D&D (2024) REcharge and Rest

[Zaukrie]

How would you fix rests and recharging abilities?

I thought 4e was easy and elegant, but I doubt we go back to that. I am not sure they really change this, but I wish they would.

I'd consider: First short rest is 5 minutes. Second is 10. Third is 1 hour.

I'd also just get rid of abilities recharging on short rests, but I don't have a good answer for what I'd do instead.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Five minute short rests resets everything but HP. Long Rests fixes HP and for other intents and purposes is just a thing you can ignore like rations or counted arrows.

I playtested around recharge happening at the end of an encounter, but then realized layered encounters are a thing; you're doing an infiltration, which is a skill challenge and have to fight a guard as a failure penalty and BOOM all of a sudden everything procs back to full for the whole infiltration... just too wonky.

So Short Rest only happens outside an encounter, no longer how long that encounter lasts, and it then procs everything. Napping is not required.

 

[mellored]

First preference. 4e-ish style.

10 minute short rest. And everyone has at least one reason to rest, in addition to spending hit dice.
Fighters recharge action surge.
Rangers recharge hunters mark
Wizards / Warlocks recharge their signature spell.
Sorcerers /Monks recharge their points.
Clerics / Druids / Paladins recharge Channel Divinity
Warlocks and Monks get even more back.
Rogues... recharge poison and smoke bombs maybe?

Second preference. 3e-ish style. There is no short rest. Hit dice can spend spent as an action.

It's having different classes on different rest schedules that make things difficult.

 

[Zaukrie]

You could give everyone hit dice+2 or something. You can use Hit Dice to recharge your abilities or your hit points......

 

[Horwath]

Recharge Action:

At the beginning of your turn you take a Recharge action.

You are Blinded and Paralyzed until the end of your next turn, when you get benefit of short rest.

You can take this action a number of times equal to your prof mod.

 

[Zaukrie]

Recharge Action:

At the beginning of your turn you take a Recharge action.

You are Blinded and Paralyzed until the end of your next turn, when you get benefit of short rest.

You can take this action a number of times equal to your prof mod.

Interesting idea! Not in love with the conditions, but I get what you are going for.

 

[Mirrorrorrim]

I think changes to 1-hour Short Rests and 8-hour Long Rests themselves are unnecessary. They are fine for recovering HP and "daily" abilities as a primary purpose. There is magic in a new dawn or a freshly rested mind and body.

But abilities that recharge on 1-hour Short Rests need to achieve both narrative sense and balance sense. For instance, unique wellsprings of magic can sometimes work narratively. But I prefer some of them to work like the new Fighter's Second Wind, that allow an ability to be used X times/day, that you get to choose when you use them, because this is better than a short rest for the purposes of story pacing.

It is fine if a magical ability recharges with communion or meditation that is shorter than a short rest, but it must make sense for narrative and balance reasons. It doesn't need to be shoehorned into the short rest, but it is nice if it can occur within a short rest so it doesn't disrupt pacing.

I do not agree with spamming unlimited magical spells and certain other abilities every 5 or 15 minutes, representing new "short rests" during downtime. Not with the level of power that spells bring to the table. Narratively, such easy access to lots of magic throughout the day would heavily impact the narrative about the way societies with magic evolve. A wizard that can cast 50+ spells a day because of a 15-minute short rest cycle? Nah.

 

[Horwath]

Interesting idea! Not in love with the conditions, but I get what you are going for.

Conditions are there that you can use it in combat if you set a good situation for it, but if you misscalculate, you will suffer a round of critical hits.

 

[tetrasodium]

Go back to 2e rest & recovery levels with 3.x wands of CLW as the default. The current style could be an optional/variant rule linked to conditions of the GM's choosing

 

[DEFCON 1]

The rules in the book can be whatever they want, because I just use the variant rule that says I can make Rests whatever length I want. I don't need the rule in the PHB about the length of rests be the same as the one I want to use. My opinion on the matter is no better than anyone else's.

That being said... I use 10 minute Short Rests, 8 hour Long Rests, and 24 hours-in-a-safe-location Extended Rests.