NEW Long Rest Rules, DM Tips, & Homebrew for Rest in D&D 5e

[@TheDungeonCoach]

How do YOU run Long Rest in Dungeons and Dragons?? Get my Homebrew Rule System here: 🏕 Reset System PDF: thedungeoncoach.com/products/revised-rest-system 💜 Become a Patron: www.patreon.com/thedungeoncoach

[@MagnusMurdock]

10 minute short rests can get crazy with a warlock. Here is what I'm doing for Campaign 2- Short rests- 30 minutes max. Each Short rest after the first increases the odds of being discovered or attacked (or just an encounter) by 3. The DC is a perception or stealth check (player choice) starting at 15. Any encounter will interrupt the rest. Use hit dice as normal. Long rests - 8 hours. Regain spent hit dice/spend hit dice. You also get a flat CON MOD + LEVEL of free healing. You can't regain HD until the next long rest. Remove 1 level of exhaustion for each long rest. Full Rest - 24 hours of "down time" in a safe, civilized, area. Restore all HD, full heal,, remove all exhaustion, and mundane effects. A full rest outside of a safe, civilized, area requires 1 week of downtime in a single location.

[@loganricard8713]

I honestly just use the Gritty Realism, Slow Natural Healing, Healer's Kit Dependency, and Healing Surge from the DMG. My players have been enjoying it. Over the course of 93 in game days, only 4 Long Rests have been taken. It's been pretty good. The only thing I did was change make 1 level of exhaustion get removed for every 8 hours sleeping (1 short rests).

[@DonkeyDoormatDrive]

Thanks so much coach, this has really gotten my brain thinking, I’m making a homebrew system and rests are something we haven’t covered yet even though we don’t use HP in this system just exhaustion.

[@MrScarduelli]

For me the main problem is gameplay balance. You need 6 combats per long rest in order to balance spellslots and rages (LR resources) agains ki points and actions surge (SR resources) otherwiwise Casters can blast their resources without punishment. By having 6+ encounters they have to be carefull and manage their resources. I just twinkle rest durations to acomodate that. I make short rest 5 min and limit to 3 per LR, 2 is too few imo. But it’s your call For the long rest, deppends on the pace I want to play. A week, 24h, 8h in a safe space… whatever is better for the pace of the game. I found 24h in a safe space to work the best for my style, I can make multiple day adventures in the wilds and make sure to have 6-8 encounters per LR. Casters are not that powerful all of the sudden and monks turn out to be on Par with others. Barbarians cannot just blast their rage every combat, and so on

[@MrScarduelli]

@@MagnusMurdock or you can limit #of short rests in a day.

[@schylerfontenot7358]

The last variant just inspired me... gonna start reducing Hit Die now when my players get absolutely thrashed. It's a good way to keep the dangerous feel without being too punishing... i love it

[@TroySpace]

Yeah, I use hit dice erosion for going unconscious. Stops the whack-a-mole effect.

[@GreenLanternCorps2814]

The "magically" recovering hit points on a long rest is a problem of narration, I think. A long rest doesn't exclusively have to be sleeping, in fact, I think the official rules even say that it's light activity, conversation, etc. Part of that can be binding and caring for their wounds and using whatever magical abilities they have to heal up. Even if they don't have spell slots left, or even if no one has healing, I kind of conceptualize it as easy, cantrip-like magic. Maybe they can't cast healing spells, but they can use weak, time-consuming magic to slowly stitch wounds closed, mend bones, etc. You also don't have to think of loss of hit points as injuries. Hit points can also be conceived of as a measurement of luck, armor integrity, etc. So almost up until you're knocked out, you're not necessarily taking physical injuries.

[@TheXenioph]

I don't think Wizards does any service to the idea that hit points are not just physical injuries considering pretty much all healing magic restores hit points. They shouldn't call it "healing word"; they should call it "energizing word" or something.

[@GreenLanternCorps2814]

@@TheXenioph that's true, that's definitely not a RAW thing

[@carterplowman5548]

@@TheXenioph actually, that’s exactly how WotC describes hitpoints. From the Basic Rules on Damage and Healing: “Hit points represent a combination of physical and mental durability, the will to live, and luck. Creatures with more hit points are more difficult to kill. Those with fewer hit points are more fragile.”

[@TheXenioph]

​@@carterplowman5548 That's kind of the point that I am trying to make. Wizards gives a description of Hit Points that includes a number of things only one of which relates to physical injuries/health. Then, all the spells that they create that let you regain HP only refer to the physical health portion of HP, i.e., healing word, cure wounds, heal, etc. That's super confusing. They should make spells called things like "fortify resolve", "steel will", or "reinforce luck" that cause the restoring of hit points, illustrating that HP isn't just physical injury.

[@FlatOnHisFace]

@@TheXenioph I mean, they have a spell called Chill Touch and it is neither of those things.

[@antieverything1]

I stole the PF2e long-rest healing rule: PCs regain con mod (minimum of 1) x level HP. The result was that the players started using HD for the first time and started to quaff those potions they'd been hoarding for the entire campaign!

[@TheClericCorner]

Playing with the idea of making all healing temporary hit points, but it's max, or using the other person's hit dice when you heal them. Keeps the pop up and down from death over and over to a minimum

[@skidmoda]

I like this idea did you try it? How did it go?

[@Boardslam27]

If you have players long resting in the middle of the dungeon you A) have a patrol spot them and bring the entire dungeon to the one room they are in B) Restock the dungeon with new monsters C) enemies take everything valuable there is and just exit, leave the dungeon empty

[@TheDungeonCoach]

O I agree, I definitely agree. I just like having this as the "default" rest system, and then I can do all those things too on top of that.

[@DemiImp]

I would just refuse to give them the bonuses of the long rest. You can't sleep/rest well when you're in a dangerous place.

[@Boardslam27]

@@DemiImp yes, that is certainly an option. However, some players might argue that Leomund's tiny hut creates a safe space for rest, or the party might be higher level and have acces to Mordekainen's mansion which guarantees a safe rest. These options I listed here always work and do not take the player agency away while creating more believable world :)

[@DragonKingZero]

@@DemiImp “You may not rest, there are monsters nearby”

[@brandonwarner1401]

Really love your channel man! I've been using your resting rules but I've added the extra requirement of healers kits in order to bandage up and get those hit dice to heal. This way, they run the risk of running out of kits and not being able to heal without magic.

