Religion is an indispensable facet of most fantasy worlds, taking imagination into the inner depths of the soul and out into the vast reaches of the multiverse. Like culture and heritage, personal beliefs are a critical part of a character’s identity, and the religious landscape in which they find themselves is often riddled with the seeds of adventure. People’s fundamental beliefs, hopes, and fears often drive them to the dire straits which are the stuff of legend.

Using the modest toolbox in this section, Narrators can reinforce the themes of their campaign and build numinous encounters which allow the characters (and their players) to reflect on their innermost heart. This section is not a definitive study on how religion works in any campaign setting—it is a humble starting point in exploring the same questions which challenge even the greatest storytellers.

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Religion Types

All religions, both in real-life and fantasy, are extraordinarily complex. No religion is as simple as a list of gods in a pantheon and their respective departments. Even so, Narrators need not be scholars and a list of gods and ideologies is a fair start at creating a religiously rich and diverse setting.

Consider the various types of traditions. Some religions very clearly represent a single type—such as the religion of most druids, which is nature worship. Other religions are more complex and may be a hybrid of many types. Norse mythology, for example, might be thought of as a combination of nature worship, folk hero worship, and a cosmic warfare religion. Although that is a simplification, the point is that even briefly reflecting on a religion’s type can add profound depth to a setting's religious landscape.

It is also important to consider how the religion is organized. Is it a loose collection of spiritual beliefs held by a cultural or ethnic group? Is it a powerful movement with a centralized (or decentralized) authority base? Or does this belief system shun ideas like oversight and dogma, preferring congregations or individuals to make their own choices? These facets will likely be tied to how the faith uniquely lives out its type.

Ascended Hero Worship and Religions

People pass down tales of unbelievable and miraculous historical events through generations. These stories speak of folks of humble origin saving a family from drowning via astral projection, remaining loyal in the face of execution, or using one brilliant strategy after another to help the rebellion succeed. In time these legendary figures become revered not only in literature or art, but also in faiths, spirituality, and religions. 

Explanations for how folk heroes come to possess divine power can vary. Some say that they became a candidate in life (or possibly death), which is then confirmed by succeeding a series of challenges put before them. Another might say the supernatural powers they accumulated help them surpass their mortal limits. Lastly there is the theory that the collective belief of others in the individual leads to the god’s enlightenment or ascendancy. Some gods take their station long before the call of death, effectively becoming immortal, while others only take their stations after their passing from the corporeal realm.

Unlike those of pure divine or spiritual origin, a once-mortal deity has experienced the trials, tribulations, and vices of the mortal world. This can impact their view of mortal affairs and how they intervene when called upon to aid one, if they decide to do so at all. Some gods become so involved that they manifest via incarnation, or even reincarnation. Others, meanwhile, prefer to distance themselves from the complicated and intricate politics of people and relations.

When creating religions that are centered on the worship of folk heroes, in addition to brainstorming how they are worshiped and by whom, ask the following questions: what is this deity’s life story? What did they become known for? How did they subsequently become a deity? What led to people worshiping them? Was it miracles, visionary prophecies, or were they already on the divine pedestal in life? How did becoming a god affect who they are, how they act, and what they think?

Ascended Pantheon Examples

Centuries ago the Righteous Five went head to head against an evil lich overlord looking to conquer the world, sacrificing their lives to save all from the undead scourge. Each of the five is associated with a day of the week, with the sixth day associated with the final battle against their enemy, and the seventh and last day associated with the day they were laid to rest. Below are two of the gods described in detail:

Josfen the Harbinger, iconically represented as a human rogue, is the first of the five. As the sole survivor of an undead outbreak in the frontier lands, Josfen spent much of his life dedicated to seeking out rumors of the undead in order to eradicate them before they rise in unmanageable numbers. It is through his vigilance that signs of an undead legion were discovered. In modern times, common folk worship Josfen to ask for premonitions of an action they plan to take, or for him to grant them vigilance towards possible danger, while his temples continue the mission of rooting out undead wherever they rise.

Serafina the Silver-Tongued is one of the better documented gods out of the five, for she was a member of a major elven noble family in life. She is linked with the third day of the week. As the eldest child of a well-known diplomat, Serafina served as an emissary herself for a time before becoming a royal consort, then ascending to the throne as Queen Adeline III. Serafina is credited by many nations for settling the historical grudges of many nations to unite each under a single banner against the undead army. As a goddess she is associated with the art of speechcraft, rising in status and power, and the achievement of peace between groups. Many of her temples are built by aristocrats hoping such tributes will allow them to continue to prosper—these sacred places are often used to settle disputes with her clergy being trained in handling various legal or personal settlements.

Example Folk Heroes

• Margthran the Scholar: Dwarves, Invention, Knowledge, Magic, Research | Good
• Gurerdin the Goldcount: Accountability, Commerce, Currency, Numbers, Orcs | Good
• Sharlthiss the Redeemed: Death, Dragonborn, Morality, Redemption, Undead | Lawful

Nature Worship

People’s views of the wilderness have always been shaped by how much control they feel they have over it. If it cannot be dictated by will, it is doubted. If it cannot be predicted, it is regarded with vigilance. If it threatens the stability of society and life, it is revered—sometimes out of respect, sometimes out of fear. 

In time this leads to the worship of nature itself, which can gradually change and end up expressing fundamentally similar ideas that look very different from one another. For example, while one culture might worship nature via a god that is an anthropomorphized sky, another may worship the sky as an entity by itself. Both groups of worshipers may pray out of the same desire, such as mild and pleasant weather and plentiful harvests.

If nature worship makes an appearance in the campaign setting, consider the following questions: is nature worshiped as a single entity or as several entities? Does nature answer the call of its believers? If it does, how strong of a response is it and how does that manifest?

Nature Worship Example

The hardy Stoneworthy live in a region of the world where metal is scarce and believe that nature is a singular powerful entity named Ratuk, a being who bends all of reality. Each life and matter in existence (even those others call gods) is a part of Ratuk that has been discarded in its pursuit for perfection. Though death may temporarily unify a soul with Ratuk, if one has not undergone sufficient trials to perfect themselves, they will be discarded and born anew.

Perfection under Ratuk is defined as remaining clear-headed and in control of one’s thoughts, attitudes, and actions while experiencing intense emotions associated with the desire to survive. This can be the fear felt when starving while traveling through barren lands, or anger at getting injured while hunting a dangerous predator. That said many are all too aware of the perilous nature of such situations, and it is considered unwise to intentionally seek out such opportunities. Most believe that such chances can only be granted by the reality-warping Ratuk itself. To encounter hardships is seen as having Ratuk’s expectations placed upon one’s shoulders.

Those who have survived multiple such encounters become widely known as Wildspeakers. Often heavily wounded and permanently injured by their experiences, they are seen as those ready to rejoin the great Ratuk, though they have been tasked with remaining mortal to act as a way to communicate with the people. In many communities Wildspeakers are respected healers or diviners that interpret various weather events or anomalies as omens.

Cosmic Warfare Religions

These faiths believe in or are involved with a millennia-long spiritual struggle for control of the multiverse, worshiping one (or many) of the various interplanar entities and factions vying for domination. Amid this grand battle the mortal realms are often considered relatively safe zones—but in truth the Material Plane is the site of many spiritual proxy-battles. Nobody knows when a world might draw the attention of intergalactic forces better left forgotten.

The cosmological horror of cosmic war positions religion as a natural psychological defense. Even if time begins and ends with the gods at war, that is no reason to live with the fact in the center of one’s spiritual life. The psychological benefit of these faiths is that the faithful can devote their life to a god and that god’s laws, and in doing so live with a sense of security and integrity.

As for the gods, seemingly beneficent entities reveal themselves to mortals and provide for them—they may or may not ask for worship and undying loyalty in return. Some seekers of knowledge and power petition entities who never pretended to have the Material Plane’s best interest at heart. Other beings who have nothing to do with the cosmic war may misrepresent themselves to mortals with canny deceptions or seductive lies. And some deities keep cosmic war a secret from their followers, suppressing any revelations of their activities.

When thinking about a fantasy religion that might be this type, consider whether or not the religion’s main appeal is that supernatural forces are here to protect mortals and their world from other supernatural forces. If they are, what is this tradition’s history regarding cosmic war? Is the Material Plane born from the blood and bones of slain gods, or is it a precious speck of dust that deities deign to protect? What are the forces of destruction—fiends, elementals, undead, or something else? Are they banished, sealed, or barely kept at bay? How do all these things fit into the religion's moral norms? What is the reward for loyalty and obedience?

No matter the specifics of your campaign’s cosmology, consider how that aspect affects the religious life of everyday people. How do the stories of the origin, fate, and meaning of the multiverse play out in daily life? 

Philosophies

Some religions did not begin as beliefs but rather as philosophies meant to dictate how one should view life and existence, and the appropriate behaviors that should reflect such views. These philosophies may arise to explain or criticize various societal issues, and serve to point out solutions to solve or prevent such problems. The rules dictated by these philosophies can encompass various aspects of life, from laws by which a sovereign should govern to simple acts of compassion and charity.

