Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Greenfield" data-source="post: 6102209" data-attributes="member: 6669384">Find the Path is a nice spell, but I'm not sure how it works when the goal is unknown or uncertain.  As in, "The way to the water hole" could be pointing to any water hole anywhere in the world.  And "The nearest/next water hole" would be a real problem, in my humble opinion.  It will either point the to the place they just left (nearest) or it will need to know which direction they intend to take.  Plus, the place they're looking for is identified by an Artifact, so even if the spell could reliably focus in on an object, I'm not sure how it would lock onto that class of object.  (They're seeking the lost Chariot of Helios, which legend says created the Sahara in its final flight.)As for covering a hundred miles a day?  Try 10 to 15.  Difficult terrain (sandy desert) without roads or trails is 1/2 movement, and using camels (30 foot base movement) sets a standard at 24 miles a day before you count terrain penalties.  Now camels don't normally suffer the half speed penalty in sand, but these are pulling a rather heavily loaded cart (yes, they did that, stop laughing...) and several party members are on foot, as is their guide.They've already discovered the tactical disadvantages:  You can't 5-foot-step to avoid AoO in difficult terrain (and sand certainly counts).  They're now discovering the strategic penalties as well.Teleport and it's ilk are not used in our game.  Wind Walk would be their salvation, but they've never used it and I think they've forgotten about it.  Besides, it won't take their draft animals which they need, for a variety of reasons.  Shadow Walk would also work, though you can't really see where you're going, and thus can't really find what you're looking for if you don't know where it is.  As for landmarks:  They're in the Sahara, literally.  The western end of what we'd know as Moravia (Morovia?), and heading east.  They're entering the largest stretch of featureless sand in the world, and they chose the route that left them with the longest overland route possible:  They landed their ship at the westernmost point on the hip of Africa (don't ask me why).  So "high enough to spot landmarks" may strongly resemble a low orbit.The adversary, of course, can Scry them more or less at will.  The PCs have a good Save, but one of the PCs has an exceptional mount, a relatively unique animal, and his Will Save isn't that formidable.  They can just look for that horse, and they're there.So, for better or for worse they've placed themselves in the worst possible situation, and are approaching it by the worst possible route.  They only bought a map of the known routes (which they're off of) as a last minute afterthought, after much prodding by the DM.  They also refused to pay the only man whose ever been where they're going for the information he might have been able to share.Now the good news is that I can place their goal as near or as far from them as I like.  I can also speed-travel them:  "After two weeks of slow slogging, you reach..." kind of thing.  So months in the desert can be reduced to minutes at the table.Still, they are going to end up depending heavily on their Ranger/Druid to get through this.</blockquote>

Verification