Yaarel
🇮🇱He-Mage
Yes, it is possible to vary the number of "Deep" Long Rests per level, when Counting Encounters. A great part of Counting Encounters is, the DM can easily suit the chart to taste.This is so interesting...
Shouldn't the number of rests vary with the number of encounters per level?
Also, did you notice any imbalances between classes as a consequence of this?
It is a good idea to decouple resource management from passage of time, for story purposes.
I was toying with the idea of short rest = 8 hrs., long rest = 24 hrs. But I believe yours is better.
The tier of Levels 5 thru 8 seems to be the sweet spot for 5e. There the math has 15 Encounters for each level. So two Long Rests means about five encounters between each Long Rest on average. Where the math expects about six encounters, five is slightly generous. The slack is to help players pace themselves when choosing to spend their Long Rest. If things go wrong, they have chance to spend it early, and still have one to make the stretch.
Originally, I had the starting tier of Levels 1 thru 4 with only one Long Rest. But this tier tends to be fragile, and I zoom thru it anyway. For the advanced tiers, of Levels 13 thru 16 and 17 thru 20, I tend to throw deadlier encounters at the players. So I left it at two Long Rests for everything.
For a grittier campaign, make every tier only one Long Rest. Then in the sweet spot of Levels 5 thru 8, there are about eight encounters until the next Long Rest (instead of the mathematical six). Also, for settings that are low magic, keep everything in only the first two tiers, Levels 1 thru 4 and 5 thru 8. Then increase the number encounters until the next level, to stretch the length of the campaign out longer.
Regarding imbalances. There are two concerns, but they havent happened in my games.
One is, it is possible that two near TPKs happened. The players are stranded, low on hit points, having spent their Long Rests and there are many encounters still to go. Some DMs are happy with a "two week vacation" automatically counting as Long Rest. In any case, to reboot the game by refreshing all of the player characters seems like DM discretion. I dont worry about this because two Long Rests per level is plenty.
The other concern hasnt happened but could. Because social encounters count, it is possible to rely mainly on social encounters, thus allow the casters to keep their slots and other resources, thus be more powerful relative to the martials. So far, players enjoy combat, and their casters do face new combats after having already spent their best slots. Thus the martials shine protecting the casters. Meanwhile, because social encounters count, casters tend to use magic for various reasons for social encounters too. If any DMs find that caster-martial becomes noticeable, the solution is to corner the party and force the party into combat − a Hard one to burn up the caster resources.