Core Rules

Player Tools

Lores and Crafts

When you create a character, remove all tool and instrument proficiencies from your character. For each such proficiency removed you may choose a Lore or Craft proficiency that fits your character concept and background from the lists below. If this grants you 2 or less picks, increase them to 3.

Initiative

Wounds

Realistic combat can be an ugly thing. What Dungeons and Dragons represents as simple loss of hit points obscures the truth of pain, suffering and death. These rules introduce Wounds and Injuries to make your players fear combat again.

Wound Threshold and Grit

To represent actual bodily trauma, Grit and Glory introduces two new statistics to the game - Wound Threshold and Grit.

Wound Threshold

Wound Threshold represents how tough you are against any damage. Your Wound Threshold equals the highest value of your class' Hit Die, plus half their Constitution Score (not the modifier), rounded up.

When your proficiency bonus increases on 5th, 9th, 13th and 17th level, your Wound Threshold increases by one fourth of your Constitution Score, rounded up.

When you calculate your Wound Threshold, write down its value and its doubled value on your sheet.

Wound Threshold = Hit Die Maximum + (Constitution Score / 2)

Grit

Grit measures your ability to continue fighting at your peak potential despite the wounds you have suffered. It equals 3, plus proficiency bonus, plus the highest among your Strength or Constitution modifier.

Grit = 3 + Proficiency Bonus
+ Strength or Constitution Modifier
(pick highest, min 0)

When your Open Wounds total equal your Grit value, the wounds wear you down. Each additional Wound damages your hit point maximum, or opens you for Injuries (pg. XX)

Suffering Wounds in Combat

When a creature on its combat turn succeeds to deal total damage to you equal or higher than your Wound Threshold, there is a risk for an Open Wound. At the end of the creature's turn make a Constitution saving throw against DC equal to 12 + the number of attacks that dealt damage, or the spellcasting DC of the creature that cast damaging spell. If you fail the saving throw, you suffer an Open Wound.

If the damage dealt this way is equal or higher than twice your Wound Threshold, you cannot make that saving throw and suffer a guaranteed Open Wound.

Opportunity Attacks usually do not happen on a creature's own turn, and do not contribute damage towards Wounds.

Record your Open Wounds separately from your hit points.

Suffering Wounds out of Combat

If you suffer damage from a spell, trap, affliction, or another source out of combat, the same rules for Open Wounds apply.

The DM can apply one or several Open Wounds without calculating damage or comparing to Wound Thresholds to NPCs when they take physical damage.

Bleeding

Anytime you suffer an Open Wound, you gain the Bleeding condition (see Conditions, pg. XX). While you are Bleeding,
at the end of each of your turn you lose hit points equal to half your Open Wounds, rounded up.

You can remove the Bleeding Condition if you or an ally spend an action and succeed at a Wisdom (Medicine) check against DC 10 + number of Open Wounds you have. Any magical effect that recovers hit points removes the condition.

If you drop unconscious while you are Bleeding, you suffer one failed death save and you lose the Bleeding condition.

Bleeding out of Combat

If you are unable to stop your Bleeding condition, you are at high risk of dying even after a victorious battle. For each one minute that you are Bleeding out of combat, you lose 1d6 hit points for every Open Wound you have.

Injuries

It is inevitable that even great heroes will suffer grievous injuries! By introducing injuries in your game, you can raise the risks of combat and make your players carefully weight the risks before any fight if their own character's leg, hand, ear or eye can be left behind on the butcher's counter when the fight is over.

Wound Threshold

To represent your ability to withstand injuries, Grit and Glory reuses the Wound Threshold, a new statistic introduced in the Wounds rules. Whether you use the rules for Wounds or not, calculate them as shown on pg. XX.

Injury Modifier

You have an Injury Modifier which represents how likely you are to avoid a severe crippling injury that would put an end to your adventuring career. The Injury Modifier equals 1 plus your Proficiency bonus, and the highest value among your Dexterity or Constitution modifiers.

Injury Modifier = 1 + Proficiency Bonus
+ Dexterity or Constitution Modifier
(pick highest, min 0)

Each time you suffer an Injury Risk and roll on an Injury Table, even if you walk away with a superficial scar your Injury Modifier will be reduced by a small amount. If you accrue too many reductions, your Injury Modifier can go into negative values. You lose all reductions to Injury Modifier when you Take a Breath (see Rests, pg. XX) outside combat.

You risk an Injury if...

• You suffer a critical hit.
• You fall unconscious at 0 hit points.
• At the end of a combat turn, if you suffer total damage in that turn that is equal or more than your Injury Threshold that is equal to three times your Wound Threshold. Keep this value handy on your sheet.

Weapon properties, such as the Wounding property, can add additional conditions to risk an injury.

Resolving Injuries

Each time you risk an Injury, roll a d20 and apply your Injury Modifier, then compare the result on an Injury Table. If the result is lower than 1, you rolled a 1 instead.

