Hourly resets instead of daily resets [merged]

[Quasqueton]

Considering just the core, base classes from the Player's Handbook, what would be the overall effect of changing the "daily resets" to hourly resets?

That is, changing the recovery of spells slots, hit points, X times per day abilities, etc. to coming back after 1 hour of rest rather than the overnight rest.

The effect I want is for the PCs to be able to adventure for a long time during a day, rather than get 1-4 encounters in a dungeon and then have to go back to camp -- 1-2 hours adventure in a day, then 22-23 hours of rest at camp. But I'm wondering if making this alteration will seriously throw things out wack. I don't see any major problems with the concept with a first look.

Quasqueton

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Stick with days ... hours are too hard to track in regular adventuring as the game lacks agood mechanism to track time outside of combat rounds. Plus every dungeon crawl would turn into "Finish room ... rest until reset ... next room ... rest until reset." I haven't had as much of a problem with that under current "per day" rules.

 

[D'karr]

You'd have to cut XP awards way down if you still want the challenge of advancing to be somewhat 'appropriate'.

 

[Voadam]

Resting for an hour will seem slightly wierd in game I would think. A pure per encounter system such as UA recharge magic and switching from per day to per encounter would feel less artificial I think.

The balance issues are the classes based around no per day abilities: Fighters, rogues, and low level rangers do not get the same power boost that the spell and 1/day ability classes get.

 

[SavageRobby]

Resetting everything, every hour? Yow.

I think its easier to do hourly resets with a point-based system, where you can recharge a certain number of points every hour - and there is a certain amount of incrementalism, so you're not necessarily reseting everything you've got each hour, but regaining a portion of it. I find this better for balance than a wholesale reset of all abilities each hour.

Slot-based systems are harder to do well in incremental resets, unless you convert them to some point equivalent (which kind of defeats the purpose, and in some cases is just flat out difficult). So, with HP that would work, but with spell slots or other per/day slots, I don't think it would work as well.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

Considering just the core, base classes from the Player's Handbook, what would be the overall effect of changing the "daily resets" to hourly resets?

Spellcasters would have more spells than they know what to do with.

On the other hand, you might see a dramatic increase in the number of times someone is willing to prepare / learn Out-of-Combat spells.

 

[Quasqueton]

Reset abilities by the hour rather than by the day

There are several new classes coming out with per encounter (instead of per day) abilities. I'm wondering if the core classes could be adjusted to something like a per encounter set up without really screwing up balance.

Considering just the core, base classes from the Player's Handbook, what would be the overall effect of changing the "daily resets" to hourly resets?

That is, changing the recovery of spells slots, hit points, X times per day abilities, etc. to coming back after 1 hour of rest rather than the normal overnight rest (or a full day).

The effect I want is for the PCs to be able to adventure for a long time during a day, rather than get 1-4 encounters in a dungeon and then have to go back to camp -- 1-2 hours adventure in a day, then 22-23 hours of rest at camp. I want rest periods to be based on the actual day/night cycle rather than the "I'm tapped out of spells, let's break for the day" cycle.

But I'm wondering if making this alteration will seriously throw things out wack. I don't see any major problems with the concept with a first look.

I don't want to rewrite or rework any classes, merely shorten the reset times to 1 hour from 1 day/night. Would this be workable? Would the core classes/mechanics still be [arguably] balanced with a hourly reset? (I'd use the same concept for monster ability resets.)

Quasqueton

 

[Dragonblade]

There are several new classes coming out with per encounter (instead of per day) abilities. I'm wondering if the core classes could be adjusted to something like a per encounter set up without really screwing up balance.

Considering just the core, base classes from the Player's Handbook, what would be the overall effect of changing the "daily resets" to hourly resets?

That is, changing the recovery of spells slots, hit points, X times per day abilities, etc. to coming back after 1 hour of rest rather than the normal overnight rest (or a full day).

