Environmental Effects: Difference between revisions
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The High Altitude rules can easily be expanded to include all cases where the air is less than nice. This can be dense layers of swamp gas clinging heavily to the lungs of feckless explorers, it can be a bad case of 'mine damp' smothering those who wander into it, it can be a magical effect in a Alchemists' lab where the air around a bubbling cauldron is not longer exactly the right kind of air, or it can be due to Planar effects leaking into the Prime material, cloying shadowstuff clogging the lungs in a dark barrow, and many other things besides. | The High Altitude rules can easily be expanded to include all cases where the air is less than nice. This can be dense layers of swamp gas clinging heavily to the lungs of feckless explorers, it can be a bad case of 'mine damp' smothering those who wander into it, it can be a magical effect in a Alchemists' lab where the air around a bubbling cauldron is not longer exactly the right kind of air, or it can be due to Planar effects leaking into the Prime material, cloying shadowstuff clogging the lungs in a dark barrow, and many other things besides. | ||
All such effects can be attributed to a similar High Altitude effect and run with the same rules. Whether or not it is possible to have acclimated creatures to such effects is up to the GM, but it certainly works. | All such effects can be attributed to a similar High Altitude effect and run with the same rules. For highly noxious environments, the amount of damage can be increased to 2d6 or even 3d6 per hour. For places where the air is densely fouled, the frequency of the check can be increased to every half hour, or even every ten minutes. If the GM is feeling particularly cruel, do both! The inside of a volcano is a classic place where the noxious fumes choking the air may inflict 3d6 of non-lethal environmental damage every ten minutes, and that's on top of the Heat or Wildfire conditions. Yikes! Whether or not it is possible to have acclimated creatures to such effects is up to the GM, but it certainly works to have a tribe of specially adapted Fire Trolls living in the volcano.... | ||
==Avalanche== | ==Avalanche== | ||
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An avalanche inflicts damage as a [[Collisions | collision]] to all creature caught in its path, but an avalanche does not have a given "speed", instead assumed to be moving 'really, REALLY, fast.' You cannot outrun an avalanche, ever, although you can generally fly above one if you are quick and lucky. The GM adjudicates how 'tall' an avalanche is, but generally it's between 5 and 30 feet. An avalanche, since it does not have a speed to measure the collision damage, does 1d6 of damage per CR of the area the avalanche is located within. Affected creatures are allowed either a Reflex or Fort save to reduce this damage by half. The DC of this check is an Impossible Save versus the CR of the area. Those who fail their saves are buried. | An avalanche inflicts damage as a [[Collisions | collision]] to all creature caught in its path, but an avalanche does not have a given "speed", instead assumed to be moving 'really, REALLY, fast.' You cannot outrun an avalanche, ever, although you can generally fly above one if you are quick and lucky. The GM adjudicates how 'tall' an avalanche is, but generally it's between 5 and 30 feet. An avalanche, since it does not have a speed to measure the collision damage, does 1d6 of damage per CR of the area the avalanche is located within. Affected creatures are allowed either a Reflex or Fort save to reduce this damage by half. The DC of this check is an Impossible Save versus the CR of the area. Those who fail their saves are buried. | ||
Buried characters gain the [[pinned]] condition unless they have [[Burrow]], [[Earth Glide]] or some other way of moving, and take 1d6 points of [[Non-Lethal Damage]] per minute. If a buried character falls unconscious, their hit points are immediately set to negative 1 and they must begin making death saves. Yikes! | ===Buried=== | ||
Buried characters gain the [[pinned]] condition unless they have [[Burrow]], [[Earth Glide]], Swim, or some other way of moving, and take 1d6 points of [[Non-Lethal Damage]] per minute. If a buried character falls unconscious, their hit points are immediately set to negative 1 and they must begin making death saves. Yikes! If you are buried by a Flash Flood or Tsunami, you don't even have that much time, and go straight to Suffocation. | |||
===Rescue=== | |||
Creatures buried in an avalanche (or a tsunami, or a flash flood, or a collapse, or a pyroclastic flow, or a lava flow, see below) are generally helpless, because they are pinned or unconscious or worse. To dig a buried creature free, the best plan is to have someone with an appropriate Move speed simply go get them. Burrow is always usable on solid material, and Swim is always effective on liquids. Pyroclastic Flows or lava flows may be traversed with one or both, depending upon circumstance and the GM's decisions. Rescuers are subject to normal effects according to the type of event. Rescuing a friend from a lava flow by Swimming down to them is incredibly brave, but also extremely painful. See Lava for details. | |||
