Dead Hot Desert

Hot Desert
Nepenthes, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons

Nothing grows here any more. Grey ash, bare trunks, dry beds where rivers ran, and a silence that birds do not break. Only the scavengers have stayed. Sand, gravel and bare rock under a fierce sun, with little rain and far fewer dunes than tales suggest. Life gathers at oases and wells, travel follows them, and the nights are colder than strangers expect.

Over the year it averages 24 °C.

Hear it

For the table

Ground
rough, about 20 km a day on foot
Seasons
14 °C in the heart of winter, 34 °C in the heart of summer
Water
scarce
Foraging
nothing

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.
  • Strong wind. Steady wind tires walkers, blows out fires and, on sand or snow, blinds and buries the track.
  • Flash flood. A storm far off sends a wall of water down a dry bed. A camp in a wadi can be swept away under a clear sky.
  • Getting lost. Under the trees, in the dunes or in the dark, every direction looks alike. Without a guide or a sure landmark, a party walks in circles.
  • Ash wind. The wind lifts the grey ash in a choking curtain. It gets into the eyes, the food, the lungs.
  • Dry beds. Rivers on the map are dry ditches. What water is left is black with ash and tastes of burning.
  • Hungry scavengers. With nothing else to eat, the crows, dogs and rats are bold. They follow the party and test the camp each night.

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
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Ash wind. (House rule) While the ash blows, the area is Heavily Obscured beyond 30 feet. A creature without a cloth over its mouth makes a DC 11 Constitution save at the end of the day or gains 1 Exhaustion.
  • Dry beds. (House rule) No water can be found by foraging. Ashen water drunk unfiltered gives the Poisoned condition until the next long rest unless the drinker succeeds on a DC 12 Constitution save.
  • Hungry scavengers. (House rule) Each night, unless the watch succeeds on a DC 13 Wisdom (Perception) check, scavengers spoil one day of rations; on a failure by 5 or more, they also bite a sleeper for 1d4 piercing damage.

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 30 · Sense Direction: Survival DC 30
Random encounters
flat check DC 17 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).
  • 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).
  • Flash flood. A flash flood works like an avalanche of water that carries creatures away rather than burying them; then the drowning rules apply (GM Core p. 96).
  • Getting lost. Sense Direction (Player Core p. 246): a Survival check once a day, –2 without a compass; DC 15 in ordinary wild land, 20 in deep forest or underground, 30 in a featureless desert. Getting lost has no fixed penalty: the GM decides where the party ends up.

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.

A scene

  • Desert. The winds whisper, and the sands shiver. As the sun rises, the land begins to seethe. Yet life will out, even here. There are those that toil on the surface. And there are those that delve and yearn. With the oceans boiled away, the bones of history lay bare. Time does not heal all wounds. Be careful where you tread. The full generator on the blog

Adventure hooks

  1. The land died in a single night forty years ago, and an old woman remembers what it was like before. She wants to see one living green thing grow there before she dies, and she has a seed.
  2. A trader crosses the dead land because it is the shortest road and no bandit lives there. Lately someone does, and is taking only water.
  3. The vultures are the only birds left, and they have grown fat. A hunter has followed them to their feeding ground, and found it is not carrion they are eating.
  4. A scholar says the land is not dead but asleep, and wants to wake it. The villages on its edge are not sure they want it awake, because they remember why it fell asleep.
  5. A caravan master hires the party to guard thirty camels loaded with salt. Halfway across, the guide admits that the well ahead dried up three years ago; he knows another, kept by a family who want him dead.
  6. A sandstorm has uncovered the tops of a buried town beside the oasis. The elders want it covered again before the young people start digging; the young people started yesterday.
  7. At a well on the caravan road, an old woman sells water at an honest price and tells every traveller one true thing, unasked. She tells one of the party they will die here. She means of old age, which bothers them more.
  8. A nomad family’s best racing camel has been stolen, and the thieves were seen heading into the dunes, which nobody crosses in summer. The son wants to ride after them; his mother wants someone to bring him back alive.