In addition, philosophies often provide an explanation of the cosmology and existential purpose of the world to go in tandem with their rules. From explaining how souls can reincarnate or what purpose the world was created for, each philosophy defines how the world works and uses such definitions to dictate whether certain acts or ideas should be perceived as good or evil, natural or aberrant, proper or inappropriate.

Much like other belief systems, philosophies can become ritualized and ingrained into a culture. Over time it may look like any other religion in all but origin. Such processes often take centuries, if not longer, and often involve various societies interpreting the philosophy for their own benefit. For example, it’s not unusual for philosophies to be co-opted by rulers if it means that they will have better control over the populace.

When creating a philosophy which might appear in the world, consider the following: who is or are the primary philosophers, and what influenced them to form this school of thought? What effect did they want it to have on society? What is the philosophy’s central idea? What values does the philosophy hold as greatly important or good? What behaviors and thoughts are discouraged or criticized? How is a person judged in such a philosophy?

Philosophy Example

The Measure of the Oath originally began as a declaration of ethics meant for swearing in knights of a kingdom. Drew Markin wrote it during a time when the crown was rapidly switching hands every handful of years, realizing that with each new sovereign upon the throne, new knights would be inducted as favors. The lack of vetting process caused many abuses of power as the noble rank became bloated. His old lordship thus wrote the first of many documents, hoping these would serve as a standard that all knights would be held to. While he did not live to see it, an expanded and amended Measure of the Oath was formally adopted after a bloody civil war and did in fact serve to reign in the knights.

Despite royalty and nobility being a thing of the past in the republic that replaced said kingdom, the Measure of the Oath remains an important aspect of daily life. Many national religious holidays are annual rituals where one renews their oaths to society, themselves, and each other. Elected officials are sworn in with a declaration that is remarkably similar to the historical version of the Measure of the Oath. The most common method of farewell is saying, “maybe,” in reply to the question, “shall we meet again?” 

A common phenomenon observed in societies that practice the Measure of the Oath is in how casually people might promise something to a stranger, yet the same shall never be given, demanded, or expected from those held close. Apparently this behavior arose as the result of the Measure seeing the breaking of promises as abhorrent and despicable—thus the closer two people are the greater the expectation there is upon the oath. Many avoid the uncomfortable position of disrespecting one another by breaking an oath due to something they have no control over. Incidentally, the most obvious impact this has can be observed in how the republic does not practice or celebrate marriage, nor record or keep track of such relations in the sense that many other cultures do. If anything, there seems to be a distinct lack of it.

Atheism and Secularism

In some cultures the removal or divorce of faith and beliefs from daily life can be the most prevalent of societal norms. Sometimes this is actively achieved with the purging of religious materials, or the passive result of traditions that have fallen into the past. With the former there is often a reason behind such movements, ranging from a desire to remove past dogma that stifled the people to persecution in the name of control or politics. The reasons behind passive loss, however, can be much more elusive to pinpoint. Some say that high population density leading to the homogenization of cultures may be the cause, while others think that social stability means people have less of a need for faith, particularly those that placed trust into the supernatural and unknowing.

When creating an atheist culture, consider why this is the norm. Did the society start out atheist and remained so, or was there a prevalent religion before? What historical events might have led to the desire for lack of beliefs? What do people place faith in then with regards to hopes, wishes, and desires?

Humanism and Humanistic Faith

Humanism is the central concern with and for human beings (and other humanoids), but it isn’t so much a standalone philosophy as it is a sentiment found within a wide variety of religious and philosophical movements. In a word, humanism centers the wellbeing, autonomy, rationality, and moral judgment of humans (as well as dwarves, elves, and other heritages) over and against radical dependency on the gods. 

Some humanists simply don't define their religious life in terms of the gods—others actively view the gods with suspicion. What makes the gods the absolute arbiters of right and wrong? Isn’t worshiping gods to get something a practice of selfishness? Humanists interpret divine magic as the manifestation of a person’s clarity of heart, rather than direct intervention by a deity. A humanist might well grant that the gods exist, but whereas the pious will ask the gods, “what is your law?,” the humanists will ask, “how can we become a law unto ourselves?” 

Some folk strike a curious balance between devotion to a patron god and a central concern for humanity. They might say the gods are pleased when humanity practices their independence. On the other hand, a person might take no interest in deities, but that does not make them a humanist. Devotion to law, commerce, and knowledge all lose their humanist bent when policy, profit, or information are elevated above human dignity. 

The humanist tendency can take a culture by storm, and it can appear spontaneously even in stiflingly reverential environments. When creating a humanist culture, ask if humanist (or dwarvist, or elvist, and so on) is the term that they use for the ideology, or if the term is related to something more tangible—like art or science? How do pious factions respond to humanist sentiment? Do they see it as a legitimate interpretation of faith, or as a heresy? Are the secular and atheist factions humanist?

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Sample Gods and Pantheons

Every campaign varies in terms of what deities take center stage. To help accommodate this the following tables gloss the gods and religions referenced in this book, plus a sample pantheon for building and expanding upon. 

Each god or belief system has suggested aspects presented for convenience, but they are easily expanded or modified. Domains are a brief overview of the gods' theological symbols and areas of influence, but the specifics vary between believers, communities, and settings. Alignment represents a common moral disposition among that religion's believers, but not all worshipers fit that mold—and who can say what thoughts a god privately entertains. 

The sample gods are usable as presented, but they also work well combined. For example, the Dawnbringer and the Hunter strongly resemble Apollo and Artemis from Greek mythology. On the other hand, the god Thor from Norse mythology might be some combination of the Ravager, the Tempest, and others.

 

The world is vaster than anyone could explore in a lifetime with mysterious corners that promise wonder and peril, yet there are other dimensions far stranger and deadlier, called planes. Many claim to have read the truths of those other realms in books or learned them from religious dogma, or even boast that they’ve visited in person. Their accounts may not be trustworthy, but they all tell of places that pose unique challenges and offer rewards unlike anything one could find at home. 

A Planar Primer

Everyday people know legends about strange pathways in remote forests that lead into the dream-like land of the fey. Their tales warn of bleak ruins where one can step across the threshold to a place where all joy, sound, and light have been leached away. In the dark of night they gaze at the stars and share stories of ancient heroes and gods who gave the Heavens their shape. In times of crisis they curse their enemies to Hell, and pray to gods they’ve never seen.

Adventurers eventually come to understand more about the nature of existence. Clerics and scholars study the true names of demons and devils and the differences between the two. Learned wizards and theurgists research the metaphysics that provide the arcane energies of their spells. Druids and worshipers of nature perform incantations to ward against interplanar incursions. Warlocks form pacts with horrors born of the spaces between worlds, the lower planes, or even the fey.

Common folk are superstitious, seeing danger in mundane shadow, but perhaps adventurers and their ilk don’t understand the nature of reality as well as they think—the fell entities that warlocks pledge themselves to might even just be clever monsters from the next county over having a good laugh. While people aren’t entirely sure of the truth of the multiverse, it is undeniable that these planes exist, and that the nature of reality elsewhere isn’t quite the same as here. Fools who stumble upon another world unprepared are unlikely to survive. Interplanar monsters are often more powerful and magical than average wild beasts, and the native intelligent beings have strange ways of thinking. They are seldom swayed by the same threats or persuasion that work on normal humanoids.

Types of Planes

The so-called ‘real’ world where most humanoids and nations exist is known as the Waking, or the Material Plane. Closely linked worlds referred to as Mirror Planes have the same general shape as the realms material—the same landforms, same structures, perhaps even the same people—but differ in character or the nature of magic.

Two other types of planes are easily codified. Elemental Planes (sometimes called Inner Planes) are defined by some overriding physical trait, while Moral Planes (sometimes called Outer Planes) each reflect a central ideology or philosophy of being.

Magic to travel between worlds makes use of the Transitive Planes, which connect multiple planes but have few noteworthy landmarks or residents. Amidst these are innumerable Demiplanes that range from lifeless pocket dimensions for bags of holding, to drifting shards that support the vestiges of dead worlds, to realms as large as continents created as prisons, crucibles, or palaces. Beyond them all exists the Far Realm, a place so alien to the minds of mortals that few can understand it or glimpse it without risking insanity.

The same plane may have different names in different cultures. Explorers might erroneously think two locations on the same plane are separate dimensions entirely, or model them as different nested ‘layers’ that have the same essence but take different forms. Some planes even actively resist efforts to map them, morphing to vex codification and categorization.

Travel Between Planes

Monsters from other dimensions can be summoned to the Material Plane but sometimes adventurers must face strange outsiders in the realms where they originated.

Spells. A handful of metal with the appropriate resonance and several hours of smithing with arcane treatments can produce the rod necessary for a plane shift spell, though discovering the proper formula might require an adventure itself. The esoteric astral projection spell lets people explore in a spiritual form, protecting their bodies at the risk of their very souls. The mighty gate spell permits immediate and precise travel, but the rare magic users capable of such powerful magic are seen as threats by many extraplanar powers.

More obscure magic can also breach the veil between worlds, often through great rituals and terrible costs.

