[PF] Full Heal Up

[UndertakerSheep]

NOTE: Minor spoilers for the Wrath of the Righteous adventure path. You have been warned.

How often do you get a rest (recover spells and other daily abilities) in Pathfinder?

My group is currently playing the Wrath of the Righteous adventure path, and they're about to exit the tunnels beneath the city. The next part of the adventure takes place in the city itself, and due to recent events the city is a very dangerous place for the party.

The characters have all exhausted their daily resources and they've taken quite a beating hp-wise. They need a rest.

The adventure itself seems to assume the party has gotten to this point without taking an extended rest, and that they will transition into the next part (dangerous city) without taking one. This, however, will surely mean their death.

It's been several years since I've run a 3.x campaign, and I don't know how to offer them help. From what I recall, characters need 8 hours of uninterrupted rest to regain spells and 1 hp/HD. Was this changed in Pathfinder?

Because if it hasn't, I will have to come with a solution myself. "Hey, I know it's dangerous to be in this city right now, what with all the demons and all, but let's just take an eight hour rest, shall we?" That doesn't really work for their characters.

How unbalancing would the following options be?

Level up: Coincidentally they just reached second level. I could take a lesson from video games and give them a free heal up because they leveled up. I'll have to keep that up for the rest of the campaign, but we're not tracking XP so that shouldn't be a problem (no full heal ups just before the BBEG).
Full Heal Up: a la 13th Age. Every four combats you get a full heal up. Optional: players can claim a full heal up earlier, but at a campaign loss.

[NightbringerGGZ]

So I haven't read the AP (hoping to play it one day), but why not write in a small encounter that gives them a chance to rest? Since they're entering the city, maybe they find a survivor who offers them a place to hide while providing some information and helping them make plans.

If you want to just reset everything at level up be aware that the players will expect the same thing going forward.

[UndertakerSheep]

I thought about doing this, but the city is in danger. Their characters (who are all Good) have already voiced not wanting to delay while there are innocent people in danger.

I also thought about going the old fashioned way of ''it is obvious to you that you will most likely die if you press on, and you can't help people when you're dead,'' but I'm afraid that'll only lead to them disliking starting at first level even more than they already do.

Also, it's a very fun AP. I highly recommend it.

[Asteron]

The groups that I run with (both DMing and playing) roll with the full heal up at level up. This is only for HP and spells, though, so any status conditions aren't affected. We've been doing this for as long as any of us can remember (the DM I play for started playing at the beginning of 3rd Edition) and it hasn't caused too many problems.

[Kudaku]

I'm only very vaguely familiar with this AP, but weren't the PCs provided with some items that provided limited rest on demand at the start of the storyline? Dragon scales or something like that?

Edit: Never mind, turns out that was a house rule someone implemented to deal with just this problem.

[UndertakerSheep]

They did receive the scales, but they do not give any rests. They give the character's a few extra spells, none of which have anything to do with healing.

I'm really leaning towards just going for the level up heal up.

EDIT: Ninja'd

[NightbringerGGZ]

They did receive the scales, but they do not give any rests. They give the character's a few extra spells, none of which have anything to do with healing.

I'm really leaning towards just going for the level up heal up.

EDIT: Ninja'd

It's probably your best option if the party doesn't want to rest up.

[watchwood]

You could homebrew some potions or something that give them the effect of a full nights rest. I think there might be a cleric spell for that. Then, just have them meet a merchant who's leaving the obviously in danger town with a wagon full of goods, and offers to sell the party some of his selection of goods.

EDIT: http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/advanced/spells/napStack.html#_nap-stack-

A 3rd level spell that grants instant rest to a single person seems pretty equivalent to the 2 hour AoE variant of the same level. I'd price the potions around that area.