Downtime

While much of the focus of D&D lies with combat, exploration, and travel, characters will still have gaps between those events that they can fill with other activities. These gaps are collectively called downtime.

Mid-Adventure Downtime

While adventuring, good portions of the day are often unaccounted for by travel, exploration, or combat. These periods of downtime throughout an adventuring day can be used by players to accomplish many of the things they can do during extended downtime, if in smaller chunks.
Up to 4 hours per day can be applied to downtime activities during a typical adventuring day, taken during meals and breaks, at camp in the evening, and during night watches. This downtime only provides half the time in progress towards an activity due to the broken up and easily distracted nature of it. Some activities that require little to no spool up/down time or minimal attention may count for the full 4 hours, like reading a book (at DM discretion).
In order to count for full time, a character must dedicate time in 4 hour increments, and must experience no distractions during that time. Even so, a character cannot dedicate more than 8 hours a day towards downtime activities, and cannot dedicate more than 4 hours during a day involving travel and/or multiple combats.

Extended Downtime

Extended downtimes are periods measured in days and weeks where no adventuring, travel, or other major activities are taking place. While normally passing with no more fanfare than a "a few weeks later" at the table, there is much that a character can accomplish during this time, whether it be crafting items, earning money, or roleplaying. As a note, all activities during extended downtime assume a character is productive for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, and 4 weeks a month.
During this time player characters have a chance to perform tasks or actions that may otherwise be inappropriate for typical dnd sessions. They may want to work a job to earn income, take some time to craft items for the party, rest and recover from long term wounds or illnesses, or train in a new capability. Provided below are several pre-formulated actions that can be taken durin extended downtime. This should by no means be considered exhaustive, instead giving a template and source of ideas, along with a baseline of expectations for what may be allowed or accomplished. As a general rule of thumb, anything that would require tactical or strategic roleplay (such combat or negotiations with an important figure) should be reserved for regular play.
Also of note, downtime is primarily when a player character makes decisions about and pays the price for their chosen lifestyle. This is covered in more detail under cost of living in the Wealth article.

Work a Job

A good default activity for a character who can't determine something better to do, or just really needs some extra cash, is to exchange their spare time for money. The standard form of this is in the way of a Profession or Craft skill. Checks for said skills can be rolled by the hour, day, or week as appropriate for the length of downtime (for longer downtimes, it may also be prudent to take a 10 on the check). Beyond this, characters can use their Craft skill to make items and then sell them, offer religious services (for divine classes), offer spellcasting services (for spellcasting classes), or take up various types of mercenary work. Examples of how each of these could be adjudicated are provided below.

• Profession/Craft: Gain half your check result (rounded down) in gold pieces for each day of work. Working by the hour pays in silver pieces, by the week pays 5 times the daily rate, and by the month pays 5 times the check result in platinum pieces.
• Craft Items: Follow standard item crafting rules. By default, items can be sold for half their market price. Particularly expensive items may need to be sold in more populated locales.
• Offer Religious Services: A Cleric (or similar religiously oriented class) can offer the services provided by the clergy of their deities, accepting donations for their efforts. Results can vary greatly by circumstances, but as a general case such characters roll a Caster Level check, earning that many gold pieces per day for their labors.
• Spellcasting Services: Classes with the ability to cast divine or arcane spells can offer these services to those willing and able to pay. Such services can earn a high price, but are also subject to the availability of those with the money and need for them. As such, income can be much less regular with such work. See the spellcasting income sidebar below for details on how to determine daily income.
• Mercenary Work: Whether it be guard duty, training soldiers, or participating in gladiatorial competitions, characters can leverage their ability to handle themselves in a fight into income without too much undue risk. Characters working in this way earn their base attack bonus x 5gp per day of work. As this work bears with it some level of danger, they must also roll on the mercenary event table below when performing this work. This chart is rolled on once for work lasting a month or less, plus one for each additional month worked (round up).

Spellcasting Income

How much a spellcaster earns per day is based on their caster level and the level of spells they are able to solicit their services for. Each day, they roll all of the following dice that correspond to spell levels they have access to: 2nd - 1d4, 3rd - 1d6, 4th - 1d8, 5th - 1d10, 6th - 1d12, 7th - 1d20, 8th - 1d100. The die with the lowest roll is the spell level they use to calculate their income for that day. If more than one die is tied for lowest, the smallest die is counted. The amount they make that day is equal to the minimum level they can cast that spell level at times the spell level rolled times 5 gp. Some circumstances, such as the size of the city/town they are in, may affect which dice can be rolled, at DM discretion. Barring extreme circumstances (such as spending downtime encamped in a wilderness setting), a spellcaster is always able to solicit at least 2nd level spells, provided they can cast them.

