Variant Long Rest Healing for D&D 5E

Before we jump in, I should say that the goal of this variant is not to simulate realism, but rather to present an option that might be appealing to some players. I don’t recommend that DMs should use this variant unannounced, nor should they impose variants on their players without the input of the players.

First let’s look at the rule we intend to create a variant for:

At the end of a long rest:

• A character regains all lost hit points.
• The character also regains spent Hit Dice (HD) equal to half their character’s hit dice maximum (minimum of one die)

Analyzing the implications of this rule we can see that heroes have a fairly reliable way to recover all their hit points every day through a long rest. I say “fairly reliable” simply because there will be situations where it would be dangerous to take a long rest or a high chance of interruption.

The second point of the long rest rule has a tie into the short rest rules by way of replenishing the hero’s resource of hit dice. Since the long rest doesn’t use hit dice in any way, regaining hit dice doesn’t really have an impact on the hero’s long rest. Also, by only resupplying half of a hero’s maximum hit dice at every long rest, this creates a potentially diminishing pool of hit dice if the hero uses more than half of their hit dice between every long rest.

What this means for an adventure is that the only reason to have consecutive days of downtime in 5th edition (with respect to HP recovery) would be to make sure that the heroes’ hit dice pool reached its maximum. Heroes don’t have to worry about a full recovery from any harm they sustained throughout a day, but they may need to be concerned about their ability to recover hit points during their short rests. Again, they would only be concerned about this if they are using more than half their hit dice day after day.

Let’s examine the math on a level 10 hero using d10’s for hit dice with a very lucky 100 HP and no other modifiers or bonuses to their HP total. This will establish a method of comparing variants to the standard rules. We’ll assume the hero needs to use all of their hit dice in each scenario.

Standard Rules	HP Gained Short Rest	HP Gained Long Rest	Total Daily Healing
Max HD Available	10 – 100	0 – 99	10 – 199
Half HD Available	5 – 50	0 – 99	5 – 149

So a level 10 hero has a considerable capacity to heal in a given adventuring day and it’s important to point out for this scenario that at the beginning of the next adventuring day, they have maximum HP of 100 and 5 hit dice.

The Variant

At the end of a long rest:

• The player rolls all remaining hit dice in their hit dice pool for their character adding their character’s Constitution modifier to each die rolled; the player totals this up and their character gains that many hit points.
• Should a hero have a negative Constitution modifier, the minimum healing a single hit die can provide is 1.
• If the character has no hit dice remaining when they take a long rest, they may roll one hit die to regain HP, but they may not add their Constitution modifier to this unless it is a negative modifier.
• The character then regains all of their hit dice.

The original rules define healing over a long rest to be reliably maximal. If your character has any damage, a long rest will remove all of it. With this variant, hit dice define the limitation on non-magical healing. In a way, the hit dice describe the body’s maximum capacity to heal in a given day, and only the minimum amount of healing is guaranteed. Hit dice spent throughout the day during short rests reduce the number of hit dice in the character’s hit dice pool, and a long rest uses only whatever is left over. Therefore healing now reduces what can be healed later. Since the long rest always uses of all a hero’s available hit dice automatically, it makes sense that the character regains the full complement of hit dice at the end of the long rest instead of half.

These changes also make the hit dice the integral resource to all aspects of the natural healing mechanisms in D&D 5e instead of making the primary method of healing “free”. I expect this will create a dramatic shift in how players make decisions over the course of play.

Let’s take a quick look at the math again. As before, all of the hit dice are assumed to be used in a day. The table is a little different since the hero will never start a day without a full pool of HD so I removed the 1/2 pool of HD row. The first row is still the direct comparison to the Standard Rules table above. Also, I added what healing would look like with successively better Constitution bonuses. Of course, the Con bonus modifies healing the same in both the standard rules and the variant so you can extrapolate this bonus to the short rest column of the first table. Assuming all the hit dice are used up during short rests, the table accounts for the extra die being rolled during the long rest in the variant rules.

