House Rules

We are playing using a variety of "House Rules" - most of these are documented in the extensive Variant Rules document that Rob has created - a mash-up of existing 5th Edition rules and improvements, many of which come from the new One D&D that is currently (Oct '23) still in development - and they cover all aspects of the game, from races, classes, spell casting, equipment, skill usage and various other areas as well.

This page however summarises some of the key rules that have the possibility of affecting our actual session game play as well as some that aren't even documented in Rob's wonderful document.

• Exhausted Condition

Standard rules have a maximum of 6 levels of exhaustion. In this game we have a maximum of 10 levels of exhaustion. While Exhausted you experience the following effects:

• • Levels of Exhaustion. This Condition is cumulative. Each time you receive it, you gain 1 level of exhaustion. You die if your exhaustion level exceeds 10.
  • d20 Rolls Affected. When you make a d20 Test, you subtract your exhaustion level from the d20 roll.
  • Spell Save DCs Affected. Subtract your exhaustion level from the Spell save DC of any Spell you cast.
  • Speed Affected. Subtract five times your exhaustion level from your movement speed. When your speed reaches 0 you cannot move more than 5 feet without assistance and must ride, be carried or dragged.

Ending the Condition. Finishing a Long Rest removes 1 or 2 levels of exhaustion (depending on the quality of the long rest). When your exhaustion level reaches 0, you are no longer Exhausted.

Note -

• • Interrupted Sleep. If your sleep is interrupted with combat, you must make a DC10 Constitution Check to gain the sleep benefits of a Long Rest. Failure by 5 or more means that you gain a level of exhaustion.
  • Sleeping In Armour. Sleeping in Medium or Heavy armour does not remove exhaustion levels, imposes Disadvantage on Hit Dice rolls to recover Hit Points, and Constitution Checks to recover spent Hit Dice regardless of the recovery conditions.

GAINING EXHAUSTION:

• • Being reduced to 0 Hit Points results in 1 level of exhaustion, cumulative with any current levels of exhaustion.
  • Every failed Death Save results in 2 levels of exhaustion.
  • Being killed outright results in the equivalent of 10 levels of exhaustion (i.e. Raise Dead would bring the character back with 9 levels of exhaustion).
  • Not sleeping
  • Casting spells once spell slots have already been used. Essentially, if a spell caster has used all their spell slots, they can still cast a spell, but it will give them a level of exhaustion for each spell level cast.

REMOVING EXHAUSTION:

• • Getting a (comfortable) Long Rest. - Note - the quality of a Long Rest is determined by access to Shelter, Food and Water, some method of dealing with injuries - use of equipment/supplies/skill checks/spells can improve the quality of each of these. The average recovery conditions and how they effect the recovery of hit points, hit dice and levels of exhaustion are listed below.

RECOVERY CONDITIONS

Conditions	Hit Dice rolls	Hit Dice recovery rolls	Exhaustion recovery
Wretched, Squalid	Disadvantage	None	None
Poor	Disadvantage	Disadvantage	Roll to recover 1 level
Modest	Roll Normally	Roll Normally	Roll to recover 2 levels
Comfortable	Advantage	Advantage	Recover 1 level, roll with advantage for an extra level
Wealthy, Aristocratic	Advantage	Advantage	Recover 2 levels

• • Casting Greater Restoration can remove 2 levels of exhaustion (i.e. the equivalent of a luxurious Long Rest).