Barrens

Bare rock, scree and thin soil where almost nothing takes root, high in the mountains or far in the cold. Wind and frost do most of the work here, and travellers carry everything they need.

Over the year it averages 0 °C.

Hear it

In the wind: Strong Wind (On Patreon, Guardian tier)
On foot: Walking in Heavy Winds (On Patreon, Guardian tier)
Bitter cold: Strong Snowy Wind (On Patreon, Guardian tier)
Thirst: Windy Desert (In the album RPG Ambiences Vol. 1)

For the table

Ground: open, about 30 km a day on foot
Seasons: -12 °C in the heart of winter, 10 °C in the heart of summer
Water: scarce
Foraging: poor

Hazards

Bitter cold. Without furs, a fire and shelter at night, the cold numbs, then kills. Frostbite takes fingers and toes first.
Thirst. Water is far apart and not always where the map says. A day without drinking in the heat is enough to put a traveller down.
Strong wind. Steady wind tires walkers, blows out fires and, on sand or snow, blinds and buries the track.

D&D 5e

Plays as: desert, normal pace at most
Checks: forage: Survival DC 20 · find the way: DC 10 · search: DC 10
Creatures are spotted at: 6d6 × 10 ft

Bitter cold. At −18 °C (0 °F) or colder, anyone exposed makes a DC 10 Constitution save at the end of each hour or gains 1 Exhaustion. Cold resistance passes automatically; sleeping in a bedroll does too, and a blanket gives Advantage.
Thirst. Each Medium creature needs about 4 litres (1 gallon) of water a day. Drinking less than half of it brings 1 Exhaustion at the end of the day, which does not go until a full day's water is drunk.
Strong wind. Disadvantage on ranged weapon attacks; open flames go out and fog clears; a flyer must land at the end of its turn or fall. In a desert it can raise a sandstorm: Disadvantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks.

This work includes material from the System Reference Document 5.2.1 ("SRD 5.2.1") by Wizards of the Coast LLC, available at https://www.dndbeyond.com/srd. The SRD 5.2.1 is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode.

Pathfinder Second Edition

Plays as (Pathfinder Second Edition): desert, difficult terrain, about 16 km a day at Speed 25
Checks: Subsist: Survival DC 40 · Sense Direction: Survival DC 20
Random encounters: flat check DC 17 each day

Bitter cold. Temperature bands (GM Core p. 95): at 0 °C to −11 °C (mild cold) travellers tire after 4 hours; at −11 °C to −29 °C (severe cold) they also take minor cold damage (1d6 to 2d6) every hour; at −29 °C to −62 °C (extreme cold), every 10 minutes. Cold-weather gear removes severe-cold damage and turns extreme cold into severe. A soaked traveller counts the band one colder.
Thirst. Without enough water a creature is fatigued; after its Constitution modifier + 1 days without drinking it takes 1d4 damage an hour, which cannot be healed until it drinks (GM Core p. 43).
Strong wind. Wind gives a –1 to –4 penalty to Perception that relies on hearing and to physical ranged attacks, and puts out handheld flames; strong wind can call for Athletics to move, a critical failure pushing back and knocking prone (GM Core p. 95).