Variant Rules	HP Gained Con Bonus	HP Gained Short Rest	HP Gained Long Rest	Total Daily Healing
Con Modifier +0	0	10 – 100	0 – 10	10 – 110
Con Modifier +1	10	10 – 100	0 – 10	20 – 120
Con Modifier +2	20	10 – 100	0 – 10	30 – 130
Con Modifier +3	30	10 – 100	0 – 10	40 – 140
Con Modifier +4	40	10 – 100	0 – 10	50 – 150
Con Modifier +5	50	10 – 100	0 – 10	60 – 160
Con Modifier -1	-10	10 – 90	0 – 9	10 – 99
Con Modifier -2	-20	10 – 80	0 – 8	10 – 88

First, let’s do a side by side comparison of differences between the two options.

Standard Rule	Variant Rule
Rolling the worst healing on 10d10 HD (10 HP), this hero can lose 109 HP and survive with 1 HP	Rolling the worst healing on 10d10 HD (10 HP) , this hero can lose 109 HP and survive with 1 HP
Rolling the best healing on 10d10 HD (100 HP), this hero can lose 199 HP and survive with 1 HP	Rolling the best healing on 10d10 HD (100 HP), this hero can lose 199 HP and survive with 1 HP
The hero having 1 HP going into the long rest will recover 99 HP and 5 HD for the next day.	The hero having 1 HP going into the long rest will recover 1 – 10 HP and 10 HD for the next day.
Considering the maximum potential healing possible (199 HP), 54.7% of that potential (109 HP) is guaranteed.	Considering the maximum potential healing possible (110 HP), 10% of that potential (11 HP) is guaranteed.
With a maximum constitution modifier (+5), using the same HP total, and considering the maximum potential healing possible (249 HP), 63.8% of that potential (159 HP) is guaranteed.	With a maximum constitution modifier (+5), using the same HP total, and considering the maximum potential healing possible (160 HP), 38.1% of that potential (61 HP) is guaranteed.

As I was working out the math, I found it interesting to see that there was no real difference to HP recovery throughout the day between the two rule options. A hero could go full tilt on the first day in either case and have the same recovery resources.

The startling difference in the variant is in the consequences of sustaining more damage than the hero’s HD pool can recover. Excess damage will carry over to the next day and become a burden on the next day’s HD pool. As I worked through the numbers, I realized that the main problem that the variant requires the players to consider is to have a plan for each point of damage their characters receive.

In the standard rules, any damage left unattended to at the end of the day can be ignored since the forthcoming long rest will invoke the mighty power of the player’s eraser and wipe the slate clean. Retreating from death’s door is as easy as a snooze.

The variant makes this carefree approach impossible. There is only so much damage a hero can absorb before it starts to take a toll in the long run. Certain other aspects in play will become more important when players are forced to consider the long run. Here are a few of these aspects I can think of:

Damage avoidance will be key
The days of breaking down the front door and wading into combat with a throng of enemies may be numbered. The thought of damage being carried over day after day will likely get players thinking more about their defensive options in combat and situational preparedness. Surprise rounds will be a valuable tool in the hero’s strategy and foreknowledge of the environments they travel to will give them critical tactical knowledge on what they need to be prepared for. Blundering in sight unseen will seem more like suicide.

A Constitution bonus is a bigger deal
The Con bonus is numerically identical in magnitude in both rule options. In the variant however, because most of the total possible daily HP recovery is not a sure thing, having a positive constitution modifier is proportionally more significant. The standard rules would allow a hero to conserve their hit dice and be more injured prior to a long rest to leverage the guaranteed healing, whereas that guaranteed healing on the long rest is non existent with the variant. The Constitution modifier is the main way a player could improve the amount of guaranteed natural healing a hero receives.

Alternatives to combat may be considered
Sizing up a situation from afar and devising ways to thin the crowd of bad guys and weaken the opposition can open up new avenues for role playing and get more bang out of an encounter. Using the environment to nullify an enemy’s ability to fight, or put the enemy in a weaker position so that they are more receptive to negotiation could be considered more often. A socially nimble bard or rogue may be a priceless asset when the players are not tempted with the idea that the physical consequences of combat are always temporary.

Temporary HP will be crucial
If a hero can lose hit points that aren’t really their own and they don’t have to use their resources to recover, all the better. Temporary hit points will be a fantastically useful buffer against any damage they do sustain and I wouldn’t be surprised to see spells that provide this benefit used more frequently.

