Mechanical Thinking is a series that presents new houserules that you can add to your home D&D games, and then interrogates the underlying mechanics, examines what problems the rule solves, and identifies what the rule can do to improve your game. Then, once all is said and done, join me and other readers in the comments for a discussion about the proposed rule. Just remember that all rules have their place, and while they might not fit your table, they might be perfect for another gaming group.
If you have a mind for mechanics or for the process of game design, or if you want hone the mechanical side of your RPG knowledge, this series is for you!
Exhaustion
Exhaustion is a six-step stamina counter unique to fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons that tracks a creature’s physical state from peak condition to death. Unlike hit points, which increase as a character gains levels, exhaustion always remains the same. Likewise, every point of exhaustion a creature gains imposes a cumulative and debilitating effect, ranging from unpleasant-but-minor disadvantage on ability checks at a single point of exhaustion, to complete immobility at five points, to instant death at six points.
Exhaustion’s “death spiral” effect sometimes feels at odds with D&D’s heroic nature, which is best exemplified by hit points—a health tracker that allows a character with only a single remaining hit point to fight just as effectively as a character at full hit points. For that reason, effects that impose exhaustion are mercifully rare in D&D’s rules and adventures—and this scarcity is merciful, as there are precious few ways of recovering from exhaustion. Nevertheless, if you want to add a bit of grit to your D&D game, consider expanding the role of exhaustion:
Exhaustion as Damage
If you want to make combat more ruthless and visceral, try removing the abstract concept of hit points from your D&D and replacing it with an exhaustion track. This method is similar to, but distinct from, a mechanic introduced in the Star Wars Saga Edition roleplaying game, published by Wizards of the Coast in 2000 and revised in 2002. This mechanic was known as the Condition Track. In addition to damage (which drained a creature’s D&D-style hit points), Star Wars Saga Edition included effects that pushed their target down the Condition Track. Every time a creature advanced down the Condition Track, it suffered mounting cumulative penalties, ultimately resulting in unconsciousness. As was typical of the third edition D&D and the d20 System, these condition penalties were granular penalties to rolls; a character would advance from a –1 penalty to attack rolls, ability checks, and skill checks to a –2, a –5, and so forth.
Exhaustion in fifth edition bears some similarities to Star Wars-style conditions, but by making the penalties of exhaustion less granular, fifth edition actually made exhaustion more debilitating. Being able to move only half speed is a huge deal for only two points of exhaustion, and disadvantage on attack rolls at three points is massive, but to have your hit point maximum halved at four points? Fifth edition exhaustion doesn’t play around. Notably, a creature’s condition could be much more easily restored than D&D exhaustion, which can only be recovered point-by-point by completing a long rest, being soothed by greater restoration, or by consuming a rare potion.
Replacing Hit Points with an Exhaustion Track
You can adapt this idea to D&D by removing hit points entirely, and giving each class their own exhaustion track. A character’s exhaustion track is determined by the size of your class’s hit die, plus your Constitution modifier. For instance, a wizard or a sorcerer has a 6-step exhaustion track, because the wizard and sorcerer classes have a d6 hit die. Likewise, a fighter, paladin, or ranger has a 10-step exhaustion track because those classes have a d10 hit die. Finally, your character’s exhaustion track is extended by a number equal to your Constitution modifier; if your character’s Constitution modifier is negative, your track is reduced by that number of steps.
Whenever you gain a level, your exhaustion track increases by one.
Also, since the fourth step of the exhaustion track in the core rules is "hit point maximum halved," this step will have to be replaced. Instead, creatures that have reached this step can only take an action or a bonus action on their turn, not both. Additionally, they can't take reactions.
Creatures with Exhaustion Tracks Longer or Shorter than Six Steps
Under this system, most creatures have an exhaustion track more than six-steps long. For instance, a wizard with a +1 Constitution modifier has a 7-step exhaustion track. However, since there are only six steps of exhaustion in D&D, every step of your track your character has above 6 is “safe.” Gaining a point of exhaustion has no effect until you enter the final six steps of your exhaustion track.
