D&D 5E I have never once worried about "encounters per day" when prepping D&D 5E (a poll)

[Yaarel]

Simple premise to this question:

True or False: I have never once worried about "encounters per day" when prepping D&D 5E

I wasnt sure how to answer your poll.

I keep track of how many encounters per LEVEL.

But I dont care how many encounters per day.

If players full-rest often, then the encounters tend to be easier, thus count as half an encounter. If they press on, the resulting difficulty of a particular encounter can count as one-and-a-half encounters or even two encounters for a near TPK.

Each level has a total number of encounters in order to advance to the next level.

 

[Morrus]

I wasnt sure how to answer your poll.

I keep track of how many encounters per LEVEL.

But I dont care how many encounters per day.

So’ ‘true’, then.

 

[BookTenTiger]

I will say, even though I don't personally keep track of encounters per day, I don't knock anyone who does. I think both ways can produce fun games!

For me as a DM, trying to manage the number of encounters per day just isn't fun. It is fun for me to place various threats and pressures on the characters and see how they react. Sometimes they get to rest a bunch. Sometimes they don't!

As I stated before, I like to focus my energy on consequences for resting. I think it's natural that players want to try to be as strong as they can for each encounter, and the tool 5e D&D gives them for this is resting. So like any good player choice, I just try to communicate the consequences of their decision to rest.

I might say, "You all have really cleared out the threat in this area. Your characters sense it would be safe, with minimal security measures, to rest here overnight."

Or I might say, "You can definitely try to rest here. You get the sense that there's a lot of movement in the dungeon, and it would be likely that you might get spotted."

When I have a player who can cast Tiny Hut, I'll communicate something like:

"Even though you're going to be safe, it's likely the Tiny Hut will be seen. You can rest safely, but your characters probably assume that the enemy will be gathering information on you, or shoring up their own defenses. If you press on now, you would have more of a chance to be at advantage in upcoming fights."

But that's just playing to what I feel are my strengths as a DM. For other DM's, using encounters per day is a good way to challenge their players and create balanced adventures.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

Never about encounters per day. My concern would be tuning boss fights. Which is more about CR

 

[Minigiant]

I know 5e isn't balanced for 1-2 encounters or 10+ encounters so I worry about encounters per day to limit the amount of 1-3 potential encounter days in a row.

 

[ART!]

I don't worry about it at all, and never have. I just put monsters in dungeons or the wilderness or in cities and let the players clash and explore. Sometimes I'll put it ticking clocks or environmental hazards to make resting more difficult.

I don't worry about number of encounters, and other than a very vague check, I don't worry about how difficult an encounter may be according to CR calcs either. I just set things up and then it is up to the players to sort things out.

This is pretty much my approach, too.

To some degree this is an ADD thing, wherein I need as few things to worry about at the table as possible. I don't do random encounters at all, because that's something I'd have to do while running, in addition to everything else.

So, I plan encounters, including "basic" encounters for an area. So if orcs roam the region the PCs are in, I'll plan and build major encounters, and also prebuild a few standard orc encounters of varying difficulties which I can drop in as I see fit. I mostly use the Encounter Builder in D&D Beyond for all that.

We do milestone advancement, so when I feel like the PCs are due for the next level, I'll prepare a deadly encounter, but increasingly I'm trying to have ways in mind that they can work around that encounter and not have to kill everything.

 

[jmartkdr2]

Worry is a strong word but I do try to give multiple encounters per dungeon with the assumption that pcs won't try to take a long rest between each one.

 

[el-remmen]

I only used the word "worry" because of the tone of the threads/posts on here complaining about how that part of 5E is broken or does not accurately reflect the game at the table.

 

[Charlaquin]

I think about it, sure. I don't force anything but I think about the upcoming session, what they will likely encounter, possible ways the game might unfold based on where the PCs are and how they've been interacting with the world at large and it's inhabitants.

This is The Way.

 

[el-remmen]

For those of you concerned about "a long rest after every fight" - do you allow more than one long rest in a 24 hour period? I honestly I am not sure if that is an actual rule in the books, but this limit makes sense to me and have had some version of it in every edition I've played.