D&D 5E Slow Rests: Anyone Tried It?

[SilentBoba]

If the adventure consists of one or two encounters followed by extensive travel, I'm just not understanding why the party shouldn't be at 100% for those encounters. Plan accordingly as a DM.

I guess philosophically I'm of the school that the adventurers are big damn heroes. Extended battles, dungeon slogs where monsters come to them, elaborate chases through cities or overland where rest is rare if even possible, that's the stuff that should wear them down. The idea somehow that because the encounters happen at a leisurely pace somehow means recovery from these encounters should be even slower is difficult for me to understand. Leave the system alone. Pick up the pace.

Frankly if a few days of hard riding are needed to get to the next encounter point, then they don't get a long rest at all. If they can take the night off from adventuring, then they SHOULD be fresh for the next fight.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

Anyone who can recover even a portion of their power on a short rest has the advantage over one who needs a long rest.

My point was that everyone recovers significant resources during a short rest. A cleric with the Life domain can channel divinity every day to restore Hit Points to those who are below half, and paladins have similar capabilities, which means you have a substantial partial healing every day. As long as you don't take more damage than you can restore on a daily basis, you should be fine indefinitely. The cleric and paladin should be enough to patch up the rough spikes where one person takes a ton of damage in one day.

 

[keterys]

Its a perception of time and restorative strength.

Except, for all that, you should actually be facing the same number of encounters per short rest and day as intended, without ridiculous contrivances to force things into one day. Trust me, I've seen more than enough contrivances in my time in D&D. Isn't it a good story if a wounded comrade makes the party think about what they have to do to survive, or potentially has any actual impact on their plans?

The only thing that sounds wrong so far is the ability to disregard any sort of encounter per rest balance by taking an excessive number of short and long rests. I'm not convinced that making things a day / week, or whatever, is the best option, but the default state strikes me as absolutely worse so far.

I'm not worried nearly as much about a theoretical perception distortion from making rests take longer as I am from the _actual_ already witnessed at every table of 5E I've sat down to distortion from people being able to take extended rests far earlier than the intended balance.

 

[Remathilis]

My point was that everyone recovers significant resources during a short rest. A cleric with the Life domain can channel divinity every day to restore Hit Points to those who are below half, and paladins have similar capabilities, which means you have a substantial partial healing every day. As long as you don't take more damage than you can restore on a daily basis, you should be fine indefinitely. The cleric and paladin should be enough to patch up the rough spikes where one person takes a ton of damage in one day.

Then effectively, a life cleric NEVER has his channel divinity since he will always keep it/use it for nightly healing. (If he turns undead, no healing for that day) And heaven forbid that your cleric picks the tempest or knowledge domain!

 

[The Crimson Binome]

Then effectively, a life cleric NEVER has his channel divinity since he will always keep it/use it for nightly healing. (If he turns undead, no healing for that day) And heaven forbid that your cleric picks the tempest or knowledge domain!

You don't need to keep it in reserve for healing. If you're being attacked by a bunch of undead, then you'll certainly be better off by just dusting them rather than healing up afterward. It's not like you have life-or-death combat every day, or that good guys even get hurt in every combat.

But yes, if you increase the time requirements on short rests and long rests, it definitely helps to have someone who can provide healing that recharges during a short rest. Every adventuring party can benefit from having a dedicated healer. I don't know why that would be surprising in any way.

 

[Andor]

I'm not worried nearly as much about a theoretical perception distortion from making rests take longer as I am from the _actual_ already witnessed at every table of 5E I've sat down to distortion from people being able to take extended rests far earlier than the intended balance.

For my money the "recovery economy balance" is a terribly, terribly metagame consideration. Almost every class recovers some resource during short rests (spell slots, action surges) and more during long rests. Yes, different classes apportion the resources differently, but almost no one is exclusively one or the other. Even if the difference did exist, I would not be inclined to worry about it as a player. I as a fighter do not weep tears of envy when the mage goes nova and keeps me from getting despleened by a gnoll warband. I do cry "oh crap" when tbe second band shows up and the mage says he's tapped out. D&d is a team game, not a competition.

Now, metagame considerations aside, if the GM wants to portray a world where healing is not quick and spellcasting is so spiritually draining that recovery take weeks of relaxing, observing art, and playing with puppies then I'm all for it. And the slow recovery is one good way to do that. But I want the driving reason for the change to be flavor and world building, not metagame angst.

