Changing Short Rests to Per Encounters?

[ChildofLuthic]

Would it be balanced to change short rest abilities to per encounter abilities, provided you did 3 encounters per adventuring day? I was thinking that it would work to balance short rest and long rest classes, but would it unbalance things between, say, warlocks and fighters, who rely on those abilities differently?

[Man_Over_Game]

Would it be balanced to change short rest abilities to per encounter abilities, provided you did 3 encounters per adventuring day? I was thinking that it would work to balance short rest and long rest classes, but would it unbalance things between, say, warlocks and fighters, who rely on those abilities differently?

Taking a lesson from 4e, eh?

Having 4+ fights per day with each one having a Short Rest to reload will make Long Rest characters feel a lot of pain. I'd say this should be fine, as long as you average having 2-3 encounters each day.

One big concern is the fact that some Short Rest abilities require an explicit amount of time (such as Monk meditation for Ki) and that other abilities refresh upon initiative roll while also refreshing on a short rest (such as Bardic Inspiration and Battle Master Superiority Dice). But those are pretty high level features (except for the Monk) and aren't likely to come up.

[Contrast]

You'd have to decide how short rest refreshing abilities with out of combat utility would work (for example a shadow monk spending Ki to cast darkvision or bardic inspiration after level 5). I'm not sure a one size fits all approach would work unfortunately.

[Man_Over_Game]

You'd have to decide how short rest refreshing abilities with out of combat utility would work (for example a shadow monk spending Ki to cast darkvision or bardic inspiration after level 5). I'm not sure a one size fits all approach would work unfortunately.

I did make a "one size fits all" solution as a homebrew in my signature, under Adrenaline Surge. It makes boss fights more epic while also allowing Short Rests in the middle of combat. It also lets you throttle the strength of a boss so you can afford to make them weaker or stronger as needed.

Now, in a single day, you can have lots of small fights (default balance), a single epic fight with a couple Adrenaline Surges, or anywhere in between, to maintain a solid compromise of both narrative and balance.

[MikeRoxTheBoat]

The DM in the Curse of Strahd game I'm in has a house rule where you can gain the benefits of a Short Rest at any point you're not in combat (no downtime required) but you only get 2 per long rest. This has actually made us quite flexible, as the Warlock doesn't have to request we stop for an hour after every combat, but still requires resource management as we don't get the benefits of a short rest more than a couple of times a day. Also kills builds like coffeelocks.

Might be something you're looking for, as it keeps short rest classes balanced while giving them the flexibility to cash in their short rest for their resources back at any point, or save it for possibly bigger encounters later in the day.

[Jamesps]

You'd have to decide how short rest refreshing abilities with out of combat utility would work (for example a shadow monk spending Ki to cast darkvision or bardic inspiration after level 5). I'm not sure a one size fits all approach would work unfortunately.

If you have them refresh per encounter rather than after a given amount of time they might actually work better than they do now. Right now you can cast darkvision on the entire party and short rest to get all your ki back. Multiclass warlocks are even worse (I give up my long rest to make 80 good berries instead).

You'd want to make sure you had a strictly defined sense of what constitutes an "encounter" before enacting the mechanic though.

[ChildofLuthic]

You'd want to make sure you had a strictly defined sense of what constitutes an "encounter" before enacting the mechanic though.

For my group that'd be easy - an encounter is when your DM says "alright that was an encounter". But I don't have any rules lawyer types who'd question it.

[Millstone85]

Taking a lesson from 4e, eh?Except that 4e's "encounter" powers were actually short-rest based.

[mephnick]

The DM in the Curse of Strahd game I'm in has a house rule where you can gain the benefits of a Short Rest at any point you're not in combat (no downtime required) but you only get 2 per long rest.

Been pounding this answer for a couple years now I think. It is the easiest fix and fixes literally every problem with mechanics and pacing changes.

The only complaint I've ever gotten (and only on forums) is that it sounds "game-y". Good thing D&D is a game first.