D&D 5e Travel Pace Calculator
Work out how long a journey takes, or how far a group gets in a given amount of time, using the SRD Fast/Normal/Slow travel pace table — with difficult terrain and forced marches handled automatically.
D&D 5e boils overland travel down to three paces, each trading speed for a rules effect: Fast gets you there sooner at the cost of situational awareness, Slow lets the party move carefully, and Normal is the baseline. The calculator below converts between distance and time in either direction — enter a distance to find out how long it takes, or enter a travel time to find out how far the group gets — and accounts for difficult terrain and forced marches. The sections underneath lay out the full SRD pace table, a worked example, and answers to the most common travel-pace questions.
Travel Pace Calculator
Travel Time
1 days
24 mi ÷ 3 mph = 8 hours
24 mi ÷ 24 mi/day = 1 days (at 8 travel hours/day)
Travel Pace Table
The SRD travel pace table. Per-day figures assume a normal 8-hour travel day; difficult terrain halves every distance figure on this table.
| Pace | Per Minute | Per Hour | Per Day (8 hr) | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fast | 400 feet | 4 miles | 30 miles | −5 penalty to passive Perception |
| Normal | 300 feet | 3 miles | 24 miles | None |
| Slow | 200 feet | 2 miles | 18 miles | Can use Stealth while traveling |
💡 Traveling by mount or vehicle changes the numbers: a galloping mount can outrun this table for about an hour before it needs a rest, and a sailing ship covers roughly 24 miles in a day even though it isn't walking at all. Both are DM-adjudicated exceptions rather than part of the core pace table above.
Worked Example
A caravan needs to reach a keep 90 miles away and travels at Normal pace (3 mph) along a good road. In a standard 8-hour travel day they cover 24 miles — exactly the Normal row's per-day figure, since 3 mph × 8 hours = 24 miles.
90 miles ÷ 3 mph = 30 hours of travel → 30 ÷ 8 = 3.75 days
Call it four travel days, with a shorter final leg. Now suppose the last 12 miles cross a boulder-choked ravine — difficult terrain, which halves effective pace from 3 mph to 1.5 mph.
12 miles ÷ 1.5 mph = 8 hours, instead of 12 ÷ 3 mph = 4 hours
That stretch alone takes twice as long. If the caravan instead pushes for 10 hours in a single day to make up the lost time, it covers 10 × 3 mph = 30 miles, but the final two hours count as a forced march: each traveler makes a Constitution saving throw at the end of hour 9 (DC 11) and again at the end of hour 10 (DC 12), or gains one level of exhaustion each time they fail.
Don't know the real distance yet? DMs running a campaign on Tiny RPG can measure it directly — drop pins on the interactive campaign map and use its ruler to get an exact mile figure, then feed that straight into the calculator above.
Frequently Asked Questions
How far can you travel in a day in D&D 5e?
Over a normal 8-hour travel day, a group covers 30 miles at fast pace, 24 miles at normal pace, 18 miles at slow pace. That figure assumes travel on foot at a steady pace with the usual rest breaks — difficult terrain cuts it in half, and pushing beyond 8 hours (a forced march) can cover more ground at the cost of exhaustion.
What is D&D 5e travel pace?
Travel pace is the SRD system for how fast a group moves while adventuring and what that speed costs them. There are three paces: Fast (4 mph, −5 penalty to passive perception), Normal (3 mph, no effect), and Slow (2 mph, can use stealth while traveling). Picking a pace is a tradeoff between covering ground quickly and staying alert or quiet while doing it.
How do you calculate travel time in D&D?
Divide the distance to cover by the group's speed at its chosen pace (in miles per hour), which gives you the travel time in hours; divide that by 8 to get travel days assuming standard 8-hour days. Difficult terrain halves effective speed, which doubles the time for the same distance. The calculator above does this math for you in both directions — distance to time, or time to distance.
What is a forced march in D&D 5e?
A forced march is travel beyond the normal 8-hour travel day. For each additional hour, the group still covers ground at its normal per-hour pace, but at the end of that hour every traveler makes a Constitution saving throw (DC 10, rising by 1 for each additional hour past 8) or gains one level of exhaustion. It's a way to trade the party's stamina for extra miles when time is short.