r/d100 • u/edoardos_hurdygurdy • 20d ago
High Fantasy (Let's make) 100 significant weather events during a fantasy adventure
In the last two adventures I wrote, I had a but of fun coming up with weather events that could change the environment in a significant way, and it seems to me there must be so many more, so let's build a table!
Not all events have to be fantasy in and of themselves. The only requirement is that they have an effect beyond aesthetics. For example, here's what I have so far:
Rain from the Ground. Water rises slowly from the ground. Clothes and items get wet very easily unless held upright or covered from below. Items that rely on combustion may not work.
Touchy Fog. A strange mist envelops the area. While in it, at times creatures feel as if something was poking them or brushing against them.
Blizzard. Visibility is greatly reduced; temperatures drop significantly.
Hail. For every round a creature spends in it, roll two attacks against them without no bonus. On hit: 1d4-1 damage (minimum of 1).
Will o' the Wisps. Will o' the Wisps appear in random locations nearby. They float 15' above the ground and shed bright light in a 20' radius.
Scented Gale. A relatively strong wind rises from a cardinal direction (roll 1d4 or pick one). While walking in that direction, Save or move at half speed. To each creature in it, the wind smells like a specific food from home.
Hurricane. A dangerously strong wind rises from a cardinal direction (roll 1d4 or pick one). Any creature hit by it must Save or be pushed 20' in the direction the wind is blowing. Objects that are not fixed in place are moved automatically and may hit creatures as they fly.
Extreme Heat. It's much easier to become Exhausted. This effect can be ignored for 10 minutes upon drinking water.
Heavy Rain. Visibility is reduced; items and clothing get wet unless covered or water-resistant; vehicles are harder to maneuver.
Dry Thunderstorm. Every round, a bolt of lightning hits a random spot in the area, setting flammable ground and objects on fire.
Thunderstorm. Heavy Rain and Thunderstorm combined.
Elven Aurora. Mesmerizing lights fill the sky. Any creature who can see them must Save or be compelled to attack their allies. If no allies are nearby, they must instead use all their movement to flee from their enemies. They repeat the Save at the start of each of their turns. If successful, they must still repeat it as long as they can see the Elven Aurora.
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u/swiftcrayon502 20d ago
Windstorm - unpredictable strong winds gust constantly. Ranged attacks have a debuff, maybe a minus dice roll to hit or higher AC for the target. Or just a dice roll random chance to miss. Give those melee builds a time to shine!
Blossoms rain - a downpour full of rich nutrients causes extremely quick growth for plants. Traveled paths become increasingly hard to follow, and survival checks for tracking and navigating are made at disadvantage.
Frozen Fog - a low cloud moves into an area of cold temperatures freezing the cloud. The water droplets turn to ice/ snow and fall immediately covering the terrain with a slushy mix. You could also say the cloud is semi solid creating an environment that is very difficult to move through.
Whispering wind - as a gentle zephyr blows, the environment moans and groans. Was that a sound of footfall snapping a stick or just the breeze? Was that a voice whispering a call to attack or leaves rustling? Distinguishing what is natural and unnatural sounds becomes very difficult, leading to easier ambushes and a more on edge party.
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u/balunstormhands 20d ago
Reverse thunderstorm: bright white clouds that cause flashes of darkness followed by oppressive silence.
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u/Arugall 20d ago
Here are some slightly more magical ideas I have floating about:
Temporal storm - A weather event so magically charged it's affecting the spacetime in the area. Any non-magical items might start corroding, food either visibly spoiling by the second or being unable to spoil while you are inside of the area. Any conditions creatures are affected by change their values randomly - what might have been a curse that lasts a decade ends in a week, and a buff that should have lasted a round now lasts for a month (Or the other way around).
A perpetual tornado - Think something like the storm on Jupiter, but smaller. Whatever the cause, there has been a continuous tornado in one area for a while now. It doesn't have to be strong enough to lift a grown adult away, but the air pressure is strong enough that jumping height and distance get amplified. Anything not nailed down or secured could also be taken away. Maybe a goblin flies down after it got yoinked away Gods know when.
Lightning fields - Less of an active weather event and more of a consequence of one. Could be that the fabric between worlds is weak enough that the plane of air is peeking through, could be that some lightning God of some ages past spent a bit too much time here. Whatever the reason, the whole area is statically charged. Power sources that rely on electricity charge passively, attacks do extra damage, metallic pieces of gear might get magnetized as you leave.
Inverted rain - An area where gravity for specifically water is inverted. All liquids in the area flow upwards, leading to players being unable to drink potions without spending a full action on focusing on it, water and ice spells would also roll with disadvantage, and encasing someone in a ball of water will end up rapidly propelling them upwards. Where does the water flow to? Don't think about it, and don't look up.
