How To Fix Annoying Long Rests In 5E

When you’re building narratively and mechanically satisfying adventures, why does long resting ruin the pacing? Let’s figure out the why and what to do about it.

First, what am I talking about? The system for resting in Fifth Edition revolves around two primary mechanics: a “short rest” and a “long rest” which both restore different aspects of a character’s adventuring capability. When a character is hurt or exerted from these rests allow them to restore hit points and regain the use of abilities. The latter of these benefits typically occurs during long rests.

Spells, class abilities, and other features are limited to a number of uses which are restored only after a long rest. This is relevant because a character’s power is related to how many resources they can bring to bear. The game’s designers plan many features and encounters around how many of these resources they expect to be available during a period spent adventuring and fighting.

Why does this really matter?

In the Dungeon Master’s Guide for Fifth Edition, there is a section dedicated to building encounters. This section is meant to give ideas, help with preparation, and supply system guidelines. Some of these reference combat difficulty; the experience threshold is meant to balance encounters against the power of your adventuring party.

When game designers create these balancing systems, they base them around certain expectations: What abilities characters have at what levels, the strength of relevant enemies they may face, and what resources these characters are capable of expending during each encounter they face in the day.

There is an unfortunate mismatch.

The assumption made in the rulebook is that an adventuring party will face six to eight medium or hard encounters. Well, let’s first look at what medium or hard means then. It varies from scary moments to character death. This means an adventuring party is expected to face possible death multiple times each day.

I believe it is fair to say that most groups do not accomplish this. In modern gaming sessions are often short. When we have limited time to fight, role-play, and explore some of these elements will suffer. This usually results in one, maybe two, combat encounters during a gaming day. Due to how few encounters the party faces, combat ranges from incredibly dangerous to mediocre or unsatisfying.

When you have such a small window to fit such a high serving of danger, problems arise. I think we are well aware that most groups do not stretch their in-game days across multiple real-world weeks of gaming. I see online that many game tables end up with a few highly dangerous encounters. Because the expected experience threshold is so high for such a small time limit, encounters sway between too easy and frightfully dangerous.

So how can I fix that?

One solution has already been accounted for and presented in the DMG. Gritty Realism is an optional rule found on page 267 for resting (If curious, read the other resting variant contained there, many may not have heard of it!). The explanation is fairly simple: a short rest is now 8 hours to complete, and a long rest a week. It is often seen as a way to make D&D “hardcore” or more difficult, however, that is not necessarily the best use of it.

Gritty Realism is a method to slow the pace of your game to match the number of encounters per adventuring day. If your in-game days struggle to meet the required number of encounters now, you’ll have a week in which to fill encounter space. This slower pace can have other benefits as well for modern games, balancing some of the issues that arise in power disparity between some classes. Your short-rest focused adventurers will feel more useful. Also, the heavy-hitting abilities and spells will come out less often.

These benefits might sound great, but many dislike this stretched-out pacing. There are situations where you may want the party to be capable of a rest sooner than a week. Additionally, certain missteps can easily land the party in incredibly dire situations. Unable to spend a week to regain the resources needed to survive whatever dungeon they ventured into. Not everyone likes this particular feeling of death and danger.

If I want a different solution then what do I do?

If Gritty Realism doesn’t quite work for your table then try this: Disconnect the long rest from the in-game concept of time. This might sound confusing, but instead of having it last 8 hours or a week, let it last however long it needs to last. This leads us to the idea of “Narrative Resting” which has had many names and ideas for how it should work online.

With Narrative Resting, you decide the duration of long rests and whether or not the party can complete them based on the in-world circumstances. Are they stuck in a dungeon without proper supplies and shelter? Then they cannot long rest. If they go to sleep, their characters awake only gaining the benefits of a short rest. Many people may find this system just as frustrating or even more so, feel like it adds workload on the game master.

It actually makes some things easier.

I find this system very appealing as it allows a great deal of flexibility. That said I have also tried giving certain guidelines to the players about how they can get either type of rest benefits. For example, letting the players know that if they bring enough food and supplies for comfort and safety, they can take a long rest. This may sound familiar to those who have played Baldur’s Gate 3, which has a long rest system that requires the expending of resources to complete it.

If you have certain requirements or resource and item costs to complete rests, you can naturally limit and grant rests as needed. Do you want the party to get back their fighting power before a big bad boss? Grant them a respite area before the encounter where they can rest in a healing pool. I have several different rooms and places in my notes which grant the benefits of a short or long rest. I use these options and rooms to place zones of safety throughout the danger they face.

If you find that your pacing is unsatisfying try talking with your players about slowing it down. It can be highly rewarding to pace your downtime and adventuring across many sessions for a balanced mix of gameplay. If you wish to learn more about my methods for Narrative Resting, then check back soon as I continue to add and update rules and resources.