Injury Roll = d20 + Injury Modifier

On the next page you will find a generic Injuries table that is applicable to any damage. In Appendix X, a separate Injury table is provided for each damage type. If the total damage received in a turn that caused the Injury consists of multiple damage types, the DM should use the damage type dealt by the majority of damage.

Applying Injuries

The injury is applied immediately after it is rolled. Some DM may choose to be forgiving towards their players and instead apply the injury at the end of the combat so its consequences do not abruptly decide the outcome of the current combat.

Injury Description

To make it easier to reference, Injury Tables list description and properties separately. Injury properties use a keyword format listed in bold so they can be recorded and referenced at any time, and each property is described in detail below.

When an injury applies to a specific body part or internal organ, one or more additional tables will be listed after the description. A roll on that table will identify the location and modify existing or add new injury keywords.

Milder Injuries

If injuries are too harsh for your campaign, you can introduce milder injuries by ignoring the additional effects provided by the Location, Organ and Complication tables, and only use their descriptions to flesh out the injury.

Another approach for milder injuries is to only roll on the Location, Organ and Complication tables if the total damage in a round exceeds five times the Wound Threshold.

Injury Properties

Each entry on an Injury table uses a structured format of effect keywords described in detail below:

Injury Modifier: -X. Your Injury Modifier is decreased by the listed value. These penalties are cumulative and can make your Injury Modifier into a negative number. You remove all penalties to Injury Modifier when you Take a Breath (pg. XX) or longer rest.

Bleeding: Xd4. You start Bleeding the listed dice amount at the end of each of your turns. If you are already Bleeding, the listed dice is added to the existing Bleeding value.

Weaken: Xd6. Your maximum hit points are decreased by the rolled amount until you recover from the injury. Your current hit points does not change and may temporarily exceed your hit points maximum until you complete a short or long rest. Injuries cannot lower your hit points maximum below half of its original value, rounded up. However, if your Injuries cause your hit points maximum to reach half its original value, you suffer one permanent level of Exhaustion until you raise your hit points maximum above half its original value.

If an Injury undergoes a successful Surgery, you recover half of the lost hit points maximum as rolled for that injury.

Impaired, Damaged, Crippled. These properties affect skill checks or saving throws in circumstances where the injured limb or the torso (if an internal organ is harmed) is part to the action. The DM has the final say whether an injured limb is used, and should encourage player creativity to work around injuries such as receiving Help or using aids.

Impaired is the least effect, followed by Damaged and then Crippled. Greater properties include the effect of all lesser ones. Damaged contains the effects of Impaired, and Crippled has the effects of both Impaired and Damaged. Properties are not cumulative, and only the most severe property applies.

If an injury undergoes a successful Surgery before the injury recovers, all Damaged properties from that injury become Impaired, and all Crippled properties become Damaged. This relief can be achieved only once per injury.

Lesser Location

Speech. Extensive damage has been done to the tongue, mouth, or larynx. If Speech is Impaired, speech suffers minor impediment such as slurring, lisping or similar only for roleplaying purposes. If Speech is Damaged, speech is unclear and relies on context to be understood, and spells with vocal component have 50% chance to fail. If Speech is Crippled, no clear words can be formed but mutter and grunts, and spells with vocal component cannot be cast.

NPC Injuries

Unlike player characters, NPCs do not need detailed tracking of their Injury Modifier other than Bleeding and injury effects on Attack and Movement that are relevant to the current combat. The DM can ignore all long-term injury effects like Weaken, Trauma, Recovery, Surgery, Exposed and Terminal unless the NPC is key to the campaign, such as a recurring villain or important ally.

As a simple rule of thumb, all martial hostile creatures have Injury Modifier of +5 and all non-martial but combat experienced hostile creatures have Injury Modifier of +2. Once any hostile creature makes their first injury check, instead of tracking loss to their Injury Modifier, the modifier becomes 0 until the character Takes a Breath (pg. XX) after combat. Unexperienced NPCs such as peasants and minions meant to die with gruesome injuries have Injury Modifier of -2 or even -5, and their Injury Modifier never changes.

Inspiration Points

You can use Inspiration Points to alter the effects of a poor Injury Roll. The party can spend any number of Inspiration points. Each point allows to reroll on the main Injury table and take the new result even if it is lower, or take the result one step below the currently selected result.

Are Injuries a good fit for my game?

With the Injuries rules, one unfortunate strike followed by a poor Injury roll can put an abrupt
end to your adventuring career, and halt the party's progress. Depending on the severity of the injury, your character may be cursed to spend the rest of their lives as a disabled person, at the mercy of the ancient times. Such high risks change the player's perception of combat from a fun game of trill-seeking to a very serious and realistic gamble with your own life and the goals of the whole party.

