I’m finally getting around to writing in detail about an idea I proposed over in Tribality, in my Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything breakdown. This is a mechanical framework for processes that don’t end when you reduce one or more targets to 0 hit points – maybe there’s also combat going on during this, maybe not. I’ve field-tested this in our Birthright campaign and in Aurikesh so far, with a ritual to heal a supernatural creature of a magical wound, and with a ritual to teach the Diviner a strange new skill.

At its root, you can think of this as lair actions that aren’t directed by any particular creature, but are randomly targeted, they change every round, and they build up to either a victory condition or a loss condition.

The Problem

What I’m trying to address here is the tendency of fights in games (this isn’t just a D&D problem) to just be a question of which side runs out of hit points first. Obviously we’ve had decades of campaigns where all the fights work that way, but “don’t make all combats about killing the enemy” is evergreen DMing advice. This is one among an enormous number of ways to handle that; it’s also fantastically versatile in its own right.

Story Time: Birthright

This is a cleaned-up version of a Twitter thread about a time I used the Unraveling Magic hazard as the mechanics behind a ritual. It’s okay to skip this.

In the story, the PCs (four 6th-level characters: paladin, cleric, bard, artificer) wanted to heal a wounded fey (a Daegandal garradalaigh, for BR fans) that was venting magical chaos everywhere, for reasons. So it’s a big ritual. The PCs describe actions and roll Arcana or Religion checks. For each success (DC 15), the lead caster rolls 1d10 to start. So 3d10 becomes 16.

On the fey’s initiative (conveniently the top of the round), they get the 16 effect from the d100 table. A monster also appears. I’m using a lightly modified Fluxcharger from Guildmaster’s Guide to Ravnica as, more or less, a manifestation of the wound in the mebhaigl (magic) of the fey and the province.

The cleric, bard, and artificer stayed on the ritual, while the paladin and his celestial giant spider mount (a find steed gone weird) peeled off to handle the Fluxcharger.

On the fey’s turn, the artificer rolls 1d10 (base) + 1d6 for resources the PCs have put into the ritual + 1d6 if they rolled a successful Arcana or Religion check after putting the resource in. On the first turn, this is a staggering 1d10 + 6d6. That 29 result gets added to the previous 16. The 45 effect from the d100 table goes off, and the PCs each roll a d10. High roll gets the effect.

Meanwhile, the Fluxcharger and the paladin get to wrecking each other’s faces.

Lather, rinse, repeat. A second Fluxcharger shows up when they cross the 50 mark. A Reverse Gravity effect sends the bard 100 feet into the air… out of range for almost all of his spells.

Fluxchargers kick out massive multi-target damage, and several of the characters are hurt pretty badly – most of the healing output is going directly into the ritual. The count rolls up from 93 to 125, well off the top of the chart.

I ask everyone but the artificer to deafen in Discord for a minute, as time seems to stop.

I inform the artificer that he can now cast one wish, within the next minute.

Then everyone un-deafens and the artificer, glowing with power, says, “REPAIR THE DAMAGE.” The fey is healed, the one remaining Fluxcharger is destroyed, and the bard is rescued safely. Then, because the ritual completed with 25 points to spare, the artificer gains a permanent +1 Intelligence.

So that’s about the whole of it. Tweaking dice values to alter pacing could be A Thing, but this wound up being just the right length of encounter for our needs.

Encounters

Getting a handle on everything that’s possible with this model is outside of the reasonable scope of a blog post. Instead, I’m going to present just one today, with good intentions of writing more if this model proves to be workable for DMs who aren’t me.

Healing the Dolorous Wound

Level 5+ challenge

A celestial, dragon, elemental, fey, giant, powerful humanoid, or sentient plant has suffered a wound that conventional magic has been unable to heal, and the heroes are motivated to help them. (Given motivation to help, this works fine for other creature types, but I think those are much less likely.)

This challenge uses the Unstable Magic hazard table (Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything).

The players designate one character as the lead ritual caster. The players describe their preparations for the healing ritual, and each character can roll their choice of Intelligence (Arcana), Intelligence (Religion), or Wisdom (Medicine) against DC 15. The lead caster rolls 1d10 per success on these ability checks; the total result is the initial effect on the hazard table. The current effect total is the initial effect plus the results of each round’s progress rolls.

On initiative count 20 (losing ties), the lead caster rolls 1d10 + any progress dice, adds them to the current effect total, and the table result of the current effect total takes place. For results that affect a single target, choose the target randomly among the characters, using the DM’s choice of the highest or lowest roll on a d10 or d20.

Progress

On each creature’s turn, resources they use might contribute to the ritual in addition to their normal effect. Spells that restore hit points or remove conditions contribute to this challenge. A paladin that spends 5 or more points out their Lay on Hands pool is also contributing a resource. Each character that contributes a resource adds 1d6 to the progress roll. They can also roll a DC 15 Intelligence (Arcana), Intelligence (Religion), or Wisdom (Medicine) check as part of that action or bonus action; on a success, they add an additional 1d6 to the progress roll.

Characters can also expend items that are symbolically related to healing or removing curses as a Object Interaction. A character can’t contribute more than 2d6 to the progress roll through any combination of resource and item expenditures.

When the current effect total is 95+, the ritual completes and the creature is healed. A current effect total that is much greater than 95 can result in additional rewards, such as supernatural gifts.

Combat

In addition to the danger and confusion presented by the ritual itself, enemies of the creature being healed, creatures from the Ethereal Plane, or undead such as shadows, specters, and wraiths often interfere. Whatever encounter difficulty you choose, use at least two creatures and split the creatures into two groups. The first half enters combat in the opening round, while the second group enters combat in the third round or when the first group is defeated. If the encounter keeps going and the PCs focus on defeating enemy creatures rather than progressing the ritual, repeat the second encounter group as often as needed to sustain combat pressure – defeating creatures is not a victory condition in this encounter.

Weaker and Stronger Parties

For weaker parties, a free +20 or +30 to the starting current effect total is probably about right.

For stronger parties, start with a negative current effect total, and use the 21-25 result in place of current effect totals below 11.

Design Notes

There are absolutely some effects on the Unstable Magic hazard table that will ruin the fun and end the whole challenge – 01-05 and 06-10 are especially notable offenders here. Just, you know, skip them. It’s okay. I didn’t even notice those when I ran the challenge in Birthright, because that initial progress roll skipped right over them. Keep in mind that, for now, this is an unintended use of these tables, so you’re using your best judgment to keep the game fun and interesting.

This basically adds two pieces of bookkeeping to your encounter, in exchange for needing considerably less combat pressure to present a very serious threat. This is still a modification on a combat encounter, though, not a replacement of a combat encounter. The fundamental challenge is giving players active things to do that aren’t just resisting negative effects with saving throws and/or healing through those effects. I’d like to revisit that in a future encounter, exploring an abandoned village that has a Far Realm infection, where progress rolls come from exploring a new building and dealing with stuff there.

There’s also a great model that uses the hazard table as a countdown clock, but that too will have to be a matter for another day. As with so many things, I’m hoping I can eventually turn this into a published release.

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