Basic question on resting

[Dwarfi]

Hello everyone, although I played Dnd for years now I just recently tried to read up on the resting rules, which I somhow failed to find besides the healing effect and the spell recovery for casters.
But was there a limitation in 3.5e on when or how often you can rest? I know 8 hours is a full rest, the healing is houseruled to Lv+Con to make it a bit easier.

Right now my group tends to basically rest after 1 or 2 fights To heal and regain spells. And lately it feels a bid odd to me. I didnt want to challenge this during the game, so I ask here before the next one starts.

For a mage this doesnt seem much of a problem, but for example for clerics this might be tricky, as they only get spells on certain times of the day.
Not to mention that it seems strange that the characters sleep for 8-12 hours, walk around a bit, fight for some minutes and go right back to sleep.

Its just one of those things I never questioned, but now I want to check how you guys usually handle resting/sleep in your games?
Thanks.

[ketaro]

Resting doesn't actually explicitly require sleeping. It also is not limited to once per day.

Yes, you're right, clerics get shafted by being required to pray at a specific time of day to regain their spent spell slots. Everybody else can abuse resting rules to their heart's content.

If you want to avoid it, random encounter tables! Stop sleeping 10 feet away from where you just fought a bunch of baddies! If your players make a point of going out to fight a bit, then retreating to an obviously safe place like a town or city to rest, then going back out to fight again the same day then there's little to do about that short of making sure you have plot elements prodding the party along. No I don't mean time limits but have whoever gave them their task gently remind them that time is of the essence and I'm going to dock you pay depending on how long it takes you heroes to complete my quest!

Have the quest the PCs are on be completed, and all loot and rewards claimed, by an npc group of heroes that didn't need to rest 8 hours after every 30 second battle!

[IlPazzo]

Spells per day are explicitly per day.
This limit only applies to casting, however, so your wizard can rest and prepare spells again to change what spells she has prepared, as many times per day as she wants.

Additionally, Recent Casting Limit: any spells cast within the last 8 hours count against daily limit.

The most common exception to these general rules is Heward's fortifying bedroll, which still has you obey the recent casting limit rules and can only be used once every 48 hours per character.

[nijineko]

you could also use the alternate spell recovery/resting rules from the unearthed arcana if you want to allow a more fluid recovery mechanic than the strict once per day and 8 hours of rest.

[linklord231]

What exactly does “once per day” mean? Does it mean
“once per 24-hour period” or is it recharged after the
character has rested for 8 hours, like spells?
 It means that in any given day, the ability can be used once.
So what constitutes a day? That’s where things get a little
tricky and rely on the DM’s common sense.
 The Sage advises using daybreak as the start of a “day,”
meaning that all daily-use abilities are recharged in full each
morning, regardless of exactly when they were used during the
previous 24-hour period. For the vast majority of games, that’s
when most abilities are recharged anyway (spells, for example),
which makes it easy to use.
 If your players try to abuse this flexibility—such as by
adventuring through the night and then suddenly getting all
their abilities back when the sun comes up—the DM should
feel free to be more restrictive. It’s entirely reasonable to
require a full 8 hours of rest before allowing daily-use abilities
to recharge (even for those characters who don’t require sleep).

[Dwarfi]

Thanks everyone.

I was just calculating a bit.

Lets say they move out in the morning, walk around until noon and have 2 fights. They then want to rest again. (Putting the "need" of sleep aside)
They sit down for 8-12 hours. (if not interrupted) Now its midnight at best. Using the "dawn" rule as a new day that would still be 6 hours or so before they get new spells.
+ They would have to move in the dark, which might result in the group just waiting for another 6 hours if possible.

this might result in:
They just rest longer if possible, as time is usually of no meaning when out of game.

One way or the other, I guess I will have to keep track of the day time. And then I will just see if this actually changes much or not.

[ketaro]

And potentially legit chastise them for seriously refusing to do more than one encounter a day and just start barraging them every 7 hours with raids from monsters that have caught wind of rumors of this party of cowardly adventurers.

[kitep]

This sounds a lot like the "15-minute work day" problem, where adventurers go in for 1 or 2 fights, use up all their most powerful spells and x/day abilities, then call it quits for the day.

I think the best way to handle this is by making the monsters react to the intrusion into their domain.  At the very least, hire some new recruits to replace the ones the party killed, so the party effectively makes zero progress.  But better would be to come up with a plan in case the party breaks in again.  Hire some kobold specialist to set traps.  Double the guard.  Mobilize the monster national guard.  Investigate who broke in and take the fight to them.  Call the cops.  Pack up and move so the party comes back to an empty dungeon.

And if the party is actually resting right there in monster HQ without even taking the simple precaution of Rope Trick, then they're just asking for it.  For example, non-stop attacks and reinforcements as every body in monster HQ is mobilized.

Good luck!

[kitep]

More things you can do

- just plan for every encounter to be as though the party is at max strength.

- Have one of the enemy raise an alarm, or the noise of battle attracts others, so reinforcements, some small, some large, come in at various intervals.  The party doesn't get a chance to rest for more than a minute or two as the battles keep coming to them.

- Use "ticking time bomb" scenerios, where it has to be done within a certain time.  The hostages are buried underground and will run out of air in 4 hours unless rescued first.  The magical doodad has to be recovered before it's transferred to another hideout in 3 days.  The town well has been poisoned -- the longer it takes to get the antidote, the more people die.