quite realize that story-designed boundary while scripting, but we all know players make crazy decisions lol 😆 I think it's good to prepare for the worst, and this adjustment should help higher level players with small parties or just one PC

[@tombsenpai9431]

@@BobWorldBuilder no problem, but this guide is great. I'll be using it to build my notes. I forgot how spread out all these rules are.

[@alexstornello3180]

Also the party can cut across the tundra between Targos and Caer-Konig at level 1 potentially as stated in the first chapter, which my group may do (yikes!).

[@DrAndrewJBlack]

Excellent guide. Thank you

[@BobWorldBuilder]

Glad you’re finding the series valuable! :)

[@Nightsky107]

Awesome! Thank you so much!

[@BobWorldBuilder]

Glad it helped!

[@viniciusoliveira4798]

this was amazing, just what i needed

[@BobWorldBuilder]

That's awesome to hear! Thanks for subscribing :)

[@robertrappaport3610]

The problem with walking on ice is that there are a large variety in the amount of friction it has. Typically the most dangerous ice is formed in sudden temperature changes, as in the liquid water forms a more polished form of ice. Due to the temperatures of this region, this kind of 'polished ice' should be rare. I would reserve that for encounters where a mage starts throwing around firebolts or later, fireballs.

[@BobWorldBuilder]

Great point! I’m excited to see how fire and fire magic can effect the elements of this game!

[@robertrappaport3610]

@@BobWorldBuilder Right? Like should the damage from a fireball further reduce the weight that thin ice can handle? Do sonic spells like shatter or thunder step increase avalanche chances? And on the opposite end, the control water cantrip would be absolutely amazing for thickening ice.

[@samanthafriday7516]

perfect time for a triton ranger!

[@BobWorldBuilder]

Wow! You predicted my main recommendation in the upcoming guide for character creation 😂

[@samanthafriday7516]

@@BobWorldBuilder That is so funny! Great minds think alike!

[@zataru8429]

I love it! Easy to understand and a clear voice for a german potato like me :D

[@BobWorldBuilder]

Thank you! I’m glad it was easy to understand:)

[@samueldeschenes607]

just discovered your channel and this video was super instructive those ideas are great and adapt really well to my DM Style. This video is relly well documented and well presented . i subscribed

[@BobWorldBuilder]

Awesome, thank you! I'm glad you found it helpful :)

[@jm25ro]

Nicely done sir you have earned a like

[@BobWorldBuilder]

Thanks for your support!

[@robertoaraya910]

Great video! Honestly you keep getting better and better at this. Camera, audio, editing are on point now. Content is excellent as always. Your channel makes me glad KZbin is free lol

[@BobWorldBuilder]

I really appreciate that! The DoIP series showed a lot of trial and error as I learned the basics and found what worked for me. I’m glad this series has a better baseline, but I’m always looking for ways to improve! Thank you for your support :)

[@The.Greene.Dragon]

Funny fact. The effects of hypothermia tend to take about an hour to manifest. The first minute of cold water exposure's risk is based on keeping your breath under control and avoiding inhaling water. The next 10 minutes is your last moments of meaningful movement before muscles start to shut down. So theoretically, being immersed in water for 10 minutes for the average person, if they are out of the water and treated in time, is not going to cause hypothermia. It is a risk, for sure.. But not as common as some think for short periods of immersion in cold water!

[@bjarnivalur6330]

"ice isn't THAT difficult to walk on." As someone who comes from a frozen-shithole, I disagree, especially if it's bumpy/wavy(not having a flat surface means nothing to grip onto) or on a slope. Maybe add different levels of slippery ice where you have to reduce your speed more to not fall prone and even some where crampons only give advantage on the check instead. Trust me, wearing spikes doesn't save you from falling on your face every time, I know from experience.

[@guyfawkes8873]

That moment when you read all of the stuff in the module and go, “yea I’ll just rule it like actual Greenlandic winter” x) If anyone wants a couple of things that are just wrong with the module: it gets quite bright at midday even in December as long as you’re not too far north of the Arctic circle, since the snow amplifies the light by a lot. I oftentimes get my sunglasses out in December… so yea. The movement speeds are all wrong. The snowshoe movement is fairly accurate, but without snowshoes you will be moving at snails pace, unless, maybe, it’s been a long time since the last snowfall, and the top of the snow is iced over from wind. and travelling on a sled is much faster than they make it, and they also don’t need to rest every hour. You do however typically use 4-8 dogs for a sled, depending on the region… And then there’s the blizzard thing… in midwinter, the weather tends to be very stable and calm, especially the further north you go. The northern Arctic is essentially a desert, with parts of Greenland getting the same precipitation as in the Sahara. Not gonna be a lot of blizzards, I promise. You do get whiteouts, but they’re not that common in the coldest parts of the year, and since it’s been really cold for two years straight I’d imagine even less so. What DOES happen however is katabatic winds from the icecap, though the severity of these are highly regional. In east Greenland wind speeds can reach those of class 4 or 5 hurricanes. Maybe just as scary is how warm they can be, raising the temperatures upwards of 20 degrees. A couple of years ago one such wind cause the removal of all the snow on an entire mountain, something that would have been catastrophic if there had been people nearby. And it leaves the snow surface totally iced over as the top layer recrystallises when the wind is gone. Really, really annoying to ski on, since, even with metal rims, you can’t find purchase in the snow, leaving you skidding across it rather uncontrolled, particularly downhill. Must be an easier surface for people travelling with snowshoes though x)

