The spellcasting thread got me thinking about what D&D might look like if it did not rely on daily resource management, or even any resource management at all.
Of course the biggest change would come to casters. I think the best solution would be to go to a "casting check" system. Personally I would not set DCs to particular spells, but instead let caster make a check to find out how much magical energy they can gather that turn, and then decide whether to use it immediately, or keep gathering next turn to be able to use bigger effects or more powerful spells. It would require a totally different system for casting and using spells, but that would not necessarily be a bad thing.
You could do something similar with martial abilities, gathering instead "advantage" or something that enables maneuvers and abilities that otherwise would have been per x-rest. This is kind of the default for fighting in inspirational media, from anime to pro-wrestling, so it shouldn't be that hard to implement.
The one that I am not sure of is hit points. "Wound levels" are usually just hit points with extra steps, and almost always come with a death spiral built in. You could do something like consequences, but that does not feel very D&D to me.
Anyway, I am curious what other folks think D&D without resource management -- especially rest based resource management -- would look like, and still "be D&D."
Of course the biggest change would come to casters. I think the best solution would be to go to a "casting check" system. Personally I would not set DCs to particular spells, but instead let caster make a check to find out how much magical energy they can gather that turn, and then decide whether to use it immediately, or keep gathering next turn to be able to use bigger effects or more powerful spells. It would require a totally different system for casting and using spells, but that would not necessarily be a bad thing.
You could do something similar with martial abilities, gathering instead "advantage" or something that enables maneuvers and abilities that otherwise would have been per x-rest. This is kind of the default for fighting in inspirational media, from anime to pro-wrestling, so it shouldn't be that hard to implement.
The one that I am not sure of is hit points. "Wound levels" are usually just hit points with extra steps, and almost always come with a death spiral built in. You could do something like consequences, but that does not feel very D&D to me.
Anyway, I am curious what other folks think D&D without resource management -- especially rest based resource management -- would look like, and still "be D&D."