How to make an encounter with falling great distances interesting and dangerous, but not deadly?

[Blue]

Because of ease of long rest, damage nor a single level of exhaustion is any stakes at all.

I'm make the stakes Respect. You mentioned that they saw climbing it as a test of the person - have it impact the character's (and to a lesser degree the party's) opening RP with them. Could be fun if the high CHR, low DEX person fell several times and they didn not want to talk to them.

 

[Quickleaf]

This. I never played 4e, but Matt Coleville put out an excellent video discussing using 4e skill challenges in 5e and I used his advice to in my Curse of Strahd campaign when for the travel up the frozen winter pass to the Amber temple. How I handle it is I ask each player to explain how their character is contributing to the challenge. In this case, it would be getting the entire party safely up the cliff. It needs to be reasonable, or at least cool enough to let all reason go to the wind. Then each player makes a skill check relevant to the how they explained their character was contributing. Based on how well or how poorly they role, complications, encounters, or cool finds may result.

I try to come up with complications and successes that are more interesting than "you fall" or "you scale the cliff in half the time". Complications could be:

Player says he is looking for hazards, safe footholds, and just finding and easier way up. But he rolls poorly on his Wisdom (Perception) check.

So he didn't notice the be hive, which the party has no distrubed. They need to fight off a swarm of bees while making Dex (Acrobatics) or Strength (Athletics) checks to keep hold of the ropes/handholds.

But a great roll on perception could be that they find some pitons left in the cliff by a past adventuring party, but they better make an investigation check because maybe one of them has become loose... Or they find a hidden cache of loot. The loot should be cool enough that they will want it, but perhaps cumbersome and they'll need to figure out how to safely bring it up the cliff.

If you don't mind a beer & pretzle approach, it can be fun to throw in some silly encounters. You could re-enact Spock surprising Kirk while he was climbing El Capitan in Star Trek V. While the party is climbing, perhaps a curious Aarakocra hovers around them trying to engage in conversation. First, if they are surprise, that have to make a check to hold on. Two, perhaps they have disadvantage on perception checks making it more likely that they'll miss the bee hive. Third, if they roll poorly on a check to persuade the bird man to go away, or if they rely on intimidation, maybe they will offend him and Aarakocra will be less hospitable to the players and they won't get the food and rest they need when they get to the top.

Love the idea of finding pitons left by past adventurers! And I do plan to have curious young aarakocra try to communicate with the PCs – most of the aarakocra speak Aarakocra and Auran, which none of the PCs know (nor do they have comprehend languages), but it will be fun nevertheless. Oddly enough, I am including a missing aarakocra scout named Kiirk who boldly went where no aarakocra had gone before...though I digress.

It may be that we play with players who have different styles, but I haven't had success giving these players a blank canvas problem and then saying "what do you do?"

For example, not too long ago the party was separated by an erosion. Long story short, 2 PCs were left high a canyon on the east bank overlooking a river, and the other 3 PCs wrecked along west bank at the water's edge. The 3 on the west bank were trying to catch up to the two up high on the east bank. I asked how they were meeting back up and the druid cast speak with animals to get recon, then water walk to get party across, then rogue with climb speed set up a rope system to scale the 90-foot canyon wall, druid polymorphed into an ape with climb speed and carried bard on his back. So no checks were needed at all.

The point of my example is that – for this group – I need to tweak the typical climbing scenario to make it interesting (e.g. I'm including a section where having a climb speed won't help). They're not going to, of their own accord, start asking to make creative skill checks like your Perception example to spot handholds. It's not that they're not creative, but when a scenario smells like something they've overcome before, they default to standard operating procedures unless otherwise incentivized. IOW, I as DM need to prompt them for stuff like that.

 

[Quickleaf]

Because of ease of long rest, damage nor a single level of exhaustion is any stakes at all.

I'm make the stakes Respect. You mentioned that they saw climbing it as a test of the person - have it impact the character's (and to a lesser degree the party's) opening RP with them. Could be fun if the high CHR, low DEX person fell several times and they didn not want to talk to them.

Mhmm. Damage here is only relevant insofar as the PCs stay above 0 hit points, yes.

Exhaustion is relevant because disadvantage on ability checks applies to social checks made with the aarakocra (there is a bit of intrigue at the monastery), while stacked levels of exhaustion mean the PCs need more than one long rest to be back to normal...and there is an ongoing campaign threat that's progressing the more time they take.

Yeah, I'm not sure how to track that reputation exactly. Maybe a "3 Fall Grounder" is shunned by most of the aarakocra, not given access to their scavengers market, and struggles with trade. Not sure how I'd differentiate that from the reception a "2 Fall Grounder" or "1 Fall Grounder" gets...

