Attrition of Resources Over Longer Time Scales

[Sparky McDibben]

Hey y'all,

So, I recently read Naomi Novik's A Deadly Education. The book isn't great from a literary angle, but it has some interesting ideas for worldbuilding in D&D. The book is a straight-up magical school, if the magical school was actually a deathtrap. So these students are constantly under attack, and they have to preserve their mana (spell slots) for this huge fight they'll have later. So at no point are these wizards at full strength; they're constantly under attack. However, the book only focuses on a couple of weeks out of a given school year, skipping around between adventures and encounters.

I'm playing around with coming up with a version of this school for my world. How would you go about representing attritting PC resources over the course of a school term?

I have already considered the following, but I am interested in hearing potential unintended consequences for these changes:


Just not using D&D 5e. Unfortunately, my group is pretty locked in to 5e, so this won't fly. Nobody has the time or the energy to learn another system.
Slow Natural Healing. This is a good start, but I want to give the players more levers to pull.
Gritty Realism. The time skips I'm talking about are likely longer than one week, so this is probably going to be of limited use.

[Lunali]

Make a short rest any period of time where they still have to attend class, a long rest is a break from classes. Increase things like arcane recovery as needed to make it feel right.

[Thrudd]

What is the justification in the book? You're talking about spell resources, specifically, right?

You could give all players a mana pool that only replenishes once a year, on the summer solstice or something. Assign a mana point cost for all magical or semi-magical abilities that you want to limit. All other rules remain in place, all the classes play as they normally would, normal rest rules- you don't want to change too much of the day-to-day.

[Kane0]

DMG has multiple slow rest/healing options, of you like you can houserule in some long rest resources partially returning on a short rest too, to more finely adjust to taste

[Sorinth]

You can just use Gritty Realism rules and say attending classes prevents downtime so they need to either skip classes for a week (And likely deal with all sorts of story consequences) or wait until the semester is over where they get their normal school breaks.

Just keep in mind the wording of Arcane Recovery is once per day, whereas Land Druids Natural Recovery is once per long rest. You may want to adjust one of those to be worded the same as the other.

[Rilmani]

Option A) While within bounds of the school, the characters’ spell casting DC orrrrr their mental ability scores are lowered. Feel free to add whatever risky stipulations you see fit to temporarily or permanently overcome this. So while active spells cast will have a low spell attack modifier and low DC. That doesn’t make a spellcasters worthless, but it does shake things up.

B) Probably a good option to combine with A. Give each spellcaster a magic spell focus or a staff. Charges spent from this foci/staff for spells or effects are cast with a higher DC/attack bonus than the character themselves can cast. So regardless of however many spell slots your party members have, they are restricted by however many charges they manage to recover in their items with each rest in order to be genuinely safe.

C) The school actually has a helpful healing effect uses an effect like the spell catnap or has various fountains which restore HP to targets around them throughout the day. But. This healing has side effects. Maybe it requires a sacrifice to wake up a beacon/potion-dispenser. Maybe the healing applies an effect like Bestow Curse. Maybe the potions have side effects. The point is, the healing will help you survive, but it will have consequences (so it is better to avoid damage entirely. Healing on your own over a Rest still works, but if food or water are inconsistent (meaning Exhaustion Con Saves are necessary) then you could say a character recovers fewer hit dice over the course of their Long Rest.

D) Decrease the maximum hit points of characters through certain damage sources. Possibly mitigated by effects like Lesser Restoration or, if you want to play up the school aspects, say that once per week students have a mad dash to acquire a special dessert from the cafeteria in VERY limited supply. Goodberry Pie, a dessert which can mitigate, if not outright cure, 90% of ailments acquired at the school.

E) The school uniforms (or ID cards, or a contract signed by all party members when they joined, or so-on) are cursed. Or the school is cursed and harms anyone who is “violating the dress code” (by wearing armor, for example). Until the party realize this, every encounter will start with an ambush as the school building itself works against them.

[strangebloke]

Make it easy on yourself.

Figure out what amount of combat you want to have in a given week/month/semester of school. You know, on average. How often are these kids going to have to bleed? Are fights going to break out on a weekly basis? Daily?

Calculate how long in character it will take them to get through five combats, and set the long rest period accordingly. Maybe they can only long rest on the weekends, or on a monthly holiday where they really have a chance to kick back their heels. Maybe they don't really get to relax until the semester is over. Then, short rests. Just make that a good night's rest, or even as short as ten minutes if you like, there's no real downside to giving lots of short rests outside of a few exploits that should be banned anyway.

