as someone who had to DM for a berserker barbarian the biggest problem was the one long rest = one less exhaustion because every day barbarian raged more then once a day leaving him constantly at a negative. so i just rule that exhaustion has 3 stages (-5 on rolls and saves, half movement speed, and pass out) then force a long rest

@Lurklen

2 ай бұрын

Our homebrew rule for berserkers was that exhaustion doesn't affect them while raging. So the effects are suspended while they rage, but if they frenzy they incur another level. We also changed up some of the berserker abilities and made it so the turn you rage you can do a frenzy attack with the same bonus action, and we gave the psychic resistance as a sort of counterbalance to the Bear totem. I played a Berserker to level 14 or 15 in a long running campaign and I found the rules pretty great. (You can rage without frenzy, and not take exhaustion, but you kind of want to go full out.)

Welcome to D&D, where the effects of stuff that makes you tired are more extreme, dangerous, and despised than the rules about getting stabbed, thrown off a cliff, or set on fire.

I think that while a smart party can avoid Exhaustion when it's a -X method, it would actually be really useful to have more ways of gaining Exhaustion than just failing to prepare, neglecting rest, or walking faster than normal. What if you could take Exhaustion... ...instead of Death Save Failures? ...to deal more damage? ...to use a stronger spell? ...to use an exhausted feature? ...to do more? Personally, I kinda like using Exhaustion to prevent Death Save Failures, or when Players go down, since then they aren't as keen to do the "healing whack-a-mole" trick, but if they do go down, they can still fight for their lives, and an Enemy can hit them once to "confirm" a kill, without it feeling unfair for the Players (as it's mostly a couple more debuff stacks when you get up).

My homebrew has 13 levels of exhaustion. The players are continually rolling against it. Every 6 hours, after combat, after any activity. Each roll has different levels of exhaustion to beat. It is useful for someone in the party who can make vitality potions to reduce exhaustion. Penalties alternate between -1 to no damaging rolls and damaging rolls up to -6 for both at level 12. Along the way speed is gradually reduced. Bonus actions, reactions and extra attacks are lost.

I think the 5 and 10 point systems are trying to cover two different concepts. The 10 point system is focused on general fatigue. The 5 point system is for attrition like severe starvation, dehydration, exposure, and disease. One needs rest the other should be treated.

I did something similar a while ago. My chart went: 1: Cannot gain advantage 2: -5 ft speed 3: Disadvantage on Ability rolls 4: -10 ft speed 5: Disadvantage on Attack rolls and creatures you impose ability checks against have advantage on thsoe ability checks. 6: Speed becomes 5 7: Prone 8: Unconsious 9: Dead Additionally when you drop to 0 hit points, you gain a level of exhaustion, and you regain all levels of exhaustion on a long rest provided you eat an drink and whatnot (because having to wait a week isn't fun).

Of all the deities and creatures it was ultimately the human farmer that ended up being the most powerful or at least that was our paradox

I always enjoyed the rules on exhaustion as it is. Albeit I also removed it from being generated from subclasses like the berserker barbarian. I always found it to be a fun way to bring the players to attention when going on long journeys. A gentle reminder at first as they make their first survival checks to hunt for food at disadvantage. If they hit second level I usually bring a combat like wolves attack or something similar to that so the party can eat and recover afterwards. I've never had a player hit 3rd level of exhaustion but I would imagine then that we are playing in a extreme environment game. In the extremely bizarre situation of 5 levels of exhaustion I guess I would possibly offer the players an escape from their terrible fates at a cost of doing something for a entity they would otherwise never assist or as a boon from a players deity/patron. I feel like the rule of -1 per level is really weak for something that is suppose to show wear and tear of the characters journey or conflicts. I know many players that would happily ignore a -3 to any roll. Only ever paying it mind once it starts to reach 4+ and in much higher levels would be annoyed by the trivial and tediousness of it. In base rules disadvantage on ability checks is functionally a -4 on their ability to recover by means of interaction with the world. It doesn't impose much in terms of combat effectiveness meaning players can take the time to recover in most cases i.e. sleep, or forage/hunt for food.

I just started running "Call of The Netherdeep" last week. I will be using the new exhaustion mechanics for that campaign, at least. For peeps not in the know, Call of The Netherdeep leans heavily on exhaustion in the story. Since half my table are new DnD players, I do not want to punish them too hard, as they are still learning how to play. To make things easier on everyone, including me, I will use the new mechanics. Should make everything smoother. Also, I will homebrew it that if you rest for a full 24 hours, instead of just the 8 for a long rest, I will remove 2 points of exhaustion. The players can balance out if they have enough time to rest that long or not.

I used an exhausted dice, like the opposite of bardic inspire. starts at -1d4 and goes up 1 dice per level until 1d12. After that death.

-1 from rolls -2 from speed -3 from max hp Every level of exhaustion

Nice video :3

You summed it up quiet easily and I agree. But, what I don't agree on is using this rule more often than once in your campaign. Maybe twice. Your story should not be structured that your players feel the need to skip rests. Sure, once in a while having a cool time pressured story arc in your larger campaign seems cool. But on the average I'd say, exhaustion rules should not be needed.

