D&D 5E Short Rests: How many does your group get/take between long rests, on average?

[CapnZapp]

My previous group didn't have a fighter or other class heavily depending on short rests.

So the issue never came up.

Besides, if you're in a position to take an hour's rest, you can often take a full day's rest.

My next group will feature both fighters and a warlock. I expect them to pursue short rests much more actively this time.

 

[CapnZapp]

The thing is, the DMG talks high and low about 6-8 encounters and 0-2 short rests per day...

But the game features very little mechanics to actually make that happen.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

The thing is, the DMG talks high and low about 6-8 encounters and 0-2 short rests per day...

But the game features very little mechanics to actually make that happen.

Not having the DMG myself, I didn't want to say either way. But I'll be honest--this is exactly what I expected to hear.

 

[Kryx]

The thing is, the DMG talks high and low about 6-8 encounters and 0-2 short rests per day...

But the game features very little mechanics to actually make that happen.

"We just fought a battle, we dust ourselves off and have a snack before moving on"

What more is needed? The mechanics are already there.

On the topic of never taking short rests - short rests let you spend as many HD as you want. Even if you don't have Short Rest based classes (you likely do), it matters.

Wizards recover spells on short rests, Monks Ki, Fighters Second Wind, Warlocks spells, Cleric Channel Divinity, Bard Song of Rest & Font of Inspiration, etc

 

[Hussar]

1 generally. 2 once in a while.

 

[Treantmonklvl20]

Yeah, bad news for Warlocks in our group. 1 short rest on average (sometimes none)

 

[CapnZapp]

"We just fought a battle, we dust ourselves off and have a snack before moving on"

What more is needed? The mechanics are already there.

I'm taking about the specific number of encounters and short rests. The fact that if you rest for one hour, you're often free to continue that rest for seven more. Conversely, very little forces you to conserve resources and stretch your day into that 8th encounter, when the game plays much faster and more exciting when you strut all your stuff in three encounters and then rest.

You seem to explain the obvious, but I could be mistaken.

 

[Grydan]

0-1

Most days, we just don't have a need for a rest.
Other days, we need one and can take one ... and on a good number of those, after we've taken the short rest we don't end up fighting again before our next long rest.
Then there's the days where we could really use multiple short rests, but resting isn't possible because we're in the middle of some ongoing event that doesn't really lend itself to hitting the pause button for an hour.
Days where there's both enough fighting that we'd need multiple rests, and there's enough time and space between fights that we can actually take them, are rare beasts indeed.

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

The thing is, the DMG talks high and low about 6-8 encounters and 0-2 short rests per day...

But the game features very little mechanics to actually make that happen.

Such mechanics aren't needed.

The talking about 6-8 encounters per adventuring day and around 2 short rests per adventuring day is not a "you must do this" or even really a "we intend that you do this" statement. It is a statement of observation, more like "This is what turned out to be most typical given the way that things played out among playtesting groups going through campaigns as they chose to."

 

[Mercule]

My group hews pretty close to the standard 2. In fact, they are often literally referred to as "lunch" and "dinner".

Every now and again, they end up in deep doo and take one early (i.e. shortly after the prior rest). Sometimes, that means they end up with a third, but it usually means they're regrouping before a "strategic withdrawal".