How to handle scarce encounters and expendable character resources?

Hi everyone,

I'm not a huge fan of random encounters, which is why I'm not really rolling for those (except dungeons, where wandering monsters/guards are more likely). I like to design my encounters to fill the story in a suitable way and somehow link them to the story. I like to think of them as side quests with a few steps to get it finished and then it links back to the main story.

The problem is that with the limited amount of encounters per day while the party is out there adventuring, they're practically always fully rested with all their expendable resources available. I'd want my party to think about resources from time to time outside dungeons, but I'm not sure how I would go about with this. Any help? I'm very open to suggestions. And to be clear, I'm mostly thinking of combat encounters at the moment. I could just make the single encounter a bit more difficult by adding monsters or swapping them for more dangerous ones, but I don't find it logical that every single "random" encounter would have the party face off against a difficult monster.

One solution I already found was to limit long rests to when the party has actual lodgings, so villages, towns, and cities, possibly some safe rooms in a dungeon, etc.. In the wilderness they would only be allowed short rests, even with a good night's sleep in a tent. This could work, but at the same time I'm worried if that is a bit too punishing for the players. For instance, if it's a warm night and they find a perfect campsite (with a nat 20 survival check for example), they set up their camp properly and would still be denied a long rest sounds very harsh.

I know I mentioned I'm thinking of combat encounters, but I'm more than happy to receive advise for non-combat encