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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(Psi)SeveredHead" data-source="post: 5589059" data-attributes="member: 1165">IMO, any system that has "daily resources" can run into this issue.3e made the situation pretty bad by giving spellcasters:1) Powerful top-level spells, and making most low-level spells useless (especially attack spells).2) Once a spellcaster is tapped out, they end up quite weak. This is especially true for wizards, who tend to have stronger spells but low hp, low BAB, poor saves, etc.3) 3e's resource management system is hard to understand (what does 25% of resources mean when you're not a spellcaster?), and varies depending on the class anyway. If the fighter is at full hit points due to cleric healing, and the cleric has no spell slots left, is that 50% resource use? Probably not, as there's probably still wands and potions around... (Note, that situation probably never literally comes up.)In one encounter I ran in 3.5, my PCs defeated a group of opponents, and the two NPC sorcerers fled. One of the players actually grabbed their character cards and noted they had many spells left, and complained about it. (Yes, 15 minute adventuring days can affect NPCs too! Although it didn't have much to do with resource management.)In 4e, there are daily powers, action points and healing surges. Players have the most control over the first (they often don't use them), less control of the second and not a whole lot of control over the third. (I'm not bothering to discuss items; most of my DMing experience is in low-item Dark Sun.)Fortunately, encounter powers help to "fight" this problem, especially if, at low levels, you use themes. A 3rd-level PC using themes gets 3 encounter powers. If a fight lasts 6 rounds, half the time they're not using at-wills. In core 3.x this solution didn't exist, and out of core, I can't recall anything like that beyond Bo9S.Some groups will do the opposite of saving daily powers, using their dailies as quickly as possible and then wanting to rest, which would be "15 minutes". I think the problem tends to disappear once PCs can use two or three dailies, but that takes a lot of levels.Some adventures are written to promote the 15 minute day. Keep on the Shadowfell did this. Because there's no provision for adding new monsters to the keep if the PCs leave and little penalty for waiting, if the DM strictly follows the adventure, PCs might very well follow this strategy. (They're also penalized if the DM acts a little more realistically; if you engage monsters in room 3, allied monsters in room 4 probably won't just let their buddies die.)And of course, sometimes players are "too smart". In one nasty encounter I put my PCs through, they encountered an NPC necromancer, seemingly by himself, sitting on a hill over the Silt Sea. Recognizing a set piece when they saw one, one of the players said they could just wait for the guy to dehydrate, as their home base (a dwarf town) was nearby, and they could resupply easily, whereas they knew the NPC was far from home. Except the villain was working on a ritual of some kind. They didn't know what it was (frankly, it was just "flavor text" to get them moving). They ended up engaging him in combat, as they feared he might have been making a more powerful undead monster. (Not true, but if I let them believe that I'm not in the least bit sorry about it.) Alas, the 15 minute working day is "smart" if there's no additional motivator (like time-based plots).On another note, I think it's unfair to just say "DM problem". Some DMs aren't that experienced, and it's not their fault. Sometimes the pool of available DnD players is small, so the experience pool is small too. Some DMs are more interested in running for fun.</blockquote>

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