SUFFOCATION, DEHYDRATION, AND STARVATION

In this article, I have hammered out a few simple rules one might employ to cover those instances when Suffocation (lack of air), Dehydration (lack of water), or Starvation (lack of food) might come into play.

These rules may be used in 1e and 2e AD&D games, or the alternate set may be employed in 3e D&D games.

Though normally having enough air, water, and/or food is not a problem for most adventurers, there might arise occasions when it is of concern.

The basic idea, once such a shortage occurs, will be to deplete one or more of a character's STAT scores. Rates are given for this, and accompanying effects are described.

LOSS OF STATs

As one's STATs dwindle, remember that skill rolls based on those STATs may be affected. Any bonuses for high STAT scores, for example, will probably have to be recalculated as they lose those bonuses. If the STATs drop low enough, you may even have to account for penalties.

It should, therefore, be obvious to all that loss of STAT points, even when only temporary, is a serious business. Fighters may not be able to use heavy armor, shields, or weapons - wizards, clerics and other spell casters may not be able to cast their higher level spells, and a host of other effects may be possible. When in doubt, ask your GM.

In particular, loss of CON may result in the deprivation of normal hit dice bonuses. When lost, treat those vanishing hit points as subdual damage. Naturally, if one's PC drops to 0 HPs, the normal consequences follow (death for some games, unconsciousness for others).

In general, the rules have been changed to adopt the notion that any STAT at 3 points has such overall negative effects on one's entire body that one begins to experience problems beyond the simple -4 penalty for that STAT alone. Hallucinations for loss of CON, INT, or WIS, are possible, while loss of STR or DEX may make it difficult to even move. Ask your GM what form any hallucinations may take.

Each day one is suffering from a STAT at 3, they must make a WILL save. Failure to do so indicates they lack the drive necessary to do anything for themselves, and they will spend that entire day doing nothing apart from sleeping or resting, almost as if they have lost any interest in the activities that may or may not surround them. They may receive aid if others are there to administer it, of course. On the next day, if the STAT is still at 3, they may roll again, perhaps this time finding the will to go on - if they make their WILL save.

NOTE: Although one may make their WILL save and continue to do things that day, hallucinations may or may not occur during this day. The GM will determine this. However, a subsequent and successful WILL save will negate any effect, the character realizing they are merely hallucinating, and therefore they are able to ignore the hallucination.

STATs dropping to 2 or less will generally cause such system wide failure as to cause unconsciousness for such losses in INT, WIS, CON, or CHA, or cause immobility when such losses happen to STR or DEX.

Should any one or more of the STATs of CON, INT, or WIS degrade or drop to 0 or less, the character dies. If STR or DEX drop to 0, no further penalty is incurred beyond the fact they are already immobile. Do not, however, continue to degrade those STATs below 0. They simply remain at 0 unless or until death comes, or resources are restored.

NOTE: It is assumed if any spells or curses or other similar effects used to say a STAT was dropped to 1 or 2, these should be rewritten to drop such STATs to 3 or 4. But the GM will have to use their own judgment.

SUFFOCATION

Suffocation may result from being immersed in a liquid, a pocket of unbreathable gas, or being smothered (by some monster, a cave-in, etc.), as well as other possibilities. It's pretty much self-explanatory. Suffocation due to immersion in poison or lava, you may note, is not generally an issue, since loss of HPs for actual immersion in such mediums will likely kill long before suffocation takes them.

Lack of air (suffocation and/or asphyxiation) must be solved immediately, or death will follow within minutes. It doesn't matter how many hit points one's PC may have - they still need air - barring magical means to negate this need, of course.

Once deprived of air (or oxygen), a character's CON score begins to dwindle, spiraling down toward zero. But how fast? Good question.

NOTE: Just being closed off in a small space does not necessarily mean one is deprived of oxygen right away - it may take some time for lethal amounts of CO₂ to build up. As a rough rule of thumb, each adult character needs about 10 x 10 x 10 (or 1,000 cubic feet) of air per day. Once that supply is used up, you may begin to use the rules below.

If you'd like to read more about suffocation, follow the link below:

A Very Quick Look At Suffocation In Enclosed Spaces (How Long Can Your Character Survive Without Air?)

