Challenges of Faith

A Challenge of Faith (COF) is a moral or ethical question posed to the player of a cleric, and the players around the table anonymously vote on how good or bad their response was.

• A COF is a question or a statement that the Cleric player must respond to.
  

• A successful WIS Saving Throw performed by the Cleric player wins the COF.
  

• For an individual COF, the DC could be set manually.
• Successively, I'd use an increasing DC. Example: there is a DC8 calibration floor for question 0; the DC increments by 2 for every question thereafter; the questions get progressively tougher to answer.
• There is a score-based vote taken from the rest of the players that becomes a modifier to the Cleric's WIS Saving Throw.

• Players around the gaming table are asked to anonymously score the cleric’s response to each COF 1-5. The scores are totaled and an average (rounding down) is taken as a bonus to the cleric’s die roll. 
• Voting is performed to take the pulse of a moral/ethical response from other players around the table, and to influence the die roll.

• Mechanics:
  

• The COF is presented to the cleric.
  
• The cleric responds verbally to the COF.
  
• The vote is taken from the other players; the scores averaged; the bonus calculated.
  
• The player rolls against DC-x. The voting bonus is added to the roll.
  
• If the player makes the DC check, they win the COF.
• If the player fails the DC check, they lose the COF.
• A cumulative point system could be used with successive COF's, to meet some larger numerical threshold. Example: 1d10 points awarded per COF, 10 COF's, with a success threshold of 50 accumulated points.
• Succeeding at the the Challenges of Faith earns the PC some XP.

D&D 5E Optional Rules on Heat and Exhaustion

Borrowed shamelessly from the D&D Wiki on Heat Dangers and adapted for 5E:

HEAT DANGERS

Heat deals nonlethal damage that cannot be recovered until the character gets cooled off (reaches shade, survives until nightfall, gets doused in water, is targeted by endure elements, and so forth, and spends at least a Short Rest out of direct heat), as measured by Exhaustion Counters (PH 291).

• A character in very hot conditions  (above 90° F) must make a CON Saving Throw each hour in direct heat (DC 15, +1 Cumulated since last check) or suffer +1 level of Exhaustion.

• A character in severe heat (above 110° F) must make a CON save once every 10 minutes in direct heat (DC 15, +1 for each cumulative check) or suffer +1 level of Exhaustion.

• A character in lethal heat  (above 140° F, Fire, Lava, Boiling Water) takes physical damage, 1d6 per minute (no save).

Saving Throw Modifiers:

1. Characters wearing heavy clothing or armor of any sort take -2 penalty to their saves.

2. Characters with Survival Skill may receive their skill bonus on the Saving Throw.


THIRST

A character must have 1 gallon of water per day. If they don't, they suffer +1 Level of Exhaustion from dehydration.

Water skins are 5lbs full (PH 150) and contain 4 PTS of water (PH 153). 8 PTS make 1 gallon.

SANDSTORMS

Sandstorms are a heavily obscured area (PH 183), and characters suffer from the blinded condition.

Training Using Optional Rules

D&D 5E has an optional training rule in the DMG 131 that requires player characters to spend downtime training or studying before they gain the benefits of a new level.

Once the PC gains enough experience to attain a new level, they must train for a number of days before gaining any class features associated with that level.

Upon clearing the experience thresholds, the PC does receive their HP bonus without requiring training.

As a house rule, I've inserted a row from 0-1st for accommodating multi-classed characters.

The table:

Level Attained,Training Time,Training Cost

0-1st, 5 Days, 10 GP
2nd-4th, 10 Days, 20 GP
5th-10th, 20 Days, 40 GP
11th-16th, 30 Days, 60 GP
17th-20th, 40 Days, 80 GP

Training time and money is cumulative. 

In my opinion, player characters shouldn't just reach some magical number in the middle of an adventure and suddenly have access to new class features. Instead they have to receive training for them.

Experience Without Training

So, under this system, it's conceivable, for example, that a Level 6 PC may only be trained to Level 4, until which time they receive training.

