This page gathers all my articles that use terrain to challenge your players.
Confession: Before I started this blog, I used to consider terrain boring, but since then I’ve learned better. Terrain provides an incredible amount of potential hazards and movement restrictions, and is capable of spicing up almost any number of encounters.
To show the uses of terrain better, and to make it easier for you to use in your games, I’ve organized all the relevant articles according to terrain type.
Each section below starts with a brief overview of the terrain type, followed by links to encounters that make use of the terrain. While each encounter is designed around a specific monster, the core ideas are generally flexible enough to be easily adaptable to a scenario of your choice.
Mountain Terrain
Travel: Most movement follows valleys or switchback roads. More dangerous paths hug cliffs or run through narrow, flood-prone ravines, limiting movement. Bad for non-flying melee, good for ranged. Long ranged sight with few obstructions. Highly vulnerable to bad weather.
Hazards: Falling (or thrown) rocks, sudden breaks in the ground, and unstable boulders.
Mountain Canyon
Hill Terrain
Travel: Hills range from open slopes to short cliff faces. Cliffs here may be low enough to jump down from but too steep to climb without a check. Loose soil is climbable but may require a DEX save when descending quickly.
Hazards: Highly varied—thickets of thorns blocking sight, loose footing may cause small falls, unstable “rolling” boulders, scattered ponds or streams, and trees (possibly dead or unstable).
Forest Terrain
Forests aren’t usually dense with undergrowth, but there are such areas. Trees limit long-range visibility and make it easy to get turned around. It’s ideal for ambushes—many creatures can smell or hear the party before they’re seen, and hide in bushes or up trees. Tracking is relatively easy in soft ground and leaf litter.
Swamp Terrain
Travel: Swamps range from open water to scattered strips of land to soggy, plant-choked ground. Terrain that mixes land and water creates the most interesting gameplay, not only limiting footing but making the limits unclear. Especially lethal when fighting enemies that swim. Often has poor visibility.
Resting spots are rare, and conditions can shift quickly with rain. Travel is exhausting and may justify exhaustion levels over time. Insects and disease are prevalent, and while not commonly used in D&D, they may justify poor concentration and hard skill checks.
Hazards: Footing is often unstable—players may cross land bridges that collapse behind them or step into mud that traps them in place or drags them down like quicksand.
Artic Terrain
Arctic terrain often overlaps with mountains or forests [see above], but its dangers are more intense. Chasms and cracks are more common, as the freeze-thaw cycle shifts the ground. Resting requires shelter or fire—tents are heavy and visible, and fires draw attention. Becoming wet is dangerous; even a shallow stream or a broken ice patch can threaten hypothermia if not addressed quickly.
Visibility can shift rapidly due to snow, wind, or white-out conditions. Harsh exposure, limited resources, and changes in weather can force travel and/or restrict it, and these conditions can change rapidly.
Dessert Terrain
Travel: In the desert, staying near water is critical—travelers often take long, winding routes to remain close to oases. Most travel happens at dawn, dusk, or night (with moonlight or darkvision), since being caught in the open during peak heat can be deadly. Visibility is typically excellent, except during sandstorms.
Hazards: Loose sand may collapse underfoot, causing falls or partial burial. Mild sandstorms cut visibility; stronger ones demand shelter to avoid suffocation. Heat haze and mirages can hide threats or distort distances. Stones and black sand may stay hot for hours, burning the barefoot or anyone who falls prone.
Deserts preserve structures well, making them ideal places to find ancient ruins still standing after thousands of years. Many deserts are also hill-like in shape—see Hill Terrain above.
Adult Blue Dragon (CR 16) Wasteland, technically
Underdark
As a completely fictional environment, the Underdark offers broad flexibility. It can resemble classic dungeon corridors or expand into vast, open caverns. Natural features like vertical shafts, overhanging tunnels, and uneven ledges are common.
Without soil, floors are often slick—especially near water—and navigating vertical space is as important as horizontal movement.
Collapsing ceilings pose a serious threat if pillars or support structures are damaged. Dark.
Tunnels
Water
By default, underwater combat punishes most characters—non-piercing melee attacks suffer disadvantage, and all creatures gain resistance to fire. Don’t spring full underwater scenes without warning; if running a water-based adventure, consider magical solutions to offset these penalties (like the gillyweed in Harry Potter, which transformed his fire spell into an underwater equivalent).
Remember, you don’t need to frustrate the whole party to derail a session—getting even one player fed up can sour the game.
Water works best as a passive hazard. PCs move and fight slowly and clumsily, while aquatic enemies retain full speed and control.
In addition, even shallow or partially flooded areas can present major dangers:
- Currents, Waves, and Undertow: Moving water can drag players off course, pin them against rocks, or pull them into deeper danger. Tidal surges can trap or separate the group. Even without strong movement, water often conceals sudden drops and unstable footing.
- Floating Debris and Vegetation: Weeds can entangle legs and reduce movement, while floating logs, detritus, or oil slicks obscure vision and interfere with combat. Incoming debris may even collide with characters mid-fight.
- Freezing or Polluted Water: Cold water risks hypothermia; fouled or magically tainted water may cause disease, exhaustion, or magical effects over time.
Water doesn’t need to be the battlefield—just being present and dangerous is often enough to shift the entire fight.
Bullywug (CR 1/4) River Crossing
Other
This section is for terrains that weren’t prominent enough to have their own section.
Silver Dragon Wyrmling (CR 2) Flooding Tower & Cave chase
Bronze Dragon Wyrmling (CR 2) Waterfalls
How to Fight a Dragon: Part 1 Urban and Ghost Town
How to Use Terrain the Right Way
Aim to rotate through at least two or three terrain types in your campaign. Even dungeons or cities can break things up by pausing terrain-based challenges, but variety keeps players engaged.
Don’t apply terrain effects constantly—save them for when they enhance the scene or create meaningful choices. Instead of lengthy descriptions, weave terrain naturally into your narration: when introducing a creature or NPC, briefly note where they’re standing or what terrain feature they’re using. Subtle, consistent use keeps the world immersive without overwhelming the players.