IMO you left out one of the best ways:
Non-Combat Encounters: While "trial by ordeal" and attritive adventures where the party has few opportunities to rest are good (Isle of the Ape is a classic example of this), doing it overall just to keep the pressure on all the time and turn the whole campaign into a forced march isn't necessarily for the best. That said - sleeping/resting in dungeons, or uncivilized wilderness, has always been and should always remain a chancy proposition; which is why there are spells to get around that, and focusing on just the things you mention will (and should) only encourage players to make more use of those spells and items.
But having non-combat encounters, where they neither use their swords nor their spells, has several benefits. First, they don't use their swords and spells on the "opponents" (not really "enemies" in this case, or at least not ones that the party should defeat by killing/attacking). So they have to resort to their wits or other non-combat resources. Secondly, non-combat encounters extend the adventuring day "naturally" precisely by not using up the party's spell/HP/expendable resource pool. This makes the players less miserable and less likely to see the campaign as a whole as an ordeal.
Non-combat encounters don't even have to be social encounters; they can be traps or other obstacles.
Personally I don't like "puzzle tick" encounters, but some people do, so that could be another type of encounter that falls into this category.
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6) Bad Things Happen when you Sleep
Instead of resting, the party finds its dreams invaded by horrid nightmares. No rest or respite can be had, and no spells are gained.
Pressure. Hard to rest when a few dozen orcs are attacking, or a pair of goblin archers are trying to snipe from cover.
Pressure from an authority figure can be a great motivator. Remind the players that there are people richer and more powerful than they who are (potentially) funding their mission, and they want results by a certain date.
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For the last month, I've been studying Pathfinder Adventure Paths, specifically ones with dungeon crawls in it. Usually they are the ones Greg A Vaughn do. I noticed that in these long dungeon crawls, they tend to have encounters that are one to two levels below the ECL scattered about. Furthermore, I've used this method and have found that dungeon crawls last longer without a lot of rest in-between and are still challenging. I'd suggest trying that. I also like to scatter traps in there as easier ways to gain XP without the same resource expenditure.
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Personally, my preferred system is a version of #2. Besides the enemies being on alert, they may bring in new allies, flee, or go on the offensive. When the nature of the adventure doesn't make these a possibility, though, I go with...
Assume They Will
Sometimes, there is no reason to hurry. The ancient catacombs guarded by traps, golems, and skeletons isn't going anywhere, and the denizens aren't smart enough to prepare defenses or even change their routine. So, when designing the adventure, assume that the party will be fully rested and equipped for each encounter. Multiple waves can simulate multiple encounters. Terrain, traps, and other preparations or effects can give the enemy extra advantages to help cancel out the fact the party can nova with their best abilities. While doing this with every encounter can make it feel like moving from setpiece to setpiece, it is a nice change when other factors can't prevent 15 minute work days.
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For the last month, I've been studying Pathfinder Adventure Paths, specifically ones with dungeon crawls in it. Usually they are the ones Greg A Vaughn do. I noticed that in these long dungeon crawls, they tend to have encounters that are one to two levels below the ECL scattered about. Furthermore, I've used this method and have found that dungeon crawls last longer without a lot of rest in-between and are still challenging. I'd suggest trying that. I also like to scatter traps in there as easier ways to gain XP without the same resource expenditure.
There's a reason the 3.5 DMG suggested that you only make half of the fights even EL with the party. Doing something like this not only increases dungeon longevity without over-pressuring the players, but it gives the fights more variety as well. The Alexandrian has a good writeup on the matter.
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Personally, my preferred system is a version of #2. Besides the enemies being on alert, they may bring in new allies, flee, or go on the offensive. When the nature of the adventure doesn't make these a possibility, though, I go with...
