D&D 5E Running several combats in a row

[aco175]

Is it totally unreasonable to allow short rests every three or four waves? It might take some time for the baddies to muster up the numbers for another assault, so, it's not totally unreasonable that short rests might be possible. After all, short rests do allow baddies to heal as well - don't forget that each wave does not have to fight to the death every time. Waves can come in, fall back after losing about 1/3 of their HP (I mean total for the group), regroup and add in some extra baddies to fill out the fallen, attack again.

The same baddies could potentially show up two or three times.

So, after the first wave of three or four assaults, the baddies fall back and give the PC's enough time for both sides to short rest. Wash rinse and repeat as needed.

There could also be a rotation weather on offensive or defensive. Like you say, everyone pulls back to regroup and after an hour or two fighting starts again. Depending on the types of forces, there could be breaks to gather wounded and pray even.

 

[Yaarel]

Consider redefining the Short Rest as 15 minutes. This is long enough time to justify a sense of refresh, while short enough to not feel stupid in the midst of a combat onslaught.

If a DM is utilizing combat to intentionally drain resources, remember, even 15 minutes can be interrupted if the DM wishes.

Players can continue enjoying lunch and doing light tasks after 15 minutes. They can still be taking a breaking narratively, and perhaps certain efforts gain advantage if doing so when refreshed.

The 15 minutes is mostly about narrative.

 

[Plaguescarred]

Just be mindful of the Challenge Rating and overall difficulty later waves will have because the party will be diminished, running lower on HP, spell slots, features etc that they normally have when 100%.

If you see things are getting too ugly, don't hesitate to have enemies opt for different actions than Attack in their statblock, for exemple Dash or Desingage to move to other location, spread attacks instead of focus fire, retreat, freeze in place, Dodge, Help another, Search for something, make Skill checks to Influence, Study something, Utilize item, Ready or Hide etc...

 

[DEFCON 1]

Multi-wave encounters are also usually a great time to bring out whatever "minion" rules you might use-- whether that's 4E style where every creature has just 1 hit point... or handfuls of very low-HP creatures thrown amongst the "hero" monsters. Especially useful if you have casters with AoE spells they never get to wipe out huge swathes of enemies at once with, or martials with Cleave-like abilities that can actually one-shot an enemy and pass through the attack to the next (or abilities that allow you to attack everyone adjacent to the PC for instance.)

Having a wave of like 30 enemies on the board rushing the characters-- but all of whom can get mowed down with single attacks in like one round or two-- helps create that "multi-wave effect" while not raising the deadliness to uncontrollable levels (unless of course the players DON'T use their abilities to mow them all down and then they get zerg-rushed.)

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Deadly encounters aren't actually that deadly with the numbers multiplier.

So depending on level.....

Bulk fodder is exactly that.

Gladly there is no numbers multiplyer anymore. And that actually makes combat balanced better in 2024, even in the lower levels where the budged is nearly identical (note that 2014 adds the monsters compares which difficulty you beat, while 2024 gives you a budget to spend on monsters).

For the actual question of the thread: actually doing encounters that way is great to showcase the power of rogues and champion fighters, classes that can go on even without much rest in between. Maybe warlocks or monks should get a little 1 min breather to use their ability to recharge their encounter resources between the secomd or 3rd wave and for healers to use their powerful healing magic.

 

[Zardnaar]

Gladly there is no numbers multiplyer anymore. And that actually makes combat balanced better in 2024, even in the lower levels where the budged is nearly identical (note that 2014 adds the monsters compares which difficulty you beat, while 2024 gives you a budget to spend on monsters).

For the actual question of the thread: actually doing encounters that way is great to showcase the power of rogues and champion fighters, classes that can go on even without much rest in between. Maybe warlocks or monks should get a little 1 min breather to use their ability to recharge their encounter resources between the secomd or 3rd wave and for healers to use their powerful healing magic.

Aware but the threads label 5.0 vs 5.5 hence why I used old rules.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Aware but the threads label 5.0 vs 5.5 hence why I used old rules.

And still my statement is no less true.

 

[Zardnaar]

And still my statement is no less true.

Irrelevant to what OP was actually asking though.

It depends to much on encounter design imho and that groups experience. 4 encounters no break is anywhere between easy mode and tpk.

 

[Nightfly]

Aware but the threads label 5.0 vs 5.5 hence why I used old rules.

You guys bring up a good point: I sound evaluate how hard the combat is by more than one metric.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

You guys bring up a good point: I sound evaluate how hard the combat is by more than one metric.

I missed, which level your party is.

But I have found out, that for level 3 or 4 characters, such fights do work very well in 5.24 at least.

Just don't do 4 hard encounters back to back. Instead opt for one deadly encounter spread over 3 or 4 easy encounters. If you do that, you don't need a multiplier anyways, as you try not to overwhelm your players in a single wave. Except maybe in one of them, to draw out a big area spell.

It is also possible to have both encounters overlap. And foreshadow the next encounter. Have the first wave sound a horn. Let the players see the approaching next wave.

5e is very forgiving with encounter design, if you do it that way. Just be sure to not exactly tell your players how many rounds are left, but leave it in a vague state. I mean, a round is 6 seconds, that is not a lot of time in reality. And then, let the enemies of the next wave enter the fight when you feel that the encounter needs some spicing up or delay their entry if you feel your party needs a short breather.