The Frostfell

The cold is a major factor when traveling through high mountain passes, arctic deserts, glacial plains, and frozen wastelands. Characters must contest with harsh temperatures, winter storms, and worse. The following rules will apply to travel in these harsh environments.

Hazards of the Frostfell

Cold Dangers

For game purposes, air temperature falls into one of the following four temperature bands. These ranges describe the conditions whether or not creatures are subject to cold dangers.

Frostfell Temperature Bands

Temperature

Band Save

DC Minimum

Protection Save

Frequency 40°F to 0°F 10 1 1 hour 0°F to -20°F 15 2 1 hour -20°F to -50°F 20 3 1 hour -50°F and below 25 4 10 minutes

Temperatures in these bands can be hazardous to unprepared adventurers. Characters must make a Constitution save against the listed DC every so often, or gain one level of exhaustion.

A character whose cold protection exceeds the minimum protection required gains advantage on their Constitution save. A character whose cold protection does not meet the minimum require has disadvantage on their Constitution save.

Protection against the Cold

A character’s protection against cold dangers is described by his level of protection, which ranges from 0 to 5 or more. To determine your level of protection, determine your base level of protection, then add any modifiers below.

Base Cold Protection

0 Character or creature with no cold adaptations 1 Non-arctic animal with fur 2 Arctic animal with fur 3 Resistance to Cold, endure elements spell.

Cold Protection Modifiers

Characters can protect themselves against the cold by outfitting themselves. Each of the following modifiers provide a +1 to the character’s level of cold protection. A character can benefit from more than one of these modifiers, but each modifier can only be applied once.

Insulated Armor. Armor can be insulated by adding a layer of fur to the armor’s insides. This increases the armor’s weight by 5 pounds for light and medium armors or 10 pounds for heavy armors, and costs half the original price of the armor.

Cold Weather Gear. Cold weather gear consists of a heavy coat, gloves, and a warm hat. Cold weather gear is not an outfit, but can be added onto another outfit. It weighs 3 pounds and costs 5 gold pieces.

Fur Clothing. Fur clothing can be worn in place of a standard outfit. It weighs 4 pounds and costs 10 gold.

Shelter. Characters in a warm tent or other form of temporary shelter are protected against the cold, as well.

Frostbite

Frostbitten extremities become numb and pale as the supply of blood decreases due to cold temperatures. A character whose bare skin is exposed to temperatures below 0°F for more than 10 minutes, or who touches bare metal at those temperatures, must make a Constitution saving throw (DC 10) or suffer the effects of Frostbite.

A character suffering from frostbite has disadvantage on Dexterity saving throws, and their strength is halved for the purpose of determining their encumbrance.

Frostbite lasts up to 24 hours. Repeated exposure to frostbite will also cause the character to suffer levels of exhaustion.

Frostbite can be treated with 8 hours of rest and a successful DC 15 Wisdom (Medicine) check.

Snow Blindness

The sun may not seem so warm, but its brilliant light can burn out the iris even when staring only at the snow. A character who spends at least an hour in a snowfield, ice sheet, glacier, or similar bright terrain on a clear, sunny day without any eye protection (such as a veiol, dark lenses, or similar eye covering) risks suffering snow blindness.

Such characters must succeed on a Constitution saving throw (DC 10) once per hour or become blinded for 1d4 hours, or until 1 hour after they enter a shadowed or enclosed area.