D&D 5E How many short rests?

[TerraDave]

There is a short answer and a long answer

3-4: (1, the short rest that comes with the nights long rest) + 2 (mid adventuring day)+ (1 the short rest that comes if the following nights long rest is interupted)

varies: ideally the pcs and enviroment interact as needed. If they get hammered, they take a long rest right away, if they can. If they get on a roll, and can figure out way stations (or a secure base) for an hour here, and hour there, an hour after that, they can take several, but it should really be the result of various things coming together.

 

[bruceparis]

My players are nearly at the end of Lost Mine of Phandelver. We've been using my Combat Chart and Time Tracker (see attached). I give my players two Short Rests per day, and it works really well. So far (after 20+ hours of play) no PC has died (though a few have been knocked to Zero or below on a few occasions). I roll all my dice in the open. No fudges. I think two short rests keep players on their toes

 

[Ilbranteloth]

This quickly became a sore point for me. On the one hand, there's nothing stopping the characters (players) from trying to take a short rest after every encounter. Throwing additional encounters (wandering monsters, etc.) can often ruin the story and flow (just like excessive rests) and over time feels punitive.

While I understand the purpose for tying certain abilities to resting, it also had the affect of impacting the story-telling. So I decided that ultimately the questions I wanted answered were:

How many times did I want the PCs to be able to use their 'short rest' class features?
How often did I want them to be able to heal?
What activities or actions were needed to accomplish these, and how much time was needed?
Ultimately - do they need to be tied to a story element (like stopping to rest) or can they be addressed differently?

As always, for a published game, they've got to come up with something that works for 'everybody' so my rules may work better for some than others. But here's what I've come up with.

Healing - Hit points are abstract representing many things in D&D. I've added additional healing for healing kits, healing classes and the healing feat give a bonus. In addition you have your 1/2 hit dice to use when you want. Outside of combat, I assume that unless circumstances dictate otherwise, you're taking 10-15 minutes to catch your breath, tend your wounds, etc. and that's plenty of time to recover hit points. So this takes a little time, but doesn't have to be tied to a rest.

Class Features - Many of these require some actual time as well as energy to recover. Studying spells, praying, meditating, etc. These are better suited to something that does take time, and centered around traditional breaks for meals, etc. is a good option. Replenishing mind and body with food, water, study and rest. I've set these at 30 minutes minimum, maybe an hour. In general I think the idea of recovering these abilities twice in a day is reasonable. This is as arbitrary as any other ruling, mind you. But it also kind of makes sense, perhaps for certain abilities more than others, but it's good enough for me.

Long Rests (sleep for the night), is pretty much as written.

Monsters have a recharge for their special abilities. If they manage to escape multiple times they can recharge their special abilities over and over, where you can only do so as many times as you can take a short rest. The rules don't limit these directly, but tie it to the ability to take a rest. I'm OK with them recovering them multiple times during the day, but so far have capped it to twice. So a 2nd level druid can shape change 6 times a day (for a maximum duration of an hour for the entire day). That seems reasonable. It's tiring, so you have to do more than just a quick recovery break to get them again. After a good meal you're OK for a couple more.

But why a hard limit? Instead I've added that you can use it additional times even if you haven't regained the ability yet. But you have to make a Constitution save or suffer a level of exhaustion as a penalty. I use exhaustion for injuries (caused by criticals) as well, and there are other potential reasons why it comes up. So they aren't taking that penalty lightly.

Ilbranteloth

 

[pemerton]

I just keep the clock ticking. The world and monsters don't stop just because the party takes a break.

As someone above said, "Keep the clock ticking." The world doesn't stop just because the PCs do.

The more short rests, the slower the progress they make towards... anything, really. Shrug. Up to them.

As others have said it's all up to the players the world keep moving around the. It's one of the strategic decision points in the game.

I think that the idea of "the world still moves" makes sense, in relation to short rests, only within rather narrow parameters of scenario design.

