D&D 5E 6-8 Encounters?

[Tales and Chronicles]

If you create non-combat challenges, be sure to give them a cost!
No ''throw dice'' on the table until they all pass the skill challenge, with a defined pass/fail result. Instead, go with a fail forward approach.

Let says one of the encounter is they have to use climb a pile of burning hot sand partially transformed in glass by the dragon breath. Its needs a DC 15 athletic test to make progress across the dune. Each player must gather 4 successes before failing 2, each fail causing 1dX piercing/fire damage caused by burning glass shards. If they pass, its all good. Those who fail 2 checks before they succeed 4 ALSO get to the top of the dune, but they the challenge drained them, causing them to lose X hit die (taking the same amount in damage if they have no HD remaining). Casters can spend their slots on spell to decrease the challenge DC, the damage taken of even avoid the challenge altogether.

Throw some non-combat encounter like these, some medium fight, a few little skirmishes with the dragon, then you have your final showdown with the dragon. It doesnt need to be 6-8 fights in a day.

 

[TwoSix]

As long as they require a consumption of resources to proceed, ideally spells and consumables (not HP as much as they're pretty easy to recover), then yea, it counts as an encounter. Like the merchant you described isn't an encounter because it doesn't sound like it was any way an obstacle, they simply burned a spell in order to get a better yield. That might be the smart play, but it doesn't make in an encounter. A locked chest also isn't an encounter, even if it's locked and trapped, because they could have simply chosen to bypass it. They're choosing to take on risk for the chance of greater reward, which simply isn't an attrition challenge.

Never feel bad about pushing your players. Just give the more magic items, ideally consumables, to compensate, and then push the challenges so they have to use the consumables just to survive.

 

[Stoutstien]

No, encounters do not always need to be combat. Social or exploration encounters can be just as challenging, rewarding , and have the same potential for the party to spend resources on to make them easier.

Don't place your encounters in predictable patterns all the time and the unknown factor has a bigger factor than attrition will any day.
Have the dragon become mutiple encounters as it uses hit and run tactics to soften the party up before the final confrontation and after the party defeats it have some minions ambush them on the way out, even if it only an easy encounter, removes the certainly of once the big threat is dealt with suddenly they are safe.

 

[NotAYakk]

Also, if you are seriously worried about the dragon, emulate it.

I suspect the players have all passed a save against dragonfear by now. If not, drop their attack-based DPS by 30% (between disadvantage and not being able to approach).

Work out the players spike damage remaining and their sustained DPS. From this, work out how many rounds the dragon will be able to survive (including AC). Then work out the dragon's damage output (ignoring accuracy, assuming breath weapon hits 2-3, etc) over that many rounds.

Compare it against the players total HP pool. If it is less than the players HP pool, no problem. If it is equal, things could get tense. If it is way more, the players are gonna be in trouble, as despite ignoring accuracy the players can lose DPS to PCs dropping and then give the dragon more damage, etc.

You don't have to do this; but it will give you an idea of how likely this particular dragon will cause a TPK. And it could be worth it for a "big bad fight" to ensure the right amount of tension.

 

[miggyG777]

The best way, in my opinion, to not screw the whole balance of the game is to adjust the resting mechanics to your likings in order to allow for less encounters during a longer timeframe.

And yes, as I see it, the 6-8 Encounters are specifically referencing COMBAT encounters, as they talk about Medium to Hard difficulty in the DMG, which directly refers to the combat calculations of CR.

I wrote a short article about it here:

Why sleeping should not be a long rest. – lew fidelity

 

[jayoungr]

You end up with so many fights that the players lose track of why the characters are where they are, how the characters got there, and what the characters want/intend to do next; this is especially true if it's not a weekly campaign. It kinda sucks as a player to be plodding toward the same goal for six months of game time (and that campaign isn't even doing 6-8 encounters per day).

The best trick I've found is multi-stage large fights. Have a gauntlet the PCs have to go through, or waves of enemies. That way you can chain together several "encounters" in one big, memorable combat event.

 

[miggyG777]

The best trick I've found is multi-stage large fights. Have a gauntlet the PCs have to go through, or waves of enemies. That way you can chain together several "encounters" in one big, memorable combat event.

That's one way to do it, however, you will still end up with very combat heavy sessions that way. Sometimes you just don't want to have 4 hours of combat per session and still challenge the players. That's where you have to adjust the resting mechanics.

 

[jayoungr]

That's one way to do it, however, you will still end up with very combat heavy sessions that way.

I don't do it every session; just when I want to challenge the players. The rest of the time, they just don't get the 6-8 encounters, and that's okay.

 

[robus]

I’d definitely max the dragon’s hit points and ensure it’s high on the initiative order.

 

[prabe]

The best trick I've found is multi-stage large fights. Have a gauntlet the PCs have to go through, or waves of enemies. That way you can chain together several "encounters" in one big, memorable combat event.

Yeah. Gantlets work, if you're doing something attrition-based. I've done that as a DM. I'm just playing in a campaign that's such a slow grind there's no narrative momentum (which matters to me, but might not to others, it's aesthetics, it's not an argument).