Hunting
When you undertake a hunt, you must first decide what type of creature you are hunting for. You can hunt any creature that is CR 0 and that is native to the terrain that you are in, though the GM may determine that you are skilled enough to hunt stronger creatures.
You must then determine how long you are going to be hunting for and then roll a Wisdom (Survival) check. Your Wisdom (Survival) check will be affected by how long you are hunting for.
Hunting Time
| Hours | Effect | |
|---|---|---|
| 2 Hours or Less |
Disadvantage on Wisdom (Survival) check | |
| 2-6 Hours | No Effect | |
| 6 Hours or More |
Advantage on your (Survival) check |
The effects that correspond to time may change depending on the area or circumstances of the hunt. If the GM decides that the immediate area is extremely fertile, they may choose to grant advantage on your hunt even if you only spend 2 Hours or Less on the hunt.
Though, if the land is barren, they may decide that any hunt that lasts for 6 Hours or Less automatically fails and any hunt that lasts for 6 Hours or More has disadvantage.
After you roll your Wisdom (Survival) check, you then form your dice pool and roll a number of dice equal to the result of your Wisdom (Survival) check. I.e. If you rolled a total of 13 on a Wisdom (Survival) check, you would have 13 dice in your dice pool. The dice in your dice pool start out as d8s, but change based on what you are hunting, the rarity and other circusmtances. See Building the Dice Pool for more information.
After you roll your dice pool, you count the number of dice where you achieved the highest value on the die. This means that if you rolled d8s, then every 8 on a dice means you achieved a success during your hunt and were able to catch what you were hunting for. You can choose to end your hunt before you finish rolling all of your dice pool, but you can not increase your dice pool.
If you wish to continue hunting, you must make spend more time and make a new Wisdom (Survival) check.
Equipment
While hunting you must use the appropriate equipment. The options are: Hunting Traps, Ranged Weapons and Thrown Weapons.
Hunting Traps
The benefits of using Hunting Traps is that you can set the trap and then come back later to check on it. When you set up your Hunting Trap, you roll a Wisdom (Survival) check as usual though it is based off of how long until you come back to check on the Hunting Trap.
Your Wisdom (Survival) check also determines the DC to see the trap, and if a creature's passive Perception score is equal to or higher than the hunting trap, they do not set off the trap and your hunting trap catches none of those creatures, though it may catch something else.
Upon checking back on your hunting trap, you roll your dice pool, the number of dice determined by your Wisdom (Survival) check and the type of die determined by the GM. Once you have one success, you can no longer try for additional chances of success. Your hunting trap can only catch one creature per hunt.
Per the GM's discretion, your hunting trap may have caught a different creature than you planned or a larger creature came along and took the creature that was caught in your trap.
Weapons
You must have access to a Ranged or Thrown weapon while hunting in this way, and have the requisite ammunition to fire your Ranged weapon. Some weapons, like a dagger, may have the thrown porperty but aren't suitable for going on hunts and the GM may decide that you automatically fail your hunt if you try to use that weapon.
Building the Dice Pool
To build your dice pool, the GM must determine the type of dice you are to roll. This is affected by a variety of situations which include things like terrain, weather, rarity of creatures you are hunting, fertility of the surrounding areas, and other key points.
The dice pool die is defaulted at a d8, though this changes based on the circumstances. If a hunt is started for rabbits, and they are quite populous in the surrounding areas, the die decreases to a d6. On the other hand, if you are out in the desert looking for a rare lizard, the dice might increase to a d10.
The dice can go as low as a d4, or as high as a d12. The GM may decide that to hunt extremely rare creatures, your dice pool is composed of d20s, which represent extremely hard challenges to hunt and you can only succeed once during that hunt.
