When spending lengths of time in the wilderness, explorers often prefer to forage and hunt for their food, rather than lug around rations.
Over the course of a watch, a character can forage for food or water; if the party is traveling, this can only be done while traveling at a slow or normal pace. At the conclusion of watch, the character makes a Wisdom (Survival) check, with the DC determined by the region the party is traveling through. If the party traveled through more than one region over the course of a watch, use the DC for whichever the party spent the most time in.
| Suggested Foraging DC | ||
| Environment | Food DC | Water DC |
| Coastal | 10 | 15 |
| Desert | 18 | 20 |
| Forest | 10 | 10 |
| Grassland | 10 | 13 |
| Hills | 13 | 10 |
| Mountains | 15 | 15 |
| Swamp | 13 | 10 |
| Tundra | 15 | 13 |
| Underground | 18 | 18 |
| Urban | 15 | 13 |
| Wasteland | 20 | 20 |
On a failure, the character finds nothing. On a success, the character finds an amount equal to 1d6 + Wisdom modifier, either in pounds (for food) or gallons (for water). The sources of food and water are determined at the DM’s discretion, based on the region the party is traveling through.
Most food found is either raw meat from hunted animals that must be cooked, or readily-eaten plant matter, such as nuts and berries.
If a character would like to find certain kinds of food only, typically to avoid the need to light a fire, they suffer disadvantage.
Water collected while foraging generally has a higher risk of being unclean, and as such has a cleanliness DC of 10.
If a character would like to fish for their food, typically when traveling over water instead of land or when near a body of water, they must have a set of fishing tackle. Fishing otherwise follows the same rules as normal foraging.
For more information on the relative quality of Food and Water, if using this optional rule, see Food Cleanliness under Basic Needs.