The New 2024 DnD Exhaustion Rule Explained
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In the game of Dungeons & Dragons, characters can do almost anything players can imagine. Yet sometimes even the mightiest adventurer needs to kick back and take a break from the daily dungeon grind. Which is why the concept of Exhaustion has been around as a rule almost as long as the game has existed.
In DnD 5e, Exhaustion also been a much maligned and often misunderstood rule, with both players and Dungeon Masters often ignoring it completely. Fortunately, that’s an issue that Wizards of the Coast is attempting to address in the new 2024 Player’s Handbook, which introduces a new Exhaustion rule that’s designed to be easier to use and less punishing for players.
So just how does Exhaustion work in the new DnD 2024 rules? Below, we muster up all our strength to find out.
How did Exhaustion work in the 2014 DnD 5e rules?
In the 2014 DnD 5e rules, Exhaustion was a condition that was triggered by certain effects (such as starvation), environmental situations (such as freezing temperatures) and spells (such as Sickening Radiance). It could also potentially be achieved in a few other ways, such as poisons or cursed magic items, although notably there were very few monsters in the 2014 rules (both officially and third-party) which deliberately caused Exhaustion.
Exhaustion itself was measured in six levels, each of which had a certain effect that stacked cumulatively on top of one another until level 6, at which point a creature suffering from Exhaustion would die. The breakout was follows:
| Exhaustion Level | Effect |
|---|---|
| 1 | Disadvantage on ability checks |
| 2 | Speed halved |
| 3 | Disadvantage on attack rolls and saving throws |
| 4 | Hit point maximum halved |
| 5 | Speed reduced to 0 |
| 6 | Death |
Creatures could receive new levels of exhaustion (for example, being caught in a blizzard could bump a player from Level 3 to Level 4) and taking a Long Rest with food and drink removed just 1 level of exhaustion. When your exhaustion reached Level 0, the condition ended.
The problem with the Exhaustion rule for many DnD 5e fans, however, was that it was seen as being overly harsh, unnecessarily complicated and something that could slow down the game and discourage risk taking among players.
How does the new 2024 DnD Exhaustion rule work?
The new DnD 5e Exhaustion rule featured in the 2024 Core Rules functions much the same as the 2014 version. It’s a condition that’s broken out into 6 cumulative levels (with Level 6 being death). Each Long Rest removes 1 Level of Exhaustion, with the condition removed only when you reach Level 0.
However, rather than having a different effect for each level of Exhaustion, the 2024 rule now function as follows:
D20 Tests Affected: When you make a D20 Test, the roll is reduced by 2x your Exhaustion level. For example, if your character has Level 3 exhaustion, any D20 Tests would be reduced by -6.
Speed Reduced: Your Speed is reduced by a number of feet equal to 5x your Exhaustion level. For example, if you have Level 4 exhaustion, your Speed would be reduced by -20 feet.
Notably, the new 2024 DnD character sheet does not have ways to mark Exhaustion levels, so it’s up to both players and Dungeon Masters to keep track of this.
Final Thoughts
Exhaustion has long been considered and overly punishing and unnecessarily complicated rule in DnD 5e. With the 2024 rules, Wizards of the Coast has made the system easier to use and more palatable to players. That being said, some fans have criticized the new rule, pointing out that it still does have the potential to slow the game down, particularly in terms of allowing only one level of Exhaustion to be removed per Long Rest. One house rule we’ve been experimenting with using the new rules is having 1 Long Rest remove all Levels 1-3 exhaustion and 2 Long Rests removing Levels 4-6 of exhaustion.
In the meantime, it’ll be interesting to see how the rest of the community responds to the new mechanic. Because if there’s one thing that never exhausts DnD fans, it’s arguing about rules.
You can find the complete breakdown of Exhaustion in the 2024 Player’s Handbook, which is available now on D&D Beyond and Amazon.
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Cameron Nichols is a Senior Editor who lives in Boston, Massachusetts, and has been playing D&D since the early 90s, when he was introduced by his older brother and cut his teeth on AD&D 2nd Edition. Since then he’s played virtually every RPG he could get his nerdy little mitts on (including a weird Goth phase in the early 2000s when he rocked Vampire: The Masquerade pretty hard). His favorite D&D campaign setting is the Forgotten Realms and his favorite character to play was a Half-Orc Barbarian named Grug (who was unfortunately devoured by a gelatinous cube).
