clearstream
(He, Him)
Could I suggest taking a closer look at the Adventuring Day section? The XP budget is for one "adventuring day" covers 6-8 medium to hard encounters. It then states that 2-3 short rests are expected in an "adventuring day" i.e. over that number of encounters. Implicitly, the "day" ends with a long rest i.e. there is one long rest per adventuring day. Regarding class balance, those guidelines amount to a clear suggestion of the design intent, e.g. an ability that recovers on a short rest (like Warlock spell slots) will be usable 3-4x per "adventuring day" (use, rest 1, use, rest 2, use, optional rest 3, use) while one that recovers on a long rest will be usable only once (use, end of day long rest).Even read by itself, but even more so in the context of tables that clearly suggest equivalencies* between particular numbers of easy, medium, hard, and deadly encounters, I just can't see anything here to suggest that 6-8 medium-hard encounters is preferred or recommended over some other mix.
The section on short rests does suggest, somewhat indirectly, that fewer than 3 encounters might be outside the norm.
As for class balance, you are certainly correct that the number of encounters will affect class balance. However, I see nothing in the DMG** that suggests that intended class balance is achieved at 3, 6, 8, 9, or any other particular number of encounters per day. That classes seem balanced to you at 6-8 encounters per day may be a valuable insight gained from your experience, but it is not, as far as I can tell, in the DMG as a rule, guideline or anything else.
* I am not endorsing these purported equivalencies, just pointing out that they are there.
** In this section anyway; is there something somewhere else?
It's true that we have to do some work to understand the design intent, as we have to breakdown the "adventuring day" XP and realise it pays for the specified number of encounters. Take the example in the book - 3x 3rd PC, 1x 2nd PC. Their Medium is 550XP and Hard is 825XP. Their "adventuring day" XP budget is 4200XP (3x1200 + 1x600). That pays for 7 medium or 5 hard encounters. 3 deadly or 15 easy encounters would also do it. The designers don't seem concerned with playing "exactsies", but for each combination of PC levels the "adventuring day" XP pays for about the guideline number of encounters. Generally about one encounter less than the guideline (skewing the game toward the "easy" difficulty setting that appears to have been the design intent).
Anyway, the balance is writ right there.
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