Level Up (A5E) End the 5 minute work-day by making all classes work off short rests.

[DND_Reborn]

But I do get annoyed when GMs use the fact that long rests are 8 hours to naughty word over players with an encounter 7 hours into a rest.

That shouldn't happen. I mean, it is fine for DMs to have an encounter during a rest, but I have yet to see anything happen that stops the party from continuing their rest once the encounter is over.

 

[Phoebasss]

That shouldn't happen. I mean, it is fine for DMs to have an encounter during a rest, but I have yet to see anything happen that stops the party from continuing their rest once the encounter is over.

If I remember correctly, there's some stipulation that rests have to be "uninterrupted somewhere in the PHB.

Ok nevermind I just looked it up again and it says the interruption has to be at least an hour long. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some previous DMs to fight.

 

[DND_Reborn]

Ok nevermind I just looked it up again and it says the interruption has to be at least an hour long.

Yep, that is why I've never had a long rest interrupted to the point it was ruined. I'm sure it's possible, just hasn't happened yet.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have some previous DMs to fight.

Go and get 'em! GRR!!!

 

[tetrasodium]

I do think players should sleep, so I'm keen on keeping long rests at maybe slighly shorter than their current length for that purpose. But I do get annoyed when GMs use the fact that long rests are 8 hours to naughty word over players with an encounter 7 hours into a rest.

In the past it wasn't so much that you had the rest interrupted so much as that you might need days Lets just say there are two level 7 fighters with +3 con bonuses (really reasonable by 3.5 standards) at half health & use max+6xaverage=57hp. Both are at half health (28/28) & the rest of the party are down about 10-15 each putting them on deaths door or at least the step to his front porch. The cleric has one cure light wounds(1d8+7 at that level) after using the one cure moderate & other cure lesser they had prepared when they started adventuring.

everyone else is going to be down 3-8hp after that rest & those two fighters who soak up all the damage normally are going to get 7hp back & be at 35/57 in the morning. These are their options:

• Return to town & rest up safely
• burn up hundreds or thousands of gp worth of healing items when level 7 wealth by level is 19,000 (total wealth of everything the character has ever gotten if you conberted all to gold & most of which was already spent on cool stuff so just stoppng at magic mart R us to replenish is not really an option)
• get the cleric to burn all their slots & be helpless tomorrow but one fighter is probably full or close in the morning & the other +much of the group still needs another night of rest assuming nothing happens all day tonight tomorrow & the next night to get in some nicks
• much the same as the last one but have the cleric split those spells soboth fighters are mostly full after resting a third night where the cleric spent a day largely helpless so the cleric can get their spells back

All 4 options are bad so the group was biting their nails in the earlier fights as damage was building prior to retreating wayy out
edit: It doesn't take much of an encounter to severely reduce or even reverse any gains last night when you only recover your level in hp

 

[Stalker0]

It's not a good idea, as others have pointed out.

If all features recharge on a short rest, then everyone is encouraged to "go nova" on every single combat encounter, and take a short rest afterwards.

This forces the DM to have more or less all encounters the same difficulty.

Your saying this like it’s a bad thing. Players want to use their toys, why is it so bad to let them use them in each fight?

there are tons of ways to have fight variability. First, you can always make certain fights easy to let players have their fun.

for super hard fights you can use many enemies or add things to make the encounter special. This is actually easier to do, because under this model you know what your party is likely to bring to the table, so you can adjust the difficulty with ease.

whats harder is making a “normal” fight that your party novas on...and then suddenly your dealing with the next “slightly challenging” fight that is now much much harder because the party is out of gas.

 

[clearstream]

If I remember correctly, there's some stipulation that rests have to be "uninterrupted somewhere in the PHB.

Ok nevermind I just looked it up again and it says the interruption has to be at least an hour long. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some previous DMs to fight.

An hour of walking, or any amount of combat or spellcasting.

