Short Rest Hit Die

I’m not understanding spending hit die to regain hit points during a short rest. Then during a long rest you get back half of the hit dice spent during a short rest, does that mean you don’t fully recover on a long rest I’m a little confused and could use a clarification spell or someone could just tell me.

When you take a long rest you recover half of your level in hit dice, not half of your spent hit dice.

So if your character is 5th level and they spent 3 hit dice healing during short rests that day, when they take a long rest they recover 2 hit dice (always round down in 5e).

Hit dice and the Exhaustion condition are probably the two most common things that don't fully reset on a long rest.

Quote from Blaster2063437 >>

I’m not understanding spending hit die to regain hit points during a short rest. Then during a long rest you get back half of the hit dice spent during a short rest, does that mean you don’t fully recover on a long rest I’m a little confused and could use a clarification spell or someone could just tell me.

This is two separate functions. You regain all hit points and you regain some hit dice.

So you can spend hit dice during a short rest to regain hit points for an extended battle or a series of combat situations. You cleared up how get them back I didn’t understand how they were used. 

Quote from Blaster2063437 >>

So you can spend hit dice during a short rest to regain hit points for an extended battle or a series of combat situations. You cleared up how get them back I didn’t understand how they were used. 

 Oh, when you complete a short rest you can spend any number of your hit dice to heal. Roll the hit dice you decide to spend and add your Constitution modifier to each one to determine the amount of hit points healed. Typically I roll one hit dice at a time until I am happy with the amount I have healed. I find DnDBeyond's interface for managing hit points wonky and especially how it goes about handling hit dice, both when leveling up or taking a short rest.

This gets further complicated if you multi-class into classes that use different hit dice. For example a Barbarian 6 / Rogue 3 is a 9th level character and so can have up to 9 hit dice. But  6 of these will be d12s and 3 of them will be d8s because that is how many levels the character has in classes with these hit dice. In this situation you get to choose which type of hit dice you are spending or recovering.

This is what the rules say, from the PHB.

A character can spend one or more Hit Dice at the end of a short rest, up to the character’s maximum number of Hit Dice, which is equal to the character’s level. For each Hit Die spent in this way, the player rolls the die and adds the character’s Constitution modifier to it. The character regains hit points equal to the total (minimum of 0). The player can decide to spend an additional Hit Die after each roll. A character regains some spent Hit Dice upon finishing a long rest, as explained below.

Thanks for explaining that I get it now.

I've been wondering about why, if a character either chooses (or can't) spend HD during a short rest, they don't regain their Constitution modifier's worth of HP still?  I mean, the modifier is still there, regardless of whether they spend HD or not.

Quote from sethtucker1 >>

I've been wondering about why, if a character either chooses (or can't) spend HD during a short rest, they don't regain their Constitution modifier's worth of HP still?  I mean, the modifier is still there, regardless of whether they spend HD or not.

I realize this may not be very satisfying, but the only real answer is "because the rules don't say you can do that". Your Constitution modifier improves healing from hit point dice, but it doesn't do anything on its own.

Oh, I'm not saying the rules don't establish that; I totally concur with you on that matter.  I just feel like it's a bit odd that you get this bonus, but only if you spend HD and no explanation of why. I know the amount gained would be pretty minimal most times, so the incentive to eventually take a Long Rest to get your HD and full HP back would still be there.  But I feel like the bonus has to do with your hardiness, which is still there (since you don't lose your modifier just because it's been a long time since you had a Long Rest).

I would personally be happy with either:  Allow only their Con bonus to be recovered if they have no HD (or choose not to spend them) during a short rest, or offer a narrative-sound explanation on why you only get your CON modifier HP back if you spend HD.

Of course, I could just homebrew a rules adjustment or explanation, but I feel like this is something that happens frequently enough it deserves a few words in RAW.

Oh, and also, I appreciate all your work/replies in these forums, wagnarokkr.  Your interpretations are almost always legit, and I take yours to the table over most others.

Quote from sethtucker1 >>

Oh, I'm not saying the rules don't establish that; I totally concur with you on that matter.  I just feel like it's a bit odd that you get this bonus, but only if you spend HD and no explanation of why.

Hit Dice are limited resource that you expend to activate the ability. Essentially, you have (level) times per day free healing. The healing varies by the die type(s) of your class(es). If you don't expend the resource, you don't get the benefit. If you don't expend the spell slot, you don't (normally) get the spell benefit. If you don't expend at least one hit die, you don't get the nonmagical healing during the short rest.

That is all there is to it.

@SmiteMakesRight_3_5,

I get that Hit Die recovery is a limited resource that can be applied during a short rest (and a few other niche occasions).  And I realize that adding your CON modifier is RAW tied to your expenditure of Hit Die if you want to gain those HP back.

My question is, why does it have to be connected?  If I have a tough/resilient character that inherently has a high level of stamina, sitting down/relaxing/meditating/whatever for an hour would still feel like a reprieve, whether I choose to spend HD or not.  Now, I understand that it wouldn't maintain game balance if you had an unlimited supply of HD to use, and it makes sense that your experience (leveling up) would make you capable of recovering more during a short rest.  What I'm proposing is that since your character may still have a bonus if they have a high CON score, you still get those points regardless of whether you spend HD or not.

Realistically, we're only talking about 2-5 HP at low level, and maybe 5-10 at high level, so definitely shouldn't "break" game balance.

This is coming from a full-time DM--I don't have a single player character.  Just thinking about what narratively makes sense in terms of a short rest for tougher, battle-hardened characters.

You obviously don't have to agree and can stick to RAW.