•If a character does not get the required amount of water for their activity level per day, then that character becomes dehydrated.
1.The first day a character goes without the proper amount of water, they become fatigued.
2.The third day in a row that a character goes without the proper amount of water, they become exhausted.
3.The sixth day in a row that a character roes without the proper amount of water, they become stunned.
4.The ninth day in a row that a character goes without the proper amount of water, they become unconscious.
5.The tenth day in a row that character goes without the proper amount of water, they must make a DC15 Fortitude check. If the check passes, the character takes 1d6 temporary Constitution damage, but if the check fails, the character dies of dehydration. Note: If the characters Constitution score is reduced to 0, then they die.
6.If at any time during the 10 day period, a character receives the proper amount of water , they become hydrated.
>Becoming hydrated reduces the effect that dehydration causes by one step (unconscious becomes stunned, stunned becomes exhausted, exhausted becomes fatigued, fatigued becomes normal).
>Any temporary Constitution damage heals at its normal rate.
>If a character is hydrated but not at normal hydration levels and fails to meet the daily requirements for water usage, then that character starts to become dehydrated again, starting at their current level. Ex: Grax is dehydrated for seven days and is stunned. He finds a small oasis that supplies him with one days worth of water. Grax is now exhausted by his dehydration effects. The next day Grax does not get enough water and is dehydrated as if he had not had any water for three days (i.e. exhausted). If Grax does not find water for another three days he becomes stunned.
Any comments or feedback would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
I think perhaps it'd be better to go more gradually. Something like:
On the first day of not getting enough water, they become dehydrated
Every day thereafter, DC 10 + [number of days without water] fort save, or move down 1 step in the "condition" ladder. The sequence is:
hydrated -> dehydrated -> fatigued -> exhausted -> stunned -> unconscious
From the 3rd day on, DC 7 + [number of days without water] fort save or take 1d6 points of Constitution damage. This damage does not heal until you become hydrated again.
Getting enough water for a day will improve your condition upwards 2 steps on the "condition" ladder
If you use this kind of system (not perfect, would love to hear input on changes), you have the following benefits:
1. Gradual going both down and up. In your system, until you hit the Con damage stage (Day 10), simply finding water will completely solve your problems. With what I'm describing, even a few days could easily result in temporary constitution damage.
2. Unpredictability in how it affects characters. This prevents people from exploiting the rules along the lines of "Eh, I can go 5 days in the desert and only become exhausted, it's worth the attempt". It'd be more like "after 3 days, hard to say how it's going to go".
3. Fairly easy to remember, since it's essentially formulaic
What do you think?
#2 Um what about less then full amount, but more then half... (water) Just things to consider
Originally posted by Tha Nomad
Number two is a little more ballanced. But two questions... #1.) What are the effects of being dehydrated, fatigued etc... (if rules are in 3.5 just say "in 3.5")
There is no official "dehydrated" state. But the rest are states that exist in 3.5. To clarify, from the SRD:
Fatigued: A fatigued character can neither run nor charge and takes a –2 penalty to Strength and Dexterity. Doing anything that would normally cause fatigue causes the fatigued character to become exhausted. After 8 hours of complete rest, fatigued characters are no longer fatigued.
Exhausted: An exhausted character moves at half speed and takes a –6 penalty to Strength and Dexterity. After 1 hour of complete rest, an exhausted character becomes fatigued. A fatigued character becomes exhausted by doing something else that would normally cause fatigue.
Stunned: A stunned creature drops everything held, can’t take actions, takes a –2 penalty to AC, and loses his Dexterity bonus to AC (if any).
Unconscious: Knocked out and helpless. Unconsciousness can result from having current hit points between –1 and –9, or from nonlethal damage in excess of current hit points.
So, Exhausted and Stunned are not exclusive; they would both be in effect at the same time if they reached there.
As for what to do about more than half water. Hmm. Situational modifier to the save DCs? Kind of a DM's perogative I think.
