A little help with an encouter?

[Aychek]

I hope this is the right place for this. I need some help designing an encounter or two for my game. So to make a long story short, my party will soon be making their way through my world's version of the Lightning Plains in order to reach, and then navigate, the temple of Ramuh.

The problem is, I'm not exactly sure how to deal with them walking through the plains themselves. I'm imagining there will be a random chance for them to be struck, of course, but I'm not sure how to set it up. The party will have every opportunity to do whatever they wish to render the lightning ineffective of course (Protection from energy, etc.), but I'd still like to come up with a roll or a set of rolls to decide where and when the lightning hits.

I mean, sure the party could follow a set of lightning spires since there's every chance those will be hit...but the thing about lightning is that it's unpredictable, and could still strike even if there's a lightning rod. Things could get even worse if there are actual encounters while in the plains.

So, anyone have any thoughts on how to do something like this?

[NeloAngelo]

If you have them going on an actual map, id say every 30-100ft, roll a dx (x being the amount of party members or set of members) and then roll a d100. While in the plains they have a 50/50 chance of being struck by lightning. While within 30ft of a spire or however much, there is only a 25% chance to be hit by lightning.(1-25) If you have monsters in the are and they actually get into an encounter, then every round roll a lightning strike at the beginning or end of each round. Id say if they are within 5- 10ft of the spire it should be negated to the spire but thats me.

If they arent on a map, id just roll maybe however you feel they should be progressing. The thunder plains struck lightning a lot in game, idk how frequent you want it to be here. Every min? How long walking/riding wise is it going to take them? Stuff like that comes into play. Id roll every min or half a min depending how long its going to be and how much damage the lightning does.

Edit: Also, be a dick and make them fall prone if it hits. Hah. Also you should allow a fort save for half damage if its doing a lot and make them go under the static effect. And if they fail knock their ass prone. Hah. Ok ill go now.

[Aychek]

There should be at least one map with an encounter, so that should be easy enough. This is kinda what I was thinking, just wanted to see if anyone else had any ideas. One of my other thoughts was to do it based on grid. If the map's 20x20, then roll 2d20 and do basic grid math, then boom that spot gets hit. Course that doesn't take into account the spires.

Unless...if the lightning hits within 30 feet of a spire, there's a 75%/50%/25% chance that the spire is struck (diminished every 10 feet), instead...

The amount of damage is easy, though. Going to count it as a 'Thunder III' spell cast at base level, minus the Int/Cha mod. 5d6+5, fort save of 25 for half, and to avoid Static. Might seem kinda high, but these are level 9 characters with epic stats, and several are fighter types (Holy Knight, Soldier, Sentinel, Red/Dancer/Paradigm) with high fort saves. And the chance will be low that they get hit...but it will be there.

I've also gotta figure out interesting puzzles for Ramuh's temple...