Aquatic | Arctic | Cave or Underground | Desert | Forest | Grassland | Jungle | Mountain | Swamp Are your adventurers freezing to death on their way to a frozen temple? Did your party just escape a prison to find out there is nothing but snow and ice in every direction? Let us do the work for you. My players just entered the lair of a white dragon after exploring the frigid Winterbole forest surrounding her lair. I needed to throw some monsters and hazards at my players to demonstrate how harsh the environment created by the white dragon is. This article provides some ideas for using monsters and handling survival in an arctic environment. I thought I’d share some ideas on how to use stuff found in the official books and some of my own homebrew creations I have thrown at my players. Monsters Drake Challenge Rating: 2 to 7 I’m talking about draconic drakes here, not the high level bard from the northern wastelands of Toronto, Canada. I like how drakes fit into the world of D&D as simple, draconic guard dogs. When trained, chromatic drakes serve as effective guards for NPCs. When found in the wild, they can provide a tough encounter that matches up with the wilderness environment. I think drakes work especially well as thematic minions found in the region controlled by their dragon master. In my current campaign, an ancient white dragon has created many drakes to patrol and hide around her lair, ready for my PCs to stumble into. A white guard drake (see Volo p.158), created using the variant rules gains cold resistance and a climbing/burrowing speed and provides a CR 2 challenge and is a great fit for the arctic. For a tougher challenge, have your PCs encounter a single coldscale drake or a deadly group. To create the coldscale drake, I looked at the stats for this monster found in 4th edition’s Monster Vault: Threats to the Nentir Vale. My current party is level 14, so this coldscale drake works out to be a little tougher than a young white dragon, but could easily be scaled down for a lower level party. COLDSCALE DRAKE Medium dragon, unaligned Armor Class 17 (natural armor) Hit Points 135 (15d10+45) Speed 40 ft., burrow 20 ft., swim 40 ft. STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA 18 (+4) 12 (+1) 16 (+3) 4 (-3) 10 (+0) 8 (-1) Skills Perception +2 Damage Resistances cold Senses blindsight 60 ft., darkvision 120 ft, Passive Perception 12 Languages understands draconic Challenge 7 (2900 XP) Pounce. If the drake moves at least 20 feet straight toward a creature and then hits it with a claw attack on the same turn, that target must succeed on a DC 16 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone. If the target is prone, the drake can make one bite attack against it as a bonus action. False Appearance. While a coldscale drake is in an icy or snowy terrain and remains motionless, it is indistinguishable from the snow and ice surrounding it. Ice Walk. The drake can move across and climb icy surfaces without needing to make an ability check. Additionally, difficult terrain composed of ice or snow doesn’t cost it extra moment. Actions: Multiattack. The coldscale drake makes three attacks: once with its bite and twice with its claws Bite. Melee Weapon Attack +8 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 13 (2d8 + 4) piercing damage. Claw. Melee Weapon Attack +8 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d6 + 4) slashing damage. Ice Spit. A creature within 30 feet must make a DC15 Dexterity saving throw or take 14 (4d6) cold damage, half damage on a successful save. Ice Golem Challenge Rating: 10 Golems are powerful automatons created by magic or elemental forces. To create a golem from the ice, simply take the Stone Golem (MM p.170) and tweak it to be ice themed. I think the changes below aren’t too major and it still works as a CR10 monster. For my ice golem I used the stone golem stats and: added cold damage immunity and fire damage vulnerability removed Slow and added Icy Death and Frozen Aura Frozen Aura. Intense cold radiates from the golem in an aura with a 20-foot radius. A creature that starts its turn in that area takes 3 (1d6) cold damage. Additionally, the ground in the area is covered with slick ice, making it difficult terrain. When a creature enters the area for the first time or a turn or starts its turn there, it must succeed on a DC 12 Dexterity saving throw or fall prone. Icy Death. When the golem is reduced to 0 hit points, it shatters in an explosion of jagged ice. Each creature within 10 feet of it must make a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw, taking 10 (3d6) piercing damage and 10 (3d6) cold damage on a failed save, or half as much on a successful one. Druid Challenge Rating: 2 The harsh arctic environment can kill a person in hours. Druids (NPC from Monster Manual page 346, not the Class from Player’s Handbook), that choose this freezing environment to protect and draw their power from, are not foes to be taken lightly. A druid, could just as easily be turned into an ally if your adventurers were able to help defeat a threat to the arctic (please not an evil wizard melting the ice caps). Treant Challenge Rating: 9 These awakened trees are most likely found in ancient and magical forests, but you could place them in a subarctic boreal forest, a thin evergreen forest found far to the north, or high on the side of a mountain. Adventurers should be careful not to cross these guardians who can call on the forest itself to ensnare and attack enemies. With some careful diplomacy from your party’s druid or ranger, the treants could become a powerful ally to battle against an enemy who […]
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