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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Quickleaf" data-source="post: 7522115" data-attributes="member: 20323">Crampons overcome icy slopes in regular mountain travel, but if you're buffeted by strong winds or a dragon's wings/tail or struck by a boulder and start falling, you don't rely on crampons to stop your descent. Once you start falling/tumbling, you rely on three things to stop yourself: a rope/anchor system, an ice pick/axe, and your own physical maneuvering to press yourself flat and control your slide toward a natural stopping point in the terrain. Or, in D&D, magic.So you can add a push effect to the dragon's wing/tail attack, add strong alpine winds, or even a small avalanche forcing a DEX save. A creature struck begins sliding down mountain and has a choice of how to arrest its fall using its reaction: (1) trust the rope system your party set up, possibly requiring a STR save from the PC who they're roped to in a rope-buddy system, (2) make a Strength (Athletics) check using an ice pick/axe to arrest the fall, or (3) make a Dexterity (Acrobatics) or Wisdom (Survival) check to maneuver yourself toward a natural stopping point in the terrain. Feather fall would obviously be an option too. Each of these could have different consequences for failure to make it interesting. IF #1 fails, then you take a little falling damage but your ally starts falling too, potentially triggering a domino effect. If #2 fails, your ice axe might get torn from your hand and you take lots of falling damage. If #3 fails, you might take a little falling damage and land in a frosty fissure that connects to the dragon's cavernous lair and is used by Winter Wolves.Well, normally cold weather does not inflict cold damage; instead, it inflicts exhaustion. So, for example, the white dragon's "freezing fog" lair action is magical because it's inflicting cold damage. I'd have the cold weather gear grant the PCs advantage on their saving throws against "freezing fog."You want to include hazards (a) that are entirely overcome by their preparation, and explicitly tell them it's their crampons making the slippery slope inconsequential; (b) that their gear assists them against but doesn't obviate rolling (e.g. "freezing fog"); and (c) that their gear doesn't apply toward at all. Include all of the above.</blockquote>

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