Quoting my OP...There shouldn't be any short rest classes. Forcing the gm to design the game/campaign pacing & structure around making sure the design off class A is balanced against the design of class B by plot armor invisible walls & constant doom clocks on top of making sure the plot is interesting, making sure everyone has reasonable chances at the spotlight, deciding how the world reacts to (un)expected PC actions, & so forth is poor design
Rests create design space for ability diversity. Without rests, we can't have nice things like rich class designs. Rests let designers create strong abilities that cannot be used every combat, and weak abilities that can be used every combat. For example, cantrips (use every turn) and wizard spells (use every few combats). That presents more interesting decisions to players.
Quoting my OP...
In play I find it needs to be 3 days (with the same amount of time before another can be taken), else the short to long ratio favours short-rest classes more than equitably.
Quoting my OP...
Rests create design space for ability diversity. Without rests, we can't have nice things like rich class designs. Rests let designers create strong abilities that cannot be used every combat, and weak abilities that can be used every combat. For example, cantrips (use every turn) and wizard spells (use every few combats). That presents more interesting decisions to players.
For what I call narrative rests (versus mechanical) the rest length assists a DM to plausibly and meaningfully advance events. Three days is long enough that it feels unsurprising if something happens that the rest takers will feel concerned by... possibly even interrupting the rest. It's long enough that resters feel more inclined to seek a safe place to rest. Or so I have found in playtesting.Its all well if you want that. But players will take rest if they feel they need one. No matter the length. Better make it shorter
Is a 1-day time pressure so difficult that it's become a problem?
I can assume the enemy can just exit while the party is sitting down. And exiting isn't the same as fleeing. Fleeing implies you're in-danger and must retreat or be harmed. It can be considered losing. Exiting is literally leaving the whatever. Maybe the BBEG just leaves with whatever, the mcguffin, or something. Maybe he can make more minions to assist him.
I'm not sure how time pressures are seen as cop-outs or too repetitive when time is a pressure resource in every single aspect in life. Avoiding time pressures while balancing adventures is like balancing combats without dealing HP damage. It's possible but it seems like an obtuse way to change something that works fine.
pure curiosity, what is Aime?I think the issue of rests has always been at odds with adventure design as neither plot points in a campaign or the exploration pillar interact with time as a resource any more. So 1 day, 3 days etc are a resource expenditure that don't really tie to anything else in game except by GM fiat.
I like AiME's concepts of sanctuaries and would love to see LevelUp work around this concept, even as an optional.
In short the AiME determines that only certain places have the right circumstances that a person can take a long rest, such as a town.
In LevelUp, there could be certain conditions that need to be met to qualify the party for a short rest or a long rest. This to me makes more interesting choice points. Perhaps the party can barricade in level 2 of the castle, but if they can make their way to the temple sanctum they might be able to secure a long rest. Is it worth pushing on?