Burning Tropical Dry Forest

Tropical Dry Forest
Dry deciduous forest in the dry season, Andhra Pradesh, India · PJeganathan, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

Fire has taken the land and will not let go. Volcanoes smoke on the horizon, lava runs in the cracks and ash falls like grey snow. The ground is warm underfoot, and at night the hills glow red. A warm forest ruled by the seasons: green and dense in the rains, bare and dusty in the long dry months, when many trees drop their leaves. Water gathers in a few pools and every animal knows where they are.

Over the year it averages 25 °C.

Hear it

For the table

Ground
rough, about 20 km a day on foot
Seasons
22 °C in the heart of winter, 29 °C in the heart of summer
Water
by season
Foraging
fair

Hazards

  • Crushing heat. At midday the heat wears a walker down far faster than the road. Those who know the land travel at dawn and dusk and rest in the shade.
  • 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.
  • Wildfire. In the dry season, grass and scrub burn fast, driven by the wind. A fire front outruns a person on foot.
  • Searing air. The heat rises from the ground as much as it falls from the sun, and it does not ease at night.
  • Ember rain. Gusts carry glowing embers and hot ash. Cloth, hair and dry packs catch at a touch.
  • Crusted lava. A black crust over a river of lava looks like any other rock until it cracks.

D&D 5e

Plays as
forest, normal pace at most
Checks
forage: Survival DC 10 · find the way: DC 15 · search: DC 15
Creatures are spotted at
2d8 × 10 ft
  • Crushing heat. At 38 °C (100 °F) or hotter, anyone exposed without drinkable water makes a Constitution save at the end of each hour, DC 5 then 1 higher each hour, or gains 1 Exhaustion. Medium or heavy armour gives Disadvantage; fire resistance passes automatically.
  • 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.
  • Searing air. At 38 °C (100 °F) or hotter, a creature exposed without drinkable water makes a Constitution save at the end of each hour, DC 5 and then 1 higher each hour, or gains 1 Exhaustion level. Medium or Heavy armor gives Disadvantage; Fire resistance or immunity passes automatically.
  • Ember rain. A creature on fire takes 1d4 Fire damage at the start of each of its turns. It can spend an action dropping Prone and rolling to put itself out; dousing, plunging into a liquid or smothering the flames does it too.
  • Crusted lava. (House rule) A DC 14 Wisdom (Survival) check spots a crust before the party crosses it. A creature that breaks through makes a DC 13 Dexterity save, taking 6d10 Fire damage on a failure, or 2d10 on a success as it scrambles out.

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)
forest, difficult terrain, about 16 km a day at Speed 25
Checks
Subsist: Survival DC 15 · Sense Direction: Survival DC 15
Random encounters
flat check DC 14 each day
  • Crushing heat. Temperature bands (GM Core p. 95): from 35 °C (mild heat) travellers tire after 4 hours; from 41 °C (severe heat) they take minor fire damage (1d6 to 2d6) every hour; from 46 °C (extreme heat), every 10 minutes. In high humidity the mild and severe thresholds are about 8 °C lower.
  • 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).
  • Wildfire. A wildfire front advances up to about 20 m a round in forest, twice that on plains; flames are hazardous terrain (moderate damage, 4d6 to 6d6, plus persistent fire), smoke works like fog and can suffocate (GM Core p. 97).

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.

Crossing it

Besides walking, depending on the era and the season (Biomes estimates of a day’s distance):

  • On horseback: about 30 km a day
  • By wagon: about 15 km a day
  • By river boat: about 40 km a day
  • By train: about 400 km a day
  • By airship: about 900 km a day
  • By bush plane: about 800 km a day
  • By 4x4: about 100 km a day
  • By rover: about 60 km a day
  • By elephant: about 30 km a day
  • On a flying mount: about 150 km a day
  • By flying carpet: about 100 km a day
  • By bicycle: about 40 km a day
  • By car: about 200 km a day
  • By truck: about 150 km a day
  • By motorbike: about 150 km a day
  • By armoured buggy: about 120 km a day

