D&D 5E Long or short rests? What is better?

How would you like the game to be balanced

  • I like the way it is.

    Votes: 27 44.3%
  • I would like the game to be balanced by a different ratio of short rests by long rest

    Votes: 6 9.8%
  • I would like if all classes were built around short rests.

    Votes: 10 16.4%
  • I would like if all classes were built around long rests.

    Votes: 15 24.6%
  • I do not have strong feelings either way.

    Votes: 3 4.9%

Tallifer

Hero
I loved the early 4E system. Short rests were good enough for most situations and adventures, but every class had some daily stuff which could add some extra excitement or help now and then. I do not like the mismatch in 5E between classes that use mostly spells and require long rests and classes that use mostly abilities that recharge after a short rest.

My favourite 4E art, added to this post for nostalgia's sake:

Shrine.jpg.png
 

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smbakeresq

Explorer
I loved the early 4E system. Short rests were good enough for most situations and adventures, but every class had some daily stuff which could add some extra excitement or help now and then. I do not like the mismatch in 5E between classes that use mostly spells and require long rests and classes that use mostly abilities that recharge after a short rest.

My favourite 4E art, added to this post for nostalgia's sake:

View attachment 100740

It has a lot of good points to it. I thought the surge system worked well, especially when you could up surge value without changing your total HP, upping your recovery rate.

I do use a similar system in that healing potions use your Hit Die size (allowing durable feat to work) and your Con modifier. A consumable thats the equivalent of a short rest is in some published adventures already.

For long rest I still make you spend Hit dice, and you get back half every long rest, no free hp. It’s possible and sometimes happens that PC start with less than full HP.

For PC to get everything back it takes a few days, this applies to enemies also so the PCs can wear down the bad guys through careful strikes.
 

billd91

Not your screen monkey (he/him)
I would like to see what 5e looks like with no long rests. I have never really understood the whole vancian thing that you run out of magical power or divine power.

As a player i do feel like the long rests are just so good that they intrude on the way the players think about resources and thus the slow and distort pacing of the game. .

If you get rid of long rests and balance around short rests, you just trade one recharge mechanism for another and then it will be the short rest that will slow and distort the pacing of the game.
 

squibbles

Adventurer
I think the rest system is alright, but I see two problems with it.

1.) Long rests don't cost anything mechanically. Getting most or all of your resources back on a short rest should be an advantage. Unfortunately, without some work on the DM's part to make long rests more circumstantially costly, short rest classes get less out of their features than long rest ones.

2.) Most long rest classes don't get much utility from short rests.

I think the solutions, homebrewed or official, are:

1.) to have explicit rules that make long resting more costly or risky. Maybe long rests could require a secure location (like in AiME) or, otherwise, require the PCs to expend a scarce resource. I hesitate to make video game comparisons, but I think that the camping supplies mechanic in Pillar of Eternity handled resting far better than any of the Infinity Engine or Neverwinter titles did (though it would introduce some cognitive dissonance in a tabletop game).

2.) for long rest classes to get something like the wizard's arcane recovery feature for them to use during short rests; something that doesn't recover a lot of their resources and none of their best resources, but at least some resources that are class specific.
 

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