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

[W'rkncacnter]

10 minute “dungeon turns” were a thing in early DnD, and no one’s come up with an objectively better interval.

Sure, 1-hour exploration turns would make just as much sense, but isn’t really an improvement.

So 10 min intervals is a thing.

they should've stayed, honestly. would've been really helpful for crawls

 

[Horwath]

The more I play 5E, better I like axing short rests completely.

just calculate LR resources by having 2 or 3 short rests added in.

2x for stronger abilities, 3x for weaker, might even use 4x short rest calculations for some really weak ones.

as for using HDs;
when you take Dodge action, you can spend 1HD, up to 2 HDs at level 5, 3 HD at level 11, 4HD at level 17.


now everyone is on fair playing field and do not suffer from poor pace maintenance during the day.
I've seen multiple days without any short rests and some are willing to give 4 or even 5 short rests per day.

 

[aco175]

What would prevent the PCs from hiring cleric henchmen to guard the camp and heal the PCs every morning to bring them up to full health? I might do this if the DM is seeming to play with the rules to make it harder to heal. Unless we all discussed it beforehand and all wanted to play this way.

I also like the idea of doing away with short rests and making abilities a couple times per day. I think the fighter's second wind is this with a recharge with a rest. Not sure on going back to 5 minutes rests with spending hit dice as an option and allow this to recharge once.

 

[el-remmen]

I actually really like short rests. They are one of my favorite aspects of 5e and have never found them disruptive to pace of play.

What would prevent the PCs from hiring cleric henchmen to guard the camp and heal the PCs every morning to bring them up to full health? I might do this if the DM is seeming to play with the rules to make it harder to heal. Unless we all discussed it beforehand and all wanted to play this way.

This seems like the kind of thing that would certainly be possible occasionally but not a reliable strategy given the homebrew setting and NPCs having their own agendas and priorities.

 

[Stormonu]

As a side note, I've been experimenting with a short rest taking 15 minutes, but you can only do one every 4 hours. From the DM side, this seems to be working for me.

 

[Stormonu]

What would prevent the PCs from hiring cleric henchmen to guard the camp and heal the PCs every morning to bring them up to full health? I might do this if the DM is seeming to play with the rules to make it harder to heal. Unless we all discussed it beforehand and all wanted to play this way.

That would depend on NPC rarity and cost.

When my wife runs a game, she always adds an NPC to our party that does exactly this, free of charge. In the games I'd run if the PCs inquired there'd be Investigation checks to find such an NPC, Persuasion to hire them and the charge would likely be 2 gp per day base (PHB, pg 159 - skilled hireling, with an upfront pay demand of at least a week), plus cost per spell cast (PHB, pg 159 "spellcasting services" and hazard pay if they follow PCs into a dungeon) and/or a share of treasure.

So it really depends on what the DM thinks is fair/allows.

 

[el-remmen]

The most obvious play here is that a party is going to spend down all of their remaining Hit Die on a Short Rest to heal up; then Long Rest to regain all Hit Die,

I thought it might be useful to look at this using the example I gave for the Long Rest.

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.

Before taking a Long Rest, the party decides to risk a Short Rest first, They accomplish this and Rollo spends both his remaining Hit Dice, regaining 19 HPs. His new total is 32, so he is still Bloodied. Note, however, that there is decent chance he'd no longer be Bloodied after spending these dice, since on average he'd be just 1 point below the Bloodied threshold.

After waiting an hour (during which he takes no damage), he starts a Long Rest. At the end of which he regains all his Hit Dice and his current HP increases to 33. He chooses to expend 3 of the HD regaining 25 HPs, putting him at 58. He has 3 HD remaining for later use.

This "average" example of rest stacking seems okay to me - though it could be easily supplemented by remaining healing magic or other healing resources, which I think would also be fine, but would have to see it in action to know for sure.

 

[aco175]

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.

Before taking a Long Rest, the party decides to risk a Short Rest first, They accomplish this and Rollo spends both his remaining Hit Dice, regaining 19 HPs. His new total is 32, so he is still Bloodied. Note, however, that there is decent chance he'd no longer be Bloodied after spending these dice, since on average he'd be just 1 point below the Bloodied threshold.

After waiting an hour (during which he takes no damage), he starts a Long Rest. At the end of which he regains all his Hit Dice and his current HP increases to 33. He chooses to expend 3 of the HD regaining 25 HPs, putting him at 58. He has 3 HD remaining for later use.

This example still brings up my earlier question about just taking two days rest and being at full health and full hit dice. Rollo used 3 of his hit dice and could just use the other 3 and top off and then just wait another full rest to go on adventure. I know you pointed to the Extended Rest, but I must be missing something.

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.

I see the part about doing away with other things not directly HP, but if you get all your hit dice back and go to bloodied HP for a long rest, you could just spend the dice to go to full HP and then wait another day and not 7.

 

[el-remmen]

wait another day and not 7.

I mean, if that is possible and practical, then I have no issue with it. The thing for me is that during an adventure it is rare when sitting around a whole extra day is very practical or convenient. If they are back in town with nothing particular to do? It doesn't matter at all unless there is something in town that might interrupt their rest, which is possible but not as likely (excepting specifics of the town and what is happening in game, of course).

Sometimes an extended rest is required to recover from some other effects, however.

 

[UncleGoblin]

I like your ideas on resting, I might steal them for my own campaign. Would decrease alternative maths though, in my mind the simpler the rule the better.

Here are a few rules suggestion that might prove cool additions:

- Safe Haven requirement for Long Rests:
Long rest can only occur in Safe Havens, eg. cities or other safe spots. Provides attrition on overland travel and spreads the 'Adventuring Day' encounters vs. daily ressources over several narrative days. Found it on: House Rules from Various 5es

- Healer's Kit Dependency (5.0 DMG, p. 266)
All natural healing (Hit Dice expenditure) needs a medicine check and a healers kit charge to function.
My old DM used this rule, and it made sense. Wounds should be tended to in order to heal. Reintroduces medicine skill, makes healing kits a finite resource and creates verisimilitude.