Sleeping in armor

[Faustchen]

Apologies if this is an oft posted question but I have no search function and paging through the forums yielded nothing.

I've been looking through the books for some current rules on resting/sleeping in armor and have seen nothing. It's possible I've missed them but none of my friends have encountered any either. Is this something they've done away with?

Can you sleep in full plate in 4e with no penalty?

 

[darkadelphia]

Yeah, there are no rules about it. I haven't decided for my game yet, either. Either everyone should be able to sleep in armor or you should make night time encounters easier than others (since the Defenders will have a hard time doing their jobs).

 

[darkadelphia]

A thought: if I were playing a defender in a game where the DM did not allow people to sleep in armor, I would probably sleep in magic pajamas handed down by the Wizard.

 

[Faustchen]

Yeah, there are no rules about it. I haven't decided for my game yet, either. Either everyone should be able to sleep in armor or you should make night time encounters easier than others (since the Defenders will have a hard time doing their jobs).

Well if there are no RAW about armor and sleeping then by default anything that the DM comes up with seems like it's going to be house rules. I can certainly understand why they didn't include it. Even in 3.5 basically the rules concerning heavy armor just meant that any fighters would take the feat that enabled sleeping in heavy armor IF they had a DM that concerned themselves with the mechanics of sleeping and nighttime assaults.

My own experience, though limited, is that most people I've played with didn't bother a whole lot with even that.

As you note, it's really only defenders that would suffer in 4e since almost all the other classes would have normal AC (I suppose chain wearers would have some trouble here).

I'm sort of inclined just to ignore the whole issue and pretend that the heroic armor wearers of 4e have all learned how to get a few winks inside their tin cans.

It kind of bothers me when running an urban adventure, however, because it seems ridiculous to be wearing armor after you buy a bed in an inn and then lay down in your bed in full plate.

 

[Hjorimir]

Generally, I don't allow characters to sleep in armor and I certainly don't lower any night encounters because of it, but (then again) I don't subscribe to the notion that all encounters need to be designed with PC victory in mind!

 

[Fredrik Svanberg]

How about making the Endurance skill more useful?

Sleeping in heavy armor: DC 15 Endurance check. Failure means that you lose a healing surge when you wake up. Another option could be to add another hour to the rest and require a new roll.

 

[Magus Coeruleus]

How about making the Endurance skill more useful?

Sleeping in heavy armor: DC 15 Endurance check. Failure means that you lose a healing surge when you wake up. Another option could be to add another hour to the rest and require a new roll.

This sounds great to me. I'd avoid the part about another roll with another hour just because I don't want to derail the game with arguments about whether more time can be afforded. I'd say you take your chances and risk losing the surge, which cannot be restored until your next extended rest. If with that next ext rest you again sleep in armor and fail the check, you're still at -1 surges though, not an additional surge down.

 

[darkadelphia]

Generally, I don't allow characters to sleep in armor and I certainly don't lower any night encounters because of it, but (then again) I don't subscribe to the notion that all encounters need to be designed with PC victory in mind!

I don't think it's a matter of "designing encounters with PC victory in mind" as "designing encounters with PC fun in mind." If an encounter is going to have a chance to TPK the party, I'd prefer for it to be the climactic battle with the wicked archmage, not that time 5 goblins attacked them in their sleep.

To me, it's also a matter of adventure design. Sometimes, you should reinforce a feeling that a place is not safe for resting. In this case, I wouldn't be as likely to pull punches. But if the PCs are just walking places I've told them to go and there's no good story reason to punish them for having metabolisms that need to be recharged, then I wouldn't give them normal/hard encounters while they sleep.

 

[Faustchen]

How about making the Endurance skill more useful?

Sleeping in heavy armor: DC 15 Endurance check. Failure means that you lose a healing surge when you wake up. Another option could be to add another hour to the rest and require a new roll.

mmm not a bad houserule. I like it.

 

[Faustchen]

I don't think it's a matter of "designing encounters with PC victory in mind" as "designing encounters with PC fun in mind." If an encounter is going to have a chance to TPK the party, I'd prefer for it to be the climactic battle with the wicked archmage, not that time 5 goblins attacked them in their sleep.

To me, it's also a matter of adventure design. Sometimes, you should reinforce a feeling that a place is not safe for resting. In this case, I wouldn't be as likely to pull punches. But if the PCs are just walking places I've told them to go and there's no good story reason to punish them for having metabolisms that need to be recharged, then I wouldn't give them normal/hard encounters while they sleep.

I totally agree. My main concern overall though is that there be a consistent agreed upon rule at the outset. Is there always some risk to sleeping in the sense that fighters are inevitably placed in a weakend position because of armor rules? Or does everyone agree that due to RAW there is no difference betwen sleeping and not sleeping.

I mean it's fine for a DM to say "you can't sleep in armor" of course, but that seems a little heavy handed. Certainly it's not impossible to imagine someone sleeping in armor. People can train themselves to sleep in pretty unpleasant circumstances.

I do like the house rule suggested above.