Medium Rests?

[Gungor]

Greetings Playground!

I am starting a new campaign which is going to be an open world, sandbox setting with the players doing a lot of exploration. I want to make the perils of wilderness travel more present in the rest mechanics without using the "gritty realism" rules. I especially would like to have rules for what sorts of recoveries players get when their long rests are interrupted by significant events like combat.

So the idea of a "medium rest" is that it would recharge half of the things that you get from a long rest - you get back half of your spell levels, half of your long-rest resources like rage or bardic inspiration, you recover half of your hit points, everything rounded down. You would also recharge your short-rest benefits.

A "medium rest" would result if circumstances prevented the party from getting a proper long rest - maybe because the weather conditions are terrible and/or they flubbed a survival check, or maybe because they were ambushed in the middle of the night and by the time they finished the combat and their adrenaline faded, they were feeling a bit depleted again.

I'm not too worried about it being fiddly (even though it is) because I don't think my players will mind the "fiddliness." I'm also not worried about high-level casters not getting to recover their best spells because the campaign won't get that high.

Has anyone used something like this before? I'd welcome thoughts on how it worked at your table as well as alternative ways to make it a bit more challenging to really rest when far removed from the comforts of civilization.

[Zhorn]

just be wary of although you might not be concerned about the extra fiddly-ness of a medium rest, run by your players on how well they might handle it, as they might not be as unconcerned about minor complexity shift.

Personally I've found Slow Natural Healing a better rest variant to espouse than Gritty Realism.
To account for interrupted long rests under that, I have the first hour of a long rest be (inclusively) a short rest, so long as the players spend a hit dice.
That's also a requirement of my short rests, you must spend at least one hit dice to benefit from it.

I've found those combined have done a good job of giving more a sense of danger to wilderness travel, as the party will consume hit dice faster than they will recover them, slowly having to lean on spending other resources on recovery each day.
Also makes planning adventuring days easier at the DM's end since you don't have to worry about almost killing them in a single encounter to challenge them. As long as you can get just over half their hit dice spent each day they will slowly deplete resources making regular encounters more and more perilous.

Hits my players every now and then when they approach a few encounters, only taking a couple of regular hits thinking they're fine, then after a couple more they realise they won't be able to start off at full then next day... then the day after that they've starting barely over half... and suddenly getting ambushed by a handful of regular goblins has become a big deal.

Doesn't have the half recovery you're thinking of, but still some food for thought.

[Greywander]

One resting scheme I've played with, but haven't used yet, is this:

Breather - 1 minute
Break (short rest) - 1 hour
Camp (long rest) - 8 hours (6 hours of sleep + 2 hours of light activity)
Holiday - 24 hours (8 hours of sleep + 8 hours of light activity, 8 hours free)
Vacation - 1 week (7 consecutive holidays)

It sounds like you might just use a holiday or vacation in the place of a long rest, and use a camp/long rest for your "medium" rest. This could help you strike a balance between normal resting rules and gritty realism. For example, maybe a camp only regains spell slots up to 5th level and only up to half your max hit dice, or something.


I have the first hour of a long rest be (inclusively) a short rest,
I believe this is already the case. It's not like you decide when you lay down to sleep whether you're taking a short rest or a long rest. As someone once said, you don't start rests, you finish them. If you've been sleeping or standing watch for 1 hour, you've met the conditions to benefit from a short rest.

Only benefiting if you spend a hit die is interesting. It forces the expenditure of resources, resources you might need later on (if you're short resting to replenish a different resource, such as ki). That said, this feels like a bit of an unfair punishment to short rest classes, who already don't seem to see enough short rests.

[Zhorn]

Only benefiting if you spend a hit die is interesting. It forces the expenditure of resources, resources you might need later on (if you're short resting to replenish a different resource, such as ki). That said, this feels like a bit of an unfair punishment to short rest classes, who already don't seem to see enough short rests.
The reason for the hit dice dependency is because short rest classes can otherwise be built to specifically cheese past what Slow Natural Healing is intending to do.
Examples: Mercy Monk (Hand of Healing), Warlock (Pact Magic), Fighter (Second Wind) all allow for functionally free and unlimited healing given sufficient short resting time, which is not compatible with the intended attrition style of Slow Natural Healing.

[Greywander]

Ah, fair point.

[Captain Panda]

I actually really like the idea! I think that it would be easier in an edition where they implemented spell points officially, though. Less math.