D&D 5E Exhaustion how often / unfair?

[Coroc]

Playing through the Oota campaign our dungeon master loves to apply exhaustion levels for all sorts of stuff:

Air pollution, long swims /climbs etc. etc.

As much as i love the additional grittiness of it, as much i hate some of its consequences, even on exhaustion level one, and the difficult means to get rid of it.

Oota does not allow for frequent long rests, at least as presented by our DM. And no one and no NPC has greater resto available.

So that means my char has to do whole sessions with ehaust level one, which makes many skill checks like perception etc pretty useless or do i missinterpret something?

Ability checks does mean also skill checks doesn't it? At least thats the way our dm handles it.

What i find to be unbalanced in a gross way due to the exhaustion mechanic is, that monsters never seem to suffer from it.
I mean, do they never have to flee from something higher up in the food chain or run without a hearty adventurer meal for some days?

Please state your opinion, possible houserules, possible missinterpretations on my side.

I would say it would be not unbalancing if you get rid of 1 exhaustion level e.g. with a short rest or have lesser restoration cure a level and greater restoration cure all of it, what do you say?

 

[Krachek]

Exhaustion is the only thing that can force you to rest for several days. Unless having access to greater restoration freely.
this mechanics is the most “gritty realism” side effect we have, when our Dm call for an exhaustion level it is more scary than hit points damage.

in fact we can add more exhaustion effect. Why not give a level of exhaustion each time you reach 0 hit points.
and maybe each time you fail a death saving throw. Now we will have a scary game!

of course there is penalty, and yes ability and skill check are both affected by first level.
5ed is mercy-full enough to let you start the day with some level of exhaustion.
you can also begin an important fight with missing spell slot and hit points.
That is challenging.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

I'm a big fan of handing exhaustion like there's no tomorrow, but I also find the penalties very harsh. I'm in-between campaigns for the moment, but next time I think I'll add a little rule to give my players a fighting chance.

Gather Strength
While under the effect of an exhaustion level, you can try to gather your strength. Make a Con save against a of DC 11 +2 per level of exhaustion. If you succeed, you can ignore the exhaustion penalties for 1 minute. You cannot benefit from this rule again until after you take a short rest.

or

Hope in places unlooked for
You can spend 1 HD to ignore the effect of 1 level of exhaustion for 1 minute.

or

A fire when all others go out
You can spend Inspiration to ignore all level of exhaustion for a minute.

 

[DND_Reborn]

While our DM does not impose exhaustion for many of the things your DM does, we DO get a level when reaching 0 hit points. It does add a level of scariness to it and avoids the pop-the-weasel effect.

Although a long rest will remove exhaustion, we do house-rule short rests can remove exhaustion via HD spent. You require one HD per level for each level and can only remove one level at a time. So, if you have four levels, you need to spend 4 HD to remove one level and drop to three levels. Next short rest you can spend 3 HD to remove the third level and drop to two levels, and so on. If you have HD remaining, you can still use them to recover HP as well.

Of course, our long rest is 24 hours and our short rests are 4... adding more grittiness to it.

I think house-ruling lesser restoration can remove one level and greater all (seems right IMO) would be fine as well. If you really have an issue with it, discuss it with the other players and present it as a group to your DM. They should be reasonable about it. After all, if a rule or ruling is making the game less fun for your table, the DM should accept that and be willing to make the game more fun for everyone.

 

[LordEntrails]

Relax and go with it. Life is not fair. Why should your RPG be any fairer than life?

That said, it's totally fair, because if your character doesn't want exhaustion, then all they have to do is stop and rest. Sure, their might be consequences for that, like they don't get to save the world, or they get caught by whomever is chasing them, but that's a choice they get to make.

Consequences for decisions, and having meaningful decisions are important. If you are guaranteed victory (whatever victory is) then what value do you find in that victory?

 

[iserith]

Playing through the Oota campaign our dungeon master loves to apply exhaustion levels for all sorts of stuff:

Air pollution, long swims /climbs etc. etc.

As much as i love the additional grittiness of it, as much i hate some of its consequences, even on exhaustion level one, and the difficult means to get rid of it.

Oota does not allow for frequent long rests, at least as presented by our DM. And no one and no NPC has greater resto available.

