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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Wulf Ratbane" data-source="post: 3987724" data-attributes="member: 94">Maybe not WP/VP, but would you settle for hit points and Action Points? Action Points then become the dramatic resource to be managed.Hit points already are a per encounter resource, and the individual combat encounter already is the unit around which the game is balanced. It just isn't "officially so."The "correct" way to play the game, from the players' side of the screen, is to use healing potions or wands to fully heal up after every combat. (In our case, while the rogues Take 20 using Search on the room, anybody that can use a healing wand uses it during that "invisible downtime.")Taken a step further, there is nothing to prevent the PCs from engaging in the "10 Minute Adventuring Day." You enter the first room of the dungeon, throw everything at it, then retreat for the day to get all your spells back. We've all seen this. Many of us have done this. It's not satisfactory, it always feels like a cheat, but within the existing rules, it's the only smart thing to do.In both of these cases the pressure is on the DM to keep the PCs from engaging in this logical "best practice." If the DM doesn't want his players to be fresh for every encounter-- the lament we have seen here and elsewhere of whittling the party resources down a bit at a time-- it falls to the DM keeps the heat on the PCs and keep things moving. If you want an exciting "run and gun" encounter, where the PCs are so harried they don't have time to stop and rest, then simply do that.Fixing the 10 Minute Adventuring Day is a little more complicated-- it requires a lot more forethought on the part of the DM. Under the existing rules, the DM can't really prevent the PCs from retreating from the dungeon to assault it fresh, time and time again, unless he is equipped with the information he needs to know what the dungeon inhabitants will do during that long down time. But even this stretches verisimilitude. If the PCs are assaulting a crypt guarded by undead and traps, there really isn't any reason for the undead to sally forth at night to prevent the PCs from resting. So we let them go in, shoot their wad, then we hand wave an entire "game day" and let them go back in rested, restocked, and ready the next day. Functionally speaking, why not just give them everything back after a short, reasonable rest period?From a designer's perspective, it is a lot easier for me to predict what the bad guys will do with, say, 10 minutes while the PCs stop to rest, than to predict what they will do with almost 24 hours to rest and regroup. As a DM, I would much rather force the action in 5 or 10 minute increments than daily increments.</blockquote>

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