#RPGaDAY – August 11, 2025 (FLAVOR)
#RPGaDAY
– August 11, 2025 (FLAVOR)
Flavor–
For flavor, I
thought I would do a twofer. One based
on flavor of something consumable, in this case a magic item – Toro Rojo’s
Winged Spirit Elixir. The other based on
the flavor or general tone of something relating to my Grimdark Lite homebrew campaign.
Toro Rojo’s Winged Spirit Elixir
This is a thin greenish yellow liquid that looks and smells
vaguely like urine, with a tangy, sweet, and slightly sour taste. It comes in a small metal can with a stylized
red winged bull on the label.
•Anyone drinking this potion grows large wings, which last
for one hour. The type of wings depends
on the user’s alignment:
-Good alignment users grow feathery white wings
-Neutral alignment users grow brown bird wings
-Evil alignment users grow dark bat wings
•Regardless of appearance, the wings give the user a 50-foot
flying speed and user instinctively knows how to use and is proficient with
them.
•Medium – magic level / single use item
Grimdark
Lite Homebrew
As a part of making the game grittier, darker, and more
deadly, I added the Bloodied Condition, Capped Hit Points, and created a new
Exhaustion system.
On Death and Dying
In the grim reality of life in this world, death is
relatively common and life can be cheap.
To that end, these changes are made to the death and dying rules.
Bloodied Condition -
The bloodied condition comes into play when the character drops to ½ their hit
points or less. Characters must make a
constitution roll DC 10 see if they become bloodied when the character drops to
or below ½ their hit points and then any other hit after that.
Additionally, when a character
reaches ¼ of their total hit points, if they are not already bloodied before then,
they automatically become bloodied.
When they become bloodied, they
gain one level of exhaustion.
Unconsciousness – If damage takes a character to exactly 0 hit points, they fall unconscious, but are stable and remain at 0 hit points.
· If the damage taken drops the character to below
-9 hit points, they automatically die with no death saving throws.
· Death and dying – When a character has between
-1 to -9 they are unconscious and begin slowly dying. At the beginning of each
round after that they must begin making death saving throws. The normal 5E rules for making death saving
throws is the same (DC 10), except each failed saving throw also drops the
character’s HP total by 1. Regardless of
where they are in their death saving throws, if their hit points drop to -10,
they die.
If they make 3 death saves before failing 3 and they remain between -1 to -9 hit points, they stabilize with their hit points remaining at that point until healing brings them to 1 or more hit points. This can be through magical healing if available or through “rest” and the normal HP dice usage.
If a natural 20 is rolled during a death save, it counts as 2 saves and if a natural 1 is rolled it counts as 2 failures.
· Coming out of unconsciousness – After being
unconscious, once any hit points are healed the character regains consciousness
once they have 1 or more hit points. They remain stunned for the remainder of
that round and when they return, they gain +1 level of exhaustion, added to
their prior exhaustion levels. Depending
on if they were magically healed for 10 or more points of damage, they can make
a DC 10 constitution roll and if successful can remove 1 level of exhaustion
(see the Exhaustion rules.)
Hit Points
Hit points represent both a character’s drive and willpower
to survive and how much physical injury, exhaustion, stamina, and life force
lost that a character can endure before succumbing and dying. To keep the game
more dark, challenging, and exciting, hit points are modified the following
ways:
·
Hit points rolls are capped out based on the character
class’s hit point dice x 5 – D12 caps out at 60, D10 caps out at 50, D8 caps
out at 40, and D6 caps out at 30.
·
Level 1 – Every character must roll for their
starting hit points, adding any con bonus.
·
Level 2 and beyond – Every character rolls for
hit points like normal, but does not add their con bonus. If, however their con bonus is higher than
what they rolled, they may add that number instead of their roll. For example, at 2nd level a
fighter with +3 con bonus rolls D10 for their hit points and rolls a 1. Instead of taking the 1, they can add the +3
instead.
·
If a character’s constitution is increased,
resulting in an increase to their con bonus, they can add the difference to
their hit points immediately for that level.
They do not get to retroactively go back and add the increase to any
prior levels. They still cannot go over
their class’s max hit point total.
****Note- Just as a character’s hit points are
reduced/capped, so will the hit points of opponents and monsters. This allows for a level playing field between
the characters and everyone else. It
should be noted that not all encounters are balanced relatively speaking. If your 1st level characters make
the terrible decision to attack a dragon, you should expect a TPK.
Exhaustion - Condition
Suffering from exhaustion and dealing with its effects can
be a very real factor in a character surviving to fight another day. The exhaustion effects are different than
those presented in the 5E rules.
Level Effect
1
-1 to all rolls and lose 5- foot movement per
exhaustion level (cumulative)
2
No reactions can be taken
3
Can only take 1 action or bonus action
4
Can’t concentrate to maintain spells and can
only make either 1 action or move
5
Automatically fail all saves and double all
damage taken
6
Sliding into death – go unconscious, HPs drop to
zero, and begin making death saves
All effects are cumulative, so at the 3rd level
of exhaustion you are at -3 to all rolls made, movement is reduced by 15 feet,
cannot take or use any reactions, and can only do either 1 action or 1 bonus
action in a round.
Exhaustion levels can only be removed through proper rest
and recovery and through various spells/magical means. That includes:
A. •Characters remove 1 exhaustion level after only a short rest, as long as they do not do anything beyond rest and eat for the 3-hour duration (See Healing and Short/Long Rests.) This includes even standing watch, foraging for food, water, or supplies, cooking, or any other activity beyond resting and eating.
•Characters also remove 1 additional level of exhaustion after they finish a long rest, assuming there were not disturbed for more than 3 hours of their 24-hour duration (See Healing and Short/Long Rests.) So, after a long rest, the character can remove 2 levels of exhaustion (one for the short rest and another after finishing the long rest.)
•Characters who are healed, through magic or through using HD and regain 10 or more hit points back in any one round as a result, they can make a DC 10 constitution roll and if successful can remove 1 level of exhaustion. This no longer works though, after they are fully healed up to their maximum hit points. They can be fully healed of any wounds and still suffer from exhaustion.
•Powerful magic spells like Lesser Restoration and Heal remove 1 level of exhaustion automatically, with the Heal spell possibly allowing a second level of exhaustion to be removed if the above C requirements are met. Greater Restoration removes 2 levels of exhaustion.
Reminder,
for my Grimdark campaign, a short rest took 3 hours and a long rest took a full
24 hours.
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