The rule about one long rest per day makes sense to me. But in a dungeon crawl players can exhaust themselves in several hours of in game time. So it just seems kind of strange to me to have characters wake up, explore until lunch then need to hang out in some dank corner of a dangerous dungeon until late when they can sleep again.
Does it wreck the balance or some other aspect of the game to allow players a second long rest during the day or is that something people do in their games?
Personally, I did allow it once and I don't think I will on the newer campaign. It allowed them to wade through the entire crawl, not making any effort to conserve resources and to me, as DM, looking back, I should have made it more challenging. I wouldn't punish them too harshly, but I would, this time, push them a bit farther than they're comfortable with before allowing another long rest. Maybe even mention if the last fight(s) get a bit hairy, that they might have blown their power too quick too early, or some such. Make them consider their resource management a bit better. A few classes regain stuff on a short rest, maybe a couple spell slots, renew the Ki for the monk, whatever.
As DM, you can soften up the monsters you push them with, if you want to show the point of not going full out all the time, and more careful use of special stuff that needs a long rest to recharge. It does break the story and such, either way you cut it if they burn out too quick. Either just "hanging out" until bedtime, or dropping for a solid 8 hours seems weird for adventurers in a dungeon. Another idea, to drag out time, is to have puzzle rooms between encounters. It gives you a way to "dump" time, if the players are in need of a rest. You can tell them it took 2 hours to think through and solve the puzzle or something. To keep storyline and timeline flowing to make sense.
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Talk to your Players.Talk to your DM. If more people used this advice, there would be 24.74% fewer threads on Tactics, Rules and DM discussions.
I could go both ways on it. Yes, it's annoying when the party tries to long rest in between each 1-2 minute encounter, but the DM theoretically also has other plot and encounter solutions to discourage that behavior. But also, the party may be in fact so beat up that it isn't realistic or desirable to have them go on limping through 2 or 3 more encounters, and it might be the DMs own fault that they're in that position, so they can hardly blame them.
Its a bit immersion breaking though, to wake up in the morning, exert yourself real hard for a few minutes, and then fall back asleep for 8 hours no problem. There's lots of times in my life that I've been so beat up or exhausted that I wished I could just fall asleep, but my body wouldn't let me... so what about requiring the party to make DC 10ish saving throws (I'd say Wisdom) to fall asleep? One check allowed per hour, stop checking for the rest of the long rest once a character succeeds, but the DC goes up by 1 or 2 each time they fail? So a mid-day long rest might end up taking longer than the usual 8 hours, while the whole party waits and waits for the one tired and frustrated fighter to quit tossing and turning and catch their 6 hours of z's that they need in a long rest? And of course, the longer they're waiting, the more likely that the entire effort ends up getting interrupted by a wandering encounter, or a plot exigency....
You can be more or less harsh with interruptions and random Wisdom save houserulings, but I guess my takeaway would be: a hard ruling that the party can never take two long rests in one day is probably inappropriate, and may punish the party for a situation that was only in the DMs control, but if the party is abusing it, the DM has options to make it more than a "we take a long rest" given.
The rule about one long rest per day makes sense to me. But in a dungeon crawl players can exhaust themselves in several hours of in game time. So it just seems kind of strange to me to have characters wake up, explore until lunch then need to hang out in some dank corner of a dangerous dungeon until late when they can sleep again.
Does it wreck the balance or some other aspect of the game to allow players a second long rest during the day or is that something people do in their games?
In general letting the PCs have as many long rests as they'd like to have wrecks the balance of the game. Most dungeons are actually meant to be completed with zero long rests -- you enter the dungeon and finish the entire thing in a single day.
The rule about one long rest per day makes sense to me. But in a dungeon crawl players can exhaust themselves in several hours of in game time. So it just seems kind of strange to me to have characters wake up, explore until lunch then need to hang out in some dank corner of a dangerous dungeon until late when they can sleep again.
Does it wreck the balance or some other aspect of the game to allow players a second long rest during the day or is that something people do in their games?
To add more... I think that 5E isn't really designed from a Dungeon Crawl perspective, for exactly the reason you point out. While its a little dependent on party composition and encounter challenge, its hard to picture a group that wants to go more than 4 or 5 encounters per long rest.
When out and about, 2 or 3 encounters could take hours, or even a full day, with plenty of other non-combat encounters and roleplaying that the DM can pad the day out with. But when you've got Encounter A behind door 1, and then Encounter B another 100 feet down the hall behind door 2, and nothing else to do but fight.... the party can run into encounters as fast as they keep walking forward. So what are you going to do, get mad at them that they're exploring the dungeon you put in front of them, and tell them that they have to sit on their butt for 24 hours or risk a TPK because they have nothing else to do but push forward into a dangerous setting with no resources?
