Homerule Idea: Allowing certain long rest ability recovery with Hit Dice

[Cikomyr]

So my current sorcerer player feels a bit bummed out by the number of spells available to her. We are only level 2, so I feel with the upcoming leveling up to level 3, she will feel a lot more free in her spellcasting.

Still.

We have a Barbarian (who will take the homebrew Path of the Shaman) player, an Eldritch Knight, a Swashbuckler and a Divine Soul Sorcerer.

Beside her spell, the Eldritch Knight has all her ability to be at will or recoverable on short Rests.

The Swashbuckler is in the same boat, just even more. I don't think any of his abilities are recoverable at a long rest. In fact, doing a simple look of his core abilities.. Is there any that aren't at will?!

The Barbarian Shaman is in the same boat as the Eldritch Knight, just the Rages are more limiting.

So the Sorcerer, once she ran out of slots and Sorcery points basically just shoots her Fire Bolt or risk exposing herself in melee using her Shillelagh (yhea, homebrew rule break but it fit her character). Usually, she won't take the risk seeing she has crappy AC at the moment .

I was thinking: seeing she won't really gamble with her HP while she is out of spells (no reason to get close and do Burning Hands for example), her Hit Dice recovery on short Rests are a bit less useful to her.

What if, instead, she was allowed to recover Sorcery Points with them? I looked, and besides the first few levels, the sorcerer has an average of 4 Level Slots/hit dies. So even if she somehow converted her entire hit dice to Sorcery points - somehow - she still would never be able to recast her entire arsenal.

That then got me thinking. What about the Barbarian and his rage? Looking at the PHB, the Barb has 2-3 rages/hit dice. So what if the Barbarian was allowed to recover a Rage during his short rest by spending 2 hit dice?

Would these ideas break the game Ya think?

[Man_Over_Game]

So my current sorcerer player feels a bit bummed out by the number of spells available to her. We are only level 2, so I feel with the upcoming leveling up to level 3, she will feel a lot more free in her spellcasting.

Still.

We have a Barbarian (who will take the homebrew Path of the Shaman) player, an Eldritch Knight, a Swashbuckler and a Divine Soul Sorcerer.

Beside her spell, the Eldritch Knight has all her ability to be at will or recoverable on short Rests.

The Swashbuckler is in the same boat, just even more. I don't think any of his abilities are recoverable at a long rest. In fact, doing a simple look of his core abilities.. Is there any that aren't at will?!

The Barbarian Shaman is in the same boat as the Eldritch Knight, just the Rages are more limiting.

So the Sorcerer, once she ran out of slots and Sorcery points basically just shoots her Fire Bolt or risk exposing herself in melee using her Shillelagh (yhea, homebrew rule break but it fit her character). Usually, she won't take the risk seeing she has crappy AC at the moment .

I was thinking: seeing she won't really gamble with her HP while she is out of spells (no reason to get close and do Burning Hands for example), her Hit Dice recovery on short Rests are a bit less useful to her.

What if, instead, she was allowed to recover Sorcery Points with them? I looked, and besides the first few levels, the sorcerer has an average of 4 Level Slots/hit dies. So even if she somehow converted her entire hit dice to Sorcery points - somehow - she still would never be able to recast her entire arsenal.

That then got me thinking. What about the Barbarian and his rage? Looking at the PHB, the Barb has 2-3 rages/hit dice. So what if the Barbarian was allowed to recover a Rage during his short rest by spending 2 hit dice?

Would these ideas break the game Ya think?

Not sure. The problem with these resources is that they're really dependent upon how much attrition you put into your games. If you only have 2 fights per day, it's not going to matter how much sustainability your characters have.

One problem is that it's hard to balance everything around Hit Die, when there are a lot of Long Rest features. Determining which ones get refreshed at what rates would be rather difficult.


