Give me 12 Fort. saves, please

[Koujow]

I seek your wisdom. Tomorrow, I will begin running Mummy's Mask (excited, woo) and I am trying to figure out the best way to handle the rules for extreme heat. Extreme temperatures are not something that often come up at my games (IDK, I guess all of our games take place in midspring or something), so I don't actually have a lot of experience with them.

The rules for heat are a character has to make a fort save (DC 15, +1 per previous check) every hour (every 10 minutes for extreme, extreme heat). While a character won't need to make checks while exploring ruins or the like, what about when the PCs are out and about? OR (GM only spoiler)

Spoiler:

When the PCs begin Hex exploration in the desert?

Do I/Should I have them make Fort saves every hour? What if a PC is outside all day? Should I have them make a 12 Fort. saves a day until they finally roll low and start to suffer from heat exhaustion? Of course, this is assuming the players don't have access to Endure Elements or the like (we will actually be building PCs tomorrow and playing if time remains afterwards, so I won't know until then) but for the sake of argument, lets pretend my group builds 5 fighters (all in heavy, plate mail, just so they can suffer that -4 to their Fort save against heat exhaustion). What should I do?

[archmagi1]

If your group builds 4 fighters, they're gonna have a lot more problems than heat in the desert which doesn't come into play until level 8ish at the earliest (2nd half of book 3). I don't have my pdf in front of me for specifics, but by that level, the group should have the resources to hand wave most if not all environmental effects.

[Orfamay Quest]

Yes, they need to make saves. A suitable Survival roll or specialized clothing will grant them bonuses on the check. An endure elements spell will eliminate the check altogether.

Or they could be sensible and do their heavy activity at morning, evening, or night, as most desert-dwelling creatures, including humans, do. Stay in the shade during the hottest part of day. Pitch a tent at 9am, sleep until 5, and then go exploring all night.

[Caderyn]

The party should have no need to make saves by the time they reach that section of the books, which is kind of disappointing as it generally means the environmental dangers dont actually have any effect on the party, environmental effects are designed for parties less than level 5 after that level they have enough resources to bypass the effects.

[Demiurge 1138]

Siestas are a thing for a reason. At low levels exploring in Wati, if they're trekking around and fighting in the mid-day sun on the streets of the necropolis, have them make saves. If they stick to trekking to the ruins during early morning and do their underground exploration during the day, they should be alright.

[bulbaquil]

You could also start the campaign during the wintertime - while it won't be cold, it also won't be particularly hot.

[Windspirit]

bulbaquil wrote:

You could also start the campaign during the wintertime - while it won't be cold, it also won't be particularly hot.

See my post about Wati weather forecast....