Blog (A5E) Let’s Look At Exploration in Level Up

One of our primary goals with Level Up is to expand and fully flesh out the game’s exploration pillar. There are various ways we’re doing that: we’re giving all characters exploration knacks themed to their character class, we’re making a few tweaks here and there to spells and abilities which interact with that pillar, and we’re writing new journey rules.

Let’s Look At Exploration — Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition (A5E)

One of our primary goals with Level Up is to expand and fully flesh out the game’s exploration pillar.

www.levelup5e.com

 

[rules.mechanic]

Easy way to combat that, give monsters +1 AC for each tier above 1:
Tier 1 = +0 AC
Tier 2 = +1 AC
Tier 3 = +2 AC
Tier 4 = +3 AC
Tier 5 = +4 AC (CR 21-25)
Tier 6 = +5 AC (CR 26-30)

Or link with proficiency bonus (see DMG for converting CR to PB) and can consider applying to PCs too. We have used something similar as a Defence modifier, although it scales -2 AC to +2 AC for CR/levels up to 20.

 

[ART!]

Is it ever mentioned in the posted articles or documents how a Critical Failure/Success is defined?

On a related note, I find just rolling a 1 or a 20 to be more boring than having it be based on a margin above or below the target number (DC), but I've also found when I tried adding it to my 5e game that 5e was not balanced to account for someone getting a critical success whenever they beat the DC by 10 and so on. At higher levels Fighters & Barbarians could end up doubling their damage dice on most attacks

I kind of don't have a problem with that. I mean, arguably that's what high level characters should be doing. Maybe they do max damage if they make the roll by 10, and double damage if they make it by 15, or something.

 

[Wayfarer]

I too have a concern about fatigue, etc., recovery while camping out. Having spent a chunk of my twenties guiding urban youth and young offenders through protected wilderness in Ontario on 10-day long canoe trips, I certainly found no issue with resting well in the back country. (I probably have never been fitter either!) While inclement weather can be a problem, generally I found it more restful away from city noise and light. I don’t think it’s very realistic to say characters can’t recover as well as at an inn. Especially as inns can have their own challenges, like noise, pests and security worries. We took precautions against the ever-present bears, but otherwise supplies were our only real concern. One thing I found is that, with my particular ‘clients’, we only covered about 15 km (+/- 5km) per day, so maybe travelled distances have to be shortened if recovery is to happen?

 

[Morrus]

I too have a concern about fatigue, etc., recovery while camping out. Having spent a chunk of my twenties guiding urban youth and young offenders through protected wilderness in Ontario on 10-day long canoe trips, I certainly found no issue with resting well in the back country. (I probably have never been fitter either!) While inclement weather can be a problem, generally I found it more restful away from city noise and light. I don’t think it’s very realistic to say characters can’t recover as well as at an inn. Especially as inns can have their own challenges, like noise, pests and security worries. We took precautions against the ever-present bears, but otherwise supplies were our only real concern. One thing I found is that, with my particular ‘clients’, we only covered about 15 km (+/- 5km) per day, so maybe travelled distances have to be shortened if recovery is to happen?

I might counter that by saying on a youth hiking trip you might have gotten tired from walking, but you likely never suffered fatigue as we define it in the game - injuries, exposure, hunger, illness, real exhaustion. We define it as the sort of thing where you’d be radioing for an air ambulance!

 

[Faolyn]

I too have a concern about fatigue, etc., recovery while camping out. Having spent a chunk of my twenties guiding urban youth and young offenders through protected wilderness in Ontario on 10-day long canoe trips, I certainly found no issue with resting well in the back country. (I probably have never been fitter either!) While inclement weather can be a problem, generally I found it more restful away from city noise and light. I don’t think it’s very realistic to say characters can’t recover as well as at an inn. Especially as inns can have their own challenges, like noise, pests and security worries. We took precautions against the ever-present bears, but otherwise supplies were our only real concern. One thing I found is that, with my particular ‘clients’, we only covered about 15 km (+/- 5km) per day, so maybe travelled distances have to be shortened if recovery is to happen?