Transits. Planar transits take three main forms: portals, pathways, and tides. Portals have a clear threshold between worlds, like a carved stone dragon maw that leads to the Prison Plane of the Great Pyromancer. Pathways offer a gradual transition that must be completed in full to reach the destination plane, such as the shadow labyrinth that leads to the demiplane of Phorros Irrendra, last bastion of the Taranesti elves. Tides cause a given area to shift between worlds, taking those within with it, like the shores along Bosum Strand where on the Night of the Mirror Moon those who dive into the waters holding a mirror emerge in the fey realm known as the Dreaming. By dawn however the magic fades, stranding any who haven’t found their way home.

Many planar transits are ephemeral and cannot be relied on to still be there for a return trip. Some appear and vanish without discovery, brought forth by little understood conjunctions of place and planar energy—and those that are discovered often provoke fear rather than exploratory fervor.
The rare permanent portal is highly valued and closely guarded. It is said the hierarchs who built the Gates of Dawn and Dusk hoped to unite their world with Heaven and Hell, but angels and devils united to punish their hubris. The hierarchs’ continent was carved out into a prison plane known as Daemonforge where the souls of the dead can never reach the afterlife.

Overlays. While a planar tide carries creatures in an area between worlds, sometimes the elemental or moral energy of a plane bleeds into the Material Plane, such as the haunted peak of Cauldron Hill where the veil to the Bleak Gate is thin. Overlays—also called coterminances or manifestations—can vary greatly. One might be temporary, linked to some celestial convergence, or permanent, perhaps the result of a great magical cataclysm, and its borders might simply mark a return to normalcy or could serve as a way to travel to another plane.

Mirror Planes

Like a reflection or echo of the realms material, Mirror Planes take the familiar and imbue it with a sense of fascination or repulsion. 

The land called the Dreaming is a verdant, shifting landscape where time and distance conspire for the sake of dramatic events, ensuring travelers reach their destination at the moment that will yield the greatest conflict or catharsis. The fey population’s strange behaviors make a whimsical sort of half-sense, even if their goals are cruel. Promises made in the Dreaming are dangerous to break, and accepting gifts can oblige their recipient to the giver. 

The most famous figures of the Dreaming are the lords of the Unseen Court—served by the implacable riders of the Great Hunt—who threaten war but can be appeased with offerings of songs and riddles. But the fey vary based on the cultures and myths of the lands they reflect. Around temperate farmlands pixies cavort with leaves in their hair and hags lure children into the woods with tempting sweets, while in vaunted cities of high art the pixies might take the shape of figures from famous paintings and hags call gullible schoolchildren down into sewer drains.

In opposition to the vibrant life of the Dreaming is the somber emptiness of the Bleak Gate. Here buildings sit hollow and abandoned, and even the brightest magic cannot illuminate much farther than a stone’s throw. The air lies still and windless. The only sounds are the scattered whispers and lonely moans of the recently dead, whose souls linger for a time before passing on to some final reward. Without sun or stars time here becomes almost meaningless, unconsidered by the beings of shadow and decay that reside within. Uneasy spirits haunt their old houses, cursed mortals and condemned penitents roam in caravans seeking absolution or simply a way home, and exiled fey of the Bleak Court trade in souls, their servants often seen at the sites of great tragedies to enslave the recently slain.

Other Mirror Planes are possible. Some conceptions of Hell depict it as the Material Plane in the aftermath of some fiery cataclysm. Temporal magic that flows around a crux of fate might create two splinter realities branching from different outcomes of a pivotal event—perhaps in that world, an adventurer’s double longs for everything that their counterpart has, and would kill to get it.

Transitive Planes

If you were to write down details of each plane, the Ethereal Plane is like the page the words are written on, and the Astral Plane is the book itself. Both dimensions have little in the way of interesting landmarks or natives, and even most planar travelers pay them no mind. But certain magic relies on them.

Thought reigns in the Astral Plane—disembodied souls navigate by will and distance means nothing, the world fading to silvery gray in every direction. Most of the dimension is empty, though errant ideas can sometimes manifest crude matter. The personal mindscapes of dreamers may form links to the Astral Plane, and those trapped in perpetual sleep may create permanent dream bodies that eventually degenerate into monsters. Ur-ideas can take the form of leviathans that swim the astral like a psychic sea, and it is rumored an entire empire of psychic beings has learned to control these creatures. Magic like dream and astral projection can untether the soul from the body, using the astral to reach other minds and other worlds. Travelers can move to other planes through convergences, which mortal minds often perceive as swirling pools of color or other sensations that evoke the feeling of the destination. 

The Ethereal Plane is what allows incorporeal creatures to move through solid objects, and nearly every plane has its own ethereal. Beings in the ethereal usually are invisible to those in the plane they originated from, but can perceive a small swath of the dimension they left. Matter and energy from that world cannot affect them, nor even gravity, but other ethereal beings can interact with or harm them, and spells like wall of force extend into the Ethereal Plane. Usually the only thing for a traveler to do in the ethereal is to watch their plane of origination, explore, and emerge at some other spot in that same world, though sometimes two dimensions abut the same Ethereal Plane, and a creature can slip between them like poking a hole in a sheet of paper. It is also possible for ethereal travelers to metaphysically wander away from their origination plane—they find themselves swept up in mists, and might become lost forever or emerge in a random dimension.

Elemental Planes

Most magical traditions define four cardinal elements—air, earth, fire, and water. These are often depicted as vast wedge-like realms floating together in a roiling Elemental Chaos. 

The cores of the Elemental Planes are simple expanses of pure elemental energy. Some regions are almost like the Material Plane just with an exaggerated presence of one element—huge flocks of birds might nest on islands that float through storms in Caeloon, the Plane of Air, gems might rain as hailstones upon endless mountain ranges of Urim, the Plane of Earth, city-sized forges might gather ore from molten seas on Jiese, the Plane of Fire, and luminescent kelp might support civilizations of fish folk in deep benthic gorges in Ostea, the Plane of Water. 

The cardinal elements are sometimes categorized alongside four esoteric elements—death, life, space, and time. Amrou, the Plane of Death has dark grottos, vacuous expanses of drifting asteroids, and rivers of negative energies that awaken undead. Av, the Plane of Life thrums with positive energy, nurturing light, endless tangles of jungle, and rains that cause animals to sprout from rich soil. Mavisha, the Plane of Space is known for geometric palaces and platforms of pure force that orbit, interlink, and fold upon themselves in mind-bending tesseracts and optical illusions brought to life. Sphinxes watch over Ascetia, the Plane of Time, a place where mirages of the past and flickering glimpses of possible futures cause travelers to forget when they are, and the only signs of civilization are enigmatic monoliths and bones upon bones of fallen empires.

Moral Planes

The Moral Planes are the homes of gods, or at least things that claim that title. As with the Elemental Chaos, the great majority of these planes are hard for mortals to conceive and exist more as ideas than as places. Even so certain regions can be explored and visited, and are home to creatures that are motivated by strong ideologies or overpowering impulses. Deities may claim domain to some regions where they can shape the world and set the rules.

Goodness elevates the heavens and other Upper Planes while evil seethes in Hell and similar Lower Planes, but from those generalities each dimension’s texture is nuanced with diverse philosophical manifestations of that core morality. On a single plane that is suffused with lawful essence, one divine domain might be a gallery garden that shifts to fulfill a visitor’s every hedonistic pleasure, another a stolid yet vaunted bureaucracy working to ensure a stable price for diamonds and pearls across the cosmos, and a third a holy bastion under constant siege by demons. 

Mortal souls are thought by most to find their way to Moral Planes after death where they may be transmogrified into servants or receive rewards for their service. Others wait in purgatory, endure punishment for sins, or are simply absorbed into the plane’s spiritual core where perhaps the choices they made with their free will in life will help shift the scales of the moral multiverse.

Otherworldly Oddities

Most dimensions are not so neatly codified as the Elemental, Moral, Mirror, and Transitive Planes.

Planets

The Material Plane has other planets orbiting other stars, and some are suffused with a different mix of elemental and moral energies. 

In the ZEITGEIST setting travel to most planes is nearly impossible, but plane shift and planar transits allow some journeys between worlds around the same star. Each has a supernatural influence on the primary world, Amsywr—the planet Jiese, the Fire of Industry has spurred technological innovation, the influence of Mavisha, the Mysterious Deep means divinations do not work well on islands or at sea, and Caeloon, the Paper Wind lifts spirits in the face of tragedy and produces magic to help with graceful flight.

Mindscapes

Psychic magic can draw energy from the Astral Plane to create small ephemeral dimensions where one’s thoughts can shape subjective reality almost like a god. Here the limits of flesh and physical laws bend to a strong will, and weak minds can be overwhelmed and forget that what they see isn’t real. 

These planes are almost always temporary, but in the BURNING SKIES setting a perpetual and massive mindscape exists deep underground, guarded by dragons. The dreamborn beings within (called trillith) reflect various desires and fears of some great sleeping entity called the Mother of Dreams that is trapped in the depths of the mindscape. Within this world one must have the right mindset to reach their destination, and those who find common purpose with a trillith might bond with it and receive occult powers.

Pocket Dimensions

Mortal magic can attempt to emulate the divine power necessary to create planes, but few can create more than mere pocket dimensions a few score feet across. Without a true divine spark, most of these artificial planes cannot support life. Inanimate objects made of wood or fabric can endure for weeks or years, but still degrade rapidly. Food is sapped of its nourishing essence and becomes tasteless within hours if not faster. Creatures placed within might die within minutes. Water, even in sealed vessels, becomes infused with energies that makes it undrinkable.