With that in mind, Injuries are not the best fit for every historic or realistic campaign. If your game is combat-heavy D&D adventure with some dungeon delving, and every session must include at least one combat, you may achieve more fair gritty experience with just the Wounds rules. The Injury rules, especially if combined with the Wounds rules, are best fit for shorter or episodic campaigns where violent resolutions are optional and few of number, and after each story arc characters have ample time to tend to their injuries or to retire from the adventuring career. A campaign that spans over a long time should offer frequent access to downtime where players can exchange their injured characters for new fresh ones.

Using Wounds and Injuries

Healing

In a realistic or historic setting, players must rely on natural healing or healing kits, with precious little magic available to them. These rules introduce natural healing, new uses to the healing kits and some advice on using spells.

Resuscitate (1 minute)

You expend one use of the kit in attempt to return creature to life despite clinical death after three failed death saving throws. A dead creature can still be returned to life if resuscitation starts within number of combat rounds equal to 1 + the number of successful death saves it scored before dying. Attempt a Wisdom (Medicine) check against DC 27 - 5 for each successful death save the creature had before it died.

If you succeed, the creature can immediately repeat one of its failed death saving throw with advantage. If it succeeds, it can repeat another in the same way. It can continue to do this until it has three successful saving throws and returns to life with two levels of Exhaustion, or scores a failure and remains dead with no chance to be Resuscitated again.

A creature may not be Resuscitated more than once until it finishes a long rest.

Treat Poison (10 minutes)

You expend one use of the kit to provide immediate response against the effect of a poison. The creature can immediately repeat the saving throw against the effect of poison. Make a Wisdom (Medicine) check against the Poison's DC. If you succeed, if the creature fails its saving throw and takes poison damage, it has resistance against this damage. If you beat the the Poison's DC by 5 or more, the creature gains advantage to its saving throw.

You cannot Treat Poison the same creature again until it completes a long rest.

Treat Disease (10 minutes)

You expend one use of the kit to provide relief from a disease and prevent its development. The creature can immediately repeat the saving throw against the effect of disease. Make a Wisdom (Medicine) check against the Disease's DC. If you succeed, if the creature fails its saving throw and the disease worsens, the creature ignores the worse effects until it completes a long rest. If you beat the Disease's DC by 5 or more, the creature gains advantage to its saving throw.

You cannot Treat Disease the same creature again until it completes a long rest.

Surgery (1 hour or longer)

Some Injuries have a Surgery(DC/Successes) property. These Injuries require a surgical intervention to allow the creature to heal properly. If a successful surgery is not performed within the Recovery period of an Injury, its effects become permanent and nothing can remove them other than high-level spells like Wish or Regenerate.

Surgery in a fantasy or medieval setting is an extremely dangerous process often performed with crude tools and in unsanitary conditions. Creatures undergoing surgery put their faith both in the steady hands of their surgeon and the mercy of their gods for the outcome is not guaranteed and the creature may never wake up from the table. Players who undergo surgery should accept all risks related to it. The DM should let the surgeon use the Inspiration Points of the party even if the surgeon is a non-player character.

Healing in Non-Magic Campaigns

The medical activities listed above only provide support to new rules such as Wounds and Injury, since hit points already recover with hit dice and wide availability of healing spells.

However, in a very low fantasy or historic campaign where spellcasters are either rare or nonexistent, and the party has no access to magical healing at any time, and items such as healing potions are breaking the immersion of a medieval authenticity, the DM may introduce the Heal activity to both Healer's Kit and Herbalist's Kit.

Improved Kits

Improved versions of all Kits at higher prices may be available in your campaign, to give players an incentive to invest in better medical assistance tools. These improved versions provide a +1 to +3 bonus to Wisdom (Medicine) checks using that tool.

The DM decides how much every improved version costs in his world and how rare they are to craft or acquire, however as a rule of thumb an improved kit that provides +1 bonus to checks has its price multiplied by 10. For each additional increase (+2 and +3) the price is multiplied by 5. For example: a +1 Healer's Kit costs 50 gp, +2 item costs 250 gp, and +3 item costs 1250 gp, and once spent they can be replenished with a simple Healer's Kit for 5gp.

Enchanted magical kits always have at least +1 to checks, and contain unlimited amount of uses. Such enchantments allow players to stop worrying about uses and just treat the kit as a permanent prerequisite. These items should be at least rare woundrous items, and their price should be the price of a non-magical improved version, plus 1000 gp.

Magical Healing

Although Dungeons and Dragons has a distinct magic rules, many campaigns threat magic differently. This chapter gives several variant rules for magical recovery of Wounds, and the DM is encouraged to come up with similar rules fit for their campaign.

Exhaustion

Exhaustion is broken into two types - Light and Heavy. Light Exhaustion accumulates with strenuous physical activity such as heavy labor day or travel across difficult terrain. Heavy Exhaustion usually covers the ill effect of diseases, life drain, and can ultimately kill you.

Forcing yourself to keep going despite exhaustion requires strong will and determination. When you attempt an action that has a chance to increase your Exhaustion to a level that has a listed Ignore DC, you must make either a Constitution saving throw to muster the strength to do it, or a Wisdom saving throw to keep going on despite struggling. If you fail, you find an excuse not to do it but rather rest.