Finally, tackle spell durations. You can leave them the same ofc but things like mage armor get a bit silly when they only last eight hours out of a month. Personally, I just say "eight hour durations last until next long rest, hour durations last until next short rest" and that covers like 90% of it

[JellyPooga]

This may sound daft but the most important thing to establish is whether or not your players are interested in the entire concept. There may be a reason your players enjoy 5e and be unwilling to change systems and that reason can easily be it's high adventure, low consequence paradigm. If you go messing around with the rules to satisfy the conceit of your game concept, they may simply not enjoy playing or avoid playing classes that will suffer from whatever houserules you impose the most.

Assuming your players are all on board, on too of messing around with how long rests last (Gritty Realism is a start and there have been some good suggestions on how to manipulate the longer rests already), I suggest using the Spell Point variant for all spellcasting classes and limit how many points they refresh with a Long Rest (or indeed Short Rest). Similar limitations should also apply to other Class features (e.g. Ki and other "per rest" features) to maintain class parity.

[Brookshw]

Seems like it writes itself by forcing a certain number of classes, lunch/short rest, afternoon classes and extra-curriculars. Toss in a meeting with their Faculty Advisor at the end of the day and you're all set.

Alternatively, only short rest each day, long rests only when the school is on break. Offer some options to create scrolls in scroll class, maybe wands they can use in some classes, if the party needs some extra resources (whatever's reasonable for the campaign).

What kind of encounters are you thinking about? Curious how you'll structure it.

Also, just going to toss this out there, rather than being students, the party is hired as adjunct professors of "Mortal Affairs" at Yugoloth University, teaching young arcanoloths and ultraloths about mortals. The university guarantees no students or faculty may directly attack the PCs. Good luck dealing with the indirect attacks, fighting the dean for funding, jealous/malicious faculty, etc.

[Sparky McDibben]

Make a short rest any period of time where they still have to attend class, a long rest is a break from classes. Increase things like arcane recovery as needed to make it feel right.


You could give all players a mana pool that only replenishes once a year, on the summer solstice or something. Assign a mana point cost for all magical or semi-magical abilities that you want to limit. All other rules remain in place, all the classes play as they normally would, normal rest rules- you don't want to change too much of the day-to-day.


DMG has multiple slow rest/healing options, of you like you can houserule in some long rest resources partially returning on a short rest too, to more finely adjust to taste


You can just use Gritty Realism rules and say attending classes prevents downtime so they need to either skip classes for a week (And likely deal with all sorts of story consequences) or wait until the semester is over where they get their normal school breaks.

So, these are all good suggestions, but the reason I didn't go with Gritty Realism and Slow Natural Healing off the bat (as discussed in the original post) are because the time skips between adventures are pretty long (6 - 8 weeks), and because I wanted the players to have options. I want them to have some control. My issue with GR and SNH are that they kind of suck from a player's perspective. They're just a big stick for the DM to hit you with. There are no options that really arise out of that mechanic; there's no interesting choices that I need to make except when to rest. Which is the same choice I'd need to make in a game without GR and SNH.


Make it easy on yourself.

Figure out what amount of combat you want to have in a given week/month/semester of school. You know, on average. How often are these kids going to have to bleed? Are fights going to break out on a weekly basis? Daily?

Calculate how long in character it will take them to get through five combats, and set the long rest period accordingly. Maybe they can only long rest on the weekends, or on a monthly holiday where they really have a chance to kick back their heels. Maybe they don't really get to relax until the semester is over. Then, short rests. Just make that a good night's rest, or even as short as ten minutes if you like, there's no real downside to giving lots of short rests outside of a few exploits that should be banned anyway.

Finally, tackle spell durations. You can leave them the same ofc but things like mage armor get a bit silly when they only last eight hours out of a month. Personally, I just say "eight hour durations last until next long rest, hour durations last until next short rest" and that covers like 90% of it

This is from a source I appreciate (making my job easier), but I do not assume that encounters will be combat encounters. Also, I'm not actually talking about the encounters - I'm talking about how to abstract the stuff that happens between the adventures.


This may sound daft but the most important thing to establish is whether or not your players are interested in the entire concept. There may be a reason your players enjoy 5e and be unwilling to change systems and that reason can easily be it's high adventure, low consequence paradigm. If you go messing around with the rules to satisfy the conceit of your game concept, they may simply not enjoy playing or avoid playing classes that will suffer from whatever houserules you impose the most.

Let's assume yes.


Seems like it writes itself by forcing a certain number of classes, lunch/short rest, afternoon classes and extra-curriculars. Toss in a meeting with their Faculty Advisor at the end of the day and you're all set.

They don't actually have classes. Or teachers. Or breaks. They have research projects they have to do, but no authority figures. See here (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?638515-Dark-Magical-School-Setting-Commentary-Welcomed) for an overview.