The Gyre and The Far Realm

In some distant reach of the multiverse floats The Gyre, a graveyard of planes where the last vestiges of dead worlds are drawn into a churning cloud and ultimately obliterated. Perhaps their energies are then used for the creation of new worlds, or maybe the whole of the multiverse will be consumed one day, but those pieces of worlds that survive long enough to reach the Gyre are homes of the most dreadful and powerful beings–often those who brought about their own apocalypses.

How many of those worlds have been destroyed by corruption from the Far Realm? Few even begin to understand the alien concepts of that place, and those with the insight can become threats themselves. To most the aberrations birthed by contact with the Far Realm are terrifying, yet some come to see that very unnaturality as something be desired and shared with others. Adventurers should be careful when staring into that maddening abyss—lest they become like the monsters they fight.

The Nature of Reality

One theory sees other planes as wellsprings of elemental essences and morality that underpin reality. The elemental energies mingle to create the diverse physical form of the realms material, and the balance of moral energies ensure that free will is innate to the mortals native to the Material Plane. No shortage of theories disagree. Some think other planes are simply places like any other, and that they exert no sway on reality. Others claim the planes are actually created by mortals and their beliefs, and that there was no Hell before there were people to consider the nature of evil, no Plane of Earth until there were mortal minds to think of rocks as being distinct from water. This may seem a distinction without a difference, but it has ramifications for the meaning of life and the purpose of existence. Perhaps mortals are fairly inconsequential relative to the vast scale of the planes, their actions drowned out by forces far greater than them—yet if the planes are shaped by belief, then a person with the right idea can remake the multiverse.

From fighting on the frontlines to raiding royal repositories, the activities of your character and their party members gains them experience points. As these accumulate a character will eventually gain a level when they’ve acquired a certain number of experience points as seen in the table below.

Experience	Level	Proficiency Bonus
0	1st	+2
300	2nd	+2
900	3rd	+2
2,700	4th	+2
6,500	5th	+3
14,000	6th	+3
23,000	7th	+3
34,000	8th	+3
48,000	9th	+4
64,000	10th	+4
85,000	11th	+4
100,000	12th	+4
120,000	13th	+5
140,000	14th	+5
165,000	15th	+5
195,000	16th	+5
225,000	17th	+6
265,000	18th	+6
305,000	19th	+6
355,000	20th	+6

 

When your character gains a level their class offers additional features, and at certain levels their proficiency bonus increases. Leveling up will eventually provide the opportunity to increase your ability scores; however no ability score can surpass 20.

As part of the process, each level provides your character with an additional Hit Die. You may either roll this die or take the average result of the die (rounded up), add your Constitution modifier, and increase your hit point maximum by that amount.

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Tiers of Play

The challenges your characters face and the adventures they take can be classified into five main tiers of play. Tiers of play help give you an idea of what to expect involving the scale of the challenges you face and how the world generally reacts to you.

At Tier 0 (levels 1st–2nd) your characters are novices. They are taking their very first steps towards destiny, perhaps traveling further from their homes than ever before. The obstacles and foes they face are only slightly more perilous than what commoners contend with, albeit more frequent

At Tier 1 (levels 3rd–4th) your characters are local heroes. They are coming into their own as adventurers and learning the basic elements of their classes. Threats are small in scale and scope.

At Tier 2 (levels 5th–10th) your characters are regional heroes. They are accessing new levels of martial or magical power and can use skills, features, and magic that attract attention and acclaim.

At Tier 3 (levels 11th–16th) your characters are masters of their craft, well beyond the abilities of other people and even other adventurers. Spells can bend the definition of what’s possible while martial characters taking to the battlefield can and have turned the tides of massive battles.

At Tier 4 (levels 17th–20th) your characters have reached a point where the challenges they face are of world-changing size and proportion. At this tier, your character’s actions have the potential to fundamentally alter the lives and wellbeing of those that rely on (or fear) them.

Other parts of the game will also refer to tiers of play, including exploration challenges and regions . These tiers assist the Narrator in determining appropriate challenges for the player characters.

A character’s Prestige rating represents how prominent they are, either as an ally or enemy, and can influence how easy it is for the character to call in favors from their allies, or determine how much effort their enemies will put into defeating them. Most Prestige ratings range from 0 to 6, although some deities and extraplanar beings may have higher ratings.

Player characters start with a Prestige rating of 1. Each time a character enters a new tier of play at 5th, 11th, and 17th level their Prestige rating increases by 1. Additionally, characters may gain Prestige when acquiring a stronghold, and the Narrator may award Prestige when they accomplish great deeds during play. Finally, some class features may grant Prestige bonuses.

Additionally, Prestige determines how many followers a character can have at any one time. This number is equal to the character’s Prestige rating.

Prestige Center. A character’s Prestige rating distinguishes how widely known they are. If they travel beyond their home, the character may find that people do not know who they are. Prestige applies in an area whose size is determined by a character’s Prestige rating, starting from as small as a village to as large as an entire world. When creating a character, the player should work with the Narrator to determine where their Prestige is centered from. Often this will be the starting area of a campaign.

Prestige Check. To determine whether somebody has heard of a character, or to call in a favor (see below), the character makes a Prestige check by rolling 1d20 and adding their Prestige rating. The DC of a Prestige check is equal to 12 + double the tier of the region the character is in (or when extremely far from their Prestige Center, triple the tier). When outside the area described by their Prestige rating, the character has disadvantage .

For example, Zidi Wheatling, the “Halfling Titan”, has a Prestige rating of 5. She is known across the county for her great strength, and stories of how she beat a minotaur in an arm-wrestling match have become a regional legend. She has traveled all the way to the country’s capital (a tier 2 region) and seeks an audience with a wealthy noble. Zidi rolls a Prestige check with disadvantage , adding 5 to the roll (from her Prestige rating) against DC 16. Unfortunately the result is an 11—the noble has not heard of her and will not grant her an audience. Zidi has to find some other way to attract their attention!

Prestige Rating

Rating	Is Well Known Across	Can Automatically Get An Audience With	Notoriety
0	Unknown	Nobody	The character is viewed with disdain, as a buffoon or pariah. People do not take them seriously.
1	Local	Shopkeep	The character is relatively unknown, but some local folks know them.
2	Village	Guard captain	The character has done a few noteworthy things, but most people don’t know them or assume they won’t do anything else interesting.
3	Town	Mayor	The character has become known across town, or across a district of a city.
4	City	Minor noble	The character is known across an entire city, or a single town plus its immediate environs.
5	Region	Noble	The character has distinguished themself across the region, and most influential people know about their actions and talents.
6	Country	Powerful noble	The character is known all across the land. People pay close attention to them, either viewing them as a powerful ally or a dangerous enemy.
7	Continent	Monarch	The character is well known by those in more than one country. Monarchs and important rulers typically have this level of Prestige.
8	World	Emperor	The character is one of the most famous people in the world, known well to monarchs and powerful figures. A lot of resources are devoted to either helping them out or taking them down.
9	Plane	Minor deity	The character is known not just on this world, but on other worlds on the same plane of existence. They might have saved or threatened the entire world.
10	Multiverse	Greater deity	The character is known not just across the world, but by powerful beings on other planes.
11	Multiverse	Greater deity	When the character seeks the audience of powerful beings like gods they are noticed.
12	Multiverse	Greater deity	When the character seeks the audience of powerful beings like gods they are answered.
13	Multiverse	Pantheon	When the character seeks the audience of powerful beings like gods they are answered in a timely manner.
14	Divine	Anybody	This level of Prestige is usually the province of deities and other powerful extraplanar beings. The character is widely known on multiple worlds or planes.

 

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Optional Rule: Calling In Favors

Most fantasy adventurers are free agents with no boss but themselves, usually out on the edge of civilization with few allies they can call on in a pinch. Over the course of a campaign however, player characters may want to call in favors from a friendly baroness, the local police, or other power groups. Prestige provides a quick guideline of how much clout the party has, whether they’re calling in a mage to perform a ritual beyond their ken, or trying to get their hands on a rare battle wand before assaulting a criminal stronghold.

In addition to acting as a handy track of a character’s notoriety, Prestige can be used to call in favors. Use the following guidelines to determine the level of a favor. Calling in a favor normally takes 1d6 hours and requires a Prestige check. The party as a whole can call in one favor per day. As a default, favors can get people to help for up to half an hour. Any task that requires a few hours or more increases the level by 1, or if for a day or more by 2.

The favor ratings below are just guidelines. The Narrator can impose modifiers at their discretion, or state that certain favors are impossible.

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Example Favors

Here are some sample favors.

Level 0 (Unknown). Urchins to watch a street. A scribe to look through documents or handle paperwork. A carriage-driver to provide discreet passage around a district.

Level 1 (Local). Audience with the guard captain. A ferry-man to give discreet passage around the city. A craftsman to make a custom mundane item (the character pays the normal price). A minor noble to bend the rules. A bard to tell a story.

Level 2 (Village). Audience with the mayor. A docker to create a distraction that might get them into trouble. A bard to spread a false tale that could have serious consequences. A major noble agreeing to converse for a few minutes.

