D&D 5E How many encounters per day is YOUR average?

[Oofta]

I didn't create this thread because I'm personally have pacing problems when running games. My reason for posting this is that I've never played in a game that had the recommended number of combats as presented in the DMG and it seems like the developers balanced things around a sense of pacing that most people just do not follow, from my experience. I've never been in a game with more than 4 combats in a day, and it's generally a lot less. I'm running a rune knight in a campaign now and we're at level 7 and I've i played all of the way through Rime of the Frost Maiden from level 1 to finish with a fighter -> RK. After getting the subclass at level 3, I have yet to participate in a 5e fight as a rune knight where I did not have Giant's Might up and it's a power you only get twice a day to start out. I'm curious if they tried to balance the game around a pacing structure that (most?) tables do no follow.

IMHO, there is no way to have perfect balance in a game that supports the wide class styles as D&D 5E.

They tried with 4E, but for many people just didn't work well (even if there were some good ideas).

I enjoy pushing my players and my own PCs to their limits at least now and then, that's easier with 5+ encounters.

 

[abirdcall]

I didn't create this thread because I'm personally have pacing problems when running games. My reason for posting this is that I've never played in a game that had the recommended number of combats as presented in the DMG and it seems like the developers balanced things around a sense of pacing that most people just do not follow, from my experience. I've never been in a game with more than 4 combats in a day, and it's generally a lot less. I'm running a rune knight in a campaign now and we're at level 7 and I've i played all of the way through Rime of the Frost Maiden from level 1 to finish with a fighter -> RK. After getting the subclass at level 3, I have yet to participate in a 5e fight as a rune knight where I did not have Giant's Might up and it's a power you only get twice a day to start out. I'm curious if they tried to balance the game around a pacing structure that (most?) tables do no follow.

I'm running RotFM right now and there are plenty of full encounter days.

One area where it struggles and this is true of all adventures I have played is overland travel. The adventure assumes random encounters as part of the adventuring day budget but as they are part of overland travel there is usually little reason that the party can't just rest.

Still there are quite a few cases where the adventure is full of encounters. I even posted one in this thread.

 

[tetrasodium]

I'm curious if they tried to balance the game around a pacing structure that (most?) tables do no follow.

Yes they did exactly that in more ways than one. Someone on reddit made this great post a while back that goes into detail about why all of the usual excuses dismissing the resulting problems are just wrong or not as simple as they make themselves out to be.

 

[Stalker0]

Yes they did exactly that in more ways than one. Someone on reddit made this great post a while back that goes into detail about why all of the usual excuses dismissing the resulting problems are just wrong or not as simple as they make themselves out to be.

That was a good article.

I do like this poll though because it at least puts some numbers down. There are several cries of "most people don't play this way" and a poll at least gives us a finger in the air on whether that is true or not.

 

[abirdcall]

That was a good article.

I do like this poll though because it at least puts some numbers down. There are several cries of "most people don't play this way" and a poll at least gives us a finger in the air on whether that is true or not.

At least among this site and the people on this site that read the thread and then answered the poll.

So basically it tells us very little.

 

[FrogReaver]

IMO. I've played plenty of 1 encounter days. When it comes to combat, classes tend to balance differently, but they still mostly balance.

• A level 6 Battlemaster even without feats and multiclassing can on average do over 120 Damage in 4 Rounds vs 16 AC (Using GWF style, Trip Attack, Precision Attack, Action Surge)
• A level 6 Paladin without feats using all slots he can on divine smite will do fairly similar (vengeance with channel divinity can do a bit more to a single target)
• A level 6 Zealot Barbarian with no feats, using a greatsword and reckless attacking every turn will also do similar.
• A level 6 monk using 4 Ki on flurry of blows will do 80 in 4 rounds vs 16 AC. 2 Ki can then be used on stunning strike (increasing his DPR and possibly the teams as well, while simultaneously shutting down the enemy).
• A level 6 evoker Wizard using similar assumption can use 3x fireballs + 1x shatter for about 78 party friendly AOE Damage. It's hard to compare AOE to single target damage directly, but this seems reasonable enough. Though it should also be noted that this wizard can have mage armor up and shield every single round yielding a higher effective AC than the Greatsword Fighter.

The 3 major issues that arise in short adventuring days - 1) Pure at will classes like rogues get hosed, 2) lots of spell slots left over for out of combat and 3) versatility in combat as sometimes the best tactic isn't direct damage but instead control or healing or buffing. It's pretty amazing though that combat parity is still mostly intact. I suppose the bigger issue is that because everyone can do so much damage in combat that in order to challenge the PC's, encounters really have to start to feel like rocket tag. I suppose that leads me to the conclusion that if you are optimizing for short adventuring days, you probably should focus more on defense than offense.

 

[tetrasodium]

That was a good article.

I do like this poll though because it at least puts some numbers down. There are several cries of "most people don't play this way" and a poll at least gives us a finger in the air on whether that is true or not.

Yea it's telling that over 64% of the votes are 1-3 encounters with 1-4 bringing it up over 71%.

 

[Horwath]

1-4 is the most common, probably leaning toward 1 or 2. with very likely chance of a short rest after every encounter.

But, it also comes down to player preference.

If players want to take a rest they will take it.
Yes, as a DM you can interrupt the rest every now and then, but too much will just become tiresome for both DM and players.

 

[pming]

Hiya!

I went with 7 because I'm assuming "when the PC's are actually ON and 'adventure' and in the thick of it". In other words, I didn't include the 3 sessions of them walking into the Keep on the Borderlands, getting to know the Keep and all that roleplaying stuff, then some simple scouting into the wilderness to find the Caves of Chaos with a wandering monster or two the next session, then back at the keep for healing, more RP'ing, some equipment buying, and the hiring of, er, hirelings, the inevitable one to three random encounters to get back to the Caves, and the resting and preparing.

THEN when the PC's are inside the Caves and Dungeons of the gloomy canyon, yeah, easily 7 per session. For lots of sessions. There may be a 'short' track back to base camp to resupply or rest for a day, but those are mostly over in about a half hour of play time, then back into the dungeon!

There is no feasible way for me to guess an "average, per session, over the last X years", because the group of PC's can be vastly different. Some of my players characters were very much "roleplaying and character development centric", and others were just straight up "kill the monsters, take the treasure!". So...for this poll, I had to go with the "most common" style of play we tend towards...which is classic, old-skool dungeon, cave, ruins, etc exploration.

^_^

Paul L. Ming

 

[Zardnaar]

2-4 can be 0-1 or up to 9.