15
\$\begingroup\$

In Tomb of Annihilation you have the mechanic in the game where you have to drink more water than normal. Since you can't really rely on the rain catcher all the time would a good subsitute be the Ranger/Druid spell Goodberry?

With Goodberry, one “berry provides enough nourishment to sustain a creature for one day.” Would this be enough or would player characters still need more since there is a higher need for resources?

\$\endgroup\$
2
  • \$\begingroup\$ "would player characters still need more since there is a higher need for resources?" - do you mean more food or more water? \$\endgroup\$
    – enkryptor
    Oct 11, 2017 at 9:24
  • \$\begingroup\$ related rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/99454 \$\endgroup\$
    – enkryptor
    Oct 11, 2017 at 13:22

2 Answers 2

20
\$\begingroup\$

RAI, Goodberry isn't meant to provide water

Jeremy Crawford tweeted the intent behind the Goodberry spell - the "nourishment" provided by it still doesn't save you from thirst:

The nourishment provided by goodberry is meant to be like food, not water

So even if you eat goodberries, you still need water in Chult.

However, a GM has the last word

In the same tweet JC adds, that

a DM can say otherwise

So there are possible situations, where DM should make such a ruling. In Chult PCs need to drink a lot of water to survive, I'd say you shouldn't allow your party to completely neglect this part and just use Goodberry (by using all remaining spell slots before a long rest, for instance). But this depends on the DMing style and is opinion-based.

\$\endgroup\$
18
\$\begingroup\$

Probably

Goodberry says "... the berry provides enough nourishment to sustain a creature for one day."

Nourishment is not a game term so it takes its normal English meaning. The OED defines nourishment as "The food necessary for growth, health, and good condition" and food as "Any nutritious substance that people or animals eat or drink or that plants absorb in order to maintain life and growth." Water is a "nutritious substance that people or animals eat or drink ... in order to maintain life and growth."

In summary, a Goodbery gives you what you need to stay alive for 1 day. Whatever that is.

As an analogy, in a cold climate you need more kJ per day than in a hot climate to maintain body heat - those kJ are "nutrition" - does this work or is Goodberry only good in temperate climates?

As a game mechanism, Goodberry is serving exactly the same role as the rain catcher - it is draining party resources. For the former that comes in the form of a 1st level spell slot, in the second, in the form of treasure to buy it, time to use it and the risk of exhaustion when it doesn't work. For low level parties the spell is a serious investment and the rain catcher isn't: for high level parties the calculation changes, however, raw survival is rarely a concern (or a fun thing to play) for high level parties anyway.

\$\endgroup\$
1
  • 4
    \$\begingroup\$ There's a potential concern & wiggle room there in that phrasing: many foods in real life are good enough to sustain me for 1 day, but don't contain nutrients I need periodically to be ongoingly healthy (like sufficient iron, magnesium, etc), so they can't sustain me in the long term. I could go a day on just cornflakes, but if I tried subsisting on just cornflakes I'd probably start suffering some major health effects sooner or later. \$\endgroup\$ Oct 11, 2017 at 15:09

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .