D&D (2024) Should the environmental conditions scale by tier?

[W'rkncacnter]

well...no. that's more then a tad silly.

unless, of course, there's something CAUSING those storms to get more dangerous, and you use that as a plot hook for the players to investigate, or something along those lines. but then it's not JUST "storm more dangerous because tier 2".

 

[Zardnaar]

Maybe but try to do it consistently vs just because.

 

[CreamCloud0]

there should be different tiers of environmental conditions, but they shouldn't be dependant on player tier.

 

[Tonguez]

I've used floods and hurricanes in games pitched at parties of different levels. For lower levels the PCs had to help with evacuation and getting the towns folk into a safe zone while the streets were flooding and the worst of the winds were about to sweep through town.

a high level party decided to fly directly into the hurricane and attempt to use weather control to divert it away from the city - only to discover that the hurricane was being caused by a Typhoon dragon
so yeah it ramped up for them

 

[S'mon]

Adventures can of course scale by PC tier. Even then it is good to run lower level stuff with high level PCs now and then so they get a sense of progression. In my Loudwater 4e campaign the threats did scale up while the PCs remained more or less at the same location level 1-30, but while you can have a campaign arc like that it's often better to have higher level threats further away and have the PCs travel, perhaps returning now and then to their original home.

 

[aco175]

It feels like these should be neutral to the level of the PCs, but on the other hand there are no more goblins once the PCs reach level 7 and only giants start appearing until level 11 when the giants disappear and are replaced by dragons. The other parts of the system are not that believable.

 

[Guest 7037866]

Let's say you started play in a realm where there are tornadoes or hailstorms. Your characters level up to 5th level.
Do those weather conditions get more severe because the group is now Tier 2?

What would that mean for the town or village where they are?

Would your heroes help the commoners who are now in more danger because of them?

Like many people, no.

If the PCs move into a new region with worse weather then fine, of course, and the PCs will likely help whoever lives there. But if you are talking the same area? No.

Of course there is also the issue of "this is part of the story arc" where the PCs have to find out why weather is getting more severe and how to stop it. Perhaps a god of weather feels affronted and is causing havoc?

I don't scale anything by PC level. Not random encounters, nothing. The game world is the game world and that is all. Certain areas are more dangerous, of course and when the PCs venture there they get caught up in more dangerous adventures. If they go there too soon, they'll die probably. And they can always grab a "easy adventure" hook for going against lower-threats.

 

[Tessarael]

Another good way to scale things is on the time scale. Time passes because little of much threat happens. Story time slows down when the big things happen, when the high level characters need to bring out the big guns.

Look at it like earth quakes or weather events. Lots of minor things at the local scale (earthquakes of ~2 happen every day in a fault zone), occasional ones that shake (earthquake of ~4), and then things get really scary with the once a decade 5 or 6. As a DM, you can say time passes with the group narrating easily overcoming small challenges at high levels. Then zoom in on the real epic events where it is a challenge, and they can shine at high levels.

 

[Reynard]

No.

however, let's examine what that might actually look like. Just for funsies.

So, first we need to understand why this happens, in the fiction of the game world. Because it is happening due to the PCs leveling up, let's make that the reason in the fiction too. That means that leveling up is a thing that happens in the fiction --- which itself presents all kinds of interesting situations and stories.

Anyway, the PCs have leveled up and the world responds by getting more dangerous, at least where the PCs reside. Regular thunderstorms are replaced by Mana Blizzards and whatnot. The farmers and stuff that live in the area suddenly have to deal with deadly environmental effects -- and they know exactly why. Higher level or not, the PCs are now on the bad side of the local population. "Adventurers bring trouble" is brought to a whole new level. The farmers can't run the PCs out of town, but the local lord might be able to. Or, more likely, send the PCs off on a long question to get them out of town for a while, at least.

Now the question is: does this heightening of the world's dangers follow the PCs? If the random encounter/event chart scales, then it makes sense that int he fiction it does. There is a bubble effect around the PCs, warping reality and bringing trouble with them. Villages along their path can feel their passing, as the occasional raiding wolf is replaced by dire worg packs, etc.

I rather think this would be an interesting and fun sort of world to play in.

 

[Burnside]

Level Up: A5E handles this well in that the regions themselves have tiers. A particular region that is Tier 1 won't suddenly become more dangerous just because the players reach level 5, but level 5-11 characters will often find that their adventures take them into more dangerous, Tier 2 regions.