Attrition-based Campaigns (3.5e Variant Rule)

Attrition-Based Campaigns
D&D is filled with mechanics that are primarily helpful in an attrition-based campaign, like daily spell slots, consumable items, natural healing, and starvation rules. However, the freedom to rest and the ability to use spells gained by such means to solve the other problems makes them all pointless and irrelevant.

Unlimited Healing
Any item that gives better healing than a Ring of Regeneration should be promoted to Artifact status. That includes wands (but not potions) of cure light wounds, and the Belt of HealingMIC.

Features like Fast Healing and Regeneration are restricted to healing only 2 hit points per hit die per day total.

Food and Water
All creature types now need to eat. Constructs live on coal or wood and oil or water, undead eat blood, bones, or specific organs, outsiders eat souls, and so on.

Summoned, called, and transformed foodstuffs or creatures are not nutritionally satisfying. Create water, create food and water, purify food and drink, and similar spells or abilities are banned.

Items that provide food or water are Artifacts.

Easy Safehouse Access
Teleportation and extradimensional spaces let people have too-easy access to plentiful supplies when they should be dying of thirst in the desert.

Use Waypoint Style Teleportation, but it takes 100 times as long to create an Anchor Sigil.

Spells that create extradimensional spaces, like rope trick or mage's magnificent mansion, are banned. Items like bags of holding are Artifacts.

Time Limits
In any conflict worth playing through in an attrition-based campaign, the task should be designed to end in failure after no more than twice the number of days you'd expect them to take if they were reasonably quick about it.

Possible objectives that meet this criterion include:


 * The players are attempting to cross a desert before they die of thirst.


 * There's a town-wide famine, and people will keep starving to death until food is found.


 * While on vacation in a palace, the palace is captured by terrorists who will surely destroy it before the night is over.