NOW LIVE! -- ZEITGEIST: Death of the Author for D&D 5E on Kickstarter! Murder. Conspiracy. Secrets. A remote manor. An adventure for D&D 5E.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="clearstream" data-source="post: 8300420" data-attributes="member: 71699"><p>Taking the rest rules as written sincerely and working through them as facts about the game world reveals obvious dissonances. Additionally, the rules don't in my view yield an engagingly bracing game balance. I drafted an alternative built around the idea that rests are a real thing that people do in the game world, and that characters ("adepts" I am calling them, because I want to include NPCs with character-class equivalence) have a special power to meditate and gain uses of abilities. The idea is that this is an in-world solution to rests that also results in a more challenging game system. Please note that I accept D&D can't be used to model consistent worlds because many things are just how they are for the sake of big-tent RPG: I'm going ahead and trying it anyway. I would love to hear critiques of this as a system. Where is it broken, and what tweaks or additions might complete it?</p><h2><span style="color: rgb(41, 105, 176)"><span style="font-size: 22px">Rest and Meditation</span></span></h2><p>Most creatures refresh themselves through breathers and sleep. Adepts are those able to draw transcendent power into themselves through meditation; taking forms such as reverie, prayer, mantra, contemplation of the weave, or perfected self-control.</p><h3><span style="color: rgb(41, 105, 176)">1. Breather</span></h3><p>Anyone can take a breather, during which they perform no more than lowkey activity such as standing watch, eating and drinking, reading and talking, donning or doffing armor, and sleeping. Adventuring activity—fighting, casting spells, marching, or similar—interrupts it.</p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">After 1 uninterrupted hour of lowkey activity—creatures can spend Hit Dice to regain hit points, and adepts with sufficient training and XP level up.</li> </ul><h3><span style="color: rgb(41, 105, 176)">2. Sleep</span></h3><p>When a creature that needs to sleep ends a 24-hour period without, it must succeed on a DC 10 Constitution saving throw or suffer a level of exhaustion. Each consecutive 24-hours that passes without the benefit of a sleep increases the DC by 5. To sleep, a creature subjects itself to the unconscious condition. At the start of sleeping, one magic item can be chosen for attunement.</p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">A creature wakes naturally after 8 hours sleep, which means it stops being unconscious. It will also wake up if it takes damage, or another creature uses an action to shake it.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">After 8 hours sleep—a creature’s chosen magic item (if any) is attuned, and if it was comfortable, it recovers one Hit Die and level of exhaustion. It then cannot begin a new beneficial sleep for 16 hours.</li> </ul><h4><span style="color: rgb(41, 105, 176)">Being Woken by Noise</span></h4><p>Sudden loud noise—such as yelling, thunder, or a ringing bell—will wake most creatures, as can whispers within 10 feet if their passive Wisdom (Perception) score is 20 or higher, and normal speech if their passive Wisdom (Perception) score is 15 or higher, and the environment is otherwise silent (no wind, birdsong, crickets, street sounds or the like.)</p><h4><span style="color: rgb(41, 105, 176)">Making Yourself Comfortable </span></h4><p>Medium or heavy armor is not comfortable to sleep in. Circumstances, such as exposure to bad weather, can also stop a creature from being comfortable.</p><h4><span style="color: rgb(41, 105, 176)">Sleep Alternatives </span></h4><p>Creatures with the Trance trait subject themselves to the stunned condition instead of unconsciousness, and count 4 hours of trancing as equivalent to 8 hours sleeping. Warlocks benefiting from Aspect of the Moon can perform other lowkey activity in place of subjecting themselves to the unconscious or stunned condition.</p><h3><span style="color: rgb(41, 105, 176)">3. Meditation </span></h3><p>Adepts can enter meditation, choosing at the start if that will be for 8 hours or 1 day. They are then subject to the unconscious condition for that duration. The focus required is taxing, so meditation is not lowkey activity. It is interrupted if they take damage, or another creature uses an action to shake them.</p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">After 8 uninterrupted hours of meditation—adepts who prepare spells can change their lists, and features that refresh at the end of a “short rest”, do so.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">After 1 uninterrupted day of meditation—adepts gain a level of exhaustion, and features that refresh at the end of a “long rest” (with the exception of hit points and hit dice), do so.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Attuned magic items normally recharge with meditation: the item will specify how.</li> </ul><p>The need to meditate promotes formation of colleges, schools, orders, and the like, where adepts can watch over one another protectively.</p><p></p><p></p><p><strong>[2nd EDIT </strong>- Following playtest, I have tightened up some aspects and rewritten in a subjective rather than objective mode. Note that sleeps/trances are also now breathers, and short meditations can flow into long. I also recited the lack of sleep rules for avoidance of doubt. Added a clarifier suggested by [USER=5889]@Stalker0[/USER].]</p><p></p><p><strong>[3rd EDIT</strong> - Added alternatives to sleep - as suggested by [USER=5889]@Stalker0[/USER].]</p></blockquote><p></p>

Verification