I'm asking for an estimate of the number of short rests your party actually takes, on average, between long rests. That is a number that exists for every campaign and every party, even if very few groups bother to track and calculate it (I would have said "no groups," but I'm sure somebody out there does it).
How often does your party take a short rest?
I'm asking for an estimate of the number of short rests your party actually takes, on average, between long rests. That is a number that exists for every campaign and every party, even if very few groups bother to track and calculate it (I would have said "no groups," but I'm sure somebody out there does it).
MiraMels
Explorer
My parties almost always take at least one short rest, and we usually get two in per long rest. I flit between using the standard rest lengths and the "gritty realism" variant from the DMG for rest lengths, choosing which depending on the campaign - always with the aim of making sure there's reason and rationale for taking at least one short rest per long rest.
As applicable as per the situation at hand.
Once my players had to stop a ritual from being performed that gave the army which was attacking their home city an advantage. Most of them rode off to a ruined keep where the ritual was being performed. Upon arriving the group split. One group circled around to enter through a secret entrance that an old man who worked there as a child told them about. This group went straight through without any "short rest", used resources and ended in the final fight being depleted and disadvantaged.
As a house rule we have additional attributes, one of which is endurance which defines how long you can do various activities. This being in minutes, ten minute blocks of time, or hours.
The first group went in with nonstop combat.
The second group which had npc soldiers with them engaged the enemy guards, used the soldiers to suppressed them with archery and musket fire, then while sitting atop a section of ruined outer wall decided to have breakfast. Very reminiscent of Michael York's The Four Musketeers.
The paladin covered in filth and gore (some her own) looks at the rogue who enters cleanly shaven, carrying a plate and eating "What the bloody hell is that?" The rogue shrugs, "Breakfast Milady" (said rather mockingly posh) "Sorry there's none left for you, now let's get to work shall we?"
Once my players had to stop a ritual from being performed that gave the army which was attacking their home city an advantage. Most of them rode off to a ruined keep where the ritual was being performed. Upon arriving the group split. One group circled around to enter through a secret entrance that an old man who worked there as a child told them about. This group went straight through without any "short rest", used resources and ended in the final fight being depleted and disadvantaged.
As a house rule we have additional attributes, one of which is endurance which defines how long you can do various activities. This being in minutes, ten minute blocks of time, or hours.
The first group went in with nonstop combat.
The second group which had npc soldiers with them engaged the enemy guards, used the soldiers to suppressed them with archery and musket fire, then while sitting atop a section of ruined outer wall decided to have breakfast. Very reminiscent of Michael York's The Four Musketeers.
The paladin covered in filth and gore (some her own) looks at the rogue who enters cleanly shaven, carrying a plate and eating "What the bloody hell is that?" The rogue shrugs, "Breakfast Milady" (said rather mockingly posh) "Sorry there's none left for you, now let's get to work shall we?"
TwoSix
Dirty, realism-hating munchkin powergamer
I've been tracking it for the length of our current game (since all the threads about it made me curious). 21 game sessions, 26 long rests. 7 times with no short rests before a long rest, 8 times with 2 short rests before a long rest, and 11 times with 1 short rest before a long rest.
the Jester
Legend
I use a slower recovery variant wherein a long rest restores half your HD (rounded down, minimum 1) but no hit points- you need to spend HD to recover hps.
My parties typically take around 2 shorties per long rest, but this can vary a lot.
My parties typically take around 2 shorties per long rest, but this can vary a lot.
Hard to gauge, so I went with our only active game average of 1 per day. Really, this is only because someone is playing a warlock. Other than this campaign, I'd say our average has been ~ 0.5 or less. I know that my group is specifically weird about taking short rests, because the DM usually adjusts the world based on the time spent, so we want to get as much done as possible before our enemies have time to react to our actions. This usually leads us to wear out most our resources before we take a short rest, so we just take a long rest (and deal with the consequences). The warlock in the current campaign has encouraged us to use short rests more often, to great effect.
A theorycrafting thought: assumed short rests per day really should be tied to level. Before level 5, you will probably spend all your HD on your first (and thus likely only) short rest. At level 5, you might do a second short rest in a day, but I've found most characters still spend most/all of their HD in the first rest. Once you get to level 9 or so, two short rests per day might be more common, unless you're down HD from the long rest (since you only get back half). Once you get to higher level (say, 15th), I could reasonably see even three short rests per day.
A theorycrafting thought: assumed short rests per day really should be tied to level. Before level 5, you will probably spend all your HD on your first (and thus likely only) short rest. At level 5, you might do a second short rest in a day, but I've found most characters still spend most/all of their HD in the first rest. Once you get to level 9 or so, two short rests per day might be more common, unless you're down HD from the long rest (since you only get back half). Once you get to higher level (say, 15th), I could reasonably see even three short rests per day.
Otterscrubber
First Post
In my 5e games we usually treat powers that reset on short rest similar to encounter powers from 4e. Unless they are heading right into another encounter, they get a short rest or "coffee break" as we refer to them. Resting for an hour just seems odd as if you can rest for an hour without getting attacked or breaking the flow of the adventure then you can usually rest for 8 hours. It's rare that folks can usually just sit down for an hour without both of those situations applying so as written short rests would be very hard to do and would be very rare. This would severely chap classes that rely heavily on these powers so we are a lot more liberal with short rests at my table.
In the game i run, the character stop for rests - long or short - when they want to or need to *and* can afford to.
In practice this means "average" is meaningless.
Sometimes they get several short rests between long rests when it matters.
Sometimes they get almost no short rests between long rests when it matters (sometimes that means a smaller number of encounters but not always.)
Sometimes they get more than a few short rests with no long rests and again a series of encounters that wear them down.
To my way of thinking and my experience, average does not matter. What matters is are you seeing in play enough "types of events" of various details and specifics that show in play the **characters in your game** as balanced? Are you by dint of the encounters you are choosing directly empowering or weakening one **character in your game** over the others in the long scheme of things? Note - did not say "class" but "character".
In practice this means "average" is meaningless.
Sometimes they get several short rests between long rests when it matters.
Sometimes they get almost no short rests between long rests when it matters (sometimes that means a smaller number of encounters but not always.)
Sometimes they get more than a few short rests with no long rests and again a series of encounters that wear them down.
To my way of thinking and my experience, average does not matter. What matters is are you seeing in play enough "types of events" of various details and specifics that show in play the **characters in your game** as balanced? Are you by dint of the encounters you are choosing directly empowering or weakening one **character in your game** over the others in the long scheme of things? Note - did not say "class" but "character".
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