It can put the group in a real catch-22. Dungeon Crawls are a very common expectation we have from video games where time isn't real, but don't really fit into a realistic timeline of how time "should" pass in a narrative, or what a party should be capable of in a day. Really, a lot of encounters and room-by-room exploration in a dungeon crawl are filler, and most dungeons shouldn't take more than a full day to explore unless they're exceptionally mega-dungeonish. Just axe Generic Orc Fights 2-5 after the initial skirmish in the first cave, cross out the plot-irrelevent Lurkers hiding above the treasure chest, and think ahead of time about how you can move the party through the Haunted Dungeon in 4 or 5 encounters instead of 20.
According to the rules palyers can expect 6-8 encounters per day, the fact that they often only get one means the classes with long rest resources are much more powerful than the rest as they can use high level spells every round of combat. A dungeon crawl is a perfect chance to let other classes get more of the glory, as they enter the dungeon I would make it clear to the players that the dungeon loks extensive and they may well struggle to find a place to sleep.
Having said that things like picking locks and searching for secret doors / treasure takes time so in a dungeon crawl you can easily get 6-8 encounters to last all day.
If in the first encounter is nearly a TPK they use all their hit dice and a short rest and get severly eat up in the second encounter then the DM either the players' characters have been very stupid or the DM has made rthe combat too difficult.
If the players Use all their spell slots on the first encounter which was easy / medium are virtually unhurt and want a long rest to get them back I would be less leniant. In such circumstances if they tried to take a "rest from lunch to the next morning they would wfind wandering monsters disturb them, nothing that can't be killed with cantrips / weapon attacks but enough to make them think they need to conserve resources. If they really do need a long rest they could find a store room which looks to get very little use, it may also be possible for them to leavew the dungeon and come back the next day.
Where's this 6-8 encounters rule you're referencing? I struggle to imagine how a Tier 1 party could be expected to meaningfully complete that many encounters, it would be really pushing it for Tier 2 as well... You're basically asking the party to complete more encounters without their limited use class features than they are with them? A level 1 Wizard has 3 spells they can cast per day, and a level 5 Wizard has 10-12. Each encounter is probably between 3 and 5 rounds long. You expect a Wizard to go 3-6 rounds in between each leveled spell casting? You expect a Barbarian to only rage in half of their fights, or less? Nah, that doesn't sound right.
Where's this 6-8 encounters rule you're referencing? I struggle to imagine how a Tier 1 party could be expected to meaningfully complete that many encounters, it would be really pushing it for Tier 2 as well... You're basically asking the party to complete more encounters without their limited use class features than they are with them? A level 1 Wizard has 3 spells they can cast per day, and a level 5 Wizard has 10-12. Each encounter is probably between 3 and 5 rounds long. You expect a Wizard to go 3-6 rounds in between each leveled spell casting? You expect a Barbarian to only rage in half of their fights, or less? Nah, that doesn't sound right.
DMG chapter 13:
The Adventuring Day
Assuming typical adventuring conditions and average luck, most adventuring parties can handle about six to eight medium or hard encounters in a day. If the adventure has more easy encounters, the adventurers can get through more. If it has more deadly encounters, they can handle fewer.
Actually I probably wouldn't go as far as that, if I was putting 6-8 encounters at a party in a day at least if most of them were likely to be combat most would be likely to be medium with a some easy and maybe one hard boss fight (that I woould weaken if they were struggling) A level 1 wizard can cast their cantrips as often as they like why is a barbarians uses of rage limited if the game was designed so that they can rage whenever they are in combat? A dungeon crawl with many relatively easy encounters makes the player have to choose whether to use resources that reduce the duration of the combat (and hence the likelihood of getting hurt) or keep them for a later encounter that might be tougher. It brings a new level of strategy than the I cast my highest level spell a the start of every encounter which becomces the norm when the party are have one "super deadly" encounter per day.
Also not all "encounters" are combat they are situations where their is a potential to use up resources. A locked door can be opened with knock or picked. If the party take the cloaks being worn by all the bandit group they may be able to bluff there way through some sections without combat at all. That 6-8 encounters might become 4-5 combats and in one of those combats the rogue with his sneak attack took ourt one bad guy and the other is looking pretty hurt before the barb even gets his turn so there is no need to rage.
