D&D 5E Ways to tackle etherealness

[robus]

So my players are pretty high level and etherealness is an excellent way for them to glide through trouble. They’re going to be riding on a carpeting the next session and will encounter a massive dust storm (like they get in deserts, see Mad Max: Fury Road) and I would like this to be an exciting encounter, but my fear is the cleric will cast etherealness so they avoid it. I guess one answer is to try and make the cleric burn their high level slot before they encounter the storm, but that is quite a gamble. The storm of course could last longer than 8 hours... and then they’d trying to fly through it in the dark...

Wondering if any of you experts had some better ideas?

 

[Stoutstien]

How many encounters do you tend to run per LR?

 

[robus]

The storm is supposed to kick off an adventuring day.

 

[uzirath]

Ah, at their level, this storm is clearly more than meets the eye. While the storm seems mundane enough on the material plane, it is actually bleeding over from a far worse ethereal maelstrom. Perhaps when the characters go ethereal, they are separated rapidly in the chaos. If they re-materialize, they will no longer be on their carpet and will have to spend time and resources regrouping.

Edit: Upon further consideration, if you go this route, you might introduce some clues to the ethereal origin of the storm or even have some sort of action that the party needs to take at the storm's epicenter to stop the interplanar leakage. Something to make it feel less like a "gotcha" trap designed to short-circuit a useful spell.

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[Shiroiken]

Wondering if any of you experts had some better ideas?

Personally, I'd simply allow the group to spend a high level spell slot to avoid the challenge. Assuming they don't have an opportunity to long rest before the rest of the adventure, the cost of the spell slot is perfectly acceptable for such a challenge.

If you HAVE to have the party interact with the storm, I'd make it a magical conjunction between the mortal plane and the elemental chaos. Since the conjunction would take place through the ethereal plane, everything in it would be part of the ethereal plane (the spell wouldn't be cast, unless outside the storm). I'd give indications that the storm is magical/unworldly in nature as the party approaches, giving them options on how to handle it. As for how/why such a storm takes place, that's up to you, but it also doesn't have to be anything to do with the players either.

 

[robus]

I’m also worried the other players are going to start getting annoyed that challenges are too easily circumvented. I.e, only the cleric is getting a chance to shine.

 

[FreeTheSlaves]

Do you have a short table of random ethereal encounters ready?

 

[Lakesidefantasy]

Sounds like you need to have adventures on the ethereal plane. This makes the spell useful in getting the party to the adventure.

 

[NotAYakk]

I am going to frame challenge.

A storm is not a challenge suitable for 15th level characters. 15th level characters are at the cusp of transitioning from paragons to frankly superheroes.

A mundane dust or sand storm is background, texture; not a suitable challenge at this point.

While 5e is much flatter than most previous versions of D&D, the kind of challenges you use need to change as the party gains levels. Some tricks have to fall out of your playbook.

A dragon flying in a continent-scale sandstorm, descending on cities and eroding them to dust? The city of brass hiding in the storm? A series of chaotic portals to other worlds that have unleashed a mixture of blizzards, sandstorms and lightning filled hellscapes?

In every case, the storm is background behind the real threat or problem.