D&D 5E Smoke inhalation - when PCs do silly things in enclosed spaces

[Ancalagon]

Hello

tl dr: Are there any rules about smoke inhalation in the game? I am unable to find any and I was wondering if I just missed it.

What occurred is that 2 party members were exploring a long, deep shaft into the rock, going straight down (they are in an abandoned mine). This shaft is 120 deep, and after 50 feet they were, literally, at the end of their rope. A character dropped a torch but there is a bit of water at the bottom and it put itself out.

So the other character had the bright idea of emptying an oil flask and then sending down another torch to ignite it. I rolled to see if it would catch fire - it did - and now the PCs had a nice light source at the bottom of the shaft allowing them to see a bit what was down there.

Unfortunately, the shaft also acted as a chimney, drawing up smoke and hot air from the oil fire, and the PCs had to scramble up and retreat. One of the 2 failed a con save and was "negatively affected by smoke inhalation".

This was just at the end of the session, and I confessed that I was going to have to look up what that meant exactly. I figured it would be in the DMG somewhere, but I can't find it. Did I miss it or are those rules missing. Any suggestions?

One thing I will mentioned is that whatever effect inhaled smoke has, it has to be not as bad as inhalation poisons, otherwise those don't make any sense at all.

 

[Satyrn]

My first thought is "just use a couple levels of exhaustion."

It's my only thought, really.

 

[Sunseeker]

According to

Numerous signs and symptoms of smoke inhalation may develop. Symptoms may include cough, shortness of breath, hoarseness, headache, and acute mental status changes. Signs such as soot in airway passages or skin color changes may be useful in determining the degree of injury

Serious smoke inhalation can be deadly. Moderate smoke inhalation just makes you feel like a complete bag of barf. Smoke from oil will also have different physical effects than smoke from say, a forest fire. Without getting too complex, I'd give him the Poisoned condition, and a level of exhaustion.

 

[wwanno]

I assume they were climbing with a 15 ft. rope.

They should be able to flee in 1-2 rounds, and I think they can hold their breath for 6-12 seconds.

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[aco175]

I would most likely go easy on them since they were trying to come up with ideas and not trying to be stupid. Maybe poisoned condition seems good and have it go away after a short rest and spending one of their hit dice of healing. Of course a spell could clear this up as well, but I'm not sue if antitoxin would/should work.

 

[SmokeyCriminal]

I think a Con Save or be Poisoned is good enough. If they fail, once they're completely out of it for a minute give them another Con save to shake it off or else it'll take a Short Rest. If they're in an especially thick, black, nasty smoke (i.e. more then a smoke cloud) and they're coughing and retching or something similar, then maybe start them Suffocating.

 

[Ancalagon]

I assume they were climbing with a 15 ft. rope.

They should be able to flee in 1-2 rounds, and I think they can hold their breath for 6-12 seconds.

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alas for them, it was 50, not 15, feet of rope.

 

[wwanno]

alas for them, it was 50, not 15, feet of rope.

Yes, sorry, I meant 50 ft. (15 m.).
I think nothing really changes, 1 or 2 rounds of climbing trying to hold their breat

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[Yunru]

Sounds like fire damage to me (remember, damage types are generalisations).
Or perhaps constitution checks (with advantage if they have fire resistance, and autopass if they're immune) against gaining exhaustion.

 

[Schmoe]

Smoke from burning oil is nasty stuff. Depending on the size of the fire and the relative size of the shaft, I could easily see it being as bad as an inhaled poison, considering they are actually hanging out in the chimney. Assuming it was just one flask of oil, though, and just a 5-10' wide shaft, I think the effects would be fairly minor and temporary. The poisoned condition until a short rest sounds like a reasonable compromise.