D&D 5E Design Debate: 13th-level PCs vs. 6- to 8-Encounter Adventuring Day

Zardnaar said:

We made it to 7-8 encounters in an adventuring day today. DM threw winter wolves, Orcs, young remoraz, animals etc at us with a young white Dragon as the last encounter (5th level PCs).

We were low on spells by the end but my Monk was a short rest class and I managed to stun the Dragon.

Then later on we fought a Remoraz (level 5 vs CR 11) as a boss fight type encounter. Things were looking bleak but the Monk managed to stun it and it died to barbarian beat down, arrow and sacred flames (auto fail stunned, 2 clerics).

So anywhere between 7-8 encounters down to 1 encounter in todays session. We never know how many we get though and some days are very easy as we might only have 2-3 encounters but we do not nova off as the level 3 spells are being saved.

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This is sort of where we sit, depending on how many dice need to be rolled, and how well prepared they are versus that/those types of monsters, they might only make it through a couple encounters, require a short rest, and then another encounter drains them requiring the long rest. Likewise, they might breeze through 5 or 6 before a long rest, but this is rarer.

May I ask, what sort of encounters were they? Main story line, random sandbox outdoor exploring, dungeon crawl/room by room?

also the thing about this particular exercise written by Flamestrike, is that they are all strictly combat orientated, with a couple diplomacy options. I try to add some form of puzzle, or social interaction option, trap or difficult area to traverse, all resource demanding situations which I believe should be looked at as part of the 6-8 encounters. (Flamestrike's write up is a great example and I am still looking forward to testing it, hopefully over easter!)

Radaceus said:

This is sort of where we sit, depending on how many dice need to be rolled, and how well prepared they are versus that/those types of monsters, they might only make it through a couple encounters, require a short rest, and then another encounter drains them requiring the long rest. Likewise, they might breeze through 5 or 6 before a long rest, but this is rarer.

May I ask, what sort of encounters were they? Main story line, random sandbox outdoor exploring, dungeon crawl/room by room?

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Mostly sandbox small room encounters in a set of ruins (3 smaller dungeons in the same area). Mostly mellee with things like winter wolf breath. We generally short rest after 2 or 3 fights, sometimes 1 if it is really bad (CR 11 vs 5th level PCs). He is not using any type of encounter guidelines one of the later fights was vs 2-3 elemental (Ice ones refluffed water) and elemental myrmidons.

Ok as promised

Encounter 2
Shadow entered the portal looked around immediately spotted the slaad thanks to true sight from her cloak of eyes and turned invisible thanks to being in dim light and waited for the rest of the party to catch up. Winning the initiative she cast silence on the slaadi. The slaadi got to act 2nd moving forward and blasting fireballs from their it was a simple matter of spamming stunning fist and pegging away the party did sustain some significant damage though from the 3fire balls that got cast.

The front line moving away left the back row open to fireball shots losing the bonus from the paladin aura some sub optimal play there

Cleric 54
Fighter 68
Wizard 68
Paladin 28
Monk 54

Encounter 3
A short rest was taken after defeating the slaadi before moving on. The golem alerted the party with his clanking and they won the initiative(golem went dead last) he got blown apart before he could even act thanks partly to the disintegrate spell cast by the wizard costing a 6th lvl slot

Encounter 4a
Cleric prayed for divine intervention being that the demi plane was connected to the astral plane and they where trying to save the world i deemed that they would contain the energy of the portal (they shot a bolt at it they knew it was bad)

Encounter 4b
the PCs conversed with the gith briefly, as they simply wondered how they removed the anomaly in the previous room but didn't achieve anything combat ensued the pcs stayed on the far side of the bridge all clustered up making the wall of force tactic null and void so the encounter was a breeze a 3rd lvl slot used by the wizard to cast hypnotic pattern catching the main guy(sorry cant remember his name) and one of the grunts then the picket lines formed the the misty steps flew the focusing on the wizard taking 39points of damage(bad rolls on my part)the mage used his first round to rouse his leader then the fight turned into the inevitable back and forth with the pcs prevailing


Currently the pcs have seen the shadow demons through monk scouting (she was invisible) and the pcs are going in with a light spell prepped, a 22relgion check revealing their loathing of light.

Azurewraith said:

all clustered up making the wall of force tactic null and void

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Wall of Force can split the party regardless of how they are positioned. The caster can slap it down on top of creatures and pick which side of the wall they wind up on.

NotActuallyTim said:

Wall of Force can split the party regardless of how they are positioned. The caster can slap it down on top of creatures and pick which side of the wall they wind up on.

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Yeah, this.

Or simply use the sphere/ dome option and trap 2-3 PCs in the dome, leaving the other 2 to fight the Gith.

"An invisible wall of force springs into existence at a point you choose within range... You can form it into a hemispherical dome or a sphere with a radius of up to 10 feet, or you can shape a flat surface made up of ten 10-foot-by-10-foot panels. Each panel must be continguous with another panel."

The githyanki can misty step into and out of the sphere if needed.

It wouldn't of been worth it as the positioning on the grid left the monk and paladin up front the paladin would just out tank them untill a dispel came and the monk can well teleport. The way initiative fell made it awkward with hypnotic pattern going first so some rousing was needed

Azurewraith said:

It wouldn't of been worth it as the positioning on the grid left the monk and paladin up front the paladin would just out tank them untill a dispel came and the monk can well teleport. The way initiative fell made it awkward with hypnotic pattern going first so some rousing was needed

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Wouldn't it have been awesome if the monk and the paladin had been trapped in a Wall of Force, and it looked like the party was going to get crunched without them in the fight, so the monk grabbed the Paladin and Shadow Stepped them both back into play, thus turning a probable encounter loss into a win? (Depends on if you've previously established that Shadow Step can teleport everything the monk is carrying including creatures.)

Yes, it would have been awesome. By DM metagaming--by making the monsters know things the DM knows but the monsters couldn't and shouldn't--the monk was deprived of his moment of awesome that time.

Edit: BTW, Dispel Magic does not affect Wall of Force.

I wouldn't allow shadowstep to take things with you a open to to much abuse imo. They saw the monk teleport after the fleeing imp early. Didnt inclued in the write up didnt seem important.

Azurewraith said:

I wouldn't allow shadowstep to take things with you a open to to much abuse imo. They saw the monk teleport after the fleeing imp early. Didnt inclued in the write up didnt seem important.

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Did you remember to double the Githzeris HP for the potion? He has resistance remeber.

Seeing as the Mage was invisible, and the PCs all in a 10' wide coridor did you lob an upscaled LB at the party (it cant be countered as he is invisible and can counter any counterspell)?