Healing Word and short rests.

[Shabe]

this can be easily worked out with a minimum of fuss on both sides.

Like adding in Irontooth's twin brother, all you do is duplicate a monster, no work for you and the players don't even need to know

 

[Plane Sailing]

Uhh? Healing surges _are_ a limited resource, and this spell doesn't change that. The extra +1d6 healing does come in handy, though.

I think the point is that via healing word, they can heal up for the cost of 1-2 healing surges rather than 3-4 healing surges (say).

 

[thalmin]

If there are time constraints, how can they take so much time between encounters? Either the rest periods would be interrupted, the monsters would have time to prepare better defenses or combine efforts, or the party would reach their goal too late.

Party has a fight in a dungeon room. Fight is over, so they decide to rest for a long time. Instead someone else enters room.
To prevent interruptions, party barricades the door. They hear someone doing same to other side of door, trapping party in room. Or hear lots of monsters getting into positions in next room. (Encounters #2 and 3 ganging up on party). Or maybe they start to hear screams from the person they are trying to rescue.

The above is only if the party is supposed to be under time pressure. If time is not important, the multiple of 5 rest break is what they should be doing.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

As to the OP, I'd suggest you talk to your players about what's bothering you about their behavior. I'm quite sure that, so long as you are both willing to act like reasonable human beings, this can be easily worked out with a minimum of fuss on both sides.

The problem here is that the DM wants the players to behave in a tactically unsound manner in a tactics-heavy RPG. What they're doing is playing smart. What can he possibly say to them? "Guys I'd like you to be more dumb. Just until you're higher level!"

This really looks like a case of PEBDMS.

 

[Goolpsy]

Just take them on a small dungeon Crawl. if they wait much longer than 5-10 min, they will be scouted by a potential "Wandering Monster".
Or maybe a Minion ran away and alerted more monsters.

Not using their Dailys in battle can be crusial and hurtful.. but if they really do have the time to heal up between battles. then why shouldn't they?

 

[Blackbrrd]

Wepfmokk:

The players tactics can and will get them in serious trouble someday. It is not unreasonable to throw an encounter at them after, let us say 10 minutes. According to what you stated they will only be half-healed by then out completely out of healing from the cleric. (The cleric needs 5 minutes from after uses his two healing words until he can use healing word again)

My party once camped in a middle of a dungeon corridor. I threw a bebilith at them. (There was a summoning circle further up the dungeon...). They NEVER camped in corridors again. Camping inside a room and barricading the door can have unwanted consequences as well. For instance you can make the monster barricade them inside the room. Now the monsters will have plenty of warning before the characters break out of the room, and if they don't try to break out they will run out of food and water... Or maybe the monsters just smoke them out?

It is possible to for instance withdraw to a safe distance, but then the monsters will have plenty of warning that there is something afoot. Instead of fighting 3-4 encounters when they get back to business, they get all those monsters in one big encounter?

 

[Shabe]

The problem here is that the DM wants the players to behave in a tactically unsound manner in a tactics-heavy RPG. What they're doing is playing smart. What can he possibly say to them? "Guys I'd like you to be more dumb. Just until you're higher level!"

This really looks like a case of PEBDMS.

Just to try and dispel the ignorance here, what the heck is a case of PEBDMS?

 

[wedgeski]

On low levels, this comes close - hp are around 20 points, and a single surge is thus around 5 points of healing. It's more a 50 % increase, though IIRC, Clerics also add an ability modifier to their healing, so +100 % seems to fit.

Ah yes, the +Wis modifier. Still, I don't think this should be considered as anything other than the due premium of having a healing class in the group.

 

[keterys]

My party often tries to do this (to the extent that I'd considered removing the roll from the 'word' powers to make them static/predictable), but it has bitten them at least twice and they've also chosen not to do it at least twice:

Let's say the party finishes a major battle with the following hp totals:

25/40
15/30
4/30

And completely out of any healing powers.

If they rest 5 minutes and don't spend any healing surges, they get to spend their 2 words for surge+1d6+5 say, so now they're 25/40, 30/30, 19/30... they go to rest again, and they're attacked.

In that battle, they're down hp (a hit from bloodied, on two people) _and_ they don't have their healing words. That's a real penalty.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Just to try and dispel the ignorance here, what the heck is a case of PEBDMS?

I just made it up, I'm afraid. Problem Exists Behind Dungeon Master's Screen.