D&D 5E Short Rest Healing Spells

Fenris-77 · Jun 6, 2019

It doesn't have to be complicated or overly houseruley. If the length of the SR is the issue, make it 5 minutes, or even instantaneous, and just hand it out every 2 or 3 encounters (assuming a 6-8 encounter day). The 5 minute recharge isn't hard to manage and it won't detract from the flow of the game. Narrate it in as part of the encounter - it happens at the end of a breakpoint encounter (i.e. 2 and 4 for a 6 encounter day). The last Orc sides to the ground, dead. You pause for a moment to catch your breath and take stock of the party's supplies and condition. That last bit is DM code for recharge your SR abilities, and is set up with the players before hand. No break in narration, no pause in action, no looking around for a place to rest. Just reset and go, the players can manage their character sheet while they loot the bodies or whatever. The classes stay balanced, no real rule hacking needed to be done. Nice and simple. It does leave the decision making in the hands of the DM and not the players, but I'm ok with that as it helps deal with the 5 minute workday issue some campaigns seem to have.

Xeviat · Jun 7, 2019

Saelorn said:
What's the point of even having a weight class, if it's trivial to punch above that whenever you need to? I don't see any real benefit to a level 9 party being able to take out a level 19 enemy, just by spending their daily resources.

I'd say this very thing is what allows PCs to take out a big setpiece encounter in a single round. I had a 3E group kill a red dragon at their CR in one round and I had to come back with some ridiculous encounter the next week to make the story feel right.

Tony Vargas · Jun 7, 2019

Kurotowa said:
the ability to nova is often the only way the PCs can punch above their weight class when the DM throws an extra hard story or sandbox encounter at the party.
..

BA is already meant to allow a party to punch above their weight class. HotDQ, FREX, had an encounter with a Blue dragon far beyond the party's level. It was contrived, wandered off after taking trivial damage, and mostly vented it's fury on the fortifications & hapless NPCs, but PCs could hit it.

Xeviat said:
I'd say this very thing is what allows PCs to take out a big setpiece encounter in a single round. I had a 3E group kill a red dragon at their CR in one round and I had to come back with some ridiculous encounter the next week to make the story feel right.

5e should not have it /quite/ that bad.

Kurotowa · Jun 7, 2019

Tony Vargas said:
BA is already meant to allow a party to punch above their weight class. HotDQ, FREX, had an encounter with a Blue dragon far beyond the party's level. It was contrived, wandered off after taking trivial damage, and mostly vented it's fury on the fortifications & hapless NPCs, but PCs could hit it.

See, that's not punching above your weight class. That's a tightly scripted encounter specifically designed to introduce a later opponent while preventing them from simply squishing the PCs in the current moment. It's almost a cutscene. I'm talking about encounters that will likely end in a PC death or two if the group doesn't throw every resource they have at it.

Which, admittedly, probably comes down to the DM styles of your particular play group. It's entirely possible that some groups simply don't run into such things. Mine seem to have rather more of a taste for it.

Tony Vargas · Jun 7, 2019

Kurotowa said:
I'm talking about encounters that will likely end in a PC death or two if the group doesn't throw every resource they have at it.

Ah, so not specifically over-level opponents, but overwhelming threat. Could be higher level, could be badly outnumbered.

Yeah, that's legit. It also has to be custom-tailored to party composition, as it stands, because if you've got the wrong mix of classes, 'every resource they have' might not amount to a whole lot - or might, like in Xaviat's 3e example, be enough to just erase it in a blaze of anticlimax.

Kurotowa · Jun 7, 2019

Tony Vargas said:
Yeah, that's legit. It also has to be custom-tailored to party composition, as it stands, because if you've got the wrong mix of classes, 'every resource they have' might not amount to a whole lot - or might, like in Xaviat's 3e example, be enough to just erase it in a blaze of anticlimax.

Yeah, there's a lot of interacting variables. DM style, ratio of "I made my PC to fit my oddball concept, because I enjoy pushing the envelope to create new things" to "I made my PC to optimized for their chosen role, because I enjoy being good at what I do" players, even just how the party composition shakes out...

I mean, my last major campaign our group comp fell out in a strong mix. We had a Fighter with Sentinel as the point man, a Hexblade to fill out the front line, a Monk for skirmishing, and a Rogue and Wizard delivering ranged fire from the back. Just as importantly the DM played most NPCs to where they'd respect party formation and try to fight through the front line who were built to take it. Now in my current campaign we've got a lone Paladin as the front line, two archers, a Warlock, and a Wizard. It's very hard to create a solid front line with that group. Also the DM chair rotated, and the new DM tends to play NPCs where they work to surround the party and pair off, and we've had little way to combat it. Our healer has had a hell of a time trying to keep everyone on their feet and fighting. (I'm about to swap my Warlock for a Tempest Cleric to try and balance the party a bit more.)

Party strength depends on a lot of different things, which is why different groups have such wildly divergent play experience.