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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Snarf Zagyg" data-source="post: 9091594" data-attributes="member: 7023840">The concepts behind the short rest in 4e and 5e are completely different. Because (wait for it) the game is designed so that there is a short rest between every encounter. How do I know this? Because it's defined that way. Here, from the 4e DMG, p. 41:WHEN IS AN ENCOUNTER OVER?Typically, encounters are separated by a short rest and some amount of travel time, even if it’s as little as crossing the room to open the next door. An encounter ends when the monsters are dead or have fled and the characters take a short rest to regain hit points and encounter powers. The next encounter begins when the characters engage new opponents.Effects that last “until the end of the encounter” actually last about 5 minutes. That means they never carry over from one encounter to another, as long as those encounters are separated by a short rest. If characters use them outside combat, or plow through multiple encounters without taking a short rest, they enjoy the effect for a full 5 minutes. What if characters don’t take a short rest? Sometimes they feel as though they can’t—they have to get to the high priest’s chamber before the assassin strikes! Sometimes they just choose not to, perhaps because they hope to enjoy the benefit of an effect that lasts until the encounter ends. In any event, starting a new encounter without the benefit of a short rest after the last one makes the new encounter more challenging.If you’re designing encounters in which you expect characters to move from one to the next without a rest, treat the two events as a single encounter. If the characters surprise you by running on to a new encounter without resting, it might be worth scaling back the new encounter a bit.So, one more time. The reason I keep saying that the E means something is because it does. Quite literally, if there is no short rest, there isn't a new encounter! There are even additional rules (see, e.g., DMG2) that allow the DM to pace the game differently for chases and other events, and provide short rests in media res to match narrative needs. If you don't understand that 4e is fundamentally different in this key aspect, then you won't realize why the difference isn't the duration, but the idea that short rests aren't actually "taken" so much as they are the boundaries between encounters.</blockquote>

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