Heat Exhaustion in D&D!

[ptolemy18]

Hello everyone,

I'm running a campaign using the African Adventures rules and the players (all about 2nd level) are about to make a journey into the desert.

I'm doing this from memory here, so I may be slightly wrong, but... according to the DMG (and restated in African Adventures with few modifications), in extreme heat you have to make a Fortitude save vs. DC 15, either once every hour or once every 15 minutes, depending on the heat. If you fail, you take subdual damage and become fatigued; if you fail twice, you take more subdual damage and become exhausted. Until eventually, if you fail enough, you end up unconscious and dying of subdual damage.

I'm wondering how this will work out in a long wilderness journey, though. Presumably the players will be outside for a LONG time (like 8 hours a day). "Endure Elements" (or whatever it's called in 3.5) only protects from heat for, I think, 1 hour per caster level, meaning that it probably won't protect anybody if they're out for a whole day. According to these rules, at the end of each day the player-characters will probably be exhausted and near unconsciousness....

...which sounds fun, but I'm wondering how it'll work out in practice. Has anyone DMed a similar situation? And if so, did you fudge the rules a little (like maybe only asking for a Fortitude save every 4 hours, and increasing the duration of "Endure Elements"), or did you play it totally according to the rules? I want the characters to be inconvenienced and ration their "endure elements" magic, but not to actually kill 'em, of course.

Another thing... the obvious players' solution I can think of is for the player-characters to sleep by day and travel by night. I'm sure the players will think of this, and unfortunately, it seems like it'd really spoil me of my heat-exhaustion fun as DM. :/ The only thing I can think of is to tell the characters that all the monsters come out at night and to stay in their camps when night comes. This seems kind of cheap, though, plus I'm sure they'll probably call me on my bluff and travel by night and I'll have to hit them with overly-powerful nighttime monsters.

Any insight would be appreciated! I've got to decide what to do before "Sandstorm" comes out...!

Jason

 

[ptolemy18]

I shouldn't post a follow-up to my own quote, but I think I've boiled down my main concerns...

(1) The heat exhaustion rules, as written, seem to be written for only a short period of time, not a full day's travel (8 hrs.)
(2) How do I keep my player-characters from just sleeping by day and travelling by night and avoiding the whole situation?

Thank you for your help!

Jason

 

[Henrix]

Are they in a desert where humans live at all? Then, obviously, they can survive travelling there as well, provided they have appropriate clothes and sufficient water, probably without rolling fort saves every hour.
Lack of water is often more problematic than heat.

And travelling by night through the desert is a viable option not unknown in real deserts, even though it generally gets awfully cold there at night. A more moderate solution is to stay in the shade during the hottest time of the day (mid-day to sunset, more or less).

Many desert living animals are more active at night, by the way. But there are few large predators, scorpions seeking shade in boots or bedclothes is a classic.

I had a good time when I dropped my gangs characters unprepared in the midst of an unknown desert, but after a few days they had got the hang of it. Sleep during the worst of the heat in a Leomund's Tiny Hut, Create Water and navigating by the (unknown) stars eventually got them out of it.

 

[frankthedm]

I shouldn't post a follow-up to my own quote, but I think I've boiled down my main concerns...

(1) The heat exhaustion rules, as written, seem to be written for only a short period of time, not a full day's travel (8 hrs.)
(2) How do I keep my player-characters from just sleeping by day and travelling by night and avoiding the whole situation?

Thank you for your help!

Jason

HEAT DANGERS
Heat deals nonlethal damage that cannot be recovered until the character gets cooled off (reaches shade, survives until nightfall, gets doused in water, is targeted by endure elements, and so forth). Once rendered unconscious through the accumulation of nonlethal damage, the character begins to take lethal damage at the same rate.
A character in very hot conditions (above 90° F) must make a Fortitude saving throw each hour (DC 15, +1 for each previous check) or take 1d4 points of nonlethal damage. Characters wearing heavy clothing or armor of any sort take a –4 penalty on their saves. A character with the Survival skill may receive a bonus on this saving throw and may be able to apply this bonus to other characters as well (see the skill description). Characters reduced to unconsciousness begin taking lethal damage (1d4 points per hour).
In severe heat (above 110° F), a character must make a Fortitude save once every 10 minutes (DC 15, +1 for each previous check) or take 1d4 points of nonlethal damage. Characters wearing heavy clothing or armor of any sort take a –4 penalty on their saves. A character with the Survival skill may receive a bonus on this saving throw and may be able to apply this bonus to other characters as well. Characters reduced to unconsciousness begin taking lethal damage (1d4 points per each 10-minute period).
A character who takes any nonlethal damage from heat exposure now suffers from heatstroke and is fatigued.
These penalties end when the character recovers the nonlethal damage she took from the heat.
Extreme heat (air temperature over 140° F, fire, boiling water, lava) deals lethal damage. Breathing air in these temperatures deals 1d6 points of damage per minute (no save). In addition, a character must make a Fortitude save every 5 minutes (DC 15, +1 per previous check) or take 1d4 points of nonlethal damage. Those wearing heavy clothing or any sort of armor take a –4 penalty on their saves. In addition, those wearing metal armor or coming into contact with very hot metal are affected as if by a heat metal spell.
Boiling water deals 1d6 points of scalding damage, unless the character is fully immersed, in which case it deals 10d6 points of damage per round of exposure.
......
STARVATION AND THIRST
Characters might find themselves without food or water and with no means to obtain them. In normal climates, Medium characters need at least a gallon of fluids and about a pound of decent food per day to avoid starvation. (Small characters need half as much.) In very hot climates, characters need two or three times as much water to avoid dehydration.
A character can go without water for 1 day plus a number of hours equal to his Constitution score. After this time, the character must make a Constitution check each hour (DC 10, +1 for each previous check) or take 1d6 points of nonlethal damage.
A character can go without food for 3 days, in growing discomfort. After this time, the character must make a Constitution check each day (DC 10, +1 for each previous check) or take 1d6 points of nonlethal damage.
Characters who have taken nonlethal damage from lack of food or water are fatigued. Nonlethal damage from thirst or starvation cannot be recovered until the character gets food or water, as needed—not even magic that restores hit points heals this damage.







