15 Minute Workday Myth?

[takasi]

Right. DM interpretation. Not a set in stone rule.

It's set in stone if you interpret it as such. I think a forced march applies to time spent exploring in a dungeon. You don't. Things like this are why they have a huge list of FAQs, you can't cover everything.

I hope they spotlight time management in 4th edition, especially if they're complaining about the 15 minute workday.

 

[takasi]

And unless he only goes into the linen closet when he knows that adventurers are in his lair, then he is always going into the linen closet into his spot, so it's going to be well traveled.

You'd need the track feat, and even then it's no guarentee you're going to find the tracks. But if you do, that's cool and makes the feat worthwhile.

And even then, he may still have put a bomb on the linen closet recently and started using another exit. As an adventurer, you never know.

 

[Rechan]

It's set in stone if you interpret it as such.

Like any other house rule.

There's nothing in the RAW that requires people to sleep, as I said - no fatigue if you're just Awake for x hours. By the RAW, you can have a security guard who sits at his post for 36 hours with no problems. Even the forced march rules he's gotta Walk, rather than sit on his duff.

Hell, "Rest" is simply "You can't do anything strenuous for 8 hours", not necessarily sleep.

 

[Aaron2]

I've always avoided the "15 Minute Workday" by having the monsters react to the PC's attack. The bad guys will call in reinforcement (the ol "restocking"), set up ambushes or just have the next 2-3 encounters join together). The players know that if they back out after one battle, the place they just fought in is likely to be much worse come the next day.

I've been doing since B2 which talks specifically about this.


Aaron

 

[Rechan]

You'd need the track feat, and even then it's no guarentee you're going to find the tracks.

Unless you take 20.

And even then, he may still have put a bomb on the linen closet recently and started using another exit. As an adventurer, you never know.

At this rate, he sounds too paranoid to bother with; just set the place on fire/open up a decanter of endless water/eversmoking bottle, and kill anything that comes out.

 

[takasi]

Like any other house rule.

There's nothing in the RAW that requires people to sleep, as I said - no fatigue if you're just Awake for x hours. By the RAW, you can have a security guard who sits at his post for 36 hours with no problems. Even the forced march rules he's gotta Walk, rather than sit on his duff.

Hell, "Rest" is simply "You can't do anything strenuous for 8 hours", not necessarily sleep.

I disagree. By the RAW, you can't walk for more than 8 hours without doing a forced march check. That causes fatigue. You do not interpret that to apply to dungeon exploration but I do.

 

[takasi]

Unless you take 20.

You can't take 20 when using survival to track:

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/feats.htm#track

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/skills/survival.htm

 

[Rechan]

I disagree. By the RAW, you can't walk for more than 8 hours without doing a forced march check. That causes fatigue. You do not interpret that to apply to dungeon exploration but I do.

So you disagree there are no rules requiring one to rest if they sit on their butt for 36 hours? Show me.

You yourself said that the forced march requires walking.

 

[takasi]

I've always avoided the "15 Minute Workday" by having the monsters react to the PC's attack. The bad guys will call in reinforcement (the ol "restocking"), set up ambushes or just have the next 2-3 encounters join together). The players know that if they back out after one battle, the place they just fought in is likely to be much worse come the next day.

Well it's not just the number of encounters, it's the amount of time in between encounters that creates the "15 minute workday" myth. With only 6 seconds per round, if there is nothing motivating a party to slow down (treasure, secret doors, avoiding nasty traps) then you can fight a dozen encounters in a very short period of time. That is the real cause of the short work day IMO not how many spells per day you have per day.

 

[takasi]

So you disagree there are no rules requiring one to rest if they sit on their butt for 36 hours? Show me.

Even if I showed it to you, how would it relate to this conversation? I'm talking about the role of exploration time in the dungeon, not sitting on your butt.