[@NobodyDungeons]

Yes, and if they have the medic feat they could give the party additional healing or something like that.

[@TheDungeonCoach]

Thanks Brandon! Love to hear it! I love your healers kit addition as well, ive done the same if we had a group that was low on healers too (or a magic item ) :)

[@briancudahy8357]

Thank you Dungeon Coach! This is exactly what I needed. I saw your post on Facebook but wasn’t able to comment there. Thank you for the excellent content!

[@JechtPurgateur]

I don't know if there is any subtil / cryptic message with the miniature. I have for long tried to homebrew a lot of things before I discovered the Dark Eye (which the miniature is about). TDE solve really all the issue most player could have in a fantasy setting. Mostly everything is covered. The resting system, if we can call it asis, does not suffer the issues that DnD can have. I mean, it feels like you are trying to tell people to play this game, without mentioning it. I think it is a coincidence but still, looks so accurate 😂

[@christiandemers8763]

The Dark Eye solves a lot of the issues that D&D have if you ask me...

[@JechtPurgateur]

@@christiandemers8763 I would say, it gives it a special taste. I would even say it gives a lot of nice ideas to solve issues on many kind of games, not only DnD. I won't go deep there because the main topic was DnD. But that cool for homebrew lovers too thanks to the modularity system.

[@PapaSmerf008]

You have talked about this system before and I have been using it at my tables. I use 30 min for short rest single exhaustion over a night's rest double exhaustion removal on a full rest. I also do the same with sticky death save failures (drop 1 after a night's rest, drop 2 after a full rest). It helps to runs overland travel and dungeons and encourages players to get to towns.

[@tonyc5605]

getting ready to run a new game with my group.. doing our first in person session after years of playing online. You're videos have been SO helpful! THANK YOU SIR

[@TheDungeonCoach]

WOAH!!! Thats awesome to hear! I'm excited for you! And thanks for that, glad I could be of assistance

[@357Dejavu]

Wow I have been trying to come up with a better way to do long and short rests. This came out at a very convenient time!

[@TheDungeonCoach]

Love it when this happens! haha I got you!

[@wildankautsar7148]

Dude me too! had session last saturday and been taking about it with another player for like an hour and half!

[@lunargamer5261]

After your video a couple months ago about alternate armor rules, I decided to try a variant of my own with the campaign I recently started. In this case, just the idea that resting in a safe town should be different from resting out in wilderness sounds so obvious that I feel like I have to change something about resting. Some of your suggestions go too far for me, but I love the way they inspire me to rethink rules I've taken for granted.

[@TheDungeonCoach]

Thanks Lunar! Thats my entire goal is to get you thinking. So yea I go too far some times, and thats on purpose too, so you feel that line being cross and know WOAH... theres the line. So now you know BOTH where you are starting from, and where you WONT go... so the perfect rules are somewhere in the middle for you :)

[@lunargamer5261]

@@TheDungeonCoach The whole reason homebrew rules exist is that no two tables and no two groups are the same. Even the "professionals" can't write rules that work for everyone.

[@dragonxswords114]

Hey coach I have an idea for a varient rule: As a supplementary thing to this, add the ritual tag to cure wounds. This way a party cleric could repeatedly cast cure wounds at 1st level even if the party has no spell slots. This causes the party to feel like they are bring healed by the healer instead of natural processes and makes things feel SIGNIFICANTLY better. It also makes the party healer a lot more appreciated. It also causes situations where if the party is super hurt the cleric might have to give up their short rest to cast cure wounds. Which is super interesting since thats only one cast with a 10 min short rest (or 3 casts if its 30 min)

[@elementzero3379]

I love this approach to Long Rests. Much of 5E is fuzzy around the edges. While it was presumably made that way in order to allow for DM/table variance, it oft feels somewhat unfinished. This approach to Long Rests adds much more nuance to a somewhat bland, awkward rule. I love it. I've been playing and running 5E for years, and this looks like the best approach I've seen. I'll definitely consider using this. Thanks for the convenient links to your site. I like to support creators, and appreciate when they make it easy. 👍🏻

[@MrJerks93]

The main problem I have with rests in the game is tying them to the recovery of class abilities. They have the solution in the game with the description of magical items. There are several that recharge at dawn. I do the same thing. Abilities that recover at long rest are now recoverable once the sun breaks the horizon. Therefore long rests only serve to recover exhaustion. For short rests, I don't really have a set time. I don't tend to think in hours but in scenes and beats. If you can narrate an entire scene or lose an action beat you can take a short rest. During this time though the opposition isn't idle. As a general rule of thumb, I add a complication to up the difficulty of the next encounter as the narrative price for taking a short rest in the middle of an adventure. For example, the town guard has time to round up a posse, pitch is floated on the moat and set ablaze, or the wizard has enough time to lay down a ritual or two to discourage further intrusions.

[@mikepowers8607]

How do you handle situations where you can't see the sun? Party is in the Underdark for a week for example.

[@MrJerks93]

@@mikepowers8607 I don't require that they witness dawn, just that it occurs. For clerics, I also give the option to set the time of prayer thematically. Goddess of midnight you can set your recovery to a prayer a midnight. Mechnically it's all the same, but it removes the request of players to take a long rest at odd times. It can also make a cool "survive the night" feel to things, like the Battle of Helms Deep.

[@Emloch]

I'm tougher when it comes to natural healing (coming from AD&D). Players gain only 1 HP per hit dice spent on a short rest. A long rest resets hit dice but does not grant full HP; though they can roll 1 hit dice for free and gain whatever they roll divided by two, rounded up. Sometimes they only roll a 1 anyway..."dems the breaks". This may seem harsh to some, but compared to AD&D, this is a treat. My group prefers a grittier, harsher play. We also have HP level caps too.