You can may need to space out your encounters more, or maybe you are unaware normal dungeon exploring takes time (searching a room takes 10 minutes, for example).
But, if you want to allow more rests and/or shorter rests, you can.
Where's this 6-8 encounters rule you're referencing?
The DMG has a daily encounter budget which amounts to 6-8 medium encounters. A lot of people just use deadly encounters all the time in which case it's generally 3.
Where's this 6-8 encounters rule you're referencing?
The DMG has a daily encounter budget which amounts to 6-8 medium encounters. A lot of people just use deadly encounters all the time in which case it's generally 3.
The DMG does say 6-8 medium to hard encounters per day (the actual math comes out to exactly 6 medium), but has anyone actually played that many?
I can't imagine having more than 4 non-easy encounters between long rests. Then again, actually checking the difficulty of encounters my DM throws at us are usually hard-deadly, so maybe that's why.
The rule about one long rest per day makes sense to me. But in a dungeon crawl players can exhaust themselves in several hours of in game time. So it just seems kind of strange to me to have characters wake up, explore until lunch then need to hang out in some dank corner of a dangerous dungeon until late when they can sleep again.
Does it wreck the balance or some other aspect of the game to allow players a second long rest during the day or is that something people do in their games?
The point is for characters with long rest abilities to exhaust themselves, such that characters like fighters with short rest abilities get to shine and show that they're not completely useless compared to full casters.
So, in my opinion, it would definitely further unbalance the game to give more than 1 long rest per adventuring day. It sounds crazy to me.
Personally, I did allow it once and I don't think I will on the newer campaign. It allowed them to wade through the entire crawl, not making any effort to conserve resources and to me, as DM, looking back, I should have made it more challenging. I wouldn't punish them too harshly, but I would, this time, push them a bit farther than they're comfortable with before allowing another long rest. Maybe even mention if the last fight(s) get a bit hairy, that they might have blown their power too quick too early, or some such. Make them consider their resource management a bit better. A few classes regain stuff on a short rest, maybe a couple spell slots, renew the Ki for the monk, whatever.
As DM, you can soften up the monsters you push them with, if you want to show the point of not going full out all the time, and more careful use of special stuff that needs a long rest to recharge. It does break the story and such, either way you cut it if they burn out too quick. Either just "hanging out" until bedtime, or dropping for a solid 8 hours seems weird for adventurers in a dungeon. Another idea, to drag out time, is to have puzzle rooms between encounters. It gives you a way to "dump" time, if the players are in need of a rest. You can tell them it took 2 hours to think through and solve the puzzle or something. To keep storyline and timeline flowing to make sense.
I as a DM would allow them to back out of a dungeon, sure thing, but then they might not be able to make it back in due to reinforcements etc.
Where's this 6-8 encounters rule you're referencing? I struggle to imagine how a Tier 1 party could be expected to meaningfully complete that many encounters, it would be really pushing it for Tier 2 as well... You're basically asking the party to complete more encounters without their limited use class features than they are with them? A level 1 Wizard has 3 spells they can cast per day, and a level 5 Wizard has 10-12. Each encounter is probably between 3 and 5 rounds long. You expect a Wizard to go 3-6 rounds in between each leveled spell casting? You expect a Barbarian to only rage in half of their fights, or less? Nah, that doesn't sound right.
I honestly think that it sounds completely right. There are cantrips and weapon attacks + strategic combat actions that's always available.
We expect fighters to mainly do attacks, so why is it hard to imagine a wizard mainly using cantrips to conserve strength for aoe or harder enemies?
Assuming typical adventuring conditions and average luck, most adventuring parties can handle about six to eight medium or hard encounters in a day. If the adventure has more easy encounters, the adventurers can get through more. If it has more deadly encounters, they can handle fewer.
I am struggling to find this. My DMG only has 9 chapters, and so does the one on this site. Am I missing something?
Assuming typical adventuring conditions and average luck, most adventuring parties can handle about six to eight medium or hard encounters in a day. If the adventure has more easy encounters, the adventurers can get through more. If it has more deadly encounters, they can handle fewer.
I am struggling to find this. My DMG only has 9 chapters, and so does the one on this site. Am I missing something?
I guess I just don’t use, and haven’t encountered, the sort of easy combats the DMG must be presuming, where you can face roll them with basic attacks and cantrips and without expending much HP. A low stakes combat like that is precisely the sort that I’m saying serves no real utility in a game, and should be entirely skipped or glossed over to spend more time on the good stuff (“you surprise two orcs around a campfire, roll contested initiative to see if you can kill them before they raise an alarm or if they manage to shout before you cut them down”).