[@Insertfunnycomment]

I know this is 6 months later and you probably already know this but the reason there's a lot of blizzards is because Auril is summoning them. She's trying to make Icewind Dale as inhospitable as possible, so she's creating the blizzards in order to force people out.

[@danieldib4268]

you the man

[@BobWorldBuilder]

Thanks :)

[@clarencepsaila4743]

for the avelanche role - why not get the whole party make a check and take the highest role as the group's role?

[@SCwirlify]

Hi there. My name is Baard. I am having my first DM-session next week. Just wanted you to know that I am relying on these videos. This stuff is great! :D Lest I accidentally kill all my players :/

[@BobWorldBuilder]

Awesome! You’re going to do great!! :)

[@Ramperdos]

I'm preparing my upcoming northern survival campaign so these videos are super useful! I noticed the "Amarune's Almanac: Arctics of the Realms" in in the comments. Have you been a part of creating that document?

[@nicdanaravel]

nice video bob. maybe you got hippothermia because your constitution score was 2. btw you are awesome

[@BobWorldBuilder]

Could be, haha 😂 Thank you!

[@bryansmith844]

Any ice fishing I've done is with the smallest hole you can pull a fish through, can't imagine how a strong yank on the line would pull a big adventurer through a small hole - Santa Claus style.

[@BobWorldBuilder]

Haha, I guess these holes to have to be pretty big for those trout!

[@nicholasjackson8709]

I was thinking about taking the cold resist auto succeeds the Saving Throw rule out. The pc could keep it for damage resistance, but i feel the auto succeed would take the danger out of the harsh arctic setting. Also, with cold weather clothing, if it got damaged (torn, ripped, burned, etc) they could roll the check with advantage, or normal, depending on the severity of the damage to the clothing. If a character has the proper tools, they could repair the clothing. I want a sense of danger during the exploration outside of combat. What do you guys think?

[@BobWorldBuilder]

I love the idea of the clothes being torn! I would do it to armor too if my players wouldn’t hate it! Haha :P

[@nicholasjackson8709]

@@BobWorldBuilder i would never get away with that with my players. My head would be on a stake lol.

[@icannotchoose]

For the avalanche stuff, even 5% seems too high given how deadly an avalanche is. Idk about dnd, but irl you can't usually outrun an avalanche. You basically have to get above it or out of the way. I'd say a nat 1 produces a "very bad effect" on a table with six options. Roll 1d6 and if you get a 1, avalanche. 1/120 seems far more reasonable to me. Failure by 5 or more that isn't a nat 1 gets a slightly less awful table etc etc. I like tables, can't you tell?

[@euansmith3699]

Icewind Dale sounds like an ideal place to use Prestidigitation to keep your socks and underpants warm, and making warm drinks.

[@ecmo11]

Bob, your math is a bit off. If there's a 25% chance of avalanche each hour, then traveling four hours doesn't guarantee an avalanche. The chance of at least one avalanche in four hours is ~70%. Still quite high, but not guaranteed. Loved the vid - new sub!

[@BobWorldBuilder]

Yeah, I've had a few others correct me on this haha, thank you for keeping the standards high and for subscribing!!

[@micahrichmond6469]

Hi Bob, I am a new DM playing with friends. I have a question: how do you remember all of this when playing/ how do you make these rules easy to access when required. Your visa are great thanks!

[@misterclinical]

Hi Bob, don’t you think the purpose of COLD weather falls utterly short with the clothing the party get? I didn’t see any purpose of survival in this campaign if they never going to fear the cold or at least ridiculously rarely. Thx for your opinion upfront

[@BobWorldBuilder]

Yeah I think the book should have included a note that using the cold weather gear is basically easy mode. I make it challenging for my party by describing how the clothes gets destroyed in pretty much every combat when they take slashing or fire damage, and they regularly have to repair it

[@misterclinical]

@@BobWorldBuilder Thank you for your reply!

