Standardized Travel Speed

Base Assumptions

To make this useful, I have to start with some baseline assumptions. Most of this boils down to what your average, boring day of travel would look like, no hacking through dense jungle or scaling mountain faces. Just plodding along at whatever pace the group decides and without having to stop every mile to try and figure out where in the Nine Hells you are. Here they are, with some brief explanation:

• You are travelling along a road or over open country. Somewhere you won't have to turn around because the mountains becomes impassible or the forest becomes a swamp you'll have to find a way around.
  
  
• The terrain is fairly easy to traverse. While the first assumption dealt with having to backtrack or find other routes, this has to do with how physically taxing it is to travel and how slow you will be going. Think walking along a dirt road as compared to hiking over a mountain. Even if you are following a trail you will be moving slower due to the added exertion.
  
  
• You are eating food that is brought with you and water is available. Having to stop while you still have enough daylight to forage or hunt for food will mean less time travelling. This includes supplies for any mounts or driving animals you have with you.
  
  
• You are travelling for about 8 hours. This typically means waking at sunrise and stopping with enough time to make camp and prepare food. Encounters (combat, social, exploratory, or otherwise) will typically not affect this unless they carry on for a long time. Fighting highwaymen or speaking with other travelers may take a few minutes, while delving a forgotten ruin may take most of a day.
  
  
• There aren't other circumstances that are slowing you down. A bit of an "all other duties as assigned," but this includes things like carrying a heavy chest, transporting someone who is wounded, or having to deal with the effects of severe weather.
  
  

If one or more of these assumptions aren't met (Difficult Terrain, shortened time spent traveling) the speed will be reduced. Difficult Terrain typically halves speed but this can depend on a lot of things.

Base Speed by Methods of Conveyance

Different Paces:

In general, there will be four different travel paces: Slow, Normal, Fast, and Grueling.

• Slow. You may be travelling slow for a number of reasons. Perhaps you are trying track your quarry or remain hidden from prying eyes. You may be guarding a slow moving caravan or group of non-adventurers. Maybe people are recovering from a recent thrashing and want to go at an easy pace while they heal. A slow pace will give advantage to survival or perception checks to find or follow a trail and to keep a lookout, as well as the option to make stealth checks to be unseen
  
  
• Normal. This is the pace for when you aren't in any particular rush, but don't have any reason to take precautions. Well suited for long journeys where supplies aren't an issue and enemies aren't expected to be an issue.
  
  
• Fast. When you are in a hurry to get somewhere, a Fast pace is well suited. Perhaps there is a timely message that must reach its recipient soon. Maybe there is a group of bandits following you that you would prefer not to let catch up. A Fast pace will give disadvantage to survival or perception checks involved with tracking or keeping lookout on the road and -5 to Passive perception.
  
  
• Grueling. Sometimes a destination must be reached with the utmost urgency. There will be an imminent attack on a key defensive fort. Unless a medicine is brought to the sick person in time, they will almost certainly die. News of an assassin must be brought to the Duke before the attack tonight. In such circumstances, all else must be put aside to allow for speed. In addition to the drawbacks of a Fast pace, those travelling at a Grueling pace must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or only be able to maintain the pace for half the day, the rest of the day must be at Normal or Slow pace. Additionally, failing the saving throw incurs a level of Exhaustion that doesn't go away until a full day is spent at a Fast or slower pace. The DC increases by 1 for each consecutive day that is spent at a Grueling pace.

On Foot:

"It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to."
-Bilbo Baggins

• Slow: 18 miles per day
• Normal: 24 miles per day
• Fast: 30 miles per day
• Grueling: 36 miles per day

Mounted:

“A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!”
-Shakespeare's Richard III

Living mounts are as varied in their fitness as people. But assuming a competent rider and a reasonably fit mount, the following paces will suffice. More expensive and well-bred mounts can exceed these distances, but they require more specialized care: you don't put regular gas in a Ferrari and you don't give a fine horse just any old oats.

• Slow: 20 miles per day
• Normal: 30 miles per day
• Fast: 40 miles per day
• Grueling: 50 miles per day
  • For living mounts, if the rider is proficient in animal handling or succeeds on a DC 15 animal handling check, the mount will gain advantage on its Constitution Saving Throw to maintain the pace. Be cautious, an unskilled or unknowledgeable rider can ride a horse to death in a day.

Land Vehicles:

The King in a carriage may ride,
And the Beggar may crawl at his side;
But in the general race,
They are traveling all the same pace.
-Edward Fitzgerald

Carts, Wagons, Carriages and the like are made for different purposes and breaking out how fast each can travel would be tedious and largely useless. These paces assume that there are enough animals to pull the vehicle and that they can move sufficiently fast (an ox isn't going 35 miles in a day no matter how nicely you ask it).
  In general, a Grueling pace is not possible with normal driving animals. A Fast pace requires them to make a DC 10 Constitution Save at the end of the day or only be able to go at a Slow pace the following day. A driver who is proficient in Animal Handling can bypass this requirement.

• Slow: 20 miles per day
• Normal: 25 miles per day
• Fast: 30 miles per day

Watercraft:

A ship in port is safe, but that's not what ships are built for.
-Grace Hopper

  With watercraft, the pace is largely dependent on conditions and the type of vessel, and the crew. For simplicity's sake Normal pace is given, though greater speed may be possible.

 

• Riverboat: 20 miles per day. Faster or slower depending on current direction
• Sailing Ship: up to 40-80 miles per day with favorable conditions
• Longship: up to 60 miles per day with favorable conditions