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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Goonalan" data-source="post: 5125666" data-attributes="member: 16069">This is precisely (from my view) what's happening, except for the fact that combat then goes on for another hour (not helped again by skype, maptools & life- children et al, my players are dotted around the globe, one of them is just sorting out how to play between 2 AM and 7 AM in Thailand when he's on his honeymoon, I pity his new wife)So the last two combats have been horrible for the PCs- Foulspawn Berserkers (and lots of other Foulspawn) with their Aura abilities which cause attackers to target random creatures rather than the Foulspawn- this sent the PCs cleric from 57 HP to -8 HP on the second round of combat, and still no Daily Power use.The rest of the fight, which soon after saw all PCs save one bloodied, several in very precarious positions and... still on with the encounters and at wills.The point is the fight drags out, the players spend a hour-and-a-half getting through it rather than use a Daily because they think, the bad guy's just around the corner...The next fight on saw them against an Ogre Warhulk that was blocking the path and a Medusa Archer that at one point hit five out of the six PCs with her Petrifying stare, one PC survived only with a reroll. The players are not dying through HP loss but are in a very precarious situation- still no Daily use (save the reroll).To address some of the other points made, the clock is ticking method works, I've tried it- the point is my campaign is a story and in places the clock ticks, in others they have time on their hands, I can't do it all the time.Multiple Encounter- I've run eight encounters in a row, all small, with no time for a short rest between them- the PCs were being chased over a fort/bridge across a chasm by Gnolls, Hyenas and a Shadow Dragon; and the fort/bridge started to collapse- yeah that works, and some dailies got spent but once again I can't do this every time.We've been playing for a year and a half now, and I like to think I'm a kind and considerate DM, they certainly e-mail me nice stuff (thank you's for this and that). I work with all of my players to get them through their character arcs, I teach narrative structure for screenwriting and electronic game design as part of my job, so story is all- and I have a story for all of the characters, all the way to 30th level- my players know this. That said if the dice falls then they're dead meat, which is as it should be, what I'm trying to say is they trust me... From my POV it seems there's some unwritten rule as regards Daily Powers- wait on the big guy, which still doesn't work, example.Arborean Speaker the Parsley Prophet, his massive Cave Bear, an Arborean Plant Terror and then a few troops- the big bad for the last portion of Level of Thunderspire, the fight had been built up- the Pcs found out about the Parsley Prophet way back when. Eruan, our Mage, is carrying around the head of his mum- Vyrellis (in a snowglobe like affair- don't ask what the snow effect is- dead flesh, oopsie).The grand finale.And grind, and even then they get through it, just, two Daily Powers spent, even then the Parsley Prophet gets away (not for long).It's like the Daily Power macros are sacred...I asked my players, as I said, why they do this and pointed out that if we got through the fights quicker we could get into some of the nice RP and the like, or even just more fights- obviously I couched it in better terms.And they agreed, they should use their Daily Powers more often, they agreed that more often than not they end the day with more than half their Daily Powers unspent. Regardless of the situation they seem to think, this from the horses mouth-"something really bad ass will come along"I'm running out of bad ass, I've run multiple low level encounters, I've had timers- I've thrown Level 17 encounters at them (when they were level 9) and I get a rise, they spend Daily Powers here and there... but between the climatic end of the world battles they're content to 'get through it' without using Dailies- even if it adds an hour to fight.Playing the H series of adventures is perhaps not helping as the final fight is always some way away, particularly in the Pyramid of Shadows, I have however amped up the section bosses within the Pyramid, and left lots of clues and snippets around to build each section boss up into a end-of-section battle.Thinking about it again, and with the insight you've provided (thanks) then I think my problems are really these-1. Fights take too long (for me) sometimes because the players horde their daily Powers- that might be what bothers me rather than their not using their Daily Powers.2. Because we play via Maptools and Skype then quite often players are away from the screen for some of the time- putting kids to sleep, getting drink/food, nature calls etc. So people sometimes arrive at the table see what they see and then just use...3. The Wizards adventures are too dense (fight-wise) which leaves the PCs thinking, better not spend my daily, there's another one of these fights along in a minute.4. having jumped on them before with multiple encounter (no rest)/timed event/situational problem and/or really bad ass bad guy they're always weary of me pulling a trick again- therefore they save for a rainy day.Thanks for the feedback, I'll read it all through again and pick out the pointers, no doubt I'll make use of some/all of it.Cheers PDR</blockquote>

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