Not if you're one of those people that says their group gets through 7+ round complex combats in <45mins. you could skate through 8 lesser combats in <2hrs!
D&D (2024) How many combats do you have on average adventuring day.
- Thread starter Horwath
- Start date
Some don't try.
Some can't.
My point was that 5th edition is the first edition that assumed a 6+ medium encounter adventure day in its mechanics.
However it never outright says this and only hints at it
AND
It's barely teaches to run a 6+ encounter adventure day, nor how to adjust it. And the book designed to teach people how to run the game was a jumbled mess of a rush job admitted by WOTC themselves.
I believe that's one of the reasons why this thread even exists because the half way information or lack thereof in the design of 5th edition in order to not offend people who already know how to play and run the game closest people who don't understand the base assumptions of the game to not understand the base assumptions of the game.
So they had millions of people new to RPGs buying this game blind not knowing how to adjust it.
How WOTC didn't have an adjustment to spell slots or class features for shorter adventuring days in the DMG is baffling.
And I bet $100 that chart still isn't in the DMG.
Yeah that's a great ask. I think that'd solve many issues- that, and/or decoupling long rests from sleep by default.
But we were also supposed to get alternative experience level tracks in the DMG as per some old Dndnext tweets from the designers, they said they'd be in there... And I guess they ended up on the cutting room floor.
I mean a pair of charts that halves or shortens the spell slots for full and half casters as well as adjusts all other long rest class features would take up 1 page if you do it sloppily and 3 pages if you do it right.
There is enough space in the DMG, Xanatar's or Tasha's for that.
A fifth level wizard's slot being 3/2/1 vs the standard 4/3/2 lets you run 1-2 encounter days whole hog without fearing much class and style imbalance. I ran an urban adventure where the PCs return to their apartments every night and it worked fine. Then the few times they dungeon crawl, they can montage gear up with recharging potions and gems.
But a noob DM won't think that.
Mistwell
Crusty Old Meatwad
So for days where combat is the primary encounters, you guys typically (but not always) have a combat after a long rest, take a short rest, have a combat after the short rest, and have a long rest?
FWIW, a poll from earlier this year on ENWorld had only a single vote for "Always a long rest at the end of a session"
D&D 5E - How often do your 5e sessions end with a Long Rest for the party?
Pretty straight forward: In your current 5e campaign, does the party get the benefits of a Long Rest at the end of every session? Most sessions? Some sessions? Or rarely/never? Share your DM's/group's reasoning in the comments...
www.enworld.org
kigmatzomat
Legend
I don't know about "dominating" but clerics are often the ones who drastically change a battle.
- Timely dispel magics
- Control Water turns a difficult aquatic encounter in a bay into a much easier flight in mud with suffocating foes
- Divine intervention to neutralize a magic item that blinded the PCs
- Blade barrier in a densely packed hallway
- Banishing a flying, infernal steed
Mistwell
Crusty Old Meatwad
Sure they're useful. All classes are useful and everyone has a moment to shine. But I've never seen a cleric dominate a battle in 5e other than turn undead. I have however seen a rogue dominate, and a paladin dominate. Not every time - nobody dominates every time and most battles everyone contributes roughly evenly. But I've seen both those classes dominate a battle more often than others.
cbwjm
Seb-wejem
Maybe not even have the short rest, it really depends on how beat up people are so it might be combat-combat-long rest. There might be a short rest after the second combat because players don't necessarily know when the next combat will happen.
I've learned that combats that I expect to be short should be resolved theater of the mind. Definitely speeds things up. Otherwise I'd do basically the following.
Back in 2018 for my 3rd campaign I ran mostly premade adventures - old, classic adventures. I noticed that room and area descriptions would always mention the monsters at the end. So I would start off by saying "there are monsters in the room" and then proceed to read a description of the rest of the room or area. The players would instantly roll initiative on the assumption there would be combat and one player with better drawing skills than me would start to draw a map based on my description. I played with tokens for monsters and would hand them to another player who would place them based on my description. A third player would roll initiative for the monsters and write down the order.
Let me tell you that it worked wonders. Players were instantly engaged and ready for combat by the time I was done talking.
