Improved Combat
Critical Hits and Fumbles
Critical successes and critical failures apply to both saving throws and attack rolls. If a player rolls a 1 on a melee attack roll, a hostile creature within 5 feet can use its reaction to make a melee attack against that player.
Falling Unconscious
When a character falls to 0 hit points, they gain one level of exhaustion. If a character takes damage while unconscious, they must roll on the appropriate Lingering Injury table.
Flanking
When a creature and at least one of its allies are adjacent to an enemy and on opposite sides or corners of the enemy's space, they flank that enemy, and each of them has a +2 bonus on melee attack rolls against that enemy.
Certain creatures can be immune to flanking dependent on physical properties, high enough passive perception, the status of the flanking creatures, or terrain (at the DM's discretion).
Grappling
You have advantage on attack rolls against a creature you are grappling.
You can use your action to try to pin a creature grappled by you. To do so, make another grapple check. If you succeed, you and the creature are both restrained until the grapple ends.
Non-Lethal Damage
Before a player makes a melee attack that deals only bludgeoning damage in which they are proficient, they can declare the attack as non-lethal.
A player can attempt to make a non-lethal attack using a slashing or piercing weapon, but they must roll the attack with disadvantage.
Potions
A potion of healing heals the maximum number of hit points if an action is used to consume it. A player can instead choose to quickly guzzle a potion of healing as a bonus action, in which they roll the potion's allocated dice. Applying a potion to another creature still requires an action and a roll.
Learning a Language
Provided they are willing to invest the time and resources, players can choose to learn a language during downtime. Languages exist on a percentile die. A player's fluent languages automatically start at a 100%, while other languages exist somewhere between 0 and 100%.
In order to become better at a language, a player must spend 1 day + 1 gp to gain 1 percentile, using this time and these resources to hire a teacher or find and read a book (these numbers may differ for more exotic languages). For example, if a player is 30% proficient in Elvish, they need to spend 50 days and 50 gp to become 80% proficient with the language. In certain cases, a player's known languages and alphabets could alter these numbers.
During an encounter, a player can make an Intelligence check to try to pick up some of the language. If they succeed, they gain 1 percentile without having to spend the resources.
Whenever attempting to speak or understand the language without 100% proficiency, a player must roll a percentile die. In order to get their idea across or comprehend a phrase, they must roll within their percentile score.
Herbalism Kit Expanded
A character who has the time, resources, and needed tools can use their herbalism kit proficiency to brew healing potions and antitoxins.
Foraging for Herbs. The herbs used to craft potions of healing and potions of greater healing can be found commonly across areas of Avalor. A character who has proficiency in the herbalism kit can gather herbs as the party travels at a normal or slow pace. A foraging character makes a Wisdom (Survival) check whenever called for, with the DC determined by the abundance of plants in the region, as represented by the Foraging DCs table.
If multiple characters forage, each character makes a separate check. A foraging character finds nothing on a failed check. On a successful check, roll 2d6 + the character's Wisdom modifier to determine the value of the herbs the character finds. 50 gp worth of herbs weighs .5 lbs.
Note that the number of people these herbs are worth their stated value to are very limited, and few interested merchants are willing to pay for them at the price given on the Potion of Healing Creation table.
Suggested Foraging DCs
| Environment |
DC (Spring) |
DC (Summer) |
DC (Autumn) |
DC (Winter) |
| Arctic |
20 |
20 |
20 |
20 |
| Coastal |
14 |
14 |
15 |
20 |
| Desert |
16 |
16 |
16 |
16 |
| Forest |
12 |
12 |
14 |
18 |
| Grassland |
13 |
13 |
15 |
20 |
| Hill |
14 |
14 |
18 |
20 |
| Jungle |
14 |
14 |
14 |
14 |
| Mountain |
16 |
15 |
17 |
18 |
| Swamp |
13 |
13 |
15 |
18 |
| Underdark |
15 |
15 |
15 |
15 |
Brewing a Healing Potion. A character who has proficiency in the herbalism kit can brew a potion of healing in the amount of time specified on the Potion of Healing Creation table. Alternatively, as part of a long rest, a character can gradually work on brewing a potion (doing so takes twice as many long rests as it does days to brew the potion, as shown on the Potion of Healing Creation table).