Or, alternately, you could rule that as long as they are getting more than half of the water they need, they will take no Con damage, and will not advance down the "condition" ladder any furthur than exhausted. So if you keep yourself partially hydrated you can keep moving but you will eventulally be exhausted, and if you run out of water entirely, you start taking Con damage.
In hot climates charaters need two to three times as much water than normal in order to stave off dehydration.
Characters can go without water for one day plus a number of hours equal to their Con score. After this time characters must make a Con check each hour (DC 10, +1 for each pervious check) or take 1d6 points of nonlethal damage.
Characters who have nonlethal damage from lack of water are fatigued. Fatigued characters can not run or charge and take -2 penalty to Str and Dex. Doing anything that would normally cause fatigue causes the fatigued character to become exhausted. Exhausted characters move at half speed and take a -6 penalty to Str and Dex. After 1 hour of complete rest, an exhausted character becomes fatigued. Nonlethal damage from thrist cannot be recovered until the character gets water. Not even magic that restores hp heals this damage.
Also, there's nothing wrong with a 'check or die' system. But to base it on the number of days that have passed is to assume that every race has the same durability as humans.
As for exploiting the system, don't EVER tell your PCs what state their in, or how many points of damage they've taken, or how much their ability scores are reduced. Keep track of these yourself. Describe the damage with adjectives, not numbers. Have them roll a few checks in a row (5 or 6 even), then save those rolls for later when they would normally make that check. Another thing is to adjust a few numbers based on how much they passed or failed on the check (but be fair and consistant if you do). Never let PCs exploit rules. Let them use common sense in a real world fashion.
One thing that is entirely neglected out of any dehydration rules is the fact that the effects of dehydration are all encompasing. It effects the mind as well as the body, clouding thoughts, hindering vision, disrupting hearing, and even causing delusions and hallucinations (the effects are similar to having schitzophrenia as well as paranoid delusions I'm told). I've suffered from pretty severe deydration before, so I can attest that it does wreak pretty nasty havoc on the mind (brain damage and partial atrophy can occure in very extreme cases). The penalties associated with the levels of fatigue and exhaustion should also take away from the mental ability scores as well. Also, resting in early stages is advisable, but not so much after one is in an extreme state; you begin to lack the ability to move at all or even wake yourself from sleep, which can be pretty much a death sentence.
Good points, but the same could be said of taking a bludgeoning weapon to your head or blood loss from a slashing or piercing weapon. I think keeping it simple makes for an easier time for the DM and player alike.
But if your looking for a mental aspect you could have the character make a Wis or Int check (DC10 + the total nonlethal damage they have taken from dehydration) each time they fail their initial Con check for the hour. Those failing suffer as if under the effects of a confusion spell for a number of rounds equal to the number they failed the Int or Wis check by.
I think keeping it simple makes for an easier time for the DM and player alike.
Adding mental ability score loss alongside the physical ones doesn't needlessly complicate anything at all. Adding a simple tag into the fatigue description of 'spot checks -5, listen check -5' doesn't either.
As for the insanity bit, mechanics should be left out of that, entirely and completely (or at best, simply assign a number of failed checks before madness kicks in), and the confusion spell effects are a very, very, very, very poor look at a fun way to role-play a bit of craziness induced by dehydration.
What I was trying to get across is that the effects of dehydration are rather trivialized by the rules in DS 2E and the 3.5 DMG. Its rough granted, but not so life threatening till the very end (and especially so if you use heightened stats for your races). Severe dehydration isn't just bad, its REALLY BAD (and even a bit worse than that). Starvation is also something to compile with dehydration, but the effects of one should supercede the effects of the other.
Good points, but the same could be said of taking a bludgeoning weapon to your head or blood loss from a slashing or piercing weapon.