 

[Sword of Spirit]

My immediate response to the title was “Elemental Plane of Air.”

 

[Quickleaf]

My immediate response to the title was “Elemental Plane of Air.”

Ah man, that's brilliant. Working under time crunch to unexpectedly rewrite this section of the adventure for Sunday's game, so don't know if I'll have time to expand on your idea to do it justice. But so much potential there.

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

Well, speaking of respect, if they fall and grab an aarqkocra and drag it Down with them, they’ll definitely lose face.

If you want to do elemental plane of air then, instead of them climbing, they are falling towards the temple. They’d better impress those aarokocra and get that flying spell before they hit the ground!

 

[robus]

I’ll second the call to just have them take levels of exhaustion if/when they fail a particular challenge as they attempt the ascent. It’s a gradually increasing threat rather than sudden like falling damage, but it nicely communicates the suffering the PCs go through as they climb.

 

[Manbearcat]

@Quickleaf

Use Exploration Turns and Wandering Monsters/Random Encounter clock.

Per the DMG, the Dungeon Scale:

1) 20 sq/min (Slow - Advantage)
2) 30 sq/min (Normal)
3) 40 sq/min (Fast - Disadvantage)

A turn is one of these units. Every 2 Turns = check the clock; 17-20 and some obstacle/ill omen emerges (wandering avian/cliff/bridge toll monster, framing fails, an important item comes loose/unbuckled, sudden gathering of storm clouds portending a soon deluge of rain, a phrase scrawled into the structure indicates the monks may have a sinister past/duality about them).

On failed Saving Throws or Ability Checks Fail Forward (the situation escalates or a new threat emerges).

Every 4 Exploration Turns requires 1 turn of Rest (which would tick the clock towards another check) or Save vs Exhaustion.

EDIT - In case it isn't clear - this should be player-facing. The players need to understand the mechanical implications of their decision-points and the potential snow-balling effects/opportunity cost.

 

[Quickleaf]

I think I have something for tracking individual PC reputation among the aarakocra. This ties into various side quests the PCs can perform to improve their bartering reputation with the bird folk.

0 Falls/Failures: Respected as “Fliers Who Never Leave the Ground”, unrestricted access to the monastery, gain a free service/good during barter. If male human/half-breed, may also attract infatuation of Mwaxanaré living among aarakocra.

1 Fall/Failure: Treated fairly, barter as normal.

2 Falls/Failures: Aarakocra aren’t forthcoming, not welcome in monastery, disadvantageous barter.

3 Falls/Failures: Mocked and/or shunned by aarakocra as “Earth Bound”, not welcome in the scavenger’s market nor monastery, impossible to barter with anyone except the saint Asharra. If Small, may also gain attention from young Na living among aarakocra who takes PC “under his wing”.

 

[Quickleaf]

@Quickleaf

Use Exploration Turns and Wandering Monsters/Random Encounter clock.

Per the DMG, the Dungeon Scale:

1) 20 sq/min (Slow - Advantage)
2) 30 sq/min (Normal)
3) 40 sq/min (Fast - Disadvantage)

A turn is one of these units. Every 2 Turns = check the clock; 17-20 and some obstacle/ill omen emerges (wandering avian/cliff/bridge toll monster, framing fails, an important item comes loose/unbuckled, sudden gathering of storm clouds portending a soon deluge of rain, a phrase scrawled into the structure indicates the monks may have a sinister past/duality about them).

On failed Saving Throws or Ability Checks Fail Forward (the situation escalates or a new threat emerges).

Every 4 Exploration Turns requires 1 turn of Rest (which would tick the clock towards another check) or Save vs Exhaustion.

EDIT - In case it isn't clear - this should be player-facing. The players need to understand the mechanical implications of their decision-points and the potential snow-balling effects/opportunity cost.

Thanks for the suggestion. It reminds me of AngryGM’s exploration musings.

Looking it over...there’s a bit of dissonance between the “dungeon exploration turn with roll for complication” & the narrative, at least for me. It’s a climb up a cliff side following a pre-existing route (which makes the otherwise staggeringly difficult climb possible but still perilous).

There aren’t rooms/areas to explore. I mean, I could add that...but strapped for time needing to unexpectedly rewrite this part of the adventure. Writing up new area descriptions is just more than I can realistically do before Sunday.

The dungeon 150’ per minute movement rate assumes walking carefully, not climbing. It’s seems too fast. Back when I climbed the Currecanti Needle (a 700’ spire in Gunnison, CO) that took several hours to get a group to the peak. The height here (550’) is comparable.

Given that there’s a pre-established route, I’d expect a DM-defined series of challenges needing to be overcome as the primary challenge, rather than random complications. But I’m very open to suggestions for interesting complications I can throw in! All I have right now are Strong Winds.