Exploration
Exploration involves delving into places that are dangerous and full of mystery.
Adventuring Equipment: As adventurers explore, their equipment can help them in many ways. For example, they can reach out of the way places with a Ladder, perceive things they wouldn’t otherwise notice with a Troch or another light source, bypass locked doors and containers with Thieves tools, and create obstacles for pursuers with Caltrops.
Vision and Light: Some adventuring tasks – such as noticing danger, hitting an enemy, and targeting certain spells – are affected by sight, so effects that obscure vision can hinder you.
Obscured Areas: An area might be Lightly or Heavily Obscured. In a Lightly Obscured area – such as an area with Dim Light, patchy fog, or moderate foliage – you have Disadvantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight.
A heavily obscured area – such as an area with Darkness, heavy fog, or dense foliage – is opaque. You have the blinded condition when trying to see something there.
Light: The presence or absence of light determines the category of illumination in an area.
Bright Light: lets most creatures see normally. Even in gloomy days provide Bright Light, as do torches, lanterns, fires, and other sources of illumination within a specific radius.
Dim Light: also called shadows, creates a lightly Obscured area. An area of Dim Light is usually a boundary between Bright Light and surrounding Darkness. The soft light of twilight and dawn also counts as Dim Light. A full moon might bathe the land in Dim Light.
Darkness: creates a Heavily Obscured area. Characters face Darkness outdoors at night (even most moonlit nights), within the confines of an unlit dungeon, or in an area of magical darkness.
Special Senses: Some creatures have special senses that help them perceive things in certain situation.
Blindsight, Darkvision, Tremorsense, Truesight.
Hiding: Adventurers and monsters often hide, whether to spy on one another, sneak past a guardian, or set an ambush. The Dungeon Master decides when circumstances are appropriate for hiding. When you try to hid, you take the hide action.
Interacting with Objects: Interacting with objects is often simple to resolve. The player tells the DM that their character is doing something, such as moving a lever or opening a door, and the DM describes what happens. Sometimes, however, rules govern what you can do with an object.
What is an object: For the purpose of the rules, an object is a discrete, inanimate, item, like a window, door, sword, table, chair, or stone. it isn’t a building or a vehicle, which are composed of many objects.
Time Limited Object: When time is short, such as in combat, interactions with objects are limited: one free interaction per turn. That interaction must occur during a creature’s movement or action. Any additional interactions require the Utilize action.
Finding Hidden Objects: When a character searches for hidden things, such as a secret door or trap, the DM typically asks you to make a Wisdom (Perception) check, provided you describe the character searching in the hidden object’s vicinity. On a success, you find the object, other important details, or both. If you describe your character searching nowhere near a hidden object, a Wisdom (Perception) check won’t reveal the object, no matter the check’s total.
Carrying Objects: You can usually carry your gear and treasure without worrying about the weight of those objects. If you try to haul an unusually heavy object or a massive number of lighter objects, the DM might require you to abide by the rules for carrying capacity in the rules glossary.
Breaking Objects: As an action, you can automatically break or otherwise destroy a fragile, nonmagical object, such as a glass container or piece of paper. If you try to damage something more resilient, the DM might use the rules on breaking objects in the rules glossary.
Travel: during an adventure, the characters might travel long distances on trips that could take hours or days. The DM can summarize this travel without calculating exact distances or travel times, or the DM might have you use the travel pace rules below.
Marching Order: The adventuring party should establish a marching order while they travel, whether indoors or outdoors. A marching order makes it easier to determine which characters are affected by traps, which ones can spot hidden enemies, and which ones are the closest to those enemies if a fight breaks out. You can change your marching order outside combat and record the order any way you like.
Travel Pace: While traveling outside combat, a group can move at a fast, normal, or slow pace. If riding horses or other mounts, the groups can move twice that distance for 1 hour, after which the mounts need a short or long rest before they can move at that increased pace again
Fast = 400 feet a minute, 4 miles an hour, 30 miles a day. Fast pace imposes disadvantage on traveler’s wisdom (perception or survival) and dexterity (stealth) checks.
Normal = 300 ft a minute, 3 miles an hour, 24 miles a day. Normal pace imposes disadvantage on dex (stealth) checks.
Slow = 200 ft a minute, 2 miles an hour, 18 miles a day. Slow pace grants advantage on wisdom (perception or survival) checks.
Vehicles: Travelers in wagons, carriages, or other land vehicles choose a pace as normal. Characters in a waterborne vessel are limied to the speed of the vessel, and they don’t choose a travel pace. Depending on the vessel and the size of the crew, ships might be able to travel for up to 24 hours per day.