So that means my char has to do whole sessions with ehaust level one, which makes many skill checks like perception etc pretty useless or do i missinterpret something?

Ability checks does mean also skill checks doesn't it? At least thats the way our dm handles it.

What i find to be unbalanced in a gross way due to the exhaustion mechanic is, that monsters never seem to suffer from it.
I mean, do they never have to flee from something higher up in the food chain or run without a hearty adventurer meal for some days?

Please state your opinion, possible houserules, possible missinterpretations on my side.

I would say it would be not unbalancing if you get rid of 1 exhaustion level e.g. with a short rest or have lesser restoration cure a level and greater restoration cure all of it, what do you say?

If you know that exhaustion is a threat or consequence and you're given a chance to make decisions to avoid suffering it, then I would say it's fair. If you don't know that it's a possible threat or consequence and/or you're not given a chance to make decisions to avoid suffering it, then I would say it's not fair. If it's the latter, talk to your DM about that and come to a compromise so that it's more fair.

Here are of three easy ways to deal with it in my view. First, if you're asking to make ability checks, stop doing that. (There are no "skill checks" in D&D 5e. There are ability checks that may or may not have a skill proficiency applied.) Just say what you want to achieve and how your character sets about trying to achieve it without reference to a check or any other game mechanic. Be reasonably specific so the DM doesn't have to guess at what you're doing, but don't go overboard with detail. If you can change the circumstances to make it more likely that you will succeed, do so if it doesn't cost you a lot in terms of resources (or maybe spend a lot of resources if success is very important). After you've said what you want to do and how you do it, wait for the DM to narrate the result. Unless your DM is the sort that asks for an ability check for almost everything, a good solid approach to an achievable goal might not come with ability check at all which means exhaustion has no effect.

As well, ask for another PC to work together with you on the task. If you're searching a room for a hidden object, for example, get another PC to do the same. If there is a check, the advantage from the assistance will negate the disadvantage from exhaustion and you'll just be making a regular roll. In combat, this is called the Help action. If the task takes less than a minute, ask a spellcaster with the guidance spell to boost your chances of success by casting it on you. Depending on how high the DC, a d4 added to the roll might offset the penalty for disadvantage.

Finally, spend your Inspiration to negate the disadvantage, especially if the roll is important (since Inspiration is a limited resource). Always be fishing for Inspiration by playing to your character's personality traits, ideal, bond, and flaw or whatever other metric the DM uses for awarding Inspiration. Not only will this be fun and make you look like a good, consistent roleplayer, but it will give you a resource in your back pocket for when you really don't want to fail an ability check while you have exhaustion (plus giving you advantage on an attack roll or saving throw in a pinch). If your DM does not use Inspiration or does not remember to award it, ask him or her if you can work out a better, more consistent system for it.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Exhaustion is a great tool to get players to pay attention to the exploration pillar of the game. I’ve seen a lot of players complain about how fighter skills like remarkable athlete are worthless, or how the ranger sucks, or how they prepare combat only spells. Well, with a mechanic like exhaustion looming, it makes the smart player realize they should be more variable when choosing spells, and the ranger suddenly becomes more important (because they can find paths easier to take, food to eat, etc)

 

[Tony Vargas]

Exhaustion is one of those mechanics, like 3e ability damage, that clashes with the otherwise abstract & playable modeling of narrative plot armor as hps.

I generally don't bother with it.

 

[Stalker0]

It sounds like your DM is going for a more gritty version. Absolutely there right but you need to be sure you want to play in that style.

Exhaustion is a "weird" mechanic in Dnd. It is one of the hardest conditions to get rid off (death is easier!), and it has very strong penalties.

As a compromise, I personally would swap around some of the exhaustion penalties. For example I think half speed is often less of a penalty than the disadvantage on checks, etc.

 

[S'mon]

Exhaustion is one of those mechanics, like 3e ability damage, that clashes with the otherwise abstract & playable modeling of narrative plot armor as hps.

I generally don't bother with it.

I basically agree. It is good to have in reserve as a threat - "ok you can stay awake all night - if you want to take A LEVEL OF EXHAUSTION, MUA HA HA!"

But the effects are so harsh I almost never force it on the pcs. At worst they might need a low DC CON save to avoid it.