Assume They Will
This is a good one. ^_^
Especially with respect to Final Boss battles, PCs who even think they'er going into a big battle will, if they're all sane, rational people, make sure to be prepped and strong for it.There's no reason to thwart that - at least not all the time as a norm (again, attritive things are good as a change of pace). Just make sure that such encounters are built with the expectation that PCs are smart, and that final bosses are smart too, so they'll be challenging even to a prepared party.
But what about less-well or unprepared parties?
Well, those are the ones that will learn the most. Gaining the benefit of real experience is it's own reward, a life-long reward. For the players, that is. The characters, well, that's another story. . .
Strong and well prepared, yes. Always fully rested, no.
There's that "always" word again. I guess I don't mind it too much when people put "always" into other people's mouths. After all, they can stick up for themselves. Like I'm doing here.
Don't put "always" in my mouth, thanks.
My previous posts in this very thread could hardly give you the impression I'm in favor of having everyone always fully rested.
What I am against, though, is ongoing railroading.
Contributor, RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16
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It's old school, I remember back in the day Gygax suggested that dungeons are not static places. If the players rest, things change, creatures get reinforcements, they see signs someone is invading and set new more appropriate traps. They counterattack while the party is resting. Sometimes they realize they are outclassed and flee. If the players kill all the creatures in one place, other creatures slowly start to move in.
A group of creatures never just sits and let you pick them off one at a time without reacting in some way and critters in game should similarly adapt.
If the players kill all the creatures in one place, other creatures slowly start to move in.Both Temple of Elemental Evil and Return to the Same even had rules/guidelines for how the badguys would recruit/replace losses over time the linger things went on. Specific "named" individuals were irreplaceable, but the ranks of mooks would refill over time if the party took too long between forays.
A group of creatures never just sits and let you pick them off one at a time without reacting in some way and critters in game should similarly adapt.
yah; these were other guidelines that were common and good DMs still have badguys react normally, patrol, and the like.
Without giving any spoilers more than one of the AP modules I've read include roving patrols and the like, too. I sort of take these kinds of things as "givens," but it's easy to forget in the heat of an actual adventure so as a DM it's good to always remind oneself.
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A few years ago our dim did something I thought was brilliant. Basically we had used the same bedroom to teleport into to get back to the dungeon several times as part of our 15 work day.
Anyhow since teleportation involves visualizing the room your teleporting to they just moved all the furniture to another room that's the same shape and put the furniture up in the same positions. So we went where the bad guys wanted us to in a trap.
Even if you take these things as givens, it's nice for the designer to give some idea how the bad guys will react to invasion. Who they've got patrolling, how often, what happens when the alert is given, etc.
Well, I possibly take too many things as "givens" based on prior experience, and, having followed a link posted in this thread that led me to this one, which fairly aptly describes my own experience - which doesn't have to be 'wandering monsters' as such, but a living environment where, yes, if the party decides to hole up in the dungeon and rest, unless the place they do it in has a very good reason for nothing to go into during that time (or they do it in a secure way), they're risking their lives and, at minimum, have a high risk of having that rest interrupted is a "given," and withdrawing completely to rest at "home" carries with it it's own perils.
So, outside of computer versions of the game, I haven't found the 15 minute workday trope as problematic, in my own experience, as yes apparently it obviously is.
So while i don't dismiss the problem as a problem, I guess I overlook that what to me are obvious problems for parties that rest at the drop of a hat aren't so obvious to others.
I personally don't think, for example, #4 in OP's post is a good solution at all ("if you rest too much, the DM will inflict a grudge monster on you to TPK you" was my initial reaction to that one, but I held my tongue, 'cause it might be the prodding others need).
I take it as a given that monsters move around, that if the party rests in an insecure area they're taking a risk and stand a chance to be interrupted (which varies by area - after all, people do have to have the opportunity for a normal 8-hour rest in the wilderness, at least some nights. . .but they better post a watch; and if they basically sleep all day they're not going to get anywhere, for one thing).
My biggest problem as a GM with some module complexes is hot to justify not just overwhelming the party in one big fight with everyone left in the place if they make one small mistake and let an alarm get sounded.
