D&D 5E Short Rest House Rule Idea

[fjw70]

I am thinking of a new house rule for 5e around short rests. the Idea is that short rests are only 5 minutes long but you can only get the benefits of a short rest twice a day.

Thoughts? Issues?

 

[Oofta]

I'm not sure why your clothes need a rest. Do shirts really get that tired?

Depending on your group and classes it could work but will generally benefit the short rest classes significantly. The general rule of thumb is only 1-2 short rests per long rest.

 

[aco175]

A small issue came up the other night playing where the mage wanted to cast detect magic as a ritual and spend the 10 minutes. The others spent the time searching the room. Not sure how letting them rest here would have affected things. They were a bit beat up and could have used a rest to make the final encounter easy, but not having one meant the stakes were higher.

I do not think it would affect much if restricted to pro bonus. I think as you get more times per day it would make certain classes better.

 

[fjw70]

Yeah probably just a fixed number would be good. Maybe 2 or 3. That way the balance between classes doesn’t change as they level up.

 

[Clint_L]

I don't put a specific time on short rests, I just go with what feels necessary in the story. Is there enough down time to recover a bit, or is the situation so pressing that attempting to do so will lead to Consequences? If the former, then it doesn't really matter whether I say 5 minutes or 30, and if the latter then it is similarly a moot point.

 

[iserith]

I am thinking of a new house rule for 5e around short rests. the Idea is that short rests are only 5 minutes long but you can only get the benefits of a short rest a number of times per day equal to your proficiency bonus.

Thoughts? Issues?

What's the goal of this house rule? Once we have the goal, we can evaluate if the house rule may achieve the thing you're looking to do.

 

[fjw70]

What's the goal of this house rule? Once we have the goal, we can evaluate if the house rule may achieve the thing you're looking to do.

sometimes the party needs a short rest but it doesn’t make since story-wise to sit around for an hour. And it would put a hard cap on short rests before needing to take a long rest.

 

[TwoSix]

I’m running my current game with 1 minute short rests, 2 per character before needing a long rest, and it’s worked just fine.

 

[prabe]

My current houserule is derived from Cypher: The first short rest takes about five minutes; the second short rest takes about fifteen minutes; the third short rest takes about an hour; the fourth short rest is part of a long rest. Other things tied to short rests take an hour, the catnap spell gives you the benefits of a short rest but doesn't count against the number you've taken.

 

[Dausuul]

I am thinking of a new house rule for 5e around short rests. the Idea is that short rests are only 5 minutes long but you can only get the benefits of a short rest a number of times per day equal to your proficiency bonus.

Thoughts? Issues?

We've been using essentially this house rule for years, except we use a fixed 2/day instead of prof bonus. Works great to resolve the balance issues between short rest and long rest classes, without disrupting other parts of the game. It also reduces the importance of having a healer, since it's easier to use hit dice.

We have yet to encounter any problems with it.