Quote Originally Posted by Skrum View Post
On this note, I'm planning on doing 5 minutes for a short rest, 24 hours for a long rest for my upcoming game. The game is going to quite attritive, so the idea is if LR are hard to come by and SR are essentially free, the SR classes will actually function in a way that's more in line with (what I think) is their base conception.
As a DM who continually struggles to reconcile how Long and Short rests are supposed to happen (in terms of game/class balance) vs how they always end up actually working during the campaign, I like this idea a lot. Its kind of the BG3 model where a SR is something you can take instantly and at almost any time you aren't in immediate peril, whereas taking a Long Rest is actually a big deal that consumes resources and involves actual down-time.

I suppose the counter argument is: if the party beds down for the night, its not a long rest? The response to which, I suppose, is: the SR/LR mechanic really only holds when the party is *adventuring* and in the dungeon or otherwise on high-alert.

If they're spending 2 weeks getting from one place to another, perhaps suffering the occasional wandering monster but that's it, then who cares? They're long-resting every night because its fine. But if the caravan is raided by bandits (big fight + short rest), the party tracks the bandits back to their lair to recover the Maguffin or hostages or something and has a couple battles against bandit scouts and a wandering bear along the way (a few smaller fights, then short rest), then the party finds the bandit camp and raids them back (big fight) and discovers the entrance to a ruined temple in the back of the camp (possible long rest before investigating?), then the cadence and circumstances are totally different and the Long Rest/Short Rest system comes into play.