This product is licensed under the ORC License located at the Library of Congress at TX 9-307-067 and available online at various locations including paizo.com/orclicense, azoralaw.com/orclicense, and others. All warranties are disclaimed as set forth therein. Attribution: this rules layer is based on the following Licensed Material: Pathfinder Player Core © 2023 Paizo Inc., Designed by Logan Bonner, Jason Bulmahn, Stephen Radney-MacFarland, and Mark Seifter. Authors: Alexander Augunas, Kate Baker, Logan Bonner, Jason Bulmahn, Carlos Cabrera, Calder CaDavid, James Case, Eleanor Ferron, Steven Hammond, Joan Hong, Vanessa Hoskins, James Jacobs, Jenny Jarzabski, Erik Keith, Dustin Knight, Lyz Liddell, Luis Loza, Patchen Mortimer, Dennis Muldoon, Stephen Radney-MacFarland, Mikhail Rekun, David N. Ross, Michael Sayre, Mark Seifter, Kendra Leigh Speedling, Mark Thompson, Clark Valentine, Andrew White, Landon Winkler, and Linda Zayas-Palmer; Pathfinder GM Core © 2023 Paizo Inc., Designed by Logan Bonner and Mark Seifter. Authors: Amirali Attar Olyaee, Logan Bonner, Creighton Broadhurst, Jason Bulmahn, James Case, Jesse Decker, Eleanor Ferron, Fabby Garza Marroquín, Jaym Gates, Matthew Goetz, James Jacobs, Brian R. James, Jenny Jarzabski, Dustin Knight, Jason LeMaitre, Lyz Liddell, Luis Loza, Ron Lundeen, Stephen Radney-MacFarland, David N. Ross, Michael Sayre, Mark Seifter, Owen K.C. Stephens, Amber Stewart, Clark Valentine, Landon Winkler, and Linda Zayas-Palmer; Pathfinder Monster Core © 2024 Paizo Inc., Authors: Alexander Augunas, Dennis Baker, Kate Baker, Joshua Birdsong, Joseph Blomquist, Logan Bonner, Jason Bulmahn, James Case, John Compton, Paris Crenshaw, Adam Daigle, Darrin Drader, Brian Duckwitz, Robert N. Emerson, Scott Fernandez, Eleanor Ferron, Leo Glass, Matthew Goodall, BJ Hensley, Thurston Hillman, Vanessa Hoskins, James Jacobs, Jenny Jarzabski, Miko Kallio, Jason Keeley, Jeff Lee, Lyz Liddell, Luis Loza, Ron Lundeen, Robert G. McCreary, Philippe-Antoine Menard, Jacob W. Michaels, Dave Nelson, Jason Nelson, Tim Nightengale, Stephen Radney-MacFarland, Mikhail Rekun, Patrick Renie, Alex Riggs, David N. Ross, Michael Sayre, Mark Seifter, Chris S. Sims, Amber Stewart, Jeffrey Swank, William Thompson, Jason Tondro, Clark Valentine, Landon Winkler, Tonya Woldridge, and Linda Zayas-Palmer. If you use our Licensed Material in your own published work, please credit us as follows: Biomes, Pathfinder Second Edition rules layer © 2026 Michael Ghelfi. Reserved Material: the names of Biomes and its catalogues, its descriptions, sounds, art and code. Pathfinder is a registered trademark of Paizo Inc.; this site is not published, endorsed, or specifically approved by Paizo Inc.

Adventure hooks

A rockfall buried a shepherd’s whole flock in the scree, and the sheep are still bleating from somewhere under the stones. They have been bleating for nine days.
Prospectors swarm the bare slopes because a boy found a gold nugget in the scree. The boy will not say where it came from, because he took it from a cairn over somebody’s grave.
Surveyors crossing a high stony plateau lost their guide when he went ahead to find water, leaving a line of cairns behind him. The cairns go on far past any water, and the newest still has warm stones.
A lichen that grows only on one north-facing cliff yields the dye of a prince’s cloak. The old woman who scrapes it needs an apprentice before her knees give out, and the climb is the interview.

Animals

Snow Leopard (dangerous if cornered, alone, at dawn and dusk)

Creatures

Dust Mephit (a threat to the unwary, Challenge 1/2)
Giant Vulture (a fight to fear, Challenge 1)
Blue Dragon (deadly, Challenge 3-23)
Giant Scorpion (a fight to fear, Challenge 3)
Chimera (deadly, Challenge 6)

To gather

Snow Leopard Bone, Snow Leopard Pelt, Beetle Wing

Beneath

Near the surface the rock keeps the year's mean warmth, without seasons; it warms as one goes down.

At the surface: 0 °C
100 m: 3 °C
500 m: 14 °C
1 km: 28 °C
3 km: 83 °C

A town here

How large a town this land can feed, what it makes and what it must buy. Build it in Hearth

Nearby biomes

Tropical Rainforest, Tropical Dry Forest, Temperate Forest, Temperate Conifer Forest, Taiga, Savanna, Grassland, Flooded Grassland, Alpine Meadow, Tundra, Mediterranean Scrub, Hot Desert, Cold Desert, Ice Sheet

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