Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Sauurman Sep 15, 2014 19:52:06	I'm curious about the one hour rule for short rests.  In past D&D editions it was assumed the party took some time to recover from battle - this was most noticable in 4th edition with encounter powers.     In 5th edition they raised the time from 5 minutes to one hour.  I'm wondering what the intention of this was by Wizards.  Did they envsion that parties will almost never use short rests or did they forsee parties using them often?     How many encounters are realistic in a single day?  (Assuming they are challenging).  8?  Well thats 8 hours of short rests!     I know it will probably depend on what kind of campaign, what type of situation the parties are in but what I'm really asking is how many fights in a row between short rests did Wizards balance the game for?
#2 SpedGuy Sep 15, 2014 20:14:45	If suppose it varies; a series of weak enemies giving you no time to rest could end up being a good challenge once in a while.     In my campain it has varied a lot depending on what is happening.  While traveling in a wagon they rested between every encounter; but when trying to rescue someone from being sacrificed in a temple they had to rush four in a row.
#3 ankiyavon Sep 15, 2014 20:39:35	In general, the intent is that PCs will not rest after every encounter.  I believe the developers said somewhere that they consider an average day to be 4 encounters with 1 short rest, so an average of 2 encounters per rest.     As has been said, it can, however, vary greatly depending on campaign events.  The game is designed for a variable number of encounters per rest; you don't have to worry that the game will break if your PCs don't get the chance to rest after every encounter.
#4 Ashrym Sep 15, 2014 20:40:44	It was also to make short rests more meaningful instead of assumed. The DMG should have the rules on adjusting short rests.
#5 Sauurman Sep 15, 2014 21:36:15	ankiyavon wrote:
#6 Ansbach Sep 15, 2014 21:43:43	It's actually 6-8 medium or hard encounters per day, per the DM's Basic Rules (pg 58).  So more likely 3-6 encounters per rest, assuming there are some easy encounters in there as well.  Also, keep in mind that a  short rest is a minimum one hour - it could be a couple of hours if that makes more sense in the flow of the adventure.   I'm sure the added length is to reduce the amount of times they occur for the sake of balance, since so much stuff refreshes after a short rest.