 

[clearstream]

I do think players should sleep, so I'm keen on keeping long rests at maybe slighly shorter than their current length for that purpose. But I do get annoyed when GMs use the fact that long rests are 8 hours to naughty word over players with an encounter 7 hours into a rest.

That makes me think it might be possible to define a mechanical purpose and polarity for rests.

As I understand it, the mechanical purpose of rests is to allow greater diversity in abilities as game designers can offer players. They can design stronger abilities that can't be used in every combat, and weaker abilities that can be used in every combat. Cantrips at one end (use as often as you like) and wizard spells at the other (use once between long rests). That then presents more interesting decisions to players - use the spell now, or save it for later?

We can have rests that cannot be interrupted, but are mechanically constrained. For example, an instant short rest after every second combat.

OR

We can have rests that can be interrupted, but are not mechanically constrained. For example, take an 8 hour rest when you like, but it can be interrupted.

Either option can satisfy the purpose of rests, therefore Level Up - with its intent to offer advanced play - could offer robust versions of both. It's actually the RAW that is at fault, since it straddles them and does neither very effectively. Leading to dissatisfaction.

 

[clearstream]

Above and beyond all else I would like to see the end of the 5 minute work-day by making all classes based around short rests. Every class should regain class features on a short rest.

This post from this thread seems like a good start for spellcasters.

I wanted to copy my latest as a reply to the OP, as I think it is crucial in game design to think about goals of the design.

As I understand it, the mechanical purpose of rests is to allow greater diversity in abilities as game designers can offer players. They can design stronger abilities that can't be used in every combat, and weaker abilities that can be used in every combat. Cantrips at one end (use as often as you like) and wizard spells at the other (use once between long rests). That then presents more interesting decisions to players - use the spell now, or save it for later?

A) We can have rests that cannot be interrupted, but are mechanically constrained. For example, an instant short rest after every second combat.

OR

B) We can have rests that can be interrupted, but are not mechanically constrained. For example, take an 8 hour rest when you like, but it can be interrupted.

Either option can satisfy the purpose of rests, therefore Level Up - with its intent to offer advanced play - could offer robust versions of both. It's actually the RAW that is at fault, since it straddles them and does neither very effectively. Leading to dissatisfaction. Were I design directing this project I would probably ask my designers to give me A) a mechanically forced system, like the instant rests idea or maybe rest points if that can be made to work smoothly, and B) a narrative-space system (something like my own rules above).

 

[DND_Reborn]

An hour of walking, or any amount of combat or spellcasting.

Well, I know where you are going with that, but that is only one interpretation. There's been more than enough discussions online about it, so I am not looking to rehash it here.

For the sake of @Phoebasss, the other interpretation is you must have at least 1 hour of interruption. We've had combats run over 6 minutes in game time (something like 67 rounds I think was our longest fight), but nothing close to an hour. Pretty much, the only way your long rest will be interrupted is if you have to leave your camp/resting place.

 

[clearstream]

Well, I know where you are going with that, but that is only one interpretation. There's been more than enough discussions online about it, so I am not looking to rehash it here.

For the sake of @Phoebasss, the other interpretation is you must have at least 1 hour of interruption. We've had combats run over 6 minutes in game time (something like 67 rounds I think was our longest fight), but nothing close to an hour. Pretty much, the only way your long rest will be interrupted is if you have to leave your camp/resting place.

Yes, there are two interpretations. The rule is ambiguous. There are arguments either way.

The mechanic seems to intend that a long rest can be interrupted. If the consequence of an interpretation is that really, they can't, one might - as I do - feel inclined to question that interpretation. Especially given the implausibility of an hour of combat.

@Phoebasss should know that Crawford has endorsed the version where it does indeed take an hour of combat to interrupt a long rest. The defence is something like - a combination of walking, combat and spell-casting could come to an hour. It comes out about the same - hey, we walked for 59 minutes... better not get in a fight!