D&D 5E We have a Legends and Lore this week

[GX.Sigma]

they made camp in the wilderness, having taken some wounds and used most of their spells. During the night, they faced a random encounter, meaning they lost a few more hit points and used up some of their spells (and, it being 3e, the Clerics thus used up some of their spell slots from the next day). As a consequence of which, they insisted on staying put for a full day and night, so they didn't have to proceed while wounded and low on spells.

That doesn't seem so bad to me--it sounds similar to what might happen if they were resting in town. In what way did this break the flow?

 

[Raith5]

I think this is a terrible idea. For one thing, it doesn't even make sense. People can get a good night's rest when camping or in a cave. What do you think our ancestors did, before there were houses and beds to sleep in? But more importantly, it's a terrible idea from a game design perspective. First level characters can have single digit hp, making them extremely fragile. Now they might end up being stuck with half of that, until they can get back to town. So you can have wizards or rogues with as few as 3 HP after resting. Sure, they can get magical healing, but this is also a terrible idea for that reason. Since characters can't recover more than half of their hp from resting in a dungeon, the cleric (or other healer) is going to have to spend his healing resources first thing in the morning healing everyone from yesterday's injuries.

DDN is kinda speeding past my window, but isnt this a bit strange. Does this you cant really rest in dungeon have any basis in previous editions of D&D, aside from getting your rest interrupted. I cant remember seeing it in previous editions. It seems a strange thing to introduce as a new element. I dont know if hate it, but it seems strange as default.

 

[1of3]

I think this is a terrible idea. For one thing, it doesn't even make sense. People can get a good night's rest when camping or in a cave. What do you think our ancestors did, before there were houses and beds to sleep in? But more importantly, it's a terrible idea from a game design perspective. First level characters can have single digit hp, making them extremely fragile. Now they might end up being stuck with half of that, until they can get back to town. So you can have wizards or rogues with as few as 3 HP after resting. Sure, they can get magical healing, but this is also a terrible idea for that reason. Since characters can't recover more than half of their hp from resting in a dungeon, the cleric (or other healer) is going to have to spend his healing resources first thing in the morning healing everyone from yesterday's injuries.

Apparently our ancestors were running at 50% HP all the time. While that is not the point of the rule - real world considerations never are - the life expectancy of our ancestors tended to be lower, indeed.

With their new set-up first level is an Apprentice. Apprentices are probably not supposed to wander into the wild too far, I wouldn't let my students do so. If that happens in play, something has probably gone wrong in the fiction, and the players want a comparably gritty game. Otherwise they would start at level 3.

As for the cleric burning spells for healing, I dig that.

 

[GX.Sigma]

DDN is kinda speeding past my window, but isnt this a bit strange. Does this you cant really rest in dungeon have any basis in previous editions of D&D, aside from getting your rest interrupted. I cant remember seeing it in previous editions. It seems a strange thing to introduce as a new element. I dont know if hate it, but it seems strange as default.

Resting in old-school D&D restored 1 HP per full day, plus Con modifier per week, so it was pretty impossible to rest in the dungeon (especially with all those wandering monster checks).

 

[avin]

I think this is a terrible idea. For one thing, it doesn't even make sense. People can get a good night's rest when camping or in a cave. What do you think our ancestors did, before there were houses and beds to sleep in?

We are talking about what should be a far more hostile environment than a real world cave. You are trying to sleep in a place which could be crowded by goblins, kobolds, trolls, beholders... it doesn't make much sense to sleep in a dungeon IMHO... unless you're exausted and doesn't have where to run.

 

[I'm A Banana]

The Real World Wilderness isn't the D&D Wilderness, though.

So, in the Real World, you hunker down, start a fire, grab some warm blankets, and, if the weather isn't too bad, you're probably fine.

In D&D, you do that and you're trollbait.

UNLESS...you're a ranger...or a druid...or a soldier used to roughing it...then, maybe you CAN rest out in the wilderness! And maybe help your soft city folk friends be OK, too.

I love that the town remains the center of a PC's life, that it is required to be whole again. I love that HP are physical by default (with a dial you can turn that makes them less so). I love the idea of fate points as "you don't die, but Fate bones you instead!" These are all wonderful things.

 

[Will Doyle]

People can get a good night's rest when camping or in a cave. What do you think our ancestors did, before there were houses and beds to sleep in?

I'm guessing you can't get a proper rest because you're camping in a hostile environment, rather than sleeping on bumpy ground. You're having to mount watches, and you can't sleep so well because you know you could get ambushed any second.

The design intent feels a little cludgy though. I'm not sure how I feel about being forced back to town throughout an adventure for some "narrative padding". I guess "Town" could apply to any form of refuge (e.g. an oasis in the desert, a nearby glade) - otherwise how else will we manage "long quest into the wilderness" adventures?

 

[GX.Sigma]

The design intent feels a little cludgy though. I'm not sure how I feel about being forced back to town throughout an adventure for some "narrative padding". I guess "Town" could apply to any form of refuge (e.g. an oasis in the desert, a nearby glade) - otherwise how else will we manage "long quest into the wilderness" adventures?

With the default assumptions, if you're spending weeks in an endless wilderness with no civilization anywhere, then it makes sense to never be at full capacity. But as Mike says, different campaigns will use different interpretations of recovery.

 

[Li Shenron]

I think this is a terrible idea. For one thing, it doesn't even make sense. People can get a good night's rest when camping or in a cave. What do you think our ancestors did, before there were houses and beds to sleep in? But more importantly, it's a terrible idea from a game design perspective. First level characters can have single digit hp, making them extremely fragile. Now they might end up being stuck with half of that, until they can get back to town. So you can have wizards or rogues with as few as 3 HP after resting. Sure, they can get magical healing, but this is also a terrible idea for that reason. Since characters can't recover more than half of their hp from resting in a dungeon, the cleric (or other healer) is going to have to spend his healing resources first thing in the morning healing everyone from yesterday's injuries.

I wonder if he meant to write "can return you half your maximum hit points". That would makes more sense... I agree that just return to half your max just opens up for nonsensical situations like, being away from the city means being stuck at 50% HP, even if you do nothing but resting for a week or a month?

 

[Iosue]

I think this is a terrible idea. For one thing, it doesn't even make sense. People can get a good night's rest when camping or in a cave. What do you think our ancestors did, before there were houses and beds to sleep in?

Okay, what do our ancestors have to do with this? If you only sleep on the ground, sure, you're probably going to get the kind of rest as someone who only sleeps on a bed. D&D characters aren't that, though. They sleep in beds more often than they sleep on the ground. But what if your D&D character always sleeps on the ground? Great, then have them restored to full HP. Mearls just putting forth a baseline for the core game ("Remember, this is just the beginning point—the entry spot for people new to tabletop RPGs.") off which they and DMs can iterate, to create the game they want. Want HP as meat points? Low HP recovery on rests. Want HP as abstract measure of badassitude? Go full recovery on rests. And all spots in between.