Mercenary Event Table

Roll	Event
01-83	No Event
84	Sustained Injury: You were hurt in the line of duty. Gain an injury
85	Made an Enemy: Through some act you have earned the emnity of someone
86	Heroic Act: Through an act of heroics you have earned a level of local fame
87	Gained Notoriety: Through a cuel or misunderstood act you have earned a level of local notoriety
88	Big Windfall: You somehow come into possession of a windfall of cash. Gain 1 month's extra income
89	Humiliated: You were beaten in battle and it was widely witnessed
90	Made a Friend: You earned the loyalty and admiration of another
91	Broken Equipment: A random piece of your gear gains the broken condition
92	Juicy Rumour: You overhear a juicy bit of gossip that may or may not be true
93	Falsely Accused: You are falsely accused of a crime you did not commit
94	Rescued Someone: You rescue an important local figure, earning their gratitude
95	Overworked: You push yourself too hard. Lose 1 week's work while you recover
96	Fired: One way or another you failed at your work. No income for this period
97	Robbed: You were robbed! Lose half your income from this period
98	Impressive Feat: You performed an impressive act, and earned some local fame
99	Battle Scar: You were cosmetically injured, adding a grizzled look to your character
100	Gained Trophy: You won a prestigious award, gaining some local fame

Proselytize

You can spend downtime to spread your faith, a political movement, or some other cause you wish to convert people to. You could also attempt to increase your fame or infamy, or spread rumors about someone else. The roleplaying effects of this will be determined case-by-case.

Research

You can spend downtime to perform extensive research on a specific topic of inquiry. Mechanics of this still need to be worked out, but will involve an intelligence or knowledge check on the matter, and will give you detailed information about the topic, along with a bonus to knowledge checks on that topic made in the coming adventure (until the next downtime). Access to research materials will also heavily impact the success of this action.

Train Cohorts

If you have one or more cohorts (see Followers & Cohorts) who are below their maximum level, you can spend downtime to get them up to speed. A cohort takes a number of weeks equal to their current level to gain the next level.

Training/Retraining

You can spend time to retrain yourself, changing decisions made in past levels (see Retraining). Typically, each effect you choose to retrain takes 1 month of downtime, and may have additional gold or roleplaying requirements, such as finding and paying for a master to teach you the new abilities you seek.
Alternatively, you can spend this time to Improve on yourself, maximizing the potential of your character. In doing so, you can increase the effective die roll of your health in past levels. For each month of downtime you spend, plus 100gp per character level spent on training expenses, you can increase your maximum hit point total by 1, up to the maximum your character could have at your current level.

Recuperating

If you have suffered a lasting and debilitating injury, you can take time to heal yourself. Any injury that can be healed with a combination of successful Heal checks and hit point healing can be cured with one week's rest. Some diseases and other conditions that do not go away on their own may require spending gold on care.
If you have suffered a permanent injury, such as a lost hand, destroyed eye, or lost ear, you can spend downtime to acclimate to your new condition, removing most, if not all, of the negative effects of your condition. Such times will vary by injury, but will typically range from a few weeks for a small injury, like a lost finger, to several months for a severe one, like a lost leg.

Run a Business

The best way to make money is to spend money, and you can do so by investing in a business of some form. Such ventures often bear high up-front costs, ranging from thousands to tens of thousands of gold, but have the potential to earn back such investments with interest over time. The exact nature of this will depend on the amount of money vested, the type and locale of the business, and other factors that make this typically handled on a case by case basis. As a typical rule, such an investment would take at least a year to recoup its initial cost, and may never do so if the business fails.

Build a Stronghold

Nothing shows success for an adventuring group quite like the acquisition of their own base of operations. As rules on player-run strongholds are added, they will be linked to here. For now, this will have strictly roleplaying effects. Strongholds can be quite time consuming to build, or expensive to buy, but they are a true symbol of status for the party.

Gambling

A character that wants to make money fast can do no better (at least legally) during their downtime than gambling, provided luck is on their side! Depending on the form of gambling, relevant skills such as Profession, Sleight of Hand, or Bluff could be used to gain the upper hand or stack the deck, otherwise this is pure luck in all its glory. The more money you bet, the more you can win (or lose), though the locale may only be able to support so much. You'd be hard pressed to find someone to bet tens of thousands of gold against in a small hamlet. What is rolled and the chances of success will depend on the choice of how to gamble.

Carouse

Sometimes you just want to unwind, blow some of your hard earned gold, and live it up during your downtime. Such acts can be expensive, and are a near guarantee for an interesting time (good or bad), but that's just the price of having a little fun. A character suffering from psychological issues may even find the act therapudic. Your monthly cost of living (see Wealth) is doubled when carousing. If your downtime lasts less than a month, you must pay one month's cost of living on top of your normal expenses to fit a full carousing into the reduced time. For each month you carouse (minimum once) you roll for a random event relative to the living standard you have chosen for that month. The specific outcomes of these events are handled depending on the situation as they are rolled.

Utilize Organizations

Details on what organizations are can be found in the Organizations Primer article, and how they run is covered in the Organization Mechanics article. While organizations are typically managed between sessions, the actions they performed in that course are assumed to largely take place during extended periods of downtime. During these downtimes, you can take the opportunity to direct your organization to perform acts for roleplaying or personal gains. Such acts are outside of the typical actions you take with them during a given cycle, and carry their own resource costs, but are not bound in effects like normal actions are. You could task a Thieves Guild with conducting espionage on an organization your party suspects of nefarious acts, or task a Templar Order to take down a small cult that is of concern to the party but not worth their full attention. These acts typically do not provide gains for the organization itself, rather giving an outlet to spend those resources to affect the game world as the player sees fit.

Roleplaying

Downtime can be the perfect time for characters to carry out individual tasks or accomplish minor goals on their own. Even if a period of downtime ends before the end of an actual session, activities during that downtime can be played out between player and DM between sessions. Things such as visiting old friends, checking in on family members, settling an old vendetta, purchasing a house, and more can all take place during these times.