D&D 5E Long Rest/HD: I've been doing it wrong

[DND_Reborn]

immediately kill off all of the players in surprise ambush

Killing off the players is a bit extreme, don't you think?

I mean, the PCs are one thing, but the players! Ouch!!

 

[billd91]

Killing off the players is a bit extreme, don't you think?

I mean, the PCs are one thing, but the players! Ouch!!

It's the only way to be sure...

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Killing off the players is a bit extreme, don't you think?

I mean, the PCs are one thing, but the players! Ouch!!

Not at all.

DM messed up the RAW.

You can't have any witnesses.

 

[GlassJaw]

I had a player would could NEVER remember the long rest rules. Every time a long rest came up, I would explain it and he would look at me like I had 2 heads. Not the sharpest tack in the bunch...

I like half-HD/long rest. There's plenty of healing in the game so it adds some important resource management to the game. But with the bevy of healing mechanics out there, it wouldn't change much.

Just expect your players to burn through their HD during short rests and be at or closer to max hit points more of the time.

 

[GMMichael]

Half HD is good because it makes resource attrition still a thing; obviously whenever the group gets two long rests in a row that's all wiped away.

Agreed on the resources - PCs have to keep track of HP, XP, GP, and healing potions. Might as well keep track of HD too.

I don't think "obvious" plays into it though; why would a long rest restore all HP but not all HD? Where I come from, a rest gets you 1 HP back

 

[el-remmen]

I don't think "obvious" plays into it though; why would a long rest restore all HP but not all HD? Where I come from, a rest gets you 1 HP back

Yeah, I think that was my confusion - that PCs would get all their HPs back but not their HD. I read the first part and assumed the latter.

Anyway, like I said, I am fine keeping it as is for now (though I will be informing the players), but was also curious in general how folks handle rules snafus that have been going on a while.

 

[Charlaquin]

I had a player would could NEVER remember the long rest rules. Every time a long rest came up, I would explain it and he would look at me like I had 2 heads. Not the sharpest tack in the bunch...

To be fair, it’s in my experience one of the most commonly house-ruled elements of the game, so if your player has played with other DMs, that could be part of what’s throwing them off. I have a player who likewise never remembers what they get back after a long rest. They play in two other games with other DMs online, and every time they take a long rest, they ask what they get back. I say, “just the standard, go up to full HP and get half your hit dice back,” and they reply, “every DM I’ve ever played with does long rests differently, so I can never remember what it’s supposed to be.” Every time.

 

[Bacon Bits]

So I discovered this evening that my group has been doing recovering HD after a long rest wrong. The group looks to me to know the rules, so it is not like anyone was pulling a fast one, I just got it wrong (somehow) and then explained it wrong.

Basically, I have been letting PCs get all their HD back after a long rest. Honestly, I think I am not going to change it. Keeping track of HD this way just seems like more book-keeping and so far I am not sure it would have ever made a difference. The group just hit 4th level, so maybe it will make a bigger difference at higher levels? I also just hate that after we've been playing one way for nearly a year, to say "You now get less." Not sure. What would you do?

If that's not a problem for your table... don't bother with the change. I would probably make it a house rule that HD recover fully every day. When I run, I almost always play this way either by rule or by magic item.

It may be useful to know that during the playtest for D&D Next, the rule was that you recovered all your hit dice every long rest. IIRC, it wasn't until the very last playtest packet that that changed, and not everyone agreed with it (me, for example). I thought it made short rest even less rewarding, and we already struggled to justify short rests as it was.

It was only changed because some people complained that the PCs couldn't get attritioned out of a dungeon even when they didn't have magical healing. They wanted healing to be more difficult, and this was the half-measure that WotC came up with to appease them. Personally, I think those games probably would be further along to use 8 hour short rests and 5 day long rests.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

I think full hit die recovery can actually be a better balance at low levels, in campaigns without a healer, or in a straight dungeon crawl. Keeping a healthy supply of health going may mean making the group willing to press through more combats in the day overall and hence actually operate at fewer non-hp resources on average.

I did once ask my DM to just let us get full hit dice recovery. It was a published level-3-5 dungeon crawl, and it just felt like in a campaign situation where you basically just have a set number of encounters to work your way through at your group's pace over the course of continuous days, half hit die overly-incentivized us long resting. I feel a little bad that I'm not currently extending the same generosity now that that DM is a player in my campaign, but it is a travel and exploration oriented campaign with lots of low resource expenditure days of traveling, so when they finally get to a couple days of really wearing down their resources I want them to feel the impact.

 

[Dragonsbane]

We have it kind of the opposite, you get 1 HD during a long rest and only 1 hp/lv during a long rest as well. The players like the fact that after two or three days in a dungeon they need to go to a town for a few days rest (at least). It made the game seem more realistic as well as stretch out time for stories. Plus, it makes time crunch adventures even more tense with important decisions about where and when to rest make a real difference.