Downtime Activities

⟵ Downtime Activities

This page lists extra Downtime Activities options gathered from other source books. Not all of these options will be available to you during your campaign, and your DM has the final say on how any of the mechanics work, regardless of what the text below may say.

Dungeon Master's Guide¶

Source: Dungeon Master's Guide, p. 128

The Player's Handbook describes a few downtime activities to fill the void between adventures. Depending on the style of your campaign and the particular backgrounds and interests of the adventurers, you can make some or all of the following additional activities available as options.

Building a Stronghold¶

A character can spend time between adventures building a stronghold. Before work can begin, the character must acquire a plot of land. If the estate lies within a kingdom or similar domain, the character will need a royal charter (a legal document granting permission to oversee the estate in the name of the crown), a land grant (a legal document bequeathing custody of the land to the character for as long as he or she remains loyal to the crown), or a deed (a legal document that serves as proof of ownership). Land can also be acquired by inheritance or other means.

Royal charters and land grants are usually given by the crown as a reward for faithful service, although they can also be bought. Deeds can be bought or inherited. A small estate might sell for as little as 100 gp or as much as 1,000 gp. A large estate might cost 5,000 gp or more, if it can be bought at all.

Once the estate is secured, a character needs access to building materials and laborers. The Building a Stronghold table shows the cost of building the stronghold (including materials and labor) and the amount of time it takes, provided that the character is using downtime to oversee construction. Work can continue while the character is away, but each day the character is away adds 3 days to the construction time.

Building A Stronghold

Running a Business¶

Adventurers can end up owning businesses that have nothing to do with delving into dungeons or saving the world. A character might inherit a smithy, or the party might be given a parcel of farmland or a tavern as a reward. If they hold on to the business, they might feel obliged to spend time between adventures maintaining the venture and making sure it runs smoothly.

A character rolls percentile dice and adds the number of days spent on this downtime activity (maximum 30), then compares the total to the Running a Business table to determine what happens.

If the character is required to pay a cost as a result of rolling on this table but fails to do so, the business begins to fail. For each unpaid debt incurred in this manner, the character takes a -10 penalty to subsequent rolls made on this table.

Running a Business

Sowing Rumors¶

Swaying public opinion can be an effective way to bring down a villain or elevate a friend. Spreading rumors is an efficient, if underhanded, way to accomplish that goal. Well-placed rumors can increase the subject's standing in a community or embroil someone in scandal. A rumor needs to be simple, concrete, and hard to disprove. An effective rumor also has to be believable, playing off what people want to believe about the person in question.

Sowing a rumor about an individual or organization requires a number of days depending on the size of the community, as shown in the Sowing Rumors table. In a town or city, the time spent must be continuous. If the character spreads a rumor for ten days, disappears on an adventure for another few days and then returns, the rumor fades away without the benefit of constant repetition.

Sowing Rumors

The character must spend 1 gp per day to cover the cost of drinks, social appearances, and the like. At the end of the time spent sowing the rumor, the character must make a DC 15 Charisma (Deception or Persuasion) check. If the check succeeds, the community's prevailing attitude toward the subject shifts one step toward friendly or hostile, as the character wishes. If the check fails, the rumor gains no traction, and further attempts to propagate it fail.

Shifting a community's general attitude toward a person or organization doesn't affect everyone in the community. Individuals might hold to their own opinions, particularly if they have personal experience in dealing with the subject of the rumors.

Xanathar's Guide to Everything¶

Source: Xanathar's Guide to Everything, p. 125

Downtime activities are tasks that usually take a workweek (5 days) or longer to perform. These tasks can include buying or creating magic items, pulling off crimes, and working at a job. A character selects a downtime activity from among those available and pays the cost of that activity in time and money. You, as DM, then follow the rules for the activity to resolve it, informing the player of the results and any complications that ensue.

Consider handling downtime away from the game table. For example, you could have the players pick their downtime activities at the end of a session, and then communicate about them by email or text, until you next see them in person.

