D&D 5E Correcting ripple effects of slow resting variant

[NotAYakk]

I'm not against this, but I am curious why. The only two points of attrition that have the potential to last longer than a single long rest currently in the 5e rules are exhaustion and spent HD.

With an exploration heavy campaign, exhaustion is something that can come into play as a penalty for player decisions or for failure from "skill challenge" type of scenes. Say a bad survival role for choosing a camp and dealing with a flash flood and needing save selves, mounts, gears, wagons.

Having a level of exhaustion cured with a short rest takes all the sting out of it unless I'm giving it out with more frequency, or giving out multiple levels based on the severity of failure. The latter I'm not against if there's a good reason to clear it up quicker. Actually, I probably like it better now that I'm examining the idea.

But what brought it up the suggestion?

If you give it out with the same calendar frequency, then making exhaustion come back on a short (overnight) rest is a no-change.

If you give it out with the same encounter frequency, then making exhaustion come back on a long (week) rest is a no-change.

Ie, imagine non-gritty rests. You are force marching for a day. Do you get 1 level of exhaustion? Well this has no effect if you still get a night's rest.

Now imagine gritty rests. You stay up overnight. Does this result in a level of exhaustion? If so, then staying up overnight becomes ridiculously more expensive; in standard, staying up overnight for a night, then sleeping, then repeating this cycle every 2 days is stable. In this new system, that same narrative set of actions results in death after a few weeks.

My personal system -- 3/8 chance each spent d8 HD comes back overnight, 1 HD can be burned to recover exhaustion overnight -- is somewhere in the middle at low levels, and approaches the "more generous" one at higher levels.

 

[Blue]

If you give it out with the same calendar frequency, then making exhaustion come back on a short (overnight) rest is a no-change.

If you give it out with the same encounter frequency, then making exhaustion come back on a long (week) rest is a no-change.

Ie, imagine non-gritty rests. You are force marching for a day. Do you get 1 level of exhaustion? Well this has no effect if you still get a night's rest.

Now imagine gritty rests. You stay up overnight. Does this result in a level of exhaustion? If so, then staying up overnight becomes ridiculously more expensive; in standard, staying up overnight for a night, then sleeping, then repeating this cycle every 2 days is stable. In this new system, that same narrative set of actions results in death after a few weeks.

My personal system -- 3/8 chance each spent d8 HD comes back overnight, 1 HD can be burned to recover exhaustion overnight -- is somewhere in the middle at low levels, and approaches the "more generous" one at higher levels.

I was planning on giving it out with encounter frequency. Buut, I was planning on more scenes between encounters. Many which would feature skill use. And the first level of exhaustion gives disadvantage on that. So it's a heavier penalty.

I'm trying not to modify the system too much. But leaving it for long rest - or multiple long rests - is feeling punitive because it will come up more between those long rests because of more non-encounter scenes.

 

[Flamestrike]

I'm not against this, but I am curious why. The only two points of attrition that have the potential to last longer than a single long rest currently in the 5e rules are exhaustion and spent HD.

Having a penalty apply for an entire day for exhaustion is crippling enough. If you have exhaustion last till the end of a long rest in gritty realism, those levels of exhaustion last a month or more (and man, you must be pretty darn tired to be exhausted for a month!).

Remember; to get a Long rest, the party needs an entire week of downtime. There will potentially be months between Long rests. If you make exhaustion stick around more than overnight, then it becomes crippling. Sleep in cold weather for a night and fail the DC 10 Con Save? You have a level of Exhaustion for a month. Nothing you can do about it other than rest for an entire week somewhere. Dont rink enough water for a day? Fail your DC 15 Con save and you're crippled for a whole month. Dont eat at least a pound of food after 3 days? Automatically screwed for a month. Berserker barbarian uses Frenzy? Ditto. He does so again? He's out of action until he can rest for 2 entire weeks somewhere.

The rules for exhaustion (food, water, cold etc) presume it sticks around for 24 hours or so. If you make it last for longer, skipping a meal, or sleeping in the cold unreasonably screw people over in ways worse than they would your average Joe in the real world.

 

[Blue]

Wrap up
Based on the discussion, here's what I'm planning. Thanks all for your feedback and suggestions.

Spells
There seems to be some saying no need to extend spells, others are for extending them, and some that there are certain spells to watch extending because they can grant a long-rest in safety.

I don't have a conclusion on this, which means I might start with no change and up it - it's easier to give players a bennie than to take one away.

Item Recharge
Per-dawn recharge is a lot more powerful. Roughly going to switch to long-rest type schedule.

Exhaustion
Short rest removes one level. Long rest removes all levels.

 

[Don Durito]

If you're using gritty rests, it feels like exhaustion function more like wounds.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

I'm planning to playtest a different rule once I get to play again.

Rules:

Harder death saves: Death save are made against a DC 10 or half the damage that took the character to 0 hp or less, whichever is higher. The DC increase +1 every time the character drops to 0 hp or less between long rests.

Healing kit dependency: Healing on a short rest with HDs requires 1 use of a healer's kit. You need to spend 1 use of an healer's kit to make a medicine check against the same DC as the target's death save DC when you try to stabilize them.

Long rests. Certain elements can make a long rest more difficult; the player must make a CON check at the end of the rest to see if the character recovers from his injuries. If more than one of its situations is applicable, the roll is made with a disadvantage against the highest DC. Having the proper equipment to make a comfortable camp in the wilderness can give advantage on the check.

• Sleeping in armor or with a "Poor" standard of living requires a Constitution check for a DC of 10.
• Sleeping in a difficult climate, poor weather or harsh cold or with a "Squalid" standard of living requires a Constitution roll against a DC of 13.
• Sleeping when poisoned, diseased or with a "Wretched" standard of living requires a Constitution check for a DC of 15.
• Sleeping in a dangerous place such as deep wilderness, a dungeon or haunted crypt requires a Constitution check against a DC of 17.

A failed roll means the character is not considered to have slept that day when it comes to exhaustion from sleep deprivation.

 

[Oofta]

Goals and reasons for switching to the alternate rest rules are going to very from table to table.

I switched because it works better from a pacing perspective and I like the feel of it taking a while to fully recover. I simply don't want to try to cram 5 or more encounters into one day on a regular basis.

So I didn't switch because it's "grittier" (which is why I extend spell durations), I did it because I want Nova encounters to be rare and taking time to rest to be meaningful. That and I have a lot of investigation and social aspects to my game. It's the kind of stuff that just felt rushed before I switched over.

Oh, and in my game, recharge items require a week to power up.