Improved Overland Movement
I have been intrigued with the warforged race of the Eberron campaign setting since I first read about them. So much so, in fact, that I have been carefully examining the rules to see just how far I can take them. In my search, I asked myself the question, “Can warforged accomplish overland movement better than other characters?”
As it turns out, the answer is “not really” by the letter of the D&D overland movement rules. While warforged do not suffer from fatigue, they are still susceptible to nonlethal damage. Thus, while they are capable of hustling or forcing march without becoming fatigued, they nonetheless collapse just as readily as other characters.
There is, however, a way around this. A character who is immune to nonlethal damage (such as a 2nd-level Warforged Juggernaut or a living construct under the continuous influence of a Construct Essence spell) can hustle or force march indefinitely. Combine this with the fact that warforged don’t need to sleep and you get a character who can move very rapidly cross country. You can even take this a step further and say that a character without a Constitution score (who thereby doesn’t need to make Constitution checks) can run indefinitely.
These combinations allow players to extend the normal overland movement rules as detailed in the variant rule below.
VARIANT: IMPROVED OVERLAND MOVEMENT
A normal character cannot perform a hustle or engage in a forced march for an extended period of time without succumbing to nonlethal damage (for more information, see Overland Movement on page 64 of the Player’s Handbook). Under this variant rule, a character with immunity to both nonlethal damage and fatigue can perform either of these actions indefinitely without ill effect. Such a character may use the Hustle row on the One Day chart below to determine his or her overland movement for one day of travel.
If a character does not require sleep in addition to meeting the previous two conditions, he or she can press on day and night without stopping to rest. Such a character may use the Full Day chart below to determine his or her overland movement during a continuous 24-hour period.
If a character does not possess a Constitution score in addition to meeting all of the previous conditions, he or she can run indefinitely without stopping or slowing down. Such a character can use the Run (x3) and Run (x4) rows on the charts below to determine overland movement. Undead and true constructs usually fit into this category.
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