[@baowen2973]

Good stuff Coach! Our table has been using Kibblestasty's Camp Actions ruleset for our long rests. Special actions you take during the long rest to make long rests more than keeping watch.

[@azuthyra5590]

I looked this up and like the ideas presented. I just might have to give it a try.

[@F4R207]

When we started playing 5e (having played mostly other, not related to DnD, tabletop roleplaying games) it was one of the first changes we made, removing the long rests full heal and restricting it to down time in civilization and non-threatening situations, and while out in the wilderness, in a dungeon, being stressed and chased through town, they have to rely on their hit dice, regaining them as per usual. While more variation starts adding complexity I do like the suggestions, and depending on the theme and tone there's a lot there that can support different variations of stories, also the return of old-school negative levels but through degrading hit dice are a nice way to reimplement old thematic monster powers and make hit dice a more referenced resource.

[@TheDungeonCoach]

Were synced up! Always cool to hear other people do similar things!

[@TheSiwert]

We combined the rule of limited hit dice with a 'lingering injuries' homebrew rule, which makes the party actually feel wounded after a big fight, though barely so in an easy fight. The lingering injuries are gained by rolling on various tables, depending on whatever damage type knocked them down to/past 0 hit points. This makes it feel quite realistic for us. Even if you regain all hit points, your ribs will still be broken until you take a few days rest or get it healed by magic.

[@mikeallen3901]

So this got me thinking. What about a short rest being 10 minute per HD used instead? I’m more injured so I need a longer rest type thing.

[@mikeallen3901]

Maximum 1 hour for 6+ HD used.

[@azuthyra5590]

This is actually what I use in my games and I've enjoyed it. To add to this I also have short rest abilities be a choice for 10 minutes as well. So I would typically say "how long do you want to rest for?" and for each increment of 10 minutes the players decide what they want to get back. So for example, 30 minutes of resting would mean the warlock could get their spells back and roll 2 hit dice, or roll 3 hit dice, their choice. In dangerous places I'll typically have them go 10 minutes at a time and check for complications for each 10, progressively getting more likely that something will happen. Builds the risk/reward tension. I feel like some of this came from the Dungeon Coach actually, I've watched so many now though I can't remember.

[@airdragon11studios]

Yesssssss!!!! Can't wait to use this system!!!

[@jakemanley3009]

One homebrew rule I have been tinkering with is allowing players to spend one of their unused Hit Die and add it to their Death Saving Throws. It makes Hit Die management feel slightly more useful in my opinion, so the Erosion idea you presented seems delightfully evil to implement and see how things go.

[@HouseDM]

All great ideas, Coach! Definitely love that you mentioned the “remove healing back to max hp after completing a long rest” part. Ive already done this in my games and it’s a critical change if you play 5e.

[@nibilissilibin9141]

I've implemented a safe-place long rest system in my game. The party can only gain the benefits of a long rest in a safe location like an inn or town or other very safe location. This way I can stretch the adventuring day mechanics over days and weeks before giving the full rest. Hit dice are being used more often and still only recover half of a level per long rest so at least two days would be needed for a full recovery. I also have implemented a camping system where each character has a job for a successful camp night (location, setup, resources, and sentry) with successful total checks (like a skill challenge) meaning nothing happened, exceeding regains a spent hit die, and excessive failure loses hit die. After which, if they have no hit dice to lose they gain an equal number of points of exhaustion. They've become more resourceful and are role-playing survival more.

[@ddtalks2821]

(10:00) - Adjust Rests for PC's : When I DM, rest come at natural story break points. After they have completed a quest and returned to the city, or during the evening on a long journey (when they have had encounters - a '3 day travel' to the next city with no encounters... is just 'travel' time and you arrive at the city. No need to 'take a short/long rest' the party should be 'ready to go' all topped off. Sometimes I keep the game running and running and running... eventually the players say they are low on resources and "need" a rest. That is when you can give the players the chance to regain resources (as long as it is in a 'safe-ish' place. But do they get a Long rest? or a Short one. That depends on the situation. They find themselves in the forest just outside the Ruins they explored and are getting ready to travel back to the city in the morning? That may be a long rest (or the forest still having dangers, they only get a short rest and need to 'push on' just a little further before getting a long rest... RISKS?) I like using the 'Story' of the game and the feel of the Characters to help determine when and IF the party gets a rest (and which type). Obviously when in a City or Leveling up, a long rest happens. But it depends on the theme and style of the game you are running helps determine when and how often rest happen. (12:52) - Long Rest in dungeons : Why would you let your players take a 'long rest' in a dungeon? Is your dungeon too hard? is it too long ? Are you (as a DM) just letting them take it because they dumped all their resources on the last (one?) combat knowing you will be lenient and give them all their stuff back ? Luke at 'theDMLair' has a great idea about letting parties taking 'long rests' in dungeons. Often times there are patrols, and they will come across previous combats, or even the group 'sleeping'. The patrols go back to the BBEG and notify that there are 'intruders'. So now while the party sleeps, the Dungeon resets as the BBEG calls in reinforcements, or beefs up security making up coming encounters more difficult. So as a DM, I would take a look at the reasons behind why a long rest is 'needed' in a dungeon. Then you can adjust and use the best tactics to address the issue: Make the dungeon smaller, don't allow the players to dump everything in each combat - they need to learn to ration out their resources, etc. (15:50) - Hit Dice Erosion : Another alternative (or additive) feature you could implement is based on Damage taken. If in combat you receive a blow that is 1/2 your max HP in one hit, then you lose a Hit Die. Your body goes into system shock and now you can't use all the bodies natural recuperating abilities and need to get a long rest to regain those Hit Dice (similar to Exhaustion). Although many times in my games, Hit Dice are not that often used. Additional Comments - Healing Potions / Scrolls / Temples (Spend GP) : How often are healing potions used? Does your party horde them ? Never use them? or wait until the entire party is at less than 10 HP before whipping out the potions? Does the party purchase potions when in town? Are they hard to come by, or to abundant? Perhaps allowing for Scrolls to be purchased, or going to the Temple and having City clerics mend the wounded? Using your parties gold to purchase healing can help with also managing gold (if they have too much). Having these items on hand can allow for longer spans of time between rests and thus don't need to have a rest JUST to heal up (if resources is not the reason for the rest - see comment #1).

