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Message: <blockquote data-quote="KidSnide" data-source="post: 4745961" data-attributes="member: 54710">I continue to think that the problem CapnZapp is experiencing is because he has shifted the balance between daily and encounter powers by making all of his combats hard.  Since they are all hard, there are simply fewer encounters per day in his world than in the default D&D campaign.  Because of that (and that he loves hard fights), his players have responding to this by loading up on very efficient daily healing abilities and magic items that permit extra surges to be spent.  This is perfectly logical on their part, but has the effect that it allows their defenders to run through surprisingly large numbers of efficient surges in a single fight.  In my experience, players don't have tension because they run out of surges.  I find that players get tense because they run out of encounter triggers and have to either spend relatively rare daily triggers or resort to less efficient potions and second winds.If these powers are unusually good in your campaign and, as a consequence, everyone is taking them, then just make them less powerful.  For example, you could say that daily heals from multi-class abilities don't give the +nd6 bonus healing.  Or, (IMO preferably) you could talk to your PCs and convince them that the total number of multi-class heals and daily items needs to be cut down for the good of the game.  Reasonable PCs will prefer to multi-class into something else to avoid having a GM cut down all their power.This won't make healing surges a meaningful limitation (since apparently, your PCs can rest whenever they want and - surrounded by what I presume is a killer dungeon - I can hardly blame them for doing so at every opportunity), but it will restore the intended in-encounter dynamic of running out of good triggers.- - -Of course, I also think that you should encourage days that are longer than just a fight or two.  I've met plenty of GMs who thought that the only fights worth fighting were ones where the PCs might lose, but I've never met a player who said that.  IME, players like lots of things about D&D and one of the big ones is getting to feel cool.  Sure, you also want some challenge, but that can come from reaching the goal on time (e.g. handling or bypassing all the encounters in a single day), role-playing or problem-solving through the difficult scene surrounded by some diverting action or just playing skillfully and efficiently.  And, for those in a dungeon setting, it is still pretty easy to set out meaningful day goals.  Just give your PCs enough information about the dungeon so that they understand that there are zones of allied creatures and that -- if they stop to extended rest mid-zone -- they face a high risk that the creatures they have been attacking with either try to hunt them down or gather for defensive strength in their most defensible location.  Provided you also let the PCs figure out where the zones start and end, the GM can control the pacing of the dungeon.-KS</blockquote>

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