I don’t know where you live, but it’s been cold here on the East Coast the past few days, and it got me thinking: evil mercenaries, stirges, and a young white dragon aren’t the only things characters should concern themselves with on a visit to Icespire Hold.

There’s also the temperatures!

Temperature. The temperature is slightly above freezing during the day and plunges at night. Whenever the temperature is at or below 0 degrees Fahrenheit, a creature exposed to the cold must make a DC 10 Constitution saving throw at the end of each hour. Creatures with resistance or immunity to cold damage automatically succeed on the saving throw, as do creatures wearing cold weather gear and creatures naturally adapted to cold climates. On a failed saving throw, the creature has disadvantage on ability checks, attack rolls, and saving throws, and its speed is halved. The creature freezes to death if it suffers these effects for six consecutive hours. These effects end on the creature after it spends at least an hour in a place of warmth.

On a failed saving throw, the afflicted character basically suffers the effects of exhaustion, only on an expedited schedule. If not addressed, temperature-related exhaustion results in death within just six hours; all of this while impacting the character’s ability to function on a dangerous errand to Icespire Hold.

It’s not a hit point thing. It’s not a death saves thing. It’s a situation where characters who suffer the effects of the weather have to take measures to alleviate those effects or succumb to the cold.

When you consider that many players dismiss things like rations and water, or factoring in things that are inconvenient to them, such as encumbrance, and counting ammunition, how likely are they to consider something like buying winter gear?

It’s not the Dungeon Master’s responsibility to remind characters that the snow-capped peaks of the Sword Mountains are cold and inhospitable. In fact, informing them that they’ll need winter gear in this instance is a bit like telling them exactly where the pit trap is in a dungeon.

If you think about it, to the unprepared party, that’s exactly what something like frigid weather is: a trap that they’ll need to survive.

I love that temperatures are built into this adventure as a hazard, as it lets players see adventuring gear in a different light. Every adventurer pack has a tinderbox, yes. But it doesn’t have a bundle of firewood, now does it?

If a character has failed their saving throw and the cold has seeped into their bones, huddling around a torch doesn’t count as “a place of warmth.” A campfire can warm a shelter. A torch will not. At least enough to matter in this instance.

And it’s not something a spellcaster can just waive away with a spent spell slot in most cases. The only helpful spell a Tier I character has access to (and not until fifth level) that would help their party in this instance would be Leomund’s Tiny Hut.

I also really like that, in this instance, the cold is something that can catch unprepared characters by surprise.

Their exploration of Icespire Hold might start earlier in the day, where the weather doesn’t impact them. But then the sun goes down, the temperatures plunge, and wham! It’s time for saving throws to see if they can survive without a fire, which is a fun dilemma for characters averse to lighting a fire for fear of detection.

Mountain temperatures can plunge dramatically overnight, with typical drops ranging from 10°F to over 30°F, and in extreme cases, by more than 50-60°F. Calling for a 1d6 roll each night to determine the temperature drop (each number representing a 10°F drop in temperature) could be a fun, organic way to go about how cold it gets on any given night.

If you make it a point to utilize the overnight temperatures in your visit to Icespire Hold, there’s potential to renew emphasis on how players prepare for adventure, with a memorable battle against a foe that doesn’t have an armor class or hit points for their characters to bash through.

They’re fighting Mother Nature.

And in this instance, she doesn’t allow for death saves.

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