D&D General 6-8 encounters (combat?)

[GMforPowergamers]

I suspect (only suspect--won't claim to know) they meant 6-8 potential combat encounters per day. While I heartily agree that that number feels off to the point of absurdity, I have to remind myself I'm thinking in terms of open-air adventures right now. For a dungeon crawl, 6-8/day actually doesn't seem excessive to me. Does it to you? But for open air stuff, yeah, that's way, way off.

I agree with this... I can easy make a dungeon or dungeon like 8 encounter adventure (okay not easy you have to have a few levels or 8 will tpk)

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Did they accidentally remove noncombat options from fighter every edition (except 4e, but that's another story)?

TBF as a BIG 4e fan I have to say before the martial practices and skill powers started coming out I still found martial characters limited (although less then other editions)

 

[Stormonu]

It’s just guidance that even WotC itself doesn’t follow. It may be somewhat helpful to a starting DM to keep from wiping a party, but in the end I just keep going until the players scream they need to rest.

Then I run at least one more encounter before their characters bed down to rest.

 

[Yaarel]

Depression that lasts for years and impacts your capabilities isn't severe or clinical? It's more than hit points, it's spells and all kinds of other features, including non-magical abilities like Rage.

If you want, I can ask my wife whether she thinks it would constitute severe or clinical depression (she has a master's degree in social work) but I'm 99.99% sure that she would say that it would.

(I was giving an example of how hit points DONT refresh because of a sleep. Not all damage equals depression!)



In D&D, it is unlikely for the next challenge that a character faces to be YEARS away − social, exploratory, or combat.

But days and weeks before the next serious challenges? That is normal enough.



There are many players who use the 5e rest variant where a long rest is a week of rest and recouperation.

Decoupling refresh from a single nights sleep is narratively normal.

In many stories, rest requiring more than one nights sleep makes more sense.



By counting long rests per level, the long rest might happen in the same day, or might happen a week later. Whatever makes sense according to the adventure story.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

"Deadly" is too broad to really say that with. 2000xp is a deadly encounter for a 5th level group of 4, but so is 10,000. Deadly just begins for that group at 2k.

And again, I'm not talking about 3 encounters. If the 5MWD is in effect, it MUST be doable with one single encounter that covers the entire XP budget.

2k is medium for a group of 4, deadly starts at 4.4k and while I never tried it at 5th level I am pretty sure a rested party could handle a 7k encounter, no idea about 10k or higher.

As for doable in a single encounter; well! I have never seen and encounter last more than 20 rounds, so there is room for at least 2. However, I do not believe most users of the term mean a littler 5 minutes but a low encounter count day.

As I have said the short encounter day does not really bother me, I am just trying to understand the issue and what the problem is with fewer but more difficult encounters.

 

[Fanaelialae]

I was giving an example of how hit points DONT refresh because of a sleep. I didnt say all damage equals depression!



In D&D, it is unlikely for the next challenge that a character faces to be YEARS away − social, exploratory, or combat.

But days and weeks before the next serious challenges? That is normal enough.



There are many players who use the rest variant where a long rest means a week of rest and recouperation.

Decoupling refresh from a single nights sleep is narratively normal.

In many stories, rest requiring more than one nights sleep makes more sense.

You brought up years, not me.

But it's quite relevant. The 5e rest system, whether a day or the optional week, makes reasonable sense from a narrative perspective. It's consistent. You get enough rest and you're back to fighting form. It doesn't matter whether the next adventure is tomorrow or a year from now, as long as you have sufficient time for a long rest.

Under your proposal, that isn't the case. The only way to recover is to level up. If you run out of hit points and spells halfway to your next level up, you're SoL. Better hope some friendlies can drag you through enough encounters to level you, or you'll remain permanently incapacitated. A bad series of encounters can literally "brick" your party, leaving them with insufficient resources to make it to the next level. It doesn't matter if they rest a night. It doesn't even matter if they receive the best non-magical care for several years. They're done for.

I'm sorry, you seem to be quite fond of this idea, but I just don't see any likelihood that you're going to convince me that this makes sense outside of a purely gamist perspective.

 

[Yaarel]

You brought up years, not me.

But it's quite relevant. The 5e rest system, whether a day or the optional week, makes reasonable sense from a narrative perspective. It's consistent. You get enough rest and you're back to fighting form. It doesn't matter whether the next adventure is tomorrow or a year from now, as long as you have sufficient time for a long rest.

Under your proposal, that isn't the case. The only way to recover is to level up. If you run out of hit points and spells halfway to your next level up, you're SoL. Better hope some friendlies can drag you through enough encounters to level you, or you'll remain permanently incapacitated. A bad series of encounters can literally "brick" your party, leaving them with insufficient resources to make it to the next level. It doesn't matter if they rest a night. It doesn't even matter if they receive the best non-magical care for several years. They're done for.

I'm sorry, you seem to be quite fond of this idea, but I just don't see any likelihood that you're going to convince me that this makes sense outside of a purely gamist perspective.

Encounters can be social encounters.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Why should they have to? Skill checks and role-playing works just as well in many, many situations. A caster player would be acting in their best interest to avoid using magic outside combat unless necessary.

don't forget the fighter can get AS MUCH from a skill and some good rp/ good thinking as a spell... but a wizard somehow can't...

 

[GMforPowergamers]

The daily resource deal is one of those vestigial legacies of D&D that some people take Very Seriously.

I care way too much about story and pacing to try and hammer everything into 24 hour chunklets or prevent recharges for an entire freaking week just to fit an expectation and structure I find to be frankly archaic.

back when 4e was new I had hoped 5e would go 1 step further... 1/ adventure 1/encounter and at will

 

[Fanaelialae]

Encounters can be social encounters.

Uh huh.

The party gets its collective butt kicked trying to stop the BBEG's ritual in three nights.

Do they:

a) regroup at their hidden campsite, bandage their wounds, and try again the next day (after recovering resources)...

b) hustle back to the nearest village to solve the mystery of old man Rafferty's missing pocket square, because it's the only chance they have to get enough XP to level up and recover resources to try again, nevermind that this means they'll probably be too late to stop the ritual...

One of these makes a lot more sense than the other. Particularly in terms of a narrative.