Wilderness Travel in Dungeons and Dragons 5e

For over a year now, I have been running a Yoon Suin campaign using Dungeons and Dragons 5e. Traveling into an unknown continent is an important part of that campaign. Therefore, I am currently interested in mechanics for running wilderness travel. As I am currently running a Dungeons and Dragons 5e game, I first wanted to see what the documentation of D&D 5e has on wilderness travel. To be honest, there is more information in the rules than I initially expected. It is, however, scattered around. Pieces can be found in different chapters in both the Player’s Handbook and the Dungeon Master’s Guide and nowhere is there a clear explanation of how to exactly run this. For combat this is spelled out in extreme detail (the order in which players take turns, what exactly they can do in in a turn, how to run and select monsters, etc.). Therefore, the main thing missing in the books seems to be an explanation of how wilderness travel should play out. As an example, let’s say that the party wants to travel to some village. There are persons looking for them that they want to avoid. They have two possible routes: use the road or travel through the forest. On the road they arrive faster in their destination (which might be relevant for the adventure) but they have a higher chance of being spotted. When traveling through the forest they avoid being spotted, but it takes longer and they run the risk of getting lost, running out of food and there are also dangers in the wilderness. How do I determine they are spotted on the road? How often should I check for encounters in the road or in the forest? Daily? Hourly? How often should they roll a check to avoid getting lost?

Summary of wilderness travel in D&D 5e

Below I will try to summarise and structure the rules as I have extracted them from the books. The appendix at the end contains all of the page references.

The books describe three things that characters can do during travel:

1. Look out for dangers or track
2. Navigate
3. Forage

At the start of travel the players can decide who are in front and back (and paying attention) and which characters are navigating or foraging.

The party can travel in three travel paces: fast, normal an slow. When traveling in a fast pace, they (the persons on look out) suffer a -5 on their passive perception. When traveling slow the party can move stealthily. They can travel 8 hours per day. Per hour longer, they have to make constitution save against a DC of 10+number of extra hours. Players that fail the check suffer one level of exhaustion.

Looking out for dangers

Characters automatically notice threats when with hearing or visual range. When a side is trying to be stealthily, each character or monster in that party has to make a stealth (dexterity) check against the passive perception (wisdom) scores of the members of the other party.

The rules about noticing seem to assume that the positions of both parties are exactly known, i.e. that they are on a specific location on the map from which it is possible to determine visibility. This seems unrealistic in case of many wilderness encounters. Another issue is that the rules seem to suggest that every member of a party should make the stealth check, that makes is almost impossible to successfully move stealthily.

Navigating

A character navigating makes a wisdom (survival) check against a DC determined by the terrain (15 for forest, jungle, open seas overcast; 10 desert, hills; 5 grassland). If the check fails the party becomes lost. After 1d6 hours the check can be repeated to get back on track.

Foraging

A character foraging makes a wisdom (survival) check against a DC determined by how difficult it is to find food and water. A DC of 10 can be used when food and water is abundant, 15 when limited and 20 when food and water is scarce. When successful a character finds 1d6+wis units of food and 1d6+wis units of water. A character consumes one unit of food and water per day. Checks can be made by multiple characters and only when traveling at a normal or slow pace.

A ranger with the relevant favored terrain (Natural Explorer feature) finds twice as much food and water and can also forage while being alert.

Some troubling class abilities

The ranger class gets the Natural Explorer feature which means that she can choose at first, sixth and twelfth level a favored terrain from arctic, coast, desert, forest, grassland, mountain, swamp and the underdark. In the favored terrain the ranger:

1. Stays alert while foraging, tracking or navigating.
2. Cannot get lost except by magical means.
3. Can find twice as many food and water while foraging.
4. And her party isn’t slowed down during travel in difficult terrain.

Especially the second ability takes away one of the important dangers during wilderness travel: getting lost. It is also one of those all or nothing abilities: either is completely useless when most of the adventuring takes place in the favored terrain or when the DM skips wilderness travel, or it is extremely powerful otherwise. It makes sense that a ranger is very good in navigating. However, a rogue is also good at thievery but does not get an automatic success. She gets to double her proficiency score.

The fourth ability, that the party isn’t slowed down during travel through difficult terrain, also seems too powerful. The rules about movement in the Player’s Handbook describe difficult terrain as dense forest, deep swamps, steep mountains, etc. In difficult terrain movement speed is halved. In that sense any type of wilderness when not traveling on roads, is difficult terrain. But what does not being slowed down mean? Can a ranger with her party travel through the jungle as if she was walking over a well made road? That seems a bit too powerful. The rules mention a fast, normal and slow travel pace. So, traveling with a ranger in her favored terrain could mean that the party travels the distance belonging to the fast travel pace while traveling in a normal pace etc.

Both the druid and the ranger get the first level goodberry spell; the druid and cleric get the first level create water spell. With the goodberry spell the caster can create 10 berries that provide ‘enough nourishment to sustain a creature for one day’. As the berries keep for 24 hours, this seems to be enough food for two days for a party of five persons or less. With create water the caster can create 45 litres (10 gallons) of water in a container. The first spell makes food a non-issue and the second makes water a non-issue, both at the cost of one first level spell. One could argue that a first level spell slot is not a cheap price to pay for food. However, in general there will be much less encounters per day during wilderness travel than during exploration of, for example, a dungeon. Hit points and spells per day are aimed at approximately 5-6 encounters per day which is unrealistic for wilderness travel. Therefore, during wilderness travel spell slots are much less precious than during other types of adventure.