The example of wilderness exploration has been mentioned by multiple posters upthread as an exception (and [MENTION=13009]Paraxis[/MENTION] has noted one sensible way of handling this, of counting camping in rough country as only a short and not a long rest - many 4e GMs take this sort of approach).

Typical city adventures would be another example. The amount of momentum lost by turning up to the stake-out an hour later, if it is a 6-hour or 6-day stake-out, is not very great. And the amount of action an evil organisation can take against the PCs, with one extra hour of planning and/or implementation, is not very much. For instance, only in very unusual situations can assassins be called to a meeting, briefed, and be assaulting the PCs within an hour.

An hour generally sitting still when you are in a dangerous area is a LOOOOOOONG time

Again, I think this depends heavily on the nature of the danger. For instance, in a "City of the Slave Lords" scenario, where you are infiltrating an enemy stronghold over the course of hours/days, then resting for one extra hour may often be no big deal at all, even though the environment as a whole is a dangerous one.

 

[CapnZapp]

I am still waiting for an edition of D&D that finally solves this problem once and for all.

The solution is obvious: codify the number of rests as a number of encounters, and finally free the game from the "tyranny of nights and days".

The game would be so much better if, say, "a minimum of 2 encounters between each short rest" and "a minimum of 6 encounters between each long rest" were a rule, not guideline, of the rules.

 

[IgnatiusJ.Reilly]

My two DMs only give us one long rest and one short rest per 24 hour period.

 

[the Jester]

I am still waiting for an edition of D&D that finally solves this problem once and for all.

The solution is obvious: codify the number of rests as a number of encounters, and finally free the game from the "tyranny of nights and days".

The game would be so much better if, say, "a minimum of 2 encounters between each short rest" and "a minimum of 6 encounters between each long rest" were a rule, not guideline, of the rules.

I strongly disagree. This kind of decoupling of the game mechanics from the game world and/or story is exactly one of the top things that would ruin my immersion, and my immersion is one of the main things I want from D&D.

 

[Joddy37]

The key word is immersion. Just ask yourself "what happens if the players decide to take a 1-hour break right here? "
If they are in a dungeon environment, that will risk encountering wandering monsters or better preparation of enemies that are aware PCs are around. Players simply may gamble here. They need a defensive or a safe spot, means to hide or even disguise etc to avoid interruption. If they are outdoors, around well traveled roads, the environment is comparatively safer, thus better chance for a successful short rest. As a DM, you should decide when and where to challenge the players and force them to waste resources. Design your dungeons by putting possible short rest locations where you think the players will need after a few encounters. There is no set in stone balancing rule for short rest frequency. Logic and common sense is your guideline.

 

[mcbobbo]

I'm another voice in the 'clock keeps ticking' chorus. If there's a reason they need the rest (e.g. just defeated something but aren't yet headed home) then there's likely a risk involved in taking it. What are the chances the other monsters take note of the sudden lack of their peers during this hour? Dice do the rest...

 

[keterys]

I strongly disagree. This kind of decoupling of the game mechanics from the game world and/or story is exactly one of the top things that would ruin my immersion, and my immersion is one of the main things I want from D&D.

Immersion is not at all one of the things any version of D&D gives me, unfortunately. Way too many mechanics, very few of which are actually logical from a realism standpoint and often not even a genre standpoint.

That said, I'd shy away from "X ability every Y encounters". I was more tempted by saying you can use something once a level; once a level you get the epiphany you need to overexert and do the awesome thing. It's not a question of more stamina, or needing to rest extra. It's genuinely special and something you cannot do on demand.

It would also be interesting if D&D figured out a way to make a "day's worth of activity" able to be spread reasonably between one encounter (useful for voyages, city campaigns, etc) or many (useful for dungeon delves). Alternatively, if it put a lot more constraints on the ability to use many limited-use abilities all in one encounter, that you then recoup by forcing the issue of rest.

But, really, at the end of the day, none of that is what D&D is about.