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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jester David" data-source="post: 7122521" data-attributes="member: 37579">Why would I mention that? It's an unrelated topic.Yes, the game is "balanced" around 6-8 average encounters. Because they had to have some number as the norm. They couldn't balance the fighter assuming 6 encounters, the wizard assuming 4 encounters, and the rogue assuming 8 encounters. That'd be ridiculous. They needed to set a baseline and do so for all classes. The actual benchmark number is largely irrelevant. Arbitrary even. They could have determined it randomly. I think they just decided that the 3-5 encounters of 3e/4e were a little low for classical dungeon crawls and went higher.But, again, it's 100% irrelevant to the topic of resting. Because even if the benchmark was 2 encounters between short rests you'd still get players trying to rest early. Because it's too appealing. You just need to look at the D&D video games (like Baldur's Gate where you could rest at any time and fully heal. Without a penalty for resting, you could do so after every fight. And often did.What mechanic would you suggest to solve the problem of a player looking up monster statistics on their iPhone? What mechanic would you suggest to solve the problem of a player being twice as optimised as the rest of the table? What mechanic would you suggest to solve the problem of a player fudging their die rolls?Table rules can solve the above problem, but those are unrelated to the "rules" of the game. They're really more social mores. If you're finding your campaign is having a problem with players going nova and the 5 minute workday, the best solution is to talk to the damn players. The DM can't hide behind the "rulebook" as a solution for every problem at the table. Again, resting early is a narrative problem. Like guessing the murderer before the murder is committed. You're not going to fix that problem by waving a rulebook at it.The ONLY way to solve the 5 minute workday is to recharge the players to full health between every encounter. Like 4e did, but turned to 11. No daily powers, only encounter powers. Infinite healing surges. No reason to ever stop and rest. But at that point you've created a whole bunch of other problems. Such as the 4e issue that you either have a victory or death. There's no middle ground as attrition isn't a significant factor. And that every fight needs to have the potential to kill one or all of the party, or it's not worth having. Asking for rules is odd when the example you gave requires no new rules. You don't need rules dictating if scouts are dispatched or if they successfully warn other creatures. You don't need rules dictating and mandating how an encounter becomes more difficult if the players rest.And while all classes don't benefit equally from a short rest, all classes do benefit. The ability to heal is always nice. But, really, as a team based game, the benefit of taking a short rest is the increased success for the team. It doesn't matter if your class (or character) doesn't gain a significant benefit from a long rest. You can't carry on without the party. But, really, even if every class recharged after a short rest, you'd always get one person who uses fewer abilities than the rest of the party. One character that never used their abilities by choice, or good tactics, or because they came late in the initiative and had fewer turns. You always have someone who's resting despite not really needing to take the break. (Personally, I never use wandering monsters. I have incidental encounters. I draw a monster from a list when it makes sense in the game. When people are beginning to lag and need some action or as a break between longer periods of roleplaying or exploration or puzzle solving. Tying monsters to a table just increases the chance I'll get an encounter when the flow of the game doesn't require one.)Replying to this again, because it just keeps jumping out at me.So, there are mechanical costs already. But they're not working. So the solution is more mechanical costs? If glue completely isn't working, the solution isn't more glue or different types of glue. The solution is a freakin' nail. If mechanics aren't working... then a different solution needs to be tried. A non-mechanical solution.</blockquote>

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