Exhaustion Rules in One D&D
Characters with the exhaustion condition suffer a penalty on d20 rolls. Exhaustion is a cumulative condition in D&D, meaning the effects of each level stack. Each time your character receives the exhausted condition (determined by the DM), they gain 1 level of exhaustion—and when you make a d20 roll, it’s reduced by 2 times your exhaustion level. D20 rolls include ability checks, saving throws, and attack rolls. So, for example, if you have 2 levels of exhaustion, you’d also have a -4 reduction to any ability check, saving throw, or attack roll you make.
The exhaustion condition also reduces movement speed. A character’s movement speed determines how far they can move in a single round—and the more exhausted they become, the less they can move. Each time your character gains a level of exhaustion, their speed is reduced by a number of feet equal to 5 times their exhaustion level. For example, say your character’s usual movement speed is 30 feet (typically the default). With 1 level of exhaustion, your speed would be 25 feet (-5). With 2 levels, it’d be 20 feet (-10), and so on.
When a character reaches 6 levels of exhaustion, they die. Exhaustion has 6 total levels, with 6 being the most you can gain. And, if your character reaches 6 levels of exhaustion, they’ll immediately die with no death saving throws or chance of falling unconscious first. Characters who die by exhaustion can still be resurrected normally; there’s just no opportunity to prevent the death with saving throws (like there usually is).
Removing the Exhaustion Condition in One D&D
Each long rest removes one level of exhaustion. Finishing long rests is the key to getting rid of exhaustion. During long rests, you must rest for at least 8 hours, with a minimum of 6 hours sleeping and up to 2 hours doing a light activity (like reading or keeping watch). When a rest ends, 1 level of exhaustion is removed. The exhausted condition will only end once your exhaustion level reaches 0—which may take more than one long rest, depending on how many levels you have. However, you can also use a Greater Restoration spell to remove one level of exhaustion or take a potion of Vitality to remove all exhaustion levels.
Exhaustion Rules in D&D 5e (2014)
There are 6 levels of exhaustion, each with a different negative effect. In the original 2014 rules, exhaustion is still cumulative and measured in 6 levels, with the 6th level being death. Characters can gain levels of exhaustion from certain effects (like bad weather, strenuous tasks, or spells) and remove them by taking long rests or using the Greater Restoration spell. The levels are: Level 1: Disadvantage on all ability checks. Level 2: Movement speed halved. Level 3: Disadvantage on all attack rolls and saving throws. Level 4: Hit point maximum is halved. Level 5: Movement speed reduced to 0. Level 6: Death.
Pros & Cons of One D&D Exhaustion vs. 5e (2014)
Pros While the old rules aren’t necessarily difficult to use, the new exhaustion rules are easier for players and DMs to track (since the cumulative effect is simply a reduction to d20 rolls and movement speed). And, despite the new rule’s simplicity, they still have meaningful consequences for players without being as immediately punishing as the old rules. One of the biggest DM gripes about the old rules was their severity—granting disadvantage on rolls and halved movement speed in just a couple of levels—which could discourage players from taking risks. In the new rules, progressive penalties to rolls and reduced movement speed won’t weaken characters as rapidly, but they’ll still implement a major difficulty curve. Not only that, but the new rules apply to spellcasting, which the old ones don’t do—and many agree it makes sense that exhaustion would affect spellcasting along with other d20 rolls.
Cons There aren’t many “cons” to the new 2024 exhaustion rules. In the unofficial UA (Unearthed Arcana) version of the new rules, they only implemented a -1 penalty to d20 rolls per level and didn’t affect movement, which some believed would trivialize the condition. However, since the new and official version has steeper penalties and affects movement, it’s still a challenge for players. If you don’t like remembering different modifiers or tend to forget to apply them, the d20 roll and movement speed penalties may be a tad annoying—but not more difficult to manage than the previous rules. Overall, there’s not much of a reason to return to the 2014 rules unless you personally prefer them (which is totally fine). Even if you feel like reducing d20 rolls by 2 times the level of exhaustion is too harsh, it’s easy enough to tweak that and use the UA rules instead (with each level reducing rolls by -1).
Using One D&D’s Exhaustion Condition
Create a feeling of hardship or tension during gameplay. As a DM, do you want your players to experience the weariness that comes with exploring a vast dungeon or chasing (or running away from) a deadly foe? Give out levels of exhaustion in such cases to make the consequences of doing such strenuous tasks feel real—and make quests a bigger challenge. For example, say the party tries to confront a dragon, but it flies away. If the party feels they need to give chase and track it down before it can hurt anyone else, they can—but they’ll gain exhaustion from it.
Wear the characters down before (or during) a big battle. When you want a boss enemy to feel especially threatening, you could have that enemy throw extra obstacles at characters before the main battle—designed to get them tired and apply levels of exhaustion. That way, when the characters do battle, they’ll have an extra challenge navigating their exhaustion while fighting. For example, you could have the boss enemy throw waves of weaker enemies at the characters or give their lair effects that inflict exhaustions.
Homebrew Ideas for One D&D’s Exhaustion Condition
Combine One D&D and 5e rules to make your own version of exhaustion. If you’re still feeling a little unsatisfied with both sets of rules, nothing is stopping you from coming up with your own rules instead. For example, you could mix and match rules from One D&D and 5e 2014 to make a custom ruleset (as long as it’s still balanced for players). For example: You could push some of the more severe penalties back so characters aren’t all but useless after a couple of levels of exhaustion. Level 1: Disadvantage or negative penalty to all ability checks. Level 2: Disadvantage or negative penalty on all saving throws. Level 3: Disadvantage or negative penalty on attack rolls. Level 4: Movement speed is halved. You could alternatively divide up the ability checks a little more, giving players more time before they take any penalties to more important rolls like attacks and saves. Level 1: Disadvantage or negative penalty to Wisdom, Intelligence, and Charisma-based checks. Level 2: Disadvantage or negative penalty to Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution-based checks. Level 3: Movement speed is halved. Level 4: Disadvantage or negative penalty to attack rolls and saving throws.
Make it easier for players to get rid of exhaustion levels. Since exhaustion can be annoying for players, especially when the quickest fixes are a long rest or a 5th-level spell, the simplest solution is to give players more ways to remove it. For example, you could allow the 2nd-level Lesser Restoration to remove a level of exhaustion in addition to Greater Restoration. You could also let players make a Constitution check to try and remove a level of exhaustion, and if you don’t want them to do it too quickly, you could restrict them to one roll of this nature per day.
Give levels of exhaustion in exchange for letting players re-roll dice. A fun way to implement the exhaustion mechanic into your gameplay is to let players willingly take it on when they want to succeed on an important d20 roll. If a player rolls poorly and wants to try again (but doesn’t have any other way to do so), you could let them take a point of exhaustion but gain a re-roll. For example, if a player fails a Constitution save against a mighty enemy spell and asks to try again, you could let them re-roll the save but gain exhaustion from it, illustrating the extra effort they took to resist the spell.
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