Exploration time and Forced March

[Bardomero]

I'm currently playtesting the new Pathfinder 2e rules and preparing for the second adventure of Doomsday Dawn.

Exploration rules in that adventure are specifically important, since a big part is tracking the time the adventurers take to complete their mission.

I'm clear on the following rules (page references belong to the Pathfinder Playtest Rulebook):

Character travel distance (p.316, 317)

Hourly travel distance depends on the character base speed (i.e. a character with 30' base movement will travel 3 miles if terrain has no impediments).

Daily travel distance assumes characters travel 8 hours a day.

Resting rules (p. 332):

Characters must rest once every 24 hours period. If a character goes for more than 16 hours without going to sleep, he will be fatigued.

A character needs a night's sleep to remove the fatigued condition (8 hours of sleep).

The time a party spends resting when they're at watch chores increases based on how few characters are taking turns to watch.

The fatigued condition (p. 322) imposes the hampered 5 condition and cumulative penalties for each action the character performs every round. Penalties reset at the start of the character's turn.

So my questions are: what prevents a party of, say, four characters from travelling up to 13 hours a day, then rest for 10 hours and 40 minutes, and keep traveling at the same pace? Is there any mechanic I'm missing? Which one?

From a roleplaying perspective I understand this wouldn't be feasible: a party would have to make camp, wash themselves, feed themselves and their animals... But I cannot find anything in the rules that measures that, and I would like confirmation about that being part of the GM's playbook to do as he sees fit.

What I'm really missing are some rules related to fatigue and forced march. For example, in Pathfinder 1e you would have to make Fortitude saves in order to keep travelling for longer than 8 hours or take non-lethal damage and become fatigued. Might I be missing them somehow?

Thanks in advance for your feedback. May your dice roll true!

[Worlds Okayest DM]

I don't have an answer to this question though I am following the thread to see if anyone else does. I will be running Chapter two a week from today so am hoping there are others out there who have come up with an answer!

[Bardomero]

On an unrelated note, is there an attack modifier for being on higher ground anywhere in the pathfinder playtest rules? Typical +1 bonus to attack or something.

I haven't found it so far.

[sherlock1701]

Of note, you can safely increase travel speed by 50% if you alternate between hustling and walking in 5-minute intervals.

[Bardomero]

Good point @sherlock1701. I think this might be an omission in the rules, which seem to be focused on short-term exploration such as dungeons. To me it makes no sense.

I played the first part of In Pale Mountain's Shadow yesterday and the party travelled for 8 straight hours without forcing march. We didn't even discuss the mechanic because it didn't come up in the table.

Minor adventure spoilers ahead:

The party took just 3 days to get to the Pale Mountain. A druid with a +8 bonus to Survival was enough to get the average travel speed on all three days.

The true killer for such an speed were the camels that are given to the party. Their speed is 35', which allows the party to travel 28 miles a day. Way less than the 5 estimated days set in the adventure.

[thePDV]

I have this same question.

[Fuzzypaws]

Regardless of intention, as written, you can move 150% of your speed with no penalties simply by alternating walk and hustle.

You can travel at 200% speed but you'll be fatigued, which will reduce your speed by 5, and that reduced speed will be what is doubled. However, so long as you do not expect to get into combat this is not an onerous penalty, since you can wipe it away by resting.

[DerNils]

No to the second Option - once you are fatigued, you are relegated to Wandering as your only tactic. So the 150% increase with alternating is the best you can get.

[Starfox]

My players alternated hustling and walking and got to the site in 2 days - narrowly missing critical Survival rolls both days. Not sure I'd allow this in my own game, but since this is a RAW playtest, we're running it RAW.

About RAW, I read the Survival check rule in the scenario "One PC can lead the group in a given day by attempting a DC 18 Survival check" so that everyone could roll, but only one character could lead. Any other reading would have penalized Survival-skilled characters other than the one that was best. Creating situations where only the best character is allowed to roll in situations like this is a kind of bullying where second place is the first looser. Not acceptable at my table, even in a playtest :o.

Not sure "bullying" is the exact word I'm looking for, English is a second language.

In other news, the fey sorcerer (we're running retrained versions of the first scenario's characters) did her first actual combat contribution, succeeding with Hideous Laughter against the hyenadon. She was basically baggage in Fallen Star, so this is a bit of an achievement.