Character Creation

Combat Options

Combat Options are common martial techniques available to anyone of any class. You can perform Combat Options only if you are proficient with the weapon you are wielding.

Combat Options with the icon uses your main Action; with the icon uses your Bonus Action; with the icon replace one of your Attacks; with can be used anytime you can use your reaction; with can be used instead of an opportunity attack, when one is provoked.

Combat Options with the icon require one or several free hands. You can free your hand by dropping what you hold in it as a free action, but only during your turn.

Swipe

As long as you have a free hand since the start of your turn, you can use your bonus action to make a special attack to Grapple, Shove, or Trip against a hostile creature that you attacked during this turn with a one-handed weapon, whether you hit it or not.

This special attack is always made at disadvantage, and all advantages are ignored unless your target was surprised.

Feint

Before you make an attack with a weapon that has the Finesse property, you can spend your bonus action and perform a feint to deceive your target.

Make an attack roll against the target's Passive Insight. If you succeed, you have advantage on your next attack. If you beat the Passive Insight by 10 or more, or your attack roll is a critical hit, you have advantage to all your attacks until the end of this turn. If you fail to beat the Passive Insight, your next attack has disadvantage and you cannot succeed a Feint against this target for the rest of the encounter.

Restrain / Pin Down

Anyone proficient in Athletics can restrain and pin creatures they have successfully grappled.

Restrain. While you are grappling a creature with one hand, you use another of your attacks with another free hand to attempt a Grapple check against the same creature. If you succeed, the creature is Restrained by you. You can only restrain in that way if the creature is your size or smaller. A creature can be Restrained by multiple opponents and can try to Escape only one of its restrainers.

Pin Down. While you are Restraining a creature with two hands, you may use another of your attacks to attempt a Grapple check against the same creature. If you succeed, you Pin that creature against a hard surface or under your body weight while you and the creature are both prone. Pinned creatures cannot attack and can only use their action to attempt to Escape your grapple.

While Restrained or Pinned, each Escape attempt the creature makes attempts to break the initial grapple of one opponent that has grappled it. If it succeeds, the creature breaks the Grappled, Restrained and Pinned condition from that opponent.

Movement Options

Special Options

Ranged Options

Stealth Options

Other Actions

Conditions

Vision

These rules expand the vision rules in Player's Handbook and add additional realism to handling low light conditions.

Stealth

Magic

Crafting and Repair

The following rules provide a generic framework for crafting items during adventuring. This crafting process is more akin to assembly from already produced or improvised parts, not crafting from basic raw materials.

For example, manufacturing a full plate mail armor takes a blacksmith and a few apprentices up to a month to make. For an adventurer, acquiring ready mail plates is enough to build the plate mail armor over a couple long rests.

Example Item Groups

These examples serve as a starting point for the DM to make rulings on the fly. They are not rules set in stone that players should argue that apply to every item. Always consult with your DM about the crafting parameters of the item you want to make.

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Traps. Most simple traps have the Basic trait and a Common rarity. Tier 1 traps may also have Improvised trait. They require 2 to 3 successes. Complex and invented traps have Advanced trait and an Uncommon rarity, and require 5 successes.

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Potions. Most potions have the Advanced, Batch(4) and Workstation traits. Other than lesser health potions or similar, they should have the Magical traits and Uncommon or Rare rarity. Tier 1 potions require 3 successes, Tier 2 potions require 5 successes, and Tier 3 and 4 require 7 successes.

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Poisons. Most poisons have the Advanced, Batch(4) and Risky traits. Tier 1 potions can have Common rarity, but Tier 2 should be Uncommon and Tier 3 and 4 should have Rare rarity. Poisons should require between 3 or 5 successes.

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Tools and Kits. Tools and Kits have Advanced and Workstation traits. Most tools of trade have the common rarity, but those needed for inventive uses that have special rules should always have Uncommon rarity or higher. Tools require 3 or 4 successes.

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Ammunition. Ammunition have Advanced and Batch(20) traits. Simple wooden ammo (arrows) should have Improvised trait. Ammunition requires 2 or 3 successes.

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Weapons and Armor. Making weapon or armor from ready parts has Demanding and Workstation traits. Repairing weapons and armor has Advanced trait instead. Upgrading weapons and armor in a magical manner has Advanced, Magical and Workstation traits, and a Rare rarity. Repair requires 2 successes. Upgrading requires 5 successes.

Assembly Parts

Every crafting process requires assembly parts. They must be specific to the group of items (such as toxins to craft a poison, trap parts to make a trap, etc.). Their cost is usually 40% of the cost of the final item. Assembly parts can be acquired from an item of the same type via reverse engineering.

If the final item has the Improvised trait, you can choose to use assembly parts equal to 10% of the item cost and then use improvised parts or raw materials for the rest. The DM must approve the material used, and the Crafting DC of the final item is increased by +2.

