Adventuring Exploration Encumbrance Encumbrance determines how much a character’s armor and equipment slow them down. Encumbrance comes in two parts: encumbrance by bulk and encumbrance by total weight. Weight: To determine a character's carrying capacity, compare their strength to the following chart. A character can carry a light load without penalty. Lifting and Dragging: A character can lift up to their maximum load over his or her head. A character can lift as much as double their maximum load off the ground, but they can only stagger around with it. While overloaded in this way, the character loses any Dexterity bonus to AC and can move only 5 feet per round (as a full-round action). A character can generally push or drag along the ground as much as five times their maximum load. Strength Score Light Load Medium Load Heavy Load 3 10 lb or less 11-20 lb 21-30 lb 4 13 lb or less 14-26 lb 27-40 lb 5 16 lb or less 17-33 lb 34-50 lb 6 20 lb or less 21-40 lb 41-60 lb 7 23 lb or less 24-46 lb 47-70 lb 8 26 lb or less 27-53 lb 54-80 lb 9 30 lb or less 31-60 lb 61-90 lb 10 33 lb or less 34-66 lb 67-100 lb 11 38 lb or less 39-76 lb 77-115 lb 12 43 lb or less 44-86 lb 87-130 lb 13 50 lb or less 51-100 lb 101-150 lb 14 58 lb or less 59-116 lb 117-175 lb 15 66 lb or less 67-133 lb 134-200 lb 16 76 lb or less 77-153 lb 154-230 lb 17 86 lb or less 87-173 lb 174-260 lb 18 100 lb or less 101-200 lb 201-300 lb 19 116 lb or less 117-233 lb 234-350 lb 20 133 lb or less 134-266 lb 267-400 lb 21 153 lb or less 154-306 lb 307-460 lb 22 173 lb or less 174-346 lb 347-520 lb 23 200 lb or less 201-400 lb 401-600 lb 24 233 lb or less 234-466 lb 467-700 lb Bulk: A well-packed bag full of supplies is no more encumbering than its weight makes it; a bundle of pikes is bulky and off balancing despite its relatively low weight. Any load which is moderately bulky automatically counts as a medium load. Any load which is very bulky automatically counts as a heavy load. Penalties for Encumbrance: The following penalties stack with any armor penalties. Stacking Speed Penalties: Different speed penalties (such as those for being exhausted and carrying a heavy load) stack, but only up to a point. These stacking penalties cannot reduce your speed by more than 50%. Load Max Dex AC Penalty Check Penalty Speed Penalty Medium +3 -1 -3 -5 ft Heavy +1 -2 -6 -10 ft Exhaustion Heat, cold, hunger, thirst, long marches, sleepless nights, and sleeping in armor can all cause a character to become fatigued. Often, this can be avoided or reduced with a successful Constitution check. These conditions persist until a character gets enough rest, unless an ability says otherwise (a barbarian's rage leaves them fatigued for just 6 rounds, for example). Fatigued: A fatigued character takes a -2 penalty to all ability scores and a -5 ft penalty to speed. Doing anything that would normally cause fatigue causes a fatigued character to become exhausted as well. A character is no longer fatigued after a full night's rest. Exhausted: An exhausted character takes an additional -2 penalty to all ability scores and can't run or charge. Doing anything that would normally cause fatigue causes an exhausted character to fall unconscious. A character who rests for an hour is no longer exhausted. Light and Darkness Characters need a way to see in the dark, dangerous places where they often find adventures. Typically, adventurers bring along torches or lanterns, and spellcasters have spells that can create light. Light Source Bright Shadowy Duration Candle 0 ft 5 ft 1 hour Lamp 15 ft 30 ft 6 hours/pint Lantern 30 ft 60 ft 6 hours/pint Torch 20 ft 40 ft 1 hour Bright: In an area of bright light, all characters can see clearly. A creature can’t hide in an area of bright light unless it is invisible or has cover. Shadowy: In an area of shadowy illumination, a character can see dimly. Creatures within this area have concealment (see ???). A creature in an area of shadowy illumination can make a Hide check to conceal itself (see ???). Dark: In areas of darkness, most characters are effectively blinded. A blinded creature counts as off-guard, has a 50% miss chance in combat (because all opponents have total concealment), moves at half speed, and takes penalties on relevant skill checks. Breaking and Entering There inevitably comes a time when a character must break something, whether it’s a door, a chain, or a chest full of treasure. When attempting to break an object, you have two choices: attack it with a weapon or break it with sheer strength. Object Hardness HP Break DC Light blade 10 2 -- Heavy blade 10 7 -- Metal-hafted