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ShortQuests -- individual adventure modules! An all-new collection of digest-sized D&D adventures designed to plug in to your game.

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tigris" data-source="post: 9883598" data-attributes="member: 7043270">So from the XP needed from levelup you kinda get that the game expects to have:6 normal fights and 2 short rests per long rest. (Because 3 of those days you csn fit in at level 15 then they are 16)From what I have seen many people recommend doing 1 deadly (now hard?) encounter instead of 2 normal ones, but I am not sure if thats ideal. In general predictability makes ressource spending easier. So having 1-3 encounters per short rest will make decisions harder for your players than always having 1 deadly encounter.In general I would use the same mechanics/techniques D&D 4e used against alpha strikes. (One of them is combat difficulty /amount variance) some others are:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Use "minions" weak easy to kill enemies, but dont tell players ehich enemies are minions. This way if they alphastrike from the beginning withour having information about the enemies they may waste a strong attack on a weak enemy</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Then mix different strong enemied together. If all enemies are weak then its one thing. But if some strong enemies are between then its harder to predict.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Lurkers. Have enemies being stealthy/invisible and enter the combat later. They can go for the backline/squishies and add further unpredictability "oh its only 2 enemies so they have to be strong" well not if there are additional lurkers</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Or you csn just hsve some enemies join the fight later. Deduct some of their XP because that is easier thsn all at once.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Then mix in from time to time some encounters which sre easy as well. (So easy medium and hard encounters), so players may then waste strong spells on a weak encounter or be in a strong encounter more weary thst this may be an easy encounter and dont go all in from the beginning.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Use enemies with different strong defenses (like high AC and con save, but low reflex and wisdom). If an enemy has a really good constitution saving throw (and players dont know through metagaming so maybe change monster names), then they may waste a high level spell if they just try to go for a constitution save on that enemy. So it may be saver to first test the waters with a bit weaker spells.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">In general use rather more enemies, 5.5 eithout xp multiplicstor allows that. And with action economy its still most often harder to fight many enemies than a single one.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Make the enemies make good use of the environment. Luke some enemies are hidden behind cover, or coming out of the ground when combst starts etc. Such that sometimes combst start (without surprise) with enemies alresdy next to the casters. So they need ressources to get away from them.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Use some enemies from time to time to throw players off. Like sn enemy with a single legendary resistance (using it early) since they now might think thats the big thread / the boss. Or minions which resurect once. (Like really low health enemy, but they have the nechanic to be resurected once). And dont tell the player they resurected/reflavour it just say "it took a heavy blow but its still standing!"</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Have some non combst like skill challenges which harms the players when they dont succeed so they want to spend ressources there as well.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Maybe even use an illusion (+ an invisible enemy) at some point, maybe they waste ressources on the illusion.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">As mentioned above if players dont know if there is 1 fight or 3 fights until next short rest (or 3 fighrs or up to 9 fights until next long rest) their ressources planning becomes a lot harder.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Maybe have some other (sub)objectives in a fight. Like hsving to stop a ritual and while its running more adds come every turn. Or having a magical device which halfs all damage while its still active (for players and enemies) so one needs first to get rid of that before bursting.</li> </ul>I hope this helps a bit</blockquote>

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