According to the same book that decided the 6-8 medium encounters thing, a typical encounter is usually 3 rounds or less. Easier encounters take less rounds. If your normal encounters are 3-5 rounds, you are in one of the groups that has less encounters, but they are much tougher.
I personally use around 3-6 encounters per long rest, and they usually last 2-3 rounds. Days with less encounters usually involve a boss fight that lasts for around 4-6 rounds.
Where's this 6-8 encounters rule you're referencing?
The DMG has a daily encounter budget which amounts to 6-8 medium encounters. A lot of people just use deadly encounters all the time in which case it's generally 3.
The DMG does say 6-8 medium to hard encounters per day (the actual math comes out to exactly 6 medium), but has anyone actually played that many?
I can't imagine having more than 4 non-easy encounters between long rests. Then again, actually checking the difficulty of encounters my DM throws at us are usually hard-deadly, so maybe that's why.
Random: Forge Of Fury (3rd Level adventure) in Tales of the Yawning Portal is a dungeon crawl that is one encounter after another. The basic premise is you are assaulting a dwarven mine taken over by Orcs. There is hardly room to breathe let alone get the rest of either type on the first two levels because once the party is noticed the alarm is sound and wave after wave of orcs comes after you. Even if the party does find room to rest, they are more likely discovered via a random encounter. It's a fun adventure but the party really has to manage the strategy during combat to not waste all their resource in the first encounter.
The rule about one long rest per day makes sense to me. But in a dungeon crawl players can exhaust themselves in several hours of in game time. So it just seems kind of strange to me to have characters wake up, explore until lunch then need to hang out in some dank corner of a dangerous dungeon until late when they can sleep again.
I tackle this in a couple of ways.
Not every room in a dungeon needs to be an encounter and not every encounter needs to be a combat. Puzzles, traps, exposition, plot hooks for future adventures, neutral/friendly NPCs, and just good old fashioned exploring can take up a good chunk of the day and keeps things from feeling like a slog.
Long rests don't need to be the only way to recover resources.Maybe a particularly rousing victory amongst a chain of assaults could grant the benefits of a short rest. Maybe they find a magic fountain that grants the effect of a long rest. If rests would kill the pacing of the adventure, use the magic and wonder of the world or the triumph of victory to provide additional resources.
The rule about one long rest per day makes sense to me. But in a dungeon crawl players can exhaust themselves in several hours of in game time. So it just seems kind of strange to me to have characters wake up, explore until lunch then need to hang out in some dank corner of a dangerous dungeon until late when they can sleep again.
Does it wreck the balance or some other aspect of the game to allow players a second long rest during the day or is that something people do in their games?
Personally, I did allow it once and I don't think I will on the newer campaign. It allowed them to wade through the entire crawl, not making any effort to conserve resources and to me, as DM, looking back, I should have made it more challenging. I wouldn't punish them too harshly, but I would, this time, push them a bit farther than they're comfortable with before allowing another long rest. Maybe even mention if the last fight(s) get a bit hairy, that they might have blown their power too quick too early, or some such. Make them consider their resource management a bit better. A few classes regain stuff on a short rest, maybe a couple spell slots, renew the Ki for the monk, whatever.
As DM, you can soften up the monsters you push them with, if you want to show the point of not going full out all the time, and more careful use of special stuff that needs a long rest to recharge. It does break the story and such, either way you cut it if they burn out too quick. Either just "hanging out" until bedtime, or dropping for a solid 8 hours seems weird for adventurers in a dungeon. Another idea, to drag out time, is to have puzzle rooms between encounters. It gives you a way to "dump" time, if the players are in need of a rest. You can tell them it took 2 hours to think through and solve the puzzle or something. To keep storyline and timeline flowing to make sense.
Talk to your Players. Talk to your DM. If more people used this advice, there would be 24.74% fewer threads on Tactics, Rules and DM discussions.
I could go both ways on it. Yes, it's annoying when the party tries to long rest in between each 1-2 minute encounter, but the DM theoretically also has other plot and encounter solutions to discourage that behavior. But also, the party may be in fact so beat up that it isn't realistic or desirable to have them go on limping through 2 or 3 more encounters, and it might be the DMs own fault that they're in that position, so they can hardly blame them.
