By its nature, adventuring involves delving into places that are dark, dangerous, and full of mysteries to be explored. The rules in this section cover some of the most important ways in which adventurers interact with the environment in such places.

Falling

A fall from a great height is one of the most common hazards facing an adventurer. At the end of a fall, a creature takes 1d6 BLUNT damage for every 3m it fell, to a maximum of 50d6 at 150m.

The creature lands

Prone

Suffocating

A creature can hold its breath for a number of minutes equal to 1 + its CON modifier (minimum of 30 seconds).

While holding its breath, a creature must make a Concentration check whenever it takes damage (DC = max{10, damage/2}), it Dashes (DC 10), or exerts any other kind of stress that would make it difficult to hold its breath. On a failed save, it loses 30 seconds' worth of breath.

When a creature runs out of breath or is choking, it can survive for a number of rounds equal to its CON modifier (minimum of 1 round). At the start of its next turn, it drops to 0 hit points and is dying, and it can’t regain hit points or be stabilized until it can breathe again.

For example, a creature with a CON of 14 can hold its breath for 3 minutes. If it starts suffocating, it has 2 rounds to reach air before it drops to 0 HP.

Vision and Light

The most fundamental tasks of adventuring—noticing danger, finding hidden objects, hitting an enemy in combat, and targeting a spell, to name just a few—rely heavily on a character's ability to see. Darkness and other effects that obscure vision can prove a significant hindrance.

A given area might be lightly or heavily obscured. In a lightly obscured area, such as dim light, patchy fog, or moderate foliage, creatures have disadvantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight.

A heavily obscured area—such as darkness, opaque fog, or dense foliage—blocks vision entirely. A creature effectively suffers from the

Blinded

The presence or absence of light in an environment creates three categories of illumination: bright light, dim light, and darkness.

Bright light lets most creatures see normally. Even gloomy days provide bright light, as do torches, lanterns, fires, and other sources of illumination within a specific radius.

Dim light, also called shadows, creates a lightly obscured area. An area of dim light is usually a boundary between a source of bright light, such as a torch, and surrounding darkness. The soft light of twilight and dawn also counts as dim light. A particularly brilliant full moon might bathe the land in dim light.

Darkness creates a heavily obscured area. Characters face darkness outdoors at night (even most moonlit nights), within the confines of an unlit dungeon or a subterranean vault, or in an area of magickal darkness.

Typical sight range

A creature on a day with normal brightness can see about 3km away on ground level, until you are blocked by terrain and other obstacles.

• On a rainy day, you can see about 1.5km away.
• On a partially foggy day, you can see about 40m away.
• Standing on a mountain gives you vision up to about 65km away.

Blindsight

A creature with blindsight can perceive its surroundings without relying on sight, within a specific radius. Creatures without eyes, such as certain amorphs, and creatures with echolocation or heightened senses, such as bats and true dragons, have this sense.

Darkvision

Many creatures in fantasy gaming worlds, especially those that dwell underground, have darkvision. Within a specified range, a creature with darkvision can see in darkness as if the darkness were dim light, so areas of darkness are only lightly obscured as far as that creature is concerned. However, the creature can't discern colour in darkness, only shades of gray.

Truesight

A creature with truesight can, out to a specific range, see in normal and magickal darkness, see

Invisible

Wind Speeds

Throughout your travels, you may encounter areas with wind speed greater than normal. The following table gives some of the effects that could happen when within these wind speeds.