D&D 5E The Resting Mechanics - What Works Best?

[overgeeked]

Quite the opposite, your pointing at a problem and saying it's a feature not a bug.

Because it’s a subjective assessment, not an objective fact. You think it’s a bug, I think it’s a feature. Those are subjective opinions, not objective facts.

5e might try to tune some aspects up to & beyond eleven (usually with poorly balanced elements), but it very much is not super heroes as super heroes fight similarly super villains rather than wayde wilson in looney toons.

It’s like superhero fantasy in the sense that the player characters are wildly more powerful than average people, it’s unlike superhero fantasy in the sense that there’s no real opposition to the PCs short of dropping monsters by the dozen or CRs meant for 10 levels higher than the PCs. It’s like putting Superman against the Green Arrow villain Clock King. And after Superman wins, he does a dance and brags. Winning a “fair” fight in D&D is nothing to brag about. It’s a foregone conclusion. So, throttle the PCs resources as one way of many to make fights at least a little interesting.

 

[tetrasodium]

Because it’s a subjective assessment, not an objective fact. You think it’s a bug, I think it’s a feature. Those are subjective opinions, not objective facts.

It’s like superhero fantasy in the sense that the player characters are wildly more powerful than average people, it’s unlike superhero fantasy in the sense that there’s no real opposition to the PCs short of dropping monsters by the dozen or CRs meant for 10 levels higher than the PCs. It’s like putting Superman against the Green Arrow villain Clock King. And after Superman wins, he does a dance and brags. Winning a “fair” fight in D&D is nothing to brag about. It’s a foregone conclusion. So, throttle the PCs resources as one way of many to make fights at least a little interesting.

You are still missing the problem. It doesn't make players "wildly more powerful than average people" , it makes "some players wildly more powerful than some other players and still other players dramatically weaker than others" depending on what class they chose

 

[Lanefan]

Other: a few minutes breather right after taking damage gives back a very few hit points (d3, usually) but doesn't recharge anything else; overnight rest gives back 1/10 of your total, rounding any fractions up. My game doesn't have short-rest mechanics a la 5e, for which I'm becoming more and more thankful as time goes on!

Further, we use a body-fatigue point system and if you're in body points recovery via resting is slower yet.

 

[Frozen_Heart]

My ideal resting system would be 2 short rests (10 mins each), and 1 long rest (8 hours) per 'adventuring day'.

 

[clearstream]

Simple poll: What sort of rest mechanic works best to you?

If you care to elaborate on your preference, please do so!

If you think of an option I didn't include, let me know.

I've added some excerpts from the books for quick reference:

Unfortunately I had to go with Other. Gritty Realism is nearly there, but not quite. These are the rules I have landed on over four years experimenting in play at my table with multiple options (some of which can still be found in older threads). I'll give each component of the rules I use in a quote-block, and explain why below each. Overall, my approach aims to create enough narrative space that I can easily as DM make resources, and time spend on rests, matter. It's a balance between fiction and crunch, that aims to feel natural in play.

Breather
After 10 minutes of no more than lowkey activity, such as standing watch, supping, reading, donning or doffing armor, and sleeping – you can spend Hit Dice to regain hit points and if you have sufficient training and XP you can level up. A breather is broken by fatiguing activity – fighting, casting spells, marching, or similar, or suffering exhaustion – and time spent up to that point is lost.

Once we significantly lengthened short rests, we found that characters lacked a way to spend HD between fights. We also found that they really appreciated being able to level up if they'd earned it.

Sleep
When a creature that needs to sleep ends a day without, it must succeed on a DC 10 Constitution saving throw or suffer one level of exhaustion. Each consecutive day that passes without the benefit of sleep increases the DC by 5. To sleep, a creature subjects itself to the unconscious condition.

4 hours of unbroken sleep is enough to be beneficial. If you accumulate 8 hours of beneficial sleep over a day – you recover one Hit Die and if you slept comfortably, you can recover a level of exhaustion (you can't recover more than one hit die and level of exhaustion per day this way).

Broken Sleep
Your sleep is broken if you take damage, or another creature uses an action to shake you. Sudden loud noise – such as yelling, thunder, or a ringing bell – will wake most creatures, as can whispers within 10 feet of those with passive Wisdom (Perception) of 20 or higher, and normal speech for any with passive Wisdom (Perception) of 15 or higher where the environment is otherwise silent (no wind, birdsong, crickets, street sounds or the like.)

Making Yourself Comfortable
Medium or heavy armor is not comfortable to sleep in. Circumstances, such as exposure to bad weather, thirst, or starvation, can also stop a creature from being comfortable.

Attuning Magic Items
At the start of a period of sleep, you can choose a magic item to attune, if you have one. Provided the item is never more than 5 feet from you, once you accumulate 8 hours of beneficial sleep over a day it will be attuned.

Alternatives to Sleep
Some creatures have features that replace or modify sleep. For example, creatures that trance can subject themselves to the stunned condition, to count about 4 hours of trance as equivalent to 8 hours of sleep; and warlocks benefiting from Aspect of the Moon can perform other lowkey activity instead of subjecting themselves to the stunned or unconscious condition.

There's a lot going on here, and much of it is highly technical. With significantly lengthened rests, sleep becomes a more important and natural feeling means of recuperation. The XGE rules are used. HD and exhaustion recovery feels right in play attached to sleep. Remember you will sleep multiple times in the lengthened long rests, so the 1 HD / 1 level allowances are more than enough. Aspect of the Moon is improved. The mechanics also addresses snatching sleep in smaller increments.