Resolving Activities¶

The description of each activity tells you how to resolve it. Many activities require an ability check, so be sure to note the character's relevant ability modifiers. Follow the steps in the activity, and determine the results.

Most downtime activities require a workweek (5 days) to complete. Some activities require days, weeks (7 days), or months (30 days). A character must spend at least 8 hours of each day engaged in the downtime activity for that day to count toward the activity's completion.

The days of an activity don't need to be consecutive; you can spread them over a longer period of time than is required for the activity. But that period of time should be no more than twice as long as the required time; otherwise you should introduce extra complications (see below) and possibly double the activity's costs to represent the inefficiency of the character's progress.

Complications¶

The description of each activity includes a discussion of complications you can throw at the characters. The consequences of a complication might spawn entire adventures, introduce NPCs to vex the party, or give the characters headaches or advantages in any number of other ways.

Each of these sections has a table that offers possible complications. You can roll to determine a complication randomly, pick one from the table, or devise one of your own, and then share it with the player.

Example Downtime Activities¶

The following activities are suitable for any character who can afford to pursue them. As DM, you have the final say on which activities are available to the characters. The activities you allow might depend on the nature of the area where the characters are located. For example, you might disallow the creation of magic items or decide that the characters are in a town that is too isolated from major markets for them to buy such items.

Arena Fighting¶

Arena fighting includes boxing, wrestling, and other nonlethal forms of combat in an organized setting with predetermined matches.

Resources. Engaging in this activity requires one workweek of effort from a character.

Resolution. The character must make a series of checks, with a DC determined at random based on the quality of the opposition that the character runs into. A big part of the challenge in arena fighting lies in the unknown nature of a character's opponents.

The character makes three checks: Strength (Athletics), Dexterity (Acrobatics), and a special Constitution check that has a bonus equal to a roll of the character's largest Hit Die (this roll doesn't spend that die). If desired, the character can replace one of these skill checks with an attack roll using one of the character's weapons. The DC for each of the checks is determined by the DM. Consult the Arena Fighting Results table to see how the character did.

Buying a Magic Item¶

Purchasing a magic item requires time and money to seek out and contact people willing to sell items. Even then, there is no guarantee a seller will have the items a character desires.

Resources. Finding magic items to purchase requires at least one workweek of effort and 100 gp in expenses, if you are seeking items of rarity Uncommon or above. Spending more time and money increases your chance of finding a high-quality item.

Resolution. A character seeking to buy a magic item makes a Charisma (Persuasion) or Intelligence (Investigation) check to determine the quality of the seller found. The character gains a +1 bonus on the check for every workweek beyond the first that is spent seeking a seller and a +1 bonus for every additional 100 gp spent on the search, up to a maximum bonus of +10. The monetary cost includes a wealthy lifestyle, for a buyer must impress potential business partners.

The total of the check dictates what magic items are likely to be found, with a higher check resulting in more valuable (i.e. expensive) items. If a character is looking for a more specific value of magic item, the DM will adjust the results to match, assuming the character rolls high enough.

If the character seeks a specific magic item, the desired item may be included among the items for sale on a check total of 10 or higher if the item is common, 15 or higher if it is uncommon, 20 or higher if it is rare, 25 or higher if it is very rare, and 30 or higher if it is legendary.

Carousing¶

Carousing is a default downtime activity for many characters. Between adventures, who doesn't want to relax with a few drinks and a group of friends at a tavern?

Resources. Carousing covers a workweek of fine food, strong drink, and socializing. A character can attempt to carouse among lower-, middle-, or upper-class folk. A character can carouse with the lower class for 10 gp to cover expenses, or 50 gp for the middle class. Carousing with the upper class requires 250 gp for the workweek and access to the local nobility.

A character with the noble background can mingle with the upper class, but other characters can do so only if the character has made sufficient contacts. Alternatively, a character might use a disguise kit and the Deception skill to pass as a noble visiting from a distant city.

Resolution. After a workweek of carousing, a character stands to make contacts within the selected social class. The character makes a Charisma (Persuasion) check using the Carousing table.