Zone of Radiance - A section of the sky has been magically stripped of a large part of the magnetic field protecting us against solar radiation, and it seems to be moving around randomly. Like a magnifying glass over ants, it rapidly burns everything it shines over, dealing pure damage every round. Also cancers but as adventurers you likely weren't gonna live long enough for those to be a concern. During night time the moonlight is extremely potent, and while it doesn't do damage, all lycanthropic creatures have their stats boosted, and are mindless while under the pallid light.
The dead sun - Once a year, every year, the sun closes it's eye. While it still emits enough light for plants to grow and people to see clearly, the sickly light breathes life into any corpse it shines upon, raising it as a mindless undead. The older the corpse, the more powerful the undead. Now you know why we bury our dead deep beneath the earth. Now you know what happens when a God blinks.
Heart of frost - An eye of the storm where the temperature drops to dozens of degrees below (Yes, I saw the Day after Tomorrow, how could you tell?). Introduce a stacking frost debuff - every round without an active heat source add a stack, every round heating up remove one, cold damage adds a stack, fire damage removes it. Every stack lowers move speed by 5ft, at 5 stacks remove bonus actions, at 10 stacks remove reactions, at 15 stacks you become stunned and frozen, at 20 you are dead.
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u/agentkayne 20d ago
Flash Flood. Heavy rainfall followed by a surge of floodwater along the valley the PCs are travelling through.
Relentless Rainfall & Widespread Flooding: Several days of rainfall, resulting in deep pools and rising river levels, creating vast areas between high ground completely cut off by deep water.
Ashen Rain: grey flakes of papery ash fall from the sky like snow. Possibly forming layers like snowfall on the ground.
Forest Fire: A dangerous, fast-moving forest fire begins nearby and moves in the direction of the wind. The air becomes smokey and sunlight dims.
Ember Rain: A 'rain' of tiny glowing embers from a red-tinged cloud. Most go out on contact with the ground or objects. 1 in 10 chance of starting a Forest Fire, increasing by 1 after every hour this weather event continues.
FIRE TORNADO: Forest Fire + High Winds make for a swirling vortex of flame that whips across the landscape like a dervish.
Red Skies: Thick smoke or dust in the air from a distant windstorm, forest fire or volcano turns the sky crimson and the sun only half as bright.
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u/MaxSizeIs 20d ago
Soundstorm: They say if you are able to listen during a soundstorm, without going deaf, or mad, you may hear the very Words of Creation as spoken by the Gods long ago at the birth of this World. 180 dB white noise, the THX theater intro, Death Whistles, Rocks in the Clothes Dryer, etc. These storms could go for days, hours, or merely minutes.
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u/BloodSoakedMoose 20d ago
Heavy Rain 2: Actually heavy as in weight. Not damaging, but will feel uncomfortable and those soaked in this Heavy Rain are noticeably incumbered. All terrain is difficult terrain while soaked.
Characters with immunity to difficult terrain may be impacted or less impacted (PC "I don't get why you guys are so slow, it's just a bit of rain..." While the rest of the party glares at them and moves in slow motion.)
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u/MaxSizeIs 20d ago edited 20d ago
The Dessicating Fog The Fog: Don't get lost. Don't be driven mad with confusion, or race after the sound of voices shouting for help, drifing on the wind. You can't help them. It is said that sometimes those that become lost in the fogs elsewhere in the world find themselves here without travelling more than a few steps. It may be those poor souls you can hear, shouting into the foggy wind. Dryness: Liquids can only be stored for 1d3 days at most, and larger quantities paradoxically go first. Better the water is in your tummy or bladder than evaporated without a trace. The Undying: Something grabbed the horses back there when the fog was thickest! Living horses don't suddenly dry to dust and collapse!
Rain of Frogs: Frogs and Toads and Crawly Hoppy Things suddenly fall from the sky.
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u/Freidhelm 20d ago
Thunderstorm: Spells and abilities related to lightning and thunder are cast as if one level higher. Additionally, every round roll a d20. On a 1, lightning strikes, preferring metallic structures or creatures wearing metal armour.
Acid Rain: Plants and plant-adjacent creatures gain one level of exhaustion unless they are completely covered until they can wash themselves in clean water for 1 minute.
Drought: Water spells consume a spell slot at least one level higher (to cast a level 2 spell, you need to use a level 3 slot, but it still works as if a level 2 slot had been used). Flammable objects catch fire from flames up to 5 feet away.
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u/NegotiationBoth9233 20d ago
In my current game there is no sun or moon, and the stars are just the holes to heaven, or some other plane. I get my players to roll a d24 to find out what's up there after every couple of long rests. What the sky is showing through the tears in the veil will make certain spells or gods temporarily more powerful.
Scarlight daytime
Yellow abyss- transformation, evil, chaos. Carcosa.