Buff spells will be more important
Combat is always a risk versus reward situation in addition to being an obstacle to forward progress. Usually the rewards are pretty static in the sense that the pay off will usually always be waiting on the other side of the encounter. There are some exceptions to this, but for the most part it’s true. The risks are where the players dig their manipulative little claws, and reducing the risks to receive the same reward will be appealing.

Temporary HP is one possibility. But what about those few extra points of AC for a better chance of avoiding blows? Or a boost to the heroes’ chance to hit? Maybe impose disadvantage or some negative conditions on the enemies to bleed away their action economy? Raw damage is great for taking out bad guys so long as the heroes can land blows. If landing blows isn’t so reliable, making combat harder for the opposition becomes a more viable strategy.

Potions!
Potions are available to provide all kinds of buffs and abilities. When survival is at stake, players may choose to hoard potions less often. With respect to combat and the heroes’ capabilities, nothing has changed really. They are still the same butt-kicking bad asses they were before. But maybe that fire resistance potion doesn’t need to wait for them to find that red dragon. Maybe they should use it right now while they’re facing off against these elementals… When players see the benefit of potions on their survival, certain ones may become more valuable than healing potions.

More Ideas

What if I want to use this variant but it’s a little too punishing for my players?
How difficult or punishing a player perceives a rule to be partially has to do with how they interact with, or adjust their play to account for the rule. Players who struggle most with this variant might be those who prefer a more violent and less cautious style of play. This variant is more punishing and the math demonstrates this.

If you’re looking for some middle ground I would suggest removing this from the variant:

• If the character has no hit dice remaining when they take a long rest, they may roll one hit die to regain HP, but they may not add their Constitution modifier to this unless it is a negative modifier.

And instead, add this to replace it:

• In addition to rolling the character’s remaining hit dice during the long rest, the character also rolls additional hit dice equal to their proficiency modifier, but they may not add their Constitution modifier to these dice unless it is a negative modifier.

That modification to the variant should provide a bit more breathing room that will scale and remain relevant as the hero levels up. If this doesn’t quite go far enough, you can alter it further and allow both positive and negative Con modifiers to the extra dice.

Though if your players are remarking that the new variant is too punishing but they haven’t changed how they tackle your encounters, perhaps they haven’t done their part to accommodate the variant. After all, the point of changing any rule is to either accommodate a certain kind of play or encourage a different kind of play. Solicit feedback from your players. If this is the case, your players may tell you that they can’t really think of alternatives. You may want to help them out by offering more information during play by offering that their heroes notice certain other weaknesses or exploitable situations when they size up your encounters. On average, your players will probably have more fun when they’re less in the dark.

Conversely, as a DM, you should also examine if you have made the appropriate changes yourself to integrate this variant. In order to expect a different kind of play, you need to accommodate solutions that aren’t your own. Your own DMing habits may be working against you. Getting feedback from your players will help you figure out if this is the case. You would be looking for comments that suggest they are trying different things, but feel they hear “no” a lot.

Conclusion

The standard long rest rules has many great benefits to game play. The generous healing of the long rest rule lightens the burden of mistakes a player feels when they took a truckload of damage from a trap or got an unlucky critical rolled against them. When the HP reset button gets hit every day, the adventure can proceed a lot faster and every decision does not need as intense scrutiny. My games use the standard rules for a long rest the majority of the time and they work just fine.

The variant rules I present here have the potential to encourage players to consider other options to overcome challenges other than combat. When combat is the prevailing option, I feel this may encourage players to start their assaults long before they step onto the battlefield, and this could make for some very interesting and rewarding game play.

I feel this variant might be interesting for DMs and players who want more tension or challenge in their game. Players might spend more from their heroes’ coffers on potions and use a more various blend of attacks, abilities, resources, and spells to achieve their goals.

I think that if the players at the table are more timid, have a tendency to suggest a short rest after every encounter, or they want a long rest every couple of rooms in a dungeon, this may not be for your group. Or maybe the DM is throwing too much at the party all the time, who knows? This variant will stretch the resources of a group and those who always want to drive around with a full tank of gas might not care for it.