D&D 5E Short rests and encounters a day.

[Joshy]

How many encounters and short rest do you actually have on an average adventuring day?
I'm curious how other groups usually do it.
The games I play in, it is widely random.

I'm wondering how it would turn out to just have short or long rests for most things.
I'm thinking short rests would be easier to balance but I'm not sure.

Either increase short rest abilities to long rests or turn long rest abilities into short rest.
Example:
Ki (2*monk level) + Wis mod regains on long rest.
or
Casters having having less spells maybe about 1/2 the first 5 spell levels and allow them to be regained on a short rest.

 

[James Gasik]

Based on the Monsters of the Multiverse, I think WotC is going to phase out short rest mechanics, and have everyone run on daily resources that are recovered with a long rest. Things that used to recharge on short rests will become "can be used a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus and is then recharged with a long rest".

It's hard to play a short rest class, because you get the feeling the idea is you get to recharge your powers several times throughout the day- especially if you're a Warlock.

What usually happens is you rest maybe once, since it takes an hour (monsters have a union mandated lunch break I suppose). A lot of DM's I knew would have 1-2 encounters per day that were significantly tougher than even try to have the 6-8 the xp budget suggests, so on those days, you don't even get a short rest!

 

[Joshy]

Based on the Monsters of the Multiverse, I think WotC is going to phase out short rest mechanics, and have everyone run on daily resources that are recovered with a long rest. Things that used to recharge on short rests will become "can be used a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus and is then recharged with a long rest".

It's hard to play a short rest class, because you get the feeling the idea is you get to recharge your powers several times throughout the day- especially if you're a Warlock.

What usually happens is you rest maybe once, since it takes an hour (monsters have a union mandated lunch break I suppose). A lot of DM's I knew would have 1-2 encounters per day that were significantly tougher than even try to have the 6-8 the xp budget suggests, so on those days, you don't even get a short rest!

Thank you for this I haven't gotten around to this book yet but this is what I was hoping for. It's hard to balance when half the classes are working with different rules.

I wonder how this will effect the Ki ability.
Monk level * proficiency maybe.

 

[overgeeked]

I run with short rests as an action so short rest recharge classes can nova. I also run wildly imbalanced encounters and typically throw an entire day’s worth of monsters in a single encounter at a party to keep things interesting.

But agreed on the MotM and the 5.5 changes. They will likely phase out short rests and give current short rest classes an ability to recharge as an action or with a five-minute breather. Otherwise we can expect to see about 3x the ki points, warlock spells, etc as the game’s balanced for 6-8 fights between long rests and two short rests between every two fights.

 

[Joshy]

Yeah I just heard about 5.5 yesterday, so I'm a bit behind the times it seems. I have a couple of groups I'm in and we rotate DM's. Some of us have vastly different encounter preferences. Which can really make or break some classes.

 

[James Gasik]

I love the idea of classes that have different recharge rates, but it makes planning an adventuring day a real chore. Fighters really like having Second Wind and Action Surge available every fight. Warlocks get tired of endless Eldritch S̶p̶a̶m̶ Blast. Monks and Sorcerers run out of Ki and Sorcery fast, etc.

And then the Wizard* is like "well, I guess one short rest is fine for my Arcane Recovery..."

*Depending on Subclass- my Transmuter loved to do wacky things with their Philosopher's Stone.

 

[Joshy]

I wonder how it would work if every class had short and long rest abilities.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Yeah I just heard about 5.5 yesterday, so I'm a bit behind the times it seems. I have a couple of groups I'm in and we rotate DM's. Some of us have vastly different encounter preferences. Which can really make or break some classes.

Keep in mind, "5.5” is a purely community name. No one from WotC has ever said anything more than the vaguest, most detail-free things about any work in that direction. It is certainly possible that we will get an actual product with a name of such a nature (or an alternative like "Revised 5E" or the like). But it could also just be presented as a 4e Essentials style "update" with alternate options that are theoretically intercompatible. Or it could be presented as a mere reprint with "errata" factored in.

There has been a notable shift in their new content, moving away from SR abilities almost completely and instead using "PB per LR" abilities. This plus the comments about changes to Ancestry rules are why most people expect a "5.5e," but we shouldn't presume that the common interpretation is 100% right. Remember how the D&D Next playtest pushed really really hard on "modularity" and then delivered on almost none of its intent in that direction.

 

[Joshy]

Ah thanks for the information. I was searching for the official 5.5 stuff like a fool.

 

[Charlaquin]

Keep in mind, "5.5” is a purely community name. No one from WotC has ever said anything more than the vaguest, most detail-free things about any work in that direction. It is certainly possible that we will get an actual product with a name of such a nature (or an alternative like "Revised 5E" or the like). But it could also just be presented as a 4e Essentials style "update" with alternate options that are theoretically intercompatible. Or it could be presented as a mere reprint with "errata" factored in.

There has been a notable shift in their new content, moving away from SR abilities almost completely and instead using "PB per LR" abilities. This plus the comments about changes to Ancestry rules are why most people expect a "5.5e," but we shouldn't presume that the common interpretation is 100% right. Remember how the D&D Next playtest pushed really really hard on "modularity" and then delivered on almost none of its intent in that direction.

Ah thanks for the information. I was searching for the official 5.5 stuff like a fool.

They did announce that the “next evolution” of D&D would be coming in 2024, and that it would be “backwards compatible” with 5e, but they didn’t actually use the word “edition.”

Here’s the video; the relevant bit starts at 8 hours and 10 minutes in.