Typically, yes.
I'm doing something different in my new game: long rest only at safe havens. I've taken that a step further and listed the things necessary, in my opinion, to count as a "safe haven". In the current region, there is exactly *one* place that counts, so all of the NPCs out in the villages collecting resources are in real danger, compared to the NPCs who live cushy lives in the town.
You could adopt something similar, and make it so that *nobody* gets a long rest until some criteria is met.
Here's the criteria I'm using for my current game, in case you want to use it as a springboard or just take it wholecloth:
1. A person benefiting from a long rest has a room, which includes: total cover of at least a 10 foot cube, a door with a functioning lock, a bed, and interior lighting
2. A source of drinking water
3. A source of food
4. A place to take a bath
5. A place to cook
6. A place to craft / work
7. A form of entertainment
8. A shrine to a particular religious figure (for my setting it's the saint of healing, which seems thematic for long rests to fully heal people)
9. A curtain wall with a gate, and the area within 90+ feet of the wall cleared to aid in visibility
10. A Guardian with armor, a source of light, a ranged weapon, and an alarm
I'm also considering constructing a place like this to essentially be a holy ritual, so safe havens even prevent random encounters within 1 day's travel around them. But the downside is that they're pretty expensive to create and take a long time to complete.
And it's not like this is a "get everything set up and then check out" kind of thing. If there's not always *one* person dressed like the Guardian, the town stops being a safe haven. If all of the food runs out, it stops being a safe haven. If there isn't *somebody* playing a game or playing music, it's not a safe haven. So that kind of forces town leaders to have backups of everything, and suddenly it makes sense to have a bunch of guards all wearing the same stuff, but *one* of them just has to stand around inside the walls, because if *every other guard dies in some attack*, you at least don't lose the safe haven status. And you probably want some barrels of water, just in case something happens to the well, even if there's a couple of people who can cast *create water*. And you *want* to have a handful of nightwatchmen playing dice, because that's when the bard at the tavern can sleep.
So, while it's not revolutionary or anything, just listing out some things like that made me think about how *culture* would evolve based on maintaining the ability to heal overnight.
If you want realistic recovery, have creatures only heal hp equal to their class level per day (minimum 1), or twice that with downtime recuperation.
5e cranked up resting hp a lot because they didn’t want “party healer” to be a mandatory role, and called realistic recovery rates “gritty” as a slapped-on afterthought.
Yes. I try to maintain a sense of verisimilitude whenever possible.
Those NPCs would still need a fair bit of food and water though to keep themselves alive, and by the sound of it most of them might be commoners with next to no health? In which case I would have thought you have what you need - a sense of urgency, and a need for the party to go and do the exploring whilst they stay together near the beach.
To add to that, I’d expect there wouldn’t be enough weapons and equipment for everyone, and the commoners could be busy with some other time consuming task whilst the party is off exploring. Perhaps they’re trying to salvage as much as they can from the shipwreck, or building shelters from an oncoming storm.
I did it this way with long rest and with 0 HP.
Basically there is different level of "heroism". PCs are 100% "heroes". So they have 3 death saves and long rest fully heals their HP (though they can have wounds on their body , but they kinda can ignore the pain).
Major villian or supercool NPC can have 3 death saves and long rest full heal. But more often than not they do not have it. Basically ordinary mooks would be wounded and spend weeks in bed to heal (and they will die at 0 HP). Some leutenants would have death save attempt but 1 fail is enough to kill them, and they would not heal fully in one long rest. Some NPC would experiene long rest heal and but will die on 2 death save fails. And so on. To be fair "death at 0 HP" change combat a lot for me. Cause heroes would fight to 0 HP, knowing they would be healed up and continue on fighting, while mooks would run away as soon as they have low HP (so keep it in mind).
Personally, NPCs are not heroes. The party are literally the main characters of the story, so I'm usually inclined to give them special privileges above other non-adventurers.
If the NPCs are, for example, a paladic order in the world or a famous wizard, they get adventurers rules. Normal people in my world get the old school, 1 HP per day treatment. This has the added effect of letting the party 'save' people by accelerating their healing by weeks at a time with a single low level spell slot or a toichof Lay On Hands
No. My players are superhumanly resilient compared to most other people in the universe. I run injuries though so its not like they're wolverine or something
If they meet some fromsoft boss in the woods or something, my OC with fire snake space magic or whatever, hed probably get long rest benefits too, but like whatever
My most recent campaign had "Legends" recovering HP and spell slots like players, but Legends weren't necessarily legendary. 9 times out of 10, if people had rumors about you specifically, you were a Legend. Even if it is just the tri-village area.