Level 3 (Town). Audience with a minor noble. A gang of bandits to commit some crimes. A small group of concerned citizens to rally and protest somewhere.

Level 4 (City). A large crowd of protesters to block off a whole building or street. A temple’s acolytes to come out and use their skills for the common people. A ship captain to smuggle something.

Level 5 (Region). Audience with a powerful noble. A noble to take a stand for something that might cost them their position. A city-wide search for a missing person. A local celebrity to put on a private show.

Level 6 (Country). Audience with a monarch. A city-wide protest. A call for all citizens to take arms against a threat.

Level 7 (Continent). A national uprising against a tyrannical monarch. Royal pardon for a heinous crime. Borrow an artifact.

Level 8 (World). Coronation as a monarch.

Level 9 (Plane). Audience with a deity.

Level 10 (Multiverse). Audience with a pantheon.

Though an adventurer is typically defined by the dangers they face, the bulk of their time is often spent traveling, healing, preparing, or simply living. Some spend their time with families, others contribute to the communities that they protect, develop relationships, or simply kill time until the excitement begins anew.

This period between adventures, called downtime, can represent the passing of a season, a period spent traveling, or the time necessary for an ally or NPC to secure a vital piece of information or permission for the party to travel through guarded lands. Additionally, the mental and physical stress of adventuring often necessitates time off, which can prevent characters from jumping from 1st level to 11th level in a single month! While it is not necessary to meticulously describe each and every day that PCs spend in this way, providing key details can help to bring the setting to life, create the feeling of time passing, and foreshadow events to come.

When considering these key details, think about significant life events for the adventurers and their friends or allies—weddings, birthdays, funerals, holidays, festivals or other seasonal events, political trends, or significant events occurring abroad that come as news. Any of these can be used to foreshadow future plots.

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Lifestyle

Some adventurers choose to live lavishly between quests while others are content to rent a room at their favorite drinking establishment. When calculating expenses, see Chapter 4: Equipment. A character’s lifestyle (poor, moderate, or rich) impacts some of their downtime activities.

An adventurer’s lifestyle can also impact their interactions with those around them. The Narrator may provide advantage or disadvantage on Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma checks made against people that perceive a PC to be of a different lifestyle than themselves, depending upon the circumstances — an adventurer with a poor lifestyle has a harder time getting along with rich nobles and vice versa.

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Downtime Activities

Downtime activities represent specific and intentional activities that a character undertakes to achieve a benefit. A character can undertake one downtime activity per week of downtime, although they do not necessarily occur sequentially.

A downtime period consists of 5 days (treated as a week) each involving at least 8 hours of engaging in a downtime activity. In most cases, an unfinished week does not count towards progress, but in some situations the Narrator might allow specific days to add to the total. At the end of each downtime period, any check required is made and success or failure is determined. Some downtime activities may require more than 1 week to complete. If a downtime activity mentions a month it assumes 4 weeks.

Extended Downtime. When a party of adventurers is experiencing a particularly long period of downtime, such as a year or longer, the Narrator may extend the length of the downtime period to 1 month and allow players to roll one check per 4 weeks of downtime activity. A success on an extended downtime check is treated as 4 successful weeks of a downtime activity, a failure is treated as 2 successful weeks, and on a failure by 5 or more the character makes no progress at the downtime activity.

For even longer periods of downtime, the Narrator can extend the downtime to seasons (treating a success as 12 weeks, a failure as 6 weeks, and a failure by 5 or more as 3 weeks), or even years (treating a success as 52 weeks, a failure as 26 weeks, and a failure by 5 or more as 13 weeks).

Characters may wish to work together to complete downtime activities. At the Narrator’s discretion, one character may assist another (as the Help action). Both characters must spend their downtime on the chosen activity.

Scaling Downtime. Depending on the campaign, the Narrator may choose to speed up downtime activities. In such a game, days are treated as hours, and weeks are treated as days. For example, a martial or simple weapon takes 1 day to craft rather than 1 week.

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Craft

Adventurers with tool proficiencies may use their downtime to create weapons, armor, or other items. The Craft activity can be used to create weapons, armor, tools, clothing, other equipment, or a work of art.

All crafted items require materials. Poor quality items can be made with materials equal to ⅛th the base cost of the item that the character wishes to create. Normal quality work requires materials equal to ¼ the base cost. If a character wishes to craft a fine item, they must acquire fine materials equal to ½ the item’s base cost. If a character wishes to craft a masterwork item, the materials cost is equal to the base cost of the item.

Special Materials. Rarely a smith might happen upon special materials. These materials can only rarely be purchased and must often be found. When attempting to craft using adamantine, mithral, or other wondrous materials , increase the DC to craft the item by 2. See the Materials section of Chapter 4: Equipment for more details.

Time Required. The time required varies depending upon what a character is attempting to craft, as per Table: Crafting Time. At the end of the required time, the character makes a check based upon the desired quality level. On a success, the materials are consumed and they create the item. On a failure, they create an item of one quality level lower than they desired or may salvage the materials. When a character fails by 5 or more, they produce a poor quality item and the materials are consumed.

Quality. The quality of an item affects the time, cost, and difficulty of crafting it. Items of fine quality or masterwork quality also offer special benefits. A fine item also costs an additional 25 gold to produce, and a masterwork item 125 gold.

Engineering. The Craft downtime activity can also be used for buildings, engineering devices, and other projects. Each check requires a week of work and access to an amount of gold worth of materials. The DC and materials cost are determined by the project’s complexity. The scope of the project determines how many checks are required to complete it.

Crafting Items

Quality	Time	DC	Materials	Production Cost	Sell Price	Benefit
Poor	½	10	⅛	-	Half	Gains the Broken condition after each use
Normal	Normal	15	¼	-	Up to full	-
Fine	x2	20	½	+25 gp	At least full price	Can be enchanted to become a magic item of up to uncommon rarity
Masterwork	x3	25	Normal	+125 gp	No less than double full price	Never has damage vulnerabilities, and can be enchanted to become a magic item of any rarity

See the core rulebook for tables Engineering Items and Engineering Time.

Crafting Time

Item	Craft Time
Dual-wielding weapon*	2 per week
Martial or simple weapon*	1 week
Heavy weapon*	2 weeks
Ammunition	50 per week
Light armor	1 week
Medium armor	2 weeks
Heavy armor	4 weeks
Tool or equipment	2 per week

*Rare weapons may require longer crafting times determined by the Narrator.

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Gather Information

The Gather Information activity is used to uncover secure or secret information about individuals, events, organizations, or other things that still exist within living memory. Gather Information is typically done by word-of-mouth on the street or in taverns.

The character specifies a particular individual, event, organization, or place from which they wish to learn more declares a specific piece of information that they’re seeking to learn, making an Investigation check. The time, DC, and costs are included below. 

On a success, the character learns what they are looking for along with a point of Key Knowledge. Success by 5 or more grants an additional fact or useful piece of information and an additional point of Key Knowledge. Failure means that the character learns nothing, and on a failure by 5 or more they instead learn an incorrect piece of information that could lead them astray or cause some trouble.

Key Knowledge. Key Knowledge represents clues, secrets, or other insights into a particular location, individual, or event. Each point of Key Knowledge is specific to an individual, creature, or location. These points may be spent to gain advantage on an attack roll or ability check made in relation to the subject.

At the Narrator’s discretion, these points can also be spent to introduce a small fact to the story. Perhaps a character learns of a friendly bartender while Gathering Information about the next town or discovers a potentially safe cavern while Researching the dungeon they plan to enter.

Limitations. The Narrator may decide that there is simply no way that a piece of information can be gleaned by the Gather Information activity. In this case, the Narrator should inform the player before attempting the check.

Gather Information

Obscurity	DC	Time	Cost	Examples
Uncommon	10	1 week	10 gp	The bar where a local crime boss conducts business, where a local noble likes to drink
Esoteric	15	2 weeks	25 gp	The name of the best fence in a particular city, where to go to get illicit magic ingredients
Hidden	20	3 weeks	100 gp	The location of the duke’s secret prison, the name of a dragon’s agent in a city
Secret	25	5 weeks	500+ gp	The identity of the leader of a guild of assassins, what the king keeps in the secret room below his chambers

 

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Recovery

Sometimes it is necessary to recover from the dangers faced by an adventurer. In order to take the Recover activity, a character must have or temporarily pay for at least a moderate lifestyle. Each week that a character takes the Recover activity, they may:

• Make a Constitution saving throw against one effect that is preventing them from regaining hit points.
• Make one additional saving throw against one disease or poison currently affecting them.

If a character is tended to by someone with a healer’s satchel, they have advantage on the above checks.

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Religious Devotion

Religious Devotion allows a character to engage in acts of piety in an attempt to appease the gods and earn their favor. In order to engage in this downtime activity, a character must have access to a shrine, temple, or other sacred site and spend the required gold on sacred offerings to make a Nature or Religion check against a DC from Table: Religious Devotion. On a success, the character gains 1 point of favor, plus 1 additional point of favor for every 5 points their result exceeds the DC.

