D&D 5E Changing rest periods

[Xeviat]

I've been tempted, as a part of a greater project to convert most of the ability recovery in the game to short rest recovery, to have short rests be 8 hour rests in the wilderness and have long rests be 8 hour rests in settlements. But I do like the night's rest vs. weekend off idea too for stretching out rests for less combat focused games.

 

[DND_Reborn]

An interesting point on pacing from our table: we've had a dozen encounters before without taking a short rest and then only one or two before we needed another rest. The number of encounters isn't really the factor IMO but how quickly features are used up and what level of risk the players are willing to take.

 

[Bawylie]

I want to look at a couple things on a modified rest schedule.

Among those are pace, travel, and rising/falling action.

If the group has few encounters between long rests, I prefer those encounters to be of hard or harder difficulty. If the group has many encounters per long rest, I prefer to mix it up with a variety of difficulties.

Personally, I’m a fan of the idea that a rest in the wilderness has only the benefit of a short rest and that a full long rest can only be accomplished in a sanctuary or other safe space free of immediate stressors.

 

[5ekyu]

So, as a general rule, I am against just set values for key elements and restrictions. I prefer charsacter defined elements.

So, has anyone looked at say linking rests available to Con in some way that turned that stat into a significant player in the rest game?

For example...

Default: Long Rests are a week and Short rests are an 8 hour break in comfortable safe environment.

Exception: For each point of Con bonus, a character may take n the wild one 8 hour Long Rest and two 1 hour short rests.

So, this pretty much let's you at chargen pay for your "field endurance" capability.

 

[DEFCON 1]

So, as a general rule, I am against just set values for key elements and restrictions. I prefer charsacter defined elements.

So, has anyone looked at say linking rests available to Con in some way that turned that stat into a significant player in the rest game?

For example...

Default: Long Rests are a week and Short rests are an 8 hour break in comfortable safe environment.

Exception: For each point of Con bonus, a character may take n the wild one 8 hour Long Rest and two 1 hour short rests.

So, this pretty much let's you at chargen pay for your "field endurance" capability.

That seems like something that won't actually result in much benefit, as the group will end up just defaulting to the rest schedule of the weakest member.

Either that, or the ones who can't rest while others can will just always be the ones on watch the entire time since they have no reason to sleep.

 

[Sadras]

I use a recharge mechanic, essentially a die roll vs DC to regain abilities without earning a level of exhaustion.
DC is dependent on whether you're recharging short/long rest powers, how many times you have recharged already and the no of days since your last long rest (24 hours).
The longer you travel without a full day's rest, the harder it becomes to recharge.
And a long rest cannot be out in the wilderness while looking over your back or engaging in night shifts - it needs to be in safe, tranquil, comfortable surrounds with adequate food and water.

Works for our table.

 

[DND_Reborn]

I use a recharge mechanic, essentially a die roll vs DC to regain abilities without earning a level of exhaustion.
DC is dependent on whether you're recharging short/long rest powers, how many times you have recharged already and the no of days since your last long rest (24 hours).
The longer you travel without a full day's rest, the harder it becomes to recharge.
And a long rest cannot be out in the wilderness while looking over your back or engaging in night shifts - it needs to be in safe, tranquil, comfortable surrounds with adequate food and water.

Works for our table.

Hmm... I never considered the recharge mechanic. Interesting idea since that is really what rests are for. Could you provide a more concrete example?

 

[Sadras]

Hmm... I never considered the recharge mechanic. Interesting idea since that is really what rests are for. Could you provide a more concrete example?

I've included our entire rest mechanic below. It requires 2-3 read through's to fully comprehend it.

The main thing to grasp is, PC's will no longer ask for a short rest to recharge their abilities, instead they will ask to recharge their short rest abilities. There is no x time waiting period, it is immediate.

To be fair the idea was not mine initially, but another poster's (@Ilbranteloth). I just modified it for our table and stole a little from another system.

[sblock]Rechargeable Rest Variant. This Resting variant uses a recovery check (1d20 + proficiency bonus + primary stat modifier) along with the exhaustion track as the mechanism for the recharging of short and long rest abilities. Adventurers can take a Short Rest in the midst of an adventuring day, and a Travel Rest or Long Rest to the end of the day.

Short Rest
Short rests act as breathers and are anywhere between 10-15 minutes in length. Hit Points can be regained by spending Hit Dice.

