Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="jgsugden" data-source="post: 7403965" data-attributes="member: 2629">*Sigh*The DMG recommends six to eight medium to hard encounters in an adventuring day (which most people think means &quot;per Long Rest&quot;).&nbsp; They anticipate that you'll take a short rest twice during that span, after 2 or 3 encounters and then against somewhere between 4 and 6 encounters.&nbsp; In a medium encounter the PCs may lose a few hps and use a very limited amount of limited resources (spells, 1/SR class abilities, etc...) and a hard encounter is likely to see them use a decent number of hps and more of those abilities.&nbsp; In a deadly encounter, PCs should be using up a good number of limited resources and a lot of hps.&nbsp; This will not be true of every deadly encounter, but it will be of most if they deserve to be called deadly.&nbsp; So, if you want to only have 1 or 2 encounters per day, you want to make them more than deadly so that they're using a lot of resources.&nbsp; To that end, I'd set them at double the deadly level from the DMG.However, I think this is a bad approach for a day in, day out approach.Deadly encounters are fights for survival.&nbsp; Your objective pretty much has to be &quot;kill before being killed&quot;.&nbsp; If you're doing that for every encounter, it gets boring fast... and it makes the heroes feel less like heroes and more like town guards that can barely hold their own against typical threats.&nbsp; That doesn't make for great storytelling.Instead, I suggest that you have encounters in the game where the PCs are not fearing for their lives (because they're HEROES, not ZEROES), but instead are trying to achieve a goal - often a goal that must be achieved 'in time'.&nbsp; Save the children before the orcs kill them... escape the dungeon before it floods ... stop the ritual before it is completed.&nbsp; These may be &quot;easy&quot; encounters from a survival standpoint, but they can still be difficult challenges that the PCs can actually lose without it ruining the game.&nbsp; Many DMs skip over the guidance in the DMG on encounter building and go straight to the table and numbers - trying to figure out just how difficult they can make the game... but D&amp;D is not a strategy survival game - it is a role playing game in which we tell heroic tales.&nbsp; Not all heroic tales are constantly about survival (although some encounters - or even who sessions - can be all about just making it out alive).</blockquote>

[QUOTE="jgsugden, post: 7403965, member: 2629"] *Sigh* The DMG recommends six to eight medium to hard encounters in an adventuring day (which most people think means "per Long Rest"). They anticipate that you'll take a short rest twice during that span, after 2 or 3 encounters and then against somewhere between 4 and 6 encounters. In a medium encounter the PCs may lose a few hps and use a very limited amount of limited resources (spells, 1/SR class abilities, etc...) and a hard encounter is likely to see them use a decent number of hps and more of those abilities. In a deadly encounter, PCs should be using up a good number of limited resources and a lot of hps. This will not be true of every deadly encounter, but it will be of most if they deserve to be called deadly. So, if you want to only have 1 or 2 encounters per day, you want to make them more than deadly so that they're using a lot of resources. To that end, I'd set them at double the deadly level from the DMG. However, I think this is a bad approach for a day in, day out approach. Deadly encounters are fights for survival. Your objective pretty much has to be "kill before being killed". If you're doing that for every encounter, it gets boring fast... and it makes the heroes feel less like heroes and more like town guards that can barely hold their own against typical threats. That doesn't make for great storytelling. Instead, I suggest that you have encounters in the game where the PCs are not fearing for their lives (because they're HEROES, not ZEROES), but instead are trying to achieve a goal - often a goal that must be achieved 'in time'. Save the children before the orcs kill them... escape the dungeon before it floods ... stop the ritual before it is completed. These may be "easy" encounters from a survival standpoint, but they can still be difficult challenges that the PCs can actually lose without it ruining the game. Many DMs skip over the guidance in the DMG on encounter building and go straight to the table and numbers - trying to figure out just how difficult they can make the game... but D&D is not a strategy survival game - it is a role playing game in which we tell heroic tales. Not all heroic tales are constantly about survival (although some encounters - or even who sessions - can be all about just making it out alive). [/QUOTE]

Verification