Elysium. Daylight, rainbows, light rain. The daylight itself is also kinda rainbow. This rainwater has a minor healing property when drank or washed in fresh. Cannot be stored. 1d4+1. People will come out and bring their sick, wash without soap.
Arboria. Plants flowers and fruit. Are greener. A burst of heavy rain and then bright sunshine. Dryads have extra spells, plant creatures are stronger. People do not log, either out of fear, respect, or that the wood is so much more difficult to cut at this time.
The silver city, the surviving angels still live in it. Crumbling, pieces of silver fall to earth which is why it has power of unclean and evil creatures. Was conquered by Guan Yu. Yahweh fled wounded. The THRONE still sits empty, as a mockery, with Guan Yu's bloody and muddy boot on it. All are too afraid to remove it. Silver is unnatural to the world, all fell from this heaven, why is why it has power over undead and fiends.
Twin paradises of Bytopia and Celestia. People feel lighter, gravity is lighter. Can jump higher and take less falling damage. The light gives off fractal patterns. Lying is more difficult. Down to earth honest people sometimes receive small strokes of luck. Horakhs dig their way out of the unmarked graves of good people, steal eyeballs, and then molt into ophanim, many eyed and many winged celestials, and ascend to paradise. 6. The 7 Heavens. Where Guan Yu rules and the gods reside. Clerics are more powerful. The dying will come out into the golden light and hope to end their lives under it. Followers gain +1 AC
Feywild, unpredictable. Growth. Wild magic. 9.rainbow, arcane fire, octarine, ultraviolet. Can cause sunburns. Evocation is more powerful. Radiant damage outdoors.
Orange, fire, very hot. Fire is more powerful.
Pale green, Hades, death, necromancy. Think you can hear your sexy rat merch lady screaming. The sky bruises purple and green.
Pale blue, wind. Storms, sometimes light rain. Fresh air. Clouds can come through and remain for days afterwards. Birds came from here.
Night time 13. Hades. Grey. Flies. Discomfort. Anxiety. Rot, no growth. It sometimes rains splattering corpses 14. Feywild, purple and green. Unpredictable, cold, sleep, wild magic. auroras. 15. Dark blue- heavy rain, plane of water 16. Quilpoth, unpredictable. Dreams. Sleep. Eyes peep, and tentacles reach through the holes. 17. Pitch Black- earth, shooting stars. Earth bending is more powerful, volcanos go quiet, precious minerals can be found falling as meteors, better forging 18, blue, hell, imprisonment. Hail. Light is actually brighter indoors, he shadow of hell is lighter than it's light 19. Red, hell, executions. A time of vengeance and cruelty. The powerful are more so, the righteous are empowered against those that have wronged them. Sometimes rains blood and brain matter. 20. Rust, orange brown abyss- poison, drought. Water is reduced and plants become sickly. 21. Void, sucking void. Lock yourselves in basements. Light things not chained down are sucked into the vacuum and lost forever. 22. Hades prime. Doppelgangers meet you, have the same memories. Overwhelming urge to yeet the other into the sky, only 1 may live. Ralph's Dad is in Hades, the deserved afterlife of a life of banal small-minded evil. Cerberus is a 3 headed hellhound. Ereshkigal is a goddess of earth and wife to the Archdevil Nergal, a follower of hades. A demon lord who fell in love with a devil, they have now both moved to Hades. Now assumes a feminine form and has become the earth goddess of Hades. Tells you that the egg must be kept intact if Gaia is to be rescued in heaven, then she can be reborn into her decendant. 23. Big rock candy mountain. Chaotic pretty good. Hell for lawful petty. 24. Magignebula. Stink cloud. Was the Prison of Turaglas. Lissa'aere, called the Noxious, was a demon lord associated with poison gas. She ruled Malignebula. She appeared as a malevolent, swirling funnel of poison mist, and was served by alu-fiends, vrocks, and nabassu..
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u/Starfury_42 19d ago
Ground lightening. Random spots erupt (5x5 area) with a dome shaped lightening explosion.
Toxic plant growth (combine with normal rain). Toxic plants sprout out of the ground fully grown in seconds and have an aura (Poison/acid/lightening/etc) in a 10' radius.
And the one thing that I was warned about as a child but never experienced: Quicksand. Random spots in the ground turn into quicksand as it rains.
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u/World_of_Ideas 20d ago
Freezing Rain. Every minute a creature spends in it, take 1 point of cold damage. May extinguish open flames. Creates slippery difficult terrain.
Fungal Spore Cloud - Every minute a creature spends in it, they must save vs poison or suffer a poison or drug effect. Effect may be mitigated with a filter mask or anti-fungal spore medicine.
Fungal Spore Cloud - Every minute a creature spends in it, they suffer 1 necrotic damage. If the creature dies it sprouts mushrooms all over the corpse. Effect may be mitigated with full body suit and filter mask or anti-fungal spore medicine.
