I have an idea if you want combat to have more tension. If you really want to make your players sweat over if a situation will end in combat or not, and really want them to try and fight as little as possible. Or you can make this a feature of a monster so fighting this monsters leads to this effect. The idea is that at the end of combat, every player must perform a constitution save or gain one point of exhaustion. The DC is 5 + however much the difference between there max HP and what the current HP is. If their max HP is 20 and there at 10 then they would need to beat a 15 or they take the exhaustion. If you take too much damage during a combat you will defiantly take the point. For example if your max is 40 and you are at 1 HP your need to roll a 44, your not doing that unless you get a natural 20. If they roll a 1 they take 2 points of exhaustion. I do see this more working with a less magic themed game, or like a grim dark setting.
That sounds interesting... I think I might shift the idea to making the DC dependent on how many rounds the combat lasted, since going off HP alone can put it at a DC of 20+ very quickly. Maybe include a feature that if they are at lower than 50% of their max HP they roll with disadvantage on their CON check.
Or you could make them roll a CON save on, I don't know, a DC of 15? But only if they dropped below 1/4 of their max hp during the combat. If they fail, add a point of exhaustion. Otherwise, those who came through the battle relatively unscathed are fine. You could have an alternate rule for spellcasters, if they cast more than X amount of their total available spells in a single encounter.
What adjustments would or could be made versus the relative time elapsed in game for this exhaustion mechanic? IIRC ten rounds is the equivalent to a minute, and altering that could literally make the combatants look like they're fighting at full steam but in slow motion, lol. The idea of this type of exhaustion mechanic is used in a campaign I am part of, but it is predicated on how much damage you take rather than time elapsed/effort spent.
At this point, I'd rather just use the rules in the DMG for short rest being a full night of sleep and long rest being a week of no activity.
Every battle would have a fair chance of a player getting a level of exhaustion, which only gets reduced by one after a long rest. And you really don't want to stack those - an exhaustion of 3 means disadvantage on every attack rolls and saving throws, so an even greater chance to get an additional exhaustion level. This means that you're greatly encouraged to make no more than one battle per day, which is something we usually try to avoid.
Having the DC be lower, such as 5, and increasing by 2 for each extra battle might make things more balanced, but I would still be wary of letting a single roll influence that much.
I have an idea if you want combat to have more tension. If you really want to make your players sweat over if a situation will end in combat or not, and really want them to try and fight as little as possible. Or you can make this a feature of a monster so fighting this monsters leads to this effect. The idea is that at the end of combat, every player must perform a constitution save or gain one point of exhaustion. The DC is 5 + however much the difference between there max HP and what the current HP is. If their max HP is 20 and there at 10 then they would need to beat a 15 or they take the exhaustion. If you take too much damage during a combat you will defiantly take the point. For example if your max is 40 and you are at 1 HP your need to roll a 44, your not doing that unless you get a natural 20. If they roll a 1 they take 2 points of exhaustion. I do see this more working with a less magic themed game, or like a grim dark setting.
That sounds interesting... I think I might shift the idea to making the DC dependent on how many rounds the combat lasted, since going off HP alone can put it at a DC of 20+ very quickly. Maybe include a feature that if they are at lower than 50% of their max HP they roll with disadvantage on their CON check.
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I have occasionally applied Exhaustion on Characters that go unconscious during combat. It works very cleanly.
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Or you could make them roll a CON save on, I don't know, a DC of 15? But only if they dropped below 1/4 of their max hp during the combat. If they fail, add a point of exhaustion. Otherwise, those who came through the battle relatively unscathed are fine. You could have an alternate rule for spellcasters, if they cast more than X amount of their total available spells in a single encounter.
What adjustments would or could be made versus the relative time elapsed in game for this exhaustion mechanic? IIRC ten rounds is the equivalent to a minute, and altering that could literally make the combatants look like they're fighting at full steam but in slow motion, lol. The idea of this type of exhaustion mechanic is used in a campaign I am part of, but it is predicated on how much damage you take rather than time elapsed/effort spent.
EDIT:
This also.
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At this point, I'd rather just use the rules in the DMG for short rest being a full night of sleep and long rest being a week of no activity.
Every battle would have a fair chance of a player getting a level of exhaustion, which only gets reduced by one after a long rest. And you really don't want to stack those - an exhaustion of 3 means disadvantage on every attack rolls and saving throws, so an even greater chance to get an additional exhaustion level. This means that you're greatly encouraged to make no more than one battle per day, which is something we usually try to avoid.
Having the DC be lower, such as 5, and increasing by 2 for each extra battle might make things more balanced, but I would still be wary of letting a single roll influence that much.
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Good point