One Rest System

[Catullus64]

I was thinking a little bit about the Gritty Realism ruleset, and how it interacts with the increasing move by WotC away from Short dependent abilities. You can see a thread discussing the idea here:

https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?648618-Gritty-Realism-in-a-Post-Short-Rest-Age

But the thoughts from that thread coalesced into wanting to try this project: a system whereby all rest-dependent abilities are balanced around a single rest length. So I am going to try to work my way through the PHB, adjusting every rule & feature that touches upon rests. In general, I am going to try to avoid changing the mechanical substance of said features, except in so far as they interact directly with resting. That means some features might get buffed or nerfed simply by getting more or fewer overall uses relative to other features.

If there's a rest-dependent rules interaction that I miss, let me know.

This system is generally calibrated towards the pace and feel of game that I prefer. If you don't share those preferences, keep that difference of taste in mind when critiquing. This system may just not be for you.

The Core System

This text replaces the paragraphs on Page 186 on Resting:

Resting

Heroic thought they might be, adventurer's cannot engage without ceasing in exploration, combat, and social interaction. They need rest - time to sleep and eat, tend their wounds, refresh their minds and spirits for spellcasting, and brace themselves for further adventure.

A rest is a period of extended downtime, at least 8 hours long, during which a character sleeps, and performs no more than 2 hours of light activity, such as reading, talking, eating, tending wounds, or standing watch.

If the rest is interrupted by 1 hour or more of strenuous activity, such as walking, fighting, casting spells, or similar adventuring activity, the characters must begin the rest again to gain any benefit from it. This 1 hour of interruption does not need to be continuous. For example, if a character fights for 1 minute, resumes resting, casts spells for 18 seconds, resumes resting again, and then walks for 58 minutes and 42 seconds, the character's rest would be interrupted.

At the end of a rest, a character may roll their class's Hit Die, regaining Hit Points equal to the number rolled plus their Constitution Modifier. As your character advances in level, the number of Hit Dice you roll at the end of a rest increases, to two dice at 5th Level, three dice at 9th Level, four dice at 13th Level, and five dice at 17th Level. You add your Constitution modifier to each die roll.

A character can't benefit from more than one rest in a 24-hour period, and a character must have at least 1 Hit Point at the start of a rest to gain its benefits.


Corresponding to these changes, a class's Hit Dice readout removes the "per X level" text. Instead it would simply read Hit Die: 1dx

First, I've used this opportunity to clean up the text surrounding light activity and rest interruption, so that it falls more clearly in line with how I run it.

Hit Dice are no longer a resource; without one type of rest for spending them and one type for regaining them, I thought it made more sense to make Hit Dice more of a static class mechanic. It sacrifices the decision-making process of spending Hit Dice, but I never found that choice point to be very interesting as a player.

This system makes HP recovery a much slower process than the base game, but level scaling mitigates the 3e-and-older glacial pace of natural recovery at higher levels. It creates a slightly strange effect whereby recovering your full HP takes slightly longer the higher you are in any given tier of play, which I admit may be a bug for some people.

I still need to chew for a bit on how I want this system to interact with multiclass characters; that's not a core concern for me, but I will eventually give it a bash.

[Catullus64]

Spell Preparation (Cleric, Druid, Paladin, Wizard)

The system for preparing spells with these classes is largely unchanged. Simply excise the word "long" from the rest which is required to change your prepared spells.

Spell Slot Recovery (Bard, Cleric, Druid, Sorcerer, Wizard)

The text which now reads:

You regain all expended spell slots when you finish a long rest.

Is replaced with:

When you finish a rest, you regain expended spell slots with a combined level equal to your (class) level. For example, if you are a 3rd-level (class), you could regain three 1st-level spell slots, or one 2nd-level spell slot and one 1st-level spell slot.

Spell Slot Recovery (Warlock)

The Warlock undergoes minimal change in language, but some significant change in balance relative to other classes. Pact Magic is unchanged, except for the removal of the words "short" and "long" from its rests on which spell slots are recovered.

