Lingering Injuries

Here's my expanded and home brewed Lingering Injury rules.  The intention here is to provide injuries that are somewhat less severe than those in the DMG; injuries that a PC might suffer after a fall, botched exploration, etc.  I'll be using these in conjunction with a list of random wilderness travel hazards that I'm compiling.

Healing

Each Lingering Injury has a Severity DC (Severity).  Each Long Rest, a PC with a Lingering Injury rolls a Constitution Saving Throw.  If the result meets or exceeds the Severity, the injury is healed.  After each failed roll, reduce the Severity by 1 to model the effects of healing over time.  The PC should make this Saving Throw after any Medicine Checks or magical healing is performed.

Medicine Checks

During each Long Rest, a character can attempt a WIS(Medicine) Check on someone with a Lingering Injury.  Another character with Medicine proficiency can Help in this attempt.  These healers can attend to only one injured PC per Long Rest.  While there's a good chance that this ministrations will help, there is also a chance that they could make matters worse.

Medicine Check Result
0-5: Increase the Severity by 1d6.
6-9: No effect.
10-14: Decrease the Severity by 1.
15+: Decrease the Severity by 1d6.

Magical Healing

Every 10 points of magical healing applied to the injury reduces the Severity by 1.

Lingering Injuries (1d12)

1. Fractured Leg - Severity 20 - Gain 1 level of Exhaustion.  Speed halved.  Cannot take Dash action.
2. Fractured Arm - Severity 20 - Gain 1 level of Exhaustion.  Cannot hold anything with two hands, can hold only one object at a time.
3. Internal Injury - Severity 15 - Action in combat = DC15 Constitution Saving Throw.  Failure = lose your action, and cannot take reactions until start of next turn.
4. Broken Ribs - Severity 15 - Action in combat = DC10 Constitution Saving Throw.  Failure = lose your action, and cannot take reactions until start of next turn.
5. Damaged Eyes - Severity 15 - Disadvantage on Wisdom(Perception) Checks that rely on sight, and on ranged attack rolls.
6. Damaged Ears - Severity 15 - Disadvantage on Wisdom(Perception) Checks that rely on hearing.
7. Fractured Hand - Severity 15 - Cannot hold anything with two hands, can hold only one object at a time.
8. Festering Wound - Severity 10 - Gain 1 level of Exhaustion.  Lose 1d6 hp after each Long Rest.
9. Twisted Knee - Severity 10 - Speed halved.  DC10 Dexterity Check after Dash action or fall prone.
10. Sprained Ankle - Severity 10 - Speed reduced by 5.  DC10 Dexterity Check after Dash action or fall prone.
11. Battered Face - Severity 5 - Disadvantage on Charisma(Persuasion) Checks.
12. Open Wound - Severity 5 - Lose 1d6 hp after each Long Rest.

I try to knock them out

In D&D 5e, you can declare any damage as non-lethal, knocking an enemy out instead of killing them outright.  While handy, the deterministic nature of this rule is far too boring for my campaign.  To inject a little uncertainty into the proposition, I use this house rule.

• If you "pull your punches" and attack at disadvantage, and knock an enemy to zero hit points, they are knocked unconscious instead of killed outright.
• You can also attempt to knock out a target by making a normal attack roll followed by a DC15 DEX(Medicine) check.  If you are using a bludgeoning weapon you have Advantage on this check.  Success indicates non-lethal damage.

Exploration Turns

As I alluded to in earlier posts, I run dungeon crawls in my 5e campaign using something called Exploration Turns.  My goal is to merge aspects of dungeon crawl board games, like my favorite Warhammer Quest, with good ole' D&D.    I make use of minis and dungeon tiles.  Dungeons are on the compact side, about 3 to 6 main rooms is enough.  The process works like this:



Starting the Delve

When the party is about to enter a dungeon, I place the first dungeon tile down, and have them line up at the edge of the tile in marching order.  I have everyone make note of their encumbrance, and their modified movement rate.

Move and Action

Play then proceeds in Exploration Turns.  The players take turns moving their PC minis, one by one, in whatever order they decide.  Moving diagonally costs 1 movement point the first time, and 2 the second time.  Each PC can also take one action, such as trying to force open a door, pick a lock, disable a trap, etc.  As new areas of the dungeon come into range of the party's light source(s), I lay down the dungeon tiles to represent them.

Unexpected Events

At the end of each Exploration Turn, one of the players rolls 1d6.  If the result is a 1, an Unexpected Event occurs.  For each dungeon I create, I have a 2d12 table of Unexpected Events.  These are most always negative, such as wandering monsters, traps, or bad environmental effects, but there are some beneficial Unexpected Events.  These Events keep the pressure on the PCs to keep moving and accomplish their goal.

Combat

I reveal any monsters at the end of the Exploration Turn, and then have everyone roll Initiative.  Play proceeds in Combat Turns until the enemies are defeated, following Initiative order.  Since the party never knows when monsters will pop up, they need to take care to preserve their desired formation as they explore the dungeon.

