Gameplay Toolbox
Travel Pace
A group of characters can travel overland at a Normal, Fast, or Slow pace, as described in “Playing the Game.” During any journey stage, the predominant terrain determines the characters’ maximum travel pace, as shown in the Maximum Pace column of the Travel Terrain table. Certain factors can affect a group’s travel pace.
Good Roads
The presence of a good road increases the group’s maximum pace by one step (from Slow to Normal or from Normal to Fast).
Slower Travelers
The group must move at a Slow pace if any group member’s Speed is reduced to half or less of normal.
Extended Travel
Characters can push themselves to travel for more than 8 hours per day, at the risk of tiring. At the end of each additional hour of travel beyond 8 hours, each character must succeed on a Constitution saving throw or gain 1 Exhaustion level. The DC is 10 plus 1 for each hour past 8 hours.
Travel Terrain
Terrain will probably be replaced by habitat (errata 5.2.1)
| Terrain | Maximum Pace | Encounter Distance | Foraging DC | Navigation DC | Search DC |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arctic | Fast* | 6d6 × 10 feet | 20 | 10 | 10 |
| Coastal | Normal | 2d10 × 10 feet | 10 | 5 | 15 |
| Desert | Normal | 6d6 × 10 feet | 20 | 10 | 10 |
| Forest | Normal | 2d8 × 10 feet | 10 | 15 | 15 |
| Grassland | Fast | 6d6 × 10 feet | 15 | 5 | 15 |
| Hill | Normal | 2d10 × 10 feet | 15 | 10 | 15 |
| Mountain | Slow | 4d10 × 10 feet | 20 | 15 | 20 |
| Swamp | Slow | 2d8 × 10 feet | 10 | 15 | 20 |
| Underdark | Normal | 2d6 × 10 feet | 20 | 10 | 20 |
| Urban | Normal | 2d6 × 10 feet | 20 | 15 | 15 |
| Waterborne | Special† | 6d6 × 10 feet | 15 | 10 | 15 |
*Appropriate equipment (such as skis) is necessary to keep up a Fast pace in Arctic terrain.
†Characters’ rate of travel while waterborne depends on the vehicle carrying them; see “Vehicles.”
Special Movement
If a party can travel at a high Speed for an extended time, as with a spell such as Wind Walk or a magic item such as a Carpet of Flying, translate the party’s Speed into travel rates using these rules:
Miles per hour = Speed ÷ 10
Miles per day (Normal pace) = Miles per hour × number of hours traveled (typically 8)
Fast pace = Miles per day × 1⅓ (round down)
Slow pace = Miles per day × 2/3 (round down)
If the characters are flying or their special movement allows them to ignore Difficult Terrain, they can move at a Fast pace regardless of the terrain.
Vehicles
Characters traveling in a vehicle use the vehicle’s speed in miles per hour (as shown in “Equipment”) to determine their rate of travel, and they don’t choose a travel pace.
Creating a Background
A character’s background represents what the character did prior to becoming an adventurer. Creating a unique background or customizing an existing one can reflect the particular theme of your campaign or elements of your world. You can also create a background to help a player craft the story they have in mind for their character.
This section describes, step by step, how you can create backgrounds tailored for your world and the heroes in it.
1: Choose Abilities
Choose three abilities that seem appropriate for the background:
Strength or Dexterity. These abilities are ideal for a background involving physical exertion.
Constitution. This ability is ideal for a background that involves endurance or long hours of activity.
Intelligence or Wisdom. One or both abilities are ideal for a background that focuses on cerebral or spiritual matters.
Charisma. This ability is ideal for a background that involves performance or social interaction.
2: Choose a Feat
Choose one feat from the Origin category. See “Origin Feats” for examples of Origin feats.
3: Choose Skill Proficiencies
Choose two skills appropriate for the background. There needn’t be a relationship between the skill proficiencies a background grants and the ability scores it increases.
4: Choose a Tool Proficiency
Choose one tool used in the practice of the background or often associated with it.
5: Choose Equipment
Assemble a package of equipment worth 50 GP (including unspent gold). Don’t include Martial weapons or armor, as characters get them from their class choices.
Curses and Magical Contagions
A curse is a magical burden that lasts for a specified time or until it is ended by some means. A magical contagion is an adverse effect of magical origin that is contagious by definition.
The following sections discuss curses and magical contagions in detail.
Curses
A curse typically takes one of the forms detailed below.
Bestow Curse
The simplest curses are created by the Bestow Curse] spell. The effects of such curses are limited and can be ended by the Remove Curse spell.
Bestow Curse provides useful benchmarks for gauging the potency of other curses. A curse that lasts for 1 minute equates to a level 3 spell, while one that lasts until dispelled equates to a level 9 spell.
Cursed Creatures
Some monsters are associated with curses, whether as part of their origins or due to their ability to spread curses—werewolves being a prime example.
You decide how a spell like Remove Curse affects a creature with accursed origins. For example, you might decide that a mummy was created through a curse and it can be destroyed permanently only by casting Remove Curse on its corpse.
Cursed Magic Items
Cursed magic items are created deliberately or originate as the result of supernatural events. Such items are detailed in “Magic Items.”