Correspondingly, I've decided that at 1st Level, a Warlock has 2 spell slots. The number of spell slots at other levels remains unchanged. This means that at 1st level, a Warlock's spell slot recovery is strictly better than the full spellcasting classes, but with a Warlock having more limited spell and cantrip selection than those other classes, I consider this change acceptable. At subsequent levels, the pace of slot recovery of Warlock vs. other casters is closer to where I want it.

Spell Slot Recovery (Paladin, Ranger)

The text which now reads:

You regain all expended spell slots when you finish a long rest.

Is replaced with:

When you finish a rest, you regain expended spell slots with a combined level equal to half your Paladin/Ranger level, rounded up. For example, if you are a 5th-level Paladin/Ranger, you could recover three 1st-level spell slots, or one 2nd-level spell slot and one 1st-level spell slot.

Spell Slot Recovery (Eldritch Knight, Arcane Trickster)

The text which now reads:

You regain all expended spell slots when you finish a long rest.

Is replaced with:

When you finish a rest, you regain expended spell slots with a combined level equal to your Fighter/Rogue level divided by three, rounded down. For example, if you are a 9th-level Fighter/Rogue, you could recover three 1st-level spell slots, or one 2nd-level spell slot and one 1st-level spell slot.

These spellcasting changes are a big part of my interest here. I think spellcasting is made more consequential when the amount of time to fully recover spell slots is increased, but things are a little less punishing here than under GR. The fact that all spell slots are recovered so swiftly in the base game, particularly big-impact high-level spells, is part of what I think contributes to the feeling of caster/non-caster imbalance in the later game.

At 20th level, a Bard, Cleric, Druid, Sorcerer, or Wizard has 89 spell levels worth of slots, a Paladin or Ranger has 41, and an EK or AT has 23. Under this system, it takes the former two groups 5 rests to fully recover all their expended spell slots, and it takes the third group 4. There are peaks and valleys for each group throughout the leveling curve.

Warlocks under this system become what they were probably always supposed to be: a magic-using character with a simple tracking system for their spells, with fewer overall spells but far greater consistency in using them. I'm happy with the change.

[Catullus64]

Non-Spellcasting Class Features

In general, I've tried to stick to the principle that short-rest features become single-rest features, and long-rest features become multi-rest, or gain some new reset mechanic. However, I've allowed myself a number of exceptions, particularly in the case of features which were already a little weak in terms of resource economy.

Multiclassing is not a factor in these changes. I'm going to do a whole separate post simply addressing "the multiclass problem."


Rage

The last paragraph now reads:

You can use this feature a number of times shown by the Barbarian table. You regain all expended uses of this feature whenever you finish a rest.


Frenzy

When your Rage ends, you suffer 1 level of exhaustion. If you already have a level of exhaustion caused by Frenzy, you don't suffer another.

The Rage change is an upward move for Barbarian, the equivalent of having their Rage reset on Short Rest. Given how central rage is to the Barbarian core, I think this is pretty necessary for the class in this environment.

The logic behind the Frenzy change will become more apparent when I add the Exhaustion rules in the Miscelleny section.

Bardic Inspiration

The second-to-last paragraph now reads:

You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Charisma modifier. You regain one use whenever you finish a rest.

Song of Rest

This feature is unchanged, save for the removal of the word "short" from the rest, and the phrase "spending one or more Hit Dice" is replaced by "rolling one or more Hit Dice."

Font of Inspiration

Beginning at 5th Level, you regain all of your expended uses of Bardic Inspiration when you finish a rest.

The change to Bardic inspiration, whereby "long-rest reset of Ability Mod # of uses" becomes "Ability Mod # of uses with 1 use regained on rest" will be pretty standard going forward, as you'll see with other classes. Song of Rest is much stronger, I think, under the new rest-healing system, but its scaling never gets out of hand.

Channel Divinity

This feature is unchanged, save for the removal of the words "short" or "long" from the second paragraph.

Divine Intervention

The third paragraph now reads:

If your deity intervenes, you can't use this feature again for 7 days. Otherwise, you can use it again after you finish 3 rests.

Knowledge Domain: Visions of the Past

The second paragraph now reads:

Once you use this feature, you can't use it again until you finish a rest.

