Which is better: per encounter or per day?

[blargney the second]

Which one do you like better: abilities that can be used a certain number of times per day, or a certain number of times per encounter? Do you like to have both in the same game, or would you rather it were all one or all the other? Is it the same or different for PCs and their foes?

 

[The Forsaken One]

Per day, makes PCs value their stuff and make choices about when to use it and if the encounter is worth it. Gives GMs some chance to let players underestimate fights at first and when they realise its tougher then they thought they might still use their stuff or it might not be worth it anymore. In any case, it then made a decent encounter instead of having the PCs go all in every encounter since their stuff is "per encounter" anyway. Which would leave the GM to have to go with multiphased encounters each time he wants to do something wonkey or surprising to have the PCs without all their best stuff.

Imho per day is all good just cause it makes them evaluate threats, their resources and how to spend it. (never good to spend it all in one place!)

 

[Thanee]

I like both for different reasons. Voted per encounter because it's newer.

Bye
Thanee

 

[FireLance]

It depends on whether you want to emphasize the strategic or the tactical aspects of the game.

Note that while it is natural for DMs to assume that strategic thinking is "better" than tactical thinking, it may not be what some players are looking for in a gaming experience. Such players (Robin Laws has called them steam venters or butt kickers) might just want to blow off steam in a game, and having to manage resources across encounters may make it seem like too much "work" to be enjoyable.

As a DM, I don't like per day abilities when they make the fights too easy for the PCs (sudden maximized fireball kills all opponents in the first round of combat), but I like them when they are used to turn the tide in a tough fight (PCs are taking a beating, then one of them pulls out an ability that saves the day). One way I thought of to balance that was to have offensive abilities to refresh per encounter, but defensive and restorative abilities to refresh per day. That way, I will be able to calibrate the encounters to the PCs' (relatively constant) offensive capabilities, while relying on their defensive and restorative abilities to kick in when the dice turn against them (hopefully not more than once per day).

 

[monboesen]

I don't like X/whatever.


I strongly prefer a design aproach that curcumvents that type of abilities. Like the token abilities in Iron heroes.

Granted they turn out to be sort of X/encounter, but in a much more interesting way.

 

[Herobizkit]

I voted X per encounter. I hate feeling limited when I take a prestige class (for example)only to have its ability for only one use per game day. Having a character full of these one-trick ponies just irks me.

 

[Drowbane]

None of the above (I also like to click buttons)

X/day abilities have never made much sense to me (aside from the obvious balance issues)... one reason why I love the Incarnum classes (2/3 at least) and Warlocks.

I would much rather have a weak At will power than an Insanely powerful 1/week or even an Uber 1/day power.

 

[Sammael]

None of the above. I'd prefer special abilities that were skill-based, with DCs increasing after each use (whether the check is successful or not). Per encounter is too metagame-y for my taste, and per day is a bit too limiting.

E.g. we could turn barbarian rage into a pseudo-skill (sort of like wild empathy), and make it Con-based: the initial DC to rage would be 10, and it would increase by +4 for every use beyond the first. A 1st level barbarian with Con 20 would have rage +6, meaning that he'd have a good chance to make his first or second rage check, and could theoretically make rage checks up to DC 26. Even a mere Con 14 barbarian (total rage bonus +3) has a resonable chance to make at least one rage check per day.

 

[gribble]

Maybe I'm just thick (well, actually I am, but maybe I'm just too thick to figure this out), but what exactly does X/encounter mean?

I mean X/day has always been fairly clear to me - it's X every 24 hours - a standardised measurement. But what defines where one encounter begins and another ends? Taking an obvious example:

• a party is dungeon crawling, enters a room, gets the crap beaten out of them and retreats.
• while retreating, the party runs into a wandering monster.
• while fighting the wandering monster, the guys from the first room sneak up behind the party and attack.

I'm sure there are much more complex examples possible, but even in this case it isn't clear to me whether it's one, two or three encounters we're talking about here...

For that reason I voted for X/day.

 

[philreed]

But what defines where one encounter begins and another ends?

I would state that whenever the board is clear of all opposition the encounter is over.