D&D 5E (2024) Life drain needs to be replaced with Exhaustion

[TorgoTheWhite]

I like the idea of Exhaustion being used instead of Life Drain, but like others have suggested, it would be very deadly very quickly. Especially in the kinds of games that I run.

If I ever go that route, I would need to expand the Exhaustion Table out to 10 levels instead of 6, sort of spread all of those bad things out a bit more so that they don't pile up so quickly. Maybe add a few other things in there to pad out and "dilute" the list as well.

Something like this, maybe? Just spitballing here...

Exhaustion Level​	Effect
1​	Disadvantage on ability checks
2​	Speed reduced by 10
3​	Disadvantage on attack rolls
4​	Speed reduced by 10
5​	Disadvantage on save throws
6​	Cannot take Reactions
7​	Hit point maximum halved
8​	?
9​	Speed reduced to 0
10​	Death (or maybe Unconscious instead?)

But overall? I really like this idea.

Is this basing more on the oddball 2014 exhaustion table? Part of why Im so high on exhaustion '24 is how streamlined it is. For cognitive loading, I say just flat cap the current '24 table to reduce the lethality aspect

 

[Lazybones]

I like the Exhaustion option for the life drain mechanic, but I don't see the existing effects as any less "scary" or meaningful than in previous editions. In a recent session I had a mid-level character take a critical hit from a chasme demon (as a note, they do 7d6 necrotic/life drain with no save). Going from full hp to the brink of death, and knowing that the character would die instantly if they took another hit, increased the intensity at the table considerably (and turned an ordinary encounter into a desperate one). The rest of that fight turned into the group trying to keep the demon from finishing off the injured character. And since they were in a locale that made resting challenging (this was from the Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth), it changed the entire party's focus from completing the quest into getting out to somewhere safe to rest.

One advantage of the current approach (compared to AD&D's level drain) is not having to track all of the changes from having levels temporarily drained; that could be quite cumbersome at higher levels.

 

[rmcoen]

I like the idea of Exhaustion being used instead of Life Drain, but like others have suggested, it would be very deadly very quickly. Especially in the kinds of games that I run.

If I ever go that route, I would need to expand the Exhaustion Table out to 10 levels instead of 6, sort of spread all of those bad things out a bit more so that they don't pile up so quickly. Maybe add a few other things in there to pad out and "dilute" the list as well.

Something like this, maybe? Just spitballing here...

Exhaustion Level​	Effect
1​	Disadvantage on ability checks
2​	Speed reduced by 10
3​	Disadvantage on attack rolls
4​	Speed reduced by 10
5​	Disadvantage on save throws
6​	Cannot take Reactions
7​	Hit point maximum halved
8​	?
9​	Speed reduced to 0
10​	Death (or maybe Unconscious instead?)

But overall? I really like this idea.

I specifically went with the playtest OneDD version of Exhaustion to keep things "simple" (as simple as I can, anyway). 10 levels, each level is -1 to actions (attacks, ability checks, skills), and -1 to spell DCs. I added "every 2 levels, -5' speed (min 5' final speed)", to incorporate that aspect of Exhaustion from the 2014 table. Specifically did NOT cause defenses to drop - no save penalties, no loss of reactions, no loss of max hp. Suffering -5 to all actions at 5 levels of exhaustion is plenty rough!

(Note: hitting 0 hp in my game gives you 1 level of Exhaustion... no "yo-yo healing"!)

In practice across the years of this campaign, one rough battle against a Purple Worm and her brood saw the cleric end the fight with 5 levels of exhaustion, and the wizard with 4. The party holed up for a week to recover. These days - partly due to the party's penchant for Forced Marches! - at least one member of the party is acting with 1 or 2 levels of Exhaustion at any given moment.

Layering Life Drain into Exhaustion would be a severe handicap, but work simply with the systems already in place...

 

[CleverNickName]

Is this basing more on the oddball 2014 exhaustion table? Part of why Im so high on exhaustion '24 is how streamlined it is. For cognitive loading, I say just flat cap the current '24 table to reduce the lethality aspect

Yep, it's based on the 2014 rules. (We don't use the revised 2025 rules.)