Stopping the "extended rest after every encounter"

[dragon_eater]

One idea I had for KotS is: (KotS Spoiler)

Spoiler

to raise the level of The Thing it the Portal by one (+1 attack and damage) for every inappropriate rest as Kalarel kepts getting closer to finishing the ritual. You should then tell the players that spending too much time being lazy is a bad thing.

 

[Sphyre]

I've already mentioned to my players that I will hand out milestones when they have reached them. If they had an encounter that was less than their level it only counts partially towards earning a milestone. Basically I tell them when they reach it. Usually it's once every 2 encounters, but not always.

If my players started an extended rest after every encounter, I'd first off ruling that they don't get their action points set to one, but rather they are set to 0. That way the only way to get an action point would be to completing 2 encounters, or maybe even give it to them after the first, that way they would waste their action point by resting.

If it were a problem after that, I'd force them into multiple encounters with wandering monsters.

I'm glad I don't have this problem though.

 

[mattdm]

If my players started an extended rest after every encounter, I'd first off ruling that they don't get their action points set to one, but rather they are set to 0. That way the only way to get an action point would be to completing 2 encounters, or maybe even give it to them after the first, that way they would waste their action point by resting.

If I wanted to try the carrot approach instead of the stick, I might try allowing players to use more than one action point per encounter. This encourages pressing on to get a milestone so you can accumulate multiple points to spend.

 

[Harr]

We discussed this very issue in an old thread here.

What we liked at the end was a 'carrot' system of small cumulative bonuses to XP that would stack the longer the party kept on fighting without long-resting.

Now, the number I was playing around with back then was 10%, and it's the number I've used, however, after seeing the results in play (ie, a bit faster levelling than I'd like) if you decide to try it out I'd recommend to go with 5% cumulative instead, because once you put your players into that "we need to fight as much as we can before resting" mentality, it's very easy for them to rack up 6-8+ equal-level combats before being anywhere near to out of resources!

 

[erik_the_guy]

They aren't abusing the system. If they have adequate time to take a full rest between encounters then let them, it's not a bad idea. If they are rushed to finish a quest they won't rest as much. Put them on a schedule if you want to increase the sense of urgency. If they are being payed for an adventure, they might get more money for finishing in one day than they would for doing it in three.

 

[Jack Colby]

Uhh... How about setting your adventures in dangerous places where such wasteful and cowardly use of time is impossible? Dungeons are full of monsters, remember? How do you figure they could take uninterrupted rests whenever and wherever they please?

 

[useridunavailable]

Personally, I think milestones might be a little bit stingy.

1 action point: Nice, but in and of itself, not something you're going to want to bend over backwards for most of the time.

1 extra item daily: You may or may not even have the items to make use of this feature. Pretty mediocre until higher levels.

I may houserule milestones to give you the use of any one daily power in addition to the action point (instead of the item power thing). That way, if you've used a significant number of resources in the first encounter of the day, it makes sense to try and motor through a second one on your terms so that you have the resources to survive a potential ambush during your rest.

Solution 1: Relentless Assault: As for the party resting in the town, would it disrupt the plot too much to have locals double as assassins loyal to the BBEG, lying in wait for their opportunity to strike? Ambushing the party while they rest at an inn could make things pretty ugly for the PCs. For example, unless the characters are evil, they probably don't want to drop scorching bursts, breath weapons, and the like for fear of collateral damage to innocent bystanders (not to mention the structure itself).

Solution 2: No Time to Lose: Another solution is to include time-sensitive elements in the campaign. Throw in a quest (along with a reward) which involves saving a noble's daughter before she's sacrificed to mister-evil-death-god by mister-evil-death-cultist on the full moon or the evil anniversary of something or other. Maybe she's been captured by a group of slavers who intend to put her on a ship for a far off continent or something.

Personally, I kind of like solution 2 because it's less railroady and more a choice between getting a reward and pressing on or being wimps and letting the noble's daughter slip into certain doom.

 

[Tony Vargas]

This really shouldn't be the problem that it was in 3e. All classes have about the same resource management issues, and your at-will & encounter powers will substantially outnumber your daylies. You shouldn't have to take an extended rest until you've blown most of your daylies, and you should be able to get through most modestly challenging encounters without resorting to daylies.

So, keep encounters apropriate, if encounters are too tough, the party will blow a bunch of daylies on them and want to rest. And, keep encounters numerous. Adventuring is supposed to be dangerous and a non-reactive environment is unrealistic and unexciting. The tomb filled with traps, constructs, and undead that never leave thier designated rooms works - and going slow in what amounts to a lethally dangerous archeological expedition makes sense, but it should be the exception: this is Dungeons & Dragons, not 'Secrets of the Dead.' Most adventures should be against foes who will react or will carry out thier fiendish plans if the PCs sit back and do nothing.

 

[Verdande]

Most adventures should be against foes who will react or will carry out thier fiendish plans if the PCs sit back and do nothing.

This is exactly what your players, and you, need to remember.


What happens while the players are sleeping for the day? Are the kobolds reinforcing their defenses, setting up traps, digging trenches, sharpening spears, and otherwise getting ready to fight? Are they carrying the fight to the party, this time with their riding spiders? Do they call their allies, the kobolds down the mountainside, to trap the adventurers in a hammer and anvil flanking tactic? Or are they doing something else altogether?

 

[Harr]

What happens while the players are sleeping for the day? Are the kobolds reinforcing their defenses, setting up traps, digging trenches, sharpening spears, and otherwise getting ready to fight? Are they carrying the fight to the party, this time with their riding spiders? Do they call their allies, the kobolds down the mountainside, to trap the adventurers in a hammer and anvil flanking tactic? Or are they doing something else altogether?

Eh, I've tried doing this extensively, sounds great on paper but it never got the results I hoped for.

You end up either spending (wasting) hours of play on "Teach 'em a lesson for trying to rest" fights that do nothing to advance the plot and aren't interesting, OR you end up with a "Oh well you took too long, the bad guys succeeded in their thing, too bad, they win and everybody hates you for failing" situation which is very anticlimactic*.

Far better to inspire them to try to keep going on their own, because it's actually and objectively better for them to keep going than to rest (as I described above).

(*Yeah I know the theory that those situations will lead to better roleplay and better games etc, again that sounds good on paper but I've never found that to be the case in practice, might just be me though).