D&D 5E (2014) Tweaking 5E: Your knobs, dials and switches.

[S'mon]

Oh I have a variant xp system - 10 or 20 xp to level, with encounters and quest awards of 1-5 xp. I like it better than pure fiat and it avoids a lot of bookkeeping.

 

[Doug McCrae]

My only big one is 1 week long rests.

What effect has this had on gameplay?

 

[S'mon]

What effect has this had on gameplay?

We tend to get more like 6-8 encounters per long rest, possibly over 2-3 sessions, rather than just 1-3 encounters per day. It runs closer to what the DMG says is expected.

 

[Swarmkeeper]

We tend to get more like 6-8 encounters per long rest, possibly over 2-3 sessions, rather than just 1-3 encounters per day. It runs closer to what the DMG says is expected.

Still unclear why...

Does it just feel more natural for your campaign to spread encounters out over an adventuring week rather that in one adventuring day?

We've not had any issue fitting in 6-8 encounters (or more... or less... nor really wedded to the 6-8 "requirement") in an adventuring day. That adventuring day can take as many sessions as necessary.

Rest variant (DMG) - short rests are overnight, long rests are a week. With the caveat that you can occasionally get a long rest sooner - for example at a sanctuary like Elrond's Last Homely Home where you are completely safe and well treated (food, care, etc.) This is to allow me more control over encounter pacing without having to put in artificial time limits on everything, in a non-dungeon crawl type of game.

[MENTION=20564]Blue[/MENTION] hints at it, but I'm not really following what is meant by the "artificial time limits". Unless that is code for "squeezing in encounters in an adventuring day just b/c the DM feels it's necessary to meet the 6-8 encounter quota".

Anyway, just curious why people like this long rest variant. No one has mentioned the Gritty Realism of the DMG (p 267) as their reason for employing it. What might I be missing?

 

[CapnZapp]

I am curious how folks go about changing 5E to suit their personal tastes. What optional rules do you use? What "dials" and "switches" do you incorporate to change the the way the game plays or feels? What rules do you toss out completely, change or double down on.

I'm no so interested in major overhauls of the 5E core assumptions or systems. Rather I am curious how those that have a problem here or there with 5E, or prefer a certain playstyle that isn't quite supported, make 5E work for them.

Thanks.

# resting doesn't give any hit points back. It gives all your HD back
# hit points are counted down to -10, not just to zero
# some feats are changed. In particular no -5/+10 mechanism
# we ditched Inspiration

 

[Blue]

Still unclear why...

Does it just feel more natural for your campaign to spread encounters out over an adventuring week rather that in one adventuring day?

We've not had any issue fitting in 6-8 encounters (or more... or less... nor really wedded to the 6-8 "requirement") in an adventuring day. That adventuring day can take as many sessions as necessary.


[MENTION=20564]Blue[/MENTION] hints at it, but I'm not really following what is meant by the "artificial time limits". Unless that is code for "squeezing in encounters in an adventuring day just b/c the DM feels it's necessary to meet the 6-8 encounter quota".

Anyway, just curious why people like this long rest variant. No one has mentioned the Gritty Realism of the DMG (p 267) as their reason for employing it. What might I be missing?

Okay, let's start with a few things:

At my table, I find that the classes balance best when doing an average of 5-6 encounters between long rests, with that target changing based on level as they have fewer or more resources available. If I do 1-3 encounters per day, the full casters really shine. (Even with tougher encounters - a lot of buffs last all encounter but it's still a single slot. With more foes area of effect does better. With more powerful foes then crowd control and debuff does more for the same casting - and with 4 of 6 saves bad a well prepared caster can hit a low save regardless of how how powerful the foe.)

With 8+ encounters, the at-wills dominate. Casters are usually worn out and just spamming cantrips, and weapon wielders do great. There's a definitely thrill when out of resources and trying to come up with a little bit more to survive, but just like few per day it's good to hit this occasionally but not every day.

So having days all over that spectrum, some short, some long, some in the middle, gives good variation.

If story wise they are spending time traveling and it's one encounter because that's all that makes sense narratively, it's trivial. Casters nova, it's done. We also don't do dungeons often, with a high density of encounters, so even reaching the 5-6 often seems contrived narratively, much less hitting 9+ as often as we hit 3 or less.

With this I get varied numbers of combats per long rest and short rest, without having to try to cram in many level-appropriate encounters (or none at all) on days (24 hour period) when it just wouldn't make sense.

