lifestyle

daily cost

settlement minimum

wretched

3 cp

squalid

9 cp

none

poor

modest

comfortable

wealthy

noble

royal

semi-divine

divine

3 sp

9 sp

3 gp

9 gp

3 pp

9 pp

30 pp

90 pp

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Chapter 8: Adventuring

This chapter covers the basics of the adventuring life, from the mechanics of movement, the complexities of social interaction. The rules for resting are also in this chapter, along with a discussion of the activities your character might pursue between adventures.

Time

In a dungeon environment, the adventurers' movement happens on a scale of minutes. In a city or wilderness, a scale of hours is often more appropriate. For long journeys, a scale of days works best.In combat and other fast-paced situations, the game relies on rounds, a 6-second span of time described in chapter 9: Combat.

Movement

Special Types of Movement

Movement through dangerous dungeons or wilderness areas often involves more than simply walking. Adventurers might have to climb, crawl, swim, or jump to get where they need to go.

Climbing, Swimming, and Crawling

Each foot of movement costs 1 extra foot (2 extra feet in difficult terrain) when you’re climbing, swimming, l

Speed

Every character and monster has a speed, which is the distance in feet that the character or monster can walk in 1 round. This number assumes short bursts of energetic movement in the midst of a life-threatening situation. The following rules determine how far a character or monster can move in a minute, an hour, or a day.

Travel Pace

While traveling, a group of adventurers can move at a normal, fast, or slow pace. Fast is twice as fast as normal and slow is half as fast as slow. At normal pace a character travels 10 times its speed in feet ever minute. It travels its speed divided by 10 in miles per hour or its speed in miles per day.

Forced March. For every hour of travel at a fast pace, two hours at a normal pace or four hours at a slow pace, each character must make a Constitution saving throw. The DC is 10 + 1 for each previous saving throw. On a failed saving throw, a character suffers one level of exhaustion. These saves will only be required when necessary.

Mounts and Vehicles. If fresh mounts are available characters can cover larger distances at a fast pace, but this is very rare except in densely populated areas. Characters in wagons, carriages, or other land vehicles choose a pace as normal. Characters in a waterborne vessel are limited to the speed of the vessel (see chapter 5: Equipment), and they don't suffer penalties for a fast pace or gain benefits from a slow pace. Depending on the vessel and the size of the crew, ships might be able to travel for up to 24 hours per day. The Dungeon Master’s Guide contains more information on special methods of travel.

Difficult Terrain. The travel speeds assume relatively simple terrain: roads, open trails, or clear dungeon corridors. But adventurers often face dense forests, deep swamps, rubble-filled ruins, steep mountains, and ice-covered ground — all considered difficult terrain. You move at half speed in difficult terrain — moving 1 foot in difficult terrain costs 2 feet of speed — so you can cover only half the normal distance in a minute, an hour, or a day.

Activity While Traveling

As adventurers travel through a dungeon or the wilderness, they need to remain alert for danger, and some characters might perform other tasks to help the group’s journey.

Marching Order

The adventurers should establish a marching order. A character might occupy the front rank, one or more middle ranks, or the back rank. Characters in any rank need enough room to travel side by side with others in their rank. When space is too tight, the marching order must change, usually by moving characters to a middle rank.

Fewer Than Three Ranks. If an adventuring party arranges its marching order with only two ranks, they are a front rank and a back rank. If there’s only one rank, it’s considered a front rank.

Splitting Up The Party. Sometimes, it makes sense to split an adventuring party, especially if you want one or more characters to scout ahead. You can form multiple parties, each moving at a different speed. Each group has its own front, middle, and back ranks.

Encountering Creatures. If the DM determines that the adventurers encounter other creatures while they’re traveling, it’s up to both groups to decide what happens next. Either group might decide to attack, initiate a conversation, run away, or wait to see what the other group does.

Surprising Foes. If the adventurers encounter a hostile creature or group, the DM determines whether the adventurers or their foes might be surprised when combat erupts.

Activities

Characters can perform the following activities, two if moving normal, or three if moving slow.

Navigate. The character can try to prevent the group from becoming lost, making a Wisdom (Survival) check when the DM calls for it. (The Dungeon Master’s Guide has rules to determine whether the group gets lost.) When not actively trying to Navigate, characters take a –5 penalty to their Wisdom (Survival) check to keep from getting lost.

Noticing Threats. Use the Wisdom (Perception) scores of the characters to determine whether anyone in the group notices a hidden threat. The DM might decide that a threat can be noticed only by characters in a particular rank. When not actively Noticing Threats, characters take a –5 penalty to their Wisdom (Perception) check to notice hidden threats.

Draw a Map. The character can draw a map that records the group’s progress and helps the characters get back on course if they get lost. No ability check is required.

Stealth. The characters can move stealthily. As long as they’re not in the open, they can try to surprise or sneak by other creatures they encounter. When moving at a normal pace characters take a -5 penalty to their Dexterity (Stealth). Stealth cannot be used at a fast pace.