Light Domain: Warding Flare

The second paragraph now reads:

You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Wisdom modifier (a minimum of once). You regain one use whenever you finish a rest

Tempest Domain: Wrath of the Storm

The second paragraph now reads:

You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Wisdom modifier (a minimum of once). You regain one use whenever you finish a rest.

War Domain: War Priest

The second paragraph now reads:

You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Wisdom modifier (a minimum of once). You regain one use whenever you finish a rest.

Divine Intervention begins another pattern I tried to stick to: big, single-use long-rest resets now require three rests. The other features mostly follow the Bardic Inspiration paradigm.

Wild Shape

The second sentence of the first paragraph now reads:

You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Wisdom modifier. You regain one expended use when you finish a rest.

Circle of the Land: Natural Recovery

The feature now reads:

Starting at 2nd level, you can regain some of your magical energy by sitting in meditation and communing with nature. By spending 1 hour meditating, you choose spell slots to recover. The slots can have a combined level that is equal to or less than half your Druid level (rounded up), and none of the slots can be 6th level or higher. Once you have used this feature, you can't use it again until you have finished a rest and fully recovered all of your spell slots.
For example, when you are a 4th level druid, you can recover up to 2 levels worth of spell slots. You can recover either a 2nd level slot, or two 1st-level slots.

Wild Shape is sufficiently core to Moon Druid that I think it needs a step up in relative frequency of use, so I've folded it into the Bardic Inspiration paradigm. Non-Moon Druids generally don't use it for combat, so the buff is less impactful there. Natural Recovery was difficult to work on, given that it's one of the only features that requires a short rest to use but a long rest to reset, but I think it works relatively well. With short rests mostly gone, spending 1 hour with the Druid just recovering spell slots opens up time for other party members to do other things.

Second Wind, Action Surge, Superiority Dice

These features are unchanged, except for the removal of the words "short" and "long" from their rest timers.

Indomitable

This feature now reads:

Beginning at 9th level, you can reroll a saving throw that you fail. If you do so, you must use the new roll, and you can't use this feature again until you finish a rest.
You gain an additional use of this feature at 13th level, and a third at 17th level. You regain one use of this feature each time you finish a rest.


Nothing particularly new for the Fighter: Indomitable has its own, more granular variant of the three-rest recharge.

Ki

The third paragraph now reads:

You regain all of your expended Ki points when you finish a rest; you can also regain expended Ki points equal to or less than your Wisdom modifier by spending 30 minutes meditating.

Monks are put onto the short rest -> single rest paradigm, but with a significant addendum which gives them a real shot in the arm. They are now one of the only classes, along with Wizards and some Druids, with something similar to regular short rests, and I think this will provide a modest but noticeable increase in Monk's ki-use-per-encounter.

Divine Sense

The last paragraph now reads:

You can use this feature a number of times equal to 1 + your Charisma modifier. When you finish a rest, you regain one expended use.

Lay on Hands

The first paragraph now reads:

Your blessed touch can heal wounds. You have a pool of healing power equal to your Paladin level x 5. Whenever you finish a rest, your pool regains hit points equal to your Paladin level.

Channel Divinity

As the Cleric feature.

Cleansing Touch

The second paragraph now reads:

You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Charisma modifier. You regain one expended use when you finish a rest.

Holy Nimbus, Undying Sentinel, Elder Champion, Avenging Angel

The final paragraphs of these features now read:

Once you use this feature, you cannot use it again until you finish 3 rests.

Everything but Lay on Hands is conforming to pre-established paradigms. Lay on Hands has a pretty slow recharge under this system, but Paladins will be fine.


Primeval Awareness

The feature now reads:

Beginning at 3rd level, you can use your action to focus your awareness on the region around you. For 1 minute, you can sense whether the following types of creatures are present within 1 mile of you (or within up to 6 miles if you are in your favored terrain): aberrations, celestials, dragons, elementals, fey, fiends, and undead. This feature doesn't reveal the creatures' location or number.
You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Wisdom modifier. You regain one expended use whenever you finish a rest.