Crafting

During rest or a day of downtime. you make a Intelligence (Craft) skill check against the Crafting DC. If you succeed, you count one success against the crafting progress. If you fail the check by less than 5, you make no crafting progress.

If you fail the check by 5 or more, you make a mistake during crafting. The item suffers a defect. If an item suffers two defects, it becomes shoddy. Shoddy weapons suffer -1 to attack and damage rolls, shoddy armor and shield has a -1 AC penalty, items that require a saving throw have -2 penalty to the save DC. Utility items that are shoddy have 20% chance of malfunctioning and 5% of breaking on every use. For weapons that is rolling 4 or less on an attack roll, and for armor being hit by a hostile creature that rolls a natural roll of 16 and more. If an item suffers three defects, it is unusable and counts as a broken item of the same type.

You can attempt to remove defects as a crafting activity. To remove a defect, you must spend additional assembly parts of 10% of the item cost and make a crafting check. If you succeed, one non-permanent defect is removed. If you fail, the defect becomes permanent and cannot be removed anymore.

The crafting process is complete when you reach a number of successes required by the item. If the item has a defect but is not shoddy or broken, it's asking price is lowered by no less than 20%. If the item is shoddy, it's asking price is halved. Broken items have no market price.

Reverse Engineering

Reverse Engineering is similar to a Craft process, and uses the same number of successes. However, if you do not know how to make the item, the Crafting DC is increased by 2.

If you successfully complete a reverse engineering, you learn how to make the item. For you its rarity becomes one step lower (Uncommon items become Common, Rare items become Uncommon). You no longer suffer a +2 to DC when disassembling that item.

Masterwork Crafting

During a crafting check, every success by 10 or more, or a natural 20 on the die, counts as a masterwork success. If you make two or more masterwork successes during a crafting process and the item has no defects, the item becomes masterwork. You can decide not to complete a crafting process and keep working on it indefinitely in attempt to get two masterwork successes and make it a masterwork item.

A masterwork weapon has +1 to attack and damage rolls, and a masterwork armor has a +1 to AC. A masterwork shield has +1 to AC bonus when using the Raise Sheild reaction. Items that require saving throws have +1 to the saving throw DC. Although these effects resemble uncommon magic weapons or rare magic armors, the items do not count as magical unless the crafting process has the Magical trait.

Masterwork items have 50% chance to avoid malfunction or damage when such conditions occur. Their selling price is increased by up to two times, up to DM.

Prestige Items

Other than assembly parts, you can invest any amount of precious materials or gold in an item. The additional investment is added to the asking price of the final crafted item after it is modified by defects.

The additional investment can be acquired in full as part of reverse engineering at the cost of 2 additional successes needed to complete the process.

As long as the invested material is at least five times the base price of the item, the item becomes a prestige item. The uses of a prestige item are up to the DM. In a medieval feudal society, a prestige item can be a lord's sweord covered with gold and gems, and its display would cause serfs to cower and respect the wielder as nobility, or plan to rob him.

Help and Assistants

One ally that is proficient in the same Craft needed to make the item can Help you during a crafting process.

Items with the Workstation trait may require a number of assistants present and working along with you during crafting process. Their number is added in parenthesis along the trait. If their number is two or more, at least half of these assistants must be proficient in the Craft needed to make the item, rounded up. These assistants, no matter their number, provide you with a single Help action on your crafting check.

Creativity and Art

Not all items are strictly utilitarian. You can express creativity through creation of art pieces. Art pieces make great gifts to people of power, and may yield high asking price among collectors. Unlike utilitarian items that have base cost, art pieces let their creator decide what their final cost must be. Assembly costs are only 10% of the cost you choose.

To create an art, you must make a number of Wisdom (Craft) checks, similar to Crafting. Art pieces worth selling have the Advanced trait, and some forms of art (such as sculpture) may have the Workstation trait. Simple art pieces require 5 successes for basic art, and advanced art needs 9 successes. The same rules for defects, removing a defect, masterwork and prestige items apply to art pieces as well.

You may choose to use Charisma instead of Wisdom for the checks, however, this changes the artwork from a form of creativity to self-expression. As such, only people who share the same alignment traits, ideals, or flaws will consider your creation as art, while others may call it hot garbage or even become offended by it.

Using Craft as Lore

As long as you are proficient with a Craft needed to make an item, you know the exact base price of the item, its number of defects (unless they are hidden, which requires a special Intelligence (Craft) check), whether it is shoddy, whether it is used (second-hand) or new, and other qualities. You can also recognize Masterwork items among ordinary items.

Your Craft acts as a Lore and improves the checks when making Intelligence (History) checks to recall facts about the item, Wisdom (Perception) checks to find hidden detail, Intelligence (Investigation) checks to deduce how it has been used to achieve specific result, a Charisma (Persuasion) check to haggle the price of the item before buying it or encourage someone else to buy it from you, or Charisma (Deception) to sell the item at a higher price than acceptable. Craft can even improve your Strength (Intimidation) checks when using the item in a way to cause harm to a creature.

