D&D 5E The 6-battle adventuring day, does it even exist?

[Marc_C]

I don't do complex dungeon crawls generally.

Maybe one time in a keep we did 5-6 battle day. It was a chase across the levels to capture the bad guy who escaped on the roof on his nightmare mount. Mouhahaha! (a recurring villain was created)

 

[Ovinomancer]

I don't do complex dungeon crawls generally.

Maybe one time in a keep we did 5-6 battle day. It was a chase across the levels to capture the bad guy who escaped on the roof on his nightmare mount. Mouhahaha! (a recurring villain was created)

Does the system in the book work well for your game? Honest question. I'm generally curious about if people are having a good experience with the rules when not following the guidance for encounters, or if they're making changes to those rules -- either ignoring or adding -- to make the game work for them.

 

[guachi]

I've had anywhere from 1 to 12 encounters in an adventuring day. Getting there meant making a long rest one week (modified) and getting rid of short rests entirely. Time everything off of long rest. 3x short rests = long rest. I've found the game is so much more fun to run as a DM.

Set expectations that combat should be executed quickly and it's not so bad having multiple combats.

 

[Marc_C]

Does the system in the book work well for your game? Honest question. I'm generally curious about if people are having a good experience with the rules when not following the guidance for encounters, or if they're making changes to those rules -- either ignoring or adding -- to make the game work for them.

I believe I did between 2 to 4 encounters per day. Always justified by the arc story the PCs were slowly uncovering. Which was a secret plot to weaken the barony of their murdered father and take over the territory.

PC didn't get 100% Hit Points each morning. They only recoup 1/2 HDs each morning unless they were not adventuring. Everything else was RAW. We wanted a grittier game. It worked fine because the encounters were challenging 75% of the time. The last game we played I pushed the enveloped and sensed the players were starting to really panic against 3 deadly encounters in a row. I had them in the ropes. Which made sense since it was the final chapter.

Sadly we ever finished the campaign. 2 players divorced and it killed the group.

 

[Ovinomancer]

I believe I did between 2 to 4 encounters per day. Always justified by the arc story the PCs were slowly uncovering. Which was a secret plot to weaken the barony of their murdered father and take over the territory.

PC didn't get 100% Hit Points each morning. They only recoup 1/2 HDs each morning unless they were not adventuring. Everything else was RAW. We wanted a grittier game. It worked fine because the encounters were challenging 75% of the time. The last game we played I pushed the enveloped and sensed the players were starting to really panic against 3 deadly encounters in a row. I had them in the ropes. Which made sense since it was the final chapter.

Sadly we ever finished the campaign. 2 players divorced and it killed the group.

How did the classes feel balanced against each other, or did you mostly have PCs that shared rest recharges?

 

[Asisreo]

Being low on resources, which includes ammunition and spells, adds great tension to these moments.

Hm...let me see how to phrase this.

Being low on resources is the antithesis of what makes a TTRPG fun and exciting because it removes choices and makes their consequences random and arbitrary.

In my mind, resource expenditure is like death in TTRPGs, the threat of it causes tension but the actual state of being in it is boring, upsetting, and overall negative.

Players should fear the encounters with the mooks because they don't want to waste all their resources and have none left for the boss, but players shouldn't actually get to the point where they barely have resources when they get there because they like actually having their abilities on-hand in their epic fight.

As for designing single combat days without massive swings for TPK and a breeze, its best to just give your enemy high defenses (not just meat) and lower damage yet make it AoE. Things like Legendary Resistances, condition/damage immunities, magic resistance, avoidance, high saving throws, extra movement options, and reactions. It may sound like it could end up being a slog, but nothing gets players more fearful than the fact that the enemy can attack the whole party with one attack and they can't just fight in the most direct ways.

 

[mrpopstar]

Hm...let me see how to phrase this.

Being low on resources is the antithesis of what makes a TTRPG fun and exciting because it removes choices and makes their consequences random and arbitrary.

In my mind, resource expenditure is like death in TTRPGs, the threat of it causes tension but the actual state of being in it is boring, upsetting, and overall negative.

Players should fear the encounters with the mooks because they don't want to waste all their resources and have none left for the boss, but players shouldn't actually get to the point where they barely have resources when they get there because they like actually having their abilities on-hand in their epic fight.

As for designing single combat days without massive swings for TPK and a breeze, its best to just give your enemy high defenses (not just meat) and lower damage yet make it AoE. Things like Legendary Resistances, condition/damage immunities, magic resistance, avoidance, high saving throws, extra movement options, and reactions. It may sound like it could end up being a slog, but nothing gets players more fearful than the fact that the enemy can attack the whole party with one attack and they can't just fight in the most direct ways.

Never have I ever reached the main villain without having to survive their defenses first.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Hm...let me see how to phrase this.

Being low on resources is the antithesis of what makes a TTRPG fun and exciting because it removes choices and makes their consequences random and arbitrary.

And for me, there's also the aspect of having to take time out of having fun to track things that aren't adding to the fun. I'll put up with power resources, but not arrows and food and certainly not light when I can just not play a human to get to ignore that.

 

[ad_hoc]

Players should fear the encounters with the mooks because they don't want to waste all their resources and have none left for the boss, but players shouldn't actually get to the point where they barely have resources when they get there because they like actually having their abilities on-hand in their epic fight.

As for designing single combat days without massive swings for TPK and a breeze, its best to just give your enemy high defenses (not just meat) and lower damage yet make it AoE. Things like Legendary Resistances, condition/damage immunities, magic resistance, avoidance, high saving throws, extra movement options, and reactions. It may sound like it could end up being a slog, but nothing gets players more fearful than the fact that the enemy can attack the whole party with one attack and they can't just fight in the most direct ways.

I think players should instead share the spotlight. A problem occurs when the Wizard wants to be the star of every combat and uses their big spells to outshine other PCs. Then when they're out of spells they complain about it. Let the Rogue and Fighter be the star of the easier fights. It's just selfish to want to be the most powerful character which is what is happening with PCs using their big long rest abilities whenever they can. Or to put it another way if you don't like to run out of resources stop using them.

In that scenario you describe I wouldn't be fearful b/c I would know that the encounter was designed for me to win it. I don't rely on trickery to make things seem more dangerous. The long time players I've played with have been TPK'd enough times that they know the danger is real.

 

[ad_hoc]

And for me, there's also the aspect of having to take time out of having fun to track things that aren't adding to the fun. I'll put up with power resources, but not arrows and food and certainly not light when I can just not play a human to get to ignore that.

A quibble but Darkvision doesn't allow you to ignore light. Having disadvantage to Perception is terrible.

Continual Flame is what lets you ignore light.