Favor. A point of favor can be spent to represent a minor but helpful boon that aligns with a deity’s portfolio. A point of favor from a war god might allow a character to find a weapon after they’ve been disarmed, while a point of favor from a nature god might make it easier to find a safe place to camp. The specific details are left up to the Narrator, but in general, this should represent advantage on a roll, the discovery of a small but useful item, or a helpful chance encounter. For 2 favor points, the Narrator may allow a character to benefit from the effects of a 1st-level spell that aligns with a deity’s portfolio. Narrators are free to come up with other uses.

If a character acts against the interests or philosophy of a deity during an adventure, any points of favor are immediately lost.

Religious Devotion

Philosophical Similarity	DC	Offering*	Description
Strongly Aligned	10	10 gp	The character's personal ethos and actions closely mirror the deity’s philosophy and teachings.
Aligned	15	25 gp	The character's personal ethos and actions are generally similar to the deity’s philosophy and teachings.
Neutral	20	50 gp	The character’s personal ethos and actions do not align with or oppose the deity they are beseeching.
Opposed	25	100 gp	The character’s personal ethos and actions are generally counter to the deity’s philosophy and teachings.
Strongly Opposed	30	500 gp	The character's personal ethos and actions run directly counter to the deity’s philosophy and teachings.

 

*The Narrator may allow specific actions by the character to reduce or eliminate this cost.

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Research

Research is used to uncover obscure information about individuals, events, organizations, or other things that have faded beyond living memory but still exist in recorded history. Alternatively, Research can be used to find facts or information contained within bureaucratic records.

In order to conduct the Research activity, a character must have access to a library or libraries that might conceivably contain the information that they are searching for — a noble villa’s private library might contain original ownership records, but is unlikely to contain information regarding alien interlopers from the last age. The character makes an Arcana or History check (determined by the topic of Research) against the DC listed on Table: Research, taking an appropriate amount of time and spending the indicated amount of gold.

On a success, they learn what they are looking for along with a point of Key Knowledge (see Gather Information). Success by 5 or more grants an additional fact or useful piece of information and an additional point of Key Knowledge. Failure means that the character learns nothing, and on a failure by 5 or more they instead learn an incorrect piece of information that could lead them astray or cause some trouble.

The cost of research is reflective of bribes, library fees, and other related expenses. At the Narrator’s discretion, a character may dispense with these if they already have access to a library that may contain the information.

Research

Obscurity	DC	Time	Cost	Examples
Uncommon	10	1 week	10 gp	The original name of a particular village
Esoteric	15	2 weeks	25 gp	The original owner of a piece of land or business, the location of an ancient tomb
Hidden	20	3 weeks	100 gp	The true history of the founding of a dynasty, the real lineage of the local ruler
Secret	25	5 weeks	500+ gp	The name of a fiend, the location of a city destroyed by the gods in the last age

 

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Spellcraft

This downtime activity allows spellcasters to create rare spells by refining their knowledge. Pick a common version of a spell that the character knows and choose one modification from the modifications table. Alternatively, with the Narrator’s permission a character may choose one rare spell from Chapter 11: Spellcasting provided it is of a level they can cast.

The character makes an ability check using their spellcasting ability and Arcana (sorcerer, warlock, wizard), Nature (druid), Performance (bard), or Religion (cleric, herald). The DC of the check is based on the spell level as per Table: Rare Spell Crafting and is increased by the desired modification.

Each check requires 1 week and the amount of indicated materials. A character requires a number of successful study weeks as listed on Table: Rare Spell Crafting. If a character succeeds the check by 5 or more, that week counts as 2 weeks for the purposes of completion. On a failure, the character makes no progress that week and the materials are consumed, and on a failure by 5 or more the materials are consumed and a week of progress is lost. The rare spell is finished when the final check succeeds.

Rare Spell Modifications

Modification	DC Modifier	Effect
Altered Effect	+0	The spell’s primary effect is changed. This can be used to add or alter a spell's damage type, affect what the spell targets, or otherwise modify its core effect. Examples include an invisibility spell that targets objects instead of creatures, a fireball that deals cold damage, or a lightning bolt that has a cone area.
Lingering Effect	+1	The spell has a secondary effect that occurs after the spell has ended. Examples include a fireball that causes the target to take ongoing fire damage or a slow spell that leaves a target fatigued after its duration has ended.
Additional Effect	+2	An additional effect is added to the spell’s primary function. Examples include an ice storm that freezes a target in place for the duration.
Additional Target	+2	The spell has the means to target additional creatures. Examples include a paralyzing effect that spreads by touch or a suggestion to new targets through conversation.

 

In order to invent a rare spell, a character must have access to the appropriate type of library. Wizards and sorcerers require a collection of arcane tomes. Clerics and heralds must have access to books of esoteric lore and theological texts. Druids need a sacred place of nature untouched by civilization. Bards utilize folios of magical compositions. Warlocks require forbidden texts and works of the occult.

Creating rare spells should be a collaboration with the Narrator. As always, the Narrator must approve any new rare spell. When in doubt, use preexisting rare spell effects for inspiration.

In addition to crafting rare spells, it is possible to create entirely new spells. This process typically requires years of work and often represents the pinnacle of a spellcaster’s career. If a character wishes to create their own spell, it should require at least 2 months per spell level and 500 gold per spell level each week. DCs for such checks and the other specifics are determined by the Narrator, using the rules for crafting rare spells as a guideline.

Rare Spell Crafting

Spell Level	DC	Cost Per Week	Successful Study Weeks
1st	15	100 gp	2
2nd	16	150 gp	3
3rd	17	200 gp	4
4th	18	300 gp	5
5th	19	500 gp	6
6th	20	1,000 gp	7
7th	21	1,500 gp	8
8th	22	3,000 gp	9
9th	23	5,000 gp	10

 

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Train

The Train activity allows a character to learn a new weapon, language, or tool proficiency, or it can be used to swap a class feature or feat that they learned previously.

Language or Tool. Learning a new language or tool proficiency requires a character to spend a number of months equal to 12 - their Intelligence modifier and pay 50 gold pieces per month to retain a tutor. If a character does not wish to pay for or does not have access to a tutor, they must have another reliable means of learning and the time required is doubled. At the end of this period, the character acquires the proficiency.

Weapon. Learning a new weapon proficiency requires a character spend a number of months equal to 6 - their Strength or Dexterity modifier (whichever is highest) training and pay 50 gold pieces per month to retain a tutor. At the end of this time period, the character acquires the weapon proficiency.

Relearning. A character may also relearn class features. This activity does not require spending any gold. The time required is 1 week to change a feature gained at 1st–5th level, 2 weeks to change a feature gained at 6th–10th level, 3 weeks to change a feature gained at 11th–15th level, and 4 weeks to change a feature gained at 15th–20th level. This activity cannot be used to swap out spells that have been entered into a spellbook.

Feat. To swap a feat gained through leveling to another feat, a character may spend a number of months equal to 8 – their proficiency bonus and pay 50 gold pieces each month to acquire practice materials and advice from experts in the feat they are learning.

Archetype. A character can change to a different archetype for their class by spending 12 weeks mastering the new archetype, at which point they are able to select it. When they do, any class features gained from their previous archetype are lost and replaced by the class features of their new archetype. Changing from one class to another requires the use of powerful reality- altering magic (like the wish spell or the direct intervention of a deity).

Activity	Time	Cost
New language or tool proficiency	12 - Int modifier months	50/month
New weapon proficiency	6 - Str or Dex modifier months	50/month
Relearn class features	1 week (1st-5th) 2 weeks (6th-10th) 3 weeks (11th-15th) 4 weeks (15th-20th)	No cost
Swap feat	8 - proficiency bonus months	50/month
Change archetype	12 weeks	No cost

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Work

A character can use the Work activity to pay their cost of living expenses and earn some coin between adventures. Work is broken down into two categories. On a successful check after spending a week on this downtime activity, a character supports a lifestyle (poor, moderate, or rich), and earns gold as listed on Table: Work.

Legal Work. Legal work allows a character to practice a trade or profession without fear of consequence. The character selects a tool proficiency or skill approved by the Narrator and makes an ability check, consulting Table: Work to determine the lifestyle their profits support and the extra gold earned. On a result of 5 or less, a character earns nothing, supports no lifestyle, and has disadvantage on the next Work check that they make using the same skill or tool.

Illegal Work. Illegal work allows a character to sustain themselves and make some coin by engaging in petty crime. First, a character selects the type of crime that they would like to engage in and selects an appropriate skill or ability check approved by the Narrator. They then select the difficulty of criminal activities as per Table: Work.

On a failed check, a character receives no earnings and must cover the cost of their lifestyle themselves. If they fail by 5 or more, the character must lay low and cannot take a downtime activity for the following week, and on a failure by 10 or more they are caught and suffer consequences or complications determined by the Narrator.

Work

Difficulty	DC	Lifestyle	Earnings
Easy	10	Poor	1d6 gp
Average	15	Moderate	3d6 gp
Hard	20	Rich	6d6 gp
Very Hard	25	Rich	10d6 gp

 

Rest is a fundamental necessity for most living creatures. While the exact amount of rest each type of creature needs may vary, they all still must rest in order to recuperate from wounds, rid themselves of fatigue and strife, and replenish their spell slots.

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Short Rest

A short rest is a period of no less than an hour, in which the character does nothing more strenuous than reading, writing, talking, and binding wounds.

