D&D 5E How many encounters per day is YOUR average?

[Helldritch]

You can really tell from the posts which gms have noticed this as a problem they've tried to fix and which gms (or players) are discussing this on a theoretical level.

Scaling encounter cr up is an easy solution that on rhe surface looks like it will work & in some cases of group makeup it might even seem good, but durations &ability consumption rates winds up being all screwed up with that while short rest lclssses get to start most every fight with fill resources plus the things intended to fill the gap when they are expected to be tapped outand long rest classes are probably doing the same but dont have the extra class abilities/powers while not being able to really make use of the extra endurance thst should be a boon simply because of durations concentration & the number of rounds. Maybe you as a GM think you can find a balance for this to work out, yet players will notice & adapt or simply make characters to make the most of this and it will get even worse

"Just force more encounters".... sure sounds great, but your going to run into the extreme ease of the huge recovery rest mechanisms I. 5e and the fact that short of an extremely strict doom clock always running or gm fiat level "no you cant rest.. you just xanr... it wont even work with rope trick in a tiny hut:" heavy handedness there's basically nothing that can be done to make "let's take a rest" difficult enough that the party wont take one. Sure you might squeeze in an extra fight but not the four to seven thst you need

Strange, I have no trouble to put that many encounters between rests. Already posted many of my tricks but here are some.

1) Do not play monsters as static opponents that wait for the player to "activate" their "pods" as in some video games. The players made a foray into a lair and went back to rest before tackling the BBEG and the rest? Have the BBEG search for them. Have him and his retinue ambush the party. Have some reinforcement arrive.

2) Use random encounters and use the following.
Random encounters gives no exp and yield no treasures, ever. So no farming exp or treasure from random encounters. My players know this and act accordingly. Random encounters occurs until the allotment of encounters for the day are met.

3) For overland travel, estimate the possible number of days and roll all encounters and then narrate the inconsequential ones (like a deer or any animals) and only use the meaningful ones and weave them into 1 to 3 consecutive days. Example, for a 21 day travel, you can have up to 63 possible encounters. If you roll 12, use them in the last 3 days or in the middle. Fill the rest of the journey with descriptions and whatever you feel adds to the narrative. This allows for short rest character to shine and prevents a bit the "nova type " characters to blast everything as they do not know how long will the streak of encounters will last. You can even distribute some encounters in days far apart so that the players will always be on their toes. Here pacing and logic is the key.

For Tiny hut and the likes....
The more intelligent monsters/foes will know of these. Especially if caster are amongst their rank. Dispel magic can be used with great effectiveness. Tracking is possible. Magical detection can be used to.

 

[Xeviat]

I average 3, but that's because I push for 3 deadly fights instead of 6 medium fights. I push the daily xp budget on adventuring days.

To me, the important thing is to give 2 short rests. My current group has 2 characters that mostly refresh on a long rest and 2 that mostly refresh on a short rest, so having 2 short rests per long rest helps balance them out together.

 

[Xeviat]

I rarely use dungeons so I use the alternate rest rules. A short rest is overnight, a long rest is several days, usually a week. For me it helps with pacing because I run a very investigation/exploration heavy game with a lot of urban settings. With that we get between 4 and 10 encounters, probably a bit on the lower side depending on current situation.

I find that it helps balance out classes, although I do have a house rule that any spell that lasts more than half an hour gets it's length multiplied by 5 because I want things like mage armor to be as effective as during a "typical" dungeon delving day using standard rules.

I'm intending on trying these rules out for my next, slower paced game. How have they worked out for you?

 

[ad_hoc]

The best fight encounters I had where single encounters in that day, where we fought wave after wave of enemies in the same encounter, or one huge enemy that took most of our resources to put down. Having multiple "little" fights in one day was never that exciting. Actually, those little fights are the ones that the DM just narrates, like "after you massacred all the kobolds, you're now in the treasure chamber of the dragon".

For me, it also better evokes the drama of movies, novels, and comic books. The Avengers spend two cut scenes killing mooks, and 15 minutes fighting Thanos (not sure if this is the actual timeframe...). That's how I like it.

They're described as 6-8 medium to hard not easy.

Encounters can be interesting even if it isn't all dragons. They don't have to be just creatures jumping out of the bushes to attack, though they can be.

What is the failure state of 1 combat per day? Seems to me either it is trivial or you're going to end up with a TPK.

With many encounters each one is tense because the players know that they are getting closer to needing to abandon the quest. Each one has stakes that aren't just 'everyone dies'.

In my experience action movies usually have many encounters which escalate towards a climax.

Take Terminator for an example. It would be boring if after every encounter they could just go be safe for a while. The movie is 2 adventure days with various encounters. Their stamina and resources run down over time, then they get a rest and build some weapons. Then they are back into things.

 

[ad_hoc]

I'm intending on trying these rules out for my next, slower paced game. How have they worked out for you?

In case you are interested my houserule is "long rest only at a friendly settlement."

It is simple and does everything I need including making narrative sense.

The only place it wouldn't work is in an urban campaign but in those cases I would expect time to be a limiting factor in most adventures anyway.

 

[dave2008]

That's great in theory...

No, not in theory. I have actual empirical data from our table. No theory at all.

To be clear, I am not saying it works for everyone, or that it is "good" design. I actually really liked the 4e AEDU structure if you balance.

 

[LordEntrails]

I said 4, but the variation is so wide that it might be the average, but it certainly isn't the standard. Many times we have a single encounter in a day, and other times (like the Battle of Leilon) their might be a dozen or more encounters in a day.

I understand people's concerns or problems with encounters per day, but for me it's just not an issue. Not every day is challenging, and not every encounter is the same level of challenge. My players usually don't have a problem telling when they need to conserve their daily resources and when they don't.

 

[dave2008]

Actually, I address encounter difficulty in the second paragraph, talking about how it is an entirely different aspect. Most of us are familiar with it, I didn't delve into deep explanation.

Here's what I wrote:

I did see that, but I guess I would say you mentioned it without really addressing it. Also, fewer bigger encounters also involve attrition. It is not an either or scenario.

 

[Blue]

My main reason for ignoring the encounter recommendations is for pacing of sessions. We play once every 2 weeks for 3-4 hours and a combat encounter usually takes at least an hour to play through. If we were to fight 6-8 encounters in a "day" it would take probably 2 months of real-world time to get through. I much prefer having 1-2 encounters so the story can move at a fairly regular pace.

Absolutely correct. Most DMs run fewer encounters. The issue isn't that the majority of DMs are running the game wrong, it's that the designers estimated incorrectly how many encounters they would have, increasing it sharply from what earlier editions were. The mis-calibration is on the designers.

 

[el-remmen]

Actually, those little fights are the ones that the DM just narrates, like "after you massacred all the kobolds, you're now in the treasure chamber of the dragon".

I've never been a fan of handwaved combat narration as a player or a DM - even an apparently simple or straightforward one - but that might just be my hang-up. If there is a fight, we roll the dice. Could that kobold get lucky and kill you or use up some resource you were saving for later? Probably not, but maybe so - and that to me is part of the fun and challenge.