It's a mixed bag. Once in running Temple of Elemental Evil the party managed to basically allow an alert to get an entire level of the dungeon after them; they held off for a bit in a tactically advantageous position and then managed to withdraw (after doing a fair bit of killing; I was a bit impressed with them) behind the cover of some webs and other obstacles.
They also managed to arouse a large number of giants in the Steading of the Hill Giant Chief one time, but managed to survive that. Oh and they had to learn quickly not to carry bright lanterns into the underdark as beacons telling everyone and their uncle that surfacers were approaching, and that made them come up with other ways to see.
Anyhow, a number of APs do give stats and lay out a description for the DM on roving patrols/enemies and how things will react. But a bunch of others do leave it as, well, a DM judgement call. As well as how many critters can or will surge towards the PCs,also remembering their own move rates and generally scattered initial dispositions. As well as a judgement on just how far to push realism when most party compositions don't make them that stealthy as a whole, and thus if applied strictly "realistically" this would not only 'solve' the 15 minute workday, but put an end to adventuring all together.
Except maybe for parties composed all of rogues or other stealthy types. Hey, maybe Rogues aren't worthless after all. . .
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From a player perspective I just realized why other players don't carry things like door spikes anymore. Or understand why we did. Or value things like Daern's Instant Fortress as much as I did - or my favorite item from X5, the oft-overlooked House of Zebulon ("I" still have this to this day). Or not worry too much that the old Rope Trick spell was made much less useful (though I can see why it was made much less useful). Or bother to learn and memorize Rope Trick (though I guess now I understand why they skip over utility spell such as these, as unnecessary to how they experience the game).
Well, if this thread helps prompt people to re-value these and similar things, then it's done a good job.
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I find that the escalating encounter or monster response works well in situations like this.
If a party clears an area then rushes off to rest, have it reinforced so they have to fight through it again. Alternatively, have it trapped after they rest so area that was previously cleared is now dangerous.
AS you start fighting more intelligent creatures, they begin to react intelligently to your hit and run tactics. They will send out trackers or raiders to follow a group and disrupt rest or ambush at the most inopportune time.
If players rest up and don't specifically mention being cautious, returning to the scene of the previous days events, this can prove very nasty indeed as they get caught with their pants down and begin the fight scrambling and possibly not buffed. A simple ambush a good way from a dungeon entrance is likely to catch a party unprepared buff wise, and makes a lower ECL encounter a tougher match.
Also, just because the party retreats to rest, doesn't mean they won't be harried on the way. having to complete a fighting retreat may make them learn to conserve resources better for a longer day.
Hope those are helpful.
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I think this needs a bit of handling IC, and a bit OOC.
Talk to the players OOC and figure out if it's happening because the encounters are too hard; if so, scale them down a bit.
On the IC side - this needs to be done fairly. No false reasons.
If the dungeon is a long-abandoned tomb with mindless undead and constructs and oozes, then doing it in 15-minute installments is actually reasonable. If there's no other reason for time-pressure, the party could take its time grinding a path to the bottom, day by day.
However, if the dungeon is the lair of intelligent creatures, like a tribe of goblins, then if the party pulls out after 15 minutes, they'll investigate what happened. They'll prop up defenses tailored to the tactics the PCs used against them. This is horrible for the PCs; they're training their enemies.
Camping in a dungeon usually shouldn't be an option. An intelligent enemy will attack while they sleep, or keep them awake with loud noises. Or perhaps gas them out; even normal smoke is a serious hazard in a dungeon.
I think the main message to give to the players is this: "You need the element of surprise. If they're ready for you, they'll kill you with superior numbers." If the players surrender the initiative, the monsters will start forming into larger groups with much higher ECL, buffs tailored to hinder the PCs' attacks and so forth.