1e and 2e systems:

Let M = CON/3 (round up). This represents how long a character may go without air in the 1e and 2e systems (i.e. roughly how many minutes or how many 1-minute rounds). As you can see, those with higher CON scores may normally hold their breath longer. Swimmers have greater breath control and may last a little longer, so if they have the NWP of "SWIM" then add 1 to M. M = M + 1.

Now, while some may actually hold their breath much longer in real life, we'll just assume this will suffice for all adventurers (unless given special GM disposition beforehand wherein they grant a PC longer than average ability to hold one's breath.)

Let L = CON/M (round down). This represents how many CON points a character will Lose each round when without air (and also how many points return each round once air is regained).

3e system:

On the 3rd, 6th, 9th, 12th, etc. rounds (those rounds evenly divisible by 3) the character loses 1 point of CON. For those with the skill, "SWIM", start the loss at the 12th round, skipping the 3rd through 9th.

1e, 2e EXAMPLE: Jepper's CON is 16. M = 16/3 = 5.333 (round up) = 6. He is a swimmer, so now M = 6+1 = 7. Thus, Jepper can normally hold his breath about 7 minutes. L = 16/7 = 2.28 round down = 2. Jepper will therefore lose 2 CON points each round (in 2e).

3e EXAMPLE: On the 12th round, and each subsequent round evenly divisible by 3, Jepper loses 1 CON point. That's about 51 (6 second rounds) or about 5.1 minutes, he can be expected to last.

NOTE: True, these are not in perfect agreement, but they're close enough for most. If the GM wishes, however, they may start to subtract CON later than the 12th round to suit their purposes.

DEHYDRATION

Not as immediately serious as a lack of air, dehydration, or a lack of water, can also kill. The question is, 'How quickly?' Also, how might one's skills degrade due to lack of water?

For your average Joe, dehydration can kill in about 3 days' time. For our purposes, we'll assume most adventurers are a little tougher. Depending on variables such as temperature and activity, each character needs about 5 to 16 pints of water per day. Wine, milk, and other foods may have such high water content as to lessen the required quantity of water, but for our purposes here, we'll assume one is lacking in water altogether.

1e, 2e, and 3e systems:

Let M = CON/3 (round up). This represents how long a character may go without water in the 1e and 2e systems (i.e. roughly how many days). As you can see, those with higher CON scores may normally go without water a little longer.

Let L = CON/M (round down). This represents how many CON points a character will Lose each day, or each 24 hours, when without water (and also how many points return each full 24 hours once water is regained).

Drinking salt water or contaminated water will not only fail to help, but hasten the CON loss. A character loses double the normal CON points each day after drinking bad water. (L = 2 x L). If they continue to imbibe bad water, the rate may increase further - triple or quadruple the original rate.

NOTE: In a pinch, one may mix fresh water with salt water to extend one's water supply. Mixing approximately 3 parts fresh water to 1 part salt water will produce water that is "Fresh Enough" to still drink. This assumes normal sea water that is free of other deadly contaminants, and, of course, excludes bodies of water with extremely high levels of salt, such as from a "Dead Sea".

NOTE: Finding and drinking a little water, but well below one's normal daily requirement, may prevent the further loss of CON points for THAT day. The body may not heal during such times, so no HPs are regained from normal healing. Magical healing is still possible. And, of course, no STAT points may be regained without ample water supplies. One may consume half or even quarter rations, of course. As you may have guessed, careful rationing of limited water supplies may hold one at current STAT levels without further loss - but eventually, should the water supply drop below that level, STAT loss will resume. At half rations, there will be no loss of STATs, but also no natural healing. At quarter rations, lose L STAT points every other day instead of every day. Any less, and STAT loss will occur at the rates given above.

ALL skills (and not just CON based skills) are performed increasingly badly as one's CON due to dehydration continues to dwindle. Each 5 CON points lost, or fraction thereof, is called an increment. 1e and 2e skills incur a 5% penalty (or -1) for each increment lost. For 3e, each skill roll is at -1 for each increment lost. Saving throws are similarly affected for each increment lost. Rolls to hit are also degraded, so each attack is at -1 to hit for each increment lost.

Skills, saves, and rolls to hit return at the same rate they were lost once one obtains a clean source of water.