[@Mistshock]

Just started running this campaign, session 0 in 2 weeks, so excited. Is this safe to show PCs? any spoilers?

[@BobWorldBuilder]

Hmmm this one should be spoiler free, but most of the series is geared toward DMs

[@j.rinker4609]

We need magical avalanche beacons!

[@JohnSmithAprilMay]

Pretty good series, but I liked this one because of the "Is this guy from California?" extreme weather house rules. As you can tell from the comments section, folks from Canada and the American Midwest eat that stuff up. But like, this is a game, not a real life simulator, so your rules are fine .

[@BobWorldBuilder]

Yeah totally from the northeast US and know what winter is, haha x) I also just like simplifying the game

[@JohnSmithAprilMay]

@@BobWorldBuilder Yeah, realism aside, half move for all encounters on ice is a bit of a downer. Could you imagine if D&D had legitimately realistic winter rules? It's telling that this is a game originally from Wisconsin, but they never bothered to go all-in on cold weather exposure. It would be a very unfun game. "Ope, you got a 9 for your survival check. You have a heart attack while waiting for your car windows to defrost."

[@nonya9120]

Geezer here. Ok, so first. I know it is a game and so we toss realism to the 4 winds for heroic saga. That said the view on artic explorations from someone that lived on the tundra for a year can be found on WorldAnvil.com. The world is EhvarWyn and from the home page the article is under "some considerations of world and play"... I titled it.... Adventuring in the Arctic.... Um Antarctic... (My setting is southern hemisphere.) As for your vid, great job. As for the rules... Temp is about right That saving throw stuff is nonsense. Sorry unprotected you dead. I would go a save every 10 minutes, DC 15 and allow a con modifier. Lets be gracious, its a game. My home brew has 10 levels of exhaustion by the way. Magic Aside, no recovery until your in shelter maybe 1 level recovered per day. As for cold weather gear... yep ya need it. Should allow a auto success. If worn with armor.. Remember the movie, You will not be able to put your arms up. But give it a good AC value of chain mail. Crampons are cool, had an experience putting down a feral dog with boot gripers. Thin Ice???? Um, yeah if you can find it. Basically where I was at we got little bits of ice in the ocean. A month later they took a dc10 (bulldozer) out and carved a road across the bay. Frigid Water, you dead. Giving characters their con score in ROUNDS would be gracious. Raise that DC to 15. As you mention later. This effect continues with wet clothes. So they would need to be rushed to shelter and striped down and warmed up. Snow Shoes, really those are for mountains and southerners. They distribute weight, and in mountains or across deep snow are truly a must have. In the artic those cold weather boots (my old air force issue "bunny boots" were good to 40 bellow (if you kept your toes moving!) and with Sears (it used to be a retail chain kids) battery powered socks I walked a few miles at 50 some bellow with 70 mph gusts. If in deep snow or say trotting over treacherous ice.. allow a bonus to saves against falling in or being pinned. Ice Fishing.... OHHHHHHtay. Ice will be 6-12 feet thick. Foraging Fact. Native people hunted when they could, fished and so on. But once the ice comes, ice fishing is the only option beyond luck. If your talking artic. Anything that leaves tracks is a VBBBigBad. Tracking is out. They hunting parties know the migration and shelter spots. Nothing man sized or smaller will leave tracks that last. If we want to be gracious, call it some minus to tracking. Gone by morning is a good rule of thumb. That food weight I will not argue or agree with. Must point out eating snow/ice will not replace drinking water, it will make you dead. Hypothermia from the inside out. Going without food. NO WAY. Burning calories is what keeps you alive. Characters should have a level of exhaustion per day without it. No con mods or otherwise and recovery to be gracious. One day with food, resting would recover 1 level. Not a 5e player so I would let the rules run on travel times. Avalances.... OHHHHH My..... Arctic or not. They kill you dead. Remember what causes them, GRAVITY. Snow and ice build up, reach the tipping point. It all comes roaring down. If the party is actually in a traveled area, like someone uses the road. Chance would only be after a good build up, say once a month in that valley/area. But chances are good that someone will put the question to rest. Real world approach. Trigger the thing before it kills people. Now for actual wilderness. OUCH. Sssssusss. Even a loud noise can make it happen. Seriously firing a crossbow bolt or whipping a sling stone at some spots could trigger one. Years back I got a table to take it seriously when they used a lightning bolt to end a combat quick. The result was an avalanche. I would say check only once per day. Daylight. Those stats are not for full artic, let them slide. Yea, find the guy covered over in an avalanche. Yeah, magic. Blizzards.... Hearing limited to 10 feet. Visibility as well and those are gracious. A storm of note, like 3 to 6 times a year. means both reduced to 0. If you must go outside, hope the chain isn't broke and you do not loose hold of it. Ranged attacks are out. Fire blind is the best they can hope for. Anything not a firearm is a waste of time. Maybe a ballista, with dumb blind luck. Wandering out in the storm, is wandering out in a random direction to DIE. No wiz mod.. I know its only a game. Don't get me wrong, it is a challenging setting at the least. Natives are not all high level types by far. They do however work together. They are among the most hard working and loyal friends anyone could hope to have. A bit of final advice. Do NOT murder hobo, or in anyway else offend. A threat to the Tribe is one that MUST and WILL DIE.

