tomas wrote:

Hey folks! I'm looking for suggestions on handling combat while wearing heavy winter gear.

In a nutshell I'm developing an adventure for a convention that takes place in the Gall Hills during the year of the Bear. In other words it's going to be quite cold and the PCs will be travelling via dogsled and encountering things looking to kill them.

Now having worn modern arctic weather gear I know from experience it gets bulky and slows down movement. I imagine the old school solution of layered furs isn't going to be much better. The rules state that encumbered PCs lose -1 to their AC while heavily encumbered lose -2 to their AC. If they wear their armor under the furs I will say that they are heavily encumbered.

So here are my questions:
Would you also add a negative to their attack rolls or is the AC loss sufficient penalty?  I'm thinking the AC penalty is enough though I'm stillthinking about how to handle bows.

Would you give penalties spell casters given their hands are in mittens and they are essentially wearing hide/fur armor? I am leaning towards the spell failure chart and am looking for a sanity check on that idea.

And finally, how would you handle the concept of their cold weather gear getting damaged in combat? After all, a sword is going to shred a fur parka.

Thanks!

My guys spent Nightfall huddled in the hides of winter wolves around a fire they kept alight at all costs. Combat was non existent. One of them ended up finding a Ring of Warmth but even that couldn't keep him alive long...
Cold is death in Hyperborea. The spare times they actually fought I gave them half-movement & half-attacks encumbered or not. I say add negative to hits and the ac penalty. I think the mittens could be pulled off easily but spell check for mental alertness is in order for sure.

tomas wrote:

Hey folks! I'm looking for suggestions on handling combat while wearing heavy winter gear.

In a nutshell I'm developing an adventure for a convention that takes place in the Gall Hills during the year of the Bear. In other words it's going to be quite cold and the PCs will be travelling via dogsled and encountering things looking to kill them.

Now having worn modern arctic weather gear I know from experience it gets bulky and slows down movement. I imagine the old school solution of layered furs isn't going to be much better. The rules state that encumbered PCs lose -1 to their AC while heavily encumbered lose -2 to their AC. If they wear their armor under the furs I will say that they are heavily encumbered.

So here are my questions:
Would you also add a negative to their attack rolls or is the AC loss sufficient penalty?  I'm thinking the AC penalty is enough though I'm stillthinking about how to handle bows.

Would you give penalties spell casters given their hands are in mittens and they are essentially wearing hide/fur armor? I am leaning towards the spell failure chart and am looking for a sanity check on that idea.

And finally, how would you handle the concept of their cold weather gear getting damaged in combat? After all, a sword is going to shred a fur parka.

Thanks!

Another way would be to assess a hit point penalty. The cold would wear down even the greatest of heroes after a while with helpless npc's dying.  This could be 1d6 per hour with appropriate winter gear providing 2DR against cold adding a fire+1 DR.  Eventually lack of shelter would kill.

Just a thought.