1. The Characters won't likly make it to the 8 hour mark in the hot sun unprotected. They set out, and start to get tired quite quickly. when the weaker members start passing out, the others should assume that it is time to head back and make a new plan. Packing a few Ray of Frost scrolls may be usefull to freeze water into ice to cool off the adventurers. Carrying large umbrellas might help.

2. Traveling by night is normally a Good Idea [tm] in hot climates. But if you want to discourage it... A. Traveling by night is going to make getting lost easy. B.. how does the party see? Unless they like walking blind at night then disease bearing swarms of insects may be attracted to thier light. If the players are really unlucky the big thirsty bugs might come out [treat as desert dwelling stirge swarms].

STIRGE
-Tiny Magical Beast
Hit Dice:-1d10 (5 hp)
Initiative:-+4
Speed:-10 ft (2 squares), fly 40 ft. (average)
Armor Class:-16 (+2 size, +4 Dex), touch 16, flat-footed 12
Base Attack/Grapple:-+1/–11 (+1 when attached)
Attack:-Touch +7 melee (attach)
Full Attack:-Touch +7 melee (attach)
Space/Reach:-2-1/2 ft./0 ft.
Special Attacks:-Attach, blood drain
Special Qualities:-Darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision
Saves:-Fort +2, Ref +6, Will +1
Abilitiestr 3, Dex 19, Con 10, Int 1, Wis 12, Cha 6
Skills:-Hide +14, Listen +4, Spot +4
Feats:-Alertness, Weapon Finesse B
Environment:-Warm marshes
Organization:-Colony (2–4), flock (5–8), or storm (9–14)
Challenge Rating:-1/2
Treasure:-None
Alignment:-Always neutral
Advancement:-—
Level Adjustment:-—
A stirge’s coloration ranges from rust-red to reddish-brown, with a dirty yellow underside. The proboscis is pink at the tip, fading to gray at its base.
A stirge’s body is about 1 foot long, with a wingspan of about 2 feet. It weighs about 1 pound.
COMBAT
A stirge attacks by landing on a victim, finding a vulnerable spot, and plunging its proboscis into the flesh. This is a touch attack and can target only Small or larger creatures.
Attach (Ex): If a stirge hits with a touch attack, it uses its eight pincers to latch onto the opponent’s body. An attached stirge is effectively grappling its prey. The stirge loses its Dexterity bonus to AC and has an AC of 12, but holds on with great tenacity. Stirges have a +12 racial bonus on grapple checks (already figured into the Base Attack/Grapple entry above).
An attached stirge can be struck with a weapon or grappled itself. To remove an attached stirge through grappling, the opponent must achieve a pin against the stirge.
Blood Drain (Ex): A stirge drains blood, dealing 1d4 points of Constitution damage in any round when it begins its turn attached to a victim. Once it has dealt 4 points of Constitution damage, it detaches and flies off to digest the meal. If its victim dies before the stirge’s appetite has been sated, the stirge detaches and seeks a new target.

 

[Prism]

What I have done for my Darksun campaign is to create a sliding temperature scale over the day. I did a bit of internet research to find some realistic temperatures. So 9am to 11am very hot, 11am to 3pm severe heat, 3pm to 5pm very hot or something like that depending on the enviroment - on any given day you can shift the scales up or down somewhat

The party usually carries light tents or finds shade during the midday heat. They split travel into two 4 hour sections, morning and late afternoon. It works out that they make about 4 saves a day. After a few days of this I allowed them to pretty much take 10 on their saves even though this is not normally allowed

If the party gets a guide I'd provide them with various bits of travel advice - if not then let them learn for themselves. Shouldn't take too long to work out the best times to travel. If they insist on traveling at night, unless they all have darkvision I would reduce their movement rate which should be an incentive enough to risk a bit of day time travel - especially when their water begins to run out

 

[green slime]

Umbrellas won't be a big help. Go to your local library and pick up a book on desert survival. Amongst the interesting facts you may find, is that there is a reason the desert nomads of sahara wear full length loose fitting clothing covering the entire body: It creates a microclimate which is cooler than the air outside the clothing. Compared to this effect, waving an umbrella around in the desert is like having a cube of ice in a bush fire. Nice, but no life saver.

Navigation at night in a desert is easy, if you know the basics, and do not have the misfortune to encounter sand storms: There generally isn't much cloud cover to obscure moonlight or the stars.

Mostly, though, if you examine the literature, you'll find that unprepared desert travellers tend to be dead ex-travellers real fast unless they get very lucky.

 

[Gort]

Oh, and make sure you put a penalty in for heavy armour. Those things are like ovens in the desert, as the Crusaders discovered.

 

[Shadeus]

Endure Elements is a first level spell for every spellcaster except bards. It lasts for 24 hours regardless of the caster level.

 

[ptolemy18]

Endure Elements is a first level spell for every spellcaster except bards. It lasts for 24 hours regardless of the caster level.

It does?! Whoa, thanks... I guess I was thinking of 3.0, not 3.5.

Jason