[@OneNationRestorations]

So many things about this game promote creativity, but the long rest system does not. These are great thoughts to help. Thumbs up here.

[@alaskaaa684]

I've been doing a version of your rest system for almost a month now and it's been working great: 1. Short rest (2 per day limit) - I'm not being strict with the 1 hour thing, but I find it easier to track time. Time of day plays a huge role in d&d for me, so I like to divide an adventuring day in 1 hour sections. 2 . Long rest (6-8 hours) - My players are very new to the game (and young) so I've kept the full heal and recharge. The players don't really need to sleep in long rests but depending on where they are they do need to keep watch. They nap, eat, rest. There's also a 5 Long Rests limit before they gain one level of exhaustion, but I told them: "if you can make your long rest as safe/comfortable as a full rest, it will you the benefits of a full rest.) 3. Full rest (Minimum 8 hours) - This can only be done in safe and comfortable places, like inns, taverns, homes. It requires the players to have a meal and time to calm down and attend to their wounds. They receive full HP + a bonus (you choose the dice, I'm doing a d10 because again, my players are very new). Full resting also resets the '5 long rests before exhaustion'. So far the full rest has influenced a lot the decision making in the game, with players choosing to walk a couple of hours into the night to reach the town instead of camping - and that can lead to great moments.

[@guamae]

Not getting a full heal on a Long Rest (but getting back all your HD), is a Variant Rule in the DMG. I tried this for a bit, but it made my players more skittish about taking risks, and I didn't feel like it added anything to the game, but more bookkeeping. I Do like the option of getting Max Rolls for HD spent during Long Rests though...

[@claytonbeal3504]

Love the rest system you've come up with. My 10 minute rest is a Quick Rest and the characters can use ONE hit die and recover ONE instance of a class feature they recover on a short rest (they have to choose which one)

[@roguenelson-mb7ko]

I know I am way behind. I just started playing D&D again, last time played in 1998, yikes! But I am back. To say the least a LOT has changed in this time. This is an awesome way to deal with healing. I was kind of confused that all HP is given back for just sleeping. I am definitely going to use your system.

[@azuthyra5590]

Great content Coach! I find that I can pull at least one thing, often much more, from each video you put out. I want to use all the things but I also have to make sure I don't overdo it.

[@justanotherkyle8772]

Really helped me understand the PDF better. Thanx coach!

[@divi1139]

Under rated channel

[@TheDungeonCoach]

Thanks for that

[@bryanwhite832]

What do you think of arcana checks to get spell slots back in stress-rests (rests in danger)? Or survival checks (way to make rangers barbarians rolling) for party benefits in stress-rests?

[@NegatveSpace]

I like this idea. I never liked the idea of restoring everything in one night. Maybe they had a fitful sleep or rotten food or still getting over a poison effect from that day. Survival would definitely be cool or maybe a constitution check could be for the other classes. Survival check might be interesting to give added benefit to the skill. I've also thought that an option could be any spellcasting class regaining spell slots through the day in dnd. I know the flavor the gods want a limit but I've always thought if a wizard has a spellbook, why not let them sit and study when they want. Then they could also do a roll on a short rest but maybe not regain as much.

[@357Dejavu]

This reminded me a lot of Adventures of Middle Earth 5e rules. I like it!

[@silvertheelf]

There’s an optional rule that says you can only use hit dice with a healing kit, I think it’s in the DMG and is called “Natural Healing” or something like that.

[@JessicaJones-ko9zo]

My players are doing an Amazing race type of campaign at the moment. Some of these variants would have been really helpful, next time. Thanks for these videos.

[@SuperHellfist]

I do my game more hardcore short is 8 hours, and a full is a week (an has to be taken somewhere with a safe place with a bed )

[@twilightgardenspresentatio6384]

hard core!

[@TheDungeonCoach]

I can definitely see that being fitting for a GRITTY game where your health and resources are scarce!

[@SuperHellfist]

@@TheDungeonCoach I also let them use a medical kit, for limited healing to spend hit dice, so they can patch a person up. But only works once per wound. The stipulations are that it has to be slashing or something that could be patched up. Psychic and necrotic and many of the elemental damage require more than a med kit can handle. Some ointments and other mundane cures can help. Just like hypothermia and burns do in real life, I even let one person shock a person back to life after he died from a lightning bolt.

[@blakenelson4158]

@@SuperHellfist to complicated. and you can't compare it to real life because cleaning a wound and slapping on a bandage is not going to heal that wound.

[@ninnusridhar]

This is actually a very interesting subject for me. My personal method is similar. I have short, long and full rests. Full rests will fully regen all hp and slots etc. But it needs to be in a bed, in safety. Long rests work like DC says, but I also add food requirements. You are going to need someone who can cook. So if you eat good cooked hot food you're going to regen more than if you just eat cold rations. So I encourage players to take otherwise useless feats like chef or gourmand. It now becomes essential for long rests, as I let them get max hit die if they have food and roll if they only have rations. This is also influenced by safety. So spells like tiny hut become useful as it too influences long rests. If my players spend the night cold and without any form of safety, I make them roll constitution for exhaustion.

[@blakenelson4158]

the only thing i would add is let folks with survival role for the cooked food thing. if you have cook no role necessary.

[@ninnusridhar]

@blakenelson4158 oh absolutely. The recommendation for chef or gourmand is just to add to the game. A good survival check and a good cooking utensils check is usually fine for me

[@benm6203]

I have been running RoTF with my group recently. I decided to change long and short rests so that the only way that you can recover hit points (other than magical healing) is to spend hit dice. I limited the maximum number of hit dice that they can spend during a short rest to half Thier level rounded down. I also allowed them to regain all spent hit dice at the end of a long rest. I really like the idea of allowing the party to regain half of Thier spent hit dice in the middle of the long rest, and the other half at the end. I think that could solve the problem (although it hasn't cropped up yet) of spending all of your hit dice on short rests (1 hour) and then not gaining any back on a long rest (8 hours) which would feel pretty odd. I left the rest periods the same, along with the time you need to spend sleeping, (have a party of 8 so they can take watch in pairs if they want to)

[@xLTxFire]

I wanted to do something like this, but was worried that I didn't understand the system well enough yet. This makes me feel like maybe I could do something similar.

