Revised Resting and Recovery (5e Variant Rule)

Revised Resting and Recovery

This set of rules is intended to replace the typical resting mechanics with something more granular and meaningful. It exists to solve several perceived problems with 5e's current resting mechanics with a gentler, but still firm, approach compared to the optional gritty realism rules for resting.

Currently ran 5e games typically have 1-3 resource taxing encounters between long rests, as opposed to the 6-8 encounters between long rests that the 2014 version of 5e was designed for. The relative strength of long rests in recovering hit points and resources means that players often have very little fear about being cautious with their engagements and pacing out their resources, including hit points.

Furthermore, quite a few features in 5e's design take away from what would otherwise be engaging survival aspects that occur while traversing large distances in the wilderness. These rules tie the solutions to these two problems together by creating a problem of resource attrition. Broadly, the quality of a rest determines the hit points you regain. Smart planning, preparation, and caution is rewarded. Encounters aren't as immediately lethal, but those that go poorly leave their mark on a character until they can achieve a safe place to take downtime to recover.

Types of Rests

Quick Rest

10 minutes

A quick rest is a very short, 10-minute rest consisting of nothing more than light activity spent regaining some energy and treating minor wounds.

When you take a quick rest, you can expend one hit die and regain the amount of hit points rolled plus your Constitution modifier. Once you use a quick rest in this way, you must finish a short rest before you can do so again.

Short Rest

1 hour

A short rest is a 1-hour period of light activity such as reading, scribing, or tending to wounds.

Expend Hit Dice to Regain Hit Points. Upon completion of a short rest, you can expend a number of hit dice up to your proficiency bonus, regaining hit points equal to the amount rolled plus your Constitution modifier for each expended hit die.

Long Rest

8 hours

A long rest is an 8-hour period of restful activity, at least 6 hours of which is spent sleeping. Once a creature has completed a long rest, it must wait at least 16 hours to benefit from one again.

Hit Dice Recovery. Upon successful completion of a long rest, you immediately recover hit dice according to the quality of the rest as determined by the table below. To determine the overall quality of the rest, see the Factors of Rest Quality section.

	Quality	Hit Dice Recovered
0 - 1.4	Squalid	None
1.5 - 2.4	Poor	One-quarter
2.5 - 3.4	Modest	Half
3.5 - 4.4	Comfortable	Three-quarters
4.5 - 5.4	Wealthy	All
5.5 - 6	Aristocratic	All, and you gain an amount of Temporary Hit Dice equal to half your total until the next long rest

Regaining Hit Points. Upon successful completion of a long rest, you regain an amount of hit points equal to your level. You can then choose to expend any number of hit dice, adding the rolled result plus your Constitution modifier for each and adding the total to the hit points you regain from the rest.

Extended Rest

24 hours or longer

This type of rest replaces the recuperation downtime activity, as it is effectively a downtime activity. An extended rest is a period of 24 hours or more spent avoiding unnecessarily taxing or strenuous activity during which a creature recovers from major injuries and ailments.

To perform an extended rest, a creature must successfully complete one Long Rest each day for the duration of the extended rest.

At the end of each day while you perform an extended rest, you can expend any amount of hit dice, rolling each and adding them to a total (known as "recovery points") over the course of the rest. You can expend points from this total during this rest in the following ways:

• Recover from hit point maximum reduction (costs 5 recovery points). If your hit point maximum has been reduced, you increase your hit point maximum back up by 1 point.

• Recover from exhaustion (costs 10 recovery points). If you have levels of exhaustion, you reduce the current level of exhaustion you have by one.

• Recover from ability score reduction (costs 15 recovery points). If one of your ability scores has been reduced, you increase that ability score back up by 1 point.

• Recover from ailment (costs 20 recovery points). If you are currently afflicted with a poison or disease, you have advantage on the next saving throw you make against that poison or disease for the duration of the rest.

You lose all unexpended recovery points once an extended rest ends.

Factors of Rest Quality

There are three factors in determining the quality of a rest: Food & Water, Shelter & Accommodations, and Medical Attention. To determine the overall quality of a rest, go through each of the sections and determine a quality rating of each individual factor based on the provided examples. Once you have done so, get the average result by adding together the numerical rating of each and dividing the result by 3 (or 2, if medical attention was unnecessary and ignored). Round to the nearest tenth.