Earning Income with Crafts

If you are proficient in a Craft, you can spend your downtime to earn income. As long as you can spend at least two of each three days of downtime working at a trade shop you own or operate as a master craftperson, and that is equipped with a workstation and tools of trade needed to produce common items that have a steady demand in your settlement (up to the DM), you can afford the Comfortable lifestyle without spending anything. If you have expertise in Craft, you can afford a Wealthy lifestyle instead. If you work at someone else's establishment (such as an assistant helping another craftperson), the lifestyle you get without spending is one step lower (Comfortable becomes Modest, Wealthy becomes Comfortable).

In addition, each day of downtime spent earning income you make a single crafting check against a Crafting DC set by the DM, usually based on common items at your tier of play. If you beat the DC by 5, you earn a disposable income equal to half your current lifestyle provided by earning income. If you beat the DC by 10, or you roll a natural 20 on the die, you earn an disposable income equal to your current lifestyle.

Crafting Magical Items

Unless you use a special set of rules for crafting magical items fit for your campaign setting, these rules provide a basic framework.

When crafting an item with a magical function, arcane energies must be successfully stored into the item to grant it the desired effect. Depending on the item effect, the DM must choose a spell level, and either a spell school for more generic magic items or a specific spell for magic items that provides similar function.

The spell level is usually 2st for Tier 1 uncommon magical items, 4rd for Tier 2 rare magical items, 6th for Tier 3 very rare magical items and 8th for Tier 4 legendary magical items. The spell school or the specific spell must match the item function. If the spell is of lower level than the required slot, it is heightened to that spell slot.

For example, making a rare +1 sword requires casting 4rd level of any Enchantment school spell. Making a very rare ring that grants invisibility to the wearer requires 6th level of Invisibility spell.

Each time a crafting check is made, either the crafter or an ally using the Help action must expend one spell slot of the required spell level or higher casting any spell of the particular spell school or the required spell, and make an Intelligence (Arcana) check against the Crafting DC. On a success, the arcane energies of the spell are stored into the item. On a failure, there is no progress towards completing the item even if the initial Crafting check was a success.

Magic items that have the Workstation trait require magical workstation specifically made for creation of magic items, with enchanted tools, extensive library and more. The DM may use this requirement to ensure that magic items creation isn't rampant during adventuring.

Animal Companions

These rules expand on the concept of animal pets and companions provided by backgrounds, classes and subclasses, or purchased and trained during the course of an adventure. The goal of these rules is to improve the odds of survival of animal companions by introducing hit points and attack progression, and allow adventurers to train companions and animal pets to follow complex commands.

Training

After you tame a creature, it starts out with number of learned tricks equal to its Intelligence modifier plus 5. For example, a dog with an Intelligence modifier of -3 start with just 2 tricks after being tamed. The tricks are up to player's choice, but they can only be Simple tricks.

You can spend effort and additional expenses to teach its new pet new Simple or Complex tricks. A creature can know a total number of tricks equal to its Intelligence score (not the modifier). For example, a simple dog can know up to 3 tricks.

Training a new trick to a creature is far simpler and cheaper than taming it in the first place. You need to foot the bill for the creature's food and shelter for number of days equal to 10 minus the creature's Intelligence modifier (minimum of 1). If the trick is a Complex one, multiply that number by 3. For example, a dog would take 7 days to learn a Simple trick and 21 days to learn a new Complex trick.

Tricks

Come and Heel (Simple). This issue is more than just having an creature return when you call it. This command will cause the creature to act against its own desires. The creature will come to you, even if you are standing in a dangerous place. The creature will sit and stay still, even if it really wants to go chase or kill another creature.

Attack (Complex). This command will cause the creature to mercilessly attack whoever you are directing it toward. Teaching the creature this trick also allows them to add a proficiency bonus to their attacks. It is unlikely to relent until the target is ruined, or a come and heel command is given.

Fetch (Simple). This command will send the creature to strive to obtain whatever you are directing it toward. If the creature cannot do it, it will attempt to open up any barriers which prevent you from getting it yourself.

Ride (Simple). If the creature is at least one size larger than you or able to carry like as it it is one size larger than you, as well as of appropriate anatomy, it can be trained to be a mount. Prior to this training, the creature just acts of its own accord, tolerating your presence on its back. Just because it is trained does not necessarily mean that you know how to ride it though.

Perform (Simple). This is few amusing tricks your creature does. A back flip on command, playing dead, speaking on command, etc. When used for practical purposes, the creature is considered proficient in
Intelligence (Perform) skill.

Find (Complex). The creature can use its unique senses to search for things and track or hunt a mark. It is also trained to give a warning call when it spots its mark. The creature must be trained to hunt specific targets (such as humans, or find and follow tracks of blood) to be given a clue followed with a sense that the creature had advantage on Perception checks (such as the smell of your target's clothes, for a wolf).

