More Physical DnD 5E: movement, strength, and exhaustion.

These rules make it harder to travel and perform feats of strength compared to the Rules As Written. This puts characters in near constant exhaustion if they are travelling at half marathon or greater distances per day. Characters, both NPCs and PCs, need to be very careful and manage their energy, resources and effort.

To keep it simple. There are some benchmarks, and characters who try to exceed this without “technique” from skill are pushing their limits.

Strength. (p79)

For Strength Feats that are Impulse or Instantaneous use Strength, anything longer use Constitution.

Carrying
Capacity. Carrying is bear something with either your arms, back,
shoulders, or both. A backpack or load bearing gear that places a
load on the character’s body is considered carrying.

Deadlift or
Squat. This is how many pounds a character can dead lift (lifting
something off the ground from a squatting position with both hands a
couple of feet until his standing position) or squat on a successful
Strength with Athletics Save DC10 per day.

Reduce the DC by 1
for every 20% reduction of weight. Increase the DC by 2 for every
attempt per day. Exceeding the weight by 10% adds a +2 DC. Moving
such a weight for a minute follows the firemans and farmer’s carrying
rules. Extending the feat for a round adds +10DC.

Firemans or
Farmer’s Carry. A Firemans carry is carrying a load over one’s
shoulders, while a Farmer’s carry is carrying a load with both your
arms hanging down. A character can do so with a Load x8 his Strength
for 1 minute. The character is considered heavily encumbered when
performing this task. Roll Constitution save vs DC10 with Athletics.
Failure is suffering Exhaustion.

Reduce the DC by 1
for every 20% reduction of weight. Increase the DC by 2 for every
attempt additional minute performed in a day. Exceeding the weight by
10% adds a +2 DC.

Push or
Drag. (no lift) x30 of strength in pounds. Ignore fricton or if
it is a significant factor increase the “mass” of the load being
push or dragged by the factor of friction. At x30 lbs in Strength
roll Constitution Athletics every minute at 10. Reduce the DC by 1
for every 20% reduction of weight. Increase the DC by 2 for every
attempt additional minute performed in a day. Exceeding the weight by
10% adds a +2 DC.

Strength TLDR

A high DC if trying to do strength feats more Intense or Longer. Feats of strength is incredible useful and very common need for it when costs to travel and move equipment is in the PCs consideration.

Variant:
Encumbered. If you carrying something x2 your strength score in
lbs you are encumbered and suffer -10ft to your base (instead
of 5x). Roll Con and Athletics DC10 every couple of hours and +1 for
every couple of hours.

If you carry
something x4 your strength score you are considered heavily
encumbered. In this condition the character’s speed drops by 20 and
suffers a disadvantage in ability checks, attack rolls, and saving
throws that use Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution.

This is the highest effort level of the character that can be
measured of hours. Roll a Constitution Save DC10 every hour in this
condition, adding +2 to the DC per additional hour.

Increasing Heavy Encumbered Carrying Capacity by 10% adds +2 to the
DC. Failure is suffering Exhaustion.

Dwarven Resilience p.3 and Relentless Endurance p.7

Grant Orcs and Dwarves the advantage in Strength and Con checks featured here.

Mounts and Other Animals p69

Use the capacity to get their strength by dividing it by 16. Consider them Heavily Encumbered while bearing that load. Since they are much larger than humans they have the x2 capacity.

These animals also suffer that conditions. The GM can use these stats to have more expensive stronger specimens as well as cheaper weaker specimens. The deviation tends to be plus or minus 20% from the average in strength. While the price for every 10% increase or decrease may go up by x2 to x5 for 20% better or 1/2 to 1/5 for -10% or -20% worse stats.

Travel Pace p84

Use pacing as a measure of effort,
which can be applied to other physical tasks. The table assumes a
30ft movement score. Use the Move Modifier for different scores (like
Dwarves or Barbarians with Fast movement).

Forced March. The hourly roll
below replaces the forced march.

Travel Pace Table

Pace	Move	Distance Travelled per…			Constitution**
	Modifier	Minute	Hour*	Day***	DC Modifier
Fast (Run)	x1.33	400ft (116m)	4miles (6km)	16miles (24km)	+5 by minute +10 by hour
Normal (March)	x1	300ft (96m)	3miles (5km)	12miles (20km)	+0 by minute +5 by hour
Slow (Walk)	x0.67	200ft (45m)	2miles (3km)	8miles (12km)	none

Pace can be used as
a level of effort.

* includes 10 min
breaks. So if you want to get the mph or kph x 1.16.