Carousing

Contacts are NPCs who now share a bond with the character. Each one either owes the character a favor or has some reason to bear a grudge. A hostile contact works against the character, placing obstacles but stopping short of committing a crime or a violent act. Allied contacts are friends who will render aid to the character, but not at the risk of their lives.

Lower-class contacts include criminals, laborers, mercenaries, the town guard, and any other folk who normally frequent the cheapest taverns in town.

Middle-class contacts include guild members, spellcasters, town officials, and other folk who frequent well-kept establishments.

Upper-class contacts are nobles and their personal servants. Carousing with such folk covers formal banquets, state dinners, and the like.

Once a contact has helped or hindered a character, the character needs to carouse again to get back into the NPC's good graces. A contact provides help once, not help for life. The contact remains friendly, but doesn't come with a guarantee of help.

Alternatively, you can make an NPC into a contact on the spot, after carousing. When the characters are in the area in which they caroused, a player can expend an allied contact and designate an NPC they meet as a contact, assuming the NPC is of the correct social class based on how the character caroused. The player should provide a reasonable explanation for this relationship and work it into the game, and the DM is the final arbiter if this explanation is sufficient.

At any time, a character can have a maximum number of unspecified allied contacts equal to 1 + the character's Charisma modifier (minimum of 1).

Crafting an Item¶

A character who has the time, the money, and the needed tools can use downtime to craft armor, weapons, clothing, or other kinds of nonmagical gear.

Resources and Resolution. In addition to the appropriate tools for the item to be crafted, a character needs raw materials worth half of the item's selling cost. To determine how many workweeks it takes to create an item, divide its gold piece cost by 50. A character can complete multiple items in a workweek if the items' combined cost is 50 gp or lower. Items that cost more than 50 gp can be completed over longer periods of time, as long as the work in progress is stored in a safe location.

Multiple characters can combine their efforts. Divide the time needed to create an item by the number of characters working on it. The DM determines how many characters can collaborate on an item. A particularly tiny item, like a ring, might allow only one or two workers, whereas a large, complex item might allow four or more workers. NPC hirelings can help with the crafting, but more skilled NPCs will require more expensive wages.

A character needs to be proficient with the tools needed to craft an item and have access to the appropriate equipment. Everyone who collaborates needs to have the appropriate tool proficiency.

If all the above requirements are met, the result of the process is an item of the desired sort. A character can sell an item crafted in this way at its listed price.

Crafting Magic Items. Creating a magic item requires more than just time, effort, and materials. It is a long-term process that involves one or more adventures to track down rare materials and the lore needed to create the item.

Potions of healing and spell scrolls are exceptions to the following rules. For more information, see "Brewing Potions of Healing" later in this section and the "Scribing a Spell Scroll" activity.

To start with, a character needs a formula for a magic item in order to create it. The formula is like a recipe. It lists the materials needed and steps required to make the item.

A magic item invariably requires an exotic material to complete it. This material can range from the skin of a yeti to a vial of water taken from a whirlpool on the Elemental Plane of Water. Finding that material will involve a side quest, or may come up as part of the normal adventure.

In addition to requiring an exotic material, creating an item comes with a gold piece cost covering other materials, tools, and so on, based on the item's rarity. Those values, as well as the time a character needs to work in order to complete the item, are shown on the Magic Item Crafting Time and Cost table. Halve the listed price and creation time for any consumable items.

Magic Item Crafting Time and Cost

*Halved for a consumable item like a potion or scroll

To complete a magic item, a character also needs whatever tool proficiency is appropriate, as for crafting a nonmagical object, or proficiency in the Arcana skill.

If all the above requirements are met, the result of the process is a magic item of the desired sort.

Brewing Potions of Healing. Potions of healing fall into a special category for item crafting, separate from other magic items. A character who has proficiency with the herbalism kit can create these potions. The times and costs for doing so are summarized on the following table.

Crime¶

Sometimes it pays to be bad. This activity gives a character the chance to make some extra cash, at the risk of arrest.