Enlighten (Complex). You spend a great deal of time getting the creature to understand the subtleties of your expression, such that it has a higher understanding of people and what they are talking about. As an example, an unenlightened creature will feel good if you talk to it in a happy tone, even if your words are harsh, but an enlightened creature will get the hint that you're being facetious. This is represented by a one-time +2 Intelligence score improvement for the creature.

Work (Simple). The creature can be trained to carry, haul, and tow loads. While you could theoretically strap bags to the side of any creatures, this also applies to things like pulling carts, drawing a line to lift a load by a pulley, or tilling with a plow, which actually do normally require some training to be done well.

Help (Complex). Your creature has been trained to remember directions and the locations of important things - like local hospitals, or friendly people. If you are ever injured or lost, you could send your creature to seek help - it will always return to you. creatures trained in this trick will also find their way to you if you are separated.

Talent (Complex). This teaches the creature a skill or tool proficiency. It is up to the DM if the proficiency is something the creature can learn or manipulate with its limbs or jaws. For example, using a harp may seem doable for a large rat, but using a kettle drum would not.

Deliver (Complex). You have taught the creature how to navigate its way back to known settlements, and return to you, as well as how to carry and deliver written messages or small parcels.

Hunt (Complex). Predatory creatures, such as hawks or dogs, can be taught to hunt on their own and bring the kill back to you, rather than eating it for themselves. This is the same as the creature foraging independently of you.

Companion Advancement

At 3rd level and each odd level after that (5th, 7th, 9th,...), your companion gains an additional hit die that and increases its hit points maximum with the average value of that hit die plus companion's Constitution modifier. The maximum hit dice that a companion can have depend on its size. When the maximum hit dice is met, on each following odd level increase the companion's maximum hit points by its Constitution modifier only.

Travel

Wilderness travel through the howling reaches of the tundra is a dangerous activity that will not only take time but also exhaust your resource and require planning and cooperation to do safely. These rules simulate the resource management and perils of day to day traveling.

Players must appoint one dependable player with the role of Travel Manager, who will keep track of these rules, manage the use of resources and distribute tasks between players.

Exploration per Travel Leg

Forced March

You can safely travel for 8 hours in a day at normal pace and recover from exhaustion during any rest. For each additional hour of travel beyond that, each player or their mounts must make a Constitution saving throw at the end of every hour. The DC is 10 + 1 for each hour past 8 hours.

On a failed saving throw, the player or their mount suffers a level of exhaustion and may have to roll against Ignore DC to continue to march willingly. If the party is moving at a slow pace, they gain a +5 bonus to the check, and a fast pace imposes a disadvantage to the check.

Mounts

Using mounts or vehicles (such as carts and wagons) you can significantly increase travel time. Quadrupedal mounts such as horses have much faster combat speed than humanoids. To drive mounted vehicles, check the Drive Wagon activity.

Terrain

The type of terrain and conditions modify the speed at which an expedition can travel. The harder the terrain is, the slower the party will advance during each travel leg. Multiply the base travel pace (in miles) by the suggested Terrain modifier, and then by the Condition modifier.

Highway. A highway is a straight, major, paved road. No Navigation activities are needed to follow it.

Trail. A road is a dirt track or similar causeway. Some trails may be unsuatavle for carts or carriages and may only allow for single-file travel. Most off-road travel follows local trails. A known trail does not require Navigation activities, although a known trail in poor repair requires a DC 10 navigation check to follow.

Wilds. Trackless terrain is a wild area with no paths. All Navigation activities suffer +2 to Navigation DCs.

Navigation. Each terrain has a DC that measures the difficulty of crossing the terrain. Several activities during travel refer to the Navigation DC.

Conditions

If a condition applies to a travel leg, change the terrain modifier by lowering the modifier by one or several steps. The travel modifier steps are: x1, x3/4, x1/2, x1/4, x1/10. Any step below x1/10 is exactly 1 mile of travel for the whole leg.

Example: a travel through a wild moor is at a x3/4 modifier. If the conditions are poor (during night or a thick fog), lower that modifier by one step to x1/2. Such a travel party moving at 12 miles a leg would actually move only 6 miles.

In addition, many conditions also raise the Navigation DC for the travel leg.

Poor Visibility. This condition also gives disadvantage to Navigation and Forage activities. Except in close encounters, darkvision does not negate this disadvantage.

River Crossing. This penalty applies to any travel leg during which a river must be crossed, unless a bridge is available without needing to search for it.

Travel Activities

For each travel leg, players may choose one of the following activities in accordance with your chosen travel pace. Each activity has an associated Skills or Lores you need to use to determine your success or failure during the travel leg. Activities are also marked with special icons described below.

Hunt & Forage

Check: proficient Wisdom (Survival) skill check. Hunting Lore improves the check.

During your travels, you keep an eye out for nearby sources of food such as hunting small game or finding editable roots and vegetation. Make a check and compare the result with the tundra season on the following table to determine the number of fresh rations (for 1 day) you manage to provide.

