D&D 5E Ways to tackle etherealness

[doctorbadwolf]

Thanks for the ideas folks, the party is already on an adventure to retrieve a mcguffin so I’m not interested in starting a whole new threat, just trying to throw some obstacles in their path so that the journey is memorable and challenging. The storm is not intended to be the entire adventuring day but a reason to seek shelter in an ancient temple that provides its own set of challenges.

I like the multi-planar storm and perhaps that’s a hook for some follow on adventure? But the players are at level 20, so I’m looking to wrap things up with this final adventure

Let a successful arcana or religion check to examine this weird sandstorm with purple and blue lighting crackling through it reveal that if they don't seek shelter it will drain some of their magical power, possibly destroying magical items or at least draining their charges.
If you have a crafter in the group, let them collect some of the dust if they want, and craft something cool like a weapon that drains magic or whatever.

 

[Celebrim]

Sure I'm not the director of the movie, but I am the one that's supposed to make things interesting by throwing obstacles to their goals in their path. With Etherealness they can just glide through most obstacles for 8 hrs a day and arrive at their destination entirely bored. I'm trying to provide some fun and Etherealness majorly messes with the fun the other players might have with tackling encounters.

Yeah, but typically with D&D's zero to demigod model, there are only certain levels or tiers of play where you can reasonably or reliably challenge a PC party with certain sorts of obstacles. Beyond certain levels of power, mundane obstacles that were once a staple of play cease to be much more than annoyance.

So if you want to do a reasonable 'cast away' scenario, probably better get it in before 5th level. If you want to do a wilderness journey, probably better get it in before 10th level.

Before 5th level, a sandstorm is potentially deadly. Before 10th level, a sandstorm is a complication. After that, it's mostly a nuisance. You should at this point be expecting them to be entirely bored by heat waves, sand storms, and the possibility of thirst. Those threats have been left far behind. Journeying across a desert is barely more exciting than a car ride to them: "Are we there yet?" Of course, if my party tried to hop off the the ethereal in order to avoid entirely mundane encounters like a sandstorm, they would be doing it wrong. The ethereal is much more dangerous than a sand storm.

 

[robus]

Of course, if my party tried to hop off the the ethereal in order to avoid entirely mundane encounters like a sandstorm, they would be doing it wrong. The ethereal is much more dangerous than a sand storm.

Quite possibly hung by my own petard there as I've not established that the Ethereal plane is generally dangerous. Probably should have had some cost come to the cleric whenever she casts it (possibility of possession by some Ethereal demi-god perhaps?) Well these are all good lessons for next time I ever get a group up this high again.

This group loves exploration though so just getting through things is not high on their list, but the cleric does like to break out etherealness now and again. If it didn't last 8 blooming hours it would help a lot! 1 hour of Etherealness seems like more than enough for anyone!

 

[Celebrim]

Quite possibly hung by my own petard there as I've not established that the Ethereal plane is generally dangerous.

Yeah, I don't do high level play often either, but my general plan has always been that if the PC's hit 15th level or so, then they are past the point where things are happening on the material that will routinely challenge them (as a group). Characters of that level are global legends that are generally only challenged by once a decade type events, and they can quietly retire to their mighty fortresses, take up politics, solo adventure, or head off into the larger multiverse to find challenges worthy of them.

 

[uzirath]

They're about to enter a long journey through some caverns following an ancient (and long unused) pilgrimage path. This pathway will be very dark and poorly marked. My idea is that if they attempt to navigate it while ethereal they will most likely lose their way and waste days trying to find their way back to the path and encounter nasties on the way (there is a clock on their mission).

I've already ruled that etherealness and darkness reduces visibility to 30 ft so if the sporadic way point markers are 100ft apart it would really make it hard to navigate while ethereal...

The idea of limited visibility seems viable to me. They will quickly realize that it will be slow work to zig-zag back and forth. If it feels too harsh to just nix the idea, you could have a die roll of some sort that allows them to bypass one or two markers in a reasonable time. You could insert an ethereal wandering encounter too. This will make them feel like they accomplished something without erasing the challenge.