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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Blue" data-source="post: 7467850" data-attributes="member: 20564">This is why designing a game and balancing classes around 6-8 encounters during a set time / often-player controlled limit is a problem.It's tying a mechanical balance point to a narrative-controlled action.  It limits the stories we can tell without distorting the class balance.If I want to have a three week trek across a gnoll-infested jungle that'll take a single session and have 1-4 combats over those 3 weeks depending on how good the party is at avoiding them, I need to resign myself to the long-rest-recovery classes dominating every fight.  And that they won't be challenging unless the encounters are all amazingly tough for their level.  Can I do that?  Sure I'm the DM.  Should I be forced by the mechanics every time because they can't support the story?  That's where I have a problem.I like how two systems handle it.  Adventures in Middle Earth is the Tolkien 5e adaption.  During "journey phase" (much like exploration/discovery pillar in 5e but more structured) you can only count on a long rest at a Sanctuary, like Elrond's Halfway House.  Great nod to the books.  BUT, you can also get one for an overwhelming moment of peace or beauty, like the perfect sunrise.  Which is now back in the DM hands and can be done at the proper point to allow the class balance points to work.The other system is 13th Age.  It's a d20 that predates 5e by a bit but is similar in streamlining.  You get a "full-heal-up" every 4 encounters.  Could be over that three-week trek, could be when you stop for lunch in a dungeon.  DM can give it sooner if the encounters are particularly difficult.  And the party can always insist on one, but pays a campaign setback to do so.  Maybe the cult has enough time to complete the first ritual and turns some of the captured peasants into blood-craving berserkers.  *shrug*  It's the more gamist of the two but really once you get used to the break it fades from consideration and isn't as big a deal.</blockquote>

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