[@trunnellstaverntales6228]

I use a modified Gritty Realism. Short rests are each night after 8 hours of rest. Long rests are 2 days off in a safe location. Medicine checks can be used to roll hit dice in between rests. It's a mandatory change I run in all of my games, and I don't think I would ever go back.

[@Tusker2zero2]

I just ordered your book. I can't wait to see it. Keep up the great work. Wishing you much success. ❤️

[@TheDungeonCoach]

Wow thank you so much for that!!!that’s huge! You won’t regret it!!

[@noahtipton7302]

My house rules are similar but a little different. Quick Rest (10 min) - no ability recovery. Can spend 1 hit die. Short rest (1 hour) - RAW Long Rest (8 hours) - hit die to recover. Recover 1/2 hit dice at the end of the rest. Recover 1 level of exhaustion. Quality Rest (a number of days = levels of exhaustion ÷ 2 round down min of 1) - The players must be safe, comfortable, and well fed. Full recovery and remove all levels of exhaustion. Advantage on any ongoing saves such as disease.

[@elmsigreen]

I'm definitely gonna use some of those. I am currently DMing a game where my players ARE the bandits. And it's kinda murderhobo-y so there is a lot of combat. But they always just run back to their cave and take a long rest. So making them have to spend hitdice in a long rest would probably slow them down a bit and make them have to think before they attack anything they see

[@stm7810]

for the healing it shouldn't be max from dice but on a long rest you should get advantage on the dice roll since you are taking your time to dose potions, massage each other, carefully clean and bandage wounds, or make more meaningful long prayers of healing. it can still go bad, but it's easier then what you can achieve in 10 minutes.

[@tobizerker4153]

This gives me the idea of instead pf the normal long rest players can a set of dice equal to their proficiency bonus to spend per long rest along with their unspent hit die. That way they aren't too reliant on hit dice recovery and would spend multiple long rest to try and recover them.

[@jonathanlavy605]

Yay a good old massive home brew video. Missed it.

[@Ko-fd8lo]

I went and made an in-story reason why you get a full heal from a night’s sleep, so it could at least have a reason why.

[@TheDungeonCoach]

I do love to have everything "make sense" so props to you lol

[@creepyshadow]

One rule for healing I like to implement is that any character that has suffered damage from a critical hit, can not recover those hp until they have rested for a full 24 hours or are healed by higher level healing spells. Also any significant damage from a fall of 40'+ will give the character 1 or 2 lvl of exhaustion do to their body being jarred by the impact of the fall, these lvl of exhaustion wear off after a long rest.

[@toonezon4836]

so i really like what youre suggesting with the long rest, and even splitting up what part of the long rest charge you get when, where the 1st half of the night you recover half your spent hd's and the next half yor your long rest abilities. a michanic i've been planning on implimenting is that by the end of your long rest, you recover half the difference between your current and max hp, plus your con mod (min of 1hp). though now im not sure weather to give them that hp at the end of both 4hr shifts, or just the 1st. also, if the max hp is lower than normal bc of say a wraith's attack, they'd get half the difference plus con mod between current hp and current max hp, but the max hp would go back to normal after the time period given for the effect. so if the pc was attacked by a wraith and their max hp goes from say 60 to 50, my umbers are arbitrary, dont worry about balance for the example, and their current hp is at say 20, they can recover half the hp between 20 and 50+con mod. like you suggest, they can spend hit dice before taking the rest to revover more hp, ave a smaller gap but the amount recovered is still half the dif + con mod. after the long rest, the wraith's ability wares off and they're back to having their original max hp, and their current hp are what ever they woke up with. that next night, their longrest heal would be based on the same formula. so lets say they rolled and slept and woke up with 45 hp and that day they didnt get injured or use any healing (hds or magic) than that night, they heal hp= half the difference between 45 and 60 (their normal max), + con mod, oh yes, and round up or down depending on how generous you're feeling as dm, though id reccommend rounding up. like your method, this would at least some what allow one to account for sustained injuries that take time to heal, as well as the body recovering from regular use.

[@VitorRedes]

We use the long rest this way too, kind of, characters regain their hit dices and that's it. The 4 hour shift is interesting, thanks.

[@CooperAATE]

For my 2nd campaign, I've been thinking of changing long rests so that players A) Regain 1/2 their HD, as normal B) Regain hit points equal to the average of 1/2 their HD (rounded down, of course) + their Constitution score As an example, a 7th-level druid with 15 CON would regain 29 hit points (average of 3d8 is 14, plus their 15 CON), while a barbarian of the same level and CON score regains 35 hit points. What do we think about this system?

[@TheDungeonCoach]

I think that is a little "mathy" lol (coming from the math teacher) BUT It is another way of being "nicer" to the playerse and giving them SOME healing... whihc is always better than FULL healing lol

[@CooperAATE]

@@TheDungeonCoach it's not perfect, but like you said it's definitely better than full healing because you went to bed lol. Plus, it's not as useful as the players get stronger imo, and they only get the 1 LR a day. That means they need to be smart about how much damage they take (and stock up on potions!)

[@blakenelson4158]

@@CooperAATE if your doing 1/2 hd round down +con why not just say 1/2 hit points round down?

[@williamhoover6902]

I use hit dice regardless of long rest. 1d4 for short and 1d6 for long regardless of class. Anytime you hit zero hit points you gain a level of exhaustion so popping up from healing word still has a consequence. One long rest per 24 hour period. Short rest as much as you want but its a finite pool of hit dice. Hit dice are recovered one per day plus a number of hit die equal to your constitution modifier. This creates a lingering wound issue for players to manage which I like.

