Downtime activities and lifestyle maintenance are done when you’re not adventuring. They help to define adventurers outside their normally extraordinary adventures, and can have an impact on how others perceive them. As you attend DDAL sessions you will accumulate downtime days, which represent a character's free time between adventures. In addition to costs from participating in a downtime activity, a character also uses an amount of gold per day determined by their lifestyle expenses. If you want your character to engage in a downtime activity between episodes or adventures, you have the following options available to you. Brewing Potions of Healing (XGE). Brewing potions of healing requires the use of an herbalism kit. Carousing (PHB). Characters can spend their downtime engaged in a variety of hedonistic activities such as attending parties, binge drinking, gambling, or anything else that helps them cope with the perils they face on their adventures. A carousing character spends money as though maintaining a wealthy lifestyle (see chapter 5, “Equipment,” of the Player’s Handbook). At the end of the period spent carousing, the player rolls percentile dice and adds the character’s level, then compares the total to the Carousing table to determine what happens to the character, or you choose. Catching Up. “Catching Up” is available at 4th, 10th, and 16th level. By spending downtime as follows, your character advances to the next level: 4th, 25 days; 10th, 75 days; 16th, 150 days. [Not used; instead we make sure all players are the minimum level for a tier of play.] Crafting Non-Magical Items (PHB). You can craft nonmagical objects and healing potions. Can craft 5gp worth of items per day. While crafting, you can maintain a modest lifestyle without having to pay 1 gp per day, or a comfortable lifestyle at half the normal cost. Copying Spells. You must use this downtime activity to copy spells. For each downtime day spent, your character can spend 8 hours copying spells into their spellbook or making their spellbook available for other characters to copy from. Characters playing the same adventure together can “trade” spells with each other using this activity. Each wizard has their own “language” used for scribing spells and can’t benefit from the Help action when scribing—even if assisted by other wizards. You must pursue this downtime activity in the presence of your table’s DM. Practicing a Profession (PHB). You can use this downtime activity to maintain a lifestyle, effectively spending your downtime to keep a standard of living. If you are a member of an organization that can provide gainful employment, such as a temple or a thieves' guild, you earn enough to support a comfortable lifestyle instead. If you have proficiency in the Performance skill and put your performance skill to use during your downtime, you earn enough to support a wealthy lifestyle instead. Recuperating (PHB). You can use downtime between adventures to recover from a debilitating injury, disease, or poison. After three days of downtime spent recuperating, you can make a DC 15 Constitution saving throw. On a successful save, you can choose one of the following results: End one effect on you that prevents you from regaining hit points. For the next 24 hours, gain advantage on saving throws against one disease or poison currently affecting you. If you don’t succeed, or if you don’t spend downtime days to rid yourself of the condition, you begin the next episode or adventure affected by it. Researching (PHB). The time between adventures is a great chance to perform research, gaining insight into mysteries that have unfurled over the course of the campaign. Research can include poring over dusty tomes and crumbling scrolls in a library or buying drinks for the locals to pry rumors and gossip from their lips. When you begin your research, the GM determines whether the information is available, how many days of downtime it will take to find it, and whether there are any restrictions on your research (such as needing to seek out a specific individual, tome, or location). The GM might also require you to make one or more ability checks, such as an Intelligence (Investigation) check to find clues pointing toward the information you seek, or a Charisma (Persuasion) check to secure someone's aid. Once those conditions are met, you learn the information if it is available. For each day of research, you must spend 1 gp to cover your expenses. This cost is in addition to your normal lifestyle expenses. Scribing Scrolls (XGE). You must know or be able to prepare a spell before you can scribe it to a spell scroll. Its cost is in addition to any component cost— regardless of whether it’s consumed or not. Spellcasting Services. You can spend 1 downtime day to cast a spell, or to have a spell cast by either another character or an NPC. Spells cast during a session use the normal rules for spellcasting (spell slots, material components, etc.) instead of downtime, while spells cast by NPCs usually require spending downtime as well as gold or treasure checkpoints. You can only receive spellcasting services from characters at the same table as you are. Trading Magic Items. Permanent magic items can be traded on a one-for-one basis for items of the same rarity from the same magic item table in the Dungeon Master’s Guide. To receive an item in trade, you must be of an appropriate tier to buy the item using treasure checkpoints. Items without remaining magical properties can’t be traded. Each party to the trade must spend 15 downtime days. If the other party is playing in the same adventure as you, the downtime cost is waived. Certificates aren’t required but must accompany the trade or be destroyed if one exists. In the event of conflict, the Dungeon Master’s Guide determines an item’s rarity. Items found in individual adventures have a rarity provided by the adventure. If the adventure assigns no rarity, the item is unique. Upon completing the trade, note on your log sheet who you traded with and the items traded. Training (PHB). You can spend downtime days to work toward learning a new language or set of tools. The training lasts for 250 days and costs 1 gp per day, in addition to lifestyle expenses. After you spend the requisite amount of time and money, you learn the new language or gain proficiency with the new tool. Upon reaching Rank 3 in a faction, two downtime activities are unlocked; both Item Procurement, and a Location Specific option. See the Faction Guide post for more details.