Travel Rest
A travel rest equates to a period of at least 8 hours in length, during which a character sleeps and may participate in light activity: reading, talking, eating, or standing watch for no more than 2 hours. If the rest is interrupted by a period of strenuous activity – at least 1 hour of walking, fighting, casting spells, or similar adventuring activity – the character must begin the rest again to gain any benefit from it.
A travel rest allows a character to remove 1 level of exhaustion. Should the character not be suffering from any levels of exhaustion, they may recover half their Hit Dice.

• The DC for your recovery of short rest abilities is set to 5 plus 1 for each day since your long rest, and your next such check is made with advantage.
• The DC for your recovery of long rest abilities is set to 10 plus 1 for each day since your last long rest and your next such check is made with advantage.

Long Rest
A long rest is 24 hours of uninterrupted rest with at any two or more requirements, reflected below, being in effect.

Safety from Threat of Attack - This could mean a thorough watch is posted – for example, a well-guarded Elf camp in [their forest] would allow a long rest. Arguably lying rolled in your cloak in a ditch just off the Forest Road, with your [Halfling] friend trying to stay awake and watch for Spiders, would not.

Comfort - Sleeping in a Dwarf hall carved from the heart of a mountain is a very different experience than sleeping in a Goblin tunnel. Comfort might mean a bed. It might mean good food. It might mean good company that allows for proper rest.

Tranquility - Some locations may simply provide an air of peace that means good rest is available to a company. This could be an ancient Elf ruin that has held onto some of its former glow of goodness. It could be a campsite next to a bright river that raises the spirits. This is very much in line with building the feeling of [the Setting], [if it is one] where characters can find peace in the wildest of places.

A long rest allows a character to regain all their abilities, hit points and Hit Dice as well as remove all levels of exhaustion. The DCs for recovery checks after recovering short and long rest abilities are set to 5 and 10, respectively.

Recovering Short and Long Rest Abilities

• You may recover all short rest abilities or all long rest abilities at any time. However, when you do so you must make a recovery check. You make a separate check after recovering short rest and long rest abilities.
• Each creature recovers abilities and makes recovery checks separately.
• If you fail the recovery check, you suffer 1 level of exhaustion if you recovered short rest abilities or 3 levels of exhaustion if you recovered long rest abilities.
• As noted above, immediately after a long rest, the DCs for recovery checks after recovering short rest and long rest abilities are 5 and 10, respectively.
• Following each recovery check on the same day, the corresponding DC increases by 5 for short rest abilities and 10 for long rest abilities
• When attempting to recharge your long rest abilities for the second time in one day, you suffer 1 level of exhaustion, whether the check is successful or not.

[/sblock]

Example:
A 5th level battlemaster with 16 STR wishes to recharge their short rest abilities (maneuvers). +6 on the roll (+3 for proficiency and +3 for STR modifier)
It is his first short rest ability recharge since his Long Rest. Therefore he has Advantage on the roll.
It has been 3 days since his Long Rest. DC 5+3=8

DC 8, +6 on the roll with Advantage.

If he wishes to recharge his short rest abilities that same day, the DC will increase by 5. i.e. DC 13.
If he wishes to recharge his short rest abilities the very next day, the DC will be 9 (5 base + 4 days since Long Rest).

Failure on a roll does not negate the recharge (i.e. so he still regains his maneuvers), but he will have gained 1 level of exhaustion.

 

[5ekyu]

That seems like something that won't actually result in much benefit, as the group will end up just defaulting to the rest schedule of the weakest member.

Either that, or the ones who can't rest while others can will just always be the ones on watch the entire time since they have no reason to sleep.

Uh, the penalties for not sleeping etc still apply - no changes there - the difference is the higher Con characters can get the benefits of short and long rests more often and in more adverse circumstances.

I mean, when I read some folks requiring a week for long rest, I didnt think they meant the PCs only sleep during thosexweeks, did you?

 

[Sadras]

So, has anyone looked at say linking rests available to Con in some way that turned that stat into a significant player in the rest game? ...(snip)... So, this pretty much let's you at chargen pay for your "field endurance" capability.

I find this is already done at class level - so a Battlemaster who is all short rest abilities can go NOVA many more times than your wizard. I wouldn't want to compound that with an additional high CON requirement (CON already has the hp thing going for it).

As an aside: That is one of the primary reasons why my recharge rest variant uses one's primary ability rather than CON.