For example, a rogue (d8 hit die) and a +2 Constitution modifier has an exhaustion track that looks like this:
Level of Exhaustion |
Effect |
1 |
— |
2 |
— |
3 |
— |
4 |
— |
5 |
Disadvantage on ability checks |
6 |
Speed halved |
7 |
Disadvantage on attack rolls and saving throws |
8 |
Can only take an action or a bonus action on a turn, and can't take reactions |
9 |
Speed Reduced to 0 |
10 |
Death |
Similarly, if your exhaustion track is shorter than six steps, you suffer the effects of exhaustion in order (starting with disadvantage on ability checks at one point of exhaustion) but die when you reach the end of your exhaustion track. For example, a character with a 5-step exhaustion track dies after gaining five points of exhaustion, rather than having its speed reduced to 0 first.
Gaining Exhaustion when Taking Damage
In addition to the usual ways a creature become exhausted (such as through strenuous travel and dangerous environments), a creature gains a point of exhaustion whenever it takes damage. This damage could come from any source, such as an attack, a spell, or an environmental effect. Especially powerful attacks, environmental effects, and spells could cause more than 1 point of exhaustion, at the DM’s discretion. If a single attack or effect deals multiple types of damage, such as a flying snake's bite dealing both piercing and poison damage, this attack still only inflicts 1 point of exhaustion.
Healing
Whenever an effect would cause a creature to regain any number of hit points, it instead loses 1 point of exhaustion. If the healing effect is a spell that only targets a single creature, the spell causes its target to lose a point of exhaustion per level of the spell. Healing spells that target multiple creatures and restore large amounts of hit points, like mass cure wounds and mass heal are left to the DM’s discretion.
Also, lesser restoration now causes its target to lose 1 point of exhaustion in addition to its other effects. Lastly, greater restoration now causes the target to lose 2 points of exhaustion in addition to its other effects. A potion of healing causes the creature who drinks it to lose 1 point of exhaustion, a potion of greater healing restores 2 points of exhaustion, and so forth.
Finally, a creature can lose 1 point of exhaustion by spending a hit die when it completes a short rest. Restoring exhaustion further in the same short rest costs one additional hit die per point cured; for instance, curing three points of exhaustion in a single rest costs six hit dice, one hit die for the first, two for the second, and three for the third.
Monsters
Instead of having hit points, a monster has a number of exhaustion steps equal to its number of hit dice. Monsters exhaustion tracks work similarly to characters’ exhaustion tracks; if this number is less than six, the monster suffers the effects of exhaustion as normal, but dies after it gains points of exhaustion equal to its number of hit dice.
Dying
When a creature reaches the end of its exhaustion track, it dies. Unlike in the core fifth edition rules, no creatures make death saving throws. If you want your game to be more forgiving, consider allowing player characters and important NPCs to start dying when they reach the end of their exhaustion track instead of perishing outright. Dying creatures make death saves as normal.
Points of Stress in this House Rule
This house rule isn’t perfect. Fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons was designed with hit points in mind, and simplifying hit points into an exhaustion track has some serious drawbacks, in exchange for making your games less lethal in earlier levels and potentially more lethal at higher levels. It makes hordes of weak creatures incredibly dangerous, and creatures with many attacks (such as a marilith or a carrion crawler disproportionately powerful, since all attacks have the same effective power under this system, regardless of whether they would have dealt 10 damage or 100 in a hit point-based system.
Because of the way the power of certain spells and features fluctuate with this rule in place, Dungeon Masters may have to make ad hoc adjudications when translating the power of area-of-effect spells from hit point damage to exhaustion damage. As a simple house rule, these sort of adjudications are fine. If this system were translated into a full and exhaustive D&D-like spinoff game, a full rework of many monsters, spells, and features would be in order to suit this new mechanical framework.
Also, no exhaustion-as-damage houserule would be complete without addressing the “death spiral” effect, in which characters become less effect and less likely to succeed in a fight as the fight goes on. This effect is cushioned somewhat by allowing hardy characters to take multiple hits before suffering from exhaustion effects, but it is nevertheless still present. The death spiral effect on monsters also adds to the Dungeon Master’s mental load, as the DM now has to keep track of all the effects clinging onto their monsters throughout the course of an encounter and beyond.
