Downtime

With a week of free time, characters can prepare for whats ahead on their adventures, pursue personal projects, or spend some of their hard-earned coin - either on adventuring gear, spellcasting services, or simply buying rounds for everyone at the nearest bar.

For some downtime activities, you make an ability check at the end of the week to gauge your overall success. These checks take place over the entire week, and thus cannot benefit from temporary bonuses such as Bardic Inspiration.

Downtime: Training

You can spend your downtime training in order to acquire proficiency in a tool, skill, or language, or even gain a new feat.

After each week of downtime, you can make an ability check chosen by the DM (for example, Religion to learn Celestial, Herbalism Kit to learn Nature, or Strength to learn Great Weapon Master). Add the result to a running total, and when the running total exceeds the amount of progress needed, you learn that training goal.

If you have access to an expert on the subject or other outside help, you have advantage on the check. Trainers can grant you their services perhaps as a reward for a minor quest, or in exchange for payment. Some examples of trainers could be a master thief to teach you Sleight of Hand, or a looted stack of books written in a language you wish to learn, or travelling on a chartered ship when learning Water Vehicles.

If you can come up with a convincing explanation why the check should be of a certain type, or why you should have advantage on the check, the DM is likely to listen to you.

Depending on the type of training you do, the amount of progress you need before acquiring the proficiency is different. You can train for multiple things simultaneously (tracked separately), but you can only focus on one goal per period of downtime.

Training Goal	Progress required	Note
Simple weapon	20
Language, tool, or martial weapon	40
Skill or exotic weapon	60
Expertise	80	Requires proficiency
Feat	100	You can only gain one feat through training

Downtime: Research

With access to the proper facilities, you can spend your downtime to find information on almost any subject. This might include reading in a library, experimenting, attending lectures, or some other scholarly pursuit.

At the end of the week, you make an ability check chosen by the DM (usually an Intelligence skill).

Skill	Creature types	Example research attempt
Arcana	Fiends, Elementals, Constructs, Oozes	Translate a set of magical runes
History	Humanoids, Giants	Find records of a specific magic sword
Religion	Celestials, Fiends, Undead, Aberrations	Learn how to remedy a curse
Nature	Beasts, Plants, Fey, Monstrosities, Dragons	Learn the properties of a strange plant

If your research involves getting information about a specific creature (such as Red Dragons or Vampires), success might involve learning some of the exact text from their stat block, at the DMs discretion.

Downtime: Crafting

See crafting magic items.

Downtime: Purchasing a Spell

If you find yourself with the need to have a spell cast that you do not know, you can attempt to track down a magician who is willing to cast the spell for you. Using a week of downtime, you attempt to locate a skilled seller and come to an understanding on the price. At the end of the week, you make a Charisma (Persuasion) check, subtracting the level of the spell you require, to determine the result.

High level spells require multiple weeks of searching and negotiating. You need several successes before the spell is cast for you (successes does not need to be sequential). Those who can cast these spells are more savvy negotiators, and will not give a price reduction if you roll well, but rolling high instead gives multiple successes.

The roll and/or the cost can be further modified by previous interactions - perhaps your membership in a mages guild gives you advantage on the roll, or your previous services to the local shrine means the priest there will cast the spells for half the cost.

d20	Outcome
1-10	You do not find a seller.
11-24	You find a seller. You pay the full base cost.
25+	You find a seller and manage to haggle the price down. Roll twice for the price, taking the lower value.

In addition to the base cost, you will also need to supply any consumed material components required for the spell.

Downtime: Sell your Spellcasting

If you have the skills, there is a market for selling your spellcasting services. With one week of downtime, make an ability check using your spellcasting modifier in order to determine the outcome.

d20	Outcome
1-10	You do not find any buyers. You earn no gold.
11-15	You have to haggle the price down. You earn half the base cost.
16-20	Your customer is satisfied. You earn the full base cost.
21+	Your customer is very happy. You earn the full base cost and have advantage the next time you roll on this table.

If you manage to sell your services, you do not recover one of your spell slots of the level you sold when you finish the downtime.

Downtime: Religious Services

You can spend a week of downtime to pray, meditate, and perform acts that further your deity's ideals. At the end of the week, make a Religion check to determine the outcome. If you describe what you are doing well, and how that relates to your deity and their ideals, the DM is likely to award you advantage on the check.

d20	Outcome
-10	No piety gained
11-15	You gain 2 (1d4) piety.
16-20	You gain 3 (1d6) piety.
21-24	You gain 4 (1d8) piety.
25-29	You gain 5 (1d10) piety.
30-	You gain 6 (1d12) piety.

Gaining low, or no piety from a week of service does not necessarily mean your service was badly performed or unwelcome, it could just have gone unnoticed - the gods are busy, and you are not the only mortal vying for their attention.