The effect I want is for the PCs to be able to adventure for a long time during a day, rather than get 1-4 encounters in a dungeon and then have to go back to camp -- 1-2 hours adventure in a day, then 22-23 hours of rest at camp. I want rest periods to be based on the actual day/night cycle rather than the "I'm tapped out of spells, let's break for the day" cycle.

But I'm wondering if making this alteration will seriously throw things out wack. I don't see any major problems with the concept with a first look.

I don't want to rewrite or rework any classes, merely shorten the reset times to 1 hour from 1 day/night. Would this be workable? Would the core classes/mechanics still be [arguably] balanced with a hourly reset? (I'd use the same concept for monster ability resets.)

Quasqueton

Personally, I think the future is per encounter. Nothing is lamer than going into a dungeon and having to camp after every other room because the wizard or cleric blew all their spells in a tough encounter. It stretches credulity and puts the DM in an awkward position of trying to decide what the denizens of the dungeon do in the party's absence.

Logically, they either flee for the hills, fortify their existing positions, or gang up and rush the players. All three possibilities can throw a carefully designed dungeon out of whack, creating hardship for a DM to trying to run a published module and then having to adapt everything on the fly. It can also result in PC deaths, especially if the dungeon dwellers are halfway intelligent and decide to assault the party at their weakest.

You may get some posters to this thread who like the balance structure as it is, but clearly its broken. Not only that, the ridiculousness of the party camping after every 4 encounters strains belief.

Per encounter refreshes of resources is a better way to go. Just keep in my mind that this means the party approaches every encounter at between 80% and full power depending on how fast they recover. This means that dungeons with a number of weaker encounters that are designed to wear the party down will probably be less of a challenge to a party that can always go near 100%.

Beef up the encounters a little is my suggestion. Max HP for creatures, or bump up the HD a little along with corresponding increases in attack bonus, saves, etc. You might have to adjust on the fly, because some encounters may be already tough and designed to be a faced by a fresh party, in which case you don't need to tweak anything.

Hopefully, per encounter balancing will be the new standard whenever 4e comes out.

 

[FireLance]

One issue I can think of would be the relative duration of the spells. 1 hour/level spells could last for several refresh periods, allowing spellcasters to pre-cast them and re-fill their slots (or free up their slots, for spontaneous casters) with other spells. 10 minute/level spells (at 6th level and up) would become effectively constant effects, and even 1 minute/level spells could be maintained for a significant proportion of the time between refresh periods.

The other consideration is the number of encounters you have between rest periods. It is possible (though it seems rather odd) to have the same number of encounters in an hour that you have in a day. However, if the average number of encounters between rest periods goes down, this favors classes with mainly per rest period abilities (e.g. spellcasters) over classes with mainly constant abilities (e.g. fighters and rogues).

This would also change the flavor and pace of the game somewhat, as the PCs are able to get back into adventuring and gaining xp faster than in standard D&D. This creates the theoretical possibility that the PCs could go from 1st to 20th level in a week, which could be off-putting for some gamers.

 

[FireLance]

Well, like I posted in your other thread :

One issue I can think of would be the relative duration of the spells. 1 hour/level spells could last for several refresh periods, allowing spellcasters to pre-cast them and re-fill their slots (or free up their slots, for spontaneous casters) with other spells. 10 minute/level spells (at 6th level and up) would become effectively constant effects, and even 1 minute/level spells could be maintained for a significant proportion of the time between refresh periods.

The other consideration is the number of encounters you have between rest periods. It is possible (though it seems rather odd) to have the same number of encounters in an hour that you have in a day. However, if the average number of encounters between rest periods goes down, this favors classes with mainly per rest period abilities (e.g. spellcasters) over classes with mainly constant abilities (e.g. fighters and rogues).

This would also change the flavor and pace of the game somewhat, as the PCs are able to get back into adventuring and gaining xp faster than in standard D&D. This creates the theoretical possibility that the PCs could go from 1st to 20th level in a week, which could be off-putting for some gamers.