Resources. A character must spend one week and at least 25 gp gathering information on potential targets before committing the intended crime.

Resolution. The character must make a series of checks, with the DC for all the checks chosen by the character according to the amount of profit sought from the crime.

The chosen DC can be 10, 15, 20, or 25. Successful completion of the crime yields a number of gold pieces, as shown on the Loot Value table.

Loot Value

To attempt a crime, the character makes three checks: Dexterity (Stealth), Dexterity using thieves' tools, and the player's choice of Intelligence (Investigation), Wisdom (Perception), or Charisma (Deception).

If none of the checks are successful, the character is caught and jailed. The character's punishment is subject to the laws of the location the crime was committed in, or whoever ended up arresting the character, subject to DM discretion.

If only one check is successful, the heist fails but the character escapes.

If two checks are successful, the heist is a partial success, netting the character half the payout.

If all three checks are successful, the character earns the full value of the loot.

Gambling¶

Games of chance are a way to make a fortune — and perhaps a better way to lose one.

Resources. This activity requires one workweek of effort plus a stake of at least 10 gp, to a maximum of 1,000 gp. Higher stakes may be acceptable in exceptional cases.

Resolution. The character must make a series of checks, with a DC determined at random based on the quality of the competition that the character runs into. Part of the risk of gambling is that one never knows who might end up sitting across the table.

The character makes three checks: Wisdom (Insight), Charisma (Deception), and Charisma (Intimidation). If the character has proficiency with an appropriate gaming set, that tool proficiency can replace the relevant skill in any of the checks. The DM will determine the DC for each of the checks. Consult the following table to see how the character did.

Gambling Results

Managing a Business (homebrew)¶

A successful business requires a savvy manager to truly prosper.

The business gains +10 to its roll for determining its profits if at least one character spends their downtime managing it. For every consecutive workweek spent managing the business, gain an extra +10, up to a maximum of +30. Multiple characters managing the business at once do not provide extra bonuses.

Relaxation¶

Sometimes the best thing to do between adventures is relax. Whether a character wants a hard-earned vacation or needs to recover from injuries, relaxation is the ideal option for adventurers who need a break. This option is also ideal for players who don't want to make use of the downtime system.

Resources. Relaxation requires one week. A character needs to maintain at least a modest lifestyle while relaxing to gain the benefit of the activity.

Resolution. Characters who maintain at least a modest lifestyle while relaxing gain several benefits. While relaxing, a character gains advantage on saving throws to recover from long-acting diseases and poisons. In addition, at the end of the week, a character can end one effect that keeps the character from regaining hit points, or can restore one ability score that has been reduced to less than its normal value. This benefit cannot be used if the harmful effect was caused by a spell or some other magical effect with an ongoing duration.

Religious Service¶

Characters with a religious bent might want to spend downtime in ser vice to a temple, either by attending rites or by proselytizing in the community. Someone who undertakes this activity has a chance of winning the favor of the temple's leaders.

Resources. Performing religious service requires access to, and often attendance at, a temple whose beliefs and ethos align with the character's. If such a place is available, the activity takes one workweek of time but involves no gold piece expenditure.

Resolution. At the end of the required time, the character chooses to make either an Wisdom (Religion) check or a Charisma (Persuasion) check. The total of the check determines the benefits of service, as shown on the following table.

A favor, in broad terms, is a promise of future assistance from a representative of the temple. It can be expended to ask the temple for help in dealing with a specific problem, for general political or social support, or to reduce the cost of cleric spellcasting by 50 percent. A favor could also take the form of a deity's intervention, such as an omen, a vision, or a minor miracle provided at a key moment. This latter sort of favor is expended by the DM, who also determines its nature.

Favors earned need not be expended immediately, but only a certain number can be stored up. A character can have a maximum number of unused favors equal to 1 + the character's Charisma modifier (minimum of one unused favor).