Track. A character can follow the tracks of another creature, making a Wisdom (Survival) check when the DM calls for it. (The Dungeon Master’s Guide has rules for tracking.)

Forage. The character can keep an eye out for ready sources of food and water, making a Wisdom (Survival) check when the DM calls for it. (The Dungeon Master’s Guide has rules for foraging.)

The Environment

The rules in this section cover some of the most important ways in which adventurers interact with the environment in such places.

falling

at the end of a fall, a creature takes 1d6 bludgeoning damage for every 10 feet it fell, to a maximum number of d6 based on the creature’s size which is 5d6 for tiny creatures, 10d6 for small creatures, 15d6 for medium creatures, 20d6 for large creatures, 25d6 for huge creatures, and 30d6 for gargantuan creatures

the creature lands prone, unless it avoids taking damage from the fall

rate of falling

when you chose to fall from a great height, you can fall up to 10 feet per die of damage in a single turn, if you’re still falling on your next turn, you fall up to the maximum by the end of that turn, this process continues until the fall ends, either because you hit the ground or the fall is otherwise halted

Unintentional Falls

when a creature has an unintentional fall it falls 30 feet before it’s next round, so for example if a creature is pushed off of a ledge it will fall 30 feet before it gets to respond at the beginning of its next turn, a creature falls only 30 feet no matter how many unintentional falls it suffers

suffocating

a creature can hold its breath for a number of minutes equal to 5 + its Constitution modifier

when a creature runs out of breath or is choking, it takes 1d6 damage at the beginning of its next turn, the damage taken each round goes up by 1d6 for every previous round of damage until the character gets a breath.

food

a medium creature needs two pounds of food per day, more if in cool or cooler weather and can make food last longer by subsisting on half rations

eating half rations for a day counts as half a day without food

a creature can go without food for a number of days equal to 6 + its constitution modifier

at the end of each day beyond that limit, a character must pass a dc20 constitution save or suffer one level of exhaustion

a normal day of eating extra rations reduces the count of days without food by 1 but doesn’t grant the other benefits of eating extra rations

a single berry from the good berry spell counts as a full ration of food for the recipient regardless of its size

food - notes

an extra ration is an additional half ration

for a medium creature a gallon of ale or wine fills the water requirement as well as counting as a half ration costing more than water but weighing less than water and extra half rations

water

medium character needs one gallon of water per day, or more if the weather is warm or warmer

a character who drinks only half its needed water must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or suffer one level of exhaustion at the end of the day

a character with access to even less water must pass a dc 20 constitution saving throw once every twelve hours or suffer one level of exhaustion

food and water by size

tiny creatures require 1/2 pound of food and 1 quart of water per day

small creatures require 1 pound of food and 1/2 gallon of water per day

medium creatures require 2 pounds of food and 1 gallon of water per day

large creatures require 4 pounds of food and 2 gallons of water per day

huge creatures require 8 pounds of food and 4 gallons of water per day

gargantuan creatures require 16 pounds of food and 8 gallons of water per day

light and vision

the presence or absence of light in an environment creates five categories of illumination sunlight, bright light, dim light, darkness, and total darkness and magic can create a sixth, magical darkness

sunlight causes creatures with sunlight sensitivity treat sunlight as heavily obscured when they or their target is in it and is normally created by the sun but can be created by magic as well

bright light causes no obscured areas for anyone and happens on an overcast day and by normal interior illumination

dim light creates a lightly obscured area and happens at dusk or dawn, on heavily overcast days, and is the normal nighttime illumination in some terrains

darkness creates a heavily obscured area and is the normal nigh time darkness for most terrains as well as being common inside buildings with minimal lighting

total darkness creates a totally obscured area, this only occurs underground, inside secure structures with absolutely no lighting, in forests at night, or in other terrain on heavily overcast nights

magical darkness creates a totally obscured area even for those with dark-vision, as the name implies, this only happens because of magic, or at great ocean depths

lightly obscured areas causes creatures to have disadvantage on wisdom (perception) checks that rely on sight

heavily obscured areas causes creatures to have disadvantage on attack rolls and on wisdom (perception) checks that rely on sight when the target of their attack, or whatever they are trying to perceive is heavily obscured

totally obscured areas causes creatures to effectively suffers from the blinded condition when trying to see something in that area

blind-sight allows a creature to perceive its surroundings without relying on sight, within a specific radius

darkvision allows a creature, within a specified range, see in dim light as if it were bright light, see in darkness as if it were dim light, and see in total darkness as if it were darkness

true-sight allows a creature, out to a specific range, see in normal, total, and magical darkness, see invisible creatures and objects, automatically detect visual illusions and succeed on saving throws against them, and perceives the original form of a shape-changer or a creature that is transformed by magic, furthermore, the creature can see into the Ethereal Plane.