While Primeval Awareness was not previously on the "mod # of uses per long rest" scheme, I've converted it to the Bardic Inspiration paradigm anyway, because the existing setup was godawful, and would only be worsened by the new spell recovery timing.


Stroke of Luck

This feature is unchanged, except for the removal of the words "short" or "long."

Spell Thief

The last paragraph now reads:

Once you have used this feature, you can't use it again until you finish 3 rests.

A few odd capstones aside, Rogues cruise on through these systemic changes unfazed.

Font of Magic

The last sentence of the "Sorcery Points" section now reads:

You regain your expended Sorcery Points when you finish a rest.

The last sentence of the "Flexible Casting" section now reads:

Any spell slot you create with this feature vanishes when you finish a rest.

Tides of Chaos

This feature is unchanged, except for the removal of the word "long."

Sorcerers, like Monks, get a significant boost to their resource pool recovery, since it's now on short-rest-equivalent. I think they needed that. However, with Flexible Casting Slots expiring on the universal rest, the well-known Coffeelock exploit has been closed.

Mystic Arcanum

The second paragraph now reads:

You can cast your arcanum spell once without expending a spell slot. You must finish a rest before you can do so again.

The last sentence of the third paragraph now reads:

You only regain the use of one of your Mystic Arcana for each rest that you finish.

Fey Presence, Misty Escape, Dark Delirium, Dark One's Own Luck, Entropic Ward

These features are unchanged, except for the removal of the words "long" and "short."

Hurl Through Hell

The third paragraph of this feature now reads:

Once you use this feature, you can't use it again until you finish 3 rests.

Eldritch Invocations: Bewitching Whispers, Chains of Carceri, Dreadful Word, Minions of Chaos, Mire the Mind, Sculptor of Flesh, Sign of Ill Omen, Thief of Five Fates

The word "long" has been excised from all of these invocations.

As is standard, short-rest resets become rest resets, and long rest resets generally become 3-rest resets. Mystic Arcanum effectively becomes a granular 4-rest reset at 17+. The invocations which are "Cast spell x with Warlock spell slot, only once per long rest" are pretty bad by default: by making them rest-reset instead of multi-rest, they gain slightly in the relative power balance.

Arcane Recovery

The feature now reads:

You have learned to regain some of your magical energy by studying your spellbook. By spending 1 hour meditating, you choose spell slots to recover. The slots can have a combined level that is equal to or less than half your Wizard level (rounded up), and none of the slots can be 6th level or higher. Once you have used this feature, you can't use it again until you finished a rest and fully recovered all of your spell slots.
For example, when you are a 4th level druid, you can recover up to 2 levels worth of spell slots. You can recover either a 2nd level slot, or two 1st-level slots.

Signature Spells

The feature is unchanged, except for the removal of the words "short" and "long."

Arcane Ward, Benign Transposition, Instinctive Charm, Hypnotic Gaze, Illusory Self, Master Transmuter

These features are unchanged, except for the removal of the words "short" and "long."

Portent

This feature now reads:

Starting at 2nd level when you choose this school, glimpses of the future begin to press in on your awareness. When you finish a rest, roll 2d20s. Pick one of the numbers, and record it. You can replace any attack roll, saving throw, or ability check made by you or a creature you can see with a foretelling roll. You must choose to do so before the roll, and you can replace a roll in this way only once per turn.
Each foretelling roll can be used only once. When you finish a rest, you lose an unused foretelling roll.


Overchannel

The second paragraph now reads:

The first time you do so, you suffer no adverse effects. If you use this feature again before you finish a rest, you take 1d12 necrotic damage for each level of the spell, immediately after you cast it. Each time you use this feature again before finishing
a rest, the necrotic damage per spell level increases by 1d12. Each time you finish a rest, the necrotic damage per spell level decreases by 1d12. This damage ignores resistance and immunity.

Arcane Recovery naturally receives the same rework as Natural Recovery. The timing on signature spells becomes a little more generous, making if a more powerful capstone feature.

