FallenRX
Adventurer
The problem with the old exhaustion is that its was far too punishing, and detrimental to the point where the players would never wish to interact with it beyond the first level, limiting choice and also limiting how you can use it, as giving the party Exhaustion beyond level 1 basically meant a death spiral due to their speed getting halved and attacks being useless to where it critically will drastically slow them down, or they would just die.
The playtest actually fix this by focusing it all on incremental minuses, that isnt much to begin with but add up, this is great design because due to it being far less punishing at first, players can actually choice to interact with it in a meaningful way, and make interesting decisions.
For example, Forced marching is actually an option the players can consider now, only getting level 1 was worth it, and it only marches you for an extra hour before you have to risk the check again which one a failure massively slowed you down. Now since its only a minus one if you fail, its actually worth the risk, especially since slowdowns on, even if you fail all the checks if you wanna move an extra 12 miles, its only a -4 which is about as bad as disadvantage, with not too many slowdowns. This might be worth the risk to some players, and i can see players choosing to march forward to get there, and risk the minuses.
On top if this, due to how brutal the previous exhaustion rules were, the game could not meaningfully use its food and water rules, because it was too brutal, and gave a lot of ways to circumvent it because it was simply not fun or deal with the old exhaustion, now due to it being a much slower progression, it actually isnt too bad, the game can now be harsher on food and water requirements without being too detrimental, and the DM can make scarcity an issue without completely tanking the game after 2 levels of exhaustion, the players can also take more risks in places where food and water isnt plenty, and even take risks and conserve food/rations sometimes.
The best part of all this, is the DM can use exhaustion as a risk or downside to challenges in the wilderness now without completely screwing over the players, now the players can choose between more arduous routes that are shorter, with the risk being taking levels in exhaustion vs the less arduous but longer route, you also can use this as a punishment for failing exploration skill challenges without completely killing the party, you can basically use exhaustion as a long term cost for the exploration pillar, an alternative method of attrition without having to use player resources, and combat, and there are a variety of ways to deliver it, from food and water, costs for failing skill challenges, to a conscious decision of traveling over the more exhausting path. This honestly excites me, and i can see why the design was made.
Pair this with the new long rest rules, and how easy it is to interrupt long rest now, players deciding to not sleep to keep traveling or find an appropriate safe place to rest becomes a viable option, this makes the game imo a lot more interesting. I personally am excited.
What are your thoughts?
TLDR: The new exhaustion rules not being as harsh so quickly, allows the players to actually engage with it as a risk, and DM's to use it as a consequence of exploration, and a way to pressure players outside of just combat/resources, without completely screwing over the players immediately like before.
The playtest actually fix this by focusing it all on incremental minuses, that isnt much to begin with but add up, this is great design because due to it being far less punishing at first, players can actually choice to interact with it in a meaningful way, and make interesting decisions.
For example, Forced marching is actually an option the players can consider now, only getting level 1 was worth it, and it only marches you for an extra hour before you have to risk the check again which one a failure massively slowed you down. Now since its only a minus one if you fail, its actually worth the risk, especially since slowdowns on, even if you fail all the checks if you wanna move an extra 12 miles, its only a -4 which is about as bad as disadvantage, with not too many slowdowns. This might be worth the risk to some players, and i can see players choosing to march forward to get there, and risk the minuses.
On top if this, due to how brutal the previous exhaustion rules were, the game could not meaningfully use its food and water rules, because it was too brutal, and gave a lot of ways to circumvent it because it was simply not fun or deal with the old exhaustion, now due to it being a much slower progression, it actually isnt too bad, the game can now be harsher on food and water requirements without being too detrimental, and the DM can make scarcity an issue without completely tanking the game after 2 levels of exhaustion, the players can also take more risks in places where food and water isnt plenty, and even take risks and conserve food/rations sometimes.
The best part of all this, is the DM can use exhaustion as a risk or downside to challenges in the wilderness now without completely screwing over the players, now the players can choose between more arduous routes that are shorter, with the risk being taking levels in exhaustion vs the less arduous but longer route, you also can use this as a punishment for failing exploration skill challenges without completely killing the party, you can basically use exhaustion as a long term cost for the exploration pillar, an alternative method of attrition without having to use player resources, and combat, and there are a variety of ways to deliver it, from food and water, costs for failing skill challenges, to a conscious decision of traveling over the more exhausting path. This honestly excites me, and i can see why the design was made.
Pair this with the new long rest rules, and how easy it is to interrupt long rest now, players deciding to not sleep to keep traveling or find an appropriate safe place to rest becomes a viable option, this makes the game imo a lot more interesting. I personally am excited.
What are your thoughts?
TLDR: The new exhaustion rules not being as harsh so quickly, allows the players to actually engage with it as a risk, and DM's to use it as a consequence of exploration, and a way to pressure players outside of just combat/resources, without completely screwing over the players immediately like before.
