0:00
D and D 5D's gritty realism variant
0:02
doesn't do anything about the durations
0:04
of spells, which is arguably a problem.
0:07
There are some spells that are designed
0:09
to last through an entire adventuring
0:11
day, such as mage armor. Those spells
0:13
generally have an 8 hour duration, so
0:15
they'll last today, but they won't cover
0:18
tomorrow. And when you're going up to a
0:22
week between long rests, that becomes
0:24
much more of a limitation. you have to
0:26
be much more selective about when you
0:28
use those spells and why. If you know
0:31
you're going to be fighting today, maybe
0:33
it's time to break out mage armor, but
0:35
it's not something that you're just
0:36
going to wake up and do every single
0:38
day. And in my opinion, that is
0:41
interesting. That is a good change to
0:44
the game. In a game where we're
0:46
struggling to get spellcasters to use
0:48
all of their resources and exhaust
0:50
themselves in any meaningful way like
0:53
that, that seems like a feature, not a
0:55
bug. The reality is a proficient, welle
0:58
equipped, prepared spellcaster beyond
1:00
very low levels can take care of most
1:03
encounters with a single spell. like
1:05
they'll probably cast one big spell and
1:08
basically ride that high through the
1:09
rest of the encounter and then maybe
1:12
throw in some cantrips or weapon attacks
1:14
depending on what you've built. Once
1:15
you're through very low levels,
1:17
spellcasters have enough spell slots
1:18
that they can spare one, two, maybe even
1:21
three leveled spells per combat
1:24
encounter. And at that point, like yeah,
1:27
they've got functionally unlimited
1:29
resources and cantrips are mostly there
1:30
as decoration or when they're feeling,
1:33
you know, thrifty, I guess. So, I think
1:35
letting gritty realism break the
1:38
durations of those longrunning spells
1:40
like mage armor, honestly, I think
1:41
that's fine. That may produce actually a
1:45
better play experience than you know the
1:48
relative rest to spell duration
1:51
comparison that we have by default.
