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.)