** add Athletics to
this Save.

*** roll Constitution and Athletics vs DC 20 per 4 hours of travel to simplify. Every margin of 5 failure is a level of exhaustion. Given that Making Camp is time consuming and may take up 4 hours by itself. Scrounging and Foraging would take up about 4 hours as well.

Allow Constitution and Survival instead of Athletics. It would be reasonable to allow Survival and Constitution for long travel. Of course you can’t use Survival for feats of strength and dexterity.

On long Temperate Climate Days, where daylight is 16 hours long, its common to travel 16 hours long with 4 hour breaks in between. But this is not sustainable for many consecutive days. In far off places, they can do with low security camps since speed is their “security”.

Shoes

Good shoes had a 500mile or 800km. The SRD has not much in boots, so I can recommend 8gp. Hobnailed boots is 4gp more. Increasing the quality by double triples to quadruples range. A pair of poor shoes (1/2 the quallity or value) has 1/3 to 1/4 the range.

Getting Lost

Roll Survival Wisdom DC 15. Reduce the DC by 5 in for familiar terrain and location. +5 to DC more than 3miles or 5km from the nearest village or land mark. +10 to DC for more than 6 miles or 10km from nearest village or landmark. Add 5 to DC if unnatural and familiar terrain type. Add 5 to DC in navigating at Night, with poor star visibility or dense canopy.

Difficult Terrain
(p85)

Emphasis on this. typically roads wind and hug the terrain, the distance becomes longer. Grades of incline also add to the difficulty. x1.2 to x3 the distance based on the grades of the roads. Save the basic movement for flat level roads.

Making Camp

Making Camp is a Survival Wisdom Roll of DC20. Every margin of failure of 2 adds 30mins. This roll is modified by the quality of the terrain. The roll is for a Secure and Sheltering Camp. A Poor camp is less secure and easier to find (DC10). A terrible camp would be dangerous.

More secure camp farther out. Its easier to make a camp thats farther from a main travel areas. Every 15 minutes march away (about 1 mile or 1.6km) would give a +5 to the roll.

Scourging and Foraging (Self Sufficiency p. 73)

Self Sufficiency only allows for Poor instead of Comfortable. This is a Survival Wisdom DC 15, every margin of 5 fails lowers the lifestyle by 1 level worse (Wretched and Squalid). A margin of success of 5 would increase the Lifestyle by up to 2 levels (Comfortable to Modest).

It takes about 2 hour Scrounge, Forage, find potable water, and Find Game for food. Roll Survival Wisdom DC10. Add 5 for every additional person this is going to feed. Every Margin of failure by 2 adds 1 hour.

This can be used for foraging for materials found in the wild.

Simplification of so many Exhaustion Rolls

Many Constitution
Rolls, just ask them to Roll vs DC 15, 20, and 25 when ever they are
doing something very difficult for an hour. The ideal is they keep a
light load. If the Players are overpacking then the penalty is these rolls.

Exhaustion and Injury

Failing an Constitution and Athletics roll that leads against
Exhaustion leads to an Injury. A failed roll by more than 5 deals
1d3 points of damage, and an additional 1d3 points of damage. The GM
can rule if this can be lethal. The limbs injured is considered
disadvantaged when being used for any physical task or roll.

Food and Water p.86

Grant a +1 to +2 DC bonus when the character has additional
rations. Every 50% additional ratios and water helps up to a max of
+5 per day. Having more food and water to do all the work helps a
lot.

Resting p.87

Short Rest reduces the level of exhaustion by 1 and up to 2 levels
of exhaustion plus constitution modifier can be reduced per day by
short rests. Long Rests can reduce up to 1 additional level of
exhaustion.

This means at 5 levels of exhaustion, it would take more than 2
days for a person to recover fully.

Exhaustion p.192

Remove the Immunity to Exhaustion of all creatures that have it.
Creatures that would normally push their limits, like Undead or
Machines, instead of suffering Exhaustion will suffer Wear and Tear
aka Damage. They take about 1d3 damage for every 5 points of strength
they have. A Zombie of 15 strength will deal 3d3 damage when they
would otherwise exhaust themselves.

What will this Do to your adventures?

Travel Pacing conscious Players and strategies. They will
depend on roads, load bearing animals, time, and supplies. The world is their antagonist.
Wearing Armor and full Kit is a careful consideration.
Optimal Light Load Kit.
Water and Food Conscious. RPing the value and appetite for supplies, catharsis, rest, and recovery.

The SRD 5E
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half_marathon and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marathon to learn the benchmarks of a marathon and what stat’s such distances should entail.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strongman_(strength_athlete) for feats of strength.
Marching, Survival and Camping rules are derived from the Small Wars Manual
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlcd0B0cVqU Lindybeige authentiboots
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3qTniJsoEg Lindybeige authentiboots

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