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Camping Supplies (Optional Mechanic)
Time to introduce the BG3 Tabletop Resting Mechanic. The PCs are in the middle of a wilderness that doesn’t necessarily have a plethora of food, nor do they have vendors to buy rations from (at least for now). Water is plentiful enough, but food is not. Therefore, food is a much more precious commodity in this campaign. It will be tracked via a Camping Supplies Score. One player can track it, or the DM can.

This mechanic is based on the Create Food and Water spell. With that spell, “you create 45 pounds of food and 30 gallons of water on the ground or in containers within range, enough to sustain up to 15 humanoids or 5 steeds for 24 hours. The food is bland but nourishing, and spoils if uneaten after 24 hours. The water is clean and doesn’t go bad.”

With this in mind, it can then be determined that a single humanoid will consume roughly 3 pounds of food and 2 gallons of water a day. Again, water does not spoil, and it can easily be refilled as long as the PCs have canteens (which is why canteens have now been provided).

So, to simplify, 1 pound of food is 10 Camping Supplies. This means that it is assumed that a character will consume approximately 30 Camping Supplies worth of food per day split between both long and short rests.

This being the case, if we assume the party will take an average of 2 short rests per day, and they can only long rest once a day, the amount of camping supplies required per rest is as follows:

Short Rest = 5 Camping Supplies per character in the party per Short Rest (NPCs and nonmagical animal companions included). This is ONLY those characters in the party when the short rest occurs. In other words, any characters left at camp do not cost the party anything. It is assumed they have enough time to take care of their own food needs.

Long Rest = 20 Camping Supplies per character at the party’s camp per Long Rest (NPCs and nonmagical animal companions included). This means EVERYONE at camp adds to the cost. Hey! Everyone’s gotta eat. Perhaps there is such a thing as having too many companions!

The idea is: if the party short rests 2 times per day, they would use 10 Camping Supplies/ 1 pound of food per character on short rests, and then 20 Camping Supplies/2 pounds of food per character on long rests. This is roughly 3 pounds of food per day per character. If you have a party of 4 and you have just added Shadowheart to the party, each short rest would then cost 25 Camping Supplies. If you long rest with the same party, that would cost 100 Camping Supplies.

Each food item will have a Survival DC and a Max Value in Camping Supplies. As soon as the PCs find a food item, the player with the highest Survival skill will roll against the DC of the food item. Another party member can help and provide advantage to the roll. If the PC succeeds, the party gains 5 Camping Supplies per point of success (minimum 5 or Max Value) up to the Max Value. Basically, the Max Value represents that a character is able to use/preserve every last bit of food from the item that they find. They don’t let any go to waste. However, if they fail entirely, it means that while they were attempting to preserve or prepare the food, they actually ruined it (burnt it, didn’t cook it right, added something bad to it, etc. Essentially, it is inedible once it is time to eat it.

Note: It is assumed that cooking, consuming and preserving food is done during periods of resting; long or short. However, to simplify things so players aren’t tracking all sorts of different food items and values, it is easier to have them convert it immediately into Camping Supplies. That way the game isn’t getting bogged down with meaningless item management. Once converted into Camping Supplies, the food doesn’t spoil. It is assumed the PCs are always consuming the food that will spoil soonest while continuing to preserve the food that lasts longer.

Let’s put the concept into practice. The PCs just found a Bucket of Fish. Have the PC with the highest Survival skill roll immediately with advantage (assuming at least one of the other party members will help them). If they roll a 1-9, the entire Bucket of Fish is ruined. It is wasted, burnt, inedible, etc. If they roll a 10 or 11, they only get 5 Camping Supplies from the entire bucket. It is mostly inedible by the time they are done with it. 12=10 Camping Supplies, 13=15, 14=20, 15=25, 16=30, 17=35, 18=40, 19=45, 20=50, 21=55, and 22 or more is full value of 60.

Let’s provide one more example just to be clear. The PCs find a carrot with a Max Value of 1 Camping Supplies and a DC of 5. If they somehow roll a 1-4, they don’t even get the 1 Camping Supplies for the carrot. It’s totally wasted, ruined, etc. If they roll a 5 or higher, they succeed in getting the full value of 1. They don’t get 5 Camping Supplies because the Max Value is only 1.

Now, add to this the Purify Food and Drink spell. To make this simple, if the PCs cast this spell on the first food item they find, go ahead and apply it to all food they find that day. This assumes that they reserved the spell slot and used it at the end of the day after they’d gathered all food. If they use Purify Food and Drink, it can be used to prevent all nonmagical food from being spoiled. In other words, any character who uses this spell once per day can preserve all Camping Supplies found that day (again, assuming that they waited to use the spell until the end of the day). Nothing is wasted or lost.

