Players abusing their Long Rests? Never taking a Short Rest or spending a single hit die?

Here are some

ideas to allow you to increase the tension and roleplaying at your table!

CHECK OUT THIS VIDEO WHERE I SHOW YOU HOW I USE THESE THIS UPDATED REST SYSTEM AT MY TABLE! HTTPS://YOUTU.BE/K7R1-
WGWDL8

TABLE OF CONTENTS Medium Humanoid

Table of Contents................................................................... 1
Credits .................................................................................... 1
Rests as written............................................................................. 2
Problems to fix ........................................................................ 2
Short Rests ............................................................................... 2
Long Rests ................................................................................ 2
Full Rest .....................................................................................3
Summary ........................................................................................ 4
Long Rest .................................................................................. 4
YouTube - The Dungeon Coach YouTube Channel I create
Short Rest ................................................................................. 4
weekly videos every Saturday to help make your games more
Full Rest .................................................................................... 4
creative and more fun!
DM’s Guild –Check out the other content I've published. I will

CREDITS keep making more and more of my documents available

online from my large list of homebrew content!

Author: The Dungeon Coach – Alan Bjorkgren

Layout and Editing: Mark MacPherson @trepidventuring Patreon - If you like the stuff I have here as digital resources
Graphics and Editing: AvalonInk and want ALL of those and MORE, think about supporting me
Template: Simple Microsoft Word Template by over on Patreon!
Laura Hirsbrunner
I have many resources and more involvement with what I do
over on my YouTube Channel too! Including Multiple Reward
Tiers and a GREAT Community!

Copyright 2020, The Dungeon Coach, The Dungeon Coach, LLC

Open Game License v 1.0a Copyright 2000, Wizards of the Coast, LLC.
System Reference Document 5.1 Copyright 2016, Wizards of the Coast, Inc.; Authors Mike
Mearls, Jeremy Crawford, Chris Perkins, Rodney Thompson, Peter Lee, James Wyatt,
Robert J. Schwalb, Bruce R. Cordell, Chris Sims, and Steve Townshend, based on original
material by E. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson.

DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, D&D, Wizards of the Coast, Forgotten Realms, Ravenloft,
Eberron, the dragon ampersand, Ravnica and all other Wizards of the Coast product
names, and their respective logos are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast in the USA and
other countries.

This work contains material that is copyright Wizards of the Coast and/or other authors.
Such material is used with permission under the Community Content Agreement for
Dungeon Masters Guild.

All other original material in this work is copyright 2020 by The Dungeon Coach and
published under the Community Content Agreement for Dungeon Masters Guild.

1
RESTS AS WRITTEN
I feel like Long Rests in Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition
can get abused by players. How many times have you had
your players in a dungeon, the next fight is the boss, the
tension is set, they are right outside his lair...? Then your
party says, "Hey, so… we're gonna take a Long Rest, you
know, be at full health before this big fight… yup."
So now you're stuck in this weird spot where the players
spend eight hours resting. In the middle of the dungeon.
No matter how messed up they were, after a two-hour
watch and six hours actually resting, they are now back to
full health and abilities.
PROBLEMS TO FIX
So here are the issues I am looking to fix:
1. This destroys pacing and tension-building when
players not only stop but then have to take eight
hours to benefit from a Long Rest.
2. As the DM, you must run eight hours of rest and
watch shifts that take away from the climactic
build-up. Even if you are just traveling down the
road, Long Rests still seem clunky and slow.
3. Healing to full hit points has always felt wrong to
me. If your character was within inches of death
it’s going to take a lot more than a six-hour nap to
heal back to full health!
4. Short Rests are, of course, weaker than Long Rests,
but if we buff Short Rests and nerf Long Rests a
little bit, this can lead to more dynamic choice for
which one fits the needs best.
5. I have never pictured adventurers literally sleeping
during most of these Long Rests. So, I have made a
mechanical separation of actual sleep from Long
Rests. A lot of the time, players' intent of taking a
Long Rest isn't that they need to sleep; it’s that
they want that full reset on their abilities and
health. So why not separate the two?
6. Lastly, since Long Rests are so good. I feel that
players don't take downtime enough or even feel
the need to.
SOLUTION
I am buffing Short Rests, nerfing Long Rests, and adding
a new rest called Full Rest.
2
SHORT RESTS
The only change I'm making to Short Rests is how long it
takes to have one, and this is a house rule that a lot of
people use already. A Short Rest is only 10 minutes.
This just makes far more sense to me in terms of
adventurers in the middle of some dangerous place who
just had a big fight. They go off to the side, bandage up,
catch their breath, and get ready for more. They'll use
items and have small conversations about what to do next.
Why on earth does this need a full hour?
Maybe this feels bad from my coaching background. In
sprint training, maximum recovery between reps is about
five minutes, and in general the anaerobic energy system
you use for these explosive moments takes about five
minutes to recover. If these adventurers are exerting
themselves and need a break, ten minutes would be an
entirely reasonable amount of time to get back in the
game.
This also helps keep the pacing of things going, and if
Short Rests are more appealing, then maybe they won't try
and keep Long Resting so much!
LONG RESTS
You need six hours of no activity and two hours of light
activity – which can be a watch shift - but what if you have
a group of three? What's going to happen with those extra
two hours? Is nobody keeping watch? As the DM, that's
now four shifts to have to run and keep track of.
I've only made two changes here: one is to the time it takes
and another to the healing it provides. In RAW, a Long Rest
is eight hours, but two hours can be "a light activity or a
watch of some kind," and the other six have to be "no
activity." Again, I don't really see players sleeping here,
maybe a nap at best. For me a Long Rest requires six hours,
but I break it up into three hours of "light activity" and
three hours of "no activity" This helps clean up the
clunkiness of "keeping watch." Two players could
effectively keep watch by themselves if needed. I have had
this happen before, and it worked out well.
As a variant rule, you can say the first three hours is when
everyone gets half their Hit Dice back and the 2nd three
hours is when their spells reset. For one of my groups I
even custom-made rules for a three and a half-hour Long
Rest where they get half their Hit Dice back and some spell
slots. I used the exact rules from the Wizard's Arcane
Recovery feature, and it worked perfectly. But wait, what
about Wizards!? That's their ability, and won't they feel
less unique if everyone gets it?? This is one of the more
significant complaints I get in the comments about certain
homebrews. My response is that I would either not use this
or tweak it if a party member was a wizard. Since none of
the players in this group were wizards, then it didn't
matter! Steal from other class mechanics that aren't
represented in your group. Keep things like that in mind FULL REST
when you implement your own homebrew!

