Survival and pack animals

Wilderness Encounters

Survival

These vignettes call upon characters’ survival skills to make the wilderness feel more desolate and dangerous.

Sprains and broken bones

Severe weather, abandoned, poorly-maintained trails, and travel through the woods can bring characters in contact with tricky mud, rocks, and tree roots–and one wrong step can lead to serious injury.

Have characters make a Wisdom (Survival), Dexterity (Acrobatics), or Strength (Athletics) check to avoid slipping.

On a failed check, the character takes bludgeoning damage and has a sprain or broken bone.

Travel

These vignettes focus on the complexity of travel through the wilderness, especially in cases where the characters are limited by their cargo or the terrain.

Pack animals

For journeys that require the characters to carry a large load to (or from) their intended goal, pack animals or carts may be necessary. When characters head off on the road, ask which character(s) are handling each animal.

Have the handler make Wisdom (Handle Animal) checks when encountering difficult terrain, bridges, etc. A failed check can result in an incident the characters have to pitch in to settle the animal, costing valuable time or requiring the party to stand guard to avoid ambushes.

If characters face combat while on the road, animals can behave unpredictably. For unsecured animals, a handler needs to attempt Wisdom (Handle Animal) checks each turn to keep an animal under control.

 

 

Water

Water

Characters may need to cross bodies of water to proceed on their journeys through the wilderness.

Small rivers and creeks

Crossing a small river or creek is simple and doesn’t require any special equipment. However, fast-moving water or slick rocks are a good opportunity to use sprains and broken bones.

Swimming

A character can swim across a body of water by making a Strength (Athletics) check.

You can increase the tension by choosing two DCs for this check, creating the possibility of a failure, partial success, and full success. For example, if you chose 15 and 20:

Check result	Effect
20+	Successful crossing with no negative effects
15-19	Successful crossing with one level of Exhaustion (Player’s Handbook, page 291)
1-14	Begins drowning halfway across

You can adjust these DCs depending on how difficult you want this to feel and the level of your characters.

Boats

Sailing or paddling is the easiest way to navigate a body of water, but requires the characters to have access to a boat.

If the characters know they’ll need a boat as part of their travels, they could have a cart (see pack animals above) to carry a canoe or raft. This will slow them down a bit and require them to be a bit more deliberate elsewhere along the journey.

If the characters are caught by surprise (for example, due to a flash flood), they might be able scavenge some wood to improvise a boat. A Wisdom (Survival) check could produce a makeshift raft. An Intelligence or Strength (Carpenter’s Tools) check could produce something more stable (requring a lower DC to pilot, for example).

You can also adjust the types of checks characters will make depending on the type of boat. For example, a canoe might require a Strength (Water Vehicles) check, while a fishing boat with a sail might require a Wisdom (Water Vehicles) check.

 

 

Going it alone, cooking, and foraging

Hunting and Foraging

These vignettes require characters to step outside normal D&D combat.

Going it alone

When character(s) go hunting or foraging, have them separate from the party. The goal here is to create short palate-cleansing scenes between story beats rather than to be a daily roll every character attempts.

For example, maybe they need the quiet, or maybe they don’t want to take time away from the journey. A good time to do this is first thing in the morning or as the characters stop to make camp for the night.

This scene can be an opportunity to introduce new plot hooks:

• What trouble do they encounter along the way?
• Are there other creatures competing for the same plants or quarry?
• What do they discover when they leave the trail?

Make sure the players who don’t forage or hunt also get the spotlight. As you switch scenes, it’s a good opportunity to have them doing something cozy back at camp–setting up or tearing down, cooking food, or talking around the campfire. You can even award them Inspiration for an interesting scene.

If you want to heighten the tension, this could also limit the forager or hunter’s ability to long rest–for example, maybe they only get back a portion of their spell slots or hit dice.

Cooking with fresh ingredients

After days of rations, a good hearty meal on the trail raises morale. You may decide to award players Inspiration when they eat a meal that consists of fresh meat, fish, or plants.

To prevent this from becoming too routine, you can limit this bonus to once a week for the same general set of ingredients.

Herbs and other plants

Characters can forage for various types of food in the wild–herbs, vegetables, greens, and mushrooms, among other things. Some of these may have in-game effects–for example, certain herbs might give you advantage on Wisdom (Medicine) checks on certain conditions, or vegetables may supplement your rations.

A basic version of foraging requires a Wisdom (Survival) check. If the character succeeds, they find something; if they fail, they don’t. Choose a DC based on the terrain and the plant or fungus the character might find. Harsher environments and rarer plants will make foraging more difficult, and more likely that the character will come back empty-handed.

If you find that every player is rolling every time, you might choose to require a character have proficiency in Survival or a related tool. Remember, you want to create a short, separate scene rather than a daily roll.

