A Short Rest Dilemma
Your party is sneaking through a dungeon, watching for traps, when they get ambushed by a troop of orcs. They are victorious, but the battle takes its toll. After looting the bodies, the party talks amongst themselves. The leader turns to you and states, “We are taking a Short Rest.” You look at them in disbelief. That battle was tough, but it’s only been a few moments since their last rest, and this would be their fourth Short Rest of the day.
The Rules As Written in Dungeons & Dragons 5E don’t restrict the number of Short Rests. Is this something you should allow? You're not sure what to do but ultimately let them have it. It's a common scenario, and I know a lot of Game Masters in the TTRPG world who've faced this in their time behind the screen. Players want to adventure, but not at partial power. It's logical, but too many Short Rests can slow down gameplay and lessen the difficulty of encounters in Dungeons and Dragons. How do you handle it?
The RAW
The Rules As Written in Dungeons & Dragons 5E lay out the mechanics of Short Rests, but one thing stands out: unlike Long Rests, there's no limit to how many Short Rests a character can take. The text reads:
“A short rest is a period of downtime, at least 1 hour long, during which a character does nothing more strenuous than eating, drinking, reading, and tending to wounds.”
A character can spend one or more Hit Dice at the end of a short rest, up to the character’s maximum number of Hit Dice, which is equal to the character’s level. For each Hit Die spent in this way, the player rolls the die and adds the character’s Constitution modifier to it. The character regains hit points equal to the total (minimum of 0). The player can decide to spend an additional Hit Die after each roll. A character regains some spent Hit Dice upon finishing a long rest, as explained below.”
Compare this to Long Rest, which state:
“A character can't benefit from more than one long rest in a 24-hour period, and a character must have at least 1 hit point at the start of the rest to gain its benefits.”
Many Solutions
As many reasons exist for excessive short resting in Dungeons and Dragons Games, so too are solutions. From mechanical stops inspired by Baldur’s Gate III to in-game reasons like Wandering Monster dice and ration tracking, there's a strategy for your table. Discuss these in Session 0 or 0-2 .
Mechanical Hard Stop
If you have played Baldur’s Gate III recently, you will have probably noticed a lot of interesting mechanics developed by Larian Studios to adapt the 5E system to play as a classic role-playing game. I know I have, and I see a lot as potential inspiration for new game mechanics I can bring to my table. One such mechanic is how the game handles Short Rests.
BG3 makes Short Rests simple: you may take two per every long rest, split up as you see fit. That means you can hold off as long as possible, conserving resources and using these Short Rests when absolutely necessary, or you can use them to keep your party at max power, ready to deal with any threat. Such a system can be incredibly easy to adapt to Dungeons & Dragons. All you have to do is let your players know they can gain the benefits of a Short Rest twice per day, and leave it at that. Such a simple rule will be easy to remember and easy to follow.
While a simple mechanical rule, some players and tables might find this immersion breaking. If the party can find the time and place to rest for an hour, then why should they not be able to do so, and get a benefit from it? So if such a problem exists for your table, look for more in-game reasons to back up the Short Rest limit.
Resting is Dangerous
Sometimes, the problem is not taking more than a couple of Short Rests in a day, but where the party takes the Short Rests. The party can easily stop multiple times on the road, only spending time on their quest to regain their resources. But if the party Short Rests in a Dungeon, it creates an imbalance. You intended the Dungeon to be difficult, and the rests drain that away. Just remember, the danger of a dungeon doesn’t rest just because the party does.
In the older games, Dungeon Masters would use a Wandering Monster Table when the players were in a dangerous area, such as a dungeon. Every ten minutes in a dungeon, what I call a “Dungeon Round”, the DM would roll 1d6 to check for a random encounter. On rolling a 6 (roughly a 16.66% chance), the DM would then roll on an encounter table (there were more rolls involved, but that is for another discussion). The monsters would then be somewhere near the party, potentially in the next room over, drawn by the sound of adventuring. If the party was not careful, this could lead to an ambush. This method can be very useful for Short Rests in a dangerous area.
Short Rests are supposed to take one hour, or sixty minutes. Using the wandering monster rules, that means 6d6 rolls, roughly a 66% chance of encountering a wandering monster during every Short Rest. If this is not enough, you can always alter the system if you want to increase the odds. One option is to increase the die size (perhaps to a d10) and to increase the range of a “success” for every certain amount of no encounter. Rolling a 10 in 6d10 would be 46.86%, but adding in 9 adds a 26.93% for 73.79%. Adding in 8 would get it to 88.24%. If you adjust this, however, remember to keep it fair. If you are adjusting your rolls just to make sure the party runs into a Wandering Monster, you might as well just tell them that resting in a dungeon means monsters will attack.
While this mechanic is interesting, this might not fit your needs. Maybe you do not want to fill your table with needless combat, since it slows down your story progression. Or maybe your issue is more widespread, and you still want an in game, in world reason. We can once again turn to Baldur’s Gate III.
