D&D 5E Should short rest be an hour long?

[Arial Black]

Once your player realize he isn't hosed by only getting spells back once a week, since he will still get them back after the eighth encounter (tops), welcome him to the modern world, where D&D works just as well when one set of 6-8 encounters take place within a single hour one hour, as when the next set of 6-8 encounters take place during a week of game time.

In the party we have a wizard and a cleric. We've reached level 5, and we've had 3 encounters since our last long rest.

Then the wizard gets killed. No problem, I'll roll up a new one.

After the party have 5 more encounters, the cleric has had 8 encounters since his last long rest, and the new wizard has had only 5.

So, the cleric gets his long rest and all his slots back, but the wizard....doesn't.

The wizard takes an entire year off from adventuring, eating well and sleeping safely on soft pillows.

But he doesn't get a long rest; doesn't get any slots back, because he hasn't had enough baddies trying to kill him.

I prefer systems which make sense. I like campaigns where your decisions, for good or ill, have consequences that can be anticipated (largely) by thinking things through beforehand. This can only happen when cause and effect work as they should. If I choose to drop a ball, I can predict that it will fall. If it sometimes does and sometimes doesn't and I cannot predict which, then I cannot make any plans around dropping a ball.

If I know that getting a good night's rest will restore my slots, then I can take steps to ensure that I get a good night's rest. If a good night's rest might or might not, then why should I bother trying.

At least 'resting' has some sensible relationship with 'recovering'. A system where you recover by having more encounters but don't recover by resting doesn't make much sense, but if that is how this world works then the players would adapt their play to that environment.

What, we've only had 5 encounters, and we need to recover spell slots? Quick, start a fight with a random, soft-looking passer-by, and our slots will come back! Don't waste your money on rooms at the inn; sleeping in a soft bed doesn't get your slots back.

 

[CapnZapp]

I prefer systems which make sense.

I imagine you don't use hit points, levels and magic either, preferring systems that make sense...?

In other words: I'm not going to talk you out of convincing yourself this particular suggestion is somehow nonsensical but all other pecularities of D&D make perfect sense.

You will have to get there yourself. Look forward talking to you when that happens!

Have a nice day,
Zapp

 

[Arial Black]

I imagine you don't use hit points, levels and magic either, preferring systems that make sense...?

In other words: I'm not going to talk you out of convincing yourself this particular suggestion is somehow nonsensical but all other pecularities of D&D make perfect sense.

You will have to get there yourself. Look forward talking to you when that happens!

Have a nice day,
Zapp

Sorry, I forgot about the thin skin.

To be precise, If I had a choice between two ways of doing it, why would I want to choose the way that made less sense?

 

[Tony Vargas]

I prefer systems which make sense.

I appreciate such systems, but am perfectly happy with D&D.

 

[TwoSix]

Unfortunately for me, I don't think I could make it fly at all these days, and it's the real sticking point that prevents me from saying that a short rest is overnight and a long rest is a week in town. Even if I could get players to accept slower healing times, the game has inextricably tied that to spell slot recovery, and modern players require a wizard who can cast spells every day.

Consumables. Set the PC power baseline low, and then you can set the baseline power and availability of consumables up to where you and your players are comfortable. Potions, alchemical items, relatively low powered wands, etc. Then you can set up a virtuous cycle where the PCs adventure to gain gold and magic, which then gets plowed into new items so they can go on their next adventure. My whole next campaign is predicated on 6 hour short rests and 72 hour long rests, with magic item acquisition representing the bulk of PC power.

A lot of the items are designed with the expectation that trying to overstock or abuse them becomes ineffective. Alchemical items that expire after a week, potions with change of miscibility issues if too many are consumed in a short time, items that only recharge at the light of dawn, or at a full moon, or only on the altar of a consecrated temple. Things that tie the character's power to the environment, not just to time.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

I would argue the truly modern player require a wizard that casts spells every time after a long rest

If everyone acted rationally, sure, but I think most players don't quite fall into that category when it comes to one or more topics. Wizards who can only cast a few spells per week are not something that shows up anywhere else in the genre, and players have been conditioned to accept spells-per-day on the slow end and unlimited spells on the fast end.

Likewise, I can buy into someone healing from a stab wound after a week of bed rest, but I can't buy into someone healing from a stab wound overnight. Game balance doesn't factor into it.

Once your player realize he isn't hosed by only getting spells back once a week, since he will still get them back after the eighth encounter (tops), welcome him to the modern world, where D&D works just as well when one set of 6-8 encounters take place within a single hour one hour, as when the next set of 6-8 encounters take place during a week of game time.

This doesn't logically follow. There is no guarantee that they will have a long rest after eight encounters. They may observe that they face no more than one or two enemy encounters each day, but there's no way for them to guarantee that they will face no more than eight before they have a chance to rest.

The "modern" iteration of D&D posits that a long rest take eight hours, with caveats in place that it could alternatively take one hour or one week, but it always takes a set amount of time for every campaign setting. The iteration of D&D where the length of a rest might change depending on circumstances is a bizarre pocket dimension known as 13A, which does not interact with the mainstream D&D continuity in any way.

 

[CapnZapp]

*shrug*

If you want to talk yourself into the delusion that the way D&D has always done it is the only way, don't let me stop you.

To everybody else: the only way to make the game both support the 6-8 encounters expectation and at the same time work in a variety of differently paced stories is to drop the connection between an idiosyncratic time interval and the game rest mechanism.

Just like D&D has shed a lot of primitive baggage, like THAC0, different xp levels for different classes, alignment... and it will eventually shed this one too.

 

[Tony Vargas]

Just like D&D has shed a lot of primitive baggage, like THAC0, different xp levels for different classes, alignment... and it will eventually shed this one too.

D&D spent 2 years of playtesting and surveys re-claiming it's lost baggage for use in 5e. I don't expect it'll loosen its grip that baggage any time soon.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

Allowing the length of a rest to vary based on "story-pacing" would be a change infinitely beyond the scope of simply changing experience progressions or removing alignment. It would fundamentally alter D&D from being an RPG into being something like a story-game.