D&D 5E Obscured, Dim Light, and the Darker Part of the Feywild

[LordEntrails]

So I've got an upcoming encounter for my group that takes place in a cottage half in the Feywwild. Inside the cottage I'm probably going to have dim light. Outside parts of the area/forest have fog.

These darker parts of the forest.. should I use dim light there or obscured or what? What mechanics give the right flavor and "best" variety/fun?

 

[Cap'n Kobold]

Obscured is probably a better bet than just dim light for creepy forest flavour, due to darkvision and the light sources of the PCs seeing through dim light.
There is no reason you can't have both: they don't stack, so there is no practical difference, but it may fit the flavour better.

 

[Mycroft]

I would suggest:

Vision and Light

Dim light, A brilliant moon or starlight might bathe the land in dim light.

Darkness Characters can face darkness outdoors on moonless or starless nights,

Darkvision
A creature with darkvision can see in dim light as if it were bright light and in darkness within a specified range as if it were dim light, so areas of darkness are only lightly obscured as far as that creature is concerned.

Lowlight Vision
A creature with low-light vision can see in dim light as if it were bright light, so areas of dim light are not lightly obscured as far as that creature is concerned.

Traits

Vision

The race trait, darkvision, is replaced by lowlight vision, for the Elf, Half-Elf, and Gnome.

Darkvision. You can see in dim light as if it were bright light, and in darkness within X feet of you as if it were dim light.

Lowlight Vision. You can see in dim light as if it were bright light.

 

[Hriston]

Since it’s on the edge of the fairy world, I’d probably treat the entire encounter area as lightly obscured due to the dim light of twilight. Of course, any areas of moderate foliage or patchy fog in the area would also count as lightly obscured, but could be placed around for atmosphere. The “darker” parts of the encounter area would contain dense foliage or opaque fog, and would count as heavily obscured.

 

[Oofta]

I think fog should be lightly or heavily obscured, not just dim light. Don't want those races with darkvision ignoring after all.

But another thing I try to do with natural features in the feywild is to make them "more". The fog is menacing, the rustling of the leaves from the wind is a whisper in the dark you can almost understand, the trees seem to bend and sway menacingly in your direction as you pass. That babbling brook? During the day it's an enchanting music that mesmerizes but on a dark creepy night it's babbling dark whispers that put you on edge. Natural features aren't quite alive, but they're close.

 

[Hriston]

I think fog should be lightly or heavily obscured, not just dim light. Don't want those races with darkvision ignoring after all.

This is a good point of clarification, and the same should be noted of foliage and any other environmental factor besides lighting that creates an obscured area. Darkvision only changes how lighting is perceived, so areas of patchy fog or moderate foliage would still be lightly obscured to a creature with darkvision. Likewise, areas of dense foliage or opaque fog are heavily obscured whether a creature has darkvision or not. Lighting is separate from other environmental factors like level of foliage or fog.

 

[Hriston]

[MENTION=6804070]LordEntrails[/MENTION], to answer your question as I now understand it, fog creates a lightly/heavily obscured area depending on its level of patchiness/opacity. There could also be a category of “transparent” fog that has no obscuring effect.

 

[LordEntrails]

Thanks all. This is a hag's lair so I'm going to go with a regional effect of magical dim light everywhere and that all light sources only have half range (should I do the same with darkvision?). Then the areas of fog or foliage will be lightly obscured. Areas of both foliage and fog would be heavily obscured.

Well we are here... How about encounter balance? This will be a nova encounter (i.e. the party should be prepared knowing it is a hag's lair and it will be the only encounter for the day) so I'm thinking of this;
6 PC's of 5th level, fairly good tactics and teamwork.

1 - grandmother night hag
1 - helmed horror (refluffed to a large homoculus or golem)
4 - redcaps

Kobold Fight Club puts that at 5,700xp with an adjusted 8,550xp. With a deadly encounter level budget of 6,600xp.

The party enters through a portal into the cottage. The horror and hag are inside the cottage. The horror might surprise the party as it stands off to the side of the portal while the hag is standing across the room in the "kitchen". The redcaps are outside.

The redcaps will arrive in a round or two from outside. Depending upon what happens, the hag might flee after a few rounds. If she does, the party will probably want to track her down after defeating the redcaps and horror. If so, I figure to throw in a couple of darklings and/or quicklings to make the chase interesting.

Thoughts?

 

[Ovinomancer]

I would be surprised if the had makes it a few rounds to be able to flee. You have the party in close quarters with the hag and horror and no other threats adding until a round or so later... if the hag doesn't immediately run, she should be wiped out by the 3 to 1 turn economy of PCs going nova in a round or two (assuming they bother to split onto the horror).

Design wise, this won't even get outside to engage the careful lighting/obscurement you've built. If I may, I'd recommend that the gate deliver the PCs to a location outside of the cottage and then reverse the appearance of the bad guys -- redcaps first followed by the hag and horror. Have the hag be a skirmisher taking advantage of the terrain and etherealness to hit at soft/injured targets. The horror can wade in. I'd also add something dynamic that the PCs need to shut down to divert attention away from the hag for a bit longer. Maybe another portal or two or a lair entrance that spits out a new redcap every other round until the PCs shut it down/destroy it. This also will have the effect of spreading out the party a bit so that they lose a touch of the overwhelming action economic/synergy as they'll have to accomplish multiple things at once. This will also engage your environment build better and the PCs will have to traverse it.

Maybe also have the hag's escape be a timed thing that's obvious? Like a separate portal that is charging up that the hag can escape through once open, and so the whole thing's on a timer? I like encounters that put lots of pressure and choice on the PCs if I'm doing a One Big Encounter.

 

[LordEntrails]

Lots of good feedback [MENTION=16814]Ovinomancer[/MENTION].

Looking more at this, the hag as Fling, and since she will see the portal activating she should not be surprised, but maybe the characters will, or at least it is possible they may not all come through on turn one. So, she will try and fling out the windows the first of three non-dwarf non-barbarians to come through (given this party; a cleric, a fighter/wizard, and bard are likely). That should put two? of them outside, one on each side of the cottage and they will each become engaged with 2 redcaps.

That should help the action economy. But enough? It possible some might make their saves against fling. Second round she will try to banish one of them, helping the action economy again for a round, but again maybe they will save?

I could redo the map I've drawn to make the gate outside the cottage. I guess if I have to, but not sure I have to (and I have other artwork etc for the current layout).

I see the dim/obscure as part of the chase portion. Given the lair actions a grandmother night hag has, she can walk through her own walls and close/open doors as needed, so she can retreat through the walls fairly easy (if her early actions work to split the party and buy her enough time).

If things go as planned, round one the party gets split, and the hag and horror combo only have to deal with (likely) 1-4 PC's (depending how many come through the portal, and how many get flung), probably only 1-2. Round two it will be 3 PC's (2? flung, 1 banished). Round three everyone will be engaged somewhere (inside or out).

Does that seem better balanced?

Here's the immediate cottage for reference.