At the end of a short rest, a character may expend one or more Hit Dice to restore any lost hit points, up to their maximum number of Hit Dice. For each Hit Die expended, the player rolls the dice (as determined by their class) and adds their Constitution modifier. A player can decide to roll an additional Hit Die after each roll.

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Long Rest

A long rest is a period of time of at least 8 hours, 6 of which must be spent asleep. The remaining hours can be spent doing light activity like eating or standing watch. If this period is interrupted by strenuous activity for more than an hour, such as walking, fighting, or casting spells, the characters gain no benefit and the time period resets.

After a long rest has been completed, a character regains all lost hit points. The character also regains expended Hit Dice, up to a maximum of half of the character’s total number of them (minimum of 1). For example, a character with 10 Hit Dice who has expended 8 would regain 5 Hit Dice after a long rest. 

A character cannot benefit from more than one long rest in a 24-hour period, and must have at least 1 hit point at the start of the long rest to benefit from it. Any character that does not consume at least 1 Supply suffers a level of fatigue when they finish a long rest, and adventurers are only able to truly recuperate within a haven. A character recovers from one level of fatigue and one level of strife after finishing a long rest in a haven where they have consumed Supply. When taking a long rest and consuming Supply without a haven, a character can recover only from the first level of fatigue or strife.

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Resting and Havens

While on a journey, adventurers are only able to recover from the second level and beyond of fatigue or strife  on a long rest when they have access to a haven.

A haven is a place to get a meal and a full night’s sleep without the reasonable risk of attack or harm from the elements. For example, an inn is considered a haven, but a campsite where adventurers must take turns keeping watch through the night is not. Some spells and class features may create havens.

The world is full of chandeliers and tree branches to be swung from, doors to be kicked in, and eldritch statues full of ruinous power to meddle with. There are numerous objects bristling with possibility for the intrepid and the bold. Adventurers can perform many actions with an object—they might pick up a vase to secure treasure, throw a glass sculpture to create a diversion, or try and hack their way through hastily set up barricades.

When interacting with an object, a creature might use a trait, feature, or combat maneuver, or it might simply make an attack. In general, given enough time and the right equipment, any adventurer can usually accomplish what they want with an object.

An object is a single inanimate item like a rug, vase, axe, painting, boulder, door, section of wall, or a bureau full of clothes (which themselves are many objects).

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Interacting with Objects

Most physical interactions with the environment simply require a player to announce their intentions to the Narrator. A statement like, “I open the wardrobe,” is normally all that is necessary to set an action into motion.

Some interactions, however, may require an ability check . A wardrobe that won’t open might require a Dexterity (thieves’ tools) check to pick a lock or a Strength check to pull it open despite rusted hinges. The Narrator sets the DC for the check based on the difficulty of the task. A Strength check can also be used to break an object. The Narrator sets the DC for the check.

Creatures can also damage objects with both physical attacks and spells. Objects are immune to psychic and poison damage, but otherwise they can be affected by damage just like creatures. The Narrator determines an object’s AC and hit points, and if it has any damage resistances, immunities, or vulnerabilities. Objects always fail Strength and Dexterity saving throws, but are immune to effects that require other saves. When an object drops to 0 hit points, it breaks.

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Statistics for Objects

In the middle of a tense situation where time is of the essence, the Narrator can assign an Armor Class and hit points to a destructible object, as well as determine what immunities, resistances, and vulnerabilities to damage it might have.

When a creature is trying to do something besides destroy the object, the Narrator determines what ability checks are appropriate.

Armor Class

An object’s Armor Class represents how tough the object is to damage. Especially tough objects might be harder to damage—the Object Armor Class table has suggested values for objects based on the materials they are made from.

Object AC

Object	Armor Class
Cloth, paper, rope	AC 11
Crystal, glass, ice	AC 13
Wood, bone	AC 15
Stone	AC 17
Iron, steel	AC 19
Mithral	AC 21
Adamantine	AC 21

 

Hit Points

An object’s hit points determine how much damage it can take before it is destroyed. A particularly sturdy object (resilient) might have more hit points than more delicate objects (fragile). The Object Hit Points table has suggested hit points for objects based on their size.

Object Hit Points

Object	Size	Hit Points (fragile)	Hit Points (resilient)
Game piece, vial	Tiny	2 (1d4)	5 (2d4)
Chair, painting	Small	3 (1d6)	10 (3d6)
Crate, Medium door, table	Medium	4 (1d8)	18 (4d8)
Equestrian statue, Large door, 10-foot section of wall	Large	5 (1d10)	27 (5d10)

 

Huge and Gargantuan Objects

Against Huge or Gargantuan objects, normal weapons or tools are of little effect. Against a castle wall or treasure vault door, a hammer or sword won’t get the job done —but determined creatures might try just the same. If the Narrator decides a Huge or Gargantuan object is vulnerable to a creature’s attacks, divide it into separate smaller sections that are each Large-sized and track the hit points of each section independently. For example, a Huge windmill might fall apart when the axle holding the blades is destroyed.

Objects and Damage Types

When damaging an object some damage types might be more effective than others, depending on the object’s composition. For example, slashing damage might help cut through a rope, but be less effective for smashing the legs of a stone statue. Flammable objects are typically vulnerable to fire, and unless noted otherwise (such as with inanimate plants) objects are immune to poison and psychic damage. The Narrator determines the effectiveness of any given attack on an object.

Damage Threshold

Objects built to endure attack (like the reinforced walls of a towering fort or the armored hull of a skyship) often have an extra measure of protection: a damage threshold. If an object has a damage threshold it is immune to damage unless an attack or effect deals damage equal to or greater than the damage threshold. Any attack or effect that deals damage less than the damage threshold instead deals no damage at all.

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Doors

This content is from Dungeon Delver's Guide.

Most doors are an inch or more thick and typically have 27 (5d10) hit points or more. The DC to bash down a door, or the AC to damage it, are as follows:

Door Toughness

Door Type	Bash DC	AC	Damage Threshold	Recommended Dungeon Level
Wooden	15	15	-	1+
Wooden, fortified	19	15	19	9+
Stone	17	17	-	5+
Stone, fortified	21	17	21	13+
Iron	19	19	-	9+
Iron, fortified	23	19	23	17+
Mithral	21	21	-	13+
Mithral, fortified	25	21	25	17+
Adamantine	23	23	-	17+
Adamantine, fortified	27	23	27	17+

 

Fortified Doors

Some dungeon doors are especially thick, protected by magical wards, or reinforced with iron bars. These fortified doors have damage thresholds equal to their AC values. Thus, an attack that would deal less than 15 damage has no effect on a fortified wooden door. The DC to force open a fortified door is increased by 4 (so a fortified adamantine door can be bashed open with a Strength check of 27).

Given enough time, characters can dismantle most doors—unless even rolling a 20 on a Strength check can’t bash it open and even a critical hit can’t overcome its damage threshold.

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Far Future

This content is from Voidrunner's Codex .

Items in the far future are often made of exotic materials and rare elements. Starship hulls are made with duranium, which is able to withstand the rigors of space–and combat. Other materials such as plassteel and transparent aluminum are common, and forcefields are often used in place of walls and doors.

Forcefields. Forcefields cannot be bashed; additionally they regenerate 5 hit points per round.

Ray Shielding. Objects which are ray shielded have resistance against fire and radiant damage.

Zirkon. Zirkon crystal has anti-psionic properties. Psionic powers and effects of power level III or less cannot penetrate barriers made of zirkon, and the psionic points required to manifest a power of level IV or higher through zirkon is doubled.

Object/Material	Hit Points	Bash DC	AC	Damage Threshold
Plastic	5 (1d10)	15	15	-
Plassteel	27 (5d10)	15	17	5
Transparent Aluminum	18 (4d8)	17	17	19
Blast door	27 (5d10)	17	19	-
Blast door, fortified	37 (7d10)	19	19	23
Blast door, duranium	55 (10d10)	19	23	25
Forcefield*	55 (10d10)	-	23	20
Zirkon	27 (5d10)	17	17	5

*The DC to bash down a door or break an object.

Not all dangers while adventuring are from enemies, monsters, and beasts. Whether urban or rural, the very environment a hero must traverse in order to complete their quest (or the battlefield they find themselves on) can present a multitude of hazards. Be sure to pay attention to the environment around your character as they move through it, and be wary of any hidden threats — or anything you can leverage to get the upper hand in a fight.

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Falling

When a creature falls, it takes 1d6 bludgeoning damage for every 10 feet it falls (maximum 20d6) and lands prone. A creature that falls into water takes half damage, or no damage if it dives with a successful Athletics check (DC equal to the distance it falls divided by 5). 

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Suffocating

Drowning, strangulation, smothering, strange alternate planes of reality with no air — many situations can lead to suffocation. A creature can hold its breath for a number of minutes equal to 1 plus its Constitution modifier (minimum of 30 seconds). Once a creature is out of breath, it begins suffocating and can survive for a number of rounds equal to its Constitution modifier (minimum 1 round).

At the start of its next turn, the suffocating creature drops to 0 hit points and is dying. It cannot regain hit points or be stabilized until it can breathe again.

For example, during a storm at sea, a creature with a Constitution of 16 is dragged beneath the ocean by debris tangled around its legs. It can hold its breath for 4 minutes, at which time it has 3 rounds before it drops to 0 hit points.