 

[TwoSix]

I'm not worried nearly as much about a theoretical perception distortion from making rests take longer as I am from the _actual_ already witnessed at every table of 5E I've sat down to distortion from people being able to take extended rests far earlier than the intended balance.

Exactly. Primary spellcasters in the standard Vancian/neo-Vancian paradigm will always dominate if they're in an environment with only 1-2 encounters before recharging. Of course, contra [MENTION=1879]Andor[/MENTION], I won't weep tears of envy about the wizard novaing in such an environment. Because I'll be playing the wizard. I know which classes get my bread buttered.

 

[Remathilis]

Except, for all that, you should actually be facing the same number of encounters per short rest and day as intended, without ridiculous contrivances to force things into one day. Trust me, I've seen more than enough contrivances in my time in D&D. Isn't it a good story if a wounded comrade makes the party think about what they have to do to survive, or potentially has any actual impact on their plans?

The only thing that sounds wrong so far is the ability to disregard any sort of encounter per rest balance by taking an excessive number of short and long rests. I'm not convinced that making things a day / week, or whatever, is the best option, but the default state strikes me as absolutely worse so far.

I'm not worried nearly as much about a theoretical perception distortion from making rests take longer as I am from the _actual_ already witnessed at every table of 5E I've sat down to distortion from people being able to take extended rests far earlier than the intended balance.

No, the key here is when you can end the adventuring "day".

Lets take two examples: a dungeon with 8 rooms and an 8 day travel, each has an encounter a day. Same encounters even. There is no time constraints for reaching the end (aka no demons summoned at the end). Each is being explored by a 5th level party.

The first few encounters go alright, but the fourth encounter goes south quickly. The DM's dice get hot, crits abound, and saving throws can't seem to roll above a 10. The encounter ends with two PCs dropped to 0, the wizard out of spells, and the fighter suffering from blinding sickness. There is no way they are making the fifth encounter, even with a short rest. They'll be dead at the 8th.

The first group backs out of the dungeon, finds a quiet spot and camps for the night. The cleric memorizes Lesser Restoration. They can go back in healed and refreshed.

The second group backs out, but all they get is a short rest. The fighter is still blind and the cleric cannot heal him; he's out of the adventure for the most part. The wizard gets back 2 first or 1 second level spells; the cleric laments taking the tempest domain as now he can't bring the rogue up except through his last 1st level spell slot. They face a choice: go back to town (now a three day return journey) to cure the fighter's blindness and heal up for a week (and then travel four days to go back to encounter 5) or attempt to soldier on with no resources.

You don't need to keep it in reserve for healing. If you're being attacked by a bunch of undead, then you'll certainly be better off by just dusting them rather than healing up afterward. It's not like you have life-or-death combat every day, or that good guys even get hurt in every combat.

But yes, if you increase the time requirements on short rests and long rests, it definitely helps to have someone who can provide healing that recharges during a short rest. Every adventuring party can benefit from having a dedicated healer. I don't know why that would be surprising in any way.

Well, that's great if the only thing you fought was those undead that day; if you're also attacked by ogres in the same day, your pretty much screwed.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

Well, that's great if the only thing you fought was those undead that day; if you're also attacked by ogres in the same day, your pretty much screwed.

No more so than if you had to fight undead and then ogres between two one-hour short rests, with some sort of hard time constraint that prevents you from taking a long rest.

Making a long rest less convenient, such as by increasing the time requirement (or needing you to be within 100 yards of a tavern), is a way of saying that you can't play quite so cautiously. If you get hurt early on, beyond your ability to recover quickly, then you have to either press on and risk death (in the case that you need to stop a demon from being summoned at the full moon), or give up and fail on your quest.

The story where the fighter presses on, through the blinding sickness, is a more interesting story than the one where the party makes camp and everyone is fine the next day.

 

[keterys]

The first group backs out of the dungeon, finds a quiet spot and camps for the night. The cleric memorizes Lesser Restoration. They can go back in healed and refreshed.

The second group backs out, but all they get is a short rest. The fighter is still blind and the cleric cannot heal him; he's out of the adventure for the most part. The wizard gets back 2 first or 1 second level spells; the cleric laments taking the tempest domain as now he can't bring the rogue up except through his last 1st level spell slot. They face a choice: go back to town (now a three day return journey) to cure the fighter's blindness and heal up for a week (and then travel four days to go back to encounter 5) or attempt to soldier on with no resources.

So, in one group there's no consequence, and in the other there are some tough choices.

Cool.