You get tired. I get tired. And while they may exist in a world of swords and spells, your characters get tired, too. But when it comes to exhaustion in fifth-edition Dungeons & Dragons, we’re not just talking about yawning through roleplay as you struggle to focus on your character sheet after a long day of gaming. We’re talking about the moments when your characters aren’t quite as fast as they want to be and when their usual bags of tricks just aren’t coming together. In the most extreme cases, we're talking about a condition that could lead to death.
Today, we’re taking a look at how exhaustion works, how to mitigate it as players, and how Dungeon Masters can use it to amp up the stakes in storytelling. So, try to stay awake, OK?
- How exhaustion works
- Ways to remove exhaustion
- What causes exhaustion?
- Ways to use exhaustion in your game
- FAQ: Exhaustion
How exhaustion works
While there is a myriad of ways that one can gain exhaustion in D&D that we’ll get into later, one of the most common ways that a character will risk the effects of exhaustion is by traveling through environments that are physically and mentally taxing, such as extreme heat or cold. A DM will likely ask players to make a Constitution saving throw for every hour spent in these harsh conditions.
As in real life, exhaustion works in waves. The longer you stay awake or the more you tax your physical and mental resources, the worse the condition becomes. With exhaustion rules, your character moves through six levels of detrimental effects that stack as you move through the list. The levels of exhaustion are:
Level |
Effect |
1 |
Disadvantage on ability checks |
2 |
Speed halved |
3 |
Disadvantage on attack rolls and saving throws |
4 |
Hit point maximum halved |
5 |
Speed reduced to 0 |
6 |
Death |
Ways to remove exhaustion
Those later levels might feel pretty bleak, so let’s discuss some ways to remove exhaustion. The simplest way is somewhat obvious: sleep. While characters who stay awake for 24 hours without a long rest will gain a level of exhaustion, a typical 8 hour long rest along with food and drink will reduce exhaustion by one step. Characters who are suffering from multiple levels of exhaustion will need several nights of rest to fully recover.
The greater restoration spell can also reduce exhaustion by one level. This 5th-level spell does cost 100 gp worth of diamond dust though, so it can be quite expensive to use as a treatment. However, if a character is teetering between levels of exhaustion, especially the final two, it may be worth the material cost as a stopgap.
Magic items can also help you recover from exhaustion. The potion of vitality removes any levels currently being suffered. Being raised from the dead either with a spell or with a magic item like the ring of temporal salvation will remove one level of exhaustion. But again, you might want to consider just waiting and sleeping again before going that route.
Avoiding exhaustion altogether
You might also just want to find ways to reduce the risk of exhaustion in the first place. Rather than risk travel exhaustion from cold environments, invest in warmer clothing that will allow you to automatically succeed on the saving throw. Consider taking off medium or heavy armor or finding ways to make yourself resistant to fire damage before traveling through extreme heat. Don’t treat Constitution as a dump stat and instead build it up to aid in those saving throws. If you’re not already proficient in Constitution saving throws, consider taking the Resilient feat if you’re playing in a survivalist campaign like Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus or Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden.
What causes exhaustion?
In addition to the extreme travel conditions mentioned above, exhaustion can be inflicted on characters in a few different ways. If characters run out of rations while traveling, they might gain exhaustion from thirst or starvation. Characters who decided to push their travel limits past 8 hours in a single day, aka a forced march, risk gaining exhaustion if they fail a Constitution saving throw. Likewise, characters without an innate swimming speed or magical intervention will need to make Constitution saves every hour they spend swimming.
There are also some special cases that cause exhaustion:
- Certain monsters like the CR 2 gingwatzim from Candlekeep Mysteries or the CR 18 sibriex from Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes have attacks that can cause exhaustion.
- The sickening radiance spell causes temporary exhaustion that lasts for the spell’s 10-minute concentrated duration.
- Those who cast Tenser’s transformation must pass a DC 15 Constitution saving throw when the spell ends or suffer from exhaustion.
- The dream spell can indirectly cause exhaustion by denying the target the benefits of a long rest if they fail their Wisdom saving throw.
- Path of the Berserker barbarians who use their 3rd-level feature, Frenzy, automatically take a point of exhaustion when it ends.
- There are also a few magic items that can increase the risk of exhaustion, such as the ring of x-ray vision from the basic rules or the Piercer sword from Acquisitions Incorporated.
Critical Role: Call of the Netherdeep ties the mysterious substance ruidium from that adventure’s narrative to the exhaustion chart. To avoid spoilers, we won't go into how that works here!
Ways to use exhaustion in your game
As a DM, exhaustion can be one of the most useful tools in your box. Any scenario in the game can be made more challenging simply by putting the characters through the wringer before they get to it. Having characters cross vast, rough terrain in harsh conditions on their way to an encounter can really sell the role of the characters as heroes. Even if you don’t tend to use rations and food in your game typically, setting up resource management struggles when entering into the wasteland of Avernus or the Biting North of Wildemount can raise the stakes on adventures and add some drama to potentially repetitive days of travel.
Exhaustion can also work as a way of upping the difficulty setting on encounters. If you feel like your players are cutting through even some of your higher CR monsters, finding ways to interrupt their long rests prior to a big fight could nudge the scales into a bit more balance.
On a pure roleplay level, exhaustion can make for some fun storytelling. Mechanically, having disadvantage on skill checks might lead to some more creative solutions to common problems. Players who like to get deeply into character at the table might also find some fun new angles to their roleplay when their character is not at their best and brightest.
Exhaustion FAQ
What does exhaustion do?