Narrative Curses
A curse might manifest during an adventure when a creature’s violation of a taboo warrants supernatural punishment, such as breaking a vow, defiling a tomb, or murdering an innocent. Such a curse can have any effects you design, or it might be a customized version of another type of curse discussed in this section.
A creature affected by such a curse should know why they’re being punished and be able to learn how to end their curse, likely by symbolically righting the wrong they committed. How a spell like Remove Curse affects a curse that’s part of your adventure is up to you—the spell might merely suppress the effects of the curse for a time. Regardless, narrative curses should feel like rare, potent magic rooted in the lore of your campaign.
Environmental Curses
Some locations are so suffused with evil that anyone who lingers there is burdened with a curse. Demonic Possession is one example of an environmental curse.
Demonic Possession. Demonic Possession arises from the chaos and evil of the Abyss and commonly besets creatures that interact with demonic objects or linger in desecrated locations, where demonic spirits await victims.
A creature that becomes the target of Demonic Possession must succeed on a DC 15 Charisma saving throw or be possessed by a bodiless demonic entity. Whenever the possessed creature rolls a 1 on a D20 Test, the demonic entity takes control of the creature and determines the creature’s behavior thereafter. At the end of each of the possessed creature’s later turns, the creature makes a DC 15 Charisma saving throw, regaining control of itself on a success.
After finishing a Long Rest, a creature with Demonic Possession makes a DC 15 Charisma saving throw. On a successful save, the effect ends on the creature. A Dispel Evil and Good spell or any magic that removes a curse also ends the effect on it. ==Magical Contagions Alchemists, potion brewers, and areas of wild magic are credited with creating the first magical contagions. An outbreak of such a contagion can form the basis of an adventure as characters search for a cure and try to stop the contagion’s spread. Rest and Recuperation If a creature infected with a magical contagion spends 3 days recuperating—engaging in no activities that would interrupt a Long Rest—the creature makes a DC 15 Constitution saving throw at the end of the recuperation period. On a successful save, the creature has Advantage on saving throws to fight off the magical contagion for the next 24 hours. Example Contagions The following examples show how magical contagions can work. Feel free to alter the saving throw DCs, effects, and other characteristics of these contagions to suit your campaign. Cackle Fever Magical Contagion Cheaply made potions and elixirs are sometimes tainted by Cackle Fever, which affects Humanoids only (gnomes are strangely immune). A creature suffers the following effects 1d4 days after infection: Fever. The creature gains 1 Exhaustion level, which lasts until the contagion ends on the creature. Uncontrollable Laughter. While the creature has the Exhaustion condition, the creature makes a DC 13 Constitution saving throw each time it takes damage other than Psychic damage. On a failed save, the creature takes 5 (1d10) Psychic damage and has the Incapacitated condition as it laughs uncontrollably. At the end of each of its turns, the creature repeats the save, ending the effect on itself on a success. After 1 minute, it succeeds automatically. Fighting the Contagion. At the end of each Long Rest, an infected creature makes a DC 13 Constitution saving throw. After the creature succeeds on three of these saves, the contagion ends on it, and the creature is immune to Cackle Fever for 1 year. Spreading the Contagion. Any Humanoid (other than a gnome) that starts its turn within a 10-foot Emanation originating from a creature infected with Cackle Fever must succeed on a DC 10 Constitution saving throw or also become infected with the contagion. On a successful save, the Humanoid can’t catch the contagion from that particular infected creature for the next 24 hours. Sewer Plague Magical Contagion Fouled potions and alchemical waste can give rise to Sewer Plague, which incubates in sewers and refuse heaps and is sometimes transmitted by creatures that dwell in such areas, including otyughs and rats. Any Humanoid that is wounded by a creature that carries the contagion or that comes into contact with contaminated filth or offal must succeed on a DC 11 Constitution saving throw or become infected with Sewer Plague. A creature suffers the following effects 1d4 days after infection: Fatigue. The creature gains 1 Exhaustion level. Weakness. While the creature has any Exhaustion levels, it regains only half the normal number of Hit Points from spending Hit Point Dice. Restlessness. While the creature has any Exhaustion levels, finishing a Long Rest neither restores lost Hit Points nor reduces the creature’s Exhaustion level. Fighting the Contagion. Daily at dawn, an infected creature makes a DC 11 Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, the creature gains 1 Exhaustion level as its fatigue worsens. On a successful save, the creature’s Exhaustion level decreases by 1. If the creature’s Exhaustion level is reduced to 0, the contagion ends on the creature. Sight Rot Magical Contagion Any Beast or Humanoid that drinks water tainted by Sight Rot must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or have the Blinded condition until the contagion ends. Fighting the Contagion. Magic such as a Heal or Lesser Restoration spell ends the contagion immediately. A character who is proficient with an Herbalism Kit can use it to create one dose of nonmagical ointment, which takes 1 hour. When applied to the eyes of a creature suffering from Sight Rot, the ointment suppresses the contagion on that creature for 24 hours. If the contagion is suppressed in this way for a total of 72 hours (requiring three doses and applications of the ointment), the contagion ends on the creature. Spreading the Contagion. Any Humanoid that makes skin contact with a creature infected with Sight Rot must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or also become infected with the contagion. On a successful save, the Humanoid can’t catch the contagion from that particular infected creature for the next 24 hours.