Example: If one of the party members wants to use their spell slot to cast Purify Food and Drink on the 1 Bucket of Fish, the party will gain 60 Camping Supplies automatically. No Survival check is necessary. Any other food they find that day will also provide the party with the full Camping Supplies value without any Survival check needing to be made.

Goodberry negates the Camping Supplies requirement for that day for each person who eats a Goodberry. So, if you cast the spell, you have 10 berries. If you have 6 party members, and each member eats a berry, you won’t need any Camping Supplies that day to either short or long rest. Period. No food required. Do this every day and you completely negate the food mechanic. PCs don’t even need to collect food.

The price of doing this, however, is that the party member has to waste a spell slot to cast Goodberry every day (plus you have to have a druid or ranger in the party to take advantage of this). With food being typically available in enough of an abundance that characters shouldn’t need to use this spell if they aren’t long resting like crazy, why waste a spell slot that could be used for combat?

Another spell that can be used to negate the need for Camping Supplies is Create Food and Water. This is a level 3 artificer, cleric or paladin spell. Casting it will supply the needs of up to 15 party members (including NPCs and nonmagical animal companions.) Keep in mind that both it and Goodberry are magical food spells, so excess food is wasted. It is NOT added to your Camping Supplies Score. Therefore, the spells only negate the need for Camping Supplies for party members for just that day. Unlike Purify Food and Drink, Create Food and Water can be cast at the end of the day just before long resting. You don’t have to cast it as soon as you find food items. In this way, this spell can be considered more of a failsafe in case food supplies begin to run out and the party is desperately needing a long rest.

To make sure the party is able to find and gather enough food to rest when needed, Survival checks can be made once per day when the party decides to finally take a long rest. (These checks are not available during short rests. Short rests do not allow enough time for party members to wander off and fish, hunt and gather food. They are only roughly one hour while long rests are usually more than eight hours long.) To hunt/gather, have the PC with the highest Survival skill roll against a DC of 10. For every point of success, they gather 5 Camping Supplies that day (minimum of 5 for a success). So, if the PC rolls 1-9, they gather no Camping Supplies. If they roll a 10-11, they collect 5 Camping Supplies. 12=10, 13=15, 14=20, 15=25, 16=30, 17=35, 18=40, 19=45, 20=50, 21=55, 22=60, 23=65, 24=70, 25=75, etc. Just another way having a good survivalist in the party can pay off.

Finally, if all else fails, there will be vendors eventually. These vendors don’t have a lot of food supplies, but if the party really needs it, you can have a vendor sell rations. Each ration is worth 30 Camping Supplies. These should be sold VERY sparingly. The point is to discourage long resting. The last thing you want is for players to buy up tons of rations so they never have to worry about it and can long rest between every battle.

And, just to REALLY make sure the PCs aren’t messed over by this Camping Supplies Mechanic, the party can take a partial long rest if they have at least half as many Camping Supplies as they need for a full long rest. In other words, if the party has 5 characters at camp, they would normally need 100 Camping Supplies to do a full long rest. However, they only have 50. They can do a partial long rest. The benefit is that they regain all spell slots and abilities at a much more reduced price. What makes it not as good as a full long rest is that they do not necessarily regain all of their HP. They also don’t regain their Hit Dice back.

To determine how many HP each character is healed via a partial long rest, roll all their Hit Dice as if they were using them on a single short rest. Whatever they roll, plus their Constitution bonus (applied to each die) is how many HP they are healed.

Example: Shadowheart has a max of 15 HP at level 2. She has 2d8 Hit Dice. She has 3 spell slots. During the day, she uses 1d8 Hit Dice during a short rest and all of her spell slots. She’s down to 5 HP. The party long rests, but they only have 50 Camping Supplies, and they need 100 for 4 players and Shadowheart. Shadowheart regains all 3 of her spell slots, but she does not get her 1d8 Hit Dice back. The next day, she will only have 1d8 Hit Dice to spend during short rests. That’s it. As for HP, she gains 2d8+2 (+1 is her Constitution bonus applied to each die) for taking a partial long rest. She rolls a 1 and a 3. So, her total HP restored is 6. She starts the next day with only 11 HP. It’s certainly not ideal, but it’s better than nothing, and a single healing potion could restore her the rest of the way. The biggest drawback is that she only has 1d8 Hit Dice that day for short rests.