I am going to be purposefully vague here because I feel that

Now for that healing change to the Long Rest system. This
rules explicitly stated can make things more complicated
one is simple, connects to the current Short Rest system
than they need to be and limit the flow and customization
and makes Hit Dice more useful! I don't know about you
of a Dungeon Master.
guys, but Hit Dice seems very neglected, and running out
of them is rarely a problem. Long Rests, therefore, do not
A Full Rest is a 100% reset of everything. Full health,
fully heal your character. Instead, you have to use your Hit
spells, Hit Dice, everything. This is obtained from actually
Dice in the same way you do for Short Rests. Just let that
resting and sleeping - usually done in a bed. Back to my
sink in. How much that would actually make sense in the
coaching background. Before or after a huge competition,
big picture? Just imagine that this is the actual rule. What
you have a rest or recovery day. This is not a full day where
would it make players do? It makes Hit Dice much more
you lay in bed. It's a day of not exerting yourself and taking
relevant of a resource because you need to use them to get
it easy to get the energy for competition. In game, it would
back to full health, but if you have been using them all up
be a day of not adventuring or getting in fights where you
in Short Rests, then you might not have any! Don't worry,
could die. That's a Full Rest. This is usually a certain
you still recover ½ of your maximum Hit Dice during a
amount of days! Why do I say a certain amount? Each
Long Rest. Spell Casters could use up some magic healing
scenario and each group will have their own days'
before they rest, and the party would have to manage their
requirement for this. The DM decides on a number of days
healing potions and other resources better. I think this is a
that they would need for the rest - a lot of times it's just
win across the board compared to everything being back to
one - and then they're good! If they don't stop for long
full!
enough, they would make a constitution saving throw for a
stack of Exhaustion, that keeps rising by one each day until
When I have used this system, I love how it feels in a
they succeed! Look at that! This system also includes
dungeon scenario, when players have to manage their Hit
Exhaustion!
Dice, spells, and resources to survive the battle of attrition
Exhaustion is an underused mechanic, as well. This is
since there isn't some magical full heal that they can take
usually not a huge deal, and often weaves perfectly into
at any time. If they want to get to the final boss at 100%
your adventures to give them a well-deserved break from
power, they better be super creative and smart on the way
all the action.
there!

Factors to consider when deciding on how many days are

required for a Full Rest:

• What is the pacing of the story?

• Is there something pressing that needs to be
handled?
• Can the plot wait, so your characters can enjoy
some leisure activities?
• How big of a fight were they just in?
• How long was the fight?
• How draining was it?
• What kind of players do you have?

I think downtime is significant. I learned this lesson the

hard way in my first campaign where I always had the
players running around from one problem to the next.
Once I slowed down and threw in some downtime, it
opened up a whole new part of the game. I really think this
Full Rest system can help weave in some downtime
between your adventures!

Disclaimer: Tweak things based on what Short Rests give

the characters back. For instance, Warlocks get back most
of their abilities (only get 2 Short Rests per Long Rest) so
adjust If needed. Don't be afraid to change when an
ability’s cool down rests are. You can change an ability
from resetting on a Short to resetting on a Long Rest, or
from Long to a Full Rest.

3
SUMMARY