Sleep Deprivation

[Kaodi]

Where (and what) are the rules for the ill effects of not getting enough sleep? I have been looking through the SRD, and I can't find anything relating to this seemingly basic question...

 

[Elephant]

Fatigue and Exhaustion.

 

[Kaodi]

Can you be more specific, though? Fatigue and exhaustion are what one would assume, but I am looking for the RAW on how to apply them.

 

[phindar]

I'm not sure how the RAW does it either. The short version would seem to be a character who gets insufficient rest is Fatigued the next day, and if a character is Fatigued and gets insufficient rest they're Exhausted. In some groups, "insufficient rest" is less than 8 hours, although I might be more inclined as a GM to let characters get away with less rest at night and then have less activity during the day. (Such as, a character who only gets 4 hours of rest becomes Fatigued halfway through a normal day of activity.)

The only real guideline I can come up with is the sleeping in armor rule. Characters who sleep in armor don't rest (without feats that allow it), and so are Fatigued the next day. Which to me means if you're that worried about being attacked in the middle of the night, you're better off staying awake, and you'll be Fatigued the next day just the same anyway.

 

[frankthedm]

The only real guideline I can come up with is the sleeping in armor rule. Characters who sleep in armor don't rest (without feats that allow it), and so are Fatigued the next day. Which to me means if you're that worried about being attacked in the middle of the night, you're better off staying awake, and you'll be Fatigued the next day just the same anyway.

Those who go with no sleep should be exhausted.

Raw gives only the forced march rules and the sleeping in armor rules.

 

[Stalker0]

If you don't' get the 8 hours of sleep needed (or 4 hours of trance) you are fatigued the next day. If you don't sleep again the next day, your fatigued again. Fatigued + Fatigued = Exhausted.

 

[phindar]

Exhausted is pretty steep for one night without sleep, if only because you skip the Fatigued condition altogether. I could be sold on Fatigued after a night of no sleep, and then Exhausted after a day of normal activity so you'd be exhausted at the end of a 36 hour period.

"Reality" makes a poor standard for interpreting game rules, but adventurers tend to be in decent physical condition (if for no other reason than very few of them use CON as a dump stat), and when I was a younger man, I could go without sleep two or three days before the inevitable "crash". Now, its anybody's guess how much Mtn Dew it takes to duplicate a Lesser Restoration spell, but even so I remained functional enough to go to work and school so Exhaustion seems a little excessive.

If we wanted to geek this up a bit, maybe there's some form of CON check we could go with... like you can stay awake CON number of hours before you have to start making CON checks DC 10 + the number of hours over your CON you've been awake. Fail and you're Fatigued and the CON counter starts over. (I'd go with CON checks over Fort saves, if only to avoid high level adventurers who can go weeks without sleep.) But I'm guessing there are few games where that level of technical minutae is really needed. (Might work in Rolemaster if we had some type of Sleep Dep chart.)

If you can't rest (or just don't), you're Fatigued the next day. And if you don't rest the next night, you're Exhausted. That's simple enough to remember, and it doesn't leave characters crippled if they pull an all-nighter (and most casters still need to rest to regain spells, so its not like groups are going to forego camping all that much anyway). If a character wants to burn a Lesser Restoration every morning they might not ever have to sleep, but it seems like all they're getting out of that is extra guard shifts.

 

[TheGogmagog]

Can you be more specific, though? Fatigue and exhaustion are what one would assume, but I am looking for the RAW on how to apply them.

By RAW humans don't need to sleep. Obviously, it's assumed you do, but there arn't any rules for how many hours you need to sleep. The suggestions here are as good as any you will get, but there isn't any RAW on the subject.

I am currently a player in a module that involves wolves howling all night, resulting in a 'restless sleep' that incures a -1 to will saves the next day. It also makes us 'rest' 8 hours in the morning after sleeping the night to prepare spells (waiting to morning to sleep didn't change anything). I assume that's out of the module, but It could have been dreamed up by the DM.

 

[DreadArchon]

By RAW humans don't need to sleep. Obviously, it's assumed you do, but there arn't any rules for how many hours you need to sleep. The suggestions here are as good as any you will get, but there isn't any RAW on the subject.

Well... sort of. There's no separate rule for needing sleep, but various WotC books (Libris Mortis and Heroes of Horror come to mind immediately) give class features that prevent fatigue for characters that don't get enough sleep.

Which, if you ask me, is glaringly odd.

 

[TheGogmagog]

Well... sort of. There's no separate rule for needing sleep, but various WotC books (Libris Mortis and Heroes of Horror come to mind immediately) give class features that prevent fatigue for characters that don't get enough sleep.

Which, if you ask me, is glaringly odd.

I suppose I need to clarify/correct myself.
Humanoids breathe, eat, and sleep. Just there arn't any mechanics for how much or concequences.

The DM could get as creative as he wants in setting these up. Factoring in age, statistics for the second wind....