Annoying. It's usually not worth interrupting combat every round to make saves and roll damage against random explosions that ultimately don't add anything. Not to say that it couldn't be tweaked to work, probably, but I tend to view stuff like this as unnecessary and tedious.
Why is the stuff randomly falling? Is there a way to warn people before it hits so they can move out of the way? How often and how much of the battlefield?
It could be ok, but needs to be handled carefully or it could easily get annoying.
I agree with the previous posts. High potential for annoying, and limited potential for fun.
I'd say it would be better to look at the idea of terrain alterations due to environmental effects, rather than random saves versus damage. Sudden alterations to terrain would require some tactical adjustment and reward good thinking by the PCs, whereas random damage just seems arbitrary.
So maybe falling fire destroys buildings or creates areas of difficult terrain. Or perhaps it places innocents in danger, putting the PCs in a quandary of how (or whether) to help them, while still progressing the battle against the enemy.
If you want to have it do damage, maybe have it strike a group of enemy or friendly combatants -- but ensure it is planned, rather than random, and that it doesn't materially change the outcome (in other words, it is meant to be a cinematic event, rather than an actual combat variable).
RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32
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So I was thinking of an epic battle for an upcoming game that I am DMing and it involves giant balls of fire falling from the sky and blowing up everything around the battlefield. So here is my question, if random stuff falls from the sky and hits stuff at random, potentially hitting people and damaging them, is that cool or annoying?
Random effects are mostly annoying.
Effects that you can see coming (and can tactically respond to) are pretty cool.
So for example, at the beginning of the round, put a marker on the map and say there's a ball of fire up in the sky above that point. The beginning of the next round, it blows up for heavy damage, and you put a new marker some place else. This gives the characters one round to either get out of there, or push enemies in, or stunlock enemies who are in the area.
I'm mostly wondering why "giant balls of fire." Is there a deity involved? A volcano? A caster, or rather, opposing casters?
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I like TSR's ideas. Instead of truly random effects, do something more scripted but cinematic. It can still be damage, but do other stuff with it. Falling buildings, deafening explosions, temporarily blinding (or dazzling) flashes, and the like. And hit both sides. Make it obvious that the enemies are affected as much or more than the allies.
I'd suggest it sounds a bit annoying.
Might be more interesting if you make the damage more significant but give people a turn to get out of the way. Suddenly people will be trying to bulrushes enemies into the line of fire or moving rather than trading blows.
Then the deity should have better aim. Either at the forces arrayed against them or at them & any allies, depending. Just my 2 cp.
You know, my big comment on "improvements" in Microsoft products for years now has been, "Don't help me, Bill." (Never mind that he's been gone for the most egregious examples.) I can just imagine being an ordinary soldier in that battle and thinking something similar.
{Nonetheless, I hope you and your players have a great time!}
I think it is pretty cool, though I can see getting struck by something random would be annoying, since it is totally out of your control.
I am with the general consensus so far: I'd likely find this annoying as a player. Random saves for things that are totally outside of a my control are not fun, especially when they are a secondary or tertiary effect. Even 1d6 of fire damage can kill you if you have only 1d6 HP left, and regardless, 1d6 here and 1d6 there adds up.
I don't think the idea is bad in general, you just have to stay focused on the goal that it's a game and the intent is for players to be challenged while still have fun. If there's a way to make this cool enough, interesting enough, and fun enough that it is worth the risk, then you are on to something. If it's just "randomly roll to avoid getting hit" for its own sake, then that's arguably not enough.
I think it sounds fine. Fighting near an erupting volcano or whatever.
Just figure out, does it help the enemy or equally hurt everyone? If it helps the enemy then up the enemy CR by 1 for favorable terrain. If it's just there then have the players deal with it for a fight. I think it would be cool if it was set up right and maybe if you mentioned that you're fighting near a volatile volcano/ whatever is going to happen so they might think to have resist energy or protection from energy up.
I think it sounds fun. Probably don't want to make this the sort of thing that's happening all the time, but if you're fighting near an errupting volcano or nearby a tear in the very fabric of reality, I'd want to express the resulting danger through some way other than saying "it's dangerous" over and over again.
Fighting nearby the errupting volcano is perhaps less fun than fighting nearby a tear in the very fabric of reality, since volcanos don't really do things to help you, whereas "primal chaos spilling into the world" might help or hurt you.
What I'd suggest is making a table where some of the outcomes are good, and some of the outcomes are bad, and some are neither (maybe 1/3 of each) and show it to the players and roll against it every once in a while. That way there's something to hope for and something to dread.