Resting Resources
When you need to Rest for the evening in Baldur’s Gate III, you must spend a certain amount of “Camp Supplies” in order to gain the benefits of a Long Rest. If the party does not have enough (the game requires 40 supplies in total), they only receive a Partial Rest, which recovers half their maximum HP and half their maximum Spell Slots. I see a ton of potential in this option, but for the time being, we can focus just on bringing this into Short Rest territory.
Part of resting and regaining stamina will often include using a certain amount of resources. The PCs might want to eat some food, drink their water, bind their wounds. Normally, tables streamline these elements by hand-waving, but we can always reintroduce the need for resources. The simplest way is tying this into ration and waterskin use. Both the Player’s Handbook and the Dungeon Master’s Guide have tables showing the food and water needs of a party based on size.
So a party of 4 medium-sized characters will need four pounds of food and four gallons of water. If you add in horses (Large Beasts) for each, that amount goes to 18 pounds of food and 17 gallons of water, most of it going to the horses. Looking at the Adventuring Gear list in the PHB, we see that 1 day’s worth of food costs 5 sp and weighs 2 lbs. Each waterskin costs 2sp, weighs 5 lbs full, and holds half a gallon of water (four pints). This means that for a day of travel, the party will need two water skins a piece, and either ration each or one ration per two (depending on how you interpret the wording).
With these numbers in mind, we can determine the supplies needed over the course of a normal adventuring day, consisting of two Short Rests and one Long Rest. Every Short Rest will consume a fraction of the daily food and water, with a Long Rest using a more substantial portion. This can be translated into “Supplies” that are consumed throughout the day. Any Short Rest where a player does not consume the required amount will lead to reduced benefits, such as rolling hit dice with disadvantage or taking a flat penalty.
The following table breaks down the supply requirements by creature size:
| Creature Size | Per Day | Supplies | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Food | Water | Short Rest | Long Rest | Full Day | |
| Tiny | 1/4 pound | 1/4 gallon | 0.125 | 0.25 | 0.5 |
| Small | 1 pound | 1 gallon | 0.25 | 0.5 | 1 |
| Large | 4 pounds | 4 gallons | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| Huge | 16 pounds | 16 gallons | 4 | 8 | 16 |
| Gargantuan | 64 pounds | 64 gallons | 16 | 32 | 64 |
Here's an illustrative example to provide clarity:
Example: A party consisting of three Medium adventurers, two Large horses, and a Tiny familiar sets out for a full day of travel. Based on the table:
The adventurers will need 1 Supply each per Short Rest and 2 Supplies each for a Long Rest (9 total).
The horses will require 4 Supplies each per Short Rest and 8 Supplies each for a Long Rest (24 total).
The Tiny familiar needs 0.125 Supplies per Short Rest and 0.25 Supplies for a Long Rest (0.5 total).
Total Supplies for the day: 33.5
While this introduces an engaging level of immersion, some tables may find the tracking of such resources to be too cumbersome. For those looking for a simplified approach, the concept of rations and water-skins can be replaced by “Traveling Supply,” with players consuming two per Short Rest, four per Long Rest, for an estimated total of eight per adventuring day.
Final Thoughts
So, we've covered some pretty complex solutions here, like Resting Resources and balancing Short Rests. We've even got some tables and examples to help you out. But before we wrap up, let's not forget something essential: Talking with your party.
When you're playing a TTRPG like Dungeons & Dragons, sometimes conflicts can pop up. Not just the usual in-game conflicts, but those pesky out-of-combat conflicts. As I've explained in my series on Out of Combat Conflicts, these tensions can come from in-game or even real-life issues, and it's all about understanding and communication.
Learn how playing the role of a mediator, as I've detailed here, can totally change the way you game. You don't need to make up new rules or use tricks to keep everyone happy. It's all about being open and honest.
So remember, while exploring these ideas can be exciting and add depth to your game, the simplest and most effective solution might just be having a chat with your fellow adventurers. You're all there to have fun, so make sure to keep the lines of communication open.
Conclusion
Excessive Short Resting in Dungeons & Dragons 5E can challenge your game's dynamics. The lack of explicit limits in the RAW presents an opportunity for creativity, but also a risk of unbalancing the game. But with these strategies tailored to your TTRPG experience, you can create an engaging and well-balanced adventure. From simple mechanical limits to in-game reasons like Wandering Monster dice and ration tracking, these strategies can create a more immersive and balanced TTRPG experience. But above all, never underestimate the value of clear communication with your players.
Discuss your concerns, and find solutions that best fit your table. Consider the RAW and your own interpretations as tools to enhance the experience. And remember, inspiration can be found everywhere, even in video games like Baldur’s Gate III. Keep an eye out for more insights inspired by this intriguing CRPG.