Exhaustion is a condition that imposes tiered detriments to characters’ abilities. It can even lead to death if not remedied by the sixth level.
How to remove exhaustion?
One level of exhaustion can be removed with a long rest that is combined with eating and drinking. There are also other ways of removing exhaustion, detailed above.
Does greater restoration cure exhaustion?
Yes, greater restoration removes one level of exhaustion.
What creatures are immune to exhaustion?
Usually, constructs, elementals, and some undead (but not vampires) are immune to the exhaustion condition. (Here is a list of monsters with immunity to exhaustion.)
Is exhaustion automatic after skipping a long rest?
According to the expanded Dungeon Master’s Tools in Xanathar’s Guide to Everything, no. At least, not immediately. At the end of a 24-hour period with no rest, the character must make a DC 10 Constitution saving throw to ward off a level of exhaustion. The DC for this increases by 5 for every 24 hours the character does not rest.
Riley Silverman (@rileyjsilverman) is a contributing writer to D&D Beyond, Nerdist, and SYFY Wire. She DMs the Theros-set Dice Ex Machina for the Saving Throw Show, and has been a player on the Wizards of the Coast-sponsored The Broken Pact. Riley also played as Braga in the official tabletop adaptation of the Rat Queens comic for HyperRPG, and currently plays as The Doctor on the Doctor Who RPG podcast The Game of Rassilon. She currently lives in Los Angeles.
First, also great aticle
I have a house rule that being reduced to 0 HP imposes a level of exhaustion. There should be some penalties from being brought to the brink of death multiple times in a day.
I've often felt like exhaustion is an underused mechanic in D&D, but I'm not sure of ways it could be implemented successfully in a non-survival campaign. Any ideas?
As the article says, you can use it in any scenario where you want to raise the difficulty. Maybe a magical trap in a dungeon inflicts a level of exhaustion. Maybe an ongoing effect from disease or poison makes it so one or more player characters don't lose a level on a long rest, making curing that affliction an important and immediate objective. I could even see a scenario where a character gains a level of exhaustion in exchange for something with permission from the DM, like being allowed extra movement to escape a situation that would otherwise be deadly.
In the Tomb of Annihilation campaign I’m running I changed death saves. You’re unconscious at 0. Each failed save is a level of exhaustion. That’s potentially 6 failed saves to death. Or 1 if you’re having a rough day. Because of this change only one character has died so far (not inside the tomb yet)
We (PeakD&D) have series of 3 videos (youtube) using the exhaustion mechanic as a way of talking/thinking about burnout, overwhelm, and yes - exhaustion IRL.
Not sure if the intersection between Dnd, mental health, and living your best life is your jam - but if it is - check 'em out.
I do the exact same
In the DMG, there is a table of "lingering injuries" that can result from being reduced to 0 hit points or failing a death saving throw. Only problem. That optional rule can be too hardcore for some groups. Being reduced to 0 hit points and dying is usually enough suspense and tension for players. Whether or not you use that rule depends on your group, because D&D is meant to be fun for everybody. Just use whatever rule feels best for your party.
Here's another suggestion: have a negative status condition be imposed on a player that gets back up from 0 hit points. It's like the character takes several moments to fully regain it's senses and get it's body systems back online.
I never saw a need to add exhaustion on to unconscious because there's already a penalty to being reduced to 0 HP: Your side loses action economy and the monster who still has two multiattacks left is gonna kill you dead.
You only gotta light up a downed PC once for the players to never let a character drop again.
This. It's been my experience that GMs who think recovering from dropping to zero is too easy don't properly take advantage of the situation, and then naturally, the players get pretty casual about it as well.
Would LOVE to see more these types of articles. Thanks!
The problem with house-rules like this is that you are further penalising the players who are already having the hardest time.
I could understand imposing exhaustion if a player is being careless, but as a general rule I'd be very wary about imposing something like that, especially when there are monsters in the game like banshees that can drop players to 0 hit-points after a single failed save.
I once homebrewed a desert-themed ranger subclass called the Sand Survivor. At 15th level, it gains immunity to exhaustion, which expanded on previous features reducing its need to eat and drink by making it immune to starvation, dehydration, sleep deprivation, overheating, and freezing.
I also think exhaustion is a good alternative to having your hit point maximum reduced, if you don't feel like it has enough bite.
And this is why Sickening Radiance is one of the best combat spells in the game!
I like the exhaustion condition. I just don't think it fits with a Frenzy Berserker Barbarian. Berserk only grants a single bonus attack. If you are going to get a guaranteed level of exhaustion the ability should do more like turn a Barbarian into a next level shredding machine. A vanilla Fighter gets three attacks at 11th level and does not get exhausted.
I also don't think exhaustion should be used for characters that die often. I have quit games where the only roll playing I get to do is get resurrected. It should be used for characters that do NOT die often. And then it should be a check. Lost the top 1/4 of your hit points? Roll a Constitution Save to see if you get one level of exhaustion. As the character gets better and better, make the difficulty of the saving throw harder and harder.
I wish exhaustion actually worked on the D&D Beyond sheet. It should put the "disadvantage" icon on the relevant fields, halve your hit point maximum and speed, etc., depending on the levels of exhaustion you have.
My party used to do that, until the tank died of exhaustion, and the only other frontliner was at 5 levels and couldn't risk recovering his body. We were also pretty new players at the time and kept reviving folks mid combat though.
You do not avoid it, you cry in the corner every day as the little bits of good that was inside you die.
After 10 rounds of combat, I have both sides make a Con Check (DC 12) or gain a level of exhaustion. This fact along with Crimson Escalation makes for some intense combat at the table.