Number of encounters before an extended rest

[spinmd]

So, now that some people have the books already, I thought I would ask a questions about # of encounters.

If I was designing a time-limited adventure that the players could only take one extended rest, how many balanced encounters could be included to make the overall adventure fair?

I think I remember seeing in various 4e previews that the expectation was a party could go through 6-8 encounters before requiring an extended rest, so in the above example that would be 12-16 encounters. I am wondering if the books actually state the 6-8 encounters (or something different) or if they don't address this.

Thanks in advance, can't wait for the 6th.

 

[Regicide]

So, now that some people have the books already, I thought I would ask a questions about # of encounters.

If I was designing a time-limited adventure that the players could only take one extended rest, how many balanced encounters could be included to make the overall adventure fair?

There is no good way of knowing this, you'll have to play it by ear. This is particularly true of low levels where a lucky first round for the monsters could mean a TPK instead of a total route without doing any damage.

 

[dasheiff]

DMG 118 - Action points enourage more encounters before extended rest.
DMG 146 - Heroic character probally take an extended rest when their healing surges get dangerously low. (There seems to be a suggestion that after Raise Dead can be bought it doesn't really matter)
At paragon and epic more encounters can be done before an extended rest.

To be honest I cannot find any hard and fast rules (or even a real suggestion at this point) I of course might be missing somethng but this looks like something they suggest the DM play by ear.

 

[ozziewolf]

Having played numerous play tests and recently starting our own campaign I can say that 6-8 is fairly accurate for the number of encounters before an extended rest. I would probably start at 7 and adjust it according to how the group is doing.

If in doubt you could put a place about midway through the dungeon that the group could always back track to and barricade themselves in for an extended rest. This way if they where doing poorly they could rest of if they where doing very well they probably wouldn't feel the need to back track for a rest.

 

[dasheiff]

I just realized that you can go from Farmboy to God in about a month.

 

[JohnSnow]

I just realized that you can go from Farmboy to God in about a month.

Only if your DM is a retard.

Put another way, it's the Dungeon Master's job to enforce the believability of the setting by building in sufficient downtime to the party's adventures.

Realistically, if you could find a 30th-level threat a month after you start adventuring (or a 10th-level threat after a week), they should be close enough to kill you.

Spatial and temporal separation makes the "fair challenge" discrepancy (PCs always run into "level-appropriate" opponents) a LOT easier to believe. The reason you didn't run into any 10th-level monsters back when you were first level is because that was 5 years ago in another part of the world. And things just weren't that dangerous then.

Two options exist:

1) View the campaign as the players playing out the "highlight reel" of their PCs' lives. The characters aren't actually sitting on their butts between adventures, it's just that nothing significant happens.

2) Just let the PCs take some time off.

There's no reason adventures have to present themselves every day.

 

[Aegir]

I just realized that you can go from Farmboy to God in about a month.

Thats true of 3E as well; just in 4E its true of most any PC, instead of just spellcasters.

 

[Boarstorm]

I just realized that you can go from Farmboy to God in about a month.

Like Rand al'Thor?
Or Luke Skywalker?

 

[JohnSnow]

Like Rand al'Thor?
Or Luke Skywalker?

Sorry. Yes, their rise was meteoric.

Bu both of them took at least 3 years. There's a lot of downtime in the early WoT books (about 6 months pass between the first 2, and another year between 2 & 3, for example). And 3 years passed between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back.

Granted their powers came quickly once they discovered them.

 

[ChupacabraPlus]

It's a good thing that characters in the heroic tier are not farm boys, then. Or else we'd have a problem.