Renovating a Business (homebrew)¶

When running a business, it's important to keep on top of maintenance, and even moreso to work to update and improve your business to keep your customers' interest. Renovations can consist of planting a garden, fixing holes in the wall, replacing wallpaper, or even adding a disco dance area to the attic.

Resources. Regardless of what the renovation entails, it always requires 5 gp in materials or hired labor per workweek spent. Some types of renovation may require multiple weeks of work to complete.

Resolution. The character decides what kind of renovation they're performing. At the end of the workweek, the character makes an appropriate ability check, plus any skill or tool proficiencies that can apply. Consult the Renovation Result table to determine what bonus is gained on the business's roll for determining its profits for that week.

Renovation Result

If renovations are left uncompleted, the business suffers a -10 penalty for every week thereafter until the renovations are complete. Multiple characters can work on renovations for the business at once, and their bonuses stack.

Research¶

Forewarned is forearmed. The research downtime activity allows a character to delve into lore concerning a monster, a location, a magic item, or some other particular topic.

Resources. Typically, a character needs access to a library or a sage to conduct research. Assuming such access is available, conducting research requires one workweek of effort and at least 50 gp spent on materials, bribes, gifts, and other expenses.

Resolution. The character declares the focus of the research — a specific person, place, or thing. After one workweek, the character makes an Intelligence check with a +1 bonus per 50 gp spent beyond the initial 50 gp, to a maximum of +6. In addition, a character who has access to a particularly well-stocked library or knowledgeable sages gains advantage on this check. Determine how much lore a character learns using the following table.

Each piece of lore is the equivalent of one true statement about a person, place, or thing. Examples include knowledge of a creature's resistances, the password needed to enter a sealed dungeon level, the spells commonly prepared by an order of wizards, and so on.

Scribing a Spell Scroll¶

With time and patience, a spellcaster can transfer a spell to a scroll, creating a spell scroll.

Resources. Scribing a spell scroll takes an amount of time and money related to the level of the spell the character wants to scribe, as shown in the Spell Scroll Costs table. In addition, the character must have proficiency in the Arcana skill and must provide any material components required for the casting of the spell. Moreover, the character must have the spell prepared, or it must be among the character's known spells, in order to scribe a scroll of that spell.

If the scribed spell is a cantrip, the version on the scroll works as if the caster were 1st level.

Spell Scroll Costs

Selling a Magic Item¶

Selling a magic item is by no means an easy task. Con artists and thieves are always looking out for an easy score, and there's no guarantee that a character will receive a good offer even if a legitimate buyer is found.

Resources. A character can find a buyer for one magic item by spending one week and 25 gp, which is used to spread word of the desired sale. A character must pick one item at a time to sell.

Resolution. A character who wants to sell an item must make a Charisma (Persuasion) check to determine what kind of offer comes in. The character can always opt not to sell, instead forfeiting the week of effort and trying again later. Use Magic Item Base Prices table to determine the base sale price (halved for consumable items). The result of your check will determine whether a buyer is willing to pay above or below the base sale price.

*Halved for a consumable item like a potion or scroll

Training¶

Given enough free time and the services of an instructor, a character can learn a language, pick up proficiency with a tool, or retrain an existing skill proficiency to another skill proficiency.

Resources. Receiving training in a language or tool typically takes at least ten workweeks, but this time is reduced by a number of workweeks equal to the character's Intelligence modifier (an Intelligence penalty doesn't increase the time needed). Training costs 25 gp per workweek.

If the character is retraining a skill and has chosen an Expertise in that skill proficiency, they can choose to change that Expertise to match the new skill they're retraining into.

Work¶

When all else fails, an adventurer can turn to an honest trade to earn a living. This activity represents a character's attempt to find temporary work, the quality and wages of which are difficult to predict.

Resources. Performing a job requires one workweek of effort.

Resolution. To determine how much money a character earns, the character makes an ability check: Strength (Athletics), Dexterity (Acrobatics), Intelligence using a set of tools, Charisma (Performance), or Charisma using a musical instrument. Consult the following table to see how much money is generated according to the total of the check.