4) Looming Death
The players are about to rest, all their spells are done and they want to rest all day till they are back, hurrying and being heroic be damned. As they camp out in the underground dungeon have an npc hireling start to tell a story about the terrible Grue that lives in the darkest of places and eats adventurers. When it comes to that npcs watch, they hear a crunch, a scream and a tearing of flesh and sound of swift movement. The npc is gone, the Grue has come. If they sleep after this, then one pc will be taken or maimed by the Grue, each time. If they spend a lot of time fortifying up in whatever environment they are, then the Grue or bugbears or carrion crawlers or rust monsters might not come, but make sure the players know that if they want to be slow, safe and lazy THERE ARE THINGS THAT WILL EAT THEIR SOFT BODIES!
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6) Bad Things Happen when you Sleep
Instead of resting, the party finds its dreams invaded by horrid nightmares. No rest or respite can be had, and no spells are gained.
They hear scratching from inside the walls.
So nobody houserules a refresh on the positive side? We all just harrass and ultimately murder our PC's, after talking to them about how disappointed we are that at, say first level, they can't just wipe out dozens of goblins in the first 15?
I'm sorry; that's really snarky of me and I apologize to everyone.
And I'm not above my own reproach; I've used every single one of these. I've also had them pulled on me. And in every instance (with the exception of intelligent monsters defending their own territory with brains) I've been condemned or condemned my GM for making a "Dark" world.
Then in my last campaign I threw in a "short rest" mechanic. Nothing amazing or complicated with spellpoints and such. Just this: take 5 min, catch your breath, recover enough energy to get back 1/4 of everything: hp, spells, powers, etc.
Now on stuff like once a day smites I'd just give them back the use but you could do whatever with it. My only drawbacks were that you could use these rests = level + Con Bonus. Also (and this was fun at low level) they need to make a skill check.
For HP someone has to use the heal skill. To recover divine power it was knowledge: religion, and for arcane it was knowledge: arcana. DC was base 15 + "environmental factors"; arbitrary bonuses/minuses depending on whether they were being harried by goons or whatever.
My players are highly tactical and didn't use this much. This is because 1) they manage resources very well, 2) I mix up CR's a lot, 3) up until my current campaign I've used lots of 5-room dungeons instead of in-and-out megadungeons, and 4) they plain forgot about it. When they did use it though sometimes they'd have to pull a double rest for missed rolls or whatever, but you couldn't stack effects back to back so the rest of the party got no benefits; just the one person who needed to re-roll.
I think they liked it (I never get a ton of feedback from these particular players) but they also never accused me of going dark.
My initial snark aside, there's nothing wrong with any of these mechanics. I would EXPECT that an intelligent monster like goblins (ok, "intelligent" might be stretching it...let's say "cunning". Sorry green guys!) that have been hiding in some nearby caves for months setting up defenses and hunting and such wouldn't then throw their hands in the air and go "well, they got in through the main door and killed Bob and Larry before running off. I guess we should just hang out and wait for 'em..."
But then again what's our expectation of our players? Think about it; a CR equal to the APL has the guideline that it is 1/4 as strong as the entire party. Therefore it would be reasonable to assume that if the party had to grind against said equal CR encounter it'd eat up, say, 1/4 of their resources. Any 4 of those then where they don't get surprise, or lucky rolls or whatever means that I, as a GM, can EXPECT them to be nearly exhausted.
Ex: I rebooted my homebrew with 2 groups of players and one group is less optimized/tactical. For this group I put them against a 12 encounter, mostly CR 1 "dungeon" of a brewery infested with mites and their bugs. With no mass effects in this party and low level I chose not to include swarms.
Anyway, there were a total of 14 "rooms" for the party to explore. As predicted they followed a side path to a "back door" skipping 2 rooms and then, once in the underground area, only explored a few of the chambers. In total they had 8 encounters. In those they had one trap, one CR 1/2 and 2 encounters where they got lucky initiatives where they destroyed the monster before they ever got attacked.
