D&D 5E The Resting Mechanics - What Works Best?

[tetrasodium]

So if a long rest is one week under the Gritty realism option and a spellcaster regains spell slots, sorcery points, etc. only after a long rest, this is really going to slow things down, right? I mean, I see well enough why this variant would be preferable for handling HD and healing, but for spell slots, ki points, sorcery points, many abilities, and all that sort of business it looks troublesome to me.


Or am I missing something obvious? I'm.....I'm missing something obvious, aren't I?

that's a big part of the trouble. Too many things are balanced with durations based on a game pact that involves a long rest/day & expanding it out to a week makes a mess of things for the GM to either clean up one by one or sweep under the rug & hope nobody notices the lump under the carpet

 

[overgeeked]

that's a big part of the trouble. Too many things are balanced with durations based on a game pact that involves a long rest/day & expanding it out to a week makes a mess of things for the GM to either clean up one by one or sweep under the rug & hope nobody notices the lump under the carpet

The only thing that changes is how often character resources recharge. The only change the DM needs to make to “compensate” for that is not following the presumed multiple fights per day guidance in the DMG. There is no mess to “sweep under the rug”.

 

[tetrasodium]

The only thing that changes is how often character resources recharge. The only change the DM needs to make to “compensate” for that is not following the presumed multiple fights per day guidance in the DMG. There is no mess to “sweep under the rug”.

That's the problem exactly when classes have things that last for N hours intended to last a good chunk of the adventuring day or the entire adventuring day 1 day duration stuff. Switching to gritty realism as written effectively cuts the duration of those dramatically by expanding the adventuring day without expanding duration or resource cost of those abilities

 

[RangerWickett]

So I do have some house rules....

Main one, which I have used versions of since 4e, is that to take a long rest, an area needs to be "resty". Right now if an area is not resty enough (most wilderness and dungeon situations) 50% chance that the character only benefits from a short rest.

Level Up adapted the 'haven' idea from Adventures in Middle Earth. I don't have the full mechanics clear in my mind, but it's akin to what you're saying. Indeed, one element of overland journeys is finding safe havens so you can rest.

 

[Seramus]

I'm all over the place. I really want Long Rests to happen in places of safety and comfort, where you can escape from the stresses of travel and miserable meals. But I also really loved 4E's encounter powers to spice things up and reduce the number of basic attacks, so I like my Short Rests to be shorter than an hour and less narratively time consuming.

I really like how Dungeon of Drakkenheim does it. A perpetual haze/hazard that makes casual long resting impossible, but bastions of safety are scattered around the megadungon that the party can retreat and recuperate in. But those bastions can become known to enemy factions and assaulted once in a while.

 

[overgeeked]

That's the problem exactly when classes have things that last for N hours intended to last a good chunk of the adventuring day or the entire adventuring day 1 day duration stuff. Switching to gritty realism as written effectively cuts the duration of those dramatically by expanding the adventuring day without expanding duration or resource cost of those abilities

As with the other poster, you’re pointing at a thing and calling it a bug. It looks a lot like a feature to me. 5E is superhero fantasy. Mods like Gritty Realism dial things back a bit. That’s literally the point.

 

[overgeeked]

I'm all over the place. I really want Long Rests to happen in places of safety and comfort, where you can escape from the stresses of travel and miserable meals. But I also really loved 4E's encounter powers to spice things up and reduce the number of basic attacks, so I like my Short Rests to be shorter than an hour and less narratively time consuming.

I really like how Dungeon of Drakkenheim does it. A perpetual haze/hazard that makes casual long resting impossible, but bastions of safety are scattered around the megadungon that the party can retreat and recuperate in. But those bastions can become known to enemy factions and assaulted once in a while.

One thing I’ve tried is short rests as an action or bonus action. But no more than 3/day. If you use normal rest rules only in places of safety, defended town, etc and Gritty Realism outside of that, it can move things toward the style you’re suggesting. This also does a lot to fix the linear fighter, quadratic wizard problem.

 

[tetrasodium]

As with the other poster, you’re pointing at a thing and calling it a bug. It looks a lot like a feature to me. 5E is superhero fantasy. Mods like Gritty Realism dial things back a bit. That’s literally the point.

Quite the opposite, your pointing at a problem and saying it's a feature not a bug. 5e might try to tune some aspects up to & beyond eleven (usually with poorly balanced elements), but it very much is not super heroes as super heroes fight similarly super villains rather than wayde wilson in looney toons.

 

[TerraDave]

Level Up adapted the 'haven' idea from Adventures in Middle Earth. I don't have the full mechanics clear in my mind, but it's akin to what you're saying. Indeed, one element of overland journeys is finding safe havens so you can rest.

Which makes a lot of sense.

For me, this was in response to 4e characters in old school dungeon environments were the ease of recovery could just break the dungeon. But it did also add that element of actually looking for defensible beds and divans to rest.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

I think recharges only on a long rest or short rest have their merits. I do like short rests that give back hp through hit dice.

I often thought about 8 hours short rest, one day long rest and also using the healing surge variant where you recover hit dice during a short rest but can spend them as an action to recover hp (which would take 10 minutes).