And so any wound system takes into at least some consideration, as do any critical hit systems with location specific damage. Rigon was posting a system that defined a bit of logic and realism into dehydration effects, not just the arbitrary system from the DMG. I was just pointing out a few bits of realistic approaches, none of which need be 'complicated' (I keep everything as simple as I can in my games, but that doesn't mean that I don't like things to seem as realistic as I can manage under the fantasy based circumstances).
(edit) Also forgot, another thing I do is that fatigue damage is done in 10% (round down) clumps. Level of combat ability shouldn't have any factor on how long you can survive the wastes without water. A lvl 1 war and a lvl 20 war should with equal Con should drop dead at around the same time. Just another simple way to introduce a bit of realism without complicating anything much.
after i wrote my dehydration rules, i looked at them and they seemed chunky to me, so i went back to DS2e and reread the dehydration rules there.
now i'm just confused.... the 2e rules seemed simple, yet effective. whereas, my own rules seemed more realistic, but harder to impliment(sp?). i also looked through the PHB 3e and DMG 3e, but i din't find any specific rules for dehydration.
any other ideas would be gladly taken.
now i'm just confused.... the 2e rules seemed simple, yet effective. whereas, my own rules seemed more realistic, but harder to impliment(sp?). i also looked through the PHB 3e and DMG 3e, but i din't find any specific rules for dehydration.
Dehydration rules are found in the "Wilderness, Weather, and Environment" section in the 3.5 DMG.
i was thinking last night about using the rules in the DS 2e books, but adding a roll for wis or int with the same scale.
You could always add another 1d6 for each hour (i.e. after 3 hours character would suffer 3d6 on a failed Con check).
Originally posted by Sysane
1d6 nonlethal every hour when you fail a Con check isn't lethal enough?
You could always add another 1d6 for each hour (i.e. after 3 hours character would suffer 3d6 on a failed Con check).
Personally, I don't like those rules simply because (as has been pointed out), what does combat prowess have to do with surviving without water? I'm of the school that belives HP are more an abstraction of how well a person deals with damage, not how much damage they can take. If someone has 2x the HP of another person, they can't take twice the damage, they are just good enough that they have twice as much granularity. That which would've done, say, 10% total damage to the person with less HP, the guy with more HP has the ability to make it only do 5%.
This is why I like a strictly stat-damage based system. If you do it with Con damage, it is lethal over time, and even a 20th level barbarian with 200+ HP can't just walk around for days without water and just take some nonlethal damage. Granted, a high Con character is going to do better than a low Con character, but a level 1 and level 20 warrior of the same stats should survive the same in this situation, IMHO.
Originally posted by dyslexia
This is why I like a strictly stat-damage based system. If you do it with Con damage, it is lethal over time, and even a 20th level barbarian with 200+ HP can't just walk around for days without water and just take some nonlethal damage. Granted, a high Con character is going to do better than a low Con character, but a level 1 and level 20 warrior of the same stats should survive the same in this situation, IMHO.
I dont have much time to discuss, but I like very much this paragraph. I would like to see this get some rules around it.
Personally, I don't like those rules simply because (as has been pointed out), what does combat prowess have to do with surviving without water?
Fatigue from dehydration would effect how you would preform in combat I imagine. Granted your stats being effected would also effect your combat prowess as well.
A lack of water is reflected in the game by a reduction in Constitution. Beginning with the first day a character doesn’t receive his required allotment of water, consult table at midnight
and immediately apply the result.
amount of h2o fort/wil save ability dmg
100% n/a n/a
50-99% dc 15 1d4
1-49% dc 20 1d6
0% dc 25 1d8
-fort and will saves as two seperate rolls.
-ability dmg is temporary and to con and int.
-con and int is cumulative over consecutive days.
-any character whose con of 0 dies or int of 0 cannot think and falls into a comalike stupor, helpless.
However, a character can rehydrate by drinking his full allotment
of water over the course of one day. At the end of that day, his Constitution and Intelligence scores go back up 1d8 points. Each consecutive day that the character’s water needs are met restores another 1d8 points until the character is fully recovered.
let me know what you all think.