I kind of feel like I'm explaining this wrong. I don't actually care about the encounters. Like, I've got the adventure part down. I need a way to abstract the attrition of resources between adventures. So, we're only playing through a couple weeks each quarter (four weeks per semester). Those are the adventures. At the start of each adventure, the characters start out a little bit worn down, because the school is draining their resources. I need a way to represent that wearing down mechanically.

[strangebloke]

This is from a source I appreciate (making my job easier), but I do not assume that encounters will be combat encounters. Also, I'm not actually talking about the encounters - I'm talking about how to abstract the stuff that happens between the adventures.

I guess we're all just confused because we don't understand why you'd want to cut the encounters out of a DND adventure. That's the most fun part, or at least the part that's the most mechanically well-grounded. It sounds like this death school is fin for purposes of having 5-10 small encounters per long rest (whatever you set that to be) so just... play it out? If you want to operate on the assumption that there are weeks of low-key combat in between adventures, you can just completely handwave it.

Or I suppose you can put together some sort of abstract "assemble the pieces of your thesis" system with a variety of missions that can be resolved in a few die rolls with varying payoffs (Items, Bonus XP) and a variety of longterm potential penalties for failures (max HP reduction, exhaustion, semi-permanent spell slot loss). But this is... a very complicated way of doing things, and speaking from experience it can lead to some really bad outcomes if you aren't careful. You're essentially trying to make a board game from scratch.

[Bobthewizard]

They don't actually have classes. Or teachers. Or breaks. They have research projects they have to do, but no authority figures. See here (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?638515-Dark-Magical-School-Setting-Commentary-Welcomed) for an overview.

After reading this link, I don't think you need to change any rules. You could, but you don't need to. I think you could easily put together a few 5-6 encounter days. Not every day needs to be 6 encounters with 2 short rests. The players just need to know that's a possibility. Once you've established that possibility, a few single encounter days are fine.

As far as draining magic from them, that can just be fluff. All you need to do is make any encounters really hard. Make exploration and social encounters where they need to use spell slots. For combats, double the CR you expect and tell the players you are doing this. If they know they might not win, that will make their magic feel less powerful. Fluff that as them feeling drained.

You could use any of the gritty realism rules, too, if you want to.

[Thrudd]

Ok, so what I'm getting now is that you want each adventure to begin with the characters at less then full strength, and you don't want them to be able to recover everything during the course of the adventure.
You also want the players to be able to decide what resources they have access to.

What resources, exactly, do you expect the school to be draining? Just spell slots?

So, you might just say that during the adventures, that long rests are impossible. And/or at the start of the adventure, make players choose between playing with fewer spell slots than normal, abbreviated spell list, lower max HP or fewer HD, fewer points/uses of whatever type of ability their class uses. Maybe they have to reduce two things, and they get to choose which two things. Or maybe one thing is randomly reduced, and they get to choose the other. This reduction in resources applies for the entirety of the adventure, regardless of rests.

[Telok]

Having read the link what you want is really easy. At the start of an adventure ask what resources they have spent on their project and have them mark those off.

If they know each project takes x spells, y spell levels, z hit dice, etc., and they have a certain number of adventures each year then they can allocate resources to it and start adventures down some power. If they fail to put in enough resources the character just doesn't survive to next year. Smart ones will do some math and enter a mutual defense agreement with other students. Slag 3/5 of your stuff for 2/6 adventures and be full power for 4/6, rotate who gets carried by the others.

[Brookshw]

I kind of feel like I'm explaining this wrong. I don't actually care about the encounters. Like, I've got the adventure part down. I need a way to abstract the attrition of resources between adventures. So, we're only playing through a couple weeks each quarter (four weeks per semester). Those are the adventures. At the start of each adventure, the characters start out a little bit worn down, because the school is draining their resources. I need a way to represent that wearing down mechanically.

I think I get what you're aiming for, though I'm not sure how punishing you want to be with this quasi-attrition mechanic. Also, it sounded from your earlier posts that you wanted the attrition tied to a careful marshaling of the PC's resources, rather than something arbitrary that happens between adventures, though maybe you are looking for something arbitrary. Last, I'm not sure what classes are available, but I'm taking a (not really) wild guess at wizards, or at least full casters.

