Sleeping in armor?

[2eBladeSinger]

First, as others have said, this only penalizes characters who wear heavy armors. The heavier the armor, the worse the penalty. Someone wearing medium or heavy armor has to weight the consequences of being very vulnerable if a fight breaks out while they're sleeping, or eating the penalty all day tomorrow, but someone wearing light leather armor will take it off at night, and only be short a couple AC points if a fight breaks out.

Yes, it’s an inherent disadvantage of armor that it occasionally has to be removed; it isn’t part of one’s body. Any equipment, in general, has this disadvantage. An armor-dependant defender is more vulnerable to this than say, one that has a higher DEX or INT, light armor and a shield. So if I understand, a DM would never be allowed to separate any character from any weapon or any of his gear because of the inherent unfairness (read: unfunness) of such a challenge. Ropes can’t break, spellbooks can’t get stolen, backpacks can’t fall into the drink, because it’s not fair. The only scenario that is fair is having the characters face off against bad guys in a basically even fight with all of the equipment that they’ve so far acquired.

If an unarmored fighter must fight unarmored in the middle of the night, he will take more damage and then he will have to use more of his precious individual healing surges to fix it, leaving him personally depleted of healing surges while the party as a whole is not.

If a party is attacked while camping, it will either happen before the armor-dependant defender has had a chance to rest or after he has had a chance to rest. If it is before, then he’ll have to be careful in the fight because of his limited resources, but he’ll have a chance to rest assuming he survives. If it happens after he has had a chance to rest, he’ll probably have his armor on (since he no longer needs to have it off to rest). Essentially, a night-raid won’t deplete the defender of anything for the next day but it will represent a significant challenge.

Parties who have been raided at night will get much more clever quickly, IME. They’ll invest in protective magic, sentry rituals, set snares, pick ideal camp sites, think about their watch rotations, etc.

 

[Silverwave]

At the light of everything (mostly) that have been said, here's what I think I'll use.

Endurance check for sleeping in armor (minus 1 for light armor, minus 2 for heavy armor; cloth armor don't give -1 since... well, it really is clothes, maybe I won't give -1 for hide armor as well since they look so cozy with all the furs and all ).

DC medium (15 for lvl 1)
+5 to DC per night
Resets the moment you sleep without armor.

On a fail check, you lose 1 healing surge (light) or 2 healing surges (heavy).


That system emphasis a bit more realism than heroism, true, but it's not too penalising so that sleeping in armor, even with the risk of loosing healing surge, is a viable option if a night attack is very probable.

This system could also be use to give a sense of comfortability.
You could tell your players that if they sleep without bedroll on a cold night they'll have to make an endurance check (medium DC) or loose a healing surge (they didn't sleep well, so they didn't regain all their energy). Same goes for any situation where characters don't have a good rest : sleeping outside withtout tent on a rainy day, trying to sleep in a tent without a source of heat in winter, sleeping on a cold and wet stone dungeon floor hundreds of feet below the ground without at least a bedroll, etc.

 

[Spido]

This system could also be use to give a sense of comfortability.

Hehe - You've given me a great idea for a new splatbook!

"The Tome of Comforts"

It'll include rules for feather beds, lumpy beds, sharing a room with a snoring party member and camping during mosquito season. There can be chapters covering what happens to you when you ride all day in armor, or worse yet, with hemmroids - youch! Penalties for getting wet, having sand in your shorts, chaffing - oh, think of the possibilities! Fleas, pebbles in the boot, upset tummies, headaches, and Dwarven nut-rocks (don't ask).

Although, now that I think of it, I should save fleas and mosquitoes for the second installment, "The Tome of Creature Comforts." A veritable monster manual of annoyances and discomforts, like the Everbarking Night Dog, Zombie Lice, and the crying baby that always ends up in the wagon right behind you every time you travel with a caravan.

On the flip side, think of all the new magic items! The Pillow of Sweet Dreams, the Teddy Bear of Snuggliness, the Wand of Dental Hygene. I've got to hurry up and get to work on this before my silly-pills wear off!

As for the other thing, in my game I'm just going to rule that if you sleep in armor you die. That'll teach 'em!

Smiles, everybody! Smiles!
-Spido

 

[The_Fan]

I can personally attest that you can sleep in armor.

Before I joined the military, I dozed off on the couch in motorcycle leathers (sans helmet and boots). that stuff is stiff and has protective plates in it, but it's perfectly possible to sleep in. Light armor is sleepable.

In the military, it becomes a necessity to learn how to sleep in your body armor. It may not be the best sleep you ever got in your life, but dozing off in your armor is certainly enough to get you through the day. (drill sergeant catching you is another issue altogether) You can even use your helmet as a bit of a pillow if you get it just right.

 

[mattdm]

At least there's finally a penalty for not sleeping at all. In 3.5E by the rules as written, there's no reason for a fighter to sleep anyway.

If the DM appeals to common sense and introduces fatigue after some amount of not sleeping, no problem — just have the cleric cast lesser restoration in the morning.

 

[Jhulae]

I'm curious - if it isn't important to know if a character has his armor on at a specific time, why do the rules tell us it takes 5 minutes to put on armor?

So that you know you don't have time to armor up when you're in the king's dining room and he suddenly calls in his assassins, even if you have your armor stuffed in a bag under the table?

QFT. Not every adventure is going to take place or start in places where you have your armor on, however, if the party is camping in 'Monster Alley(tm)'*, I don't see any reason why the players should or need to be penalized because they want to rest in their armor.

*In our campaigns, there seem to be overland treks that seem chock full of random encounters, and we've dubbed those areas 'Monster Alley'.