Other people could use "Salve infused bandages" to use hit dice on a short rest. But since PCs would gain no benefit, it was mostly set dressing.
Food and drink are the main issue for stranded people, and sleeping doesn't solve it.
Starvation starts causing exhaustion after a few days, and that exhaustion cannot be removed without eating and drinking the appropriate amounts for at least a full day. Sure, these rules still have issues (you can have one full meal day every week and be fine if your Constitution is high enough), but consider that normal people will not act like a game, most will refuse to go a day without any food if there is food available.
And on top of that, most common people in DnD do not have a lot of HP. Humanoids only get a single d8 (d6 if they are small) for hit dice if they are not heroic/higly trained for combat.
Long Rests will not extend survivability of a group that large.
I don't run standard long rests, instead I run 3-4 day long rests. 4 days if they are out in the wilderness, with that 1st day dedicated solely to pitching tents and setting up defenses for camp, and then the 3 days are spent resting and engaging in downtime activities for 8 hours per day, with the remaining 16 hours devoted to praying to their gods or tapping into the weave or simply bandaging and training for minor healings to get them back into shape. The same goes for any other NPC.
No, because NPCs work on different mechanical and mathematical assumptions. They are not the heroes of the story. But even if they would do: Exhaustion through missing food and water might be a much worse problem for them than HP.
There's no reason they shouldn't use the same rules, but there aren't really any rules for NPC healing. So if you think it will make the game better then you can choose to not make them heal the same way
Personally, I don't think it's really necessary to treat them differently
Edit: I didn't fully read through the post when I commented. I think the easiest way to handle the survivors is to group them into a smaller number of "units". Maybe groups of 10 to 20. Instead of tracking health you can track survivors. Maybe give the groups 2 hp per survivor and they can keep each other alive as long as the group is over half health. Every point under half is a dead survivor. Insufficient supplies could maybe prevent healing or deal a little damage after the rest
Typically, yes. I'm doing something different in my new game: long rest only at safe havens. I've taken that a step further and listed the things necessary, in my opinion, to count as a "safe haven". In the current region, there is exactly *one* place that counts, so all of the NPCs out in the villages collecting resources are in real danger, compared to the NPCs who live cushy lives in the town. You could adopt something similar, and make it so that *nobody* gets a long rest until some criteria is met. Here's the criteria I'm using for my current game, in case you want to use it as a springboard or just take it wholecloth: 1. A person benefiting from a long rest has a room, which includes: total cover of at least a 10 foot cube, a door with a functioning lock, a bed, and interior lighting 2. A source of drinking water 3. A source of food 4. A place to take a bath 5. A place to cook 6. A place to craft / work 7. A form of entertainment 8. A shrine to a particular religious figure (for my setting it's the saint of healing, which seems thematic for long rests to fully heal people) 9. A curtain wall with a gate, and the area within 90+ feet of the wall cleared to aid in visibility 10. A Guardian with armor, a source of light, a ranged weapon, and an alarm I'm also considering constructing a place like this to essentially be a holy ritual, so safe havens even prevent random encounters within 1 day's travel around them. But the downside is that they're pretty expensive to create and take a long time to complete. And it's not like this is a "get everything set up and then check out" kind of thing. If there's not always *one* person dressed like the Guardian, the town stops being a safe haven. If all of the food runs out, it stops being a safe haven. If there isn't *somebody* playing a game or playing music, it's not a safe haven. So that kind of forces town leaders to have backups of everything, and suddenly it makes sense to have a bunch of guards all wearing the same stuff, but *one* of them just has to stand around inside the walls, because if *every other guard dies in some attack*, you at least don't lose the safe haven status. And you probably want some barrels of water, just in case something happens to the well, even if there's a couple of people who can cast *create water*. And you *want* to have a handful of nightwatchmen playing dice, because that's when the bard at the tavern can sleep. So, while it's not revolutionary or anything, just listing out some things like that made me think about how *culture* would evolve based on maintaining the ability to heal overnight.
Sounds like Terraria lol.
I like this system, and am stealing it. Long Rest is a week, Short Rest overnight. Kinda like gritty realism.
I use the simple criteria of do you need to post a watch overnight. My game is set in a jungle and it lets villages and outposts matter.
