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I mean, I think I’ve been on the same page as you regarding the analysis of how the combat is designed. I just think it’s a good design that people refuse to engage with on its own terms, rather than an inherently flawed design that they should have known better about.

My understanding is that elves’ ultimate destination in death is the same as everyone else’s, but that the elves get to skip the journey there, which sounded like it may have had some ancient Egyptian underworld-inspired harrowing trials element to it. This used to be facilitated by an angel...

I would focus less on the amount of real time it takes and more on the number of rounds it takes. If 10 minutes seems blindingly fast, I get it. I’m currently a player in a game with two players who are over 50 and a DM who has a severe stutter, I know the feeling of rounds taking a long time to...

There are some people whom I would argue calling a loser and refusing to engage further is absolutely a worthwhile endeavor. But, of late it can be hard to tell those people from the ones who are worth the work of engaging with. And, none of this is really appropriate for the context of these...

I’m guessing you meant this facetiously, but this is genuinely good advice for running 5e. I mean, knowing that the system expects you to do 6-8 combats of about 3 rounds each every day, it should be easy as a DM to count the rounds in a combat, and after 3, start actively looking for if one...

Fair enough

It would be an interesting experiment! The 1st level problem could be solved by just saying you can take a long rest when you reach a new level. You should get to level 2 before 20 rounds is over. Probably about 10 rounds. Likewise, you should get to level 3 after another 10 rounds.

Side note, I find a lot of old school players take this too far in the opposite direction and are way too precious with their spells. If you’re playing optimally, you should be using your last spell slot during the last combat of the day. Taking a long rest with spell slots still left over is a...

By the way, anybody notice how monster recharge abilities are almost always Recharge 5 or 6? That’s a 1 in 3 chance, in a combat that’s expected to last 3 rounds. Meaning, the designers expect it to recharge exactly once, so they will use the ability twice. You could replace every “Recharge 5 or...

That does help! Thanks

Compensating for fewer encounters per day? Either by changing the rules for resting so you can’t take them as frequently, or by making the encounters harder so they take more rounds. Though, the problem with the latter approach is that it makes those combats swingier. The difficulty is coming...

Do you build encounters according to the guidelines in the 2014 DMG? Including the XP multiplier based on the number of monsters in the encounter? And do you build those encounters for somewhere above the threshold for Medium difficulty and below the threshold for Deadly? Because if you’re doing...

It seems very quick to most people. It probably doesn’t help that they’re overtuning their encounters because they’re trying to challenge parties with less than half the recommended number of encounters per day. Are your combats taking more than 3 rounds each? I would bet based on your 45 minute...

Haven’t gotten the chance to yet. I’m talking about classic 5e, because that’s what Mearls was talking about in the opening post. I’m sure these assumptions have shifted for the revised rules. They couldn’t shift too far due to the backwards compatibility mandate, but it does seem like they’re...

Low levels did get the most thorough playtesting. 2014 legendary monsters were notoriously undertuned, even by the DMG guidelines.

Right, so if your encounters are easier (and therefore take fewer rounds) you can handle more of them. If your encounters are harder (and therefore take more rounds), you can’t handle as many. The target is still about 20 rounds, the 6-8 encounter figure is based on the assumption that a medium...

Yeah, levels 1 and 2 each only take half an adventuring day to gain enough XP to level up. By design, because they’re supposed to be tutorial levels. Should be about 3 combats each if they’re designed according to the encounter balance guidelines, and most levels after that last for about two...

Dude, combat has been hit point based attrition since Chainmail

Not if you’re playing efficiently. One of the design goals back during the D&D Next playtest was for combats to take about 10 minutes on average. And, in my playtest group’s experience, that goal was met successfully. Granted, those combats were each against like, a half dozen kobolds at most...

Yeah, because they didn’t want to do that many encounters. But that is what the system was built around. Well, your group is far more optimized than most.