 

 

Foraging and fishing

Foraging in difficult terrain

Different plants grow in different settings, so if characters are looking for a particular plant or fungus, they may have to venture into inhospitable terrain:

• Cliffs and rocks: For plants or fungus that grow on cliff faces or around rocks, require a Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check to successfully reach the plant. (This is in addition to the Survival check to find it.) On a failure, the player might take falling damage or simply walk away empty-handed.
• Water: For plants that grow in and around water, see Travel: Water for challenges the players might face.
• Caves: For plants and fungus that grow in caves, players might face similar challenges to cliffs, rocks, and water. This is also an opportunity for players to happen upon wild animals, humanoids that live in the wild (e.g., goblins, kobolds, etc.), or ruins that could either be an immediate threat or a plot hook.

Don’t be afraid to give your foragers challenges they can’t solve alone, forcing them to return later with other party memebers in tow. For example, a druid with a low Strength (Athletics) bonus might return to camp to enlist the help of the fighter to reach a sprig growing from a cliff face.

Variant: Fishing

If the party is near a body of water, you can use similar foraging rules for fishing. Depending on the geography and the type of fish available, this might require engaging with difficult terrain. Unlike hunting, no combat is required; it’s just a matter of whether you catch something or not.

Variant: Trapping small game

If your players want to hunt very small game (rabbits, squirrels, etc.), one option is to set baited traps. Characters roll Wisdom (Survival) to set a trap, and then return the next day to check it.

If an animal has attempted to take the bait (this could be as simple as a 50/50 roll) there will be one of two outcomes:

• If the Wisdom (Survival) check succeeded, the trapper has caught the animal.
• If the Wisdom (Survival) check failed, the trap is sprung and the bait has been stolen. The trapper will need to reset and re-bait the trap before it can catch another animal.

As with fishing equipment, better quality traps can give bonuses or advantage on the Wisdom (Survival) roll. Better quality bait could attract certain types of animals, or increase the odds that an animal will attempt to take the bait.

 

 

Hunting

Hunting small game

If you want to add an element of uncertainty to hunting, have players roll a 1d8 or 1d10 when they enter an area with local wildlife (depending on how prevalent it is). If they are specifically hunting–which may require an extra Dexterity (Stealth) or Wisdom (Survival) check–roll a 1d6 or 1d8 instead.

Roll result	Encounter type	Example
1-3	Simple, harmless	Group of deer (Monster Manual, page 321)
4-6	Larger, dangerous	Giant boar (Monster Manual, page 323) with several smaller boars (Monster Manual, page 319)
7+	Nothing	Nothing

If the hunters encounter a creature, begin combat to see if they kill it. Remember, wild animals won’t act like typical foes. Animals may flee, especially if they’re weaker; stronger animals or animals in packs may only become aggressive if cornered. It shouldn’t be an uncommon occurrence for hunters to spot an animal and still return empty-handed.

Giving hunting a touchy, lucky feeling can make it feel more realistic–most days you get scraps, but occasionally you hit the jackpot. Remember, you want to create a short, separate scene rather than a daily roll–players shouldn’t feel like they can simply brute-force hunting by throwing more people at it. If you need to enforce this with players, require a successful Dexterity (Stealth) or Wisdom (Survival) check from all hunters present. If any of them fail, the quarry escapes before they can take a shot. (Or maybe they don’t even see it because it hears them first.)

Hunting large game

For larger game–such as legendary or elusive quarry–hunting shouldn’t feel like standard combat.

Movement

One way to do this is to have the monsters act like a wild animal, backing off and fleeing into cover if they feel even slightly overpowered. After all, there’s a reason why they’ve survived long enough to become legendary. You can use the Dash or Dodge action. If it makes sense thematically, you can also scale up the monster’s movement speed when threatened.

This keeps the actual combat from being overwhelming, but forces players to have a plan to fight the monster. In this case, traps, poisons, or some other incapacitating effect might be required.

Increased Challenge Rating

A slightly more complicated approach is to choose a monster with a higher challenge rating than the players could be expected to defeat.

You don’t want players to simply be able to fight it as they would a normal foe–but make sure you telegraph this before anyone makes a move. Describe the monster as larger than life, causing havok even to the environment around it. If characters are working with guides, have them show a dramatic amount of fear and caution.

To even the odds, characters should be provided some access to poisons, traps, etc. (see the following section for some examples). Ideally, you want the characters approaching their quarry with a strategy, not simply running in swinging swords.

 

 

Hunting traps

Traps

Grappling Hook

If characters have access to a blacksmith, they can create specialized grappling hooks that lodge in a monster’s hide, plates, or other features.