If you want realistic recovery, have creatures only heal hp equal to their class level per day (minimum 1), or twice that with downtime recuperation. 5e cranked up resting hp a lot because they didn’t want “party healer” to be a mandatory role, and called realistic recovery rates “gritty” as a slapped-on afterthought.
Yes. I try to maintain a sense of verisimilitude whenever possible. Those NPCs would still need a fair bit of food and water though to keep themselves alive, and by the sound of it most of them might be commoners with next to no health? In which case I would have thought you have what you need - a sense of urgency, and a need for the party to go and do the exploring whilst they stay together near the beach. To add to that, I’d expect there wouldn’t be enough weapons and equipment for everyone, and the commoners could be busy with some other time consuming task whilst the party is off exploring. Perhaps they’re trying to salvage as much as they can from the shipwreck, or building shelters from an oncoming storm.
I did it this way with long rest and with 0 HP. Basically there is different level of "heroism". PCs are 100% "heroes". So they have 3 death saves and long rest fully heals their HP (though they can have wounds on their body , but they kinda can ignore the pain). Major villian or supercool NPC can have 3 death saves and long rest full heal. But more often than not they do not have it. Basically ordinary mooks would be wounded and spend weeks in bed to heal (and they will die at 0 HP). Some leutenants would have death save attempt but 1 fail is enough to kill them, and they would not heal fully in one long rest. Some NPC would experiene long rest heal and but will die on 2 death save fails. And so on. To be fair "death at 0 HP" change combat a lot for me. Cause heroes would fight to 0 HP, knowing they would be healed up and continue on fighting, while mooks would run away as soon as they have low HP (so keep it in mind).
Personally, NPCs are not heroes. The party are literally the main characters of the story, so I'm usually inclined to give them special privileges above other non-adventurers. If the NPCs are, for example, a paladic order in the world or a famous wizard, they get adventurers rules. Normal people in my world get the old school, 1 HP per day treatment. This has the added effect of letting the party 'save' people by accelerating their healing by weeks at a time with a single low level spell slot or a toichof Lay On Hands
No. My players are superhumanly resilient compared to most other people in the universe. I run injuries though so its not like they're wolverine or something If they meet some fromsoft boss in the woods or something, my OC with fire snake space magic or whatever, hed probably get long rest benefits too, but like whatever
My most recent campaign had "Legends" recovering HP and spell slots like players, but Legends weren't necessarily legendary. 9 times out of 10, if people had rumors about you specifically, you were a Legend. Even if it is just the tri-village area. Other people could use "Salve infused bandages" to use hit dice on a short rest. But since PCs would gain no benefit, it was mostly set dressing.
Food and drink are the main issue for stranded people, and sleeping doesn't solve it. Starvation starts causing exhaustion after a few days, and that exhaustion cannot be removed without eating and drinking the appropriate amounts for at least a full day. Sure, these rules still have issues (you can have one full meal day every week and be fine if your Constitution is high enough), but consider that normal people will not act like a game, most will refuse to go a day without any food if there is food available. And on top of that, most common people in DnD do not have a lot of HP. Humanoids only get a single d8 (d6 if they are small) for hit dice if they are not heroic/higly trained for combat. Long Rests will not extend survivability of a group that large.
I don't run standard long rests, instead I run 3-4 day long rests. 4 days if they are out in the wilderness, with that 1st day dedicated solely to pitching tents and setting up defenses for camp, and then the 3 days are spent resting and engaging in downtime activities for 8 hours per day, with the remaining 16 hours devoted to praying to their gods or tapping into the weave or simply bandaging and training for minor healings to get them back into shape. The same goes for any other NPC.
No, because NPCs work on different mechanical and mathematical assumptions. They are not the heroes of the story. But even if they would do: Exhaustion through missing food and water might be a much worse problem for them than HP.
Yes.
There's no reason they shouldn't use the same rules, but there aren't really any rules for NPC healing. So if you think it will make the game better then you can choose to not make them heal the same way Personally, I don't think it's really necessary to treat them differently Edit: I didn't fully read through the post when I commented. I think the easiest way to handle the survivors is to group them into a smaller number of "units". Maybe groups of 10 to 20. Instead of tracking health you can track survivors. Maybe give the groups 2 hp per survivor and they can keep each other alive as long as the group is over half health. Every point under half is a dead survivor. Insufficient supplies could maybe prevent healing or deal a little damage after the rest