AND it should provide backrubs to DMs....
That's what players are for!
No, but seriously, I've been thinking about this. Look at the Hazards in
Tome of Horror. These are non-creatures/terrain features with CRs. Most of them are basically "Anything within 30' must Save or be affected by effect."
CR 1/4 - DC 15 Save, 1d6 damage, once, targets single square
CR 1 - DC 15 Save, 2d6 damage, once, targets single square
CR 2 - DC 15 Save, 3d6 damage, once, targets single square
CR 2 - DC 12 Save, sleep effect, delayed suffocation effect, continuous, 10' radius
CR 3 - DC 15 Save, fear effect (1d6 rounds), continuous, 30' radius
CR 5 - object contact, DC 15 Spot or 4d6 hour delay then 2d6 CON damage/round til dead
CR 6 - Spot DC 25, Poison DC 15 Save 2d6 Con/2d6 Con, rise as vegepygmy
Then look at the DMG, which rates Cave-Ins as a CR 8 challenge.
Under collapsed area: 8d6 damage, DC 15 Reflex for half, character is buried.
In slide zone: 3d6 damage, DC 15 Reflex for none, failed save means character is buried.
buried: 1d6 nonlethal/minute til unconscious, then DC 15 Con check or 1d6/minute til dead
There ought to be some sort of discernible pattern to all this nonsense that could be used to generate CRs for terrain effects -- which really just amount to skill checks, saves, and penalizing effects -- which could then be used in Wulf's system.
Under the original 3.5 system, it's hard to take a terrain effect like slippery ice into account in a battle between several adventurers of mixed levels, and several creatures, especially when the terrain effect is CR 2 and the creatures are (4, 7, 8) while the players are (5, 7, 7, 9). Wulf's system could account for it easily.
