I ran this for my group yesterday and it was a lot of fun. There definitely was a looming sense of risking death climbing up so high on an exposed cliff. The 3-hour clock before the hard rains hit was effective at driving them forward, though it only took them 2 hours, so perhaps the window was too large. It took roughly 2 hours real time too. Also, the threat – while real in the players' minds – ended up being an illusion of threat, and the illusion gradually was revealed over the course of the challenge. Definitely could have incorporated more exhaustion to make players debate how long they should rest in Kir Sabal, but disadvantage on all checks would have been extremely punitive for this check-heavy challenge... I didn't find that happy medium
I created...well...started to create a d12 table of complications based on the DW advice from [MENTION=6696971]Manbearcat[/MENTION] which I had a different player roll when a check failed, when they dawdled, or when a golden opportunity presented itself.
At one point the lizardfolk rogue PC used his
cape of the mountebank to reactively teleport to a fall, teleporting all the way up at the elder's house where he tried to petition the aarakocra saint, but couldn't reach her without a possible fight. Instead he learned that the aarakocra viewed this as a test of character, and so he rushed down through the whole monastery, skittering about like a gecko on all fours causing mayhem (I'd narrated that many aarakocra regarded lizardfolk as "egg thieves"). Much hilarity ensued.
The funniest part was when the grung druid PC started conjuring animals in the hopes of gaining giant eagles who could fly the party up. Of course, the way
conjure animals works is the player selects the CR and #, then the DM chooses the animals (from those in the current environment). I rolled summons for "cliff" deinonychus and serpopards, neither of which could fly, and so these poor critters plummeted over the edge of the cliff. This was noticed by Asharra, the aarakocra saint, who took a dim view on the local spirits being abused in this way, and once the party finished the climb, she asked for the offender to step forward...
Now, the grung druid PC previously rescued a blue grung from captivity, and so the PC asked this blue grung artisan (who only spoke Grung) to step forward. Asharra promptly launched the "offender" off the edge of the cliff with a
gust of wind...the shock on the players faces was classic...fortunately, since the aarakocra aren't evil, instead of death, the blue grung NPC was tossed about by young aarakocra who'd grab his belt or other bits of clothing and played aerial catch with him some 500 feet up for a solid 20 minutes. The grung druid PC's player was quite conflicted, but everyone had a good chuckle.
I would have armored people automatically take a level of exhaustion due to the heavy and difficult experience of climbing up in metal. I would do that for no reason other than allowing the players to think about what they want to do regarding removing their armor.
Only one PC – their player couldn't make the session – wore medium/heavy armor. Everyone else wears no armor or light armor. I would have called for a save vs. exhaustion for his player if he were present. Without his presence, I didn't remember to have someone roll for it.
They have no idea there will be no combat, and the decision making will be something to entertain them as they debate what to do.
They definitely were thinking that way, not knowing what to expect during the climb or once they reached Kir Sabal.
I would give the rogues advantage on their checks just to make him feel good and that would reflect his life spent scaling and climbing.
His climb speed – he's playing a variant lizardfolk – was plenty advantageous. To force him (and the grung druid PC) to rely on something other than "I climb", I had sections of walkway be offset from the cliff face, and I also had sections with flaking stone that required a DC 12 Dexterity save to climb across without causing the stone to flake off.
I might even take away the choice they have for failing a check. It isn't human nature to voluntarily fall 30 feet because you know a cleric can cure you.
Yeah, I really overlooked this. Twice, when they realized the fall was only 30 feet, the players sort of shrugged. I had further complications up my sleeve, so I was able to added twists when that happened (and I remembered to!), however it definitely dispelled the illusion of threat.
People will hang on, so I would make the level of exhaustion auto on the first two fails, and then a strength check on the final one, passing means you hang on and take another level of exhaustion, failing means you fall down for damage and now have to start again while exhausted. It becomes a puzzle moreso than just a string of rolls. How will they get to the top?
It definitely played out as a sort of strategic "puzzle" you could say. I agree, I should have leaned harder on the exhaustion... I forget that the bard and druid have ways to counteract disadvantage. All in all, it played out good but not great. Definitely learned how I'd improve it next time.