And the exceptions are what let me tailor it. Coming to a sanctuary and getting an unexpected long rest. Bathing in the sacred glade, getting a blessing from the Lady of the Forest giving a rest. Even bottled sunlight that the party can use once. Whatever.

Basically from a narrative side I feel no pressure to cram a large number of encounters between sunrises just to appropriately achieve attrition threats for the party. I can pace them how it makes sense for how I DM at my table. It could be a good number in a day, maybe with an exception that grants a short rest in the middle, or they could be spread out over twelve days to trek across a forgotten jungle, with several days having 1-3 and other days having nothing. (Which keeps the short rests in sync as well.) Whatever the story needs.

Part of this was being spoiled by 13th Age, where a full-heal-up is every 4 encounters, and all other powers are basically at-will or per-encounter. Could be less at the DM's choice if they were particularly hard, and the players could take one early by accepting a campaign loss - maybe the foes were able to complete the first stage of their ritual, or their reinforcements came, or whatever. You just worked it into the narrative. Have a day of 8 encounters dungeon delving, maybe there was a magic fountain that refreshed around half way through. Have a three week splunking expedition through the Underworld with encounters every few days with a single long rest - that works as well, without being able to get real rest in the tainted underground that has never seen light.

Coming back to D&D after that, where rest periods are arbitrary and there are no tools for the DM to craft to what the story needs outside changing the density of encounters, was what made me look at those options.



EDIT: Again, I am talking at my table. Where I don't run many dungeons and they are five-room dungeons if I do. Where the pacing (and leveling) is often much more spread out over the in-game weeks, months and years. Where we can regularly have sessions with challenges but nothing that turns into combat. With my table of players for casters owning short days and at-wills owning long days. This may not be your experience - I was talking about what I was tweaking for next campaign, not saying other tables need to do the same.

 

[cbwjm]

A few of mine of the top of my head are:

You can learn to read a captured spellbook rather than copying each spell over into your own book.

Sorcerers can learn a spell from any list related to their bloodline.

Druids can wildshape into any CR 0 beast when they first gain wildshape. This includes animals that can fly or swim.

Druids can wear metal armour without restriction.

Clerics can choose to swap out their bonus proficiencies/cantrips to go from divine strike to potent cantrip or vice versa.

The prodigy feat is available to all races who want to gain expertise in a skill.

A focus can be used for somatic components even if the spell doesn't require a material component.

 

[Doug McCrae]

We've not had any issue fitting in 6-8 encounters (or more... or less... nor really wedded to the 6-8 "requirement") in an adventuring day.

Do you use a lot of traditional D&D dungeons or other adventure environments that have a high monster density? Some people (myself included) regard those as artificial.

 

[Garthanos]

5e seems to lack a dial for skill use to keep up with spell casters and ritualists doing awesome no way to exert extra effort aside from becoming a spell caster

 

[Oofta]

Anyway, just curious why people like this long rest variant. No one has mentioned the Gritty Realism of the DMG (p 267) as their reason for employing it. What might I be missing?

For me, I find it works better for my campaign style. I do a lot of investigation/exploration/city adventures. I rarely, if ever to straight up dungeons crawling with monsters that just wait patiently for you to enter their zone. If you're invading orc-infested caves, odds are before too long your going to be fighting every orc in the vicinity unless you're really, really good at alpha striking and stealth. I have yet to have a group that had that kind of focus. So the idea of going from room to room cleaning out monsters with a short break here and there just doesn't work for me.

Instead of dungeon crawls on the first day the group may be doing investigation, get into a couple of fights after sticking their nose in where it doesn't belong, chase down leads and talk to people. Maybe the group learns there's going to be an attempt on someone's life at a party so the next day is figuring out how to get in to the party, with all the fights happening after someone spikes the punch. Even without that, talking to people, traipsing around the city, doing research, contacting informants ... it all takes time. I always felt artificially rushed before, it never felt like there was room to tell a story. This is even more true if it's a wilderness/sparsely populated area where you may be checking up on multiple villages or you heard about that cave you want to check out that's a couple of hours away.

Last, but not least, it just feels more natural because of the way healing works. Recover a few bumps and bruises overnight? Sure. Stitch up that deep gash and let it heal (even with magically enhanced bandages) is going to take a while. I don't necessarily look at HP as being entirely physical damage in terms of cuts and wounds, but even recuperating stamina and endurance takes a few days if you've really overdone it.