You could look into making Hit Dice have more value, by making days longer (There's a thread on Gritty Realism Rest Rules going on right now that suits this well).
You could make it so that you could spend Hit Dice to treat a Short Rest like a Long Rest (except for the part about gaining back Hit Dice or HP).
Or you could do what you're suggesting, and try to come up with a conversion method for every Long Rest resource to be used with Hit Dice, but you can probably tell from my tone that I don't think that's a good idea.

[BigBadHarve]

I have been thinking about tweaks I'd like to make for my own purposes, and one idea I have is similar to yours, only with an extra step added.

The notion is that casters can use their life-force to continue to use spell slots that are otherwise expended.

A spellcaster (could limit it to Wizards and Sorcerers, though right now I'm thinking any spellcaster) would trade 1 of their reserve Hit Dice for each level of the spell slot they want.

If the reserve hit dice are used up, then the caster takes a hit die worth of damage (without CON modifiers) for each spell level.

Theoretically, you could kill yourself with a last desperate casting action... but it gives you that boost of extra magic when you're otherwise spent.

[Teaguethebean]

I would just tell them to hang in there they are about to double there spell slots and if you give them an OP buff they will be bummed when you take it away. Also pretty soon the fighter will join them in the wanting long rest club pretty soon.
Also just to ask what spells do they have and what race are they.

[Cikomyr]

I would just tell them to hang in there they are about to double there spell slots and if you give them an OP buff they will be bummed when you take it away. Also pretty soon the fighter will join them in the wanting long rest club pretty soon.
Also just to ask what spells do they have and what race are they.

Hill Dwarven Swashbuckler, with Warlock Practitioner feat (Booming Blade, Eldritch Blast, Hdx)
Half Orc Shaman Barbarian, with Druid practioner feat (Shillelagh, Druidcraft, Entangle)
Winter Eladrin Eldritch Knight (with Ritual Caster feat)
Tiefling Divine Soul (Thaumaturgy, Spare the Dying, Cure Wounds, Burning Hands, etc..)

[Teaguethebean]

Hill Dwarven Swashbuckler, with Warlock Practitioner feat (Booming Blade, Eldritch Blast, Hdx)
Half Orc Shaman Barbarian, with Druid practioner feat (Shillelagh, Druidcraft, Entangle)
Winter Eladrin Eldritch Knight (with Ritual Caster feat)
Tiefling Divine Soul (Thaumaturgy, Spare the Dying, Cure Wounds, Burning Hands, etc..)
Well if the divine soul sorcerer is using a lot of burning hands then of course they will feel parched of spells. At low levels a lot of instantaneous burst spells feel really costly because they are. A divine soul sorcerer can make their resources feel like they last with a spell like bless using one slot to buff most of the party for an entire combat. Regardless if they wait one more level they go from 3 (basically 4 with sorcery points) 1st level slots to 4 1st and 3 2nd (If they use their sorcery points). As well as their once per long rest hellish rebuke from infernal legacy. Additionally did you give them an extra feat at character creation? If I am correct what did they take?

[Cikomyr]

Well if the divine soul sorcerer is using a lot of burning hands then of course they will feel parched of spells. At low levels a lot of instantaneous burst spells feel really costly because they are. A divine soul sorcerer can make their resources feel like they last with a spell like bless using one slot to buff most of the party for an entire combat. Regardless if they wait one more level they go from 3 (basically 4 with sorcery points) 1st level slots to 4 1st and 3 2nd (If they use their sorcery points). As well as their once per long rest hellish rebuke from infernal legacy. Additionally did you give them an extra feat at character creation? If I am correct what did they take?

Yhea, feat at character creation. I kind of picked for them with their approval.

Initiate Spellcaster (Druid) for Barby
Initiate Spellcaster (Warlock) for Swashy
Ritual Caster (Wizard) for Eldritchy
Flames of Phlegethos for Diviny Souly

The Tiefling is a Mephistopheles Tiefling, not as Asmodeus Tiefling. So bonus spells are Burning Hands lvl 2, and Flame Blade.