Personal grappling hooks

Wielding a personal grappling hook allows a character to take the following actions:

• Attach to Monster: Make a ranged attack. (The grappling hook counts as a martial ranged weapon for purposes of proficiency.) The grappling hook hits if it exceeds its target’s AC (minus any bonuses for natural armor). You can then use a move action to climb the rope and mount the monster.
• Attach to Terrain: Make a ranged attack. (The grappling hook counts as a martial ranged weapon for purposes of proficiency.) Use 5 as a base DC, adjusted based on distance, visibility, hardness of material, etc. You can then use a move action to climb the rope.
• Set Harness: For more complicated grappling hooks, you can secure yourself to whatever you have mounted. Setting your harness grants advantage when rolling against being thrown from a monster.

Grappling hooks as siege weapons

Larger grappling hooks may be spear-sized and fired from a ballista or cannon (which may be powered by black powder or magic).

Equipment Stats

When creating a grappling hook, give it the following stats:

• Dislodge Penalty: A number that modifies a monster’s attempt to dislodge a hook from itself. This can also simply be Disadvantage. For example, a hook fired by a cannon will have a higher penalty than a hook fired by a bow.
• Attach Damage: Determines how much piercing damage the initial hit deals.
• Bleed Damage: Determines how much damage an attached hook deals each turn.
• Detach Damage: Determines how much dislodging the hook injures a monster.

Using these rules, you can adjust a hook’s effectiveness based on available raw materials and reward players’ for creative designs.

Actions

Wielding a siege grappling hook allows a character to do the following:

• Fire Cannon (action): Make a ranged attack. (The grappling hook counts as a martial ranged weapon for purposes of proficiency.) The grappling hook hits if it exceeds its target’s AC (minus any bonuses for natural armor). On a hit, deal Attach Damage and attach the hook. Remember the result of this roll, as it will be used when the monster attempts
• Reel In (action): If a cannon misses or is dislodged by a monster, a character must take this action before it can be fired again.

Monster Effects

When a siege grappling hook is attached:

• Limited movement: The monster cannot move further away from the character that attached the grappling hook (although they can move closer). If multiple hooks are attached, they all have this effect; with the right placement, this may prevent any movement.
• Bleed damage: At the start of the monster’s turn, it takes Bleed Damage from each attached hook.
• Dislodge (action): The monster makes a Strength save against a single attached hook, modified by that spear’s Dislodge Penalty. If it is greater than or equal to the hook’s hit roll, the hook is removed and the monster takes its Detatch Damage.

 

 

Hunting traps

Rope

If the characters can quickly surround the monster with three or more ropes, it becomes Restrained and must make a Strength or Dexterity check (depending on the type of monster and how they attempt escape) to free itself.

To create this trap, characters need some way to quickly surround the monster by surprise. They can do this by attaching a rope to a fired or thrown weapon, or using a grappling hook. (For very large monsters, you could have them use a ballista or other large weapon. This would require a cart to carry.)

Increase or decrease the escape DC based on the type of rope, what was used to attach the rope, the number of ropes successfully positioned, any substances coating the ropes, etc. A well-constructed enclosure should usually provide a satisfying success; a hastily improvised enclosure should feel risky.

Tripwire

To create this trap, characters need to lead the monster across a single rope strung up in its path. Its success depends on the specifics–type of rope used, how visible it is, any substances coating the ropes, etc.

The monster gets a Wisdom (Perception) check to notice the rope (at disadvantage if they are chasing a character) and a Dexterity save to avoid being tripped. On a failure, the monster is Prone. For a monster sized Large or more, keep the monster Prone for 1d6 rounds as it struggles to get back up.

Characters can be caught by their own tripwire if they are not watching closely (e.g., running, etc.). The player makes a Dexterity save to avoid becoming Prone. They get advantage if they knew about the tripwire.

Palisades

More defensive than an actual trap, a party can assemble spiked palisades from tree trunks if they have a team of NPCs assisting them.

Palisades are most effective on Large or bigger monsters. They won’t be able to fit through the gaps between the trees, while Medium and Small characters can use these gaps to attack with arrows, spells, or even polearms.

However, monsters can destroy palisades, which make them a risky strategy.

When creating a palisade, give it the following properties:

• Protection: Determine how the palisade affects large monsters’ attacks against characters hiding behind it. Does it grant Disadvantage, a penalty, or prevent it altogether?
• Damage: If the palisade has spikes that point forward, determine how much piercing damage a Large or bigger monster takes when charging the palisade. You can also determine whether a successful Dexterity save will prevent damage from certain types of movement.
• Durability: Determine how much damage a palisade can take. You can use standard object damage rules to give it a number of hit points, or (for a simpler tracking), simply keep the monster occupied for a set number of rounds.

If a palisade’s Protection prevents damage to a character (or if the monster attacks the palisade directly), you may deal its Damage to the attacking monster and damage its Durability.