Resting in armour

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

Before worrying about sleeping in armor, I would worry about making rules for sleeping, period. As it stands there's no requirement to sleep during a long rest.

Not quite. While you do need to sleep for at least 6 hours to gain the benefit of a long rest, there's no rule saying characters need to rest. If you don't need to recover HP or powers you can just skip sleeping at all for as long as you want

 

[Oofta]

All responses taken into account; what is the point of don/doff times?

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In my campaigns, it rarely comes into play. However, if someone was at "home" and somewhere they assumed was safe it could come into play.

In theory I assume that people take their armor off to clean up, take a bath, launder the padding and do basic maintenance.

However, D&D IMHO gives way too much credence to high dex characters being able to avoid damage. Dex should help but after a certain point someone walking around encased in steel should be far more protected than someone who is just being dodgy. But it's not worth the effort to change the rules so I just hand-wave some of the consequences of heavy armor.

Of course I still have no clue how difficult it would be to get a nights sleep in armor (assuming you aren't hot and sweaty, of course) since I've never done it or talked to anyone who has tried.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

Ah the RAU approach!
(Rules as Unwritten)

It's written. Specifically, it's written that the DM will figure it out.

 

[TheNoremac42]

Not even then. The worst that can happen is you might take a bunch of HP damage, which will all be removed at the end of your long rest. There's really no need for a fighter to bother with armor in the middle of the night.

It's an immersion thing, I think. They have the same point as drinking water and eating food. You can choose to be like Skyrim and just be an axe-swinging maniac that spends 24/7 decimating the wildlife, butchering the bandit population, grave robbing, and ransacking basket-headed merchants while never eating, drinking, or sleeping... Or you can bring a modicum of realism to the game. You wouldn't wear your armor 24/7, and it takes time to put on a suit of plate. There are also variant options that make it so significant damage can actually maim characters.

 

[Glomb175]

A Fighter that takes his time to don his plate armor (10 minutes for heavy armor) is basically out of the fight. If the party is attacked while their pants are down, the PC has to decide if they want to risk either skipping the combat entirely or help their party members while risk getting hurt.

But why would you ever take your armour off if there's literally no benefit to doing so and no downside to wearing armour,what's the point of this rule

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[BookBarbarian]

All responses taken into account; what is the point of don/doff times?

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The adventure could start when players have no armor and then they find some like in Out of the Abyss. It could be a social situation where armor is not acceptable at the Duke's fancy party, but once the duchess summons a demon a fighter or paladin might want to slip into that one of those suits of plate that are lining the hallway, or maybe while the bard was distracting the party, the Rogue, disguised as a member of the kitchen staff sneaks their gear in through a fake wine barrel.

Essentially they are there to provide a Trade-off. As a DM I like to challenge myself that when i think of a situation where armor would be removed or inappropriate, to also make sure that, weapons, spellcasting foci, and component pouches suffer the same fate.

Of course if you're a Monk, or a Barbarian with Tavern Brawler, you'll have once in campaign opportunity to shine.

 

[jaelis]

"A long rest is a period o f extended downtime, at least 8 hours long, during which a character sleeps or performs light activity: reading, talking, eating, or standing watch for no more than 2 hours." -- PHB, page 186.

That "2 hours" can be interpreted in a couple ways. Either your Long Rest can only include at most 2 hours of "light activity" - the rest of which is sleep - or you can only stand watch for no more than 2 hours before it becomes "strenuous" and you can spend the remaining 6 hours doing other things.

Indeed... IMO the only natural reading is the second one. I think that Crawford has avoided answering this definitively, but Mearls at least says directly "you can gain the benefits of an extended rest without sleeping."

It's written. Specifically, it's written that the DM will figure it out.

Where is this in the book? Maybe I've overlooked it.

 

[Soul Stigma]

But why would you ever take your armour off if there's literally no benefit to doing so and no downside to wearing armour,what's the point of this rule

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I think it's for the rare occasions that it may come into play. I can think of mostly urban scenarios, such as being invited to a formal dinner at court where wearing armor would be frowned upon. If the need arose, it's good to know how long it takes to get the armor on.

For the most part, I imagine it's information that goes largely unused.

 

[Hriston]

Before worrying about sleeping in armor, I would worry about making rules for sleeping, period. As it stands there's no requirement to sleep during a long rest.

This is correct, but, at the DM's discretion, going without sleep is a CON check. If you fail, you fall asleep whether you want to or not.

 

[MechaPilot]

Ok it seems that the general consensus is; don't introduce this rule.

That's fair enough, I was just wondering if it would be fair and the answer is a resounding "no".

I shan't be introducing this rule.

If you really want to make resting time more dangerous (as I assume you do by asking about a rule to encourage people not to rest in armor) without being unduly punitive to specific classes, you could implement a wake-up penalty where each character is considered to be exhausted for the first 1d4 minutes after waking up (note, the character would not actually accrue any levels of exhaustion; they would simply be treated as having one level of exhaustion).