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Message: <blockquote data-quote="EzekielRaiden" data-source="post: 9414961" data-attributes="member: 6790260">Precisely the problem with the exhaustion mechanic as it currently exists. It's far too punishing to use liberally, but...there's essentially no alternatives. Much like other ideas in 5e, if it were either one option among several or more mild but still annoying, it wouldn't be a problem--a light sprinkling of Exhaustion here and there plus other things at other times would be plenty, or if it were less dramatic, it could stand on its own as the go-to. But because it has to fill both the "really REALLY nasty problem" space AND the "obvious go-to for lingering consequences" space, it's just not particularly good at either role and thus most people don't use it.As an example of a weaker but still nasty one, imagine if ANY rest, not just a long rest, could remove one level of exhaustion. That would still be rough, especially for characters that get knocked down a lot. But it would be pretty tolerable. Or, alternatively, maybe you can spend some number of HD when you rest to remove levels of exhaustion. Hey, there's an idea. Perhaps you must spend HD equal to the number of levels of exhaustion you have in order to remove one of them. Full bed rest, specifically long rest, in a safe location (aka, not in just any old camping spot) automatically removes one level, then you have to buy off the rest yourself.Of course, my true preference would be to have at least two alternatives to Exhaustion as a consequence mechanic. I'm fine with it being nasty; I'm not fine with "nasty consequences" being the ONLY consequences. But then again, I feel the same way about things like Ad/Dis (it's a useful tool...but massively overused), Expertise, and other various stuff. The official rules are so overly committed to never ever EVER having a variety of options, they end up shooting themselves in the foot on multiple fronts.</blockquote>

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