Survival in the Badlands

The extreme climate makes life difficult on the frontier. A semi-desert region, the Badlands typically sees high temperatures and arid conditions, with some days becoming unbearably hot.

Heavy rains and flooding are occasional problems in the canyons, as are blinding dust storms that sweep in from the Red Desert to the south.

The following house rules were implemented to help simulate the difficult conditions.

The Adventuring Day
The typical schedule for any 24-hour period consists of...

• (8) hours of travel/adventure; 
• (2) hours of mandatory “short” rest, with each 1-hour rest period taken approximately every (4) hours of activity;
  
• (2) hours to set/break camp; and
  
• (3) overnight watches of (4) hours each (with two of those watches comprising an 8-hour “long” rest and one watch representing guard duty or other suitable camp activity).
  

Short Rests: In addition to the two “mandatory” 1-hour short rests, the party may take up to (2) additional Short Rests during the Travel/Adventure portion of their day (4 total). A party can only take advantage of a short rest's benefits once for every (2) hours of activity, however.

Pushing On: A traveling party can sacrifice resting hours to gain additional Travel/Adventure time, but doing so requires a Constitution save for each additional hour of activity to avoid gaining (1) level of Exhaustion. The save starts at DC 10 for the first hour and increases by 2 for each additional hour of activity.

Long Rests: All humanoids (except elves) must spend (2) overnight watches (or 8 hours) in relative comfort to gain the benefits of a Long Rest. This 8-hour rest period includes up to (2) hours of “light activity” and (6) hours of actual sleep. Elves only require one 4-hour watch to gain the benefits of a Long Rest.

Camping
Resting overnight in a sanctuary (e.g., the keep, an inn, or a temple/shrine), restores a PC to “full strength.” Camping in wilderness/dungeon settings is not ideal, but can be restful under the right conditions. 

Photo Credit: Jack Brauer (mountainphotography.com)

A proper “Camp” requires:

• (1) tent space and bedroll per person;
• A campfire;
• An extra portion of food and water (in addition to the minimum “daily ration”);
• A mess kit; and
• (8) hours of limited to no activity (a Long Rest).

In the morning, the party makes a group DC 10 Survival check.

• All checks have advantage if a ranger is with the party.
• All checks have disadvantage if the rest was interrupted by an encounter UNLESS the party opts to sacrifice (1) hour of the following day’s Travel/Adventure time per encounter for additional rest.

If the save is successful, then each character recovers:

• Half the difference between their “current” hp (when the rest started) and their maximum hp (e.g., a character with 50 hp maximum who starts a rest at 30 hp recovers 10 hp after a Camp Rest).
• All Short/Long Rest abilities.
• Half their maximum hit dice (round down).
• All levels of exhaustion.
• Bards, clerics, druids, and wizards recover a number of expended spell slots with a combined level that is equal to their caster level. None of the slots can be 6th level or higher.
• Paladins and rangers recover half this amount of spell slots (round up).
• Druids and rangers ALSO add their Proficiency bonus to the total number of spell slot levels recovered if they camp outdoors.
  

Food and Water
Under normal conditions, each character must eat one day’s worth of food/rations and drink one gallon (8 pints) of water per day, or two gallons (16 pints) of water per day in “Hot” weather.

• 
  Waterskin = 4 pints (half-gallon)
  
• Barrel = 40 gallons

Foraging: If the party does not bring enough food and water, they can search for it in the wilderness. Despite the seemingly-barren wasteland, there are available sources of food and water in the Badlands for those who know where to look.

Foraging can be done either while traveling, or by dedicating effort to search an area (instead of traveling). Only one foraging attempt is required, but separate rolls must be made to find food and/or water.

• Foraging while traveling requires a single group check (among those characters who are actively searching).
• Foraging in a specific area takes (1) hour—during which no travel progress occurs—and gives advantage to the group check. If failed, the group can spend an additional hour searching the same area (although the check no longer has advantage; further checks have disadvantage), or the party can move on to a new area and start over.
  
• Foraging requires a WIS (Survival) check vs. DC 15 to find food and DC 20 to locate potable water. For natives of the region—and for rangers and druids—the check DCs are 12 (food) and 15 (water). 
• A successful Foraging attempt finds sufficient food and/or water to keep the party going for another day (thus, searching an area can yield multiple days' worth of food and water rations).
  

Wearing Armor in the Heat
The Badlands heat is a real problem for travelers, but especially for armored characters. At noon on each day of travel or outdoor activity, each character wearing light armor or no armor must drink (1) waterskin. A character wearing medium armor must drink (2) waterskins; wearing heavy armor requires (3) waterskins.

• NOTE: “Hot” weather conditions double the daily water requirements.

After drinking the required amount of water, each character must then make a Constitution save vs. DC equal to the character's base AC (e.g., wearing studded leather requires a DC 12 CON save).

• The save has disadvantage if a character does not have enough water to drink.
• The save has advantage if the previous night’s rest was taken in a sanctuary (as opposed to a “Camp” rest).
• Rangers and druids, and anyone proficient in the Survival skill also have advantage on the CON save.
• If the CON save fails, the character gains (1) level of exhaustion.
• A Short Rest CAN reduce a level of heat-related exhaustion if the character removes their armor for the duration, drinks an extra waterskin, and then makes a CON save vs. DC 10.