To be fair, you weren't likely to be attacked by undead, evil fae, or murderous lycanthropes while resting in the wilderness of Ontario.

I might counter that by saying on a youth hiking trip you might have gotten tired from walking, but you likely never suffered fatigue as we define it in the game - injuries, exposure, hunger, illness, real exhaustion. We define it as the sort of thing where you’d be radioing for an air ambulance!

Is this going to replace D&D exhaustion, or be used in addition to it?

 

[Morrus]

Is this going to replace D&D exhaustion, or be used in addition to it?

Exhaustion has been replaced by two tracks -- fatigue and resolve (the latter is not its final name). These can be combat effects, cost of failing exploration challenges, influence of evil magical rings, and more.

 

[Faolyn]

Exhaustion has been replaced by two tracks -- fatigue and resolve (the latter is not its final name). These can be combat effects, cost of failing exploration challenges, influence of evil magical rings, and more.

Sounds good. I'm looking forward to you guys revealing more about resolve. The word has a positive connotation to it, so I can see why you aren't fully decided, if it's more of a negative-mechanics thing.

 

[Morrus]

Sounds good. I'm looking forward to you guys revealing more about resolve. The word has a positive connotation to it, so I can see why you aren't fully decided, if it's more of a negative-mechanics thing.

Yeah, that’s why the name isn’t final.

 

[Caliburn101]

And you see. That's the core issue.

In D&D, the assumption of PCs having access to fly is level based.

Therefore an exploration challenge that is negated by flight is not of the appropriate level of the PCs if they have flight.

And that's my core issue. Most D&D players and DMs don't known what a mid level or high level exploration challenge is. Often, low level challenges are thrown at high level PCs and then people say "Magic negated it all anyway. Exploration is boring."

Now if you have magic winds and devil dust that forces ability checks to remain airborne or to see past your fingers, it would be appropriate for a mid tier party.

But info like that has to be provided since the D&D player community has been proven to not come up with it on their own.

So much magic makes such 'level appropriate' challenges increasingly contrived, and then of course there is teleport. Ultimately 5E et al are superhero games, not fantasy as you will read it in 99% of fantasy genre novels. So yes, this creates entirely valid problems for DM's who have a lot of experience reading and watching normal fantasy stories, but not the superpowered munchkin version of ultra-high fantasy D&D is.

Flight for instance makes Lord of the Rings a pointless story, likewise Lightning Bolt in Game of Thrones, Meteor Swarm in any fantasy movie you care to name outside of a Manga saga, and True Ressurrection kills any gripping tale of life and death. Sure, a DM can throw in yet another thing which negates flight, attacks you in the air or forces you never to take off - but how many versions of this can be crowbarred into a game until the ever more unlikely parade of corner case one-off flight negating events become utterly ridiculous?

Don't blame sotrytellers for the failures of the fantasy system - ergo that it gives truly powerful abilities at relatively low level and makes no effort to advise on how to make overland and exploration adventures interesting despite the fact the Wizard, Sorcerer and Druid can make like a reconaissance drone every day...

Actually - just take low level ressurection out of the game, remove flight and long range teleportation altogether and hey presto - exploration becomes interesting again...

 

[Stalker0]

Actually - just take low level ressurection out of the game, remove flight and long range teleportation altogether and hey presto - exploration becomes interesting again...

5e does address a lot of this. Fly in 5e is short duration (10 minutes), requires a very high level cast to get your party flying....and mostly importantly, is extremely dangerous to use because of the concentration.

If you take damage (or deal with a high wind or something) and fail that concentration check....you fall and take falling damage.

Teleport Circle is very intentionally limited, so that DMs have a lot of control on where this spell can get you, or whether such circles even exist in their world at all.

Now revivify I completely agree with you, it was the first houserule in 5e I made to remove that spell. Raise Dead is bad enough, but a spell that can just pop you back up like death never happened (and its already hard enough to kill 5e characters), yeah no thanks. Would love a levelup take on that one