[@andresnoguez4497]

I used a simple system, may help: 1 night of long rest recovers 1/2 of Max HP, so 2 days of long rest without combat regenerates full HP. I think this works in towns because they can spend at least one day rol playing, making downtime activities, easy sidequests and a little exploration It also works in travelling because it makes it more challenging without been ultra deadly

[@thomad4]

I like the distinction of Short, Long, and Full Rest. From a narrative stand point a rest in a city / town / Inn of some sort should be a "better" rest than camping out in the woods or in a dungeon. A player character that went unconscious with 2 death saves gone...8hr sleep...100% fine. Really? 5e is definitely more approachable but I agree "Rest" is a little bit over simplified and hit dice are kind of lackluster mechanic right now.

[@NobodyDungeons]

So, what I like to do is role play that the playable races are super human, so people have wolverine like healing factors with wounds rapidly knitting themselves back together when you take a short rest. When you run out of hit dice it represents your healing factor reaching its limits.

[@dorianbake5888]

The way I run long rests is that for every long rest, you regain your constitution score hp back. I got the idea from cyberpunk red.

[@eldritch0golem698]

only two short rests per 24hrs: Warlocks, Rune knights, Battle masters: how dare you!

[@TheDungeonCoach]

Hahaha Hey! I give them some love in other ways too to make sure they have resources to have fun with lol

[@Braincain007]

Short rests were 5 minutes in 4th edition and it definitely felt better!

[@TheDungeonCoach]

Oooo yea? I didnt know that! Love knowing that info now

[@FlatOnHisFace]

They're 10 minutes, with an optional rule found in the DMG. You didn't even need to houserule that bit.

[@666DarkOverlord]

Something I've been toying with as an idea for the rest system in hostile territory: Short Rest, Short Rest refresh abilities and spell slots take 30 minutes of rest to come back, for every 5 mins of resting (which can only include resting/tending wounds) you can roll 1 hit die, it would be a good idea to have someone be lookout and the person on lookout can't roll a hit die for that 5 minute slot so rotating out lookouts while people tend to their wounds needs to be thought about. Long Rest, this takes 10 hours (8 hours rest, 2 hours watch, so if you have methods where watch isn't needed 8 only), Long Rest refresh abilities and spell slots come back, you reduce exhaustion by 1 point to a minimum of 2 (if you have 1 or 2 points those don't go away without resting in a settlement), you roll half your max hit die and that's the health you regain from resting (these are not deducted from your pool), you gain back half your hit die that were spent prior to the rest.

[@NobodyDungeons]

I would like to remind you that resources are meant to be used, and warlocks being able to only cast two spells before needing to recharge kind of sucks short rest or not. So, even with a 10 minute short rest warlocks still need to be stingy with their resources which is how it should be, and at the end of the day you are the DM and can tell the party that if they do that they'll just get interrupted by the enemies in the next room over or something worse could happen. Also, 10 minutes isn't a ton of time, so certain members of the party could take short rests while the remainder make sure they can actually do it by barricading a door or something.

[@TheDungeonCoach]

Exactly! The 10 min time slot has always felt great to me, and love what you said about resources too!

[@NobodyDungeons]

@@TheDungeonCoach Exactly, I expect the party to have few chances to actually take 10 minutes in the middle of a dungeon, but its definitely easier than taking an entire hour or even 8 hours smack in the middle of a dungeon. Additionally, having the ability to potentially get back your two spell slots makes your longevity in dungeons much higher which is a problem for ordinary warlocks.

[@kevinsmith9139]

​@@TheDungeonCoach As an avid warlock player, this sounds great (minus the need to tweak the lvl 10 genie feature so it isn't completely nerfed), but if a DM ever told me there was a max of 2 short rests per day that would completely remove Warlock as a viable class so that doesn't feel great...

[@SperaAndrzej]

Some systems work good alone. Some only work with others in place. I for example used to play with no heal at long rest, and it worked really well. But once I introduced mechanic to prevent last minute heal on characters that are dropped to 0, and made it so all excess dmg reduces max hp(and so did critical hits). This basically halved any healing recived, since to heal max hp, you had to top off normal hp first, and that began to be bit to much. I didn't want situation that would force one player to become healbot, so i gave them option to roll half of their hit dice at long rest, without con mod bonus. Just pure roll.

[@basementmadetapes]

Need this in my Strahd campaign rn cuz we can't even get a short rest in cuz we playing w the hour min for a short rest and we are stuck out in the woods and tapped and can't take a short rest unless the DM rolls a six on the d6.

[@TheDungeonCoach]

Ooooo yes see, great points there to do something like this!

[@LordOz3]

An idea regarding your temporary hit points after a safe rest mechanic - tie the buff to resting conditions. Modest gets 1d4, Comfortable gets 2d4, Wealthy gets 3d4, and Aristocratic gets 4d4. Want to be a hobo and sleep on the ground for free? Nada. I already tie recovering from Exhaustion to resting conditions, and this would give characters another reason to part with their well-pinched coin and actually care about the quality of accommodations and life-style.

[@krisdinkel8915]

HP are usually the martial characters resource. Maybe you could come up with a way that spellcasters dont regain all their spells after a long rest (and only during a full rest). For a mpre gritty game or when they travel through a very hostile area I would definitely consider this (or add this temporarily) That is another thing. When you are in the underdark or wherever it is super dangerous you could nerf long or shoft rests because the players have to keep thier guard up constantly and cant really sleep well

[@aridavid10]

Hello Coach! I'm new to TTRPGs, and I'm using channels like you're to learn as fast as possible. You mentioned that after testing it with your groups, you noticed the 6hr Long Rest was too short and reverted it to 8hrs. Similarly, with the Short Rest, you mentioned how 1hr felt too long, and you changed it to 10min. I understand the basic concept of time in the game: night v day effects and the effect on timed events. However, other than those 2 cases, I don't understand how the time length changes mentioned above affect the game. Mind explaining?

[@mikepowers8607]

How do you handle things like Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion with your Full Rest? Does using the Mansion trigger a Full Rest automatically or is it a case by case thing?

[@igrgic1]

Please make a video about how you handle casters. You mentioned on DC Plays in latest video hlw you allow casters choose spellcasting mod and spell list. Could you explain it in more details?

[@TheDungeonCoach]

I have a FULL video on it :) kzbin.info/www/bejne/nmPNf4emdpV7h9U here ya go!

