The Nature GM

We have all been there. It is the start of a new adventuring day, the heroes are setting out on their business, and you roll on a table to learn what weather the fates decree this day.

“Today is sunny,” you announce. Or it’s partly cloudy or windy or there is a hail storm. Most of the time this augur is forgotten as quickly as it is proclaimed, and it has no bearing whatsoever on the day’s challenges.

And yet, in the real world we know that even hiking in the rain is not as easy as it is on a dry sunny day, that mud is slippery, and that anything soaked through is heavy. How much more so armed combat must be impacted by weather.

This is timely quandary for me, because this week my regular table will face a legendary creature in a rain storm, and I am considering how that will impact the battle. Especially since it is shaping up to be aerial combat. And because I am concerned they will all die even without adding weather complexities.

Let us see, then, if we cannot together find ways to give an interesting impact to fighting in the rain and other weather events.

Planned Weather Events

My first suggestion is that you, the game master, will have the best outcomes if you plan inclement weather in advance. I have said elsewhere that I do not care for random tables—at least not during game play. Using a random table during session prep is quite another thing.

If you know in advance that there will be a blizzard in the next session, then you have time to consider what that would mean for the characters and their opponents. You have time to think about what monsters will try to use the storm to their advantage, and how.

My second suggestion is to ignore weather that has no impact, except in as much as it provides flavor. It makes no significant difference in gameplay if a day is sunny, partly cloudy, or has a light breeze. But if a sorceress makes a revenge proclamation, the scene can be given a sense of foreboding if at that moment a cloud passes over the sun.

Snow & Sleet

I am thinking about snow and sleet in an already snowy land—perhaps not an arctic setting, but certainly a coniferous forest with a thick blanket of snow.

If snow on the ground is deeper than a few inches, it requires high steps to walk through, leading to slower movement and reduced evasion. Snow and sleet as they are falling are white on a white backdrop, often reducing visibility even more drastically than rain.

I like to make snow a place of ambush: wolves padding lightly over the banks and drifts and surrounding the party in their sleep. Owlbears creeping up close for a powerful strike to the head. A band of raiders running up to a barricade, only visible when they begin to climb over it.

It can also be fun to have special ice wraiths and such that only attack during a snow storm, that always appear when the wind starts to howl.

Hail

I have never made it hail in a roleplaying game, and I think I am unlikely to.

If I did, I would have it deal minor damage every round. No save, no check—just 2 points of bludgeoning damage each turn while exposed to the elements.

Fog & Mist

Heavy mist and fog are often phenomena near coasts, swamps, and mountains. Fog especially forms at the barriers of temperature and moisture changes.

Similar to snow, I use fog as a means for enemies to slip up close behind the party undetected. This is especially true if they are onboard a ship and are either anticipating a midnight attack or conducting one of their own. As I’ve written about elsewhere, beginning combat very close together, such as 15 ft apart, can be an exciting change to the default 30-60 ft range.

Mist and fog obscure things from sight—allowing for jump scares of anything from monsters and assassins to grotesque statues or blade traps. I rather like the idea of a party entering an unscouted area shrouded in mist, not knowing what they might stumble into.

I think strong, magical fire should be able to burn through fog and mist, creating a radius of clear visibility.

Strong Winds

The most obvious consequence of wind is to impose some penalty on making ranged attacks. However, I find that I shy away from this.

It does not feel “fair” to the party archer (which I rarely have) to put a handicap on the shining star of their skills. Likewise, it does not feel “fair” to have a winged beast swoop down on the party on a wild wind, and they can hardly land a hit as their missiles are all blown astray.

Of course, one might say this is a tactical advantage of the winged beast, and by challenging the player characters they would be inspired to creative actions. But my fear is that it would turn into an encounter of “Your attack missed. Next.”

Once I had an act of arson on a windy day threaten to burn down a market. I meant to have the flames advance each round, but I suspect that after the second round I forgot.

Heavy Rain

A heavy downpour of rain would have many impacts on a real battle: reduced visibility, reduced range of projectiles, some hampered movement from the rain itself and the slick ground, and limited ability to maintain a flame.

With a little forethought, I think you could run an encounter in the rain with a bit of fun flavor and not all that much dangerous consequence.

However, I have some particular challenges with the encounter planned for my party. They will face a huge elemental in the shape of an eagle formed of storm clouds and lightning, which has caused a ceaseless rain for many days. The tools I have given them to face this foe are magical wings made of laminated paper and a handful of fireworks.

You see why I am convinced that they are going to die. Even reinforced paper wings must necessarily begin to dissolve, causing them to plummet to a very distant ground. And the fireworks can only be set off from a sheltered location on the side of the mountain, which will be in range of both lightning blasts from the elemental eagle and the suffocating grasp of the mist creatures that stalk the cliffs.

Actually I think the player characters would be better off ignoring the “helpful” items they found and stick with their original plan of using scrolls of Fly to attack as one aerial unit.

This post will be published after our session, so time permitting I will include an update of how it all went.

Stat Block: The Creature of the Sky

This Creature of the Sky is the next legendary creature that the heroes must put to rest for elemental balance to return to the isles, following the Creature of the Land that I shared a few posts back.

Closing Thoughts

I am curious if anyone has similar (or dramatically different) thoughts on applying weather to roleplaying game combat. Please, share your stories.

And, when you are next caught in a downpour when crossing an interminable stretch of parking lot, be grateful that you are not carrying a sword.

Stay tuned for the next installment of The Nature Game Master, in which we discuss what to do in the event of a total party kill. (This is a joke. I hope.)

Until then, keep exploring.

(Post cover image by Pexels.)

Epilogue

My party did not die! I am terribly proud of them. Two of the party of four (all level 7), did get knocked down, and it was fortunate that one rolled a 20 on their death save and immediately popped back up.

It was an important training battle to prepare for facing the red dragon overlord. The conventional wisdom is that RPG players immediately hit the big boss with their most powerful abilities, slaying it before its had a chance to act. Not my players—they are the type to defeat the Elite Four with no items, because they are saving them for when they really need it. They keep their powder dry.

I encouraged the players to use Action Surge, spend a second Ki point, cast the spell at a higher level, because in its first turn the Creature of the Sky brought two characters to half health.

And yes, one character did fall out of the sky on soggy paper wings, narrowly avoiding the Fireball that dealt the final blow to the boss, and they were saved by a scroll of Fly administered mid-air.

I look forward to future epic battles.