Example Hunting Situations
| Situation | Die Size |
|---|---|
| Fertile Area | Decrease size by one (i.e. d8 to d6) |
| Barren Area | Increase size by one (i.e. d8 to d10) |
| Large Population | Decrease size by one |
| Small Population | Increase size by one |
| Dense Foilage | Increase size by one |
| Have a Guide | Decrease size by one |
| Over-Hunted Area | Increase size by two |
| Under-Hunted Area | Decrease size by two |
| Rare Creature | Increase size by one |
| Very Rare Creature | Increase size by two |
Variant Rules
These rules can help flesh out hunts or provide additional challenges and bonuses for your characters.
Favored Terrain
If you are in your Favored Terrain, you gain advantage on your Wisdom (Survival) check if you spend 2-6 Hours hunting, and you do not suffer disadvantage if you are hunting for 2 Hours or Less. If you hunt for 6 Hours or More, you can treat a d20 roll of 9 or lower as a 10.
Hunting Complications
Occasionally trouble and other surprises may happen while out hunting. These complications can be rolled for, or the GM can choose one that fits for their specific situation. These complications happen every once in a while during and after hunts and aren't typical.
Complications
| d10 | Complication |
|---|---|
| 1 | What you thought was a full grown bear, was actually a dire bear cub and its mother is charging after you. |
| 2 | Hunting Traps - The creature in your hunting trap is not what you intended for and is a dangerous predator in the area. |
| 3 | Hunting Traps - Your hunting trap was successful, but something far larger came before you and stole your prize. You can see bloody drag marks going deeper into the forest. |
| 4 | You thought your aim was true, but for some reason every arrow you fired during your hunt was blocked by something magical. |
| 5 | The spirit of the forest seems displeased by your hunting and has warped the wood of your bow, rendering it broken. By offering something to the forest, you might get it fixed. |
| 6 | This area has been over-hunted and you must travel at least 1d4 days to a new location. |
| 7 | Your guide who brought you into the forest has turned on you and attacks, hoping to mug you for your items and gold. |
| 8 | You spot a dead unicorn with bite wounds all over it that appear to be humanoid. |
| 9 | Due to heavy rain for the past several days, you are unable to see more than 20 feet away from you and all hunting trails have been washed away. |
| 10 | Some sort of forest spirit is creating a huge ruckus whenever you try to hunt, foiling any attempt at hunting. |
Magic Weapons
Magical Weapons used in your hunt may increase the dice pool size by 1 die per +1 enhancement.
Time
You may decide that Hunting should take longer than a few hours, and decide instead to use Days.
Hunting Time
| Hours | Effect | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 Day or Less |
Disadvantage on Wisdom (Survival) check | |
| 2-6 Days | No Effect | |
| 1 Week or More |
Advantage on your (Survival) check |
This may not make sense depending on what is being hunted, and should be adjusted if hunting very common creatures or very rare creatures.
Multiple Hunters
If more than one character is part of the hunt, they do not make their own Wisdom (Survival) checks. Instead one character can help the other and add their Wisdom (Survival) bonus to the other's check. They must both be hunting for the same amount of time.
Survival Proficiency
To hunt, a character must be proficient in the Survival skill.
Variant: Survival Proficiency
A character may still hunt even if they aren't proficient so long as they have a guide who is proficient.
Selling and Trading
Butchers and Tanners are always looking to buy skins and meat. By taking any hunted creatures to a butcher or tanner, they can make some money based on the size of their kill.
Butchers and Tanners may offer less or more depending on their supplies and stock. A character can attempt to skin their hunted beasts by succeeding on a Wisdom (Survival) check, this allows them to sell to both the Butcher and Tanner.
If they are proficient in Leatherworker's tools they automatically succeed on the check and it requires 1 hour of work for every size category that the beast is, i.e. a tiny creature requires 1 hour, a medium creature requires 3 hours.
The DC for skinning the creature is shown in the chart below. If they fail the check, they are unable to sell to the Tanner.
Seling and Trading
| Size | Butcher | Tanner | Skinning DC |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tiny | 3 sp | 5 sp | 8 |
| Small | 5 sp | 1 gp | 10 |
| Medium | 1 gp | 2 gp | 12 |
| Large | 4 gp | 8 gp | 15 |