I've been thinking about the game I am going to run and changing a short rest to 4 hours and a long rest to 24 hours.
I've come to think of them as a "night's sleep" (even short) where you are functional but not fully rested compared to a "day off" (where you know you won't have to go to work, sort of like a weekend day maybe) as short and long, respectively.
I'm baking in a mechanic to restore some spells for casters, but am concerned about other class features and recharging them. I know others have adjust rest times, so I am wondering what other issues might arise?
Ok so a question on the approach...
if the first thing you come up with is that it doesn't need to apply to all features of long and short rests - giving casters some/all spells back through other means - what specific rest gains are you trying to prevent in what circumstances? Might it be more precise to identify the specific features you think NEED TO TAKE LONGER and adjust them as opposed to changing them all and then seeing which ones you think might need personal adjustments?
I ask because it seems that a *lot* of the gripes against rests are derived from the overnight heals. That "get all Hp back in one night" seems to really bug some folks. So if thats a primary driver for this, it would seem that maybe changing that one bit would make more sense.
Other considerations -
Would you be changing a lot of "one-hour spells" that seem to be , well lets face it, built to be very short-rest friendly? I mean, in a verse where short rests were a universal four hours, wouldn't rope trick be four hours long and PWOT likely also be 4 hours long and Hut spell be 24 hours long etc etc etc. basically how many spells have durations that make no sense in a 2/24 rest world?
Also, the 1 hour short vs 4 hour short - this one i dont get. Do you really see many situations where the party can get a 1 hour short rest but not a 4 hour short rest? Cases where the tactical demands will **without Gm rigging** make 1 hour easy and 4 hours hard? (Obviously in many cases the Gm rigging can simply be "the enemy is 30m out vs 2 hours out vs 5 hour out and simply be a fiat for which rests are available.) Are the number of naturally occuring 1 vs 4 hour pauses gonna be worth the change to rules and spells and such? I mean, really, how many times are the key action points going to be strictly in the 2-3 hours apart range?
honestly, this may be reading between the lines, it feels more like what you are in search of is more likely accomplished by a change in the **conditions required to rest** more than the duration required. How much of your "problem" would be solved by simply requiring a short rest be "at a safe camp" (as in not in a dungeoan or in imminent threat) and the long rest being in a settled inn or village/town?
I mean, you seem Ok with long rests getting you your spells and all hit points back in a day mostly, right? So its more about the other stuff not the time.