D&D (2024) Should there be variable recovery with a long rest?

[mellored]

For example

Terrible rest: you regain half your hit dice, 1/4 your spell slots, and 1/4 of any other ability that recharges on a long rest, and gain 1 level of exhaustion.
examples: you where attacked multiple times in the middle of the night, the smoke of the volcano makes it hard to breathe, hail is pounding your bed roll, no food or water to drink, maddening dreams haunt this crypt, trying to sleep on a horse while traveling.

Uncomfortable rest: you regain all your hit dice (spend any remaining ones first), 1/2 your spell slots, and 1/2 of any other ability that recharges on a long rest.
Example: you where attacked in the middle of the night, the ground is wet and your food is soggy, the place gives off a creepy and hostile vibe, your equipment is damaged and you can only make makeshift repairs, trying to sleep in a carriage while traveling.

Comfortable rest: regain all your hit points, hit dice, spell slots, and 1 level of exhaustion.
Examples: a simple inn and a cup of mead, a cottage on the side of the road, a quiet and warm night in a peaceful clearing, a ranger who knows how to make a quick shelter and what leaves make the best bed, leomunds tiny hut.

Luxury rest: as comfortable rest, restore 3 levels of exhaustion, and gain temporary hit points equal to your level.
Examples: a banquet followed by a hot bath and comfortable bed, servants who can mend your clothes and repair equipment, a holy sanctuary where you feel at peace, Mordenkainen's magnificent mansion.

This might also be a chart, use survival skill, or other stuff stuff.

I.e. Regain hit dice equal you half your survival roll. Or roll a DC depends on conditions.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I think your examples underestimate how absolutely annoying it would be to have to deal with stuff like working "1/4 of your spell slots" on the fly, and I think this would also cause amazing hyperfocus from players on ways to get "comfortable rest", which would massively benefit groups with a caster who can provide that (I think Wizard/Sorcerer/Bard?). Those groups would also be basically able to sidestep Terrible and Uncomfortable rest, so suddenly the whole problem comes back.

It also has the issue that you're not really disincentivized from Long Resting - it's still the best option - it's just that it's crummy in some situations (but still better than not resting at all). It almost encourages the 5MWD in a way, because most 5MWDs are going to use up less than 25-50% of your resources and HD, aren't they? So if you 5MWD and then get a "Uncomfortable rest" you actually came out ahead of the guys who didn't rest. It's only if you could have realistically got a Comfortable rest some hours later in the same area/situation (which seems unlikely) that there's even the question of whether to rest.

Personally I'd say use an entirely other method, like an actual different rest.

 

[Shiroiken]

I think this is too granular, but having something to differentiate a long rest during an adventure and a long rest in town is a good idea. I've used a "medium rest," where you get back half HP, half HD, and only half your abilities. It's a bit wonky, but it could be adapted for an interrupted rest as well. As of right now, my next campaign is going to use 8 hr short rests (as per long rests now) and downtime for long rests (3 days of full rest or 7 days during another downtime activity).

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

My favored approach is to map them to the lifestyle expenses as seen in the DMG. Depending of the level of comfort and safety of the rest, the players may have to pass a Con check to see if they benefit from the rest at all. The DC depends of the ''lifestyle'' level.

 

[tetrasodium]

For example

Terrible rest: you regain half your hit dice, 1/4 your spell slots, and 1/4 of any other ability that recharges on a long rest, and gain 1 level of exhaustion.
examples: you where attacked multiple times in the middle of the night, the smoke of the volcano makes it hard to breathe, hail is pounding your bed roll, no food or water to drink, maddening dreams haunt this crypt, trying to sleep on a horse while traveling.

Uncomfortable rest: you regain all your hit dice (spend any remaining ones first), 1/2 your spell slots, and 1/2 of any other ability that recharges on a long rest.
Example: you where attacked in the middle of the night, the ground is wet and your food is soggy, the place gives off a creepy and hostile vibe, your equipment is damaged and you can only make makeshift repairs, trying to sleep in a carriage while traveling.

Comfortable rest: regain all your hit points, hit dice, spell slots, and 1 level of exhaustion.
Examples: a simple inn and a cup of mead, a cottage on the side of the road, a quiet and warm night in a peaceful clearing, a ranger who knows how to make a quick shelter and what leaves make the best bed, leomunds tiny hut.

Luxury rest: as comfortable rest, restore 3 levels of exhaustion, and gain temporary hit points equal to your level.
Examples: a banquet followed by a hot bath and comfortable bed, servants who can mend your clothes and repair equipment, a holy sanctuary where you feel at peace, Mordenkainen's magnificent mansion.

This might also be a chart, use survival skill, or other stuff stuff.

I.e. Regain hit dice equal you half your survival roll. Or roll a DC depends on conditions.

In editions where the natural healing was low enough that players often forget what it was & needed to look it up when they were forced into using it instead of a handwave & nobody really cared if they got the 1/2/3/4hp of recovery right or not spell slots tended to be used quite a bit towards recovery. You could do something like an improved version of arcane/nature's recovery but doing that results in the healers just saying "hell no we are going back to town for a week or whatever, I reject your plan because it makes me into luggage."

The way to disincentivize resting just to recover spell slots is by recognizing the damage concentration on basically every buff does and admit "if we did that then these buffs would expire even though we have a few hours left on them" was a positive influence on the game,

 

[Yaarel]

All rests are short rests.

Twice PER LEVEL, a player can choose to make a short rest be a long rest instead.

 

[Clint_L]

I like where OP is going but would probably just simpliy it to "uncomfortable long rest" (might call it partial long rest instead) and long rest. I definitely wouldn't go for the luxury rest option; too cheap and easy for a significant advantage (and makes MMM, already a great spell, into a must-have so that every single mid-upper level party will need someone who can cast it every night). I don't want every adventuring day to end with "and then we all go into Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion for another amazing evening." Kinda kills the drama.

Though come to think of it, both season 1 and season 2 of Critical Role wound up doing this.

 

[Clint_L]

All rests are short rests.

Twice PER LEVEL, a player can choose to make a short rest be a long rest instead.

So...how do most spell casters ever recover their spells? What if I like spending a long time between levels (and I do)? This seems like a huge nerf to spell casters.

Also, I hate short rests and want them gone, not made the main rest mechanic. Hit dice are a clunky mechanic.

 

[Yaarel]

So...how do most spell casters ever recover their spells? What if I like spending a long time between levels (and I do)? This seems like a huge nerf to spell casters.

Also, I hate short rests and want them gone, not made the main rest mechanic. Hit dice are a clunky mechanic.

When all rests are short rests, except two per level become long rests, the math works out the same. With regard to spells: short rest is that, long rest is that. Such as Warlock versus Wizard.

The difference is, the DM can create any number of narratives they want. A level might happen in a single day with door-to-door dungeon combat encounters. Or stretch out across months while sailing on a ship with occasional encounters. Or be in a social campaign with many social encounter challenges. If the effort to overcome the challenge feels worth an encounter, it counts as an encounter.

Roughly, there are about 9 encounters per level, but it depends on which level, and tier 5-8 is more like 15 encounters per level.

Where the math (hilariously) assumes about 7 encounters per day (6-8), the math anticipates about two long rests per about every 14 encounters.

Whence two long rests per level works well.

These long rests can happen at ANY time during the level.

 

[mellored]

So...how do most spell casters ever recover their spells? What if I like spending a long time between levels (and I do)?

Can't say I like the rest-per-level idea.

But it's easy enough to make it 3 per level if you want more time each level. Or 4.