Short rest abilities to long rest abilities for a gladiator style combat

[Bannan_mantis]

I am about to have a game where a group of people are going to do a level 20 battle royal. One thing I noticed is that this will be very long rest biased in terms of character builds since we are gunna do a fight from when everyone has all their resources. I wanna have classes such as fighter, warlock and monk who have a lot of quick recovery to actually be viable in this match so I am wondering how to do it. My main idea is to just increase the amount of uses they have for abilities, the rule book suggests 2-3 short rests between long rest so it would make sense to either triple or quadruple the amount of uses for short rest abilities.

Has anyone else experienced these type of problems for one-shots like this? If so please suggest some changes to give short rest classes the ability to be decent in a situation which caters against their strengths normally.

[DeTess]

I am about to have a game where a group of people are going to do a level 20 battle royal. One thing I noticed is that this will be very long rest biased in terms of character builds since we are gunna do a fight from when everyone has all their resources. I wanna have classes such as fighter, warlock and monk who have a lot of quick recovery to actually be viable in this match so I am wondering how to do it. My main idea is to just increase the amount of uses they have for abilities, the rule book suggests 2-3 short rests between long rest so it would make sense to either triple or quadruple the amount of uses for short rest abilities.

Has anyone else experienced these type of problems for one-shots like this? If so please suggest some changes to give short rest classes the ability to be decent in a situation which caters against their strengths normally.

Maybe run it as a best of 3 or 5 style game, with short rests in between every fight (though the characters would get healed to full between each bout). That way there's some actual tactics involved for picking when to use your long-rest resources.

[Bannan_mantis]

Maybe run it as a best of 3 or 5 style game, with short rests in between every fight (though the characters would get healed to full between each bout). That way there's some actual tactics involved for picking when to use your long-rest resources.

That could be interesting, although our group was leaning more towards the idea of a just big free for all style fight. I'll bring this up and see what they think but they all like the idea of one big fight right now.

[Palfatreos]

maybe reduce it to double or triple instead. Quadrauple feel way to much it not that you always use all your short resoursce between each short either.

[Laserlight]

Or, you could potentially do this Phantom Menace style by having impassable force walls rarely and randomly pop up, separating all the players. The walls would then disappear in an hour.

That's about what I was going to suggest, except I would also teleport them from one battlefield to another so you get some variety in terrain and lighting conditions.

Of course, the most important part is the pre-battle scheming. "How about the three of us team up to take down Bob?"

[WilliamHuggins]

Maybe have a few magical circles around the arena that give you the benefit of a short rest if you stay in them for 2 rounds, you can put a few of them around and they could all be single use, just wording my idea without thinking about the math behind it so you could modify it as you like. You could make them restore resources but not allow using hit dice. You could reduce/increase the time needed to stay inside the circles, or you could get rid of the circles and make them consumable items that can be carried. You could make them spawn after a certain time, or you could put put only 2 of them but they could respawn after a few rounds, or you could make their positions completely random by making them something like "supply drop". If you dont make them allow use of hit dice, classes that has no use for short rests would need to make a choice whether they should waste their action/movement to prevent others from taking these or not, they could be used to set up traps etc, they could add dynamism to your battle royale.

[JellyPooga]

Maybe run it as a best of 3 or 5 style game, with short rests in between every fight (though the characters would get healed to full between each bout). That way there's some actual tactics involved for picking when to use your long-rest resources.

Go "Hunger Games" on the encounter; an extended battle royale in a large enough arena, where if you blow your long rest resources taking out one or two of your opponents, you leave yourself vulnerable not only to those that spared resources for later, but the short rest dependent characters that have greater longevity in such an extended encounter, as well as risking not being able to deal with the dangers of the arena itself. The prize goes to the best survivor, not the guy who can dominate in a one-on-one alpha strike.

[Laserlight]

. You could make them restore resources but not allow using hit dice.

Hit dice are a resource. If the warlock is getting spell slots back, there's no reason the barbarian shouldn't be getting a few D12+CON HP.

Random time refresh points zones:
--once you get in a zone you roll 1d4 or 1d6 for how many rounds you need to stay in to get your refresh.
--you refresh in one round but you are paralyzed during it (or "subject to Faerie Fire" if "paralyzed" seems too harsh).
--when you enter, the zone refreshes you and teleports you to a random location on the battlefield. If you have a 100ft x 100ft battlefield, you roll 1d20 for each of X axis and Y axis. For extra amusement, make it 2d10 or 3d6 for each, which tends to drop you in the middle.
--you can communicate with one other gladiator while you are in the zone
--Each refresh zone is linked to a zone on two other battlefields. Roll 1d6. On a 1-2 you stay where you are, 3-4 or 5-6 you are ported to another battlefield.

[Man_Over_Game]

Consider looking into my Adrenaline Surge homebrew in my signature. It's my fix to make combat more epic while also allowing Short Rest combatants to have benefits in fewer (but longer) fights.

For a brief summary, after a special event occurs mid-fight (like a bell ringing, someone dies, a minute of combat ends, a boss hits half HP, etc), the Adrenaline Surge activates.

When the Adrenaline Surge occurs, everyone is treated as if they just ended a Short Rest, they all gain a stack of Exhaustion, and initiative is rerolled (with bosses having Advantage).

[Kadesh]

Change all Short Rest abilities to become Long Rest, and give them 3* the number of them (and 3* the number of resources like say Pact Magic spell slots, Ki Points, Bardic Inspiration etc).