Yeah, those numbers always had me scratching my head. The only way I can see it being plausible is if I use the variant rule in the DMG where a short rest is a night and a long rest is a week off. (Which I do want to try sometime.)6-8 encounters per long rest? Does anyone actually do this? In the games I run and participate in it almost never goes more than 4 encounters, and typically is about 2 per long rest, depending on the stage of the adventure.
Nova strikes were still possible in 4E (blowing dailies on the first encounter then pulling back to rest) and this is still a thing in 5E. Nova strikes tend to favor the full casters the most (who can dump the highest level spell slot).
I cannot emphasise this point enough. You need to get your encounter pacing and rest pacing right in 5E. Adjusting it one way or the other impacts on different classes differently.
I personally stick to around 6 encounters [[usually budgeted at 1 deadly, 2 medium and 3 hard] per long rest, with usually 2 short rests allowed during that time. I stick to this paradigm for probably 50 percent of the adventuring days the PC's encounter (sometimes there are less encounters, sometimes more). By sticking to this paradigm for around 50 percent of the time, the Players naturally pace themselves around this expectation, and police themselves accordingly.
There's a reason why it takes an entire hour to complete a short rest. If there's anything alive in the dungeon, then there's a non-negligible chance that it will come across the party if they spend an entire hour in a single spot.While I haven't run 5e yet, I'm really interested in this. How do you actually design an adventuring day, say in a dungeon? If the party decides on it's own way through the dungeon, tell me how can you Limit or allow short rests?How do you design a dungeon so that the wanted selection of encounters takes place?
99% of those advocating the 6-8 guidelines fail to mention just how little mechanical support the game offers the DM to help her actually make this happen.99 percent of the problems with 5E that I see comes down to many DM's dont get the rest 'meta' and/or dont police it strongly enough in their games.
Talk is cheap.Just use more encounters, not harder ones.
There are no "strikers" in the sense "does the damage while the tank tanks"2. Second question, for other 4E players who have switched over: Which rôles do the new classes approximate? (I notice for example that the PHB ranger is not nearly the Striker of 4E, but perhaps no class is?)
This.6-8 encounters per long rest? Does anyone actually do this? In the games I run and participate in it almost never goes more than 4 encounters, and typically is about 2 per long rest, depending on the stage of the adventure.
No. Because 6-8 encounter per rest is a DMG typo. I've read elsewhere it came about because it's based on values from the Play test, and it wasn't fixed when the table was adjusted. If you go by the tables in the DMG, the actual number of encounters for an even mix of Medium & Hard encounters works out to something like 5-6.6-8 encounters per long rest? Does anyone actually do this? In the games I run and participate in it almost never goes more than 4 encounters, and typically is about 2 per long rest, depending on the stage of the adventure.