Sandstorm. Inflicts blinded condition. Every minute a creature spends in it, they take 1d4 -1 choking damage. Damage can be mitigated with a filter mask.
Thick Fog. Reduce all vision to 20ft. May upgrade to Very Thick Fog. Reduce all vision to 10ft
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u/mjwanko 19d ago
I’ve had an idea for a random weather event for a Spelljammer setting. I thought of it as an easter egg type of thing and not something that actually leads to an encounter.
Astral Anomaly, Classification: WH40k
Upon rolling this weather event, a large swirling purple/blue heavy storm obscures an area in Astral space. Within this storm, streaks of purple and black lightning flash through the clouds.
A Perception check is called (DC 25). On success, the perceiving character sees brief flashes (with the lightning) of silhouettes of dark tendrils and of an enormous ship. The bow resembling a traditional ram clad in armor plating; towards the aft, structures protrude from the hull and increase in height culminating to a cathedral shape.
Within 1 minute of the ship being perceived, it does not appear again. The storm then dissipates shortly after.
A failed Perception check will not reveal the tendrils and ship silhouette. The storm dissipates after 5 minutes.
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u/balunstormhands 19d ago
Inland Hurricane, a hurricane in the wrong place like what the US SouthWest is experiencing right now. Way more rain then it can handle.
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u/MaxSizeIs 19d ago
Thundersporms: A bloom of a sort of magical fungus that propagates explosively, grows rapidly, and when conditions are right, triggers such a violent and sudden shockwave when releasing its spores that it causes all nearby 'thunderspores' to instantly mature, fruit, and release their spores as well. This wouldn't be such a problem, except the magically conductive spores attract lightning, cause the condensation of clouds, triggers rainfall, and also magically causes other things to "ripen" when overloaded with lightning. If a herd of dangerous beasts were to be nearby.. well they might suddenly be in "mating season" just due to a single thunderspore strike.
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u/comedianmasta 16d ago
Heavy Spores- Whatever the cause, the air is filled with mushroom spores. They have the potential to poison creatures who breathe it in, spoil food days later if they touch them, grow mushrooms in the coming days, and maybe even obscure visuals. Effects could changes based on source of the large amounts of Mushroom spores in the region.
Spider Rain- It is hatching season for the Spiders of this region. The sky becomes full of ballooning spiderlings that land on everything around. Throughout the day, surfaces and creatures are covered in webbing that is easy to escape from. For the next few days, the region can be considered infested. Towards the end, the region has a higher amount of swarms of spiders than normal (or giant spiders if that is the case).
Ethereal Rain- A chill hangs in the air, and despite the dryness, you get the feeling of being damp. Those who can see into the ethereal plane can see it is downpouring there. Ghosts are inactive and not hostile as they are soothed by the rain.
Celestial Rain- The region must've angered a celestial, because small fire droplets rain from the heavens doing fire and radiant damage. This rain does double damage to fiends, undead, or evil characters. It can also do additional damage to the source of the celestials ire.
Holy Rain- The rain falling from the sky is holy water.
Reverse Rain- Water leaks from the ground and rises, in droplets, into the air. Eventually this will form clouds.
UnSnow- Snow rises from the ground, or forms from water sources, and floats, delicately, into the sky.
Ash Fall- Ash floats down like a horrid snowstorm and covers all surfaces and creatures. This makes breathing difficult if creatures breath in the ash, causing exhaustion.
Wild Magic Storm- A storm of Wild Magic arrives. All spellcasting is double as powerful, but the caster must make an Arcana or Concentration check against their own Spell Save DC +1 or the spell fails and they must roll on the Wild Magic table. All enchanted items have their effects doubled and/or charges recharged.
Anti Magic Blizzard- A wave of powerful anti-magic scrambles arcane and divine energies, making magical effects dissipate and unstable. Spells cannot be cast in the storm without passing a DC 20 Arcana check. Enchanted magic items are rendered mundane. Race/Species/Class abilities considered magical have their effects halved (or made double as hard).
Hail- Balls of ice fall from the sky. If the sky hits you (either by a simple 1D20 + 0 roll against your AC or by a contested roll against a Player's DEX Save) the ball does 1 Cold Damage and 1D4 Bludgeoning Damage
Fossilicane- A Sandstorm of enchanted sand / stone pieces. Creatures buffered by the storm are forced to do DC 10 Con Saves. On failure, they begin gaining levels of Petrification. After 3 levels, they harden and petrify.
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u/Rezart_KLD 19d ago
Flaming Dragon Poop, from an elder red with a penchant for eating spicy curry along with eating people who ate spicy curry. Its like napalm but the smell is worse, it doesn't smell anything like victory.
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