Short Rests

It's rare that the party will want to take a Short Rest in the dungeon, but if they really wish to do so, they can.  If they've found a truly secure position, I'll let them take the Short Rest without risk.  If not, they need to make 3 Unexpected Event rolls during the Short Rest and hope nothing bad shows up.

Summary

The Exploration Turn system makes a dungeon crawl in D&D 5e feel more like a tactical board game.  The Unexpected Event rolls keep the tension ratcheted up, and make things like rolling to open a stuck door meaningful.  Encumbrance becomes important, because each 5' of movement is critical.  The beautiful chaos that is injected from the Unexpected Events keeps the experience fresh and interesting.  My players are currently in the middle of completing the first dungeon using this method, when they're finished I'll publish the dungeon as an example.

Identifying Magic Items

In my Overworld campaign dungeon crawls, I use Exploration Turns when the party is exploring.  During one Exploration Turn, PCs can each move, in any order they desire, and perform one action.  After each Exploration Turn, someone rolls 1d6, and if a 1 comes up, there's an Unexpected Event.  This keeps the pressure on the PCs, and makes things, like rolling to open stuck doors, actually important.  These turns are abstract, representing a period of time exploring an area, and not 6 second combat rounds.

When PCs discover potentially magical items, and wish to identify them, they can spend their entire Exploration Turn studying the item.  If they succeed in an INT(Arcana) Check, they can determine what the item is.  The DC of the Check depends on the item's rarity:





Common: DC5
Uncommon: DC10
Rare: DC15
Very Rare: DC20
Legendary: DC25

Jumping

The house rules below handle jumping over one or two squares on the map.

• When you attempt to jump over a single square, roll +STR modifier and consult the table below.  You can add Athletics or Acrobatics proficiency.
• When you attempt to jump over 2 squares, roll at -10.
• If you have a running start of at least 10', you gain Advantage.
• If you land in difficult terrain, you must make a DC10 DEX(Acrobatics) Check or fall prone.

Jumping - d20+STR mod

1 or less - You miss completely, landing prone in the square you attempted to jump over.

2 - If you were jumping over a pit, you jump short, but manage to grab the edge of the pit and save yourself from falling in.  Next turn, you can pull yourself up and out using your full movement.  If you weren't jumping over a pit, consider this a 3 result.

3 - You land badly, falling prone and sprain your ankle (-10 movement until the next Long Rest).

4 - You land roughly, falling prone and taking 1d4 bludgeoning damage.  This damage cannot reduce you to 0 hit points.

5 - You clear the jump, but land prone and slide an additional square in the direction that you jumped.

6 - You realize at the last minute that you misjudged the jump, and stop short just prior to jumping, ending your Movement.

7-10 - You make the jump and land in fair shape, although your Movement is ended this turn.

11-18 - You leap gracefully and land spot on.  You can continue your turn normally.

19+ - Your jump was perfect.  Your confidence is boosted so much so that next turn you can jump at Advantage.

Streamlined Wilderness Travel

This house rule for streamlined wilderness travel consists of one set of rolls to get from point A to point B.  The DM might consider breaking up a very large journey into several of these rolls, if different terrains will be traversed.  I'm not going to bother with variable travel speeds for these streamlined rules.  Again, the inspiration here is from Dungeon World.

When undertaking a wilderness journey, each PC in the group must take on one of the following roles.  Make one set of rolls for the entire journey, and have everyone mark off rations consumed.

Navigator Role
WIS(Survival) Check, DC determined by terrain (DMG page 112).  Failure indicates that the party becomes lost roughly half way to the destination.  Mark off rations for half the length of the trip (rounding up), plus one additional ration.  Then make another set of rolls for the remaining trip.  Consecutive failures could mean the PCs wind up somewhere other than they intended!

Scout Role
WIS(Perception) Check.  Success indicates that the party gains the drop on any encountered threat.

Forager Role
WIS(Survival) Check (DMG page 111).

Tracker Role
WIS(Survival) (DMG page 244).

Random Encounters
If any of the dice come up equal or less than the total number of days in they journey, a wilderness threat is encountered along the way.  This nicely factors in a greater chance of a random encounter for larger wilderness parties.  After all, the more people traipsing trough the forest, the easier for the owlbears to hear them, no?

Streamlined Encumbrance

This is a house rule for a streamlined encumbrance system for D&D 5e.  It borrows the encumbrance mechanics from Dungeon World.  The goal is to make encumbrance easier to calculate and manage at the table without hand-waving it completely.

Item Weight

I'll be giving out item cards at the table to PC gear.  Each item will have an abstracted Weight value, which is roughly the item's actual weight divided by 10.  But, if an item weighs at least 2#, it has a minimum Weight of 1.  For example, a Shortsword has a Weight of 1, while a suit of Plate Armor has a Weight of 6.

Carrying Capacity

Your maximum carrying capacity is your Strength score + 10.

Encumbrance

If you carry Weight in excess of your Strength score, you are encumbered (PHB page 176).  If you carry Weight in excess of your Strength score + 5, you are heavily encumbered.