D&D 5E Crazy house rule idea: One Level Exhaustion to take a Long Rest

[Stalker0]

I could see this as a once per week “heroic surge” kind of mechanic…maybe, or even just once per adventure.

but yeah at will as an action it’s too good

 

[BookTenTiger]

Alright, now that I've had a night's sleep, let me expand a little more on this idea:

While talking with my friends in person around the gaming table (still pretty weird after a year and a half of Discord and Foundry!), we were discussing the idea of house rules keeping the narrative moving forward, forward, forward.

One of my friends was playing a video game in which when your character reached 0 hit points, they gained an ongoing consequence instead of dying. The idea was that the narrative was still moving forward, though your character was now changed.

The crazy house rule I came up with (again, after a few drinks) was inspired by this. What if, instead of Long Rests taking time, Long Rests cost consequences?

Exhaustion is already a mechanic in the game, so I thought that would be an interesting fit. @Fanaelialae is right that it would have to be a special kind of Exhaustion that could only be healed, say, through a Week of Downtime or something.

I feel like the implementation of this House Rule would create some of the following changes:

• Each dungeon or combat-heavy adventure would likely take one in-game day, as characters could Long Rest and regain spells, HP, and abilities without leaving dangerous areas.
• It would reduce group conflicts when some characters need to rest and others don't.
• It could introduce some neat narrative beats when you describe how your character is injured but regains their fighting spirit. "That last strike from the ogre made my right arm totally useless, but the pain clarifies my mind and I get my spell slots back!"
• It would introduce an interesting strategic conflict for the player... "If I take a Long Rest now, my maximum hit points will be halved, but I'll get back all my spells... hm..."

The downsides would be:

• It's a little Video Gamey and hard to justify in the narrative.
• It would be very powerful in a big fight, especially the "last fight" of a dungeon or adventure, when everyone knows they won't have to face more baddies. Spending all your exhaustion to get back a bunch of high-level Fireballs would be very powerful.
• It would require some reworking of the term "Long Rest" as a measurement of 24 hours. Things outside of character abilities that "recharge on a Long Rest" or "last until your next Long Rest" would have to be reworked. For example, if you are Poisoned until your next Long Rest, would that count for this special action?

Anyways, as I said, it's a crazy house rule idea. But it would be interesting!

 

[Benjamin Olson]

I think it's an interesting idea. I think a major downside is that it would up the power of long rest-centric classes, whom the game already favors anytime you don't make a point of having long adventuring days. I also think the vanilla exhaustion system is kind of half-baked; it functions well enough for something that only rarely comes up in play outside of a few subclasses but I don't think its ready for primetime if you are going to make it a major part of gameplay for every character.

 

[Shardstone]

So what narratively is going on with this?

You're simultaneously getting tired and not getting tired at the same time?

 

[BookTenTiger]

So what narratively is going on with this?

You're simultaneously getting tired and not getting tired at the same time?

What doesn't kill you literally makes you stronger!

 

[Flamestrike]

Casters dont really care about exhaustion, so this just doubles their spellcasting power for little cost.

I wouldnt use it personally.

 

[Blue]

So, you absolutely SUCK on every mechanical interaction that isn't combat (disadvantage on all ability checks), and you nigh-instantly refresh all long-rest recovery which is highly concentrated on certain classes.

So it's inherently unfair and unbalanced, and after you do it your best strategy is to murderhobo everything because your combat ability is barely touched but every other mechanical way to deal with everything is borked.

Sorry, it is multiple horrendous negatives without any real redeeming qualities.

 

[Flamestrike]

So, you absolutely SUCK on every mechanical interaction that isn't combat (disadvantage on all ability checks), and you nigh-instantly refresh all long-rest recovery which is highly concentrated on certain classes.

Not that casters care about disadvantage to ability checks, or even disadvantage to attack rolls, or even the movement penalty.

Martials care about those things.

Asking a Wizard 'would you like to double your slots in exchange for disadvantage on ability checks' is always going to be met with a resounding yes.

 

[Blue]

Not that casters care about disadvantage to ability checks, or even disadvantage to attack rolls, or even the movement penalty.

Martials care about those things.

Asking a Wizard 'would you like to double your slots in exchange for disadvantage on ability checks' is always going to be met with a resounding yes.

Um, yeah. Not sure why you felt the need to quote me to restate what I said in the part you didn't quote, but it's not wrong. Well, it's a little wrong because some of the long-rest recovery classes do also have skills that they use during the part of game that isn't combat.

 

[Flamestrike]

Um, yeah. Not sure why you felt the need to quote me to restate what I said in the part you didn't quote, but it's not wrong. Well, it's a little wrong because some of the long-rest recovery classes do also have skills that they use during the part of game that isn't combat.

I was echoing your sentiments, not disagreeing with you!