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Message: <blockquote data-quote="LostSoul" data-source="post: 5536473" data-attributes="member: 386">Hmm...*We're just about to face the first fight in the day.  It's a standard encounter, so we take it easy.  We win without much effort; maybe a single Daily is used, and a few guys are down some Surges.Now we have the choice: rest to refresh those spent resources, or push on and gain some extra XP.Let's weigh the options.Gain extra XP: Let's assume we push on and get a hefty 40% bonus.  Yay!  What happens?  The challenges we face scale up to meet our new level.  A new orc raider is added to room 5.  The DCs for the skill challenge are higher.  The solo boss monster is levelled up.  We haven't made the challenge easier.  Our effectiveness is the same as before.We do have new skills, feats, and powers, however, and the DM is supposed to tailor the encounters to our abilities.  So we've changed the encounter to fit with our changed characters.Refresh resources: We want to do this because we don't want to suffer a TPK.TPKs are the only way in which the game responds to failure.  If the whole party is wiped out, we as players don't have any more choices than we did before.  (Well, we have to make new PCs, but not at a higher level - we could build the exact same PCs if we felt like it.  We can start over from scratch, but we could do that anyway by killing off our PC.)  If any one of us survives, great.  We get some XP and get closer to opening up more choices to make.*So we have to balance the risk of a TPK against the chance to expand the colour of our character's skills, feats, and powers.  But is this a real choice?If we rest we don't suffer the TPK and we get some XP.  Not as much, but we still get it.  Our colour will still expand, just not as fast.  So that's not the real choice; the real choice is between risking a TPK and changing the colour of the upcoming encounter.Do I want to have Come and Get It when I face the orc leader?  Do I want to see how cool that would be in that specific encounter, or do I want to wait until some future encounter to use it?But!  The DM is tailoring encounters to my abilities.  My power should be cool no matter when I choose it; the encounters should make my guy look awesome.  But if I push on and grab some extra XP, my guy could level up and gain new abilities before the DM has the chance to tailor those encounters to my new abilities.  Do I want to give the DM time to tailor the encounter to my PC, or do I want to surprise the DM with my new abilities?So the choice is: avoid a TPK and give the DM time to tailor the encounter to my abilities, or surprise the DM with a new ability?*That's my analysis.  I think extra XP will fall short unless you change some of the game's assumptions.I should also note that the game doesn't care about "story" - what happens in the game world.  It's absent from the game's economy.  That's one of the assumptions you can change.</blockquote>

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