I've discussed this with Hussar a number of times...
System X disproportionately rewards playstyle Y.
This is the fault of playstyle Y?
Cheers, -- N
Yes, because the GM lets it happen- see below.
The only way to not use all your resources up "too early" is to cheat and know the adventure in advance.
Assuming your players (or the DM) aren't cheating, then sometimes they'll use up their resources too early.
The most logical thing to do is to have maximum resources available for the toughest encounters -- which are typically at the end of the adventure.
If you look at the way real military forces operate, they don't commit all of their resources early on because they don't know what tomorrow- or even the next hour- may bring. They always try to maintain a reserve.
(Since we're all familiar with D&D between 1Ed to 3.5Ed, I'll stick to that era of the game.)
Key #1: In our games, the spellcasters absolutely DO NOT NOVA.
Just like RW military forces, they husband their resources- IOW, spells. Typically, there will be one or 2 big spells cast to soften up the opponents, and perhaps a couple of lower ones get cast to address particular threats or issues (like a debilitated ally).
But by and large, they hold their actions while the melee specialists handle the heavy lifting. As long as the warriors and sneaks are controlling the battle, the casters don't cast spells. As such, it was not uncommon for our spellcasters to have spells left at the end of the day...even if that day included 6 combats...
or more . Yes, its a tad grindy. Sometimes even tedious.
Don't get me wrong, though. Its not like the casters are just standing around. No, they're using their weapons to do things like coup de graces or guarding other points of entry from which enemy reinforcements may arrive.
Healing wasn't used until someone was seriously in danger. While most of our groups had some small store of potions, the use of healing items
other than potions- wands, staves, etc.- is quite limited. Only 1 group in all those years had a PC with a magic item devoted to healing, and as yet, nobody in the group has played a true "Crafter" spellcaster- the only healing magic items we get- again, typically only potions- is what we can find via adventuring.
One reason why even healing magic was not burning out the divine casters' resources is that our PCs tend to have a higher-than-average number of PCs who multiclass into classes with lots of HP and/or unusually high ACs. After 5th level, our parties typically only have 1 single classed arcane caster, and have rarely had any single-classed divine casters.
Recent example: my current PC, an 11th level Clc/Sorc/Geomancer/Mystic Theurge- replacing a Ftr/Rgr/Diviner/Spellsword I retired to make up for the guy who was playing the divine caster moving away- has been in the campaign since February. He has not yet exhausted his daily spells for any story arc. He has not yet cast more than 2 spells in a given combat. Due to his feat selection (Sacred Healing + Extra Turning), he almost never has to cast a healing spell.
Key #2: On those occasions when a spellcaster DID run out of spells (here is part of the key), that didn't mean the DM actually let the party rest. Oh, we could TRY to rest, but there were no guarantees. If the party couldn't find a safe place to hold up, they had to slog on until they did.
Yes, this does result in the occasional PC death. It has not, however, ever result in a TPK.
The result of this is that there is no benefit from going nova, which is why our spellcasters don't do it.
