D&D 5E Interrupting rests

[commandercrud]

Wouldn't that seriously hose the classes whose abilities only recharge on a long rest?

Not at all. It affects hit point recovery and player recklessness more than anything.

 

[clearstream]

Wouldn't that seriously hose the classes whose abilities only recharge on a long rest?

Or are you suggesting everything moves to short-rest recharge under this system?

With 1:5 our group found people leaning into warlocks and such - short rest classes - which to my mind speaks to your concern. I found that a 1:3 ratio between short/long balanced the classes. So I use 1 day short, 3 day long, with a gap between of same length. Also inserted a 1 hour breather for spending HD. With 1:3 it has been balanced (so far).

An issue I found with the more natural feeling overnight sleep for a short, is that in open campaigns it means characters continuously get short rests as they travel, and it puts the short:long rest ratio greatly out of kilter. Our warlocks and battle master loved it! Short rests felt costless, on the scale of an open campaign.

As an example - playing ToA I have 3x random encounter checks per 24 hours on a 16+ each in the more dangerous areas. That makes it very difficult to get a long rest in such areas, and iffy to get a short one.

 

[Don Durito]

Shrug. I just find it easier to say if there's anything that's likely to interrupt a long rest, then you cannot in fact take a long rest, because conditions are not resful enough.

But then I make long rests a full 36 hours anyway.

I find the idea that casting a single spell (especially a cantrip or low level spell) would interrupt a rest of any kind somewhat silly.