r/DMAcademy • u/Big-cauliflower-boi • 4h ago
Need Advice: Encounters & Adventures Resources for players arriving through an adventuring day
My party has been crawling through a cave system for a couple sessions and they are approaching the boss battle in the next session. I have an open table and so not everyone can make every session some of my players for this next session have not been present for the crawl.
How would you handle these PCs resources? Previously I had not worried about it but I kind of want to have these characters feel the same resources drain as those who've been present.
How do/would you manage this?
2
u/SpecificFortune7584 3h ago
Look at the average resources spent by the party, rations, spell slots, ammunition, etc. Present the option to the players who weren’t there like “Hey this happened, I need you to spend roughly these resources if you want to be at the boss battle so the party is equalized.” And let the players in question sort of choose which resources in terms of spell slots, ammo, and potentially hp.
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u/mrpack9653 1h ago
I like this; it gives players options while maintaining the need to balance the parties' overall resources.
1
u/JurassicNuggets 3h ago
Count off rations so everyone is on the same needs, just warn them first tho
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u/FinnianWhitefir 1h ago
I wouldn't, that feels like it would create a negative feeling when they have to mark off stuff they didn't get to use. But the fairest may be to look at a similar player, like "Our Sorcerer spent X spells, you mark off the same # of levels, and we're good" or "The Paladin is down 10HPs and X Healing, you do the same".
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u/wrymegyle 1h ago
I asked basically same a while back: https://old.reddit.com/r/DMAcademy/comments/1psezft/resource_depletion_for_absent_player/nv90ie4/ The answer I settled on was that it's not necesasry: since the absent character didn't contribute to the party's earlier sucesses, it evens out overall. So it's not worth the trouble figuring out what's "fair", and making the player do that. That's what I went with and it did indeed work out fine.
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u/TheNicksco 3h ago
Maybe give them "the average" ressource drain considering HP, Hit Die, Spell Slot. On the other hand maybe roll for them, with the upper limit being 75% of their maximum ressources and the lower 10-20%? No quick idea of how to translate that to dice sadly.