Flamestrike
Legend
Is the short rest being 5 minutes an optional rule actually mentioned? And the adjustments the DM may need to make to support it?
DMG, under 'variant resting'.
Its the Heroic Fantasy variant (Short rests 5 minutes, Long rests 1 hour).
The Gritty realism variant turns SR's to 8 hours, and LR's to 1 whole week.
We run Short rests as a few minutes long and largely hand-waved (quick swig of water, bind some wounds. map check and a breather) but limited to only 2 per long rest.
I find 2-3 x 1 hour breaks in a Dungeon level to be all too frequently jarring and gamist. I've had PCs literally sit down and attempt to camp (for an hour, naturally) in a Dungeon hallway before.
If I had my way with 5E I would have made ALL classes function on at will and per encounter abilities, with a recovery method for the 'per encounter' abilities for in encounter recovery (like the 3.5 ToB classes).
Effects would be limited in scope to spells and effects of 1st-4th level. The sort of spells that arent game wrecking.
Fighters would be using stances, counters and maneuvers (just like ToB). Ditto Wizards, but they'd be spells instead of maneuvers, just using the same mechanic. Mage Armor or Mirror Image become basically 'stances'. Shield and Counterspell become 'counters'. Fireball and Sleep become 'maneuvers'.
I wouldn't have daily's (like 4E): those sorts of potent effects - in line with spells and effect of 5th-9th level - would be moved to at will 'out of combat' features (Fighters get to create a stronghold, or attract a special steed, or gain a band of myrmidons or gain Noble title and social perks etc, Wizards get to magically summon a tower, gain an army of undead/ summoned critters, cast potent Wish spells as rituals, gain a loyal apprentice etc, Clerics get a band of fanatical worshippers and a temple, rituals to raise the dead etc).
Those 'high level' abilities are not really designed for the combat encounter scenario - more as RP tools and out of combat utility to cement the players in the world.
By removing dailies, the expectation is 'per encounter' abilities are used every round, generally lasting the encounter, and 'daily encounter nova strikes' become a thing of the past.
It basically makes the game no longer dependent on 'X encounters per day' to balance and totally does away with the 5MWD (other than HP; but I'm considering a mechanic whereby instead of HD expenditure to heal, after every encounter if your HP are less than half but not at zero, they reset to half).
I'm doing a basic version now based on 5E but using the above design goals as my baseline. Will only use 4 classes to begin with (Fighter, Wizard, Rogue and Cleric). Each class will have Martial disciplines/ Schools of Magic/ Divine domains/ Roguish tricks that let any of those 4 classes be created as a 'Striker', 'Tank', 'Controller' or 'Leader' to varying degrees within the class.