Ey guys! Question for all of you. I can't seem to find anything on the sort in the rules anywhere, even though it makes a ton of sense to ask this question in this particular campaign.
During the various points of heavy snow in the campaign, it might be prudent for the players to make a campfire to stave off the cold. How long would it take to gather the necessary materials (Assuming the players did not bring firewood of their own) and what would the Survival skillcheck be to get it up and running?
As far as the getting it lit, would Burning Hands work even better and negate a survival check?
I'm running a playtest of the first part of the campaign and my Test PCs are dying of Hypothermia, with one of them on the brink of unconsciousness, thus me bringing up this question.
Here are my thoughts, and probably how I'll run it if I don't get any input from you guys:
Normally, lighting a campfire in normal conditions with a flint and steel is a DC 5 Survival check, taking 1 minute. Anyone with half a brain can figure it out, and it doesn't take long at all. Without flint and steel and other tools, its a DC 12 Survival check, taking 1d3x10 Minutes Still easy and doable, but takes longer. In wintry conditions, however, the DCs of both go up by 10, making these considerably harder, due to the conditions and that the wood will be a bit damp. Should they bring their own firewood, the DC only increases by 5. Tools such as Bellows may help in this regard. The DC remains the same for tindertwigs, and using a flask of oil or other flammable substance grants a +5 to this check.
Gathering firewood in normal, forested conditions is a DC 10 Survival check that takes 15 minutes, divided by the number of players who make that check. In these wintry conditions, due to the heavy snow, the time is quadrupled (1 hour) due to the difficulty of moving around and finding good wood. The DC increases by 5 to 15. The time is still divided by the number of players who succeed on this check.
Basically a rough idea of how it'll work, its not set in stone and there might be better ways. Fire spells (Spark, Burning Hands, etc), take as long it takes to cast the spell. In these cases, the campfire is considered and unattended object and catches fire immediately, provided the spell can catch things on fire.
Thus making Spark one of your best friends in this campaign, heh. Too bad my Test PCs don't have it - but they do have Burning Hands.