Adventure hooks

  1. A glassblower wants an escort into the burning land, where sand fused by the lava keeps the last voice it heard before it cooled. She is looking for the piece that holds her brother’s, who died the night the fire came.
  2. Two villages on either side of the fire have quarrelled for generations over whose fault it is, and each hires the party, separately, to prove it was the other. Both are wrong: it was an old goatherd’s wish, made in a temper fifty years ago, and he is still alive and still rather proud of it.
  3. Under the ash lies a town buried in a single night, its people still seated at table. In one house a lamp burns: a clerk has spent eleven years keeping the dead town’s ledgers in perfect order, and he does not want to be rescued.
  4. A fire priest pays handsomely for an escort to the heart of the burning, where he means to ask the fire to go out. On the way the party notices that he never sweats, and that the fire seems to be following him rather than the other way round.
  5. At the end of the dry season, two herding clans both claim the last pool that still holds water. A jaguar drinks there too, and each clan is quietly hoping the other will meet it first.
  6. The rains are a month late, and a rainmaker has promised them for one cow from every household. The headman wants proof she is a fraud before the cows change hands; the first storm breaks on the evening the party arrives.
  7. A bush fire is coming through the leafless trees, and an old charcoal burner refuses to leave his kilns. He will come quietly if his three goats, his tally sticks and his late wife’s chest come too.
  8. When the leaves fall, a ruined watchtower shows on a ridge that the green hides all through the rains. Every year a different traveller swears there was a lamp burning in it.

What grows here

  • Cashew (tree). An evergreen tree up to 14 metres from tropical South America, carried round the world by the Portuguese; it wants hot lowlands with a hard dry season and grows on stony thickets and sand dunes by the sea. Each nut hangs under a fleshy cashew apple. Beware the shell: its oil is caustic, kin to poison ivy, and blisters the hands, so nuts are roasted in the shell and cracked with gloves. Gives: Cashew Nuts, Cashew Apple.
  • Indian Gooseberry (tree). A deciduous tree of 1 to 8 metres from tropical and southern Asia, growing in mixed and drier forests, held sacred in Nepal, India and Sri Lanka. Its small round fruit, the amla, is sour, bitter and astringent, one of the richest sources of vitamin C, and a staple of Ayurvedic medicine. Fruit, bark and leaves also give black ink, hair dye, a brown dye for silk and wool, and tannin. Gives: Amla, Indian Gooseberry Leaves.
  • Indian Sandalwood (tree). A small evergreen tree of 4 to 9 m that taps the roots of neighbouring trees for part of its food. It grows in dry forests and scrub on sandy or stony soil in India, Indonesia, the Philippines and northern Australia. Its scented heartwood has been burnt in temples and on pyres for over two thousand years, and overharvesting has left the wild tree vulnerable. Gives: Sandalwood, Sandalwood Seed.
  • Jackalberry (tree). A tree usually four to six metres tall but reaching twenty-five, spread across sub-Saharan Africa and into Yemen, in savanna and riverside forest, often rooted in termite mounds. Its small yellow fruit, sweet like a persimmon when ripe, is eaten fresh, dried, ground into flour or brewed into beer and brandy; jackals and many other animals feast on it. Elephants and buffalo eat the leaves, and the black heartwood of old trees, almost proof against termites, is a prized ebony for furniture, floors and canoes. Food of: African Bush Elephant. Food of: African Buffalo. Gives: Jackalberry Fruit, Jackalberry Heartwood.
  • Kapok (tree). A giant of the tropical forest, up to 60 m tall, with huge buttress roots and a spiny trunk; it flowers while bare of leaves and is pollinated by bats. Native to the American tropics and probably to West and Central Africa, it is held sacred by the Maya and in Caribbean and Surinamese traditions. People take the floss of its pods, oil from its seeds and a light wood. Food of: Goat. Food of: Sheep. Food of: Cattle. Gives: Kapok Floss, Kapok Seed, Kapok Wood.
  • Lignum Vitae (tree). A slow-growing tree of about 10 metres with blue flowers, from the dry and humid coastal woodland of the Caribbean and the northern coast of South America; national flower of Jamaica. Its wood is the hardest in the timber trade, sinks in water and greases itself, and has been shipped to Europe since the early 1500s, both as timber and as a cure. Overcut, it is now endangered and its trade restricted. Gives: Lignum Vitae, Guaiac Resin.
  • Mahua (tree). A tree of about 20 metres from India and Myanmar, scattered through the deciduous and dry sal forests of central India and in its fields and pastures. Its sugary, nectar-rich flowers feed the forest peoples and are fermented into mahua liquor, an essential drink at their celebrations. Its oily seeds give a solid fat, illipe butter, and it has served as barter currency and even as a dowry. Gives: Mahua Flowers, Mahua Seeds.
  • Mango (tree). An evergreen tree up to 30 metres tall and as wide, native to the lands between northwestern Myanmar, Bangladesh and northeastern India and now planted throughout the tropics; in the wild it grows in the middle storey of humid lowland forest. It fruits within a few years and keeps bearing for over fifty. The fruit peel holds urushiol, the poison-ivy irritant, and its juice can give a rash to sensitive people. Gives: Mango, Mango Wood.
  • Neem (tree). A fast-growing tree of 15 to 20 metres from the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia, at home in dry country with little rain. Its twigs are chewed as toothbrushes, its young leaves and flowers are cooked as a bitter dish, and its seeds give an oil that drives off, starves and kills insects. Its termite-proof wood is prized for the same reason. Gives: Neem Leaves, Neem Twig, Neem Seeds.
  • Palo Santo (tree). A tree of the seasonally dry tropical forests from Mexico through Central America to Peru, and of the Galápagos Islands. Its aged heartwood is full of fragrant oils and is burnt as incense in rituals. Peru banned the felling of live trees in 2006, leaving only fallen and dead wood to gather, yet illegal logging goes on there. Gives: Palo Santo Wood.
  • Sal (tree). A great tree of 30 to 40 metres from the foot of the Himalaya across Nepal, India, Bangladesh and Myanmar, often ruling whole forests; it keeps its leaves where it is wet and drops them from February to April where it is dry. Its hard, resinous wood is one of the chief timbers of India, its resin is temple incense, and its dried leaves are pressed into plates and bowls that cattle eat after the meal. The Buddha passed away in a sal grove. Gives: Sal Seeds, Sal Dammar, Sal Wood.
  • Tamarind (tree). A long-lived tree up to twenty-five or thirty metres, native to the dry savannas of tropical Africa and long planted across India, Southeast Asia and the Caribbean; in the wild it grows in low woodland, savanna and bush, often on termite mounds. Its brown pods hold a sticky pulp, both sour and sugary, used in curries, chutneys, sauces and sweet drinks, and the young leaves are eaten too. Its hard, dark red heartwood makes furniture and tools, and the pulp polishes brass and copper. Gives: Tamarind Pulp, Tamarind Leaves.
  • Teak (tree). A large deciduous tree up to 40 m with huge papery leaves and clusters of small white flowers, native to India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos and Indonesia. It grows in the tropical forests that have a long dry season. Its durable, oily wood is one of the most prized timbers in the world. Gives: Teak Wood, Teak Leaf.

