Can someone explain weather events?

[demlin]

Ran one today:

* Party almost TPKed to a Wildfire (Hazard 4) at level 1 and the events technically go up to lv 5?!

* How does sheltering work? Does every player need to beat that Survival DC? Or just one. Because if everyone does, then it basically is going to kill PCs not speccing into Survival.

* If you don't manage to beat the DC, you suffer the effects for being unsheltered. On a continuous event, can you treat wounds in between rounds of damage? What happens when you drop to 0hp? Do you stabilize between rounds of damage? or does each additional round require that reflex save and accrue dying points? Can you retry to find shelter in between rounds?

[Sibelius Eos Owm]

I can't answer questions about sheltering right now, but it seems to be a 4th level Hazard almost TPKing 1st level adventurers is working as intended. For comparison, if an owlbear (Creature 4) attacked the same party, I would expect a high likelihood of TPK without extenuating circumstances.

Whether a party of level 1 adventurers should encounter a 4th level Hazard is a different question, and I probably wouldn't personally let that happen without mitigating it in some way so that they can learn to respect what kinds of threats are out there without being automatically wiped by bad luck.

[Dimity]

I roll all my weather events ahead of time, so I have a calendar with the expected weather for each day all planned out. If a weather event that is beyond the party's ability to handle is expected, I will give them advance notice; for example, "the ground here is very dry and covered in kindling -- you expect that a wildfire could break out at any time. How would you prepare for that?"

That way they have a chance to prepare and it doesn't feel like a "surprise! You're dead!" scenario.

[demlin]

Dimity wrote:

I will give them advance notice; for example, "the ground here is very dry and covered in kindling -- you expect that a wildfire could break out at any time. How would you prepare for that?"

That way they have a chance to prepare and it doesn't feel like a "surprise! You're dead!" scenario.

I mean yeah, that's what happens RAW if you beat the Survival/Perception check. Which for a lv 4 or 5 event, you very likely won't.

The owlbear example fits, but RAW this one throws even Trolls at you at level 1.

Anyways, those things are easy to solve by changing RAW to APL+2 instead of APL+4. The thing that really confuses me still is sheltering and what the party can do during a continuous event.