In order to make progress brewing the potion, the character must make a Wisdom check using their tool proficiency each day or rest they spend crafting. The DCs for these checks are listed on the Potion of Healing Creation table. On a success, progress was made; on a failure, the character wastes their time. Rolling a natural 20 will double the character's progress. On a natural 1, the character wastes 3d6 gp worth of herbs.
Potions of superior healing and
potions of supreme healing are much more difficult to brew and require rarer components, such as troll blood or angelic essence, to create. Brewing these potions is less like distilling a liquor and more like chemically mixing and experimenting with magical components. Therefore, they can not be gradually worked on as part of a long rest, and—at the DM's discretion—may require an Intelligence check using their tool proficiency to create as opposed to a Wisdom check.
Potion of Healing Creation
| Type |
Time |
Cost |
DC |
| Healing |
1 day/2 long rests |
25 gp |
10 |
| Greater Healing |
1 workweek/10 long rests |
100 gp |
13 |
| Superior Healing |
3 workweeks |
1,000 gp |
16 |
| Supreme Healing |
4 workweeks |
10,000 gp |
19 |
Crafting Herbal Remedies. Rather than brewing a potion of healing, a character who has proficiency in the herbalism kit can instead spend half as much time using the same material components to create a single-use herbal remedy that is meant for use outside of combat. Utilize the same rules for brewing a healing potion to create a remedy of healing.
A remedy of healing is a potion of healing that requires a 1 minute ritual to use. It always heals the maximum number of hit points as its potion counterpart, unless the DM states otherwise.
Brewing an Antitoxin. A character who has proficiency in the herbalism kit can brew an antitoxin. Brewing an antitoxin uses the same rules, time, cost, and DC as brewing a standard potion of healing, although the types of herbs being gathered and the way they are integrated into the antitoxin is different.
The Fading Spirit
The Fading Spirit is a resurrection rule set designed to add an element of party roleplaying and narrative to the resurrection attempt, as well as the creeping threat of permanent death to a character. Any of the following DC modifiers are easily adjusted to fit your campaign needs.
Resurrection Challenge
If a character is dead, and a return from death is attempted by a spell or spell effect with longer than a one action casting time, a Resurrection Challenge is initiated. Up to 3 members of the adventuring party can offer to contribute to the ritual via skill checks. The DM asks them each to make a skill check based on their form of contribution, with the DC of the check adjusting to how helpful/impactful the DM feels the contribution would be.
For example, praying to the god of the devout, fallen character may require an Intelligence (Religion) check at an easy to medium difficulty, where loudly demanding the soul of the fallen to return from the aether may require a Charisma (Intimidation) check at a very hard or nearly impossible difficulty. Advantage and disadvantage can apply here based on how perfect, or off base, the contribution offered is.
Resurrection Check
After all contributions are completed, the DM then rolls a single, final Resurrection success check with no modifier. The base DC for the final resurrection check is 10, increasing by 1 for each previous successful resurrection the character has undergone (signifying the slow erosion of the soul’s connection to this world). For each successful contribution skill check, this DC is decreased by 3, whereas each failed contribution skill check increases the DC by 1. Upon a successful resurrection check, the player’s soul (should it be willing) will be returned to the body, and the ritual succeeded. On a failed check, the soul does not return and the character is lost.
Only the strongest of magical incantations can bypass this resurrection challenge, in the form of the true resurrection or wish spells. These spells can also restore a character to life who was lost due to a failed resurrection ritual, should you allow it.
Quick Resurrections
If a spell with a casting time of 1 action is used to attempt to restore life (via the revivify spell or similar effects), no contribution skill checks are allowed. The character casting the spell makes a Rapid Resurrection check, rolling a d20 and adding their spellcasting ability modifier. The DC is 10, increasing by 1 for each previous successful resurrection the character has undergone. On a failure, the character’s soul is not lost, but the resurrection fails and increases any future Resurrection checks’ DC by 1. No further attempts can be made to restore this character to life until a resurrection spell with a casting time higher than 1 action is attempted.
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