Discouraging the 15 minute adventuring day

[MonkeyMage]

The problem is that at it's base, you are mechanically encouraged to go nova.

I guess here is where we differ, I haven't experienced this problem. My group is, if anything, overly cautious about using their Dailies too early and not having them later when they really need them.

 

[Nytmare]

I guess here is where we differ, I haven't experienced this problem. My group is, if anything, overly cautious about using their Dailies too early and not having them later when they really need them.

It's not a problem with your group, it's a problem with a behavior that the rules encourage. Just because your group, or my group, or anyone's group doesn't abuse the system, that doesn't mean that the possibility of abuse shouldn't be addressed.

In combat your most powerful abilities work once a day, and the players have (some) control over how many fights they get into each day. The emergent strategy, barring DM intervention, is to blow through every available resource, every single fight. That's a fault of the system more than it's the fault of a player who takes advantage of it.

 

[eamon]

In combat your most powerful abilities work once a day, and the players have (some) control over how many fights they get into each day. The emergent strategy, barring DM intervention, is to blow through every available resource, every single fight. That's a fault of the system more than it's the fault of a player who takes advantage of it.

But's that's only if you look at the combat in a complete vacuum. I mean, there's a whole campaign world out there, and if there's really nothing going to happen if they just take a day per encounter, well, isn't that just fine? So they're in a scenerio where they've ample time, enemies aren't communicating with each other nor preparing defenses (so there's no reason to hurry), they don't have a reputation for quickness to uphold, and fights are dangerous - this doesn't sound like a "quirk of the system", it sounds reasonable in-game to be careful and rest well between those kind of fights.

The way I see it, the problem doesn't exist from a fluff or storytelling point of view. If there were a problem, it would manifest itself somehow. In-game.

The problem is a purely mechanical one, and the problem isn't that they're resting - resting a lot is perfectly reasonable! The problem is that the "default" adventuring day balance assumes that they'll do several fights a day, an assumption which is usually valid but not if time is completely irrelevant. The solution? Don't assume that there'll be several fights a day; simply make fights you expect them to rest between harder.

But really, it's pretty rare IME for there to be absolutely no reason to try and hurry. Usually, there's lots of reasons. If they're being payed to clear something up, and sleep a month, their contractor may well assume they're dead and hire someone else. Hey, we've got a plot hook! Whoops, he's got the reward now, and it's unique - he claimed to have solved the problem, but he must have stalked you guys. You'll have to claim your reward from him, but the only clues on his whereabouts I have are these...

Or damn, it's winter now, and hell has frozen over; try again next spring...

Or the BBEG has succeeded in raising his first undead legion and overrun the lowlands; your only chance now is to sneak past his guards and destroy the crystal of plothook animating his legion (but don't take too long, he's not sitting still...).

In fact, even if there's no obvious reason to hurry, if you've encountered this kind of stuff regularly you'll still avoid needlessly wasting time, since you have no idea what else might be going on.

 

[Present]

Strategies I've used:
1. Time limit, not like, if you rest you loose, but for example, it is currently day time, if you rest it will become night time and things will get harder, or the tomb must be opened on the full moon, so if the PCs take more then 2 days to get there they will have to wait for another full moon and that means extra encounters.
2. Harassment, every time the PCs try and rest a Spectre comes and does hit and run antics on them. Beating the Spectre is possible but a bitch. We don't want a no rest scenario though, so lets say players find "consecrated candles" every once in a while which allow to rest safely. This makes extended rests a kind of resource they use up.
3. Something is chasing them. I have one entire "dungeon" that is just the PCs running from big bads and trying to defeat enemies they come across as quickly as possible. In this scenario each individual turn is a resource. I made the encounters easy and the need to get away encourage them to make risky balls to the walls maneuvers. It was fun.