Two elements are essentially idiosyncratic. I personally dislike the better-than-thou dark-visioning trancing nonsense, so trancing is not as good as it is per official rules across the Core and splatbooks. Magic items are attuned with sleep so that they cannot be found and attuned immediately, but don't have to wait for a "rest" (again, because those are lengthened).

Short Rest
After a day of no more than lowkey activity – if you prepare spells, you can change your list (typically requiring extra time to do so); and all your features that can refresh at the end of a “short rest”, do so. A short rest is broken by fatiguing activity and time spent up to that point is lost.

With the above engineering in place, lengthening short rest to 1 day becomes straightforward.

Long Rest
After three days of no more than lowkey activity – all your features that can refresh at the end of a long rest, do so. A long rest is broken by fatiguing activity and time spent up to that point is lost.

Again straightforward. It needs to be 3-days because in play a ratio of 1 day short to 1 week long over-favours short-rest classes (warlocks etc). Note that HP is not fully restored. You'll recover 3 HD, but must rely on your healing resources to get back all your HP. I find this makes fights and other damage-incurring risks more meaningful. Note that the 1-hour of fighting nonsense is scotched by the definitions of lowkey versus fatiguing activity.

Recuperation and Relaxation
A reduction to your hit point maximum is an effect that prevents you from regaining hit points, so can be restored by recuperation or relaxation.

This reconciles some RAW/RAI. Recuperation and Relaxation is a named type of downtime in RAW. So HP Max drains demand actual downtime to get over. (Or a spell.)

 

[Crimson Longinus]

I've been using gritty rests with an added caveat that the rest has to happen in some safe location. Its not necessarily exactly a week, but a small bit of downtime when the characters can study, chill, seek medical attention etc. Seems to work pretty well, and I can't really imagine using the standard rests. I've been running a game which I'd consider pretty combat heavy, but even with gritty rests I can't cram in the recommended amount of fights between long rests, but at least it is closer.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

So if a long rest is one week under the Gritty realism option and a spellcaster regains spell slots, sorcery points, etc. only after a long rest, this is really going to slow things down, right? I mean, I see well enough why this variant would be preferable for handling HD and healing, but for spell slots, ki points, sorcery points, many abilities, and all that sort of business it looks troublesome to me.

Why? It actually helps to keep casters and other long rest classes somewhat balanced, as they cannot just nova in every fight and use their utility spells with no care in the world as they won't just have all their slots back the next day.

A tenth level full caster has 15 spell slots (+cantrips.) I really have hard time imagining a sensible narrative where a caster would need to use fifteen spells in one day. The spell slots are actually supposed to be some sort of a limitation.

Or am I missing something obvious? I'm.....I'm missing something obvious, aren't I?

It really is just altered pacing. Events that would under the standard rules need to be crammed in one day can take place over several days. This results way more natural flow.

 

[Minigiant]

A tenth level full caster has 15 spell slots (+cantrips.) I really have hard time imagining a sensible narrative where a caster would need to use fifteen spells in one day. The spell slots are actually supposed to be some sort of a limitation

If the caster is delved through 20+ rooms and hallways in a dungeon in one day. Half of which have combats

That's kinda the issue.

The base 5e rules were written for use in a moderate length dungeon with a clear escape route and camping somewhere in the wild not far from the dungeon.

Do anything else and the amount of resources and recovery makes little sense.
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Really the problem is that 5e only has two types of rests. This doesn't match reality nor fantasy.

Resting for 5 minutes, 1 hour, 8 hours, 1 day, 3 days, and 1 week restores different amounts of vitality.

And where you rest and the amenities there factor into that. Really by default D&D should have a bare minimum of SIX types of rest.

That's why when I DM, I have 10 levels of rest.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

If the caster is delved through 20+ rooms and hallways in a dungeon in one day. Half of which have combats

Right. But I don't remember ever running such a game or playing in one. Perhaps as I kid. And I don't think I'm alone ion this, a lot of people don't play such endless dungeon crawls. Sure, there will be some dungeons, but three fight for a dungeon seems plenty.

That's kinda the issue.

The base 5e rules were written for use in a moderate length dungeon with a clear escape route and camping somewhere in the wild not far from the dungeon.

Do anything else and the amount of resources and recovery makes little sense.
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Yes. But gritty rests seem to fix it well enough. I actually think it should be the default, as I feel it would make more sense for how most people play these days.

Really the problem is that 5e only has two types of rests. This doesn't match reality nor fantasy.

Resting for 5 minutes, 1 hour, 8 hours, 1 day, 3 days, and 1 week restores different amounts of vitality.

And where you rest and the amenities there factor into that. Really by default D&D should have a bare minimum of SIX types of rest.

That's why when I DM, I have 10 levels of rest.

You are joking right? Seems utterly unnecessarily fiddly.

 

[Minigiant]

You are joking right? Seems utterly unnecessarily fiddly.

Often the simple solution is not the best one

My fiddly solution of having a different rest thresholds communicated to my players naturally how much vitality they should expect to recover.

5 minutes in a dangerous area? Enough time to catch your breath. Roll a single HD.

1 hour in a relatively peaceful area? Enough time for lunch, a quiche activity, proper bandaging, readjustment of armor, and a 20 minute nonREM sleep nap. Recover short rest features and you can roll any number of HD.

A full weekend off with full amenities and pampering? Enough time to treat and rest nagging wounds and calm mind. Restore all HO, HD , long rest features, and gain some THP from fully rested massaged body and mind. Reroll you maximum HP.