My suggestion, at the start of each adventure, figure out the total spell levels available to each character when they're fully rested, e.g., a player who can cast four 1st level spells (4 spell levels), three 2nd level spells (6 spell levels), two third level spells (6 spell levels), has a total spell level value of 16. Then, calculate how many they actually have left over at the end of the adventure, so someone with three 1st level spells (3 spell levels), one 2nd level spell (2 spell levels), and one third level spell (3 spell levels) would have 8 total spell levels left. Compare the ending number and the starting number, if the ending number is 26%-50% of the starting number, then the player starts the next adventure with 1 less total spell level, if 25% or less of the starting number, they start the next adventure with 2 less total spell levels. These penalties are cumulative between adventures, and the player decides how the penalty is allocated, i.e., if a player is down 4 total spell levels, they could have two less 2nd level spells, 1 less third and 1 less first, etc. Heck, they can re-allocate it between adventures, but they can never reduce the total penalty.

You could do a similar mechanic for how many hit die they have available for short rest recovery, though I'd always have them start the adventure at full health.

Anyway, hope this give you some ideas if nothing else.

[Sparky McDibben]

I guess we're all just confused because we don't understand why you'd want to cut the encounters out of a DND adventure. That's the most fun part, or at least the part that's the most mechanically well-grounded. It sounds like this death school is fin for purposes of having 5-10 small encounters per long rest (whatever you set that to be) so just... play it out? If you want to operate on the assumption that there are weeks of low-key combat in between adventures, you can just completely handwave it.


After reading this link, I don't think you need to change any rules. You could, but you don't need to. I think you could easily put together a few 5-6 encounter days. Not every day needs to be 6 encounters with 2 short rests. The players just need to know that's a possibility. Once you've established that possibility, a few single encounter days are fine.

So, the school is set up for six years. If I play through 365.25 days per year x an average of 3 encounters per day x 6 years = 6,574.5 encounters. Worse, most of those encounters won't be tied to any kind of dramatic question - it'll just be the RPG equivalent of a jump scare. Or a Pokemon random encounter. "Aha! A wild nothic has appeared! Prepare to battle!" I just feel like some of this lacks tension. It's not the first cut that provokes drama, or the second. It's the fiftieth, the hundredth, and the five hundredth. So I'm not removing the encounters out of a D&D campaign - I'm focusing on the encounters that matter and abstracting the ones that don't. Handwaving the encounters that don't matter, though, removes a lot of the tension because the PCs are starting at full resources.


Ok, so what I'm getting now is that you want each adventure to begin with the characters at less then full strength, and you don't want them to be able to recover everything during the course of the adventure.
You also want the players to be able to decide what resources they have access to.

98% correct. I want the players to be able to have some input in what resources they are expending, because that will translate (in the fluff) into how they have chosen to handle these low-stakes encounters. Did they run away? Maybe that cost them a spell slot. Did they fight? Maybe that's represented by hit points or hit dice.


What resources, exactly, do you expect the school to be draining? Just spell slots?

Damn good question! I'm thinking of the following:

Hit points
Hit dice
Spell slots
Levels of exhaustion
Pernicious but not disabling conditions from spellcasting gone awry: charmed, poisoned, 1-in-x chance of being frightened whenever initiative is rolled, etc.
Owing fellow students favors (a social resource)
Losing gear or magic items (especially disposable ones like potions, wands, or scrolls)



Or I suppose you can put together some sort of abstract "assemble the pieces of your thesis" system with a variety of missions that can be resolved in a few die rolls with varying payoffs (Items, Bonus XP) and a variety of longterm potential penalties for failures (max HP reduction, exhaustion, semi-permanent spell slot loss). But this is... a very complicated way of doing things, and speaking from experience it can lead to some really bad outcomes if you aren't careful. You're essentially trying to make a board game from scratch.

Can you speak to any of those bad outcomes? Sounds like a good idea to avoid those! :smallbiggrin:


And/or at the start of the adventure, make players choose between playing with fewer spell slots than normal, abbreviated spell list, lower max HP or fewer HD, fewer points/uses of whatever type of ability their class uses. Maybe they have to reduce two things, and they get to choose which two things. Or maybe one thing is randomly reduced, and they get to choose the other. This reduction in resources applies for the entirety of the adventure, regardless of rests.


Having read the link what you want is really easy. At the start of an adventure ask what resources they have spent on their project and have them mark those off.

If they know each project takes x spells, y spell levels, z hit dice, etc., and they have a certain number of adventures each year then they can allocate resources to it and start adventures down some power. If they fail to put in enough resources the character just doesn't survive to next year. Smart ones will do some math and enter a mutual defense agreement with other students. Slag 3/5 of your stuff for 2/6 adventures and be full power for 4/6, rotate who gets carried by the others.


I think I get what you're aiming for, though I'm not sure how punishing you want to be with this quasi-attrition mechanic. Also, it sounded from your earlier posts that you wanted the attrition tied to a careful marshaling of the PC's resources, rather than something arbitrary that happens between adventures, though maybe you are looking for something arbitrary. Last, I'm not sure what classes are available, but I'm taking a (not really) wild guess at wizards, or at least full casters.