The other 4 encounters they had to grind against were 3 CR 1's and 1 CR 2. By the time they were done w/the CR 2 at the end, they were out of all spells, low on HP, and had no more channels for the day (these players are new so I haven't intro'd my houserules to them yet), so they lammed out after that. They were in the dungeon for (you guessed it) 15 minutes.
But honestly I think that's all I could've expected of them. They never wasted their resources and they got hit about 1/3 of the time but through 8 encounters the damage stacked up. I wanted them to press on further but they insisted on resting at the town up the hill, so I let them. The mites, suitably molled by the assault, ran off with the remainder of their giant beetles and maybe they'll come up again somewhere.
What would you guys've done differently?
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@Mark Hoover ~ actually, my response is just because the op asked for ways to control this phenomenon. In my games, I follow a method that Ashiel already mentioned, acceptance. Particularly for high level games, combat is amazingly exhaustive for your abilities, spells and hit points.
More importantly, it doesn't matter that they've rested up, many encounters are very hard at the mid teen point onwards. Let them rest, because they'll sure as hell need it.
Cheers
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I think as a GM you could make explicitly "take it easy" dungeons, where you can put up a barricaded camp and slowly search the entire dungeon. Such dungeons should be big (lost city) and shouldn't have an organized enemy near the PCs' base. Every day the PCs explore a bit more of the dungeon, fighting some monsters, avoiding others as needed. If they run against an organized enemy who might follow them back, that's a bigger problem, but a lot of monsters may not care about what happens as long as their territory isn't invaded.
However, individual monsters may be pretty tough, so the PCs should scout around carefully so they don't step cluelessly into a welldefended lair.
Likewise, there's "advantage of surprise" dungeons. You can take on the goblins as long as they're in small groups, but if the entire lair mobilizes, you'll be outnumbered 1/10 and slaughtered.
When the PCs first arrive, the enemy isn't yet prepared for them, but as time passes, they'll figure out who's attacking them, using what tactics. They'll come up with countermeasures to your favorite spells, and pool multiple encounters into one overwhelming one.
Note: in both of these dungeons a good rogue/scout is valuable. To avoid triggering multiple encounters in the first one, to cut off warning and sentries in the second one.
And then occasionally you can change it up; in the take-it-easy dungeon, there's suddenly a rival group after the same MacGuffin, and you can't do things at your leisure anymore. Cure some kind of Indiana Jones scenario.
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The thing is, first explain to your players the concept of a 15 minute workday, and then that it's up to them to figure out when it's a good idea and when not; that if they screw this up they could suffer TPK in either dungeon.
Now it's a matter of real, fair, IC strategizing.
Your responsibility as GM is to make sure that a "long-shift" dungeon is actually doable for the party in one go, while a "15 minute dungeon" won't fail if you take multiple days. And leave clues so the players have a chance to figure it out.
Some thing that worked fairly well against us recently.
Every evening the BBEG was sending various magical attacks against the residents of the town. They had no real defenses other than us. So every extra day spent clearing the 'dungeon' meant more dead civillians.
Now having said that, I think our GM went too far. He apparently thought the AP encounters were not tough enough and beefed them up with stuff from 3.x books, templates, and magic. So every major encounter seemed to use around 40% to 60% of our resources. There were at least 6 major encounters and probably double that on minor encounters.
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Another tactic you could use is another adventuring party competing for the same goal. The PCs run into them occasionally on the course of their dungeoncrawlingp - and note that they are not turning back. Perhaps the other party even mocks them if they look to be retreating. It should be abundantly clear that if the PCs dawdle, they'll be left picking up the left-overs.
This is a limited tactic. First, you dungeon has to be big enough to comfortably accommodate two rival adventuring bands without undue attrition to the monsters and challenges. There also have to be enough routes through the dungeon that the rival bands only meet occasionally, rather than continually stepping on each others toes.
