D&D 5E Have the designers lost interest in short rests?

[UngeheuerLich]

I have yet to see a broken class. There are rest options in the DMG for everyone. And if they don´t suffice, just make up your own variant.

 

[ph0rk]

Maybe I missed something, but if the problem is that the warlock and battlemaster only work in campaigns that are rigorously balanced around a certain number of encounters and short rests, then why isn't the solution to disallow those classes in campaigns that aren't balanced in such a way?

That requires that DMs be cognizant of what they are doing as far as balance; but it isn't just those classes. Monks and to some extent bards are hit by this, too (but bards are strong and have LR spellcasting). Rogues to a lesser extent as they aren't balanced with rests at all - so like fighters they ought to be doing it all day when long rest classes are running dry.

With short rest resources sprinkled unevenly across the playable PHB classes, some regular number of short rests need to happen. I'm not talking about a once in a blue moon short or ultra-long day, I'm talking about DMs and/or groups avoiding short rests as a default preference.

 

[Flamestrike]

The base class of Fighter is easy to convert into a long rest class. 3 times a day Second Wind/ 3 Times a day Action Surge, but only usable once per encounter.

It's hard to get 6-8 encounters in a session and a book keeping pain in the ass to split it over multiple sessions.

Thats what character sheets are for.

When you use a spell slot or short/ long rest resource, or lose HP, note it on your character sheet.

 

[ph0rk]

Thats what character sheets are for.

When you use a spell slot or short/ long rest resource, or lose HP, note it on your character sheet.

Yep - going further down that road if bookkeeping is too hard, then long rest casters shouldn't have so many slots in the first place.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

That requires that DMs be cognizant of what they are doing as far as balance;

Is that an unreasonable burden to place on the DM? The rest of the rules are pretty clear about the DM being in charge, and only including the options they are comfortable with.

If the balance issue is significant enough to interfere with the campaign, then wouldn't it necessarily be significant enough for the DM to take notice?

 

[tetrasodium]

That requires that DMs be cognizant of what they are doing as far as balance; but it isn't just those classes. Monks and to some extent bards are hit by this, too (but bards are strong and have LR spellcasting). Rogues to a lesser extent as they aren't balanced with rests at all - so like fighters they ought to be doing it all day when long rest classes are running dry.

With short rest resources sprinkled unevenly across the playable PHB classes, some regular number of short rests need to happen. I'm not talking about a once in a blue moon short or ultra-long day, I'm talking about DMs and/or groups avoiding short rests as a default preference.

That's a good summary. Some classes are actively wounded by a short rest (ie artilerist who has a turret expire & needs a spell slot to recover it butt has no short rest resources as an easy one. Others like land druid/wizard/etc. some get a small limited recovery like wizard/druid arcane recovery/natural recovery... and then there is this other group who casts the same spells but can do so with abandon by constantly taking short rests between fights. An artillerist artificerm UA druid, wizard, sorcerer, light cleric. & warlock all cast a roughly identical fireball spell the first round of combat using a third level spell slot. Some of them add an ability mod to damage or something & some could recover that spell slot once with a short rest... but one can do that no matter how many fights there are

@Saelorn Yes, it is unreasonable to force the gm to either do things like use a doom clock in every adventure or to transparently set up invisible walls to protect against that. Wotc realized that natural/arcane recovery on any short rest would be bad & put a one per day/one per long rest limit on them... just with things like warlock slots they didn't care and they pretended that agonizing repellling blast was reasonable compared to every other cantrip because warlock has fewer spell slots at any given time

 

[ph0rk]

If the balance issue is significant enough to interfere with the campaign, then wouldn't it necessarily be significant enough for the DM to take notice?

Not unless the players speak up.

Short rest classes running on empty is a far more common complaint than long rest classes running on empty - that should be a sign that, generally, DMs aren't managing this well.

 

[Zardnaar]

Not unless the players speak up.

Short rest classes running on empty is a far more common complaint than long rest classes running on empty - that should be a sign that, generally, DMs aren't managing this well.

Short rest classes were kind of a sop to 4E players.

But all the new players to 5E are doing their own thing from what I'm seeing. They don't know) care about 4E or earlier at least in terms of expectations.

 

[ph0rk]

But all the new players to 5E are doing their own thing from what I'm seeing. They don't know) care about 4E or earlier at least in terms of expectations.

They don't have to know anything about previous editions to feel like they are short on resources relative to long rest classes at tables that don't take or allow for many short rests.

 

[Don Durito]

What people notice is highly individual and depends on what they are paying attention to among other things.

Many people didn't notice the issues in 3E and swore blind they weren't there for a long time.