D&D 5E Choosing NOT to Long Rest?

[TheCosmicKid]

In 5e, when they want an magic item to regain or lose an ability regardless of your activity, they'll say 'until the next dawn'.

Example:

Given that, if the item specified losing an ability or recharging an ability on a rest, I'd assume that is exactly what they mean.

It is something to keep in mind when writing homebrew stuff, though. I've made the mistake of writing something as long-rest-based when I really meant it to be on a strict timer. Alchemist compounds, for instance, shouldn't break down when the alchemist rests; they break down 24 hours after preparation whether the alchemist rests or not.

On the flip side, I toyed with the notion of deliberately incentivizing skipping long rests as a minor theme for a ranger revision by giving them benefits that persist or accumulate for as long as they keep traveling. Seemed like a rangerish thing to do. Didn't go anywhere with the idea, deciding it was too gimmicky and didn't play well in a party-based game, but there may yet be some design space there.

 

[Werebat]

I think that Guild Wars 2 "Engineers" should have been called "Alchemists".

 

[KahlessNestor]

I wouldn't allow this for a simple reason: the player is trying to rules-lawyer a limitation on the item or class ability. To me, this is no different than the old "bag of rats" problem - even if the rules say something is technically valid, the GM should run the game as intended. Looking at the sword described, the intent seems clear - the sword gains power for a time as the barbarian fights, but loses that power over time. Tying the sword's power to the barbarian's heart rate seems (and is) silly.

For whatever reasons, 5E uses 'short rest/long rest' to represent time passing. Some things can be done only a few times per hour/day/week/whatever. A player trying to use the literal rule to defeat the intended rule is not to be encouraged. So, going back to the original post, a character trying to game the daily spellcasting rules would not get any sympathy from me.

Now, if a player asked if he could exert himself to hang onto the sword's power longer than normal, I'd consider it. If allowed, I'd require a check of some sort (with increasing DC), as well as other penalties, such as accelerated exhaustion levels (one per hour maybe). This wouldn't be the player trying to game the system, but coming up with a cool idea and working with the GM to implement it. I'd make it difficult enough that it wouldn't override the sword's design, but would still allow the character to do something heroic in dramatic circumstances.

Before you criticize it, maybe you should actually watch the episodes. It had nothing to do with his heart rate. And he made it about three or four days, took three hits of exhaustion, and in the end it ended up killing him.

I don't think that's trying to "game the system". Travis is the least "game the system" guy there is. That would be Taliesin

 

[Sunseeker]

I usually allow my players to skip one night of rest per week without exhaustion. There's no recoup of spells and HP of course when they do that.

Also, "long rest" and "sleep" are not the same. Joe the human wizard requires a long rest to get his spells back, and 8 hours of sleep to let his body recover. Joe could easily spend Noon to 8pm "resting" to get his spells back and then sleep from 8pm to 4am. There's nothing really stopping any player from doing this.

A good reason for this might be that Joe's party is defending a fort. Day 1 was quiet, and nobody used any spells or whatever, but they went to sleep all the same. The fort was attacked by dawn and the battle was fierce, and they had to burn most of the resources. The battle was brief though, lasting from 5am to 8am. However, the Bad Guy swore to return at dusk with an even greater force. So Joe's party takes a "long rest" in the middle of the day, say from 10am to 6pm. And around 7pm, Bad Guy shows up again as promised.

For attacks that happen in the middle of the day, or small skirmishes that are strung out over the course of the day, players will be inclined to overlap sleep and resting.

 

[Croesus]

I don't think that's trying to "game the system". Travis is the least "game the system" guy there is. That would be Taliesin

Yeah, how I view such play depends heavily on the player. I have one right now who has a habit of gaming the rules, so I have to constantly watch what he does. Gets a bit old, but he's otherwise a good player, so...(shrug). Thinking of him probably affected my response.