Its a bit immersion breaking though, to wake up in the morning, exert yourself real hard for a few minutes, and then fall back asleep for 8 hours no problem. There's lots of times in my life that I've been so beat up or exhausted that I wished I could just fall asleep, but my body wouldn't let me... so what about requiring the party to make DC 10ish saving throws (I'd say Wisdom) to fall asleep? One check allowed per hour, stop checking for the rest of the long rest once a character succeeds, but the DC goes up by 1 or 2 each time they fail? So a mid-day long rest might end up taking longer than the usual 8 hours, while the whole party waits and waits for the one tired and frustrated fighter to quit tossing and turning and catch their 6 hours of z's that they need in a long rest? And of course, the longer they're waiting, the more likely that the entire effort ends up getting interrupted by a wandering encounter, or a plot exigency....
You can be more or less harsh with interruptions and random Wisdom save houserulings, but I guess my takeaway would be: a hard ruling that the party can never take two long rests in one day is probably inappropriate, and may punish the party for a situation that was only in the DMs control, but if the party is abusing it, the DM has options to make it more than a "we take a long rest" given.
dndbeyond.com forum tags
I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.
In general letting the PCs have as many long rests as they'd like to have wrecks the balance of the game. Most dungeons are actually meant to be completed with zero long rests -- you enter the dungeon and finish the entire thing in a single day.
To add more... I think that 5E isn't really designed from a Dungeon Crawl perspective, for exactly the reason you point out. While its a little dependent on party composition and encounter challenge, its hard to picture a group that wants to go more than 4 or 5 encounters per long rest.
When out and about, 2 or 3 encounters could take hours, or even a full day, with plenty of other non-combat encounters and roleplaying that the DM can pad the day out with. But when you've got Encounter A behind door 1, and then Encounter B another 100 feet down the hall behind door 2, and nothing else to do but fight.... the party can run into encounters as fast as they keep walking forward. So what are you going to do, get mad at them that they're exploring the dungeon you put in front of them, and tell them that they have to sit on their butt for 24 hours or risk a TPK because they have nothing else to do but push forward into a dangerous setting with no resources?
It can put the group in a real catch-22. Dungeon Crawls are a very common expectation we have from video games where time isn't real, but don't really fit into a realistic timeline of how time "should" pass in a narrative, or what a party should be capable of in a day. Really, a lot of encounters and room-by-room exploration in a dungeon crawl are filler, and most dungeons shouldn't take more than a full day to explore unless they're exceptionally mega-dungeonish. Just axe Generic Orc Fights 2-5 after the initial skirmish in the first cave, cross out the plot-irrelevent Lurkers hiding above the treasure chest, and think ahead of time about how you can move the party through the Haunted Dungeon in 4 or 5 encounters instead of 20.
dndbeyond.com forum tags
I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.
According to the rules palyers can expect 6-8 encounters per day, the fact that they often only get one means the classes with long rest resources are much more powerful than the rest as they can use high level spells every round of combat. A dungeon crawl is a perfect chance to let other classes get more of the glory, as they enter the dungeon I would make it clear to the players that the dungeon loks extensive and they may well struggle to find a place to sleep.
Having said that things like picking locks and searching for secret doors / treasure takes time so in a dungeon crawl you can easily get 6-8 encounters to last all day.
If in the first encounter is nearly a TPK they use all their hit dice and a short rest and get severly eat up in the second encounter then the DM either the players' characters have been very stupid or the DM has made rthe combat too difficult.
If the players Use all their spell slots on the first encounter which was easy / medium are virtually unhurt and want a long rest to get them back I would be less leniant. In such circumstances if they tried to take a "rest from lunch to the next morning they would wfind wandering monsters disturb them, nothing that can't be killed with cantrips / weapon attacks but enough to make them think they need to conserve resources. If they really do need a long rest they could find a store room which looks to get very little use, it may also be possible for them to leavew the dungeon and come back the next day.
Where's this 6-8 encounters rule you're referencing? I struggle to imagine how a Tier 1 party could be expected to meaningfully complete that many encounters, it would be really pushing it for Tier 2 as well... You're basically asking the party to complete more encounters without their limited use class features than they are with them? A level 1 Wizard has 3 spells they can cast per day, and a level 5 Wizard has 10-12. Each encounter is probably between 3 and 5 rounds long. You expect a Wizard to go 3-6 rounds in between each leveled spell casting? You expect a Barbarian to only rage in half of their fights, or less? Nah, that doesn't sound right.
dndbeyond.com forum tags
I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.
DMG chapter 13:
The Adventuring Day
Assuming typical adventuring conditions and average luck, most adventuring parties can handle about six to eight medium or hard encounters in a day. If the adventure has more easy encounters, the adventurers can get through more. If it has more deadly encounters, they can handle fewer.
