D&D 5E Encounter Balance holds back 5E

[Maxperson]

It's just a hypothetical example of how you can have a great session and make players feel like their PCs are useful while using 5E's mechanics but without doing resource management. Don't get too hung up on the specifics. The principle is the same whether the opponent is an ancient red dragon or a green hag.

I understood. My point is that encounters that need to use resources are the ones that count for the 5-8 encounters. If you can get by it so easily that the players don't feel like they need to use resources, then it's not a difficult enough encounter to count towards the daily allotment.

 

[jayoungr]

I understood. My point is that encounters that need to use resources are the ones that count for the 5-8 encounters. If you can get by it so easily that the players don't feel like they need to use resources, then it's not a difficult enough encounter to count towards the daily allotment.

And my point is that the game as a whole is bigger than the 5-8 resource management encounter minigame, and that there are ways to have satisfying sessions that do not depend on pushing the classes to the end of their limited resources (but that still use the 5E rules mechanics).

 

[Maxperson]

And my point is that the game as a whole is bigger than the 5-8 resource management encounter minigame, and that there are ways to have satisfying sessions that do not depend on pushing the classes to the end of their limited resources (but that still use the 5E rules mechanics).

Absolutely. The 5-8 encounter thing is just for leveling balance. It makes sure(or at least that's the idea they put forth) that the PCs are challenged enough to earn the XP that they are getting from encounters. But yes, the game is larger than just the encounters.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Absolutely. The 5-8 encounter thing is just for leveling balance. It makes sure(or at least that's the idea they put forth) that the PCs are challenged enough to earn the XP that they are getting from encounters. But yes, the game is larger than just the encounters.

It is not just for levelling balance. Multiple classes and/or subclasses depend on getting enough rounds of combat per long rest, or enough short rests per long rest, in order to keep up with other classes.

Paladins will absolutely smoke Battle Masters if the party only does three combats a day with one short rest in the middle. And if you only get (say) 15 combat rounds per long rest, the Champion simply cannot keep up with even the Battle Master, let alone the Paladin. (1/19 non-crits become crits, that's at best 4d6 extra damage on average for the entire day, while the BM is rocking minimum 4d8, and probably more like 8d8, advancing to d10s quite soon, because there's almost certainly one short rest per long rest.)

5-8 encounters where all (5) or almost all (8) of them are combat was a predicate for class balance, and Crawford himself openly admitted that they needed to go back and fix the Warlock and other short-rest classes specifically because people don't do enough combats per long rest and don't take enough short rests per long rest. SR classes fall behind LR classes in the way most 5e players play the game. That's why 5.5e Warlock got a minor but meaningful buff, being able to recharge a few (IMO far too few) slots without a rest once per LR.