Second, you need to have the kind of players who'll see this as friendly competition rather than another set of foes to be fought, defeated and looted.
That also works if there are henchmen, cohorts, etc around.
"We're leaving boss? How come? You're not afraid, are ya?"
Stuff
Reread my post and you'll find some options that don't include harrying the party. Not to say that I don't do that, but I find when you mix up traps, haunts, and lower-than-ECL encounters, you find that dungeons last longer. A lot of this is further explained here.
In addition, as a GM, I usually put ways players can heal up. Maybe they are raiding a fortress and they find the enemy's storage of CLW potions. Or maybe they are in a ruins of undead and they find wands on the remains of other adventurers. Or sometimes there's a prisoner there that, if saved, can provide them with healing somehow. Helps everyone continue trucking through a dungeon.
So nobody houserules a refresh on the positive side? We all just harrass and ultimately murder our PC's, after talking to them about how disappointed we are that at, say first level, they can't just wipe out dozens of goblins in the first 15?
I'm sorry; that's really snarky of me and I apologize to everyone.
And I'm not above my own reproach; I've used every single one of these. I've also had them pulled on me. And in every instance (with the exception of intelligent monsters defending their own territory with brains) I've been condemned or condemned my GM for making a "Dark" world.
Then in my last campaign I threw in a "short rest" mechanic. Nothing amazing or complicated with spellpoints and such. Just this: take 5 min, catch your breath, recover enough energy to get back 1/4 of everything: hp, spells, powers, etc.
Now on stuff like once a day smites I'd just give them back the use but you could do whatever with it. My only drawbacks were that you could use these rests = level + Con Bonus. Also (and this was fun at low level) they need to make a skill check.
For HP someone has to use the heal skill. To recover divine power it was knowledge: religion, and for arcane it was knowledge: arcana. DC was base 15 + "environmental factors"; arbitrary bonuses/minuses depending on whether they were being harried by goons or whatever.
My players are highly tactical and didn't use this much. This is because 1) they manage resources very well, 2) I mix up CR's a lot, 3) up until my current campaign I've used lots of 5-room dungeons instead of in-and-out megadungeons, and 4) they plain forgot about it. When they did use it though sometimes they'd have to pull a double rest for missed rolls or whatever, but you couldn't stack effects back to back so the rest of the party got no benefits; just the one person who needed to re-roll.
I think they liked it (I never get a ton of feedback from these particular players) but they also never accused me of going dark.
My initial snark aside, there's nothing...
Dark worlds are beautiful. You can get angry and infuriated, but the characters are dead because the horrors got them. A fitting end for adventurers.
Another tactic you could use is another adventuring party competing for the same goal. The PCs run into them occasionally on the course of their dungeoncrawlingp - and note that they are not turning back. Perhaps the other party even mocks them if they look to be retreating. It should be abundantly clear that if the PCs dawdle, they'll be left picking up the left-overs.
This is a limited tactic. First, you dungeon has to be big enough to comfortably accommodate two rival adventuring bands without undue attrition to the monsters and challenges. There also have to be enough routes through the dungeon that the rival bands only meet occasionally, rather than continually stepping on each others toes.
Second, you need to have the kind of players who'll see this as friendly competition rather than another set of foes to be fought, defeated and looted.
Competing adventuring parties should be defeated and looted. It is great if it steadily leads up to this, with a build-up.
Sorry Jimmy the Paladin, you are not going to make it back.
Paladins are never going to make it back. The only exception is if they are 20th level. Then perhaps they have an equal chance of survival with the rest of the CR 7 PCs.
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Contributor, RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16
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So nobody houserules a refresh on the positive side? We all just harrass and ultimately murder our PC's, after talking to them about how disappointed we are that at, say first level, they can't just wipe out dozens of goblins in the first 15?