My suggestion, at the start of each adventure, figure out the total spell levels available to each character when they're fully rested, e.g., a player who can cast four 1st level spells (4 spell levels), three 2nd level spells (6 spell levels), two third level spells (6 spell levels), has a total spell level value of 16. Then, calculate how many they actually have left over at the end of the adventure, so someone with three 1st level spells (3 spell levels), one 2nd level spell (2 spell levels), and one third level spell (3 spell levels) would have 8 total spell levels left. Compare the ending number and the starting number, if the ending number is 26%-50% of the starting number, then the player starts the next adventure with 1 less total spell level, if 25% or less of the starting number, they start the next adventure with 2 less total spell levels. These penalties are cumulative between adventures, and the player decides how the penalty is allocated, i.e., if a player is down 4 total spell levels, they could have two less 2nd level spells, 1 less third and 1 less first, etc. Heck, they can re-allocate it between adventures, but they can never reduce the total penalty.

You could do a similar mechanic for how many hit die they have available for short rest recovery, though I'd always have them start the adventure at full health.

Anyway, hope this give you some ideas if nothing else.

You all are giving me some great ideas! I'll be back later when I have a chance to think through the first draft of the game structure I'm wanting to use so y'all can tear it up!

Thanks to everyone!!! Seriously, even if I didn't take your advice, it still really helped me focus where I wanted to go. Y'all are the best!

[bid]

While at school, there is no long rest.
Short rests occur every weekend.
Long rests occur at school terms. (the only moment you recover HD)

To convert a night into a long rest, you must spend an HD.
Some weeks of school are "hard" (competitions, attack waves) and waste an HD.
Academic results depends on HD used for school events. (bad end of term exams)
Higher level students are expected to contribute more.

You could have a 3-week lull, or you could have 3 exceptional encounters in a week.

[Kane0]

Damn good question! I'm thinking of the following:

Hit points
Hit dice
Spell slots
Levels of exhaustion
Pernicious but not disabling conditions from spellcasting gone awry: charmed, poisoned, 1-in-x chance of being frightened whenever initiative is rolled, etc.
Owing fellow students favors (a social resource)
Losing gear or magic items (especially disposable ones like potions, wands, or scrolls)



Each session you're down [die roll] resource 'points'. Players choose how they are taken from your character:

- HP (6 per point)
- Max HP (3 per point)
- Hit Die (1 per point)
- Spell Slots (1 spell level per point)
- Exhaustion (1 point each for 1-2 exhaustion, 2 points for 3-4 exhaustion, 4 for 5 exhaustion)
- Start with random Condition (roll d4 for Blinded, Deafened, Poisoned, Frightened) (2 points, max one per PC, cannot be immune to condition)
- NPC favors (1 points each, max prof bonus per PC)
- Magic items (1 point per consumable, 1 point per 3 item charges)

Then as DM you control resting to maintain the level of attrition you are looking for (eg slow natural healing and restricted resting as you deem appropriate)

Edit: Then for each subsequent stacking of attrition you wish to apply just add an extra [die roll].

[Sparky McDibben]

Each session you're down [die roll] resource 'points'. Players choose how they are taken from your character:

- HP (6 per point)
- Max HP (3 per point)
- Hit Die (1 per point)
- Spell Slots (1 spell level per point)
- Exhaustion (1 point each for 1-2 exhaustion, 2 points for 3-4 exhaustion, 4 for 5 exhaustion)
- Start with random Condition (roll d4 for Blinded, Deafened, Poisoned, Frightened) (2 points, max one per PC, cannot be immune to condition)
- NPC favors (1 points each, max prof bonus per PC)
- Magic items (1 point per consumable, 1 point per 3 item charges)

Then as DM you control resting to maintain the level of attrition you are looking for (eg slow natural healing and restricted resting as you deem appropriate)

Edit: Then for each subsequent stacking of attrition you wish to apply just add an extra [die roll].

^ This is gold, thank you!

I think I'll take off the max hp line, since lowering their max seems punitive. But I love pretty much everything else.

OK, so the game structure goes like this:

There are two states in this campaign: either you're adventuring, or you're on downtime.

Downtime Rules:
When on downtime, you can undertake the downtime activities detailed below, with the stated costs. When you begin an adventure, you are not assumed to start at full health and resources. Instead, at the start of the adventure, you will roll your downtime dice pool. This pool starts at 1d4 (for first level characters) and is modified by your downtime activities (see below). Once you have your rolled your downtime dice pool, you then apply your modifiers (see below), and record your total points.