weapon 10 10 -- Wood-hafted weapon 5 7 -- Projectile weapon 5 5 -- Buckler 10 5 -- Wooden Shield 5 15 -- Reinforced Shield 7 15 -- Simple Wooden Door 5 10 13 Good Wooden Door 5 15 18 Strong Wooden Door 5 20 23 Iron Door (2 in. thick) 10 60 28 Rope 0 2 23 Chain 10 5 26 Manacles 10 10 26 Small Chest 5 5 17 Large Chest 5 15 23 Attacking Objects Smashing a weapon or shield with a slashing or bludgeoning weapon is accomplished by the sunder special attack. Smashing an object is a lot like sundering a weapon or shield, except that hitting an object is trivially easy, except in rare circumstances. Different types of damage will affect objects differently. For example, ranged weapons deal half damage against objects, and you can generally smash an object only with a bludgeoning or slashing weapon. On the other hand, a fire spell might be especially potent against wooden structures. Armor Class: Normally, you can automatically strike an unattended item with a melee weapon. To hit an object with a ranged attack, or a melee attack when you are seriously hindered in some way, you must hit the objects AC. An inanimate object normally has an AC of 3 + size modifier. Hardness: Each object has hardness—a number that represents how well it resists damage. Whenever an object takes damage, subtract its hardness from the damage. Only damage in excess of its hardness is applied to the object. Hit Points: An object’s hit point total depends on what it is made of and how big it is. When an object has taken damage equal to its HP, it’s ruined. Very large objects have separate hit point totals for different sections. For example, you can attack and ruin a wagon wheel without destroying the whole wagon. Immunities: Objects are immune to nonlethal damage and to critical hits. Saving Throws: Nonmagical, unattended items never make saving throws. They are considered to have failed their saving throws, so they always are affected by (for instance) a disintegrate spell. An item attended by a character (being grasped, touched, or worn) makes saving throws as the character (that is, using the character’s saving throw bonus). Breaking Objects When a character tries to break something with sudden force rather than by dealing damage, use a Strength check (rather than an attack roll and damage roll, as with the sunder special attack) to see whether they succeed. The DC depends more on the construction of the item than on the material. For instance, an iron door with a weak lock can be forced open much more easily than it can be hacked down. If an item has lost half or more of its hit points, the DC to break it drops by 2. A crowbar, battering ram or other appropriate tool can drastically improve a character’s chance of breaking an object. Overland Travel Many adventures happen far from civilization, across difficult and dangerous wilderness. Travel over difficult terrain is made easier with good planning, but ultimately, each step of the journey will take its toll. A journey is divided up into phases, determined by the GM. Each phase presents its own threats and challenges, which must be endured or overcome. Successful planning can ease a journey somewhat; failures can compound threats and add new problems. Planning To prepare for a journey, the chief planner of the expedition rolls one planning check for each phase of the journey. The DC of this check is set according to the difficulty of the phase: DC 10 for relatively easy terrain, DC 15 for rough wilderness, and DC 20 or higher for the most extreme places. A successful check leaves the party well-prepared for this phase. A failed check means there will be some kind of mishap related to planning, supply, or information: weak mounts, insufficient or poorly sealed rations, no warning about local threats, etc. Planning Roll: Your planning roll is equal to 1d20 + (Planner's Skill Modifier ÷ 2) + Supply Modifier + Information Modifier The planner can use any relevant Profession skill for their planning (i.e. Merchant, Guide, Soldier, Steward), with Int as the key ability. The other modifiers are summarized in the following table: Supply Level Planning Check Modifier Rich +4 Good +2 Adequate +0 Poor -2 Very Poor -4 Quality of Information Planning Check Modifier Excellent +4 Decent +0 Limited -2 None No planning possible Enduring the Journey Each phase of the journey can present a variety of different challenges. Common challenges (and how they're handled) include: Difficult Terrain (Group skill checks to overcome the obstacle, potentially aided by planning. Failure can mean injury and detour.) Exhaustion (Constitution checks to