What do you think of this new house rule? Would you use it in your game? What would you change? Let us know in the comments below!
James Haeck is the lead writer for D&D Beyond, the co-author of Waterdeep: Dragon Heist and the Critical Role Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting, the DM of Worlds Apart, and a freelance writer for Wizards of the Coast, the D&D Adventurers League, and Kobold Press. He lives in Seattle, Washington with his partner Hannah and their animal companions Mei and Marzipan. You can find him wasting time on Twitter at @jamesjhaeck.
Interesting system, how would you approach multiclassing?
I would prefer to use this concept in addition to the hit points. I use exhaustion a lot at my table and it adds some good flare. It is frustrating for the player though. Having some rules for exhaustion outside the typical condition rules can add some fun and increase danger in certain situations.
For mundane activities like going to school, work, grocery shopping or the gym an exhaustion track may work but it does not fit the context of adventure and combat as such adrenaline filled activities don't reckon with a linear exhaustion track. No matter how fatigued you may be the second you hear a gunshot, or a demon pops up on your front lawn, fatigue or exhaustion will disappear. A fun movie example that comes to mind is Diehard.
I would call it an injury track.
Its a very interesting idea. To really fully implement it would take a lot of system reworking (as you say). I am thinking that every 5 points of damage would translate into one step on the condition track. I will have to try it sometime with a one shot to see how it works.
Another way to use the exhaustion rules with regulator hp is that a crit adds one level to exhaustion (in addition to the dropping to 0). But I would call it an injury track.
the problem i would run into would be adjudicating resistance for half damage and save for half damage as even 1 point of damage vs 30 points of damage are still 1 level of exhaustion. also what about temp hit points. in addition barbarians with a d12 HD still dying at 10 seems unbalanced for the player home roled the class because everyone else was already other warrior types (fighter, ranger)
We added a house rule that characters take a point of exhaustion every time they’re downed in combat. We’ve really been enjoying it so far, and this article reminded me of how we came to this rule.
I don't think that associating the size of your exhaustion track with your hit die to be entirely fair as it punishes those with a low one and rewards those with a high one for no apparent reason.
I do like that because you have added more ways to get exhaustion, you have balanced it with more ways to get rid of exhaustion.
And as some others have noticed, this will make a lot more work for the DM as they have many monsters and NPCs that they have to keep track of, where players have only one.
New ideas and houserules are great and everything, but overall this needs a lot of work to keep it fair to all classes of players... some more even like the way the current exhaustion is to all players (I don't want to see more Barbarians and less Wizards).
I have done this before by adding to the character sheet a portion of levels of HP exhaustion which I figure out for them and write down at 50%, 30%, and 10% taking 1,2, and 3 points respectively. Once their hit points drop below that range, they feel the effects of that point of exhaustion. This in turn also gives healing more consideration and avoids things like healing word being able to make all the difference so healers never have to get in close. Sure you can just bring em back up from afar, but they will likely not be as effective as if you had brought them back up with a cure wounds or a potion.
I like the idea of combining them too, just because eliminating hit points seems like it would break the game too easily. The rule as presented in the article feels more in line for campaigns or one shots where everyone wants a gritty, realistic experience with a few big bads.
Is there a way to add exhaustion points to combat itself? Maybe a point of exhaustion if the player takes more than a certain threshold of damage? Nat 1's a saving throw against an effect? You could increase/change the penalties of vulnerability to add a point of exhaustion if they take damage that they're vulnerable to. And to your point about fighting for hours, you could add in exhaustion points after several rounds of combat.
I like combat rules that kind of show the dangers of the world they're in and bringing exhaustion into it would definitely be a way to up that without breaking or redesigning the game.
Being "Powerful attacks", they would deal 2 points of exhaustion.
So, getting hit with an ogre's club and getting poked by a pixie's dagger have the exact same effect on the "exhaustion track?"
