D&D 5E Waterskins (apparently every adventuring party in history died of thirst)

[jaelis]

Do note the create food and water spell makes 30 gallons of water but says that is enough for 15 humanoids for 24 hours. That implies you need 2 gallons/day

(The food part is also inconsistent, since the adventuring rules say you need 1 pound/day but the spell says you need 3 pounds. But I guess that could mean the food produced by the spell has low nutritional value. And anyway who eats anything other than goodberries? )

 

[Nebulous]

I can't justify tracking water and rations in a game where taking a nap for 8 hours cures all other bodily ailments, including dismemberment

 

[Cyrinishad]

My players have a Ranger with a high survival skill... So, I get to hand-wave this until an extreme scenario arises.

 

[Gwarok]

I would imagine that a single waterskin meant to be carried on your person would be that size, but when traveling for any distance I would assume a larger skin or container would be used and probably carried on a pack mule or something if you were planning on going long distances into the wilds without having a reliable water source. You ever been camping or hiking for any significant distance? Works like that I imagine

 

[SkidAce]

The same thing that stops me from eating rations only once every 4 days. ;-)

I hear yah...

 

[transtemporal]

So... Does anyone actually use waterskins in their game? If so, how?[/]

Survival in the wilderness is one of the things I handwave in my campaign... as long as they have a wilderness type with them, like a ranger or other person with survival skill. The idea being they either have waterskins, or they can have the ranger forage. If they don't, well... they don't have the skills to survive in the wild and things can get realistic pretty fast.

Killed a party in Darksun like this. Buncha cityslickers who thought they'd take a shortcut through the trackless desert to Urik. After that they stuck to the roads.

 

[Redthistle]

The ounce is the basic unit of measure (can I call it archaic?) in this system:

1 ounce of water sets the standard for a weight of 1 ounce.

There are 128 ounces in a gallon.

There are 16 ounces to a pound of weight.

128/16 = 8; therefore, a gallon weighs 8 pounds.

I love it that according to one of the above postings, the army manual apparently lists 5 gallons of water as weighing 41.7 pounds. Reminds me of the old line about hand grenades and playing horseshoes, wherein some inaccuracy in measurement is "close enough for government work."

 

[Sacrosanct]

The one gallon a day comes from FEMA, but they also assume you're using it for hygiene and food prep. The army recommendations are way more than you actually need. There's no way I could drink 5 gallons a day. In fact, that would be harmful. I remember hot 95 degree days in Korea (with high humidity) while in a nomex (does not breath at all) flight suit working on top of a black helicopter all day (that's freaking hot, let me tell you) and the most I ever drank was 2 gallons in a day. I'm not saying you sweat, I'm just saying you literally wring out your clothes when you're done.

In general, there is a rule of 3
You can survive 3 seconds without air
3 days without water
3 weeks without food

Of course that doesn't mean you'll be in tip top shape the whole time, but that's the general rule. Look at that show Naked and Afraid. They get very little food over 21 days, and some of them lose up to 2 pounds a day. And that's not being that active.

 

[pemerton]

You can survive 3 seconds without air

Did you mean minutes?

 

[TheCosmicKid]

Did you mean minutes?

Hey, he's not wrong. If you can survive three minutes without air, it's definitely true that you can survive three seconds without air.