Appendix: overview of rules relevant for wilderness travel in the D&D 5e rules

Player’s Handbook

Introduction - page 8: The three pillars of adventure are exploration, social interaction and combat.

Ranger - page 91: The ranger has the Natural Explorer feature. The ranger can choose a favored terrain from arctic, coast, desert, forest, grassland, mountain, swamp or the underdark. Among other things this means that the ranger can forage while staying alert, he can’t become lost, the group can travel at normal speed in difficult terrain, and can find twice as much food while foraging. At 6th and 10th level, the ranger gains additional terrains.

Outlander background - page 136: A character with this background can always recall the general layout of the terrain around her and can find fresh water and food for up to five people each day.

Wisdom - page 178: A wisdom (survival) check can be used to track wild, avoid dangers.

Movement - page 181: There a three types of travel pace: fast, normal, slow. Fast means 4 miles (6 km) per hour and 30 miles (50 km) per day; normal 3 miles (4 km) per hour and 24 miles (40 km) per day; and slow 2 miles (3 km) per hour and 18 miles (30 km) per day. When traveling fast, there is -5 op passive perception checks and when traveling slow the characters are able move stealthily. Characters are assumed to travel 8 hours per day. Per hour longer, they have to make a constitution save against a DC of 10+number of extra hours. When they fail the check they suffer one level of exhaustion.

The movement rates mentioned above are for relatively simple terrain. In case of difficult terrain, such as dense forest, deep swamps, steep mountains, etc. movement rate is halved.

Activities while traveling - page 182: The characters should have a marching order. Characters not on the lookout can navigate, draw a map, track or forage. These characters do not perceive threats while doing so. For noticing threats the DM should use the passive perception scores of the characters. Depending on the threat only characters in a certain position in the marching order might detect the threat.

Relevant low level spells:

• Goodberry (1st level): 10 berries that can provide nourishment for one day.
• Purify Food and Drink (1st level): a drink and food withing 5-foot radius free of poison and disease.
• Create or destroy water (1st level): 10 gallons (45 l.) of clean water in a container.

Dungeon Master’s Guide

Pages 106-112 describe wilderness adventure and travel.

Wilderness - page 106-108: Two types of approach are suggested: skip wilderness travel (just give a short description of the journey) and an hour-by-hour approach if wilderness travel needs to play a more prominent role. On how to do the last they are a bit vague. Determine a marching order and you probably need a mixture of planned, random encounters and stuff to find.

Mapping a wilderness - page 108-109: For mapping a 1.5 km (1 mile) or 10 km (6 mile) hex grid is suggested. Movement is described in the same scale as the map (e.g. in more detail in case of the 1.5 km grid). In case of larger empty areas they suggest to use roads and paths that connect interesting locations. Approximately a dozen locations (settlements, ruins, strongholds) in a 80 km (50 mile) area and approximately 6 monster lairs. There are random tables for monuments and weird locales.

Wilderness surival - page 109-112: These pages contain various rules for wilderness hazards such as extreme heat/cold, wind, quicksand, etc. and rules for foraging and becoming lost. Depending on the food and water availability a DC of 10 (abundant), 15 (limited), 20 (scarce) is used for a wisdom (survival) check. When successful (1d6+wis)/2 kg of food and (1d6+wis)·5 litres of water are found. Foraging is only possible when travelling at normal or slow pace. A medium or small creature requires 0.5 kg of food and 5 litres of water per day. When multiple characters forage each makes a check. Checks should be made ‘whenever the DM calls for it’. In order to not become lost, the parties navigator makes a wisdom (survival) check against a DC determined by the terrain (15 for forest, jungle, open seas overcast; 10 desert, hills; 5 grassland). If the check fails the party becomes lost. After 1d6 hours the check can be repeated to get back on track. The navigation check is made ‘when de DM decides it is appropriate’.

Exploration - page 242-244: It is possible to track the progress of the party using a map: on a map with 10 km (6 mile) hexes, a party travels 4 hexes per day when traveling in normal pace (3 per day for slow; and 5 when fast). On a clear day a party visibility is 3 km (2 miles) when it rains 1.5 km (1 mile); 60 km (40 miles) from a mountain. When encountering other groups, when neither side is trying to be stealthy they automatically notice each other when within sight or hearing range, otherwise each character in the groups being stealthily makes a stealth check against the passive perception of the characters in the other group.

Xanathar’s Guide to Everything

Doesn’t contain any new rules relevant to wilderness travel. Only some of the tools are described in more detail. They also mention more explicitly than the Player’s Handbook that the character can add their proficiency score when a tool with which they are proficient. Relevant tools are the Cartographer’s Tools (page 80) and Navigator’s Tools (page 83). Both tools tools ‘help you avoid becoming lost’. So this suggest that characters proficient can sometimes add their proficiency bonus to wisdom (survival) rolls to avoid getting lost. Of course only when the tools are relevant: navigator’s tools might be useless in a thick forest where the characters cannot see the sky and not further than 100 metres.