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

[JohnLynch]

Discounting the single time that I had an all-fighter party where they took many rests (after dropping to near 0 HP) in one day, about 1-2 is the common amount. This is with me putting no meaningful clocks on the party at all (it's typically based on geographically separate areas and how brutalized they've been).

interesting,y enough 50% of those who voted take around 2 short rests per long rest.

 

[Kryx]

Long rests are limited to once every 24hrs so if people are following that rule then the only times players wouldn't want to rest on a typical adventuring day would be if there was only 1 small combat or if it was in a dungeon where "they can't rest".
The solution to the second situation is DMs being more knowledgeable about short rests - they are more like dusting yourself off and having a lunch break.
Another option that I use is to decrease the amount of time to 5 mins so that it is feasible in a dungeon situation.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Where do you get that info from?

Nowhere. It's not "info," it's a gut feeling primarily supported by the ways people talk about the stuff their players tackle, or are exposed to, over the course of an adventuring day.

Personally I'd think 1-3 encounters per long rest was more typical.

I...have never seen anything which suggested to me that the average group faces only 2 combats a day. If that were the case, then (at least in theory) the game would expect you to not take any short rests at all, unless the group is trying to punch pretty damn far above its weight (and thus depleting all of its short-rest, and much of its long-rest, resources with each combat).

My 5e party's most recent 'adventuring day' in the Ruins of the Gorgon involved: a trap, a non-combat encounter (feral gnomes), a fight (living statues), a fight (the Gorgon), a fight (shadows), and a non-combat encounter outside the dungeon. So three fights, and that felt like a pretty tense, eventful day. Six fights in one day seems pretty extreme to me, eight fights seems highly unlikely.

At the end of that, the party resource drain is as follows (they started the day already down some hd):

Status
Rey, Rogue 7: -0 hp -7 hd
Hakeem, Barbarian 8: -0 hp -8 hd
Bjornalf, Warlock 7: -16 hp -7 hd

So everyone is out of hit dice and the squishy warlock is also down hit points.

Yeah, as others have said: you don't have a healer, which hurts a ton. Depending on how your characters are built, you might not even have any ranged characters, which can be another serious blow. And you're at only 3 bodies on the field, which has all sorts of difficulty-increasing effects. So...I find it at least somewhat unlikely that your experience is highly representative of "most" groups.

Further, I think it would be really weird for the designers to make a game where there are lots of short-rest dependent classes...and it's not only normal but expected that groups have only a single encounter in a given day. There's no benefit to being short-rest-based instead of long-rest-based if, most of the time, you can expect to rarely need more than 1 short rest in a day.

Discounting the single time that I had an all-fighter party where they took many rests (after dropping to near 0 HP) in one day, about 1-2 is the common amount. This is with me putting no meaningful clocks on the party at all (it's typically based on geographically separate areas and how brutalized they've been).

interesting,y enough 50% of those who voted take around 2 short rests per long rest.

While that's technically true, a fairly significantly greater number of people (48 vs. 41) are centered around 1 short rest per day (that is, categories 0-1, 1, and 1-2) than is centered around 2 per day (categories 1-2, 2, and 2-3).

If we do a weighted average of the current votes, less those voting for non-numerical categories (8 votes, so n=72 as of this post), treating "4+" as though it were exactly 4 and each X-Y as being X.5, we get:
(0*5+.5*14+1*9+1.5*25+2*11+2.5*5+3*0+3.5*2+4*1)/72 = 1.375

Which is fairly close to alternating one or two rests each day. Even if the 8 discounted votes were all exactly 2, the average would still be less than 2 short rests per long--in fact, it would still be less than 1.5 rests per day (w.avg = 1.4375).

I can only lament that this poll is really not very useful for getting meaningful data; it would be incredibly nice to couple it with a "How many combats do you typically have between long rests?" That could let us make meaningful analysis of these things, to see if some general advice might be useful. Unfortunately that's basically impossible.

 

[S'mon]

Yeah, as others have said: you don't have a healer, which hurts a ton. Depending on how your characters are built, you might not even have any ranged characters, which can be another serious blow. And you're at only 3 bodies on the field, which has all sorts of difficulty-increasing effects. So...I find it at least somewhat unlikely that your experience is highly representative of "most" groups.

Well they usually have a couple of NPCs with healing magic along, one of whom can fight, sometimes there are four PCs, sometimes they have several NPC allies. None of that leads to 6-8 fights per day. Travelling in the wilderness if there's a fight it's likely the only one that day. Delving a dungeon or similar 2-3 fights then leave is typical PC behaviour. And I'd say that was true in general of D&D, not just 5e.

 

[S'mon]

This is what's on my mind too. 6-8 encounters seems rather many for my group's style of gaming, unless the DM forces the encounters on them in waves which have not really happened in our game sessions yet. Perhaps players tend to be rather prudent about pushing themselves forward relentlessly; they would see themselves healed and pumped up slightly again before meeting the next encounter. Just logical if the scenario allows it.

Yes, IME unless the GM forces it then all groups tend to seek a break after the third fight, unless the combats have been absolutely trivial. In pre-4e they rest when the casters' spells are
depleted, in 5e it's been more hp based.

Typical 5e behaviour (and I play in a 5e group too) is to seek a short rest after one or two fights,
then have a second or third fight, then seek a long rest. Sometimes I see 2 short rests before a
long rest.

 

[aramis erak]

My party ranges from 0 to 3 short rests per long, depending upon the way things go.

 

[S'mon]

I can only lament that this poll is really not very useful for getting meaningful data; it would be incredibly nice to couple it with a "How many combats do you typically have between long rests?" That could let us make meaningful analysis of these things, to see if some general advice might be useful. Unfortunately that's basically impossible.

Hopefully you find my new poll of some use.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Hopefully you find my new poll of some use.

While I certainly appreciate the gesture, I'm afraid the issue isn't the question I asked. It's the woefully inadequate nature of forum polling. Like I said in the OP: my dislike and frustration with forum polls applies even when they are interesting and say what I wanted/expected them to say.

 

[aramis erak]

Tonight, my group had 2 different numbers....

they started session with a long rest, fought two fights, half the party took a short rest, while the other half didn't, and took another fight....

They found it really annoying that any old pile of bones can be raised as a skeleton...

 

[Tony Vargas]

As with encounters/day, this is something I try to make happen to keep 5e running smoothly with respect to class and encounter balance. It's actually a little implausible to insert 1-hr rests into many situations, but if you don't have one ever 2-3 encounters, certain classes actually suffer, and the party can be unduly pressed for certain resources too early in the 'day,' causing them to go for a long rest before the needed 6-8 encounters.

One trick is to have an environment too hostile or unpleasant for a long rest, but 'allow' a few hours or an interrupted long rest to count as a short rest. You can also throw in McGuffins if a rest just doesn't make sense (you all drink from the magical spring and you get the benefits of a short rest). If the party's too keen on taking short rests, you do the opposite, have an environment where you can't rest at all, or an objective that must be accomplished within the hour.