D&D 5E Inspiration, hunger, thirst, sleep, and exhaustion

[Slit518]

I am thinking of tying Inspiration to Hunger, Thirst, Sleep, and Exhaustion.

The way this works, if a player character has a good night's sleep, and is able to eat/hydrate themself after a Long Rest, they gain a point of Inspiration. I see this as a Bonus for replenishing one's basic needs.

If a character fails to sleep at night, eat for the day, or drink, they must roll a saving throw.
Con save vs 8 + amount of days without food
Con save vs 12 + amount of days without water
Wis vs 10 + amount of days without sleep
A failed save will result in a Level of Exhaustion.

These things can stack, so for example if a character did not eat, drink, or sleep for over a day period that would have to roll 3 saves, and potentially gain 3 levels of exhaustion.

However these levels of exhaustion can be removed by doing the thing that caused it to happen in the first place. So a hungry character would have to eat a meal, a thirsty character drink, a tired character sleep.

A character suffering Exhaustion can not gain Inspiration points, whether from a Good Night's Rest, Well Fed, and Well Drank or from doing inspiring acts while gaming.

A character can only hold One Inspiration die at a time.

Unspent Inspiration die are lost at the beginning of a Long Rest; Exhausted; when Knocked Unconscious.

Let me know what you think of this idea.

 

[Aviose1]

I know this is from a couple months ago, but I have been looking for a better way to do inspiration for my West Marches campaign that I am preparing right now. My group's current adventure with another DM is coming to a close, and we will need a story to run. The current DM wants to take a break, so I figured I might as well.

It will be this group's first foray into 5e, and they have played every edition from BECMI to Pathfinder/3.x. I want to go a bit more OSR style with it, so this could work really well to help that feel. (Also raising death saves to DC 15, but allowing inspiration to auto-stabilize someone, only recovering 1/4 of Max Hit Dice on a long rest, and no HP, capping short rests to 1 Hit Die spent per hour resting, and adding AngryGM's exploration rules for dungeon-delving)

I think I like this, but to do it right with a West Marches campaign, I will likely have to start the party near broke, removing the extra gold that normal character creation ends up with. Maybe limit them to no more than 1 gold after creation? Then again, I could leave it and see how much the first characters assume it will not be that dangerous, regardless of my warnings.

I'm also going to have a lot of cash sinks in the town, allowing the players to advance the options available by spending their treasure, and allowing them to find ways to "unlock" other sub-classes and races. (Starting with only the PHB available.)

 

[Slit518]

I think I like this, but to do it right with a West Marches campaign, I will likely have to start the party near broke, removing the extra gold that normal character creation ends up with. Maybe limit them to no more than 1 gold after creation? Then again, I could leave it and see how much the first characters assume it will not be that dangerous, regardless of my warnings.

Hey, I appreciate the reply, even after a bit of time.

I would suggest suggested character equipment per class and background equipment. That is it. So the only gold they get is from whatever the background offers.

 

[the_redbeard]

I am thinking of tying Inspiration to Hunger, Thirst, Sleep, and Exhaustion.

The way this works, if a player character has a good night's sleep, and is able to eat/hydrate themself after a Long Rest, they gain a point of Inspiration. I see this as a Bonus for replenishing one's basic needs.

If a character fails to sleep at night, eat for the day, or drink, they must roll a saving throw.
Con save vs 8 + amount of days without food
Con save vs 12 + amount of days without water
Wis vs 10 + amount of days without sleep
A failed save will result in a Level of Exhaustion.

Going without water hurts a lot quicker. I'd actually suggest something more like: 8+ (days w/o water * 3)

These things can stack, so for example if a character did not eat, drink, or sleep for over a day period that would have to roll 3 saves, and potentially gain 3 levels of exhaustion.

However these levels of exhaustion can be removed by doing the thing that caused it to happen in the first place. So a hungry character would have to eat a meal, a thirsty character drink, a tired character sleep.

A character suffering Exhaustion can not gain Inspiration points, whether from a Good Night's Rest, Well Fed, and Well Drank or from doing inspiring acts while gaming.

A character can only hold One Inspiration die at a time.

Unspent Inspiration die are lost at the beginning of a Long Rest; Exhausted; when Knocked Unconscious.

Let me know what you think of this idea.

Here's someone else's take on Food in 5e


Interesting idea for Inspiration. I've been pondering different risk/reward type mechanics. Characters could tell stories/sing songs/warm themselves around the fire. But each of those could incur extra wandering monster checks. Haven't worked out a simple system yet with enough reward and a modicum of risk.

I've been using a strict but simple encumbrance system ( a 5e version of THIS and required food and water to be consumed in order to take advantage of Rests (abstracted a day's rations to be 3 "dots" and a waterskin to be 3 "dots"; Short Rest takes 1 dot of Food, 1 dot of water and a Long Rest takes 3 of each.)

I recommend something like that for a West Marches game. Gold or objective based experience instead of for just combat.

 

[Slit518]

I've been using a strict but simple encumbrance system ( a 5e version of THIS and required food and water to be consumed in order to take advantage of Rests (abstracted a day's rations to be 3 "dots" and a waterskin to be 3 "dots"; Short Rest takes 1 dot of Food, 1 dot of water and a Long Rest takes 3 of each.)

I think Long Rests usually involve sleeping. So eating a full 3-course meal, and drinking an entire waterskin while trying to sleep just doesn't make sense.

An Short Rest (1 hour) makes sense for things such as dressing wounds, drinking, eating, etc... You're not sleeping, you're taking care of basic needs.

But I do like the 3-dots rule. It makes it more interesting.

 

[Fion]

A long rest is 6 hours of sleep (or 4 for elves) followed by 2(4) hours of 'light activity'. It's in that later portion that wizards memorize their spells, clerics pray for theirs, etc. So IMHO getting a meal, scanning a map to determine the next course of action, a bard playing a soft tune, things like that are all part of a Long Rest.

I actually have my players track food & water, and for simplicity they mark the use of such during a long rest. Inspiration as it stands is a good idea, but linking it to RP'ing is not. It's great for those who RP, but not every player enjoys that aspects of Pen & Paper Gaming, so giving those players an opportunity to earn Inspiration by getting a full Long Rest and consuming a unit of food and water is a great idea. Especially considering that many adventures are going to take PCs to areas where getting a full 8 hour Long Rest and having enough food & water to consume isn't going to always be easy.

That said, I'm rather a fan of 'simpler is better' when it comes to this stuff so I'd probably just rule that they don't get inspiration if they don't have enough food/water and/or are unable to get a full Long Rest in.

 

[Aviose1]

I had been debating on whether I wanted to even give them the gold in the basic gear. Since I doubt they know exactly what to expect, It will be fine.

I do agree that the water save should escalate more quickly, though. Maybe DC 12+2/day without water instead, with disadvantage in hot environments.

For food, disadvantage in cold environments.