D&D 5E Death Saves and Resting - A rules tweak to slay elephants and increase difficulty through all levels

OB1

Jedi Master
Edit: Now using the term Mortal Wound to replace Failed Death Save.

In the thread on whether 5E is viable at high levels, I remarked on a set of rule changes I was considering as my party moves from Tier III into Tier IV and will also include whenever I start my next campaign. As I'd like further comment, I thought to bring it into its own thread.

The goal here is to increase flexibility between day long missions and multi-day or even multi-week missions, without requiring the rules to arbitrarily change based on the mission type. The two primary ways I accomplish this is making dropping to 0 HP much more dangerous, Failed Death Saves more permanent (already in my campaign they reset on short rests rather than instantly when healed) and decoupling Healing and Ability Regeneration into different types of rests.

I welcome any thoughts and insights to strengthen and tighten this tweak.

Death Saves

1. When you drop to 0 HP, make a death saving throw. DC is 10 or the number of hit points below 0 the attack took you, whichever is higher.

2. When you fail a death save, you also gain a level of exhaustion and a Mortal Wound. You can never have fewer failed death save marks than you have Mortal Wounds.

3. Mortal Wound's are removable by extended rest or one at a time by Greater Restoration or similar magic. On a Long Rest, you can make a DC 20 Heal check to remove a Mortal Wound, failing this check also prevents you from removing a level of exhaustion during the rest. Failure by 5 or more increases your exhaustion level by 1.

4. When you have a Mortal Wound, you cannot gain Temporary Hit Points from any source.

Resting

Breather - 5 Minute Rest where you can spend Hit Die (also available during any other type of rest)

Short Rest - 1 hour rest uninterrupted by combat resets short rest class abilities.


Long Rest - 8 hour rest uninterrupted by combat resets long rest class abilities and removes 1 level of exhaustion. You also regain 1 spent Hit Die if you are level 1-10 or 2 spent Hit Die if you are level 11-20. You do not regain Hit Die from the rest if you have a level of exhaustion or a Mortal Wound prior to starting the rest.


Extended Rest - 7 day rest uninterrupted by combat resets HP to Max, returns all hit die, and removes all exhaustion levels and Mortal Wounds.


Edit - Special thanks to @Helldritch for feedback from the original thread
 
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cmad1977

Hero
For the the given short rest is basically a 'breather' or an hour whichever the players prefer.

The only 'issue' i see is introducing it mid campaign . And I don't really see anyone having a fit about anyways so.... yeah.


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OB1

Jedi Master
For the the given short rest is basically a 'breather' or an hour whichever the players prefer.

The only 'issue' i see is introducing it mid campaign . And I don't really see anyone having a fit about anyways so.... yeah.


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My concern with breathers giving short rest class abilities back is that it would overpower short rest classes. With the 1 hour requirement, I have a reasonable chance to either have combat interrupt or time pressure issues.

I'm going to try and introduce it as an effect of them leaving their home material plane, but yeah if they really don't want a mid campaign change like this I'll just save it for the next campaign. My guess is they will grumble a bit but accept it.
 

Tony Vargas

Legend
My concern with breathers giving short rest class abilities back is that it would overpower short rest classes.
I can see how that might be an issue with the Warlock.

You might consider changing some short-rest-recharges to 'breather'-recharges. CS dice, for instance.
 

OB1

Jedi Master
I can see how that might be an issue with the Warlock.

You might consider changing some short-rest-recharges to 'breather'-recharges. CS dice, for instance.

But then where does it stop? Bardic Inspiration? Ki points? I like the breather to just be about regaining a bit of stamina, and it's a rule I implemented in my current game because their were no healers in the party. It's a nice feature that doesn't shift the power balance much because even though it's easier to use them, Hit Die are still a limited resource, whereas ability re-charges are only limited by the number of times you can rest.
 

I will try it for my next campaign. Already talked about this to my players and they don't see anything bad from it. (I suspect them to fear that I would start to use the full gritty realism option...)

The good point about this tweaking of the rest rule is that it is a middle ground between the normal rule and gritty realism.
I was thinking about a new twist.

Breather: You can spend a maximum of 1 HD worth of healing from level 1-10 and 2 from level 11+
Short rest: You can spend a maximum of half of your total HD
Long rest: You can spend all your HD.
 



I don't think so.

In fact, players will always go for the shortest route to get what they want. The long rest restore daily abilities. So the players with lots of dailies will go for the long rest. On the other hand, players with short rest abilities will try to punch in short rest period as much as possible. Exactly like they are doing right now without this tweak of the rule.

The breather is a nice addition to provide a way for all classes to heal up a bit without being "resting" too long.
The extended rest is also a nice narrative addition. Be it for in between adventures, in between travel point (resting in Edoras anyone?) from one place to another.

Note that the higher the player, the less the extended rest is required. Greater restoration is right there to ensure that.
Also, the use of the cantrip "spare the dying" will be much more common now. It will be a nice way to prevent the players to make too much "death" saves.

My only concern is that it might make the cleric a class tax. The cleric will be invaluable in the role of the healer with this implementation of the rule.
 

OB1

Jedi Master
My only concern is that it might make the cleric a class tax. The cleric will be invaluable in the role of the healer with this implementation of the rule.

I have a similar concern, and even more so because in the campaign I'm thinking about implementing this in, the best healer is the Ranger.

That said, it really comes down to the type of mission and the amount of time between missions. The intent here is that a single day dungeon delve remains about the same difficulty as the core rule, while a two week trek across the desert becomes more dangerous. A high level cleric would make it less so, but unless a particular campaign is centered around those types of challenges, I'm not sure a cleric would be a class tax.
 

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