D&D 5E The Resting Mechanics - What Works Best?

[Cruentus]

I find myself intrigued by the quiche activity....

you weren't supposed to see that. Its a leaked Feat for the new campaign setting: Foodhaven.

 

[Guest 7034872]

It's a feature, not a bug. One of the benefits is that the pacing comes more naturally for me and, yes, it's easier to push the party to it's limits. I regularly have 4-10 encounters between long rests and it feels like there's more of a balance between classes that rely on resting and those that do not.

I do, however have a house rule that any spell that lasts for 30 minutes or more has it's duration multiplied by 5. It's mostly for spells like mage armor.

Thanks.

That bolded sentence is exactly the concern I had: there are all sorts of spells and abilities in the book that have a duration of effect unequivocally ordered around long rests taking just eight hours. But under Gritty Realism, would those spells and abilities all get their duration multiplied by twenty-one in order to perfectly balance it out? (Doesn't seem like a "perfect" balance to me, btw--seems freaky even though in a naïve sense that's what the math would say to do.) But then what about all the other spells and abilities with durations that aren't obviously ordered around getting rejuvenated with a long rest? Do those expand, too? Why or why not?

This is a can of worms I prefer not to open. I have no quarrel at all with other DMs and parties of players who choose to--that's their business and none of mine. I just see too many things going wonky here for me to be comfortable with it.

 

[Oofta]

Thanks.

That bolded sentence is exactly the concern I had: there are all sorts of spells and abilities in the book that have a duration of effect unequivocally ordered around long rests taking just eight hours. But under Gritty Realism, would those spells and abilities all get their duration multiplied by twenty-one in order to perfectly balance it out? (Doesn't seem like a "perfect" balance to me, btw--seems freaky even though in a naïve sense that's what the math would say to do.) But then what about all the other spells and abilities with durations that aren't obviously ordered around getting rejuvenated with a long rest? Do those expand, too? Why or why not?

This is a can of worms I prefer not to open. I have no quarrel at all with other DMs and parties of players who choose to--that's their business and none of mine. I just see too many things going wonky here for me to be comfortable with it.

The game kind of seems to assume an 8 hour working day from a balance perspective. Increasing the length of utility spells helps balance it out.

 

[Guest 7034872]

The game kind of seems to assume an 8 hour working day from a balance perspective. Increasing the length of utility spells helps balance it out.

Yeah, those doggoned workers' unions shortening the work day.....

 

[Flamestrike]

Long Rest 8 hours (and DM's call if it to does anything at all; don't game it or the answer will be 'you rest for a while, but wake up just as achey as the night before, if not worse, it has no effect (rolls random encounter)')

Short rest 5 minutes, usually handwaved, Maximum of 2 per Long rest.

 

[jmartkdr2]

Other: they all seem to work okay - in other words, nothing works best because nothing stands out as better than another option.

The best results come form a dm consciously trying to make the system work by manipulating the fiction rather than following any particular set of rules.

 

[overgeeked]

The problem mostly stems from two things. First, the game is balanced around an assumed 6-8 encounters per day, so anything less than that throws off game balance. Second, classes have different recharge rates for abilities.

If you have fewer encounters than 6-8, you either have to crank the difficulty way, way up, or you simply accept that casters will nova even the biggest bad in a round or two. Neither is a great option. The best solution is changing rest & recharge lengths.

If you change the rest & recharge rates it will favor some classes over others. If looking at things in a vacuum, this seems bad. If you acknowledge that we still have lingering quadratic wizard, linear fighter problems, then this can be an easy solution. Don’t make all rests take longer. Long rests take longer, slowing down casters going nova. That’s great. Short rests take less time, boosting martial classes. That’s also great.

It’s not perfect. But it’s dramatically better than RAW.

 

[Guest 7034872]

If you change the rest & recharge rates it will favor some classes over others. If looking at things in a vacuum, this seems bad. If you acknowledge that we still have lingering quadratic wizard, linear fighter problems, then this can be an easy solution. Don’t make all rests take longer. Long rests take longer, slowing down casters going nova. That’s great. Short rests take less time, boosting martial classes. That’s also great.

It’s not perfect. But it’s dramatically better than RAW.

Now I see what you're advocating. About the only real wrinkle I see with this solution is the Warlock getting both spell slots back after a short rest (which in principle could mean every five minutes if we dramatically shorten the short rest). Some sort of fix would be needed there, I expect, but I do see now both what the notion is and what it's meant to address.

I'm really appreciating this thread: I'm learning a lot from all the different approaches (and justifications for them) people have.

 

[jmartkdr2]

Now I see what you're advocating. About the only real wrinkle I see with this solution is the Warlock getting both spell slots back after a short rest (which in principle could mean every five minutes if we dramatically shorten the short rest). Some sort of fix would be needed there, I expect, but I do see now both what the notion is and what it's meant to address.

I'm really appreciating this thread: I'm learning a lot from all the different approaches (and justifications for them) people have.

Eh, warlocks getting two spells per fight isn't really a problem IMO - their best attack is usually still eldritch blast and the good defensive spells eat up a turn if you don't see every fight coming.

 

[Guest 7034872]

Eh, warlocks getting two spells per fight isn't really a problem IMO - their best attack is usually still eldritch blast and the good defensive spells eat up a turn if you don't see every fight coming.

Right, but if one wants to tamp down the relative power of all casters compared to the martial classes, the Warlock remains un-tamped in this scenario, doesn't it? So if a DM wants to re-jigger rest mechanics to make the martial classes more attractive to players, I would expect to need some kind of of fix for the Warlock. Not vis-à-vis other casters, mind you--just vis-à-vis the martial classes.

No?