I'm interested in presenting a challenging situation which is tough but survivable so my players feel they have accomplished something. I try providing this every time they play. If they rest/ recharge after a few small fights, normal encounters structured for their level are trivial. Prolonging the adventuring day means they get a challenged for each encounter. You could alternately just schedule a series of tougher fights. Either way the goal is for the players to be challenged (but not creamed).
Also short adventuring days seriously favor classes with limited resources like wizards and alchemists. Longer adventuring days give classes which don't have expendable resources a chance to shine.
Finally, I'm interested in having a realistic dungeon. Critters can and should react to invaders, it increases the sense that player characters are doing stuff in a real world which increases immersion.
Yeah, I let them rest too, but the 15 minute adventuring day would in a dangerous area, lead to a quick demise for some of them in my games.
Sometimes the best solution to this, is for one player to be especially driven. The polearm ranger that refuses to sit back and rest when there are monsters to kill and people to save. Now the spellcasters can rest, but they lose the strength in numbers, if the adventurous go out and raid and survive, they will level up faster and be more centrally the heroes.
Ryszard the ranger: you are free princess. The bugbears are all dead.
Princess: is it just you? There are no other heroes?
Ryszard the ranger: yeah, my other adventuring buddies all decided to take a nap and wait the hours out to refresh their abilities.
Princess: take me you brave man!
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Good point dennis. Fighter and rogue classes ca really shine in such dungeons. Seen it happen quite a bit actually. ALso, I agree on the creaming. The campaign should challenge the party but not cream them. I've sat through a campaign which didn't finish because of two reasons. The first being the number of PC deaths. The second being the DM's inability to get to the venue. I'm digressing. A long challenging dungeon allows the players regardless of their class to really show the rest what they can do.
Yeah, I let them rest too, but the 15 minute adventuring day would in a dangerous area, lead to a quick demise for some of them in my games.
Sometimes the best solution to this, is for one player to be especially driven. The polearm ranger that refuses to sit back and rest when there are monsters to kill and people to save. Now the spellcasters can rest, but they lose the strength in numbers, if the adventurous go out and raid and survive, they will level up faster and be more centrally the heroes.
Ryszard the ranger: you are free princess. The bugbears are all dead.
Princess: is it just you? There are no other heroes?
Ryszard the ranger: yeah, my other adventuring buddies all decided to take a nap and wait the hours out to refresh their abilities.
Princess: take me you brave man!
Lol. Yep. Remember that.
Personally, my preferred system is a version of #2. Besides the enemies being on alert, they may bring in new allies, flee, or go on the offensive. When the nature of the adventure doesn't make these a possibility, though, I go with...
Assume They Will
Sometimes, there is no reason to hurry. The ancient catacombs guarded by traps, golems, and skeletons isn't going anywhere, and the denizens aren't smart enough to prepare defenses or even change their routine. So, when designing the adventure, assume that the party will be fully rested and equipped for each encounter. Multiple waves can simulate multiple encounters. Terrain, traps, and other preparations or effects can give the enemy extra advantages to help cancel out the fact the party can nova with their best abilities. While doing this with every encounter can make it feel like moving from setpiece to setpiece, it is a nice change when other factors can't prevent 15 minute work days.
I wanted to add that this is naturally what I've gone to. I'd say the most typical fight in my game is CR = APL +4 to +5. There might be others that are easier if the players isolate and start them, but when it comes to fights that NPCs start, this is about average.
It just makes sense to me. NPCs aren't going to start a fight unless they reasonably believe that they can win.
Although loyalty and fanaticism can break the idea that npcs won't start a fight unless they believe they can win it. Opponents may also start a fight with no intent of winning it now, but later. Poison, skirmishing, drain spells and status effects. It is good to mix up the tempo and the intents of attackers. I am partial to horse archers and poison users. They believe they can win, later.
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Competing adventuring parties...
Remember the old Dungeon adventure Against the Law? You meet up with a rival LE adventuring party out to stop the CE cultists from doing bad things.
Interesting times to be had in that adventure...
==Aelryinth