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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Doctor Proctor" data-source="post: 4674403" data-attributes="member: 78547">^This.  I don't think that most parties would be taking 8 short rests because of the efficiency of how the Cleric heals.  Even in the worst case scenario of everyone at 1HP after the fight, the Cleric would only 6 rests for a 5 man party (5 * 2 Healing Words, plus another rest to recharge them).That's a good option for a party without a Cleric.  It essentially makes everyone like a Dragonborn, where they get a bonus to each surge.This seems to be the crux of the issue, that many people don't like the Cleric healing everyone up between encounters.  The problem is that the system was designed with the premise in mind that Leaders increase the efficiency of healing between encounters as well as providing additional healing during the encounter itself.  Why do you think spells that don't use surges, like the Pally's Lay on Hands and Cure Light Wounds, are dailies?  It's to prevent them from getting spammed between encounters.The second issue is the whole 5 minute thing.  Honestly, it's just an arbitrary number.  5 minutes, 15 minutes, most of the time (as in 95%+) it doesn't matter.  Doesn't the DMG suggest a 10% per hour for encounter wandering patrols if the PC's decide to take an extended rest in a dungeon?  That would put the chance at 2.5% for a 15 minute rest...so if you suddenly just decide "Well, the Cleric's healing them? Wandering monsters...muahahaha", won't your players find it strange that they can rest for 6 hours without encountering ANY?Let's look at the 5 minute thing some more though.  Say you're fighting in room A, and you clear out the enemies.  There's bad guys in room B down the hall, so you take a short rest of 5 minutes.  The bad guys now wait patiently for you to come...but only for 5 minutes.  You take 10, or maybe 15?  They'll break down the door and charge you...  That sort of logic just doesn't make sense in the MAJORITY of encounters.  In some, yes, but not most.  Most of the time the PC's should have ample time to extend their rest a bit and have their Leader heal them, within reason.Lastly, you can always encourage your players to hurry things up a bit.  Perhaps a subtle, "You start to hear sounds from nearby of others searching.  Best to hurry up before they find you." might motivate your players to get a move on.  Or, just openly tell your players that they should look at their hitpoints and see if they really need to waste time waiting for the Cleric, or if they can just heal up themselves.  After combat with my Dragonborn Fighter, for example, I often find that waiting for the Cleric won't really save me any surges because of the bonus to surge value I get from my 16 CON.  So if I don't need the extra boost, I just spend surges as normal so that we can get moving faster.  Or if I'm just a couple HP's from full, and it would require ANOTHER 5 minutes?  Well, I just suck it up and say "I'm fine, let's get going."</blockquote>

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