D&D 5E (2014) How many combats does your 5e group typically have between long rests, if you have at least one?

[Rya.Reisender]

I'm actually surprised at the results, I thought it would be 6-8 for almost everyone. Aren't your games incredibly easy if you allow a long rest so often? A whole day of adventuring is also so boring if you only have 2-3 battles in it. All the official adventure modules have 6-8 battles per dungeon (including field encounters on the way there), and I usually require my group to finish it before they can do a long rest. They usually do 2 short rest inside the dungeon, though.

So it's:
Wake up -> 2-3 battles -> Short rest -> 2-3 battles -> Short rest -> 2 battles -> Long rest

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

Aren't your games incredibly easy if you allow a long rest so often?

You have to consider that there are a lot of DMs in the world which do not create a situation in which it is up to whether or not they "allow a long rest" to occur. They present the world and the challenges before the party along the way to the goals the party have chosen to pursue, but do not do so in a way that includes control of when the party chooses to rest and whether that rest is interrupted.

I, as an example, have no issue with my players trying to rest (long or short) at whatever point they should choose. I have predetermined the odds that something comes along that might interrupt rest in the location chosen by the players, and I'll toss the dice to see if the party ends up being interrupted or not.

A whole day of adventuring is also so boring if you only have 2-3 battles in it.

I find things to be only as boring as one allows them to be. It isn't the number of battles, but how each battle is approached (and no, I don't mean difficulty) that determines if that adventuring day was boring or not.

 

[Rya.Reisender]

Well according to the rules, you can only do one long rest per day. That means you have 16 hours you need to play out before you can do another one. Inside dungeons for exactly it is recommended to proceed time in minutes. Some actions like searching a whole room takes several minutes, but still, you will get at least say 200 rounds outside combat before the day comes to an end. Unless you do short rests in between to proceed some time. But that's still a lot of sitting around and waiting in enemy territory just to be able to take a long rest again. Or alternatively, the group enters the dungeon, does 2-3 battles, then travels back the next town, rests, goes back to the dungeon, does another 2-3 battles, leaves again... hmm it seems boring to me. And reduces the excitement of having to conserve resources and being scared of getting out alive.

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

Or alternatively, the group enters the dungeon, does 2-3 battles, then travels back the next town, rests, goes back to the dungeon, does another 2-3 battles, leaves again... hmm it seems boring to me.

Of course it seems boring, you are presenting it in the most boring way possible.

If it is presented more as the party finally deciphers the coded map and locates the entrance to the dungeon, they enter wary of what dangers they might face, they solve the riddle of the entrances guardian statues which threatened to kill them with frost, lightning, and fire, then find that the apparently entombed bodies are actually mummies left here to guard against intrusion which the party narrowly defeats without any losses - and then they have to survive the dangerous trek back to somewhere safe to rest, but they manage it, rest, and prepare for a return trip... it's at least a bit less boring.

And reduces the excitement of having to conserve resources and being scared of getting out alive.

You know when it was that my players didn't feel a need to conserve resources to ensure that that they'd "get out alive"? When we were playing in a way that they could predict how many encounters they'd face before having an opportunity to rest uninterrupted.

If you want the party to be genuinely cautious, not just certain that they will have another opportunity to spend that resource later so they might as well save it, you have to remove the predictability - and that means removing yourself from thinking about how much they have to do before they try to rest.

 

[S'mon]

Well according to the rules, you can only do one long rest per day. That means you have 16 hours you need to play out before you can do another one. Inside dungeons for exactly it is recommended to proceed time in minutes. Some actions like searching a whole room takes several minutes, but still, you will get at least say 200 rounds outside combat before the day comes to an end. Unless you do short rests in between to proceed some time. But that's still a lot of sitting around and waiting in enemy territory just to be able to take a long rest again. Or alternatively, the group enters the dungeon, does 2-3 battles, then travels back the next town, rests, goes back to the dungeon, does another 2-3 battles, leaves again... hmm it seems boring to me. And reduces the excitement of having to conserve resources and being scared of getting out alive.

My group may take a short rest in the dungeon, but rarely a long rest. They normally try to reach a safe location before long-resting, after at most 3 fights. The reason they are scared is that
they don't know how many fights they may face, or the difficulty of those fights - it's the uncertainty that creates excitement. Wandering Monster checks are an extremely useful tool for keeping things tense, even a low-challenge encounter can be deadly when the PCs are ambushed in camp.
Recently my 6th-7th level party camped out in some ruins after killing a shambling mound,
unfortunately the ruins were also being used by hobgoblins who saw their camp fire...
eight hobgoblins (7 standard, 1 leader) vs 2 PCs (Barb-6, Warlock-7) & an NPC paladin
type proved to be a very tough fight.

A normal planned dungeon delve by the group is exactly as you describe - they intend to hit (eg)
Dyson's Delve or Caverns of Thracia, have 2-3 fights (maybe with a short rest in there) and then get back to town for nightfall. But wandering monsters can interrupt their plans; wanderers encountered when the group is heading back to town are particularly dangerous.

 

[S'mon]

Currently on the poll 5 of 35 voters typically have 6+ encounters per adventuring day; so if WoTC's "6-8 encounters/day" was prescriptive it doesn't look as if most of us are doing what we're told!

 

[Rya.Reisender]

6-8 encounters comes automatically if you buy the official adventure modules and then only allow a long rest after clearing each dungeon. Because notably each dungeon has exactly 6-8 encounters. Except some really big dungeons, but then the adventure module also mentions what "risk" to roll for when the group wants to rest inside.

But from this thread you can tell that most groups don't play through a whole dungeon in one go, they go back to a safe location to rest.

 

[Rhenny]

I'm actually surprised at the results, I thought it would be 6-8 for almost everyone. Aren't your games incredibly easy if you allow a long rest so often? A whole day of adventuring is also so boring if you only have 2-3 battles in it. All the official adventure modules have 6-8 battles per dungeon (including field encounters on the way there), and I usually require my group to finish it before they can do a long rest. They usually do 2 short rest inside the dungeon, though.

So it's:
Wake up -> 2-3 battles -> Short rest -> 2-3 battles -> Short rest -> 2 battles -> Long rest

Wow...I'm glad you posted this. I just realized that when I responded, I failed my reading comprehension check and answered as if the poll asked how many encounters before a short rest. I changed it! Definitely between 6-10 now. Still variable, but the average seems to fall at about 8.

Cheers.

 

[sleypy]

I don't really plan out a set number of combats. I have combat based more on the situation than any set number. If there are more than 3-5 combats in a day it is probably due to some failure or a conscious choices of the players.

 

[cmad1977]

Hard to say. Probably in the area of 5-9?