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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Yaarel" data-source="post: 8548408" data-attributes="member: 58172">Re the topic of counting encounters.For our campaign this is normal because we count the number of encounters in order to advance to the next level. We zoom thru the apprentice tier of levels 1 thru 4, with 4 encounters then 7, 10, and 13 respectively. For the tiers of levels 5 thru 12, it takes about 16 encounters to reach the next level. The exact number of encounters depends on when a gaming session ends, so might be "close enough" or "wait till we finish this part". Players work on leveling their characters between sessions.As DM, I decide if an encounter is difficult, easy, or standard, after the encounter has ended. I have a plan for what the players will encounter and how challenging I expect it to be. But sometimes the players surprise me. What I thought would be difficult sometimes turns out to be trivial. Sometimes what I thought would be no big deal catches the players unprepared and ends up as a near TPK. Sometimes the players decide to do something off the wall and I need to improvise encounters on the fly. In all cases, the amount of effort that the PLAYERS need to make is what determines the degree of challenge. For example. A puzzle might turn out to be a difficult encounter for the players even tho the characters spend no resources. Similar for a social encounter or series of social encounters where the players are trying to achieve some goal. Most combats are difficult if spending heavy resources with little success or if facing it after depleting resources. But sometimes players try to resolve the combat in an unconventional way that exploits the narrative scenario, like trying to make the roof collapse.No matter what kind of encounter, a standard encounter counts as 1 toward the 16. An easy encounter counts as half. And a difficult encounter counts as one and a half, sometimes two. How much the encounter is worth is normally obvious in hindsight, after the encounter is over.</blockquote>

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