Avoid 15 minute adventuring days without time wasting non-encounters?

[chaoseffect]

Here's my issue. I'm doing a high powered game, level 11 gestalt, and it's fun and all, but nova potential in the party is becoming an issue. I recognize this is happening because I'm not running smaller filler encounters, but I see it like if I run non-challenging encounters just to burn resources all I'm really doing is eating up game time because as we all know combat isn't a fast process in Pathfinder. I pretty much just handwave those fights ("So you guys killed the CR 5 encounter on the road and now you continue walking.") I'm worried that if I build multiple strong encounters then I'm inviting a TPK; CR is also essentially meaningless here, so by default anything that can even touch them will technically be a challenging or even "epic" encounter." I would say I'm approaching if not already in rocket tag territory.

So I feel torn between wasting game time just to inconvenience the PCs and just having one climatic battle for them to blow their load on. What's a good balancing strategy between those extremes?

[Abraham spalding]

Don't let them slow down? Time crunches are a bear.

"Sorry guys if you stop now you aren't going to save the hostages -- they'll be killed by then."

Have some fights where there are just a lot of mooks, some where there are a few serious baddies, some with a couple of over CR creatures. Some with some moderate mooks but with terrain to their advantage, including traps, difficult terrain, and stuff like alchemical items that are cheap but offer touch attacks and what have you.

[Deadalready]

The way CR works is 3 to 4 equal level encounters makes up a day's adventuring. If you're going the rocket tag route then you need to do 2 +4 encounters per day and accept that it's high powered. Or run lesser encounters and just accept that some encounters will be easy.

Personally I run a mix of hard encounters and easy encounters because not every encounter players run into will be hard (it just doesn't make sense that everything in the world is stronger than them). I've always strongly believed that games are an endurance and it's knowing when to use those abilities intelligently that change everything.

I'm playing in a game where the GM always runs +4 or higher encounters and expects us to do 3 (or more) of them before rest. While this creates intense fights, it also feels cheap and unfair. I'm honestly considering leaving this game because I'm not as interested in optimising/maxing just to survive, there's more to pathfinder than combat.

[shroudb]

For my over optimized group I throw 3-4 cr+1 encounters before throwing in a cr+2-3. Sometimes followed by another encounter or two.

You see, I'm of the opinion that there should be no dull combat. I handwave pretty much anything cr-3 and below.

But filler fights don't need to be dull. Make the encounters stronger, more interesting, more dynamic.

Also, time limits, respawnable monsters (ghosts, undead, a demon portal, etc), timed rewards (the fastest you get those trolls out of my kingdom the more I'll give ya) and etc are useful tools to avoid total nova.

Especially loot rewards for speed seems to motivate minmaxers the most ^^.

[DM Under The Bridge]

I find dealing with this problem is quite easy.

Don't let them rest. Not until they have earned it. So if they are away from civilisation, there will be plenty of monsters and enemies. They don't get to just rest and take it at a snail's pace. There are time sensitive quests, there are people to impress (and whom won't be impressed if they keep stopping every day after 15 minutes), and as a dm you can also add some pressure if they are being slack. Also get a player or two on-side and the type that push the rest until characters run out of their daily resources (spells, ki, etc). Chuckling at spellcasters that immediately blow their high level spells in the first combat of the day, and who then want to rest, can bring them around with some social pressure, and help them to plan ahead. Or you can simply throw more foes at them so they start planning ahead and don't try the 15 minute slackery every game (we drilled it out of some players, so there is hope!).

If all else fails, set them on fire/try-to-kill-them until they move.

[Umbranus]

You could try to create a system where they have to spend resources to overcome simple encounters to save time. Then they can decide what they see as worth more: Game time or party resources.
Just on the fly: For each CR the encounter has they have to spend 1 spell-level or 1 use per day of some ability.
Example: They have a CR5 encounter and want to hand-wave it. The barbarian expends 2 rounds of rage, the wizard a level 2 spell and the cleric one channel use.
Would they have been able to deal with this encounter with just this investment? Not sure but better than hand-waving it.
Don't allow it for encounters that are of a CR higher than half their APL.