Keep Watch

Check: Wisdom (Perception) skill check.

You keep your eyes peeled and your ears open for any sign of approaching danger, as well as signs of close by pursuers. The DM determines the Stealth result of any threat or the DC to notice other suspicious activity along your path and compares it to the result of all watching players.

Since most encounters happen at a long range (see Encounter Distance), Darkvision and similar abilities does not apply to Keep Watch activities in most cases.

Navigate

Check: proficient Wisdom (Survival) skill check. Navigation or [Region Name] Lore improve the check.

More often than not, a location of interest for a group of adventurers is not situated along a well trodden path, but hidden in the wilds behind obscure hints and directions. if you use Hexcrawl rules, Navigate is needed to find specific locations or encounters within the Hex where you are currently located.

If you wish to find your way through the wilds towards a specific location, you need to make a Navigation check against the Navigation DC of the terrain you want to pass through, or the DC set by the DM. The Navigation DC can be additionally modified by the information you possess to reach your destination:

Trailblaze

Skill: Strength (Athletics)

Traveling through difficult terrain slows you significantly. You can help your companions by clearing a clear path for them to follow. Make a Strength (Athletics) check against the terrain's Navigation DC. If you succeed, you ignore the Difficult Terrain condition of the terrain.

If you succeed by 5 or more, you create a trail that can be found and used by anyone to pass the same terrain without having to use the Trailblaze activity again. Most trail signs are impermanent and likely to decay over time.

If you fail the check by less than 5, you still get success but you automatically suffer one level of exhaustion at the end of the activity.

Making Camp

Check: proficient Intelligence (Nature) or Wisdom (Survival) skill check. Scouting Lore improves the check.

When it's time to make camp for the night, the players need to start looking for a suitable camping location. Up to two players can spend up to an hour of time and make the check. If you had players Scout on the last leg, they can use their Intelligence (Investigation) check result instead their Making Camp check. Depending on the best result the campsite has one or more randomly selected properties.

The DM rolls a d6 on the table below to decide what campsite properties are found first, second and third.

Wilderness Encounters

While traveling in the wilderness, the group will encounter creatures and points of interest. These rules

Campaign Design Options

Darkvision

You have spent most of your life underground, where light is scarce. By birth or by trade, you had to develop a sense in darkness to survive.

DM's Corner

The rules in this section are for the DM only. They are no secret for the players and can grant insight behind DM's decision process and encounter design.

Creature Health

On average, creatures in Medium and harder encounters have 75% (rounded up) of their max health points.

Boss creatures, solo creatures, or creatures of challenge rating two levels less than the average party level have 100% of their max health points.

When a creature is rebalanced to be relevant opponent at a higher Challenge Rating, its hit dice are increased by 3 for each increase of Challenge Rating by one, and it gains additional hit points equal to 3 times its Constitution modifier for each increase of the Challenge rating by one, if the modifier is higher than 0.

Quick Deadly Encounters

The following rule helps create Deadly encounters for a party of at least 4 players, without using encounter budget tools or XP budget math. Note that the creatures need to have updated health (minimum of 75% their maximum hit points) and have a total of actions and boss or legendary actions equal or slightly less than the party.

For a party at 1st tier (levels 1 to 4), a deadly encounter has monsters with total CR value equal to 1/4 of player's sum of levels, rounded down. For party of 2nd tier (levels 5 to 10), a deadly encounter has total CR value equal to 1/2 of player's levels, rounded down. For party of 3rd tier (levels of 11 to 16), the same encounter has total CR value of 3/4 of player's levels, rounded down. For party of 4th tier (levels 17 to 20), the encounter should have monsters with CR equal to players' sum of levels, or slightly higher.

Does a 20th level party fight a single CR 80 monster? Try not to create creatures that are more than a tier (about 5 levels) higher than the party current level. The rest of the CR values should be spent on support creatures or minions.

Note that spellcaster monsters usually have higher level spellcasting than their CR would suggest. If the encounter includes spellcasting monsters, consider their CR to be an average of the monster's CR and their spellcasting level. If the same monster would have the upper hand in combat (such as surprising the players or being untargettable for a portion of the encounter) use its spellcasting level as its CR rather than its normal CR.

Minions

Minions are creatures too weak to be of any challenge to the party, and usually provide protection or support to a solitary Boss creature for at least a round. Minions have normal hit points however any damage dealt to them brings their hit points to 0. For encounter design, Minion's CR is decreased by 3. If this would decrease its CR below 1, use the standard CR progression (1 becomes 1/2, then 1/4, and finally 1/8).

Tough Minions. At higher levels where area spells become widely available, minions may have more staying power on the battlefield. Any damage dealt to a tough minion makes them lose hit points equal to half their maximum hit points. Two sources of damage are needed to kill a tough minion.

Monster Abilities

The following rules modify common monster passive and active abilities, or add new ones to the game.