Animals

Kept here

  • Cattle (can wound or kill, in herds, by day)
  • Water Buffalo (can wound or kill, in herds, day and night)
  • Goat (dangerous if cornered, in herds, by day)

Creatures

Also met here

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.

To gather

Obsidian Powder, Ash Lizard Egg, Firenewt Bile, Native Sulfur Crystal, Volcanic Fume, Efreeti Ashes, Salamander Brain, Azer Flame, African Buffalo Hide, African Buffalo Meat, Beeswax Block, Capybara Hide, Capybara Meat, Cashew Apple, Cattle Fat, Cattle Hide, Cow Milk, Eland Hide, Eland Meat, Eland Milk, Ostrich Egg, Ostrich Plume, Ostrich Leather, Warthog Meat, Goat Hide, Goat Wool, Honey Comb, Impala Meat, Amla, Indian Gooseberry Leaves, Sandalwood Seed, Jackalberry Fruit, Kapok Floss, Kapok Seed, Kapok Wood, Lion Mane, Mahua Flowers, Mahua Seeds, Mango, Mango Wood, Neem Leaves, Neem Seeds, Neem Twig, Plains Zebra Hide, Plains Zebra Meat, Sal Dammar, Sal Seeds, Spotted Hyena Paw, Spotted Hyena Tail, Tamarind Leaves, Tamarind Pulp, Teak Leaf, Buffalo Hide, Buffalo Milk, Peccary Hide, Peccary Meat, African Bush Elephant Hide, Elephant Meat, Cashew Nuts, Warthog Tusk, Crystallized Honey, Elephant Ivory Powder, Sandalwood, Jackalberry Heartwood, Jaguar Fang, Jaguar Pelt, Guaiac Resin, Lion Claw, Lion Tail, Palo Santo Wood, Rhinoceros Horn Powder, Sal Wood, Teak Wood, Asian Elephant Ivory, Black Mamba Venom, Black Rhinoceros Horn, Leopard Pelt, Lignum Vitae, Tiger Bone, Tiger Pelt, Activated Charcoal, Agave Leaf, Amaranth Seed, Beetle Wing, Snake Venom, Alchemical Resin, Black Powder, Enchanted Sugar Pinch, Eucalyptus Leaf, Fixed Nitre, Moonflower Petal, Opium Extract, Sacred Basil Leaf, Concentrated Venom, First Morning Dew, Lightning Strike Ash

Beneath

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

At the surface
25 °C
100 m
28 °C
500 m
39 °C
1 km
53 °C
3 km
108 °C

A town here

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

The same milieu, otherwise

Tropical Dry Forest, Primeval Tropical Dry Forest

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