Fatigue is the common enemy of all adventurers.

Adventuring is physically taxing. Running, marching, climbing, swimming, riding, spellcasting, fighting—all of these take a toll on a person and degrade their ability to function.

As with all rules in AD&D, these are meant to be an abstraction and not a perfect representation of how fatigue affects a body; and are intentionally skewed towards keeping combat encounters short and favoring the defenders.

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Fatigue Points:

To simulate the press of time, a character has a number of Fatigue Points. These are lost gradually over time, and more quickly when a character is fighting or engaged in other strenuous activity.

A character’s base Fatigue points are equal to the sum of their Stamina and Willpower scores, plus their base Attack Bonus (as more skilled combatants learn to conserve their energy and extend battles even when wearing heavy protective gear).

Certain classes, kits, or homelands may also grant bonuses to the character’s Fatigue Points.

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Losing Fatigue Points

A character loses fatigue points in the following ways:

• 1 point per hour of normal activity (sitting, walking, basic tradework, etc).¹
• 1 or more points per hour spent moving at a normal pace through unfavorable terrain (wading, trudging through deep mud, up steep slopes, etc). The amount lost is determined by the character’s level of Encumbrance.¹
• 2 or more points per hour spent engaged in any kind of accelerated or intense movement (forced marching, running, swimming, riding a horse at anything faster than a trot, etc). The amount lost is double the amount determined by the character’s level of Encumbrance (i.e. 2 per hour if unencumbered or lightly encumbered).¹
• 1 or more points per round spent in combat (excluding the Surprise round, if any). The amount lost is determined by the character’s level of Encumbrance. Certain actions can modify the amount of Fatigue Points you or your opponent lose.
  • Casting spells or channeling psionic energies while under duress and heavily encumbered are just as taxing on a body as engaging in intense melee or drawing a heavy bow.
• 1 point every time the character takes a Critical Hit, due to the increased strain on his body, even if that Critical Hit does not result in an injury.
• 1 point every time the character attempts a Feat of Strength (regardless of whether the feat was successful).
• Some spells and magical effects can also drain a character’s Fatigue Points. Notable examples include:
  • Ray of Fatigue: Removes ¼ of the target’s total Fatigue Points (effectively shifting him down 1 category).

¹ A character with the Endurance proficiency loses fatigue points at the rate of 1 every 2 hours when engaged in normal activity (this does not require a check). A successful Endurance proficiency check halves the amount of fatigue points lost due to strenuous activity or difficult terrain.

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Recovering Fatigue Points:

Rest: A character’s Fatigue Points a fully refreshed by sleeping for 8 hours (or ¼ of their total per 2 hours of sleep if their sleep has been interrupted). Any effect that duplicates natural sleep (such as a Nap spell) will restore a commensurate number of Fatigue Points.

Magical Healing: Any magical healing applied to a character will also restore a number of Fatigue Points equal to the spell’s level (effects that do not have a spell level associated with them restore 1 Fatigue Point). Certain spells (such as Dispel Fatigue) can also restore a character’s Fatigue Points.

Magical Sleep: A target afflicted with magical Sleep (such as a Sleep spell) will recover Fatigue Points at the rate of 1 per round while the magical sleep lasts.

Second Wind: At the end of any Combat Encounter, a character automatically recovers a number of Fatigue Points equal to the base hit die of your class (i.e. d4 for Wizards, d12 for Barbarians), plus the Hit Point adjustment from his Fitness score (minimum 0). As the worst effects of such intense but short-duration exertions can often be “walked off”.

Multi-class characters use the highest hit-die from their various classes for determining their fatigue recovery from second wind.

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Special Combat Options:

These are in addition to the standard Combat Maneuvers.

• Take a Breather: Your character takes no actions this round, taking a step back from the melee to pause and catch their breath. You do not lose Fatigue Points this round. If you are not attacked before the end of the round, you also recover 1d3 Fatigue Points.
• Give Ground: You take a defensive posture and slowly back away from your opponent, making no attacks, trusting them to wear themselves out. You do not lose Fatigue Points this round. Any opponent in melee is forced to lunge and chase you to attack, and loses double the normal number of Fatigue Points this round. If you do not have at least 10 feet of space behind you, this maneuver fails and both you and your opponent take a normal amount of Fatigue loss.
• Hunker Down: You tuck in your limbs, presenting as small a target as possible, and hide behind a shield, making no attacks. Your AC increases by 2 this round. Any opponent that successfully hits you with a melee attack this round loses an additional number of Fatigue Points equal to the AC bonus provided by your shield (1 point for a small shield, 2 points for a medium shield, 4 points for a body shield).

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Effects of Fatigue Point Loss

The effects of growing fatigue are clearly visible to opponents: beading sweat, slumping posture, labored breath, slower movements, etc.

Fatigue Level	Effects
Max Fatigue Points	The character performs at maximum efficiency (no penalties). The character is unable to sleep and gains no benefits from resting or from Nap spells.
=/< ¾ Fatigue Points	The character suffers a -1 penalty to their AC, to all Proficiency scores, and to all Attack rolls and saving throws.
=/< ½ Fatigue Points	The character suffers a -2 penalty to their AC, to all Proficiency scores, to all Psionic Power Scores, to all Attack rolls and Saving Throws, to Morale, and to their base Movement Rate (minimum 1). The character is treated as 1HD less for the purpose of determining how they are affected by Sleep and similar magics.
=/< ¼ Fatigue Points	The character suffers a -4 penalty to their AC, to all Proficiency scores, to all Psionic Power Scores, to all Attack rolls and saving throws, to Morale, and to their base Movement Rate (minimum 1). The character is treated as 2HD less for the purpose of determining how they are affected by Sleep and similar magics.