I like this article. I've been DMing over 20 years now but in my recent Dragon Heist game there were a lot of opportunities where if I had only remembered exhaustion exists as a 5E mechanic I could have used it dramatically and effectively. The way I run Dragon Heist is to compress it a bit and adapt it as needed so that I can run it almost like 24. We played for 12 sessions but it only covered 72 total hours of game time. Exhaustion would have added a layer there. So thanks for the great article James, helps keep exhaustion foremost in my mind.
It says in the article:
If a single attack or effect deals multiple types of damage, such as a flying snake's bite dealing both piercing and poison damage, this attack still only inflicts 1 point of exhaustion.
first off, the original idea of adding a point of exhaustion whenever you are brought back is a fantastic idea, and actually falls in line with ressurection magic as well (which already has a penalty for being brought back, but from completely dead)
The article as a whole though, I would personally be a little afraid to implement that, for the simple reason that you would need to re-do the entire damage system. what I mean by that is: ancient dragon breathes fire. is there any point in rolling saving throws? is it extra points of exhaustion if you fail? should an ancient dragon really hurt just as much as a giant rat? and as you pointed out, multiattack all of a sudden becomes insanely overpowered. flame blast becomes more powerful then meteor swarm. swarms of small creatures that are only balanced by being weak individually become insanely hard encounters, as they each essentially have as much "health" and "attack power" as something full sized. what about resistances? if someone resistant to cold, saves on cold breath, should they really still take full damage, instead of what would a quarter normally? You would have to make these considerations for every single creature, sometimes every attack, you use or plan to use.
one option that would make better use of the current system and be much easier to implement: have everything in the article, but only get rid of hp, not damage. every time something takes damage, have it roll a con save with a DC equal to the amount of total damage done in the hit, minus half the total sides of hit dice. succeed, no damage, fail, point of exhaustion. (so for example: you take 10 damage. 1st level wizard has a DC of 10-3=7. 4th level would be 10-12= -2 and would automatically succeed.) this both ensures that tougher things will have a natural "armor" that still makes them harder to kill, and makes higher damage hits still mean something at the same time.
"Dungeon Masters may have to make ad hoc adjudications"
What?
Wow, look at all the comments and traffic to this. Really struck a nerve or something with this concept.
Always liked the idea of exhaustion. We use in lieu of 2nd Edition’s “Severity” from critical strikes which also reduce a character to 0 HP with a chance for Lingering Injury rule to also take effect if they fail a con save.
However, specifically in response to this article, may I suggest that instead of removing HP you just use them in parallel with the exhaustion levels? There are too many fun damage and healing mechanics to ignore HP or transpose them so leave them in, and make each health level a result of HD size.
So the warrior with 1d10 HD, has [10] HP per tier of health, and each time he loses that number of HP he goes down another tick of exhaustion (With the one carve out about losing 1/2 HP changed to something else... Like...can’t be healed above 1/2 health)
10th Level Warrior has 10 health levels.
[100 HP] - Normal
[90 HP] - Normal
[80 HP] - Normal
[70 HP] - Normal
[60 HP] - Normal
[50 HP] - Exhaustion 1
[40 HP] - Exhaustion 2
[30 HP] - Exhaustion 3
[20 HP] - Exhaustion 4
[10 HP] - Exhaustion 5
[0 HP] - Lingering Injury and Start Death Saves
Oh, example: L5R
Here is what I use to help make exhaustion relevant -- I've found it really helps with the yo-yo healing when someone goes down:
If an injury/concussion occurs to the same body part multiple times then it is treated as severed/mangled. If that body part is completely severed/destroyed then increase the dice roll one level until it can be applied.
Be good for a game in a world of no magic. Without house rulling every spell damage amount in the game this modification nerfs magic.
This would make for really fast combat by removing damage rolls.
It's an interesting idea but the Damage portion of this needs to be more considered and also your level. You have the same HP effectively at lvl 1 as you do at lvl 20.
Lvl could give you an extra tier on the track every proficiency bump.
Maybe allow for rolling damage ...
I think for every additional 5 pts of damage you move down the track.
Your Rogue example would effectively have 50 HP but be injured at 20 HP. Same goes for healing. Every 5pts removes a lvl.