Rests: Breather, Short, Long, and Full

I've long been bothered by the high power of the Long Rest the relative weakness of Short Rests in my D&D 5E games.  It always seems that if a place for a short rest can be found, a place of a long rest is only slightly more elusive.  A group on an extended delve need only find that lovely niche to hide in for eight hours and they are miraculously fully healed and rejuvenated.

I'm not alone in this thinking, as I was just pointed at a video by a guy calling himself the dungeon coach.  First a link to his video and then my reactions to some elements.  Finally, what I think I would like to do in my games.

Also, here is a link to his offering on DMGuild. I'm going to avoid reiterating all of his ideas, only repeating what is required to put my thoughts in some context.

My Reactions

I think his basic ideas are sound.  Short Rests seem in need of help and Long Rests are just super useful.  The idea of a FULL rest (perhaps a town rest) seems like a nice addition and an incentive to actually camp in a safe place when you can.

Short Rest

On the other hand some of the changes he enumerates seem almost like change for change's sake and have a ripple of unintended consequences.  Example: Monks recover all of their Ki points at a short rest, so the shortening of time required for a short rest makes them considerably more powerful in a similar manner to how it helps warlocks and does nothing for some other classes.  Sure, those issues can be fixed piece meal, but that seems like a lot of changes.

Breather

Perhaps a cleaner solution is the introduction of a shorter short rest.  I'll call it a Breather.  This is a 10 minute, uninterrupted rest that allows for use of 1/4 of a character's hit dice but does nothing else.  To keep it under control, I might limit it to one breather between rests and hit die spent during a breather count toward the number allowed to be rolled in the next rest.  This keeps the total hit dice available to 1/2 the total per short rest but allows access to some without needing an hour of downtime.

Long Rest

Getting rid of the full heal at a long rest seems like a really good idea.  It makes hit dice a valuable commodity, in line with magical healing.  Changing the duration of a full heal seems a bit pointless.  Sure 6 hours in less than 8 and only needing 3 hours of "sleep" is a heck of a lot less than 6 hours, but to me it is a change that seems intended to fix what isn't at all broken.

The fact that a long rest only recovers 1/2 of a character's hit dice means that the second hard adventuring day should start to see a tightness of healing available.  That barbarian with outrageous health will not have hit dice to heal the second days damage as easily and could be an issue for any group healers.   A third hard day will likely see the party start with nearly no hit dice.  This seems full of win.

The idea of asking what people talk about during the long rest seems independent of duration.  It's not a bad idea, just not something that I think needs to be codified in any type of rule.

Full Rest

This seems like a solid idea as well.  It's the rest at the Inn.  It fully rejuvenates the group and gets everything back.   Perhaps it is what is required to level up; I'm thinking that might feel better than the training interlude that I have been using (one of the optional rules).  The duration required and other circumstances seem best left murky.  Let the group roll with this as events transpire.

My Ideas for Implementation

I suppose I've rather telegraphed the bits that I think should be implemented in a (my) game.  I'll try stating them in close to rule form (changes only):

• Breather - a 10 minute rest that allows use of 1/4 of a character's hit dice, minimum of one. No more than one between longer rests. 
• Short Rest - No change, other than counting any hit dice spent at a Breather against the next short rest.
• Long Rest - Characters do not full heal.  They may spend all of their hit dice.  They still recover no more than 1/2 their total. This is essentially the Slow Natural Healing option from RAW.  Long rests do not recover levels of exhaustion and may not resolve other conditions at the DM's discretion.
• Full Rest - This is a long rest in a safe place and/or with creature comforts.  It may, at the DM's discretion take significantly longer than 8 hours, perhaps days or more.  At the end of he Full rest characters gain 1 hit die of temporary hit points. If the characters push too long between Full Rests, they can be required to make CON saves to avoid levels of exhaustion.  Dipping into the Forced March rules of the PHB, perhaps each additional hard day past the first counts in the same way as an extra hour of movement making the DC become higher. So the third day is a DC11 CON, then a DC12, etc., this could result in some exhaustion cropping up on day 3 of an extended expedition.

I think the net of these house rules would be to make hit dice more valuable and encourage occasional town rests.  This seems a good thing.  The Full Rest "rules" are only partially baked.  I think a lot of discretion here makes sense.  I'm intending them only to apply to deep dives in a dungeon or extended stressful engagements not to riding a wagon on a road in a caravan.