D&D 5E One or Two Fights a Day Encounter Design

[Nytmare]

That will seriously throw off 5e. Challenge & balance is 5e is realized only over a long series of 6-8 relatively minor ("moderate-to-hard" is relative, perhaps misleading) encounters creating an attrition-based challenge overcome via resource-management and class diversity among the PCs.

Shorter days were going to be necessary then, anyway. Not 1-2 encounters, but shorter. You might consider just taking the long rest mechanic off the table, entirely, but allowing a short rest after every encounter. Class balance will still be badly distorted, but hp management might work out OK.

I think that changing the scale of the short and long rests will end up doing what you're suggesting.

The problem I was running into was that the story being told was about the group strategically tracking down and hunting groups of bad guys with days of searching, travel, and foraging for food and water in between fights. The search and destroy aspect was going to be just as much a part of the "game" as the combats, but with the players getting a full HP and special powers reset between almost every single fight, I had no idea how to scale the encounters.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

In my experience, they don’t. Should they? Yes. In 5e, it’s easy to stock up on healing potions. But most of the time it falls on the DM to accommodate. And indeed, I believe that any party make-up should be equally valid – a good DM adjusts the adventure accordingly, doesn’t punish them if no one wants to be a cleric, or rogue, or what have you.

Why worry about the fact that the party doesn't have a dedicated healer?
THEY know they don't have a focused healer, shouldn't THEY take steps to compensate?

 

[dmnqwk]

Don't be afraid to let your players use hit dice to heal as a bonus action.

Especially in places without healers, by using up their bonus action (which does affect their damage, without it being such a terribly high price) you can allow players to use their hit dice to heal during combat. They don't receive any additional hit dice to heal with (so they still only recover half of them a day) but it prevents you from relying entirely on healing potions to survive.

 

[Psikerlord#]

I would consider using injuries at zero hp if you want to add meaningful risk to a week long chase adventure.

Or yeah I would probably go with short rest 8 hours, long rest 24 hrs variant...?

The more I play 5e, the more I think the short rest/long rest design was a mistake. I think all class abilities should have been set on a per day basis. Spell slots once/day, fighter maneuvers 3/day or whatever.

The mixing of short and long rests design screws things up balance wise, depending on whether you have a wilderness/city adventure (favouring short rest classes) vs dungeon (favouring long rest classes).

 

[pming]

Hiya!

What about just "doubling" resting times when in "harsh environments" (re: desert, swamp, tundra, high-altitude)? So two hours for a short rest, and 16 hours for a long? If the game ends up going into "regular thing" mode, at least then you can keep it as a house rule, and when the PC's aren't in that particular situation, the normal rules apply. Best of both worlds.

The bedroll idea is something I've been using for almost two decades now (for my "D&D" games); healing is as per the book in the normally expected situation - safe area, access to food, water and clean 'stuff' (sheets, clothes, etc). Less than that, healing is reduced in maximum capability (e.g., -1, or half-HD max, or something else), and more than that it is increased (e.g., access to a devoted apothecary, good quality or better food/drink and sleeping situation, etc). It makes all those "little things" matter just a bit more in the game...so characters will try and find an 'actual' safe place to rest up in a dungeon and not just settle for any old room with a door, because they know that if they can avoid being interrupted, can light a small fire, clean refuse/junk away, or (if they are really lucky!) make use of beds/cots in the long-dead dungeon builders bedroom (after a few well-placed pest-removal spells, of course!).

^_^

Paul L. Ming

 

[Tony Vargas]

I think that changing the scale of the short and long rests will end up doing what you're suggesting.

Yep. It's worked well for me before, in both 5e and 4e. You can change the time scale - long rest is a week, short rest is overnight - and/or the requirements (long rests only in safe/friendly settlements, only short rests in hostile wilderness; only short rests while traveling at sea, long rests require you make port; etc) - to fit the mechanics to the pacing of your story. With 5e you still need a large number of encounters to balance classes, encounters, and attrition...

The problem I was running into was that the story being told was about the group strategically tracking down and hunting groups of bad guys with days of searching, travel, and foraging for food and water in between fights. The search and destroy aspect was going to be just as much a part of the "game" as the combats, but with the players getting a full HP and special powers reset between almost every single fight, I had no idea how to scale the encounters.

There really is no good way to scale encounters for single-encounter days in 5e. You can just ratchet it up enough - higher level monsters, outnumbering the party, etc - to make the encounter dangerous, but the result can be deadlier or more of a slog than intended, or even anti-climactic, and that's just the encounter. Class balance can't be restored that way, and attrition is gone as a challenge.

With a one-shot and no 'healer' in the party, though, I think a short-rests-only adventure, but with short rests between each encounter could work out. Short rests allow HD to be spent, so the hp/resource attrition element comes in and the need for a healer is lessened. Even though it's only half a standard 'day' worth of encounters, there's still some pressure on daily resources, and classes that get short-rest re-charges receive a boost to help make up for the boost that gives long-rest-recharge classes who normally have to stretch their resources over 6-8 encounters instead of only 4. Purely at-will characters aren't going to get to shine much in that scenario, but it's still a much better set-up than long rests between every encounter.

 

[Devilbass]

I like the idea of the 8 hour short rest and the 24 hour long rest. I just wonder if some classes get the short end of the stick with that deal. Mostly I'm worried about the warlock. Would it be too much to give warlocks an additional spell slot with that variant?

 

[pming]

Hiya!

I like the idea of the 8 hour short rest and the 24 hour long rest. I just wonder if some classes get the short end of the stick with that deal. Mostly I'm worried about the warlock. Would it be too much to give warlocks an additional spell slot with that variant?

Er, ok, hate to state the obvious here but... Why not just make a Warlocks stuff the 'exception', or just keep it as "hours"? So if a Warlock ability says "after a short rest", equate that to "after resting at least an hour", and "after a long rest", equate to "after sleeping for at least 8 hours".

I mean, if that's the only thing that really crops up, go for it. If you have a lot of things relying explicitly on the 'short/long' rest thing, well, then you may have a problem...but one thing (a.k.a., the Warlock)? Go ahead and make an exception; one exception is easy to remember, especially if it's just a single class.

Besides, Short/Long rest is just a simple word to mean "rest in a safe area for at least one hour" or "rest in a safe area for at least 8 consecutive hours"...it's easier to say "a Short rest" than it is to say "resting for at least one hour of mostly uninterrupted time". In my campaign, I generally have a Short rest be equal to 50 minutes, plus 1d6 (1d4 or 1d8) times 10 minutes. I use d4x10 if the party is still mostly fresh as a daisy and not very hurt/tired...and I use 1d8 if they are really beat up and have been slogging around for 10 hours in a half-flooded dungeon complex. I mean, it's not like they have watches or iPhones or anything, right?

^_^

Paul L. Ming

 

[Uchawi]

One thing I miss from 4E is proportional healing based on surges. A fighter should recover faster from injuries as a feature of the class.

 

[jayoungr]

One thing I miss from 4E is proportional healing based on surges. A fighter should recover faster from injuries as a feature of the class.

Why? (Serious question--it's not intuitive to me.)