Long Short Rests and Longer Long Rests

[JellyPooga]

So I'm just about to start in a PbP game using 8-hour Short Rests and 72-hour Long Rests. I'm playing a Bard. It only just occurred to me that the lengthy Long Rest is going to seriously impact my resource management.

I'm not expecting the game to have a lot of combat, but this is D&D so some combat is sure to be expected.

Does anyone have experience using this variant rule, particularly with Bards or spellcasters or any sort? Is there any advice you might be able to give me on managing my resources?

Thanks!

P.S. If it's any help, here's a quick run-down of my stats:

Race: Half-Elf
Class: Bard (College of Lore)
Level: 3
Str:8, Dex:14, Con:12, Int:13, Wis:16, Cha:17 (rolled stats)
Skill Prof: Animal Handling, Insight, Investigation, Medicine, Nature, Perception, Performance, Persuasion, Stealth, Survival
Expertise: Medicine, Performance
Spells:
- Cantrips: Light, Prestidigitation
- Lvl.1: Animal Friendship, Cure Wounds, Faerie Fire, Sleep
- Lvl.2: Lesser Restoration, Phantasmal Force

[HoarsHalberd]

It's likely you'll have fewer encounters per day with this method. So it should be alright. If not, then you're going to be a bit well... f-d.

Remember bardic inspiration is also tied to short rests.

[JellyPooga]

Remember bardic inspiration is also tied to short rests.

Only when I reach level 5...

Until then it refreshes on Long Rests only.

[Spectre9000]

Do spell durations get any boost? Things like elemental weapon and the like could help out a lot if they do get an increase. If not, nothing is gonna help you if your DM decides to throw 72 hours worth of adventuring at you.

[Spectre9000]

Also remember, long rests can be taken with 1/4 (normally 2 hours of the 8 hours) of the time spent doing light activity, which includes combat for some reason.

[Slipperychicken]

It'll be good to have healing which refreshes on a short rest or less. Healer, Inspiring Leader, fighters' second wind, and the life domain channel divinity feature all come to mind.

Also, in my experience, dnd games sold as being low on combat rarely stay that way for long. Your bard may have problems if a fight comes up. And if anyone else can prepare Lesser Restoration (i.e. any divine class), then I think it's wasteful for you to use a spell known on it yourself.


Also remember, long rests can be taken with 1/4 (normally 2 hours of the 8 hours) of the time spent doing light activity, which includes combat for some reason.

It's so that nighttime ambushes don't increase the length of the rest. Back in the day, that was a huge issue; being woken up for less than a minute to stab a bug meant either extending the sleep by an hour, or having to restart from scratch. It could become hugely problematic if the DM was rolling for ambushes every hour, which could essentially lock the party into resting forever.

[JellyPooga]

It'll be good to have healing which refreshes on a short rest or less. Healer, Inspiring Leader, fighters' second wind, and the life domain channel divinity feature all come to mind.

The Healer Feat is first on the list (I'm playing a witch-like healer type). Grabbing that at level 4!


Also, in my experience, dnd games sold as being low on combat rarely stay that way for long. Your bard may have problems if a fight comes up. And if anyone else can prepare Lesser Restoration (i.e. any divine class), then I think it's wasteful for you to use a spell known on it yourself.

I had considered that L.Restoration might be somewhat wasteful. There is a Cleric/Warlock in the party, but I don't know how many levels of Cleric he's aiming for and he's the only other full spellcaster in the group (the other characters are a Barbarian, a Ranger and three Fighters). I was accepted into the game as a healer as my character concept, so I'm assuming the other guy is going to be going more Warlock-blasty than Cleric-healy.

[mephnick]

If it's done right it won't actually effect anything mechanically, you will still get 6-8 fights per long rest, which is the only thing that really matters. DMs just use the longer variant because 6-8 fights in a day is absolutely ridiculous. It helps in campaigns that are planned to last a while in "game world time", usually due to a lot of over-world travelling.

But yes, if he does it wrong and throws too many fights at you, you'll be screwed.

[HoarsHalberd]

If it's done right it won't actually effect anything mechanically, you will still get 6-8 fights per long rest, which is the only thing that really matters. DMs just use the longer variant because 6-8 fights in a day is absolutely ridiculous. It helps in campaigns that are planned to last a while in "game world time", usually due to a lot of over-world travelling.

But yes, if he does it wrong and throws too many fights at you, you'll be screwed.

Well it will affect a few things. Effects with an hour long effect normally occupy 1/16th of the time between long rests. They now occupy 1/72nd. Meaning they're much less likely to last over multiple encounters.