EXAMPLE: Jepper's CON is 16. M = 16/3 (round up) = 6. Jepper is twice as tough as most normal men. L = 16/6 (round down) = 2. After a full day without water, Jepper is thirsty and loses 2 points (L) of CON. His skills, saves, and rolls to hit are at -1. After the second day, he loses 2 more points of CON. After the 3rd day, he loses 2 more CON points. (That's a total loss of 6, so another increment), and Jepper's skills, saves, and to hit rolls are now at -2. After the 4th day, he loses 2 more. If this goes on much longer, Jepper will probably die.

STARVATION

Not as immediately serious as a lack of water, starvation, or a lack of food, can also kill. Again, the question is, 'How quickly?' Also, how might one's skills degrade due to lack of food?

For your average Joe, starvation can kill in under a months' time (yeah, this is a gross estimation, but we'll go with it). For our purposes, since characters will effectively be useless long before that, death may take them a bit sooner - approximately a number of days equal to their CON score. However, long before death sets in, one's skills, strength, speed, coordination, and stamina will seriously be affected.

Overweight characters, sadly, may linger longer, but they suffer penalties as quickly as their leaner brethren. For the overweight characters, once their CON reaches 3, hold it there for 1 extra day per 10 lbs the character is overweight. Eventually, however, death will take such individuals as well.

1e, 2e, and 3e systems:

For each day (after the 2nd) one goes without food, subtract 1 point each from CON, STR, and DEX.

Once a reasonable amount of food can be consumed again, these points return at twice the rate they were lost - i.e. 2 points/day each.

Here, an increment is each loss of 3 points, or fraction thereof. That is, for every 3 points of any one STAT lost, or fraction thereof, all skill rolls, saving throws, and rolls to hit suffer a -1 penalty (or 5% drop in 1e and 2e).

NOTE: Remember that bonuses from these STATs will be lost (STR, CON, or DEX bonuses) as they degrade, so should a character attempt to do anything while suffering from starvation, remember to deprive them of those bonuses.

NOTE: One may consume half rations of food and prevent further loss of STATs for THOSE days. No points will be restored, and no natural healing will occur, however, until an adequate food supply is reestablished. Any less food than half rations, and STATs dwindle as described above.

EXAMPLE: Jepper's CON is 16, his STR is 12, and his DEX is 14. He's been without food for 2 days now. At the end of the second day, his CON is 15, his STR is 11, and his DEX is 13. His skills, saves, and rolls to hit are at -1. Another day passes without substantial food, so his CON is now 14, STR is 10, and DEX is 12. At the end of the 4th day, we find CON at 13, STR at 9, and DEX at 11. The 5th day comes and goes, and still no food. CON 12, STR 8, and DEX 10. His skill rolls, saves, and rolls to hit are now at -2. He is getting weaker.

This famine continues for Jepper until the 10th day when his CON is 7, his STR is 3, and his DEX is 5. His strength gone, he only wants to curl up and die somewhere (and all rolls are at -3). Perhaps a WILL save will drive him forward? Let's assume he makes this roll (even at -3) and he goes on for another day. Alas, still no food. His STR now at 2, Jepper cannot move. Since no one discovers him, he continues to lie there losing STR, CON, and DEX points each day. STR and DEX, though they effect him while active, do not kill when they reach 0. Once they reach 0, just quit subtracting the STR and/or DEX STATs. However, continue to degrade CON, and when CON reaches 0, the character dies.

Jepper would have continued to lie there, unaided, for another 6 days until death took him due to starvation. However, when he was unable to move, he also stopped drinking, and dehydration and starvation together finished him in just over 2 more days. Remember, these effects are cumulative with one another - i.e. one can lose STAT points due to dehydration and STAT points due to starvation on the same day. Technically, suffocation may also contribute, but suffocation is so fast compared to the others, one rarely would die from all three factors.

FINAL NOTES

Of course, common sense should always prevail. Other factors may hasten one's demise, or stave it off for a few more days. Make your appeals to your GM's sensibilities if you feel your character has some mitigating factors.

While it's not particularly fun to constantly try to kill PCs through asphyxiation, dehydration, or starvation, when unusual circumstances warrant it, it's nice to have some rules to cover that ground. Hopefully, these will suffice.

If you find them wanting, or have some comment for me to improve them, please drop me a line. Thanks.

Email Jim Your Comments (Send Praises, Critiques, Complaints, Suggestions, Ideas, Corrections, or Submissions).