[@hieronymusnervig8712]

I like running the gritty rest rules (7 days long, 8h short rests) but in combination with a slower RP game with few random encounters and relatively easy dungeons with low challenge encounters and only one or two actually difficult battles. Other than that, I'm actually running my own variant of a long rest/full rest system with a whole table of things that reduce the quality of a long rest, significantly reducing healing and spell slots regained. The biggest issue with this system is actually that it's really hard to determine "resource levels". I need an entire table just for how many spell slots or (sub-) class resources like Rages or Sorcery Points you regain at what level. All of this really makes me wish that WotC would have built D&D with a third type of rest in mind, so that every class and class ability would be balanced for regaining a bit of it in a shorter long rest inside a dungeon or regaining all of it in a longer long rest that might require a few days in a city.

[@joshuasinger4649]

What do you think about a ten hour long rest for full hit dice healing ? Otherwise roll for healing?

[@Matt-jp6if]

Hi Coach, will the PDF be formatted in a way that’s easily printable? I’m international and the shipping prices are a little too high, I’d be totally happy to just print my own paper copy.

[@ryushi17]

I break resting into 4 types of rests. Breather once per encounter short 5-10 minute break. spend a hit die. Short rest 2 per day 30-60 min spend hit die up to con mod short rest recharge abilities Long rest 1 per day 8 hours spend hit die to heal regain half hit die broken into 4 2 hour windows if you sleep for all 8 uninterrupted you can remove up to 2 levels of exhaustion most races need to sleep for 3 of the 4 windows the last one is open to other actions. modifying spell lists, crafting, maintaining equipment, taking a watch, etc. Full rest 24 hours must be completed in an inn or house or some other secure building. recover 2 levels of exhaustion all hit die and hitpoints. depending on the quality of the inn or home you get temporary hitpoints. Wretched/Squalid no benefit Poor/Modest hit die + con mod Comfortable/Wealthy 2 Hit die + double con mod Aristocratic 3 hit die + triple con mod

[@NegatveSpace]

I like how you tied in what life style they're using for their rest here!

[@OneEyedOneHornedGian]

I always hated the idea that someone might "rest" for an hour or 8 hours in the home of an active nest of evil... does no one leave the room they are assigned, was no one out looting or bringing back supplies? Low-level casters really need to rest, but the time length just seemed absurd.

[@blakenelson4158]

for most humans 8 hours is the normal amount of sleep.

[@OneEyedOneHornedGian]

@blakenelson4158 yes, but for most real life raids they won't sleep in the home of someone they are in the process of raiding.

[@blakenelson4158]

@@OneEyedOneHornedGian most real life raids don't happen in underground maze like buildings. trying to long rest in an ememy castle is dumb,

[@OneEyedOneHornedGian]

@@blakenelson4158 so we agree? Glad that disagreement didn't last long.

[@PsychoMike21000]

I love this idea!

[@cowpercoles1194]

I do the following: 1) Short Rests - use the rules as written 2) Long Rests - players recycle spells and powers per normal. Healing is by expending hit dice per short rests--never recovering all hit points at once. PCs recover 1/2 rounded up of their maximum hit dice per long rest. Players can also do activities (scribe spells, identify items, rituals, cook dinner, etc) during a long rest. Interrupted long rests result in no benefits for the players. 3) Safety - players can only rest in designated zones. The place has to be quiet and relatively safe. Noisy, frightening, toxic or otherwise obviously dangerous zones cannot be rested in. Risky zones have a chance of wandering encounters interrupting rests, with more active places getting checks every 10 minutes (which will interrupt short rests), routine danger every 30 minutes (interrupting long rests). One reward for good exploration is *finding* safe, defensible places to rest. Players must use common sense (ie: player skill) to decide if a place is safe or not, based on asking the DM questions about the place.

[@dittrich04]

I like the ideas for long tests, but the problem I tend to have is that classes that benefit more from short rests, i.e. monks and warlocks, tend to be very powerful compared to classes that rest at long rests. A lvl 5 mink can blast through all of their ki points in every combat if they want because they can just SR in 10 min. Unless you just dungeon crawl, short rest characters feel far more powerful. I have a hard time finding ways to throw more than 2-3 combats at a party in a 24 period. Any thoughts?

[@geektome4781]

Definitely went the opposite direction than what I was expecting.

[@SmolAnarchy]

To be fair, Hit Points isn't Health Points. While they call them healing, it isn't closing wounds, putting bones back together. Hit Points were to meant to represent your ability to stay in a fight, not damage or blood you were losing, hence why at 1 HP makes no difference when having to do skill checks, attacks, saving throws, etc. If you think about it, it's more like a Stamina Bar than the Health, DM's narrate how players are getting bloodied, but by RAW and RAI it isn't intended that way. This is why I think including an injury system is by far way better. You can let the party get all their HPs back, but an injury will prevail until they get it fixed. Also spells like cure wounds, healing word etc, don't fix body parts. Only a few spells such regenerate can fix a body up, and that's a 7th level spell.

[@toddgrx]

if I've backed the kickstarter for AAA do I have also have to pay for the Rest System pdf?

[@TheDungeonCoach]

message me on KS and we can see what pledge you were and go from there. Blue Dragon and up backers got emailed free copies of the Rest System as part of their early access rewards. BUT once AAA is fully ready then i will be sending out EVERYTHING to all of the backers (this included). My estimated date is still this coming March :) Thank you for the support!

[@oliveroljica6932]

What about rest variants in DMG on page 267? You find those viable?

[@scottwalker6947]

Correct me if I am wrong, but does it not say somewhere that to get the full benefit of a long rest the characters need to be in a safe comfortable environment (ie an Inn, or location that they have "made safe" previously)? It seems to me the system has been nerfed by most GMs already, in favour of the players. Now, I could be wrong as I am not a 5E fan, and haven't played it in years.

[@zreiser]

How about you cannot gain Hit Dies while you have >1 Exhaustion points? Like you have to rest deeply enough to be able to heal.