Determining the quality of each factor of a rest isn't so much as a checklist as it is a vibe. The given examples describe typical elements of a rest at that quality, but you'll probably have rests that have multiple elements of differing qualities. In such cases, use your best judgement to find throughlines between elements. For example, a ranger might sleep in a hammock (poor) strung between two trees in good weather, but bathed in a river (modest) earlier using soap (wealthy). In this case, this quality of shelter & accommodations would be considered modest overall, as the higher quality elements make up for the one lower quality element of the rest. However, this does not mean that low quality choices can be ignored. A paladin that insists on sleeping in their full armor (squalid) even in the bedroom of a palace (aristocratic) would be considered having modest or comfortable accommodations at best.

The factors that determine the quality of a rest don't have to occur simultaneously with the rest—they can be a reasonable time before it (typically within the timespan of the same day). A character can bathe in a river, have bandages changed, or enjoy a hot meal without having to do them as part of a long rest, and those things can still count towards the quality of the rest.

The quality of a rest can be determined on a per-character basis or for the entire resting party, dependent on the particular circumstances.

Food & Water

	Quality	Example
1	Squalid*	Carrion, highly spoiled food; unclean or stagnant water
2	Poor*	Undercooked, raw, or lightly spoiled food; meat from vermin; foraged plants and berries; goodberry
3	Modest	A meager meal and clean, running water; cooked meat from small game; rations, create food and water
4	Comfortable	A filling meal prepared with harvested fruit or vegetables and fresh meat; a stiff drink
5	Wealthy	A lavish meal cooked with spices and herbs; spring or mineral water, fruit juice or fine wine
6	Aristocratic	An indulgent meal prepared by a master chef with no shortage of ingredients; heroes' feast

*Consuming food or water of poor or squalid quality puts a character at risk of catching disease or being poisoned.

Shelter & Accommodations

	Quality	Example
1	Squalid*	Lying on the bare ground; sleeping in full gear or dirty clothing; cold and wet, exposed to the elements
2	Poor*	A bedroll, hammock, nest, or pile of straw; dry ground, some protection from the elements
3	Modest	A shack, cave, tent, or a tiny hut spell; a warm fire; a dip in the river and a change of clean clothes
4	Comfortable	A home with 4 walls, a roof, and a bed, or a room at an inn; access to a chamber pot or latrine
5	Wealthy	A fine bed; a hot bath with soap
6	Aristocratic	The bedroom of a palace; servants on call for your any need; magnificent mansion

*Resting in conditions of poor or squalid quality puts a character at risk of catching disease.

Medical Attention

Ignore this factor if no character has been wounded.

	Quality	Example
1	Squalid*	Open and untreated wounds left to heal on their own; exposure to filth and unclean water
2	Poor*	Bare minimum wound treatment; makeshift bandages from scraps of cloth
3	Modest	Treatment by a creature proficient in Medicine; wounds washed with clean water
4	Comfortable	Regularly changed bandages; application of a healer's kit or potion of healing
5	Wealthy	Usage of disinfectants like bleach or distilled alcohol; application of magic such as cure wounds or lay on hands
6	Aristocratic	A regularly cleaned and disinfected environment; constant medical oversight; application of powerful magic such as heal

*Medical attention of poor or squalid quality puts a character at risk of catching disease.

Dropping to 0 Hit Points and Dying

When a creature drops to 0 hit points, any leftover damage dealt past zero is deducted from that creature's hit point maximum.

A dying creature makes death saving throws as normal. However, you don't count failed death saving throws, only successes. Instead, a failed death saving throw results in that creature's hit point maximum being reduced by 10. A creature dies when its hit point maximum reaches 0.

A spell that brings the dead back to life, such as revivify, brings a creature's hit point maximum at minimum back up to its level (minimum of 1). If the spell specifies that the target creature returns back to life with all hit points, then its hit point maximum is also fully restored.

Temporary Hit Dice

Similar temporary hit points, temporary hit dice function the same as regular hit dice, but don't count against your maximum hit dice. Whenever you expend hit dice, hit dice are first expended from any temporary hit dice you have.

Unexpended temporary hit dice disappear once you finish a Long Rest, and you can't have temporary hit dice from more than one source at a time.

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