Resting in armour

[Glomb175]

First off: sorry to start a new thread because I know for a fact this has been covered on here but searching on the app doesn't work and opening the thread via the internet takes me to the homepage.

I know there is no rules on resting in armour which is strange considering the amount of detail this game goes into rule wise. I'm going to introduce the donning and doffing of armour to make my characters consider more wisely when resting in the wilderness. Currently the rules provide the following pros and cons.

Sleeping in armour pro: ready for battle if attacked in night
Removing armour to sleep con: takes forever to don armour if attacked in night (10 rounds minimum) and minus AC

(So they'd just always sleep in armour right?)

So I want to include pros and cons for both to make them choose wisely, detailed below.

Sleeping in armour pro: ready for battle if attacked in night
Sleeping in armour con: some sort of minor exhaustion

Removing armour pro: well rested (no exhaustion)
Removing armour con: takes forever to don armour, minus AC

My question is; for minor exhaustion I was thinking give them disadvantage on all rolls until next well rested. Is this too harsh?

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[Sorcerers Apprentice]

There are plenty of ways to build characters that don't need armor in D&D 5e. Penalize armor users too much and you'll never see anyone wearing it anymore.

 

[iserith]

Before you focus on the mechanics of the house rule, I strongly recommend you give some serious thought to what goal you hope to achieve and whether the rule you're considering achieves that goal.

It's not clear to me why you want to implement this rule other than that you think it is missing. What makes you think that? What's your specific goal here?

 

[Oofta]

I've never seen a reason for penalizing people that wear armor. People who have worn armor report that they don't have a problem with it. I can speak from personal experience from backpacking that you don't need a featherbed to get a good nights sleep.

Just because we are soft and pampered by modern niceties like beds, doesn't mean rugged adventurers would be the same.

The question I ask when this comes up (which is on a pretty regular basis) is: what value does it add to the game? As far as I know it's not realistic. It penalizes one type of build over others.

 

[Tony Vargas]

D&D makes armor unrealistically important to some classes (or builds), so making it realistically inconvenient will be penalizing those classes.

If you want to make armor a little more detailed/interesting, sure introduce some 'realistic' penalties like don/doff times, and sleeping in armor penalties and movement reduction and expand the stealth disadvantage to other checks or whatever feels right to you - but also have armor give some 'realistic' advantages, like DR and advantage on certain saves, or even bring back weapon v armor adjustments or something to make it more desirable, as well as more heavily penalized.

 

[Warmaster Horus]

I've seen tons of pics of soldiers sacking out in their body armor. Probably not a preferred state but certainly doable.

 

[Glomb175]

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.

 

[DemonSlayer]

I'd probably just do one level of regular exhaustion for sleeping in bulky/heavy armor, and not have it go any higher.

 

[akr71]

As others have said, I am not sure what your proposed rule adds to the game. I would also ask if your party sets a watch when sleeping in the wilderness? If so, the watch and those characters who do not need armor can take care of any disturbance unless you decide to swarm them with opponents. I also don't see how sleeping in armor should exhaustion except maybe in unusually hot or wet environments.

 

[Caliban]

At most, I would institute exhaustion levels if the PC has been sleeping in medium or heavy armor for more than a week. Roughing it for a few days should be no problem, but sooner or later you need some time out of the armor or your going to have issues with chafing, rashes, and sores.

Even then, I'd only do it if the player was having their PC be especially paranoid and insistent about "always" wearing their armor. Normally I'd just assume they spend enough time out of their armor to avoid issues like that.