Encounters Per Day

[Syntallah]

Can anyone tell me (or better yet, point me to the section in the book) what the intended formula is for encounters per day?

In other words, how many encounters is the Party supposed to go through before they are expected to take an extended rest?

 

[small pumpkin man]

There isn't one. The game is intended to be balanced for one, or 12 encounters in a day. (although the players might be in a bit of trouble if you try 12 encounters)

 

[Syrsuro]

It seems to work best at around 4-5, but I've done as many as six without difficulty and seen my party in trouble after as few as 2-3.

I don't think there is a hard and fast rule, it depends on how rough the encounter are and how they play. The real limiting factor appears to be healing surges: No matter how conservative they are with their dailies, eventually they are going to start running out of healing surges.

But I'd plan on 4 or 5 as a rough guide and go from there.

Carl

 

[mattdm]

I hope I can make a 3.5-comparison comment without derailing the thread....

I was just noticing the same thing in my game, which currently isn't really planned to give the PCs downtime between days, let alone between adventures. This means that at 4-5 encounters per day, and 8-10 encounters per level, 3 weeks of in-game time is an entire tier, and two months is the whole game.

In 3E, the expectation was that there'd be about 14 encounters per level, and the reality at least in our group ended up that there'd be an average of 2 encounters a day — sometimes as many as 3, sometimes only 1. But that makes for a whole week in game to go up a level, and even with 20 levels instead of 30, it's about five months in-game for an intense campaign.

Either way it's ridiculous, of course. Since we only play twice a month, I don't really want to make it go slower; I suppose I'll introduce "and time passes" points eventually.

 

[Nail]

Since we only play twice a month, I don't really want to make it go slower; ....

When it comes right down to it, the important factor is "how fast do you want PCs to level?" I'd say 1 PC level per 2 or 3 gaming sessions is about right. Since there are about 10 encounters per level, that means 3 - 5 encounters per session.

In the 4e group I ran a while ago, the PCs could go as long as 7 encounters before an extended rest. ...But the players were good tacticians; I imagine less skilled players might only get through 3 encounters before a long rest.

Which, incidentally, is just about the same as 3.xe.

Yay "Progress"!

 

[KidSnide]

In the 4e group I ran a while ago, the PCs could go as long as 7 encounters before an extended rest. ...But the players were good tacticians; I imagine less skilled players might only get through 3 encounters before a long rest.

Tactics certainly makes a big difference. The other difference, of course, is how hard the encounters are. If the encounters aren't all that difficult, the limit on the number of fights is when the people taking the most damage run out of healing surges. On the other hand, if each encounter is hard, a party can find itself quickly out of daily powers.

IMO, this is the beauty of 4e encounter design. As a GM, if I'm running a game with a lot of fighting, I can dial down the difficulty and make it a marathon. On the other hand, if I'm running a game with just one or two fights, I can dial it up. Of course, I did this under 3e too. The difference is that, in 3e, the PCs had a fixed pool of resources so a single fight adventure required a battle on a totally different scale from a fight in a multi-fight day. In 4e, the difference is still meaningful, but not nearly so large.

(DMs who run dungeons or other adventures where the players -- rather than the plot --determine when it's time to rest have the same flexibility. You just need to make sure that you communicate well enough with your players for them to make an informed decision.)

-KS