Actually I probably wouldn't go as far as that, if I was putting 6-8 encounters at a party in a day at least if most of them were likely to be combat most would be likely to be medium with a some easy and maybe one hard boss fight (that I woould weaken if they were struggling) A level 1 wizard can cast their cantrips as often as they like why is a barbarians uses of rage limited if the game was designed so that they can rage whenever they are in combat? A dungeon crawl with many relatively easy encounters makes the player have to choose whether to use resources that reduce the duration of the combat (and hence the likelihood of getting hurt) or keep them for a later encounter that might be tougher. It brings a new level of strategy than the I cast my highest level spell a the start of every encounter which becomces the norm when the party are have one "super deadly" encounter per day.
Also not all "encounters" are combat they are situations where their is a potential to use up resources. A locked door can be opened with knock or picked. If the party take the cloaks being worn by all the bandit group they may be able to bluff there way through some sections without combat at all. That 6-8 encounters might become 4-5 combats and in one of those combats the rogue with his sneak attack took ourt one bad guy and the other is looking pretty hurt before the barb even gets his turn so there is no need to rage.
You can may need to space out your encounters more, or maybe you are unaware normal dungeon exploring takes time (searching a room takes 10 minutes, for example).
But, if you want to allow more rests and/or shorter rests, you can.
The DMG has a daily encounter budget which amounts to 6-8 medium encounters. A lot of people just use deadly encounters all the time in which case it's generally 3.
The DMG does say 6-8 medium to hard encounters per day (the actual math comes out to exactly 6 medium), but has anyone actually played that many?
I can't imagine having more than 4 non-easy encounters between long rests. Then again, actually checking the difficulty of encounters my DM throws at us are usually hard-deadly, so maybe that's why.
The point is for characters with long rest abilities to exhaust themselves, such that characters like fighters with short rest abilities get to shine and show that they're not completely useless compared to full casters.
So, in my opinion, it would definitely further unbalance the game to give more than 1 long rest per adventuring day. It sounds crazy to me.
Altrazin Aghanes - Wizard/Fighter
Varpulis Windhowl - Fighter
Skolson Demjon - Cleric/Fighter
I as a DM would allow them to back out of a dungeon, sure thing, but then they might not be able to make it back in due to reinforcements etc.
Altrazin Aghanes - Wizard/Fighter
Varpulis Windhowl - Fighter
Skolson Demjon - Cleric/Fighter
I honestly think that it sounds completely right. There are cantrips and weapon attacks + strategic combat actions that's always available.
We expect fighters to mainly do attacks, so why is it hard to imagine a wizard mainly using cantrips to conserve strength for aoe or harder enemies?
Altrazin Aghanes - Wizard/Fighter
Varpulis Windhowl - Fighter
Skolson Demjon - Cleric/Fighter
I am struggling to find this. My DMG only has 9 chapters, and so does the one on this site. Am I missing something?
It is Chapter 3 p. 84 in the hardcover book.
I guess I just don’t use, and haven’t encountered, the sort of easy combats the DMG must be presuming, where you can face roll them with basic attacks and cantrips and without expending much HP. A low stakes combat like that is precisely the sort that I’m saying serves no real utility in a game, and should be entirely skipped or glossed over to spend more time on the good stuff (“you surprise two orcs around a campfire, roll contested initiative to see if you can kill them before they raise an alarm or if they manage to shout before you cut them down”).
dndbeyond.com forum tags
I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.
According to the same book that decided the 6-8 medium encounters thing, a typical encounter is usually 3 rounds or less. Easier encounters take less rounds. If your normal encounters are 3-5 rounds, you are in one of the groups that has less encounters, but they are much tougher.
I personally use around 3-6 encounters per long rest, and they usually last 2-3 rounds. Days with less encounters usually involve a boss fight that lasts for around 4-6 rounds.
Random: Forge Of Fury (3rd Level adventure) in Tales of the Yawning Portal is a dungeon crawl that is one encounter after another. The basic premise is you are assaulting a dwarven mine taken over by Orcs. There is hardly room to breathe let alone get the rest of either type on the first two levels because once the party is noticed the alarm is sound and wave after wave of orcs comes after you. Even if the party does find room to rest, they are more likely discovered via a random encounter. It's a fun adventure but the party really has to manage the strategy during combat to not waste all their resource in the first encounter.
I tackle this in a couple of ways.
My homebrew subclasses (full list here)
(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm