Not all dangers while adventuring are from enemies, monsters, and beasts. Whether urban or rural, the very environment a hero must traverse in order to complete their quest (or the battlefield they find themselves on) can present a multitude of hazards. Be sure to pay attention to the environment around your character as they move through it, and be wary of any hidden threats—or anything you can leverage to get the upper hand in a fight.
By its nature, adventuring involves delving into places that are dark, dangerous, and full of mysteries to be explored. The rules in this section cover some of the most important ways in which adventurers interact with the environment in such places.
Basic overview of interacting with objects in a scene, as well as their statistics should it matter for the sake of dealing damage to an object.
When you need consult your character's accumulated knowledge about something, players can take the Study Action. Success means the DM will tell you something interesting and useful about the subject relevant to your situation.
When you closely study a situation or person closely, you're taking the Scrutinize action. To take this action you must closely observe your target. That usually means interacting with it or watching someone else do the same. You can’t just stick your head in the doorway and casually scrutinize a room. You’re not merely scanning for clues—you have to look under and around things, tap the walls, and check for weird dust patterns on the bookshelves. That sort of thing. Scrutinizing isn’t just about noticing a detail, it’s about figuring out the bigger picture and the DM should always describe what the player characters experience honestly.
A key part of interacting with the environment is knowing what the illumination in a scene allows you to see, and how a character's special senses, if any, affect this.
Much the same as the quality of illumination in a scene, the weather can have a pronounced effect on how adventurers interact with thee world.
This section describes a few examples of hazardous conditions or happenstance that adventurers might encounter in the wilderness.
Sometimes stealth is the best option.
Eventually, every adventurer is bound to fall off of something, and it can be a very dangerous experience.
Be it under water, or wrapped in the tentacles of a hostile creature, running out of air is bad news for most adventurers.
Traveling at sea brings with it a unique array of treacherous circumstances that can make the experience its own unique beast. Beyond pirates and sea monsters, foul weather, nautical accidents, poor food, and illness can conspire to send even the most capable of crews to a watery grave. This material builds on other previously established rules for Travel and the Environment to help adjudicate travel at sea.
Taking to the stars to visit distant worlds brings with it a unique array of circumstances that must be understood if the voyage is to be successful. This material covers the unique elements of traveling via Spelljamming Vessel.