I answered that earlier, but to state it another way, I would like to encourage players to think more strategically and to feel that being wounded matters. When you can just get through a bunch fights knowing you'll be topped off after a long rest and be fresh as new, being wounded doesn't feel like it matters as much to me.
It's kind of like some modern video games that allow you to auto heal after 10 or 15 seconds. You can just grind through a level taking damage and then hiding until you "heal up" automatically, then go out guns blazing taking more damage and hiding again to heal up. Rinse and repeat. While I've played some great story based games that use that mechanic (the Uncharted series, for example), I prefer games that don't auto-heal me just by sitting around and hiding. It makes me learn to be more skillful, and it adds a feeling that how I approach things matters, and I'm more likely to plan and use strategy while increasing skill instead of constantly just shooting and hiding, knowing there won't be much consequence.
I'm definitely not in favor of adding a bunch of downtime and having characters sit around for days waiting to heal up. I throw random encounters at them or have other consequences if they do that. I like to keep my games at a decent pace, which is why I'm asking for others to share their experiences with this option.
Ok so if you want players to make choices other than combat more often AND do not want to add downtime consequences then i would say the change to require longer and longer periods of downtime is not the way to go.
You are literally hanging up a sword of "stuff you and i wont enjoy -unfun" and hoping they wont cut the thread. Its like holding a gun ppinted at "fun" and saying "dont do it or the ..... gets it."
I suggest you look at a variety of things you think would be FUN and put them into the other "strategic" options. As Kevin Costner said "Ifyou make it fun, they will play it."
Or more heavy handed...
One IMO big candidate is the SpiderMan principle. Put simply, they cannot beat the bad guy straight up.
Out of the box, head on, they lose.
But... If they change the circumstances... They can win.
Sneak around and remove macgufgin 1-3 and his assistants will be unable to help.
Find a missing macguffin and his whammy items will fail for a round or ten.
Make alliances for some ritual casting from allies that...
Make alliances for allies to draw off his forces.
All of these still allow the combats to take place but to varying degrees require or reward the other approaches as well.
But as a real look in the mirror, consider, if your players keep "gping to" fighting thru when they get the opportunity MAYBE just MAYBE you as GM actively moving to change/setup the campain to make that not work anymore or as much is not really in the service of the fun for everybody as much as maybe to your preferences.
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