resist; extreme exhaustion forces rest and delay.) Wayfinding (One pathfinder makes survival checks, against a DC set by the terrain and conditions.) Weather (Constitution checks to resist, potentially aided by survival checks.) Wildlife and Brigands (Detected with skill checks, driven off through combat or diplomacy.) Downtime Damage and Healing Recovering From Normal Damage Most damage a character takes is temporary; it represents fatigue, morale, and the momentum of the fight. Normally, damage can be healed by taking a few minutes to breathe and rest. When you have a chance to rest, you can roll some or all of your recovery dice. You have a number of recovery dice based on your level, and the type of die is determined by your class (see classes). You add your constitution modifier, and each die you roll reduces the damage you have accumulated. Once you use a recovery die, it is spent for the day. For example, Belidun the Rogue has 21 hp, and took 9 points of damage from a hard landing while escaping a gang of orcs. Once he's in the clear, Belidun has a chance to rest. He has 3d8 for recovery dice, because he is a third level rogue. Belidun uses one of his dice, and rolls 6 on his 1d8, then adds +1 from his Con bonus. He reduces his accumulated damage to two, and decides to save his remaining two dice for later. When accumulated damage drops below half your HP, you are no longer bloodied (unless some other effect, such as poison, causes you to count as bloodied). A full night's rest restores all your recovery dice; an interrupted rest restores half. Healing Wounds A character is only significantly wounded when their damage exceeds three quarters of their HP. This damage is recorded as wound points, which are much more difficult to heal than normal damage. Whenever you take damage past your wounded threshold, record where you were hit, and for how many points. It is possible to have multiple wounds of differing severity. Wound points can’t be healed with recoveries—they count as points of damage until the wound is healed. As long as a character has at least one wound point, they are wounded. To check for wound healing, roll one DC 10 Constitution check for each wound at the end of each full week since receiving the wound. With full rest, you can roll twice per wound per week. A success reduces a wound by one point; a wound reduced to 0 points is fully healed. Someone with the heal skill can help a recovering character by tending to their wounds. Nasty Wounds Some wounds are especially debilitating and difficult to heal. Any wound caused by a critical hit or by critical failure on a saving throw is a nasty wound. A wound which becomes infected also becomes a nasty wound. The DC to heal a nasty wound is 15 instead of 10. In addition to the wounded condition, nasty wounds apply a further penalty, appropriate to their location—normally a -2 on some appropriate rolls. Examples: -2 on checks to hear for a wound across the ear, -2 on acrobatics for a leg wound, -2 on checks with an injured hand, -3 hp for a chest wound. If a nasty wound is not fully healed in a number of weeks equal to the wound points, it has healed poorly. You permanently lose 1 hp, and the associated drawback becomes permanent. Any remaining wound points are healed normally (with a DC of 10). Downtime Actions In stronghold play, each year is divided up into Seasons. A season lasts 3 months--plenty of time for a mission or two and a variety of activities. Characters travel, carouse, oversee their affairs, and so on. Focusing on one area does have its benefits, however. Each season, a character can gain one of the following benefits, if it is the sole focus of their activity and they do not undertake any real missions. Crafting/Researching: A character who focuses on a completing a single project gains a +4 bonus on any necessary rolls. This single-minded focus is practically a prerequisite for the most difficult projects--sometimes, total focus is just what it takes to crack a problem. Resting: A character who spends their time relaxing, without subjecting themselves to stress or responsibility, gains one extra recovery die at the start of their first mission next season. Training: A character who spends their time training and practicing can start to pick up a new language, gain proficiency in a weapon or armor, or gain a +2 bonus on attacks against a specific type of enemy. Other benefits, like mastering a specific Feat (Skill Focus is a popular choice), are also possible. Whatever a character trains for, the benefit only lasts through the next season (except for learning a new language).