Downtime is one of the less appreciated additions of the Tales of the Valiant RPG to the 5E space. Downtime creates a playtested, workable, fun system for your character to have a life when they’re not going down holes in the ground. The Player’s Guide contains five common downtime activities, including researching, training, and the ever-popular carousing.
But there’s no way that list is exhaustive. Here is a new downtime activity for you to gather your rosebuds while you may.
GATHERING RESOURCES
You can spend downtime gathering reagents for alchemy or herbalism, components for spellcasting, and/or sourcing rare or hard to find materials, such as adamantine or mithral. Â
Time. A PC’s progress toward gathering resources is measured in weeks of downtime. The Time to Source column in the Resources Resolution tables shows how long it takes to source enough of a material to make one item (i.e., one suit of armor, one weapon, etc.). A PC doesn’t need to work consecutive days or weeks to make progress in their search, but the GM might rule they need to start over if long periods of time pass without resuming work on the same search.
Resources Resolution (Armor) & Resources Resolution (Weapon). At the end of each week searching for materials, a PC makes an ability check associated with the material they’re seeking, as noted on the appropriate table. To successfully source enough material to craft one weapon or suit of armor with the specified material, a PC must achieve a number of successes. If a PC fails to do so, they are unable to find enough material to craft one item. However, their efforts are not wasted. A PC can resume their search at a later date and spend the Time to Source again, starting with the same number of successes they achieved from previous attempts at sourcing that same material. Once a PC successfully gathers the desired resource, their number of successes resets to zero. A PC with the Eye for Quality feature (from the stone heritage or a similar feature at GM’s discretion) can apply that benefit to their resolution roll if they are sourcing a material without the Natural Materials or Non-metal properties.
| RESUMING A SEARCH EXAMPLE Vandryn spends 15 weeks of downtime sourcing dragon scales for a suit of armor. She needs 15 success, but the check result required is hard! She succeeds on only 6 of them. She fails to source enough material in those 15 weeks. After some more adventuring, Vandryn then spends another 15 weeks of downtime sourcing dragon scales to fulfill the minimum time to source. Since she had 6 successes from her previous attempt, she now needs 11 more successes to find enough dragon scales to craft their armor. |
Note: The GM can rule that certain materials can only be acquired via quests or roleplay (see Quests for Magic Materials and Monster Harvesting in Chapter 7 of Game Master’s Guide). This can modify the amount of time and successes required to source material.
RESOURCES RESOLUTION (ARMOR)
| ARMOR MATERIAL | ABILITY CHECK | CHECK RESULT REQUIRED | SUCCESSES REQUIRED | TIME TO SOURCE | TIME TO CRAFTÂ | COST TO COMMISSION (+ base cost of armor/shield) | PROPERTIES |
| Adamantine | INT or WIS (Smithing Tools) | 16–20 | 1 | 2 workweeks | 1 workweek | 500 gp | Rare |
| Dragon Bone or Dragon Scales | INT or WIS (Arcana, Nature, or Survival) | 21+ | 15 | 30 workweeks (armor); 15 workweeks (shield) | 30 workweeks (armor); 15 workweeks (shield) | 5,000 gp (armor); 2,500 gp (shield) | Very Rare, Mastercraft, Natural Materials |
| Mithral | INT or WIS (Smithing Tools) | 16–20 | 2 | 3 workweeks | 3 workweeks | 500 gp | Rare, Mastercraft |
| Silvered | INT or WIS (Smithing Tools) | 11–15 | 1 | 1 workweek (armor or shield) | 1 workweek (armor or shield) | 250 gp (armor), 50 gp (shield) | — |
RESOURCES RESOLUTION (WEAPON)
| WEAPON MATERIAL | ABILITY CHECK | CHECK RESULT REQUIRED | SUCCESSES REQUIRED | TIME TO SOURCE | TIME TO CRAFT | COST TO COMMISSION (+ base cost of weapon) | PROPERTIES |
| Adamantine | INT or WIS (Smithing Tools) | 16–20 | 1 | 1 workweek | 1 workweek | 250 gp | Rare |
| Dragon Bone | INT or WIS (Arcana, Nature, or Survival) | 21+ | 8 | 15 workweeks | 15 workweeks | 2,500 gp | Very Rare, Mastercraft, Non-metal |
| Grimwood | INT or WIS (Nature or Survival) | 21+ | 15 | 30 workweeks | 10 workweeks | 2,500 gp | Very Rare, Non-metal |
| Mithral | INT or WIS (Smithing Tools) | 16–20 | 1 | 2 workweeks | 2 workweeks | 250 gp | Rare, Mastercraft |
| Obsidian* | INT or WIS (Nature or Survival) | 11–15 | 1 | 1 workweek | 1 workweek | 500 gp | Non-metal |
| Silvered | INT or WIS (Smithing Tools) | 11–15 | 1 | 1 workweek | 1 workweek | 50 gp | – |
| Star Forged | INT or WIS (Smithing Tools) | 16–20 | 2 | 3 workweeks | 3 workweeks | 500 gp | Rare, Mastercraft |
| * For regions where obsidian weapons are rare, such as any location where steel is common. | |||||||
Resources (Reagents) Resolution. At the end of each week spent searching for reagents or spell components, a PC makes an INT (Alchemist Tools, Arcana, or History), WIS (Herbalist Tools, Nature, or Survival) check, or a similarly relevant ability check. Your check result determines the amount of materials you source, as indicated in the Resources (Reagents) Resolution table.
RESOURCES RESOLUTION (REAGENTS)
| CHECK RESULT | AMOUNT SOURCED | TIME TO SOURCE | RESOLUTION |
| 1–10 | 0 gp | 1 workweek | You can’t find the reagents or spell components you were looking for. |
| 11–15 | 100 gp | 1 workweek | You locate 100 gp of alchemical, herbalism reagents, or consumable spell components; or you locate one non-consumable component worth up to 100 gp. |
| 16–20 | 200 gp | 1 workweek | You locate 200 gp of alchemical, herbalism reagents, or consumable spell components; or you locate one non-consumable component worth up to 200 gp. |
| 21-25 | 300 gp | 1 workweek | You locate 300 gp of alchemical, herbalism reagents, or consumable spell components; or you locate one non-consumable component worth up to 300 gp. |
| 26-30 | 400 gp | 1 workweek | You locate 400 gp of alchemical, herbalism reagents, or consumable spell components; or you locate one non-consumable component worth up to 400 gp. |
| 31+ | 500 gp* | 1 workweek | You locate 500 gp of alchemical, herbalism reagents, or consumable spell components; or you locate one non-consumable component worth up to 500 gp. |
| * If a PC is searching for a singular spell component that costs more than 500 gp, they can spend additional workweeks sourcing it, adding the Amount Sourced to the total until they have enough to cover the cost of the component. | |||