Still, I believe that player characters become tougher, more agile, more buff, through experience. Thus once reaching suitable experience, PC's should receive their hit dice/HP increase, ability score increases, and spell slots even without training.  It's just new class features that should be awarded following formal training.

Training Others

I've always maintained that a PC/NPC at least two levels higher in the same class could train.

Example: a 3rd level cleric could train anybody to be a 1st level cleric; a 4th level Fighter could train a 2nd level Fighter.

However, classes start to specialize around the 2nd and 3rd level. In order to advance into those more specialized fields, I believe that they need to be trained by a PC/NPC of the same specialization.

Thus they must seek someone willing to train them with the requisite +2 levels and same specialization. Only a Fighter (Battle Master) can train a Fighter (Battle Master); only a Cleric of the Light Domain can train a Cleric of the Light Domain, etc.


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Crafting Arrows in D&D 5E

It turns out that D&D 5E leaves a lot of situations open to interpretation.

One of those situations are rules covering the crafting of arrows in the wilds by a player character.

A fletcher may either be a Skilled Artisan or Unskilled Craftsman.

A Skilled Artisan is a player character with a Proficiency in Woodcarving, Cooper, or Bowyer; an Unskilled Craftsman is a player character that doesn't have the required Proficiency but has a reasonable background or ability that would allow them to craft arrows.

A reasonable background or ability would be defined by the player and DM; example: a Ranger with an Outlander Background may have a reasonable talent for crafting arrows having survived in the wild. It's entirely up to the player to convince the DM that their character would be an unskilled craftsman.

Skilled Artisan

• An Artisan may have a background of a Guild Artisan or have a relevant Proficiency (PH 132).
  
  
• Such Proficiencies would be a Woodcarver, Cooper, or Bowyer (PH 132).
  
  
• It's presumed this PC would have the appropriate Artisan Tools (Woodcarver Tools) (PH 154).
  
  
• Use of the Artisan Tools lets the PC add their Proficiency Bonus to ability checks (PH 154).
  
  
• With suitable materials, the Skilled Artisan can craft up to 5 GP of non-magical finished goods in a work day (presumed 8 hours) as a downtime activity (PH 187).
  
  
• A quiver of 20 arrows costs 1 GP (PH 150); the Skilled Artisan can craft up to 100 arrows in a day as a downtime activity with a successful DC 10 ability check (INT), adding their proficiency bonus (PH 154).

Unskilled Craftsman

• A Player Character with a reasonable background or ability relevant to crafting arrows.

• It's presumed that this PC doesn't have a Proficiency in Woodcarver, Cooper, or Bowyer.

• It's presumed that this PC wouldn't have the appropriate tools but is improvising.

• It's presumed that this PC can source/find suitable materials based on their surroundings.

• In a 24-hour period, the PC can spend 1 hour finding these materials and 3 hours to craft 1d10 arrows; these arrows receive a -1 attack mod; all contingent on a DC 10 INT check.

• On a failed check, the necessary supplies couldn't be found or the craftsmanship was simply too poor to be useful.

The reasoning here is that an Unskilled Craftsman could fashion 20-percent of the quantity a pro could. Also, the downtime it takes to make sub-par arrows provides a reasonable preference for purchasing arrows from a Skilled Artisan (a fletcher).

Obtaining the Proficiency

In downtime, player characters can spend time between adventures learning a new proficiency and training with a set of tools. The DM determines how long it takes and if ability checks are required; it takes 250 days and costs 1 GP per day (PH 187). In this case, the PC can learn the required proficiency and purchase the required tools.

Another way to acquire the proficiency is when the PC has an ability to acquire a Feat. The Skilled Feat allows the PC to gain a proficiency in any combination of three skills or tools of their choice (PH 170). A reminder here that Human PC's gain an extra Feat if Feat Rules are played.

If the character is a Bard, the Bardic ability in the College of Lore allows the PC to learn three more skills at third level (PH 54).

Finally, Bards, Rangers, and Rogues can multi-class to gain proficiencies.

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