4e DMs: Allow players a 5 minute rest after EVERY encounter?

[mwiedmann]

I find that my power-gaming players always want to take a 5 minute rest after an encounter so they are fully healed and encounter powers restored before they move on. I try to only let them do it every-other encouter or so by having patrols or wandering monsters interrupt their break. Having all their encounter powers for each battle makes them a little too powerful in my mind. Plus, battles are loud and have a good chance to attract company. I think they've taken the hint and don't try to rest unless they really need it or if the area is obviously cleared out.

Is this too harsh? Do other DMs let them rest after every battle?

 

[Cyronax]

I find that my power-gaming players always want to take a 5 minute rest after an encounter so they are fully healed and encounter powers restored before they move on. I try to only let them do it every-other encouter or so by having patrols or wandering monsters interrupt their break. Having all their encounter powers for each battle makes them a little too powerful in my mind. Plus, battles are loud and have a good chance to attract company. I think they've taken the hint and don't try to rest unless they really need it or if the area is obviously cleared out.

Is this too harsh? Do other DMs let them rest after every battle?

No. I flee from standardization in 4e. Generally, when I DM, I allow short rests, but its not a given.

It all depends on how smart (and organized) the enemies are. If they really want to F with the PCs they should constantly hit them in waves and then its up to the PCs to smartly figure out how and when to produce a short rest.

C.I.D.

 

[Nightson]

If they don't have a short rest it's not a different encounter.

 

[Umbran]

Yes, technically, the short rest is what defines the border between encounters. If they don't get the rest, it is the same encounter.

So, if you feel things are going to easily for them, rather than having to hodgepodge stuff in between to make it the same encounter, consider designing it that way - have the things in the next room hear and come to investigate, or just make your encounters a bit tougher.

Of course, if the party is smart, they should get the advantage of being smart - if they arrange it so that they get a rest, well, then they should get a rest.

 

[Akaiku]

Be wary that if all they have is at-wills, that leaves 3 or 4 attack choices for each player, one being a basic attack and usually the other at-wills are general use and situational. So it could eaisly become a "I use power B again whilst still hoping that I don't die from lack of healing" slog.

 

[ExploderWizard]

In my campaign time between encounters is determined by the circumstances of the moment and what makes sense. If there is an immediate nearby threat that responds to an ongoing fight then the PC's might find themselves in a long running battle.

If there are no hostile creatures to respond to the battle then its up to the players to decide how to spend thier time.

If the PC's are not getting challenged by a single encounter then maybe look at ways to toughen up the opposition so that the combat is more dangerous even if the party has all thier encounter powers. If the PC's are all fully healed presumably they had to spend surges to get that way and those will run out eventually.

 

[Rechan]

Players are welcome to rest whenever. I mean, we're not in a hurry.

I thought a short rest was just 1 minute.

Either way, as a DM I would only not allow a rest in very rare circumstances. Or if the players pushed past/somehow accidentally combined two encounters.

 

[FireLance]

As others have mentioned, I find that it is generally useful to think of an encounter as everything that happens between rests. If the PCs are having too easy a time, consider adding additional enemies at the start of the next encounter, having reinforcements show up after a few rounds, or planning multi-stage encounters where the PCs have to defeat separate groups of enemies before they can take a rest.

One example of a multi-stage encounter was something I used as the final battle of the last adventure I ran. The PCs were in a volcano, running ahead of a slowly advancing field of "magical fire" (for various reasons that I will not go into now, I chose not to call it "lava"). In order to escape, they had to run through three rooms and fight the enemies there without resting between fights. IMO, it made for a fairly tense encounter as the PCs had to keep running ahead of the creeping field of "magical fire" while dealing with their enemies.

Another possible alternative, if you want to recapture the feel of attritioning hit points and resources, is to mess with the default time frame of the game: essentially, everything that happens after a short rest now happens after an extended rest, and everything that happens after an extended rest now happens after a full week of rest. This idea is discussed more fully here.

 

[Holy Bovine]

I find that my power-gaming players always want to take a 5 minute rest after an encounter so they are fully healed and encounter powers restored before they move on. I try to only let them do it every-other encouter or so by having patrols or wandering monsters interrupt their break. Having all their encounter powers for each battle makes them a little too powerful in my mind. Plus, battles are loud and have a good chance to attract company. I think they've taken the hint and don't try to rest unless they really need it or if the area is obviously cleared out.

Is this too harsh? Do other DMs let them rest after every battle?

I usually design encounters that it is expected that the party will take a short breather between them. They get to heal up with surges, regain encounter powers etc. I even let them, if it makes sense (i.e. they aren't in the middle of a burning building fighting fire elementals) let them take 2 or even 3 rests in a row so they can use the cleric & warlord's healing powers.

Of course there are exceptions to this as was the case when the party was aboard a sand skiff (think a huge ship that could move magically through the desert sands) that had been sabotaged. The party had a running fight with assassins, elementals and had to engage in a skill challenge to get the passengers off safely (and themselves as well!). That was about 4 encounters without a rest but it was just about the best moment we have had as a group imo.

 

[samursus]

The short answer? Yes.