These points must be paid off by reducing your resources by the following rates:


Reduce your starting hit points (3 per point)
Reduce your starting hit dice (1 per point)
Spend spell slots (1 spell level per 2 points)
Begin with exhaustion (4 points per level of exhaustion)
Begin with a random condition (roll 1d4 for blinded, charmed, poisoned, or frightened) (5 points, max one per PC, PC cannot be immune to the condition)
Burn a Favor (3 points each, max proficiency bonus per PC)
Spend a magic item (1 point per consumable, 1 point per 3 item charges)


Warlocks of the Fiend or the Undead are exempt from rolling the downtime dice pool. The die size in the downtime dice pool scales up with PC levels, as shown:



Die Size
PC Level Range


d4
1 - 3


d6
4 - 6


d8
7 - 9


d10
10 - 12




Example of Play: Alice, Bob, and Chuckles the Doom-Clown are trying to distract themselves from the existential dread marking all of our lives with a game of D&D. After a full ten minutes of dong jokes, they get down to it. Their characters are 2nd level and have recently completed ten weeks of downtime. Alice's character (a wizard named Numbnuts) spent six weeks crafting magical items in the form of two wands of magic missiles. One of the wands was given away for a Favor; the other Numbnuts kept. Numbnuts spent one week Training and three weeks Resting. Alice's downtime dice pool is 5d4.

(6 for the six weeks spent crafting, less 1 for the three weeks spent resting. Resting removes one die per two full weeks, so the third week doesn't do anything here, but Numbnuts appreciated the break).

Alice rolls 13 - yikes! Numbnuts only has 14 hit points, 2 hit dice, and 3 spell levels to play with. Numbnuts burns three charges from his wand, two spell levels, and takes a level of exhaustion, which leaves him with 4 more points to spend down. Numbnuts decides to spend that Favor from selling his wand and starts the adventure at 11 hit points.

The three charges and three hit points are each worth one point, the spell levels are worth two each (running total = 6), and the level of exhaustion is worth four points (running total = 10). The Favor is worth three points and finishes off the downtime dice pool.

Alice makes a mental note that Numbnuts needs to stand in the back of the party.

Downtime Activities:
Downtime activities are what you spend most of your time doing in the School. Each activity takes a minimum of one week. That week is spent doing that activity and no other; you cannot do multiple downtime activities in one week. Activities that apply for school credit mean that the time you spent doing those activities can be applied to your school project.

Craft a Magic Item: You spend one or more weeks making an item of magical artifice for yourself or someone else. The School provides some of the materials to craft low-level magic items (typically scrolls, potions, or rarely, wands). Crafting takes a number of weeks equal to twice the spell level of the spell being cast by the magic item (so a wand of fireballs casts fireball, a third-level spell, and so requires [3 x 2] six weeks). Minor items like alchemists' fire, acid, basic poison or basic potions of healing aren't covered by this activity; they each take one week and a successful DC 13 Arcana check. Applies for school credit.

Requirements: Access to the School's workshops, the ability to cast the spell in question (or a number of Favors equal to the level of the spell), any ingredients as determined by the DM, and a formula for crafting the magic item.

Downtime Dice: Crafting a magic item adds one die to your downtime dice pool per week spent crafting.

Earning A Favor: You spend one or more weeks helping someone out to put them in your debt. Favors are sacrosanct in the School, and enforced by the School itself. If you owe someone a Favor and they don't pay up (defined as "render assistance that does not put them in harm's way"), the School will target them with all manner of craziness. Ergo, earning a Favor tends to require some effort on your part. This activity could be fixing something broken, acquiring an uncommon spell component, or talking someone up to the rest of the students. It takes a number of weeks equal to your proficiency bonus less your Charisma modifier, minimum one week.

Requirements: None.

Downtime Dice: Earning a Favor adds one die to your downtime dice pool per week spent earning the favor.

Ingratiating: You spend one or more weeks making acquaintances with a person or group of people in the School. These individuals can be other students, monsters, or even the powerful fiends and undead that lair in the dungeons outside the School's core. This can lay the groundwork for an alliance with a group of other students, or set up a powerful monster as a patron (or Patron, if you want to multiclass warlock). Make three checks: Intelligence (Arcana), Charisma (Persuasion), and Wisdom (Insight). If desired, you can replace each of these rolls by spending a Favor. The DC for each of the checks is 5 + 2d10; generate a separate DC for each one. If you succeed on all three, the person or group you've been ingratiating yourself with are impressed by you, and have a Friendly attitude toward you. If you succeed at two checks, you have advantage on your first skill check with that person or group. If you only succeed at one or fewer checks, you gain no benefits. Ingratiating yourself takes (1d6 - your Charisma modifier) weeks, minimum of one week.

