D&D 5E D&D Without Adding House-Rules/Home-brew

[Maxperson]

Right, which means the 6-8 encounters has nothing at all do do with playing without house rules or homebrew content.

It's a challenge and balancing tool.

If balanced is borked if you don't follow the guideline, it pretty much as the force of a rule.

 

[Umbran]

By it's own admission, nothing in the DMG is a rule. They are all guidelines, but they are guidelines that the game is balanced around.

I agree, which was why I asked. The OP didn't even vaguely suggest slavish adherence to this guideline is required.

Now, if you are saying that you need house rules to make the game pleasing for you while not adhering to this guideline, then a No vote may be called for.

 

[Maxperson]

Eight years into 5e and I still can't believe how misread this section is. First, it's not a rule (and therefore neither RAW or RAI), it's barely a guideline. Nowhere in the Adventuring Day section does it say that DMs should or must create an adventuring day in that way. It only provides a rough estimate of what an AVERAGE party with typical luck SHOULD be able to handle before NEEDING to take a long rest.

That's the key right there. The game is balanced around resource management, so if you don't push the party to the point that they NEED to take that long rest, they can use more abilities in the encounters, making them easier than they should be. It unbalances the game in favor of the PCs.

The game being balanced around that 6-8 encounter assumption gives it much greater weight than the vast majority of guidelines in the DMG. It's on par with most the PHB rules and is more important than many of them.

 

[Mort]

If balanced is borked if you don't follow the guideline, it pretty much as the force of a rule.

But it is not a rule per the OPs guidelines or even per the rules themselves.

It may invite a sub optimal play experience and may really highlight to the imbalance between the classes - but that's not what the OP is asking about.

 

[Charlaquin]

I voted NO and wished that I could have voted NO! Having to encounter 6-8 combat encounters in a 24 hour period would destroy the game for me.

I don’t think having fewer than 6 encounters in an adventuring day really constitutes a house rule…

 

[DND_Reborn]

Regarding the 6-8 encounter Adventuring Day:

You play as closely to RAW as possible (or RAI subject to "reasonable" interpretation).

The RAI includes anything deemed "guidelines".

For example, Initiative (including the variants) is based on a Dexterity Check is a "rule", 6-8 encounter per day is a guideline for balance, and is "typical", etc.

 

[Stormonu]

For adventures, would you be restricted to pre-made material or would designing your own (following the DMG guidelines) be allowable?

For the record, I voted NO. I wouldn't last ten minutes before I was houseruling something or making something up on the spot.

 

[Charlaquin]

Eight years into 5e and I still can't believe how misread this section is. First, it's not a rule (and therefore neither RAW or RAI), it's barely a guideline. Nowhere in the Adventuring Day section does it say that DMs should or must create an adventuring day in that way. It only provides a rough estimate of what an AVERAGE party with typical luck SHOULD be able to handle before NEEDING to take a long rest.

I am following RAW and RAI when I create a 1 encounter day, a 3 encounter day, or a 20 encounter day (though the party better try to find ways around some of those when I do if they expect to make it to their objective).

It’s definitely not a rule, but the underlying math checks out with the assumption that the full XP budget is used each adventuring day. If you use less, you might run into some inter-class balance issues. Not that that’s necessarily a problem, but it is what it is.

 

[DND_Reborn]

For adventures, would you be restricted to pre-made material or would designing your own (following the DMG guidelines) be allowable?

You can certainly design your own adventures, but you cannot homebrew or customize monsters, spells, features, magic items, or other content except adventuring gear (such as the snowshoes for Frostmaiden).

Homebrewing would include creating your own monsters or magic items, etc. even if using the guidelines in the DMG.

 

[TwoSix]

But it is not a rule per the OPs guidelines or even per the rules themselves.

It may invite a sub optimal play experience and may really highlight to the imbalance between the classes - but that's not what the OP is asking about.

The game does not need to be balanced to be playable. Power-sensitive players will make stronger choices and power-insensitive players simply won’t care.

That’s how we all got through 3.5, after all.