[@howdidthisgethere119]

Oops. Apparently I'm a rough homebrew DM. I misread the rules and was only giving players half of their hit dice on a long rest. No full healing. I swear I'm not trying to kill my player characters!

[@darrinwarner4046]

The characters are basically super heroes in a fantasy world. The healing is...fine. regarding sleeping in a tense area....go talk to soldiers. They can sleep anywhere. As long as it's safe it's not a huge deal always. Sometimes yeah, but not always.

[@Zalied]

short rest being an hour is probably based around the 10m dungeon mechanics where each room and check takes about 10m.

[@devinthunderstrike]

where's the backer kit link?

[@TheDungeonCoach]

3rd link down, you scared me that I didnt post it! But here ya go dude! thedungeoncoach.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders Thanks for checking it out :)

[@gmacwizard8890]

The long rest mechanic is not very realistic sure but it is also as aa dm you are shooting your players and yourself in the foot by changing it this way. basically you may get find your self in a position we you can’t balance encounters since the players are starting critically injured or with having to use half their spells to to recover. You are telling your players to take less risks and avoid any challenging fights because they know they won’t recover. Let me give you some advice about writing for games. Your character has never stopped for a bathroom break and no ones favorites part of an adventure is packing the bag with a checklist

[@zreyon]

Oh, what if every time they're dropped to 0 hp they lose a hit dice until they take a full rest? Now death yoyo is fully prevented because they won't be able to recover at night

[@junocrespo1774]

I love the full heal resting. 😔

[@nicholasharris4306]

Same. The point isn't that you're healing from wounds. HP is getting your morale, luck, stamina, etc. It only makes less sense when you think of it all as wounds

[@robcooper2065]

Rope trick is ideal for a duration of rest.

[@danieldaza2141]

Hey man, this doesn't have to do a lot with the content of the video but I think you can inprove your camera quality a little. I have this at 1080p and it still looks like 240. Don't know if it's your lens, or some other thing, but it is a little unconfortable for the eye.

[@TheDungeonCoach]

Ive been getting comments like this and am working on updating things now... I run my Canon M200 though OBS when I record... soooo idk if thats the issue or not

[@danieldaza2141]

@@TheDungeonCoach Maybe it is, maybe it's aconfiguration of OBS itself, but keep up the good work

[@evanbosco2380]

DC Love! :)

[@IanAnimatesBagels]

or... just use the gritty realism variant in the DMG. short rest becomes 8hrs instead of 1. Long rest becomes 1 week instead of 8hrs. easy.

[@IanAnimatesBagels]

This also makes ritual casting actually useful because it doesn't expend spell slots

[@billlyell8322]

Congratulations you have convinced me that 5e is totally wacked.

[@TheDungeonCoach]

Hahahaha thanks for that! We’ll that’s perfect timing because I’m about to release my own game system called DC20! Check it out, if you like where I’m going, you’ll love that!

[@thomazeblen]

10min short rests break the game if you have a fighter and a warlock, or even a moon druid in the game.

[@MagnusMurdock]

I came to say this too. Experience it first hand in my last campaign. I'm changing a short rest to 30 minutes, and every rest after the first increases the odds of something investigating or attacking the party by 3; with a perception or stealth role DC starting at 12.

[@TheDungeonCoach]

I have ran multiple warlocks through this as well and never had it be too much of an issue. Either let them reset spells more, or nerf it in some way to where they only get 1/2 spell slots back.. or buff other players to keep everyone in line with the current state of homebrew. But again to each their own :)

[@trently89]

I feel like the game only gets broken if you (the dm) don’t work with the players. There are DOZENS of combinations of classes races subclasses feats and ability scores that could be really powerful. But just cuz they’re powerful doesn’t mean you can’t make an interesting storyline with drama and suspense by using their weaknesses or even strengths against them. Sure a group of level 15 characters can kill an ancient dragon but what about underwater fighting at disadvantage against a kraken? Or in the plane of fire where they are surrounded by fire genies? Just cuz a character is powerful doesn’t necessarily mean it’s broken. It just means you have to tailor situations to them. Harder to fight creatures when they look exactly like you. For example, I have a level 5 chronurgy Wizard that has a +8 to initiative with a spell that could add another 1D8 to my initiative to ALWAYS go first outside of lair creatures. That’s not broken because I could roll a one. Or share the d8 with a team mate. IMO it takes a LOT to break this game if it’s played well

[@MagnusMurdock]

@@trently89 Goolock casting synaptic static several times every 10 minutes with a level dip into sorcerer and the meta magic feat. It gets broken. Saying "The game isn't broken. It is the DM's fault for not making it work" is a cop out. 5e is anything but balanced, there are dozens of ways in all the player options to make an absurd build that, RAW, has to be "legal". There is almost no need for other players when one character has mind bombs they can quick recharge and throw out again. It gets very broken. Broken isn't suggestive of someone doing a bad job, either. It just means that someone else found a gimic or trick that made something too trivial. It just means that, while yes, that works it is also taking away from the enjoyment of other players. Letting one person dominate every combat encounter AND social encounter makes for VERY boring play. "Fixing" that often comes across as punative, and frankly, not everyone has the time to figure out how to find an amiable solution to every single problem that won't hurt anyone's feelings. So yes, things can get broken. And sometimes "Working with the players" means sitting down and saying "Hey, 10 minute rests and warlock spells seem to be a little too powerful. I'm going to dial it back to 30 minutes and see how it goes."

[@sumdude4281]

Original D&D has the answer you seek. Your campaign should be based in a city, keep etc. with all adventures within a days walk and back. Every session must end with the players back at the home base. Everyday that passes here in the real world passes there as well. When you aren't playing you experience real downtime and your characters heal accordingly, slowly. Downtime includes magical research and magic item creation, seeking rumors or spreading them etc. When you next show up the DM tells you what the results were. When a character is still too injured to go out, you gasp, play a different character. You have more than one character. No short rest. No super powers. Trust. Try it out. Gary knew what he was doing.

[@how2roleplay894]

What about spells like Cat Nap?

[@AudaciousBean]

30 mins would be fair. Basically the length of a typical lunch break at work, and it wouldn't make warlocks _too_ broken 😉