Number of Encounters by Level Per Day

[Appleseeth]

There's been a couple times where I've wanted to see exactly how far I could push my players, as far as number of encounters goes. The last time I tried we did four encounters of equal level and then one encounter of one level higher before a rest and by then the Paladin was out of surges (he does stupid things to get himself KOed though), and that was at level 18. I think the last time before that I got them to seven and I was really egging them on and I think I had to turn a combat encounter into a skill challenge. That was level 7 I think.

So here's my real question: How many encounters can you really put a party through before they need to rest? Not before they want to rest, but before they need to.

 

[Dice4Hire]

There are too many variables for a good answer, but I would prefer my players do 4 or so (or roughly equal level) before resting.

 

[Skallgrim]

Oh, heck. I know that I've put my party through 5 many times, 7 more than once, and I think I forced them to do 8 or more once without a rest (I'd have to break out Keep on the Shadowfell and count the number of encounters between the climactic end battle and where they last got a rest). They finished that one with three party members out of surges (and one at zero hp)!. Of course, that one was also because they rested too early like sissies, then realized that the clock was ticking on averting a catastrophe. It also didn't help that they explored areas during the combat that triggered adjacent encounters.

I remember the Chamber of Eyes (from Thunderspire Labyrinth) fondly. The party, through a totally dorky attempt at a Bluff, combined with an otherwise intelligent two-pronged assault strategy, faced the two first encounters simultaneously. Then they faced the third encounter, and when they got bottlenecked, started looking for a 'back door', which released opponents from the fourth encounter, AND let people from the third encounter fall back and get backup from the final encounter (Oh, good, some of them are running away!). That one was five 'encounters' in two fights.

I don't know why, but I looooooooooove throwing the party a curve on extended rest expectations. I've never, ever deliberately hosed the group, and we've had precisely zero party deaths. On the other hand, we've had a LOT of death checks!

 

[eamon]

It also didn't help that they explored areas during the combat that triggered adjacent encounters.

This bugs me in general with many of the published modules. There's a bunch of encounters that are so close together, it really makes no sense for the guards or critters or whatever in the next room to just twiddle their thumbs waiting for the PC's to advance. But, if you merge encounters, they can get much, much more difficult (despite being the same XP). It's as is there's a gentlemens agreement to pretend the other group doesn't exist. The party avoids peeking around the corner since then they can get embroiled in multiple encounters, and the monsters pretend not to hear anything.



But that behaviour just makes no sense for either party. The PC's would want to know when to retreat if necessary; without a DM promising to hold back the hordes, they don't have a clue what's coming around the corner - ignoring the chance of being interrupted might be a death sentence.

And for the "monsters" it makes even less sense. In some of those modules, the PC's need to make several short rest of even long rests; there's just no way a sane garrison wouldn't know it was being attacked by then. Yet, they persist in attacking in the worst possible fashion, giving the PC's the initiative and only attacking in small manageable chunks.

It bugs me that there's no good in-game explanation for these things.

Published modules shouldn't bunch encounters together like that without some regard for why they're actually several encounters.

 

[Holy Bovine]

I had my group do 3 encounters (2 combat and 1 skill challenge) without even a short rest in between. I did bend the rules slightly and allow them to spend surges for healing but no extra Healing Words or encounters were gained through the session. Made for a real nail biting finale aboard a magical 'sand skiff' as it rocketed out of control through the desert.

 

[Appleseeth]

I can one-up you Holy Bovine. I just put a party through three and a half encounters of equal level difficulty with only a chance to recover one encounter power and spend one healing surge between two of the encounters. They were level 6. By the time the last encounter came about the tension was so high they really felt they were going to die. It was pretty awesome.

Most of the time I tend to stick to four encounters of equal level or higher difficulty. This tends to ensure that the encounters are all-thriller-no-filler. My groups are also very tactically adept so they can handle the higher level encounters pretty well.

 

[Blackbrrd]

We usually run 4 encounters without a rest. They could probably manage 6-7. It all depends on how HARD the encounters are. I had one encounter that just blasted through party resources like mad, and another that used like 5 healing surges total...

I call the players sissies if they want to rest after 3 encounters!

 

[Mengu]

At level 1, I ran my party through 5 combat encounters and 1 skill challenge in the same day. At level 5 I ran them through 7 or so combat encounters.

As a level 1 player, I've ran through 6 encounters one time. At level 4 I think we ran through 6 encounters again. Those are the higher numbers I recall. 5 encounters should be doable at any level, with nearly any party composition. If you have a party with a healic, battlerager, some other tough dudes, and are doing level equivalent encounters, you might be able to do 10 or more.

Our Revenge of the Giants group went through the first 4 or 5 encounters with such grace, that I think we could have gone through another 3-4 similar encounters, and would have been fine. So encounter and party design are also a factor in this.

For the most part, I like 3-6 encounters per day with varied difficulties, and this is pretty much level independent.

 

[Ryujin]

It depends.....

The high Paragon group that I play in has been averaging 3 combat encounters a day, because we've been getting pounded. Many of those encounters have been 2-for-1 types, with masses of opponents, where we would end up expending all dailies and 3/4 of our healing surges just to stay alive. Occasionally though we'll get rail-roaded into doing 4 or 5 encounters straight through, without as much as a short rest. Those we've only survived by sheer luck of the dice, since we were typically down to at-wills by the third encounter.

 

[Appleseeth]

It seems to me that, even though I haven't played in Epic yet, characters with "Once per day when you die" abilities would actually almost prefer going long times without an extended rest. They'll have four daily attack powers they can spread out and tons of magic items to help them out too. Can anyone speak to this?