What grows here

  • Date Palm (tree). A palm up to thirty metres tall that can live over a century, with male and female flowers on separate trees. It comes from the lands between the Gulf and India and is grown across North Africa and the Middle East in oases, on deep, alkaline sandy soils. Its sweet dates are a staple, its fronds roof huts and are woven into mats and baskets, and its sap is drunk or fermented. Gives: Dates, Date Palm Frond, Date Palm Sap.
  • Frankincense Tree (tree). A small tree two to eight metres tall with papery, peeling bark and leaves of many paired leaflets, which grips steep slopes with buttress roots. It grows on rocky limestone slopes and ravines of Oman, Yemen, Somalia and Ethiopia, up to about 1,200 metres. Its trunk is cut to bleed the milky resin that hardens into frankincense, traded for millennia and burnt in temples. Gives: Frankincense.
  • Gum Arabic Tree (tree). A small thorny deciduous tree five to twelve metres tall that fixes nitrogen and enriches poor soils. It grows in the semi-desert lands of Africa south of the Sahara, Oman, Pakistan and western India. Cuts in its bark weep gum arabic, Sudan's great export, and its roots and bark give strong cord. Gives: Gum Arabic, Gum Arabic Tree Bark.
  • Myrrh Tree (tree). A very spiny small tree up to about five metres tall, with silvery-grey bark over a green inner layer and small leaves of three leaflets. It grows in eastern Africa and Arabia on desert slopes and valleys among open acacia, on thin limestone soils between 250 and 1,300 metres. The resin seeps from cuts in the bark and dries into small tears of myrrh. Gives: Myrrh.
  • Umbrella Thorn (tree). A flat-topped acacia that reaches twenty metres where water allows and shrinks to a wiry bush in the driest places, armed with pairs of thorns, one long and pale, one short, curved and dark. It grows across the savannas and the Sahel of Africa and into the Middle East, in heat, drought and salty soils. Its coiled pods and leaves feed goats and camels, its bark gives tannin and string, and its wood makes posts and furniture. Food of: Goat. Food of: Dromedary. Gives: Umbrella Thorn Bark, Umbrella Thorn Wood.

Animals

Kept here

  • Dromedary (dangerous if cornered, in herds, by day)

Creatures

  • Skeleton (a threat to the unwary, Challenge 1/4-2)
  • Zombie (a threat to the unwary, Challenge 1/4)
  • Ghoul (a fight to fear, Challenge 1)
  • Giant Vulture (a fight to fear, Challenge 1)
  • Wight (a fight to fear, Challenge 3)

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

Camel Fat, Dates, Date Palm Frond, Date Palm Sap, Camel Hide, Camel Milk, Camel Wool, Goat Milk, Gum Arabic Tree Bark, Gum Arabic, Red Fox Pelt, Spotted Hyena Paw, Spotted Hyena Tail, Umbrella Thorn Bark, Umbrella Thorn Wood, African Bush Elephant Hide, Elephant Ivory Powder, Frankincense, Myrrh, Rhinoceros Horn Powder, Black Rhinoceros Horn, Deathstalker Venom, Agave Leaf, Beetle Wing, Datura Leaf, Giant Hyena Blood, Scorpion Venom, Snake Venom, Vulture Throat, Ash Lizard Egg, Black Powder, Treated Dragon's Blood Resin, Dragonblood Sap, Fixed Nitre, Gnoll Fang, Iodine Powder, Jasper Powder, Sal Ammoniac, Selenite Sliver, Turquoise Powder, Concentrated Venom, Jackalwere Fur, Lamia Nose, Leucrotta Jaw, Mirage Shimmer, Djinn Dust, Manticore Eye, Meteorite Fragment, Mummy Soul, Whirlwind Heart, Adult Dragon Tonsils, Dragon Tongue, Lycanthrope Fur, Medusa Heart, Mummy Lord Heart Dust

Beneath

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

At the surface
24 °C
100 m
27 °C
500 m
38 °C
1 km
52 °C
3 km
107 °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

Hot Desert, Cursed Hot Desert, Blessed Hot Desert, Haunted Hot Desert, Crystalline Hot Desert, Eldritch Hot Desert, Toxic Hot Desert, Burning Hot Desert

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