[XmonkTad]

If the DM doesn't have you fighting more than 6 encounters every 3 days, then this works out. Problem comes when you have to expend resources to bypass social/non-combat encounters. So just make sure you have good skills, but you're a bard, so you've got that covered.

[Malifice]

Well it will affect a few things. Effects with an hour long effect normally occupy 1/16th of the time between long rests. They now occupy 1/72nd. Meaning they're much less likely to last over multiple encounters.

You won't be getting huge numbers if multiple encounters per day. 2-3 max.

And in dungeon environments, they'll be one after the other.

I suggest picking up herbalist kit proficiency to make healing potions. You can drink as many of them as you want in between short rests.

[HoarsHalberd]

You won't be getting huge numbers if multiple encounters per day. 2-3 max.

And in dungeon environments, they'll be one after the other.

I suggest picking up herbalist kit proficiency to make healing potions. You can drink as many of them as you want in between short rests.

Yes but you get spell slots back on a long rest not overnight. So whereas normally you'll be able to cast an hour long spell and expect it to last for at least two encounters. Now you'll have spent the same resources on half the encounters.

[Malifice]

Yes but you get spell slots back on a long rest not overnight. So whereas normally you'll be able to cast an hour long spell and expect it to last for at least two encounters. Now you'll have spent the same resources on half the encounters.

As long as the DM sticks to the 2-3 encounters per short rest, and 6-9 encounters per long rest, it doesnt really matter the duration of the rests.

Your long rest resources have to last 6-9 and you need to stretch your short rest resources for 2-3 encouters.

Im considering using the 8 hour short rest/ 1 week long rest mechanic for my next campaign.

It fixes the 'wildnerness nova' problem (you generally dont expect more than a single encounter per day when on long overland journeys), makes healing a bit more realistic (you need a weeks recovery to regain your HP and HD) and makes recovery of spellcasting something that generally needs to happen in town between adventures. It also slows the campaign down and stops the levelling from 1-20 in a few in game months.

Encourages the PC's basing themselves somewhere too.

[HoarsHalberd]

As long as the DM sticks to the 2-3 encounters per short rest, and 6-9 encounters per long rest, it doesnt really matter the duration of the rests.

Your long rest resources have to last 6-9 and you need to stretch your short rest resources for 2-3 encouters.

Im considering using the 8 hour short rest/ 1 week long rest mechanic for my next campaign.

It fixes the 'wildnerness nova' problem (you generally dont expect more than a single encounter per day when on long overland journeys), makes healing a bit more realistic (you need a weeks recovery to regain your HP and HD) and makes recovery of spellcasting something that generally needs to happen in town between adventures. It also slows the campaign down and stops the levelling from 1-20 in a few in game months.

Encourages the PC's basing themselves somewhere too.

No, you're not reading what I'm saying. I'll put it another way.

A character casts foresight. Normally it'll last half the time before said Character gets another long rest. (8 hours)

It now lasts (assuming 3 days between long rests) 1/9th of the time between a long rest. Thus this change effectively nerfs any mechanic with a duration longer than one encounter as there will be a much lower chance of another encounter happening within its duration.

[Malifice]

No, you're not reading what I'm saying. I'll put it another way.

A character casts foresight. Normally it'll last half the time before said Character gets another long rest. (8 hours)

It now lasts (assuming 3 days between long rests) 1/9th of the time between a long rest. Thus this change effectively nerfs any mechanic with a duration longer than one encounter as there will be a much lower chance of another encounter happening within its duration.

No I get that. I just doubt it'll come up too often. Dungeon encounters are still pretty close together.

It is a factor for the single encounter days though.

[mephnick]

Yeah, I get that would be nerfed a bit. I've just never really seen players use an hour long spell outside of combat until an obvious situation already called for it. Usually those spells are cast before entering a dungeon, or another hostile area, which doesn't really change with longer rests. I don't often see players wake up and be like "I'm casting ____ in case we see something in the next hour."

The main thing the longer rests changes is that everyone, especially the DM, has to be wary of the dungeon. It's hard to fit an 8 hour short rest into a dungeon, so if your dungeon has 5 or more encounters, which it probably will, that's going to be pretty harsh on short rest characters. We haven't quite figured out how to fix this, but we don't do dungeons much. We tossed around the idea of switching to heroic rest times during dungeon crawls, but have so far decided the party will just have to plan accordingly.

[PoeticDwarf]

Play a monk, with those rests they are, like, the strongest class. Warlock, fighter and barbarian would also be strong. But if you're a bard, you must have lesser restoration with this, and you do!