Requirements: None.

Downtime Dice: Ingratiating adds one die to your downtime dice pool per two full weeks spent schmoozing.

Rest: You spend two or more weeks recuperating from your trials in the School.

Requirements: None.

Downtime Dice: Resting removes one die from your downtime dice pool per two full weeks spent convalescing.

Spell Research: You spend two or more weeks learning new spells. You do not automatically learn new spells in the School, even if your class has access to your entire spell list, you only know those spells you have learned and researched. In order to research a new spell, you must make a successful ability check using your spellcasting ability and either Arcana (for bards, eldritch knights, arcane tricksters, sorcerers, warlocks, and wizards), Religion (clerics and paladins), or Nature (druids and rangers). So a sorcerer would roll Charisma (Arcana), while a ranger would roll Wisdom (Nature). If you meet or exceed a 25, you can pick which spell you want to learn from your spell list, at any level you can cast. If you meet or exceed a 20, you may choose six spells you want to learn at any level you can cast, and the DM will randomly determine which spell you learn. If you meet or exceed a 15, the DM randomly determines which spell you receive. It must be a spell on your class' spell list and of a level you can cast. If you get less than a 15, you do not learn a new spell. This process takes two weeks per spell learned. Note that spells discovered while adventuring do not require the Spell Research activity. Applies for school credit.

Requirements: You must have access to the School's library, or be able to call in a Favor with another student.

Downtime Dice: Spell research adds one die to your downtime dice pool per two full weeks spent studying.

Training: You spend five or more weeks training up your skills. Gaining proficiency in a new skill takes (20 - your Intelligence modifier) weeks. Gaining Expertise (as the Rogue class feature) in a skill requires proficiency in that skill and (30 - your Intelligence modifier) weeks. These weeks do not need to completed in the same downtime period. Gaining proficiency with new weapons, armors, languages, or tools requires (10 - your Intelligence modifier) weeks. Applies for school credit.

Requirements: You must have access to the School's training ground, or be able to call in a Favor with another student.

Downtime Dice: Training adds one die to your downtime dice pool per two full weeks spent practicing.

Adventure Rules:
When adventuring, a long rest does not automatically recover all hit points and spell slots. Instead, you spend hit dice to recover both hit points and spell slots. Hit dice are spent normally to recover hit points, but you may roll one of your hit dice (the hit die must be spent from a class that has the Spellcasting class feature) and add your spellcasting ability modifier. You recover spell levels equal to the number rolled. At the end of a long rest, you recover half your maximum hit dice as normal. A long rest is eight hours.

[strangebloke]

Each session you're down [die roll] resource 'points'. Players choose how they are taken from your character:

- HP (6 per point)
- Max HP (3 per point)
- Hit Die (1 per point)
- Spell Slots (1 spell level per point)
- Exhaustion (1 point each for 1-2 exhaustion, 2 points for 3-4 exhaustion, 4 for 5 exhaustion)
- Start with random Condition (roll d4 for Blinded, Deafened, Poisoned, Frightened) (2 points, max one per PC, cannot be immune to condition)
- NPC favors (1 points each, max prof bonus per PC)
- Magic items (1 point per consumable, 1 point per 3 item charges)

Then as DM you control resting to maintain the level of attrition you are looking for (eg slow natural healing and restricted resting as you deem appropriate)

Edit: Then for each subsequent stacking of attrition you wish to apply just add an extra [die roll].

Martials can't trade spell slots which means they have to get all their resource points through exhausion/HP/Max HP, which puts them in a very rough spot in the actual adventure. Like sure the barbarian has on average three more hp per level than the wizard, but that's effectively 1.5 points per level, whereas wizards will be getting 3-9 points extra points per level from spells every level after 4.

This system is more punishing for less resource-intensive classes, which seems the opposite of the intended design.

[Kane0]

Martials can't trade spell slots which means they have to get all their resource points through exhausion/HP/Max HP, which puts them in a very rough spot in the actual adventure. Like sure the barbarian has on average three more hp per level than the wizard, but that's effectively 1.5 points per level, whereas wizards will be getting 3-9 points extra points per level from spells every level after 4.

This system is more punishing for less resource-intensive classes, which seems the opposite of the intended design.

I think this particular game is directed at casters.

[strangebloke]

I think this particular game is directed at casters.

Fair enough, I wasn't sure about that.

[Sparky McDibben]

Martials can't trade spell slots which means they have to get all their resource points through exhausion/HP/Max HP, which puts them in a very rough spot in the actual adventure. Like sure the barbarian has on average three more hp per level than the wizard, but that's effectively 1.5 points per level, whereas wizards will be getting 3-9 points extra points per level from spells every level after 4.