[@Kvelertaknes]

Early squad, who here?🙏🏻🙏🏻

[@BobWorldBuilder]

Present! haha, thanks for commenting :)

[@NegatveSpace]

This is one of the times I feel like wotc, when putting something in the game like avalanches, should have done research into how people would have likely handled it, how difficult it would be, given us that information in the book they are making and adjust the likelihood of it happening so it wouldn't regularly create a total party kill. I can understand how traveling around in the wilderness on snowy hills could regularly cause avalanches but people do know what to look for so I'm sure people in medieval times would have figured some of this out. Nah, we're given some pitifully basic rule that doesn't seem balanced at all and make the game master figure it out.

[@clarencepsaila4743]

I'd like to run this module but all these wilderness rules seem very annoying to my friends and we want to simplify things much much more and basically skim over the adventuring / wilderness stuff - how can we do that, BUT still have the environment play some role / disadvantage to the party?

[@nonya9120]

Geezer here... Ok so in my opinion, artic is high level with magic only. Not saying all the natives are super powered. But, if you aren't from these parts you are asking to die. For game mechanics... Travel on foot gives you 1 level of exhaustion per 4 hour period in my homebrew. I use 10 levels of exhaustion so maybe 1 level per day. No food, that will be 1 level of exhaustion per day going with out food. Water... sure it is almost everywhere... but must be thawed. Artic or not, eat ice and your core temp drops... then you die. Hunting happens during a season, often less than 2 weeks. That is for land based critters. Remember cold will kill ya. Check out a piece for general thoughts... www.worldanvil.com/w/ehvarwyn-geezer/a/adventuring-in-the-arctic-um-antarctic-article

[@BobWorldBuilder]

I admire the deadliness of your guidelines here! And I wish your party good luck :)

[@nonya9120]

@@BobWorldBuilder It is really down to knowing and being prepared. True story... I walked 2 miles through a storm for Thanksgiving dinner that year. All geared up at about 60 below. It is survivable but absolutely unforgiving environment. Game on

[@ME-kd1ko]

Math correction: Advantage is +3.325, not +5.

[@Levan.787]

👍

[@BobWorldBuilder]

Haha, thanks for the thumbs up :)

[@bradley8418]

Have to disagree about ice not being difficult terrain. I know first hand that it indeed slows one down tremendously.

[@Subcomandante73]

Cold Weather Clothing is another great example of just how lazy the writing is for this adventure. No penalty for being worn with armour? And yet Padded Armour gives you Disadvantage on Stealth checks.

[@BobWorldBuilder]

Wow! I didn’t know that about padded armor. And I wouldn’t call it “lazy” writing, but I think there should probably be a big note for DMs indicating that removing the benefits of cold weather clothing (or introducing some penalty) is the easiest way to enhance the danger of the environment here

[@Subcomandante73]

@@BobWorldBuilder It is 'lazy' if you cannot even make the effort to google what life is like at -50 degrees :) The whole book is so strewn with poorly implemented ideas, unbalanced encounters, and instant death scenarios that I suggest it is impossible to run this as written. Which begs the question why spend £40 on the book? And why was it not actually playtested? And most importantly, why has this got such good reviews? Is the D&D community so willing to pay for bad adventure books they have to fix in order to play?

[@ctno3]

"Ice isnt hard to walk on" are you high or never seen snow and ice?? Its slippery as hell, thin or thick ice its impossible to walk on normally.

[@BobWorldBuilder]

Sober in a climate with seasons! I admit, since it's specifically called "slippery ice" it should be hard to walk on. But not all ice is that slippery in my experience

[@MittiMedia]

You are ignoring the possibility that you have Con score of 5

[@rogue109]

A dog sled weights 300 lbs? really? I don't think so or you're going to need a whole lot of dogs...

[@BobWorldBuilder]

Yeah it seemed weird to me too. Unless you have a party of gnomes (in which case you could just ride the dogs) it’s going to get pricey!

[@shan5963]

The con vs frigid temps thing is total BS. An ice bath for 30 seconds is MISERABLE. There's NO WAY a person could make it that long, up to 18 minutes.