Level Up (A5E) End the 5 minute work-day by making all classes work off short rests.

[MichaelSomething]

Yes, there are two interpretations. The rule is ambiguous. There are arguments either way.

The mechanic seems to intend that a long rest can be interrupted. If the consequence of an interpretation is that really, they can't, one might - as I do - feel inclined to question that interpretation. Especially given the implausibility of an hour of combat.

@Phoebasss should know that Crawford has endorsed the version where it does indeed take an hour of combat to interrupt a long rest. The defence is something like - a combination of walking, combat and spell-casting could come to an hour. It comes out about the same - hey, we walked for 59 minutes... better not get in a fight!

I though ambiguous rules were a good thing. That way each DM can make the ruling that fits their table without players whining that it's not how the book does it.

 

[tetrasodium]

I think the first statement is a bit of a fallacy because of what you said in the second.

Just like a fighter may use action surge to fight in one combat, and use it to rush and save a passerby in the second...encounter design is a key factor in which powers are used

No he's not wrong & your needlessly splitting hairs to distract from it. Back in 4e it didn't matter if you used all your encounter powers or just the best for the situation in one encounter because at the end of that encounter/start of the next you got back all of them & started with a full deck. When you tie those powers to long & short rests you only get them back when you take one but 5e made classes where the class design is basically class A gets this many daily powers from this pool & not too many encounter powers while class B gets a bunch of good encounter powers plus a fraction of A's daily powers from what is largely the same pool but they are limited in how they can use them. that class A & B were reasonably balanced because both got back the daily powers during a long rest. until class B started getting those daily powers back during a short rest & getting multiclass options to shed much of the limited in how they could use them

 

[tetrasodium]

I though ambiguous rules were a good thing. That way each DM can make the ruling that fits their table without players whining that it's not how the book does it.

It depends on the ambiguity. everything about short rests is written massively in the player's favor and more importantly there are classes designed to subvert the "long rests are for your big guns while short rests are for little top offs & small things by having the same big guns as another class but having them short rest based. Things that have no business being linked to rests & that ambiguity use the rests as their core identity... If the gm pushes back he's literally breaking something that people's classes are balanced against & has to put the resulting pieces back together somehow.

 

[clearstream]

It depends on the ambiguity. everything about short rests is written massively in the player's favor and more importantly there are classes designed to subvert the "long rests are for your big guns while short rests are for little top offs & small things by having the same big guns as another class but having them short rest based. Things that have no business being linked to rests & that ambiguity use the rests as their core identity... If the gm pushes back he's literally breaking something that people's classes are balanced against & has to put the resulting pieces back together somehow.

Wording in the DMG outlines the design intent - x encounters per short rest, y per long - and ambiguities in the PHB undermine that intent. That is, we know where the balance is intended to lie while lacking robust tools to implement it at the table.

 

[Lucas Yew]

How about we just eliminate 'refreshing powers' altogether.

If you want to do something cool, you either build up momentum to pull it off, or you need to spend a lot of time.

I always wanted a magic system that had a bit of the vibe of Magic: the Gathering. You enter battle, and your fire wizard starts by spending an action to Gather Power. Fire swirls around her, dealing a bit of fire damage to anyone who enters or starts their turn in the area. Then the wizard has some fire mana, which she can spend to hurl a fireball. Some spells might cost no mana, but the good ones require you to build up to them. But you can't hold onto mana for more than a minute or so, or else it starts to burn you.

Or a fighter needs to warm up. He could have a rhythm meter, like in some fighting games, and each round he gets some points he can spend to improve his attacks, and certain 'fighting styles' give more points if he does certain actions. The Wuxia style would give bonuses if he attacks an enemy while jumping or otherwise not standing on the ground. The Knight style might give bonus points if he lets his opponent attack him first.

That's almost exactly what I've been itching for to happen once and for all. Good to know that others thought about it too...

 

[Quartz]

How about we just eliminate 'refreshing powers' altogether.

If you want to do something cool, you either build up momentum to pull it off, or you need to spend a lot of time.

I always wanted a magic system that had a bit of the vibe of Magic: the Gathering. You enter battle, and your fire wizard starts by spending an action to Gather Power...

Or a fighter needs to warm up...

Oh yes! You could combine this with expanding ritual magic...

 

[Quartz]

Hmm... let's see. Off the top of my head:

A Sorceror starts with a number of Mana equal to the highest level spell she can cast. Every round she may spend a Bonus Action to gather 1 Mana, to a maximum of the aforementioned highest level spell or spend an Action to Gather Power, adding Mana equal to her Proficiency Bonus, with a maximum <needs to be added>.

Holding more Mana than the higher of your Proficiency Bonus or levels in the Sorceror class is dangerous. At the end of every round in which you did not spend any Mana and hold more Mana than that, make a Constitution check with a DC of 8 + current Mana points or <bad things happen>. Excess mana can be safely released as a Bonus Action.

Casting a spell costs 1 Mana per level of the spell. The Sorceror may expend additional Mana to increase the level of the spell or apply metamagic effects.

Casting a spell of a base level higher than your Proficiency Bonus reduces your starting Mana by 1 each time to a minimum of 1. These points can be recovered after a Long Rest.

 

[rules.mechanic]

Love the concept, especially for sorcerers (or for a Dark Sun setting...). Lots of examples in fantasy literature too. But maybe base Mana around the optional Spell Points rule in the DMG to set the conversion rate for spell levels and a maximum that can be gathered over the course of a day.

Maybe some variants can then spend hit points to gather? Maybe an ecosystem around small Mana repositories you can recharge and carry around?

(Would also love to see a system for spell misfires with surge, fizzle, alteration, misdirection, etc but the <bad things happen> for Mana Burn probably best kept simple with burning-out spellcasting for the day, or damage of an amount and range determined by how bad you fail).

 

[Quartz]

(Would also love to see a system for spell misfires with surge, fizzle, alteration, misdirection, etc but the <bad things happen> for Mana Burn probably best kept simple with burning-out spellcasting for the day, or damage of an amount and range determined by how bad you fail).

In the comics I used to read it's common for the wizard to collapse. Usually a female wizard collapsing into the arms of a male companion.

 

[tetrasodium]

In the comics I used to read it's common for the wizard to collapse. Usually a female wizard collapsing into the arms of a male companion.

It's also common for that to happen after said wizard does something incredible that runs towards this. 5e not only avoids that it actually reverses it.