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Underwater

A creature that cannot breathe water begins to suffocate underwater once it cannot hold its breath. In addition, creatures without swim speeds have disadvantage on attacks made using any weapons other than a dagger, dueling dagger, javelin, shortsword, spear, or trident. Ranged weapon attacks automatically miss beyond their normal range underwater, and bludgeoning and fire damage are halved. A creature that takes damage while holding its breath underwater must succeed on a concentration check or immediately begin suffocating as if its breath had run out.

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Vision and Light

Most creatures rely on sight for even the most mundane, everyday tasks. Adventurers are no different, and the amount of light in a given area  impacts their ability to perform both in and out of combat. Other environmental features, like fog or heavy rain, may obscure a creature’s vision and cause difficulty.

A lightly obscured area is one that creates a minimal, but not insignificant, amount of visual impairment. A moderately wooded area, lingering smoke from a sacked town, dim lighting, and the like can all cause an area to be lightly obscured. When within this area, creatures have disadvantage on Perception checks that rely on sight.

An area that is heavily obscured may be a shoreline cloaked in dense fog, a jungle full of thick foliage and hanging vines, or darkness (magical or otherwise), that obstructs vision completely. A creature in this area is considered blind.

Three types of lighting exist within an area: bright light, dim light, and darkness.

Bright light is the most common. Even on a cloudy day the sun provides bright light, as do torches, bonfires, magical lights, and other similar sources (though often within a limited radius). Most creatures suffer no penalties from being in a brightly lit area.

Dim light creates a lightly obscured area. Dim light is typically found on the outer reaches of artificial light sources, such as the depths of a room lit only by candles or the outer ring of a bonfire. Dim light can also be found during dawn or twilight, or beneath a full moon.

Darkness creates a heavily obscured area. Creatures venturing out at night, delving underground, or traveling into a windowless dungeon without any alternate sources of light will find themselves at a distinct disadvantage.

Blindsight

Not everything relies on vision to sense the world. A creature with blindsight is not affected by darkness or other heavily or lightly obscured areas, and can see through invisibility, within a certain radius. Creatures adapted to the darkness (like bats and moles) or creatures without eyes (like purple worms) have blindsight.

Figments. Creatures that do not rely on visual sight, noted as having blindsight (blind beyond this range), are immune to visual illusions (such as those created by minor illusion).

Darkvision

Many creatures within the realms of medieval fantasy are gifted with sensitive sight. Darkvision allows a creature to see within darkness as if it were dim light, and dim light as if it were bright light, though the creature cannot perceive colors while in darkness, only shades of gray.

Truesight

Some especially powerful creatures, like particularly old dragons, have truesight. This allows a creature to see in normal or magical darkness, perceive invisible creatures and objects, automatically detect illusions and succeed on its saving throw against them, and perceive the original form of a shapechanger or creature that is transformed by magic. A creature with truesight can also see into the Ethereal Plane.

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Food and Water

Creatures need to eat and drink in order to survive, and often in the wilderness, the opportunity to find fresh food and water can be limited.

A creature that takes a long rest must consume food and water or it suffers a level of fatigue (see the Supply rules).

Time

Time is an important aspect of adventuring. For Narrators, time serves multiple purposes and roughly outlines the flow of an adventure. Choosing which scale of time to use in any given situation is a matter of context.

The most common span of time is a round, which takes place during combat and other situations where time is of the essence. A round lasts 6 seconds.

Minutes are the second most common. Most involved actions take a length of time using minutes. For example, an adventuring party spends roughly a minute proceeding through a dungeon corridor, to find a treasure room which they investigate for 10 minutes to find a hidden chest that the rogue spends roughly a minute checking to discover the deadly poison dart booby trap cunningly hidden in the mechanism.

Hours are appropriate for exploring a city or a limited area of land. A sudden whim by a wizard to visit a particular reagent shop on the other side of the city would take hours just as it may take an hour or so for a druid to lead their party members to a defensible cave in the ominous and quickly darkening woods.

Days are generally used for long periods of time during a journey or adventure. Traveling from one city to another, getting lost in the wilderness, and a journey into the unseen depths of the world are all good examples of using days.

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Movement

Adventurers come across a wide array of terrain and obstacles during their travels. For simplicity’s sake a Narrator is always free to summarize movement without determining exact distances or time frames. However, in some cases it’s important to know the general time frame (minutes, hours, days, and so on) that it takes to go from one area to another.

When it comes to determining the time frames of movement, the most important factors are the Speed or travel pace of an individual or party and the terrain being traversed.

Speed

Every creature capable of movement has a Speed, measured in feet, that it can move in a single round. Travel pace is used when it comes to longer time periods of moment that take place over minutes, hours, or days as detailed in  Exploration . Of course the world is wide and vast, leading to exceptions in mounts and methods of travel...

Vehicles

Not all travel is done by foot. Vehicles and mounts are used by many adventurers to help travel the vast distances of the world.

Land-based vehicles can choose at which pace to move while water-based vehicles are restricted by the speed of the vehicle. A water-based vehicle gains no benefits from a slow pace, but has no penalties for moving at a fast pace. Depending on the vehicle and crew size, a ship can travel up to 24 hours a day.

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Special Movement

Not all travel can be accomplished by simply walking from one point to another. Adventurers may be forced to climb, swim, or leap to reach their final destinations—nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Climbing, Swimming, and Crawling

Movement using these three methods is similar to traveling through difficult terrain though there are some key differences. First, it costs a creature an extra foot to move for every foot spent. Worse, if a creature is moving in actual difficult terrain, it costs two feet to move for every foot spent. Moving by climbing or swimming through normal terrain by a creature with the corresponding speed costs no additional movement.

A Narrator may apply additional checks in certain scenarios, such as climbing a particularly slippery surface or swimming in churning water.

For example, a berserker with a 30 foot movement speed only moves 15 feet on their turn while trying to climb a mountain. Should that same berserker try climbing that same mountain during a snowstorm, they would only move 7 feet, and may even need to pass an Athletics check to maintain a hold or risk falling into the roaring water below.

Jumping

The distance a creature can jump is determined both by the method attempted and their Strength score. 

A long jump requires a creature to move at least 10 feet by foot immediately before making its jump and the distance covered is a number of feet up to its Strength score. Each foot covered by a jump costs the same in movement.

A Narrator can also request a DC 10 Strength (Athletics) check to clear low obstacles, which must be no taller than a quarter of the jump’s distance. A failure indicates that instead of jumping over such an obstacle, a creature crashes into it.

Landing is also a fair challenge. Should a creature land in difficult terrain, perhaps jumping over a table in the kitchen only to land on a freshly mopped floor on the other side, the creature must make an additional DC 10 Dexterity (Acrobatics) to actually land on its feet. Should it fail, it instead falls prone.

A high jump is a bit more complex. To make a running high jump, a creature must move 10 feet on foot immediately before the jump, leaping up into the air a number of feet equal to 3 + its Strength modifier (minimum of 0 feet). To make a standing high jump, a creature need not move beforehand, but only jumps half the distance it would have doing a running high jump.

When a creature’s jumping distance exceeds its Speed, it can jump up to a distance equal to twice its Speed in a single leap so long as it takes no other movement on that turn other than to jump. In either case, a creature uses up a foot of movement for every foot it covers jumping. There are a few special scenarios for high jumping though.

First, a creature can extend its arms up to half its height during a jump. Thus a creature can reach above itself equal to the height of a jump plus 1.5 times its height. In addition, the Narrator may allow a creature to make a Strength (Athletics) check to jump higher than it could otherwise.

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Traveling

The majority of rules regarding exploration are in the Exploration chapter, but some extend beyond journeys and into shorter forays as well.

Marching Order

When it’s relevant to the game— during a dungeon crawl or while traveling through a forest they know is brimming with bandits — the Narrator should have the party establish who is in the lead (and therefore the most likely to be targeted if a trap is triggered) and who is in the back (the first targeted in a flanking ambush). When it isn’t an important element to what’s currently happening in the game, whichever character is taking the lead on roleplaying is assumed to be in front of their companions.

Encounters and Threats

Whether or not creatures notice a hidden threat is determined by their passive Perception scores. When players encounter other characters or creatures while traveling, both parties can choose what happens next. Either party can choose to attack, talk, flee, or wait to see what the other group does. In addition, a Narrator can decide whether or not a party is surprised by the other if combat ensues (see Chapter 8: Combat ).

Stealth 

A party looking to avoid threats can choose to travel at a slow pace and employ stealth, making a group Stealth check, typically using Dexterity. A party with reasonable cover can do more than avoid ambushes — they may well surprise or sneak past their enemies.

The world is vast and full of danger. From the cramped and darkened tunnels of a subterranean labyrinth to the wide open expanse of the plains, the worlds you explore are bound to be full of wonder and woe in equal measure. This chapter covers the basics of adventuring through that world, including movement, social interactions, time and more.

Throughout game sessions the Narrator envisions and describes the setting, places, and situations your characters experience as the party becomes immersed in the world. Your character reacts to the circumstances and obstacles placed before them, developing their personality and honing their talents. For better or worse as the dice roll, the Narrator relates the outcomes of the party’s actions as the group continues through various adventures until a campaign reaches its end.