Six Arcane Tradition Features have been moved to Rest reset, even ones that formerly reset on Long Rest. The reasoning for this is myriad: Arcane Ward and Benign Transposition are primarily fueled by spell slots, so they are still tied to the slower recovery rhythm of spellcasting. Instinctive Charm and Hypnotic Gaze are limited by creature as well as by rest, so making them rest-reset is less impactful than it might seem at first. Illusory Self was already short-rest reset. Remaking your Transmuter's Stone after destroying it with Master Transmuter requires a separate cost of 8 hours from the rest, so I think it's not too seriously affected.

Portent is adjusted to the slower recharge pace, but the ability to choose one of two rolls helps retain some of the old feature's flexibility.

Overchannel can now be used more frequently, but the pace at which you recover from the uses has been slowed as well.

[Catullus64]

Reserved for Miscelleny

[Catullus64]

Reserved for The Multiclass Problem

[Herbert_W]

I think you have a very good idea here - where by "good" I mean both "effective, given the pace and feel of game that you want" and "appealing, because I also like games with the option of cautious resource management."

I like the way that this system creates longer-term consequences for resource use. Under the old system, each day is a (mostly) clean slate and thus characters can completely exhaust themselves every day without care for tomorrow. Under this system, only some characters get a clean slate each day. That makes different classes feel interestingly different - a wizard needs to think across days while a barbarian needs only consider today when deciding how to manage resources.


When you finish a rest, you regain expended spell slots with a combined level equal to half your (class) level. For example, if you are a 3rd-level (class), you could regain three 1st-level spell slots, or one 2nd-level spell slot and one 1st-level spell slot.

I take it that the player has a free choice of which slots to recover, right? Personally, I find that a bit odd. It'd feel more natural and intuitive to me if characters recovered low-level spell slots first - i.e. if they could only recover 2nd level slots when they have their full compliment of 1st-level slots, etc. Maybe that's just me though.


Warlocks under this system become what they were probably always supposed to be: a magic-using character with a simple tracking system for their spells, with fewer overall spells but far greater consistency in using them. I'm happy with the change.

If simplicity is your goal for warlocks, then I'd suggest converting them to use spell points instead of spell slots. That would also solve the "but I don't want to waste a higher-level slot on spells that don't scale!" problem that warlocks experience.

I'll probably have more to say later, but overall, I like where this is headed.

[Yakk]

When you finish a rest, you regain expended spell slots with a combined level equal to half your (class) level. For example, if you are a 3rd-level (class), you could regain three 1st-level spell slots, or one 2nd-level spell slot and one 1st-level spell slot.
Typo -- half here -- for wizard/etc.

It seems very strange that 59 minutes of intense combat doesn't interrupt a rest. But that is your preference.

[olskool]

My short rests are 1 hour long and you must eat a meal. My long rests are at least 4 hours of SLEEP... up to 8 hours and a meal.

- You may expend 1 Hit Die to recover damage (with a Healer's check and the expenditure of 1 "charge" of a healer's kit) on a short rest to recover from any damage you have taken. This is in addition to the 1 Hit Die you may expend when "first aid" is initially applied to a wound with a successful healer's Proficiency check. Monks can Meditate and if they make a successful Proficiency check, they may EITHER gain 1 Hit Die Back OR expend a second Hit Die to heal any damage which they sustained before the short rest.

- You may expend 1 Hit Die to recover any damage for EVERY HOUR of a long rest that you take. You may also RECOVER 1 Hit Die for EACH hour of a long rest where you sleep or meditate (for Elves & Monks). You can have Hit Dice going out (to heal any damage) AND gaining back HD at the same time.

- A person may not expend MORE Hit Dice than they have LEVELS in a single day. So a 15th Level Fighter who sleeps 8 hours could gain back 8 HD of his 15 total HD, while a 3rd Level Fighter would only gain back 3 Hit Dice in a single day, no matter HOW LONG they rest!

- The Fighter's SECOND WIND ability is dependent on the expenditure of a Hit Die.

So I use both rest types. I just make them more meaningful mechanically.

[Yakk]

Ah yes, the old "high level characters take longer to recover" trope of D&D.

[olskool]

Ah yes, the old "high level characters take longer to recover" trope of D&D.

ABSOLUTELY! D&D has way too much power creep as is. Anything that tones down or otherwise limits that power creep is a welcome addition in my book!