Last session my party wiped the floor with my cool monk boss and his minions. The rogue and the bard had 2 levels of exhaustion, the druid had 1, and one of the fighters constantly has 25 feet of movement because he made certain choices. So no, it's not that crippling.

I'm not the biggest fan of the 10 levels. Like, what if the players are really good at prepping, so at most, they only get to -3? That's nothing. I personally propose keeping the 6 levels of old, but make them -2s at a time. So 1 level is -2 and 5 levels is -10. Then 6 is death. Still easy to remember and players actually notice. Plus, it won't take them a week and a half to go from near death to fine. Just a week. Then, if you wanted to make it affect movement, just have every level also give a -5 to movement per level. so level 3 would be a -6 to d20s and a -15 to movement. Most races have 30ft of movement anyway, so most of the time, instead of actually hitting 0 movement, they just die.

@burgernthemomrailer

2 ай бұрын

You want to punish your players for being good at prepping?

@isaacagar8681

2 ай бұрын

@@burgernthemomrailer Not at all. It's all a balancing act of keeping things difficult and fun for the players. If they are playing well, you up the numbers of encounters and how many enemies are in the encounters. If they are rarely getting exhausted, then make the exhaustion more meaningful

@burgernthemomrailer

2 ай бұрын

@@isaacagar8681 Your players are engaging with the existing exhaustion rules as they are and playing smartly to avoid being harmed by them. Exhaustion is already meaningfully affecting their actions. Just because they aren't actively debilitated by them does not mean the existence of exhaustion isn't changing the way they act or think.

@isaacagar8681

2 ай бұрын

@@burgernthemomrailer I think you are missing my point. My players *are not* being meaningfully affected by exhaustion. They tend to only be holding 1 or 2 levels of exhaustion at a time, and giving them a -1 or -2 doesn't mean much past certain levels. So I did the same thing I would with encounters. If you find an enemy did its job well against the party, but they walk away with next to no damage taken, you either increase its to hit mod or its damage. In these situations where my characters are supposed to be stressed and exhausted, they aren't, so I increase the downsides

@burgernthemomrailer

2 ай бұрын

@@isaacagar8681 Almost as if… You’re punishing them for playing the game smartly.

Wow, it's almost like pathfinder 2e is a good idea and even DnD is catching up XD

With my rolls, even one level is debilitating. Disadvantage? Well might as well have me sit out of the game. I'm never going to roll high enough for the cool things or even hit things. So this new system seems better for my luck, even if I think it's too weak. I like the current rules, just wish there was a few more ways to remove levels.

I've never understood why people have difficulty with this rule. It's never been a problem at any table I've ever played at or run, and I've been running it for 7 years. Also, when you say "most tables" where are you getting that data? It's not very hard to remember, and it simulates being not just tired, but exhausted pretty well. I'm actually planning to add the -1 to dc's, but otherwise keep the rules unchanged. I feel like the 6E rules are kind of nothing sauce, and just too many degrees with not enough change between them. And it's even more to track than just a condition. But I guess it's a ymmv situation.

I do like the idea of 10 levels. I'm a new DM and I do not like the rules as they are for now. And beyond that I'm still not sure when really to give 1 level. Only for not sleeping? Or maybe pretty harsh environment....

@Elvalley

2 ай бұрын

There's some established reasons for giving exhaustion, but they are inconveniently placed, and some are optional rules: "Food A character needs one pound of food per day and can make food last longer by subsisting on half rations. Eating half a pound of food in a day counts as half a day without food. A character can go without food for a number of days equal to 3 + his or her Constitution modifier (minimum 1). At the end of each day beyond that limit, a character automatically suffers one level of exhaustion. A normal day of eating resets the count of days without food to zero. Water A character needs one gallon of water per day, or two gallons per day if the weather is hot. A character who drinks only half that much 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 automatically suffers one level of exhaustion at the end of the day. If the character already has one or more levels of exhaustion, the character takes two levels in either case." That's all in PHB 185 "Forced March. The Travel Pace table assumes that characters travel for 8 hours in day. They can push on beyond that limit, at the risk of exhaustion. For each additional hour of travel beyond 8 hours, the characters cover the distance shown in the Hour column for their pace, and each character must make a Constitution saving throw at the end of the hour. The DC is 10 + 1 for each hour past 8 hours. On a failed saving throw, a character suffers one level of exhaustion (see appendix A)." That's PHB 181 Those two are the main ones. Xanathar's Guide to Everything adds rules for gaining exhaustion for not sleeping and special rules about exhaustion while resting with armor on (pages 77 and 78). There's also exhaustion involved in the chase rules from the DMG (page 252), and some other places I can't very much remember.

@targetdreamer257

2 ай бұрын

I am not exactly sure where it is but I think there is a rule for being in extreme temperatures. Something like in for every hour you spend in temperatures above 100° F (37.7° C) you need to make a constitution save. Fire resistant creatures ignore this save. Then you have the opposite at 0° unless you have cold weather gear. I think you can find it on page 110 of the Dungeon Masters Guide. You could also if you’re running a survival style game use a house rule marching and sleeping in the rain causes them to make a constitution save.

Why not just add the 10 step exhaustion to your current campaign as a home rule? I mean if the players are all for it and all.