Extended Rests

[mattmcan]

In addition to the whole Raise Dead issue I brought up in another post I've been having some trouble with extended rests.. Keeping them from becoming commonplace in particular. What's 24 hours to them when it goes by in 3 seconds.

There doesn't seem to be any real detriment to utterly decimating your foes with your daily powers then spending a day recuperating from the fight. Honestly I can't say I blame the players, it's fun to feel powerful, and who in their right mind would keep trecking deeper into a dungeon when they weren't really prepared.

I've looked up a few posts on the issue which have ranged from putting the monsters on alert, to throwing random encounters at them occasionally.. But even still it seems in their best interest to rest to full after every encounter.

If I tell them they can't rest in the dungeon, they can simply walk back to town. Aside from writing in time sensitive quests/rewards, stopping their progress entirely by completely repopulating the dungeon or altering every encounter to be n+4 I can't really think of a good way to re-balance the situation.

Any other suggestions?

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

In addition to the whole Raise Dead issue I brought up in another post I've been having some trouble with extended rests.. Keeping them from becoming commonplace in particular. What's 24 hours to them when it goes by in 3 seconds.

There doesn't seem to be any real detriment to utterly decimating your foes with your daily powers then spending a day recuperating from the fight. Honestly I can't say I blame the players, it's fun to feel powerful, and who in their right mind would keep trecking deeper into a dungeon when they weren't really prepared.

I've looked up a few posts on the issue which have ranged from putting the monsters on alert, to throwing random encounters at them occasionally.. But even still it seems in their best interest to rest to full after every encounter.

If I tell them they can't rest in the dungeon, they can simply walk back to town. Aside from writing in time sensitive quests/rewards, stopping their progress entirely by completely repopulating the dungeon or altering every encounter to be n+4 I can't really think of a good way to re-balance the situation.

Any other suggestions?

Any system that has daily resources (powers, healing surges) will encourage this.

Why aren't the PCs moving? If it's in the wilderness, presumably they're going somewhere. Even without a strict deadline, they should know not getting to their destination in a reasonable amount of time is problematic. Bad stuff will happen, which means the encounters there will only get harder, etc. Let them know this in a non-metagame way. ("Well, only yesterday, the Iron Company/Black Sand Raiders/suitably evil group came to town. The town guard went into hiding. There's riots and random pickpockets.")

If it's a dungeon, it's possible (as in KotS) that there are simply too many encounters there, and the PCs are justifiably worried that all the goblins will show up at once. IMO, most dungeon rooms should be unoccupied, and there shouldn't be so many encounters you can gain two or three levels from one dungeon.

Let the PCs walk out of the dungeon, especially while low on resources. That's when some off-plot foes with little of value on them other than consumables (eg bandits) strike. And any surviving bandits will simply be more prepared (a harder encounter) the next time PCs make that exact same mistake.

Assuming the PCs bounce all these attacks off, there's still the question of why are they going into the dungeon in the first place? If it's just for treasure, of course they won't care how long it takes. But if they've been hired by a patron, they should get exasperated, cut off the contract (they should only pay half up front) and hire a rival party of adventurers to "do it right".

 

[delericho]

In general, the 15 minute adventuring day is a playstyle issue, so you should probably just talk to your players.

However, a few suggestions (you won't want to use all of these all the time):

- Don't allow more than one Extended Rest per 24 hour period. There's only so much sleep the characters can take!

- Don't allow an Extended Rest unless the party can find a suitable resting spot: it must be relatively secure, relatively defensible, they must consume one day's rations/water, they must have tents available... basically, set the conditions as tough as you need to for it to feel 'right'.

- When the PCs take an Ex Rest, have the monsters re-group, reinforce and re-equip. If the party are resting too often, it's valid for you to up the monster numbers without increasing the XP/treasure - the party are taking it easy, facing lesser challenges than the monster numbers would indicate, so they get less reward.

- Throw in random encounters, especially at night (and double especially if they're resting in the dungeon). When there is an attack, be especially anal about the PCs being unprepared - require an action to get out of the tent, an action to grab a weapon, many actions to don armour...

- Include time-based quests, either directly (in three days, the sun dies...), or indirectly (there's another party out there, if you don't act fast, they get the glory!).

 

[Emka]

doesn't the PHB mention the party needs to wait 12 hours before they can take another 8 hour extended rest? So it basically says you can only ExtRest once a day anyway.

As for having them ExtRest after every encounter, I would make them find a place to rest first. Sleeping on a dungeon floor next to the bodies of their slain enemies doesn't sound too appealing. Also, unless they have cleared the entire dungeon it's never safe to just sleep anywhere. Describe the enviroment in an onimous manner so that they don't feel tempted to sleep in uncharted surroundings.

 

[Infiniti2000]

doesn't the PHB mention the party needs to wait 12 hours before they can take another 8 hour extended rest? So it basically says you can only ExtRest once a day anyway.

Yes. It says once per day:

Duration: An extended rest is at least 6 hours long.

Once per Day: After you finish an extended rest, you have to wait 12 hours before you can begin another one.

No Strenuous Activity: You normally sleep during an extended rest, though you don’t have to. You can engage in light activity that doesn’t require much exertion.

...

 

[Mengu]

Events unravel around the PC's whether they are interacting with their environment or not. It's the DM's job to portray these events. I can't think of a situation where inaction would not have consequences. I mean if the PC's don't care that goblins are pillaging the village, or that cultists are sacrificing innocent victims, or that an undead army is at the gates of their home town, and want to take am extended rest because they have a boo boo, it's their choice. I find that most players like to play heroic characters though, and fight on despite limited resources because action is almost always better and more fun than inaction.

Even in a dungeon-like environment, say the PC's are raiding a kobold lair. In the first encounter, perhaps the ranger uses split the tree to take out the two kobold guards fast, and when that doesn't work, the wizard tosses sleep on them. They win the fight in short order, but two characters have used dailies, so the party decides to take an extended rest. That's fine. The kobolds discover adventurers are about to raid their lair, and escape from tunnels in the back, leaving the PC's with nothing to do. Two days later, the PC's hear those kobolds have attacked and robbed a caravan, and slain all the passengers. Again, if the PC's don't care about such failures, there is very little you can do to motivate them. But for most people, failure stings. So next time, they won't let that happen.

 

[was]

quests that have time limitations, buff up the number and frequency of random encounters in dungeons, keep close track of food/supplies/encumbrance

 

[delericho]

doesn't the PHB mention the party needs to wait 12 hours before they can take another 8 hour extended rest? So it basically says you can only ExtRest once a day anyway.

Bear in mind, though, that if the players are really determined to take that rest, they will. Even if it means them saying, "we'll wait here for 16 hours, and then rest."

In general, rather than fighting them to stop them taking the rest, it's usually a better approach to do something to make them want to continue. Have the monsters call for reinforcements, have them start to transfer their treasure out of the dungeon, or something of that ilk.

 

[fba827]

i have seen a house rule suggested by one of the designers (I apologize but i don't have the source) where you do not get the benefits of an extended rest unless you have completed 2 milestones (aka 4 encounters). though that does take a little work such as, what about penalties (such as diseases that need a daily check, etc). but the point is to make it appear less mechanical and more a part of the plot narrative (i.e. after a climatic scene which should happen approx every 4 encounters if you're also using a standard level-up pace/rate)

 

[the Jester]

"Hey, this trap wasn't here yesterday!"

"Hey, wtf? The bad guys have abandoned their lair that we spent weeks tracking down!"

"What do you mean, they attack us in our sleep?"

Etc.