Rest, Healing, and Resurrection
Long Rests
A long rest is a period of at least 8 hours long in which you sleep for at least 6 hours and perform no more than 2 hours of light activity, such as reading, talking, eating, or standing watch. To start a Long Rest, you must have at least 1 hit point. When you finish the rest, you gain the following benefits:
- Regain Hit Dice. You regain half your spent Hit Dice.
- Statistics Restored. If your Hit Point Maximum or any of your Ability Scores were reduced, they return to normal.
- Exhaustion Reduced. Your Fatigue and Strife levels each reduce by 1.
After you finish a Long Rest, you must wait at least 16 hours before starting another one.
A long rest is stopped by the following interruptions:
- Combat
- Casting a spell of 1st-level or higher.
- 1 hour of physical or mental exertion, like walking or copying spells into spellbooks.
If the rest was at least 1 hour long before the interruption, you gain the benefits of a Short Rest. You can resume a Long Rest immediately after an interruption. If you do so, the rest requires 1 additional hour to finish per interruption.
When your hit points hit 0, you drop unconscious and must make a DC 10 Constitution saving throw or gain 1 level of exhaustion. Each subsequent time you hit 0 hit points, the DC for this Constitution saving throw increases by 5. The DC resets to 10 when you finish a long rest.
The Fading Spirit - Resurrection Challenges
Resurrection magic (such as raise dead or true resurrection) and other powerful restorative magics (regeneration) are subject to various difficulties. The following rules, borrowed from Matthew Mercer, will be implemented, with some modifications.
If a character is dead, and a resurrection is attempted by a spell or spell effect with longer than a 1 action casting time, a Resurrection Challenge is initiated. Up to 3 allies can offer to contribute to the ritual via a Contribution Skill Check. The DM asks them each to make a skill check based on their form of contribution, with the DC of the check adjusting to how helpful/impactful the DM feels the contribution would be.
For example, a devout priest praying for the fallen character may require an Intelligence (Religion) check at an easy to medium difficulty, where loudly demanding the soul of the fallen to return from the afterlife may require a Charisma (Intimidation) check at a very hard or nearly impossible difficulty. Advantage and disadvantage can apply here based on how perfect, or off base, the contribution offered is.
Resurrection Check
After all contributions are completed, the DM then rolls a single, final Resurrection success check with no modifier. The base DC for the final resurrection check is 10, increasing by 2 for each previous successful resurrection the character has undergone (signifying the slow erosion of the soul’s connection to this world). For each successful contribution skill check, this DC is decreased by 3, whereas each failed contribution skill check increases the DC by 1.
Upon a successful resurrection check, the player’s soul (should it be willing) will be returned to the body, and the ritual succeeded. On a failed check, the soul does not return and the character is lost.
Quick Resurrections
If a spell with a casting time of 1 action is used to attempt to restore life (via the revivify spell, or resurrection magic via the wish spell), no contribution skill checks are allowed. The character casting the spell makes a Quick Resurrection check, rolling a d20 and adding their spellcasting ability modifier. The DC is 10, increasing by 2 for each previous successful resurrection the character has undergone. On a failure, the character’s soul is not lost, but the resurrection fails and increases any future Resurrection checks’ DC by 1. No further attempts can be made to restore this character to life until a resurrection spell with a casting time higher than 1 action is attempted.
Spell Changes
Certain spells affected by this rule have been altered, and their changes are detailed below.
- Recomposition - May attempt to reattach appendages with a spellcasting ability check.
- Reincarnate - Provokes a Resurrection Check. If it succeeds, the spell works as usual. If it fails, the caster may choose to reincarnate the soul as a child somewhere in the world. Successful reincarnations do not count as resurrections for determining the DC of Resurrection Challenges. Can be cast on a creature that already failed a resurrection challenge, but it automatically fails.
- Raise Awakened Undead - If the target has already failed a resurrection challenge, you must cast the spell at the site of their death. Being raised into undeath does not count as a resurrection for determining the DC of Resurrection Challenges.
- Regenerate - May attempt to regrow missing appendages with a spellcasting ability check, or automatically reattach them.
- True Resurrection - Grants advantage on the Resurrection Check, and successes do not count as resurrections for determining the DC of future Resurrection Challenges. Alternatively, can be used on someone who has failed a Resurrection check without advantage as a Last Chance. A creature who has used their Last Chance still cannot benefit from resurrection magic if they die again.
- Wish - May be used to allow a dead creature to be targeted by resurrection magic again, or to reset a creature's Resurrection Check DC back to 10.
Familiars, Companions, and Steeds
There are certain class features or spells that can give a character a permanent companion, such as find steed, a Beast Master Conclave ranger's animal companion, or a special, specific familiar who choose to forge a bond with you. Many of these creatures have safeguards that enable them to be rescued or resurrected in case of tragedy. The following changes have been implemented in regards to such creatures.
When a familiar, steed, or companion is dropped to 0 hit points, it is dying and begins making death saving throws on its turn. The creature's controller may dismiss it as an action (or bonus action) if a game effect allows them to do so, automatically stabilizing the creature and rescuing it from harm. Otherwise, the creature acts like any other, and must be saved with magic or healing. If such a creature dies, casting the spell that summoned them (or using the ability given to Beast Conclave rangers) begins a Quick Resurrection challenge as per the rules above. If the challenge fails, the creature may still be resurrected by other magic. Otherwise, the creature remains dead, though the character may still form a bond with a new familiar, steed, or companion.
Certain effects, like the warlock's Pact of the Chain, allow you to bypass this rule. Common familiars summoned by the find familiar spell are not subject to this rule either, as the magics that bond them to you are simple enough to repair an infinite number of times.