This system is more punishing for less resource-intensive classes, which seems the opposite of the intended design.

That is a good point, Mr. Bloke! I think I need to tweak the math on the downtime dice a bit. It's probably too punitive. But you also raise an excellent corollary - how much "cushion" should be put in to soften the impact of just ****ty rolls? If you wind up being that extremely unlucky chap/pette who rolls 20 on 5d4, your character is functionally incompetent for this adventure. Some of this can be mitigated by being freer with consumables, especially something like potions of vitality (maybe a toned-down version that just adds HD? Ooh! A potion of dark vitality that acts as a potion of vitality except you have disadvantage to resist the powers of certain fiends and undead? Need to work on that idea!). Another option is to make magic items with charges that can be spent to buy off resource points at a more efficient rate, and then require they be attuned by only martial classes. Ooh! Another option is to homebrew feats that wind up making certain things more efficient, too! Like how the Durable feat makes Hit Die expenditures more efficient, I could homebrew a feat that does the same thing for spell levels regained during a long rest!

Darn, Mr. Bloke, you need to stick around, hoss. You are fantastic idea fuel! Thanks!


I think this particular game is directed at casters.

It is, but I probably forgot to specify that. And several martials have spellcasting, like eldritch knights, arcane tricksters, paladins and rangers. Those sub/classes are all eligible for play. So I don't want to hit them too hard!

[strangebloke]

That is a good point, Mr. Bloke! I think I need to tweak the math on the downtime dice a bit. It's probably too punitive. But you also raise an excellent corollary - how much "cushion" should be put in to soften the impact of just ****ty rolls? If you wind up being that extremely unlucky chap/pette who rolls 20 on 5d4, your character is functionally incompetent for this adventure. Some of this can be mitigated by being freer with consumables, especially something like potions of vitality (maybe a toned-down version that just adds HD? Ooh! A potion of dark vitality that acts as a potion of vitality except you have disadvantage to resist the powers of certain fiends and undead? Need to work on that idea!). Another option is to make magic items with charges that can be spent to buy off resource points at a more efficient rate, and then require they be attuned by only martial classes. Ooh! Another option is to homebrew feats that wind up making certain things more efficient, too! Like how the Durable feat makes Hit Die expenditures more efficient, I could homebrew a feat that does the same thing for spell levels regained during a long rest!

Darn, Mr. Bloke, you need to stick around, hoss. You are fantastic idea fuel! Thanks!

Well, thanks!

But personally I would just have feats like healer and inspiring leader act as the feats that let you push harder and longer on sidequests, since that's mechanically what they do. Just keep it simple, make a short list of feats that when taken each give the player 1-2 "free" resource points to spend.

There's a limit to how accurate you can make this however.


It is, but I probably forgot to specify that. And several martials have spellcasting, like eldritch knights, arcane tricksters, paladins and rangers. Those sub/classes are all eligible for play. So I don't want to hit them too hard!

I think the simplest solution is to add a "martial vigor" byline that simply allows half casters and the like to ignore 1 lost "resource point" per level they have in the class. Justify it as various class features like Lay on Hands and Second Wind adding up over a long day. They still won't have as many resources to give up, but they'll also not really be sacrificing anything of value for a lot of the points they're spending.

[Sorinth]

So, these are all good suggestions, but the reason I didn't go with Gritty Realism and Slow Natural Healing off the bat (as discussed in the original post) are because the time skips between adventures are pretty long (6 - 8 weeks), and because I wanted the players to have options. I want them to have some control. My issue with GR and SNH are that they kind of suck from a player's perspective. They're just a big stick for the DM to hit you with. There are no options that really arise out of that mechanic; there's no interesting choices that I need to make except when to rest. Which is the same choice I'd need to make in a game without GR and SNH.

If you say attending classes prevents downtime then the GR rules work without issue. It doesn't matter that there are 6-8 weeks between adventures because they can't LR during those 6-8 weeks since they are attending classes. They only get a LR during school breaks, to give them options you can allow them to skip classes for a week and get that LR but there would be in game story consequences to skipping classes that can range from needing to do a side quest for a teacher to get your grades up, to missing out on crafting loot during class, to having a negative modifier for whatever "Finals" looks like, to getting expelled.

So for example "The next few weeks of classes cover Potion Making, you can skip classes and get a LR or attend classes and you get 1 Rare Potion from the DMG" or "You are called into Professor Thadius office where he explains that you are failing his class, to get a passing grade you'll need to do extra credit. Go collect a book from the library and watch out for the ghost that haunts that section".