If nobody has a usable Movement type, then [[Might]] skill rolls against a Hard DC for the CR of the event can clear a five foot space or solid material enough to extract a victim. Exceeding the roll by five or more allows another five feet to be cleared for each five by which the roll was exceeded. [[Acrobatics]] is useful to extract victims from non-solid materials. In all cases, even a [[Pinned]] victim may attempt an [[Escape Artist]] roll against the same DC to get themselves loose. If you are unconscious or worse, you have no recourse, sadly. Hope that you have friends nearby. Note that a [[Sending (Spell)]] cast by a non-pinned person can be a life-saver! | |||
==Earthquake== | |||
Surprisingly enough, Earthquakes just aren't that bad if you are on reasonably level terrain without high trees. During the actual trembling of the earth, all surfaces are treated as difficult terrain. The shaking doesn't last very long, no more than 1 to 6 minutes, and then its over. | |||
Now, if you are in some terrain besides level open ground, THEN it gets nasty. | |||
Earthquakes generally cause trees or other tall things to fall over, at GM discretion. It's almost always at least one falling object, and can be more. See the Falling Objects rules for the joy of having a tree fall on you. Earthquakes also trigger avalanches. Luckily, in the mountains it's just a plain old avalanche. If you're near a body of water, there may be a tsunami, which is an avalanche of water and even worse than a regular avalanche. Earthquakes often presage the birth of a volcano, which is especially in-fun if it starts dropping lava bombs and pyroclastic flows at random intervals. | |||
===Collapses=== | |||
If you are underground, in a building in a city, exploring the hollow bones of a Garuda Bird, or any other circumstance other than open terrain, then it is possible for there to be a collapse, with or without an earthquake. A collapse is an avalanche, usually of the surrounding material, with a penalty to the saving throw of -1 to -4 or maybe even more depending on circumstances. If you're Squeezing your way down a six-inch wide crevice a mile underground and the crack suddenly slams shut, you're pretty much done for, although the GM who would put you in such a situation should get an Honorable Mention. Just, like, wow. | |||
It's also possible for there to be a Flash Flood in a cave after an Earthquake, or even a pyroclastic flow blasting along after the baby volcano next door introduces itself. Being in a city with collapsing buildings is also treated as a avalanche, with no modifier to the save if you're outside a building and modifiers as above if you're inside. | |||
==Cold== | ==Cold== | ||
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Creatures overrun by a lava flow must make a save as per the Avalanche rules or be engulfed in the lava, taking double Immolated damage. Success indicates that they are in contact with the lava (and thus Immolated) but not immersed. | Creatures overrun by a lava flow must make a save as per the Avalanche rules or be engulfed in the lava, taking double Immolated damage. Success indicates that they are in contact with the lava (and thus Immolated) but not immersed. | ||
===Lava Crust=== | |||
It's very common for lava lakes and lava flows to have a solid crust. Walking on a lava crust is exactly the same as moving on ice, except that since you are within 15 feet of lava, you gain the Singed condition and of course, you are at risk from Heat, not Cold. | |||
===Lava Bombs=== | ===Lava Bombs=== | ||
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===Volcanic Gas=== | ===Volcanic Gas=== | ||
The area around a volcano is usually treated as High Altitude with the Inimical Gas option, although there may be pockets of Heavy Smoke from the Wildfire rules. All these effects are detailed above. | The area around a volcano is usually treated as High Altitude with the Inimical Gas option, although there may be pockets of Heavy Smoke from the Wildfire rules. All these effects are detailed above. Being inside a volcano is Heat at a minimum, and more likely the same as being trapped in a Wildfire. | ||
===Pyroclastic Flow=== | ===Pyroclastic Flow=== | ||
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Drowning in water is exactly like Suffocation. See above for those rules. | Drowning in water is exactly like Suffocation. See above for those rules. | ||
Note that it is possible to drown in substances other than water, such as sand, quicksand, fine dust, gigantic piles of gold and jewels, blood, acid, and silos full of grain, just to name a few possibilities. | Note that it is possible to drown in substances other than water, such as sand, quicksand, fine dust, gigantic piles of gold and jewels, red-hot flaming volcanic ash, blood, acid, and silos full of grain, just to name a few possibilities. | ||
===Fast-Flowing Water=== | ===Fast-Flowing Water=== | ||