I am still mulling over the idea of not allowing rests unless your characters are at certain HP and Spell Slot levels; basically, you can't rest unless you meet certain requirements.
So, you can't short rest unless:
- Total character HP is below 3/4 combined Maximum HP: Characters have 8, 10, 8 and 6 HP for a max total of 32 HP. Short rest is not possible until they are 24 HP or lower. So if the one with 8 HP was reduced to 0 HP, a short rest is possible. Camping supplies are then required for a short rest (and camping supplies should include bandages... lol. They're supposed to apply bandages and such when resting)
Long rest has greater requirements:
- Total character HP is below 1/2 combined Maximum HP. (So, in the example above, 16 HP or less would be required)
- Total spell slot level are half maximum levels. So if Gale has 4 Level 1 slots and 2 Level 2, that's 6 total, and if Shadowheart has the same and so does the MC, then that's a total of 18 spell slots. you would need to have 9 or less spell slots to long rest.
- Both of these requirements would need to be met to Long Rest, thus symbolizing that the party is not willing to call it a day until they have actually been reduced to less than half of their abilities.
- Camping supplies are required for a long rest and it is more expensive than short rest.
To temper this, Larian could still make certain points in the game where Long Resting becomes available because they know something big is about to happen that will require the characters to be their best before continuing. So, for example, before heading into the Underdark, Halsin says, "You should really rest first. Get some sleep." And so, regardless of how good or bad you are at that point, Halsin calls for you to rest, and you are greatly encouraged to do so, unlocking your ability to do so.
The reason I like this idea is that I have a problem with characters allowing you to short or long rest when they are doing perfectly fine. You've run maybe for two minutes at the start of your day, and you fought some goblins and lost maybe 5 HP altogether. Well, time to long rest! No. That's dumb. The characters feel the pressure of what's going on around them. They should push themselves until they are at least at half their maximum strength.
It doesn't change anything, it just makes the game more annoying. You will still be able to rest wherever you want, but first you will have to throw yourself off the rock.
I like the idea ...
Mostly bcs its exactly the same as i suggested aproximately 3/4 year ago, when i was thinking about some energy bar that would be deplenishing by ingame activity ... same princip, just turned around.
Problem here is that people would be pissed off ...
Since everyone wish to rest in exactly that situation, when THEY see fit ... and that is impossible with litteraly any other system. :-/
It is with a clock.
With a clock the game could limit long rest according to DnD and allow you to spam long rest at the same time if you will or if you need to (with a "waiting" mechanic).
A challenge for one, a solution for another.
A clock would be a good option as long as the game was linear like Solasta. The problem is when you can go wherever you want and you can end up with only boss fights left.
Another quite significant problem is what to do if the player is unlucky and is massacred by bad rng.
A fairly simple example, you come to an abandoned village and get surprised by goblins. The fight can end very quickly, or if you are unlucky, you can be practically massacred (it happened to me more than once).
And here's where the problem is, the player recently used rest but by rng he was left with minimal resources. However, he cannot rest.
What is the player doing? Either he tries to tire himself further or he minimizes the game and goes to watch youtube.
