D&D 5E (2014) Rests & Healing Homebrew/House Rules Suggestions/Feedback [+]

[el-remmen]

So I have been slowly working on my Vanity Frankenstein homebrew rules hack for 2014 5E (with stuff from other editions and variant game thrown in) and one of the changes I made was to how rests and healing works. I thought I'd share it here for some feedback. I made this a "[+]" thread because I am not interested in people arguing with me about doing something like this at all, but am more interested in the opinions of folks who can accept the premise for the changes and point out stuff I hadn't considered or suggest beneficial changes.

The short version of the change is that short rests are shorter and Hit Dice must be spent to hope to restore all your hit points after a Long Rest, otherwise a Long Rest only gets you back enough HPs to make you no longer Bloodied (i.e. half hit points) [which is why I included the description of the Bloodied condition below]. Also I made it so you get back all your HD after a Long Rest b/c in my homebrew rules HD can also be spent to power certain class abilities, spells, and feats, so players may have a reason to not want to spend them all.

The shorter Short Rest is balanced in my style of play in that most random encounter rolls during adventures (depending on the environment and specific location) happen in 10 minute increments. Thus the length of the shorter Short Rest is typically offset by up to two chances of something happening upon you while you rest.

Bloodied
A creature whose current Hit Point total is at less than 1/2 of their maximum is Bloodied. While being Bloodied does not have its own effects, it can trigger others. After a Long Rest, characters who are Bloodied gain just enough Hit Points to no longer be.

Short Rest
A Short Rest is a period of Downtime, at least 20 minutes long, during which a character catches their breath and does nothing more strenuous than eating, drinking, reading, tending to wounds, and other light activities. Any interruption of this brief restful period requires that the character start over.

At the end of a Short Rest, a character regains the use of any abilities that are refreshed by a Short Rest.

Furthermore, a character who has at least 1 Hit Point can spend one or more Hit Dice at the end of a Short Rest, up to the character’s maximum number of Hit Dice, which is equal to the character’s level. For each Hit Die spent in this way, the player rolls the die and adds the character’s Constitution modifier to it. The character regains hit points equal to the total. The player can decide to spend an additional Hit Die after each roll. A character regains their spent Hit Dice upon finishing a Long Rest.

A Short Rest cannot be taken within 1 hour after the end of another Short or Long Rest.

Long Rest
A Long Rest is a period of extended downtime, at least 8 hours long. During which a character must sleep for at least 6 hours and can perform light activity — reading, talking, eating, or standing watch — for no more than two hours. If the rest is interrupted by a period of strenuous activity, spellcasting, fighting, or similar adventuring activity, the characters must begin the rest again to gain any benefit from it. Though in some cases a foreshortened Long Rest can be made into a Short Rest, if voluntarily discontinued.

A character cannot benefit from more than one Long Rest in a 24-hour period, nor can it be started within 1 hour of the end of a Short Rest. A character must have at least 1 hit point at the start of the rest to gain its benefits.

At the end of a Long Rest, a character regains the use of any abilities that are refreshed by a Long Rest, all their Hit Dice up (to their maximum), any lingering failed Death Saves, and just enough Hit Points to no longer be Bloodied. Furthermore, they can expend Hit Dice up to their current number (as during a Short Rest). Each die is modified by Constitution. Any Hit Dice restored by the Long Rest are available to use in this way. Lastly, finishing a Long Rest reduces a creature's exhaustion level by 1, provided that the creature has also ingested some food and drink.


For example, Rollo is a 6th-level berserker with 2 out of 6 d12 Hit Dice remaining, a Constitution of 16, and a maximum of 65 hit points. He is Bloodied, having 13 Hit Points remaining, which is below his Bloodied threshold of 32. At the end of a Long Rest, in addition to certain class abilities, he regains 4 Hit Dice. Rollo also regains enough Hit Points to no longer be Bloodied, putting him at 33. He then chooses to expend 3 f his Hit Dice--3d12+9--regaining 27 Hit Points in the process, and reaching a new total of 60 Hit Points. Rollo now has 3 Hit Dice left.

 

[DEFCON 1]

For ease-of-use... I might suggest making the Short Rest 10 minutes long. That way it aligns to other features that also take 10 minutes, like Rituals and certain spells. I also making Searching an Area or Disabling Traps take 10 minutes as well, that way everyone has something they can do during those 10 minutes while someone else is doing something else.

 

[aco175]

I would be concerned about the short rest number going up to recharge abilities. Not sure on how this would affect healing other than some powers like Second Wind. It would increase the power and damage of the PCs, so that might affect the healing needed and might lessen the need for some healing.

Can I assume that a second long rest would bring the PC back to full HP if thy are at half, or is it assumed that they spend the Hit Dice to bring them up if they are in town for the two days?

 

[Cap'n Kobold]

Certainly a not-inconsiderable boost to many of spellcasters in the party: particularly the arcane-type ones.

Should also serve to crimp the capabilities of those pesky fighters, monks and rogues.

. . . Although a lot will depend on how your wandering monster rolls work: what is the chance of a combat turning up over two 10-minute periods compared to 6? Are the rolls only made (or made with increased frequency) while resting?

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Looks good to me.

 

[el-remmen]

Can I assume that a second long rest would bring the PC back to full HP if thy are at half, or is it assumed that they spend the Hit Dice to bring them up if they are in town for the two days?

They still have to spend Hit Dice, but I have something called an Extended Rest (which I meant to include) that does that.

Extended Rest
An Extended Rest is a week (7 days) of Downtime in which a character gets a Long Rest every night, only participates in light activity during the day, and does not participate strenuous activity such as overland travel, combat, or manual labor.

If a character does partake in activity that would interrupt an Extended Rest, then they must add an extra day to make up for that interruption. However, two or more days in a row of interruption or three or more days of interruption total in a seven-day period means the character must begin the Extended Rest over to gain its benefits.

At the end of Extended Rest, a character regains any Hit Points they have not regained during the week of Long Rests, recovers from any reduction of their Hit Point maximum caused by corruptive damage or other sources, recovers from certain Lingering Wounds and ability score losses (depending on their source or severity).

Certain other spell effects, curses, or conditions are also removed by one or more Extended Rests.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Certainly a not-inconsiderable boost to many of spellcasters in the party: particularly the arcane-type ones.

Should also serve to crimp the capabilities of those pesky fighters, monks and rogues.

Why is that? Fighters, Monks, and Rogues benefit from the shorter short rest, and aside from the Warlock, I don't see how it favors Spellcasters, in particular Wizards or Sorcerers.

 

[el-remmen]

For ease-of-use... I might suggest making the Short Rest 10 minutes long. That way it aligns to other features that also take 10 minutes, like Rituals and certain spells. I also making Searching an Area or Disabling Traps take 10 minutes as well, that way everyone has something they can do during those 10 minutes while someone else is doing something else.

I considered that, but I wanted the choice of Short Rest to be slightly riskier than taking time to search. Someone else can still search while a character rests and could search twice as much in the time of the rest.

 

[el-remmen]

Why is that? Fighters, Monks, and Rogues benefit from the shorter short rest, and aside from the Warlock, I don't see how it favors Spellcasters, in particular Wizards or Sorcerers.

I was gonna ask the same question.

 

[DEFCON 1]

I considered that, but I wanted the choice of Short Rest to be slightly riskier than taking time to search. Someone else can still search while a character rests and could search twice as much in the time of the rest.

Fair enough!