Sandstorm - beautifully illustrated?

[Spatula]

Towards the end of last year, I ran a D&D 3.5E session in a desert using the environmental rules in the 3.5E DMG.

The same rules where you have to make Con checks every hour or take damage when the temperature reaches 70 degrees F, and every minute when the temp reaches 90?

I'm not sure how one could actually run a game in a desert setting using those rules. "Everyone dies of heat exhaustion - The End." Or how having each PC roll a d20 for every minute of game time lends itself to playing the game.

I always figured the DMG rules assumed an environment where the humidity was relatively high. The numbers don't really work for arid regions like deserts.

 

[MerricB]

The same rules where you have to make Con checks every hour or take damage when the temperature reaches 70 degrees F, and every minute when the temp reaches 90?

Heh.

You have the numbers wrong.

From the SRD:

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).

Cheers!

 

[MrFilthyIke]

I don't know about deserts, but in Florida if its over 90F it gets very Hades-esque.

You can wear heavy clothing, but I can see the damage every hour. 110F? If
that happens in Florida I do not leave my lovely, lovely AC.

 

[ruleslawyer]

I hope they'll be worth buying instead of downloading. The punishment for letting out crappy products.

I still cant't get over the fact that at WotC they got the NERVE to think about let alone actually publish PrC's such as in Serpent Kingdoms and 70% from the Planar Handbook.

Are you really bothered by the (how many? 5?) PrCs that take up a grand total of 10 pages in SK? I was thrilled with how rules-light that book was, actually.

 

[MerricB]

I don't know about deserts, but in Florida if its over 90F it gets very Hades-esque.

You can wear heavy clothing, but I can see the damage every hour. 110F? If
that happens in Florida I do not leave my lovely, lovely AC.

I can tell it's a D&D thread... I read "AC" as "Armour Class". Oops.

Yes, on the really hot days here in Australia I drink a lot and don't move much. And I'm in the south of Australia, where it doesn't get that hot. (Only a few days each year around 100F - well, 36 or 37 Celsius to me.

Cheers!

 

[LostSoul]

You can wear heavy clothing, but I can see the damage every hour. 110F? If that happens in Florida I do not leave my lovely, lovely AC.

Wouldn't it make more sense to take off that +5 full plate when it's 110 out? Your AC might not be so lovely, but hey...

 

[MrFilthyIke]

I can tell it's a D&D thread... I read "AC" as "Armour Class". Oops.

Yes, on the really hot days here in Australia I drink a lot and don't move much. And I'm in the south of Australia, where it doesn't get that hot. (Only a few days each year around 100F - well, 36 or 37 Celsius to me.

Cheers!

Bah, I'm surrounded by D&D geeks! Oh yeah, I'm one as well, I suppose.

I'd drink alot too in Oz, but that's because who'd want to be sober? *drum roll*

Florida is very similar to your Queensland areas, Cairns and those places.
Even the pictures from my mother-in-law from Queensland look like they were taken in Florida.

 

[Saeviomagy]

Wouldn't it make more sense to take off that +5 full plate when it's 110 out? Your AC might not be so lovely, but hey...

Yeah, but doing so only gets you a minor bonus.

That's the problem with the environmental rules : doing the right thing gets you (basically) no reprieve. You die anyway.

 

[MrFilthyIke]

That's the problem with the environmental rules : doing the right thing gets you (basically) no reprieve. You die anyway.

I'm sure that is the intent of these books, to expand or clarify, tis the way of game publishing.

 

[James Heard]

I don't know about deserts, but in Florida if its over 90F it gets very Hades-esque.

You can wear heavy clothing, but I can see the damage every hour. 110F? If
that happens in Florida I do not leave my lovely, lovely AC.

Weird, also living in Florida I don't normally consider it to be 'very hot' UNTIL it's very nearly 100 degrees outside. And when I living in Hawaii it never got hot at all, no matter what temperature it was...Of course, to be fair I start shrinking from cold at 65 degrees.

When my players and I looked at the heat rules in the DMG we all just sort of got a 'you've got to be kidding' look on our faces. More proof that I am at least 10th level I suppose DC15? Feh, no problem...