In this article are detailed rules for a variety of updated or additional acitvities that players can perform during Exploration. Most of these acitvities require continual effort or an extended period of time and thus make them unsuitable for use duing an Encounter.
Avoid Notice
You focus on moving carefully and quietly in order to remain hidden and avoid attracting attention to yourself whie moving at half your travel speed.
If you are Avoiding Notice when an Encounter begins, you may roll a Stealth check and use the result to determine your initiative and also to see if enemies notice you (based on their Perception DCs, as is normal for Hiding).
Cover Tracks
You cover your tracks, moving up to half your travel speed. You don’t need to attempt a Survival check to cover your tracks, but anyone tracking you must succeed at a Survival check against your Survival DC if it is higher than the normal DC to Track.
You might try and cover your tracks during an encounter. If so, Cover Tracks is an action.
Detect Magic
You travel while casting
detect magic at regular intervals. You have no chance of accidentally overlooking a magic aura when travelling at your regular travel speed, but must be traveling no more than half your travel speed in order to detect magic auras before the party moves into them.
Examine
You seek out information about your surroundings while traveling at half speed. You use Recall Knowledge as a secret check to discover clues among the various things you can see and engage with as you journey along. You can use any skill that has a Recall Knowledge action while Examining, but the GM determines whether the skill is relevant to the clues you could find.
Follow the Expert
Choose an ally who is attempting a recurring skill check while exploring, such as climbing, or performing a different exploration tactic that requires a skill check (like Avoiding Notice), that you are not proficient in. The ally must be proficient in that skill and must be willing to provide assistance. While Following the Expert, you match their tactic or attempt similar skill checks. Thanks to your ally’s assistance, you can add their proficiency bonus to the skill check.
Identify Magic
Once you discover that an item, area or ongoing effect is magical, you can spend 10 minutes to try and identify the particulars of its magic. The GM sets the DC for your check. Cursed or esoteric subjects usually have higher DCs or might even be impossible to identify using this activity alone. Heightening a spell doesn’t increase the DC to identify it.
On a success, for an item or location, you get a sense of what the magic does and learn any means of activating it. For an ongoing effect (such as a spell with a duration), you learn the effect’s name and what it does. You can’t try again in hopes of getting a critical success.
On a critical success, you learn all the attributes of the magic, including its name (for an effect), what it does, any means of activating it (for an item or location), and whether it is cursed.
On a failure, you fail to identify the magic and can’t try again for 1 day, while on a critical failure you misidentify the magic as something else of the GM’s choice.
Repair
You must be carrying a
repair kit to use this action. You spend 10 minutes attempting to fix a damaged item, placing the item on a stable surface and using you repair kit. The GM sets the DC, but it’s usually about the same DC to Repair a given item as it is to Craft it in the first place. You can’t Repair a destroyed item.
On a success, you repair the broken item. On a failure nothing happens, but on a critical failure you deal 2d6 damage to the item, potentially destroying it.
Scout
You scout ahead and behind your group to keep a watch for danger while moving at half speed. At the start of the next encounter, every creature in your party gains a +1 bonus to their initiative rolls.
Search
You
Seek meticulously for hidden doors, concealed hazards, traps, and so on. You can usually make an educated guess as to which locations are best to check while moving at full speed, but if you want to be thorough, you need to travel at no more than half your travel speed to ensure you check everything before you walk into it. You can always move more slowly while Searching to cover the area more thoroughly if you wish. If you come across a secret door, item, trap or hazard while Searching, the GM will attempt a free secret check to Seek to see if you notice the hidden object or hazard. In locations with many objects to search, you have to stop and spend significantly longer to search thoroughly.
Sense Direction
Using the stars, the position of the sun, traits of the geography or flora, or the behavior of fauna, you can stay oriented in the wild. Typically, you attempt a Survival check only once per day, but some environments or changes might necessitate rolling more often. The GM determines the DC and how long this activity takes (usually just a minute or so). More unusual locales or those you’re unfamiliar with will likely have a higher DC. Without a compass, you take a –2 penalty to checks to Sense Direction.
On a success, you gain enough orientation to avoid becoming hopelessly lost. If you are in an environment with cardinal directions, you have a sense of those directions. On a critical success, you get an excellent sense of where you are. If you are in an environment with cardinal directions, you know them exactly.
Shield Up
You travel up to half your travel speed keeping your shield raised in case of sudden danger. If combat breaks out, you gain the benefits of raising your shield until your first turn begins.
Track
You follow tracks, moving at up to half your travel speed. After a successful check to Track, you can continue following the tracks at half your Speed without attempting additional checks for up to 1 hour. In some cases, you might Track in an encounter. In this case, Track is a single action and doesn’t have the exploration trait, but you might need to roll more often because you’re in a tense situation. The GM determines how often you must attempt this check.
You attempt your Survival check when you start Tracking, once every hour you continue tracking, and any time something significant changes in the trail. The GM determines the DCs for such checks, depending on the freshness of the trail, the weather, and the type of ground.
On a success, you find the trail or continue to follow the one you’re already following.
On a failure, you lose the trail but can try again after a 1-hour delay, or a 24-hour delay on a critical failure.
Treat Disease
You must use a healer's kit to perform this action. You can spend at least 8 hours caring for a diseased creature. Attempt a Medicine check against the disease’s DC. After you attempt to Treat a Disease for a creature, you can’t try again until after that creature’s next save against the disease.
On a success, you grant the creature a +2 bonus on its next saving throw against the disease, and on a critical success, you also grant it advantage on the saving throw.
On a critical failure, you unintentionally weaken the creature, causing it to take a –2 penalty to its next save against the disease.
Treat Injuries
You must be carrying a healer's kit to use this activity. You spend 10 minutes treating one injured living creature (targeting yourself, if you so choose). A creature can only be treated this way once per hour (including the 10 minutes spent treating them).
You attempt a Medicine check, usually at DC 10, though the GM might adjust it based on the circumstances, such as treating a patient outside in a storm, or treating magically cursed wounds. If you wish, you can attempt to roll the Medicine check against a higher DC, increasing the amount of Hit Points they regain on a success.
If you succeed at your check, you can continue treating the target to grant additional healing. If you treat them for a total of 1 hour, double the Hit Points they regain from Treat Injuries.
The result of your Medicine check determines how many Hit Points the target regains.
| DC |
Success |
Critical Success |
| 10 |
2d8 |
4d8 |
| 15 |
2d8+10 |
4d8+10 |
| 20 |
2d8+20 |
4d8+20 |
| 25 |
2d8+30 |
4d8+30 |
On a critical failure, the target does not regain hit points and takes 1d8 damage.
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