For activities to do during long rests and between adventures, quests, missions of vengeance, etc. Periods of downtime can vary in duration, but each downtime activity requires a certain number of days to complete before you gain any benefits, and at least 8 hours of each day must be spent on the downtime activity for the day to count. The days do not always need to be consecutive. If you have more than the minimum amount of days to spend, you can keep doing the same thing for a longer period of time, or switch to a new downtime activities. Here's a breakdown of some of the activities that your characters may spend their downtime on, feel free to ask about other options. Plenty of it is stolen and/or modified from PHB, DMG, and XGE.
Carousing/Socializing
Carousing is the 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 day 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 1 gp per day to cover expenses, or 5 gp per day for the middle class. Carousing with the upper class requires 25 gp per day 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 you judge that 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 week of carousing, a character stands to make contacts within the selected social class that they have surrounded themselves with. The character can make a Charisma (Persuasion or Deception if they are playing a façade) to see if their socialization had any results.
| Check Total |
Result |
| 1-5 |
Character has made a hostile contact. |
| 6-15 |
Character has made no new contacts. |
| 16-20 |
Character has made an allied contact. |
| 20+ |
Character has made two allied contacts. |
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, which can influence roleplaying and how the characters interact with them, but doesn't come with a guarantee of help.
Crafting
Crafting Items in your Downtime has this info. For all your crafting, mundane or magical.
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.
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 must pay a fine equal to the profit the crime would have earned and must spend one week in jail or equivalent for each 25 gp of the fine.
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.
Pit Fighting
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 pit 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 5 + 2d10; generate a separate DC for each one. Consult the Pit Fighting Results table to see how the character did.
| Result |
Value |
| 0 succeses |
Lose your bouts, earning nothing. |
| 1 success |
Win 50 gp. |
| 2 successes |
Win 100 gp. |
| 3 successes |
Win 200 gp. |
Practicing a Profession
You can work between adventures, allowing you to maintain a modest lifestyle without having to pay 1 gp per day (see chapter 5 for more information on lifestyle expenses). This benefit lasts as long you continue to practice your profession. If you are a member of an organization that can provide gainful employment, such as a temple or a thieves' guild, you earn enough to support a comfortable lifestyle instead. If you have proficiency in the Performance skill and put your performance skill to use during your downtime, you earn enough to support a wealthy lifestyle instead.
Relaxation/Recuperating
You can use downtime between adventures to recover from a debilitating injury, disease, or poison.
Exhaustion Recovery
After two day of downtime spent relaxing, you can remove one level of exhaustion. From the third day onwards of relaxing, you can remove one level of exhaustion per day.
Recovering from Disease/Poison
After two days of downtime spent relaxing recuperating, you can make a DC 15 Constitution saving throw. On a successful save, you can choose one of the following results:
- End one effect on you that prevents you from regaining hit points.
- For the next 24 hours, gain advantage on saving throws against one disease or poison currently affecting you.
Religious Services
Characters with a religious bent might want to spend downtime in service 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 services requires access to, and often attendance at, a temple or shrine whose beliefs or 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 characters chooses to make either an Intelligence (Religion) check or Charisma (Persuasion) check. The total check determines the benefits of service, as shown below.
| Check Total |
Result |
| 1-10 |
No effect. Your efforts fail to make a lasting impression. |
| 11-20 |
You earn one favor or gain inspiration at the start of each day for the next 1d6 days. |
| 21+ |
You earn two favors or gain inspiration at the start of each day for the next 2d6 days. |
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 certain spells or rituals up to 50 percent. Favors earned need not be expended immediately, but only a certain number can be "stored" up. A character can have a maximum of unused favors from a temple equal to 1 + the character's Charisma modifier (minimum of 1).
Researching
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 paying a fee to be able to use such facilities. Depending on the information that a character wishes to learn, research could be as simple as some time at a local library or more complicated spending a week delving into books and questioning subject matter experts. In order to learn more esoteric information, one workweek of effort and at least 50 gp spent on materials, bribes, gifts, and other expenses will be required.
Resolution
The character declares the focus of the research—a specific person, place, or thing. For a simple search, a character makes aIntelligence (Investigation) check to find clues pointing toward the information you seek, or a Charisma (Persuasion) check to secure someone's aid. Intelligence (Investigation) check to find clues pointing toward the information you seek, or a Charisma (Persuasion) check to secure someone's aid. For more complex research, 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. The results of what is learned from this are shown below.
| Check Total |
Outcome |
| 1-5 |
Nothing useful was learned. |
| 6-10 |
You learn up to one piece of lore. |
| 11-20 |
You learn up to two pieces of lore. |
| 21+ |
You learn up to three pieces of lore. |
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.
Skill Training
Given enough free time and the services of an instructor, a character can learn a language or pick up proficiency with a tool.
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.
Resolution
At the end of the required time, the characters chooses to make either an Intelligence (Religion) check or Charisma (Persuasion) check. The total check determines the benefits of service, as shown below.
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 day of hard labor. Or soft labor. I guess it depends on your occupational skills if you have any.
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 table below to see how much money is generated according to the total of the check. For multiple days of working, make a single roll and multiply it by the amount of time spent working.
| Check Total |
Earnings |
| 9 or lower |
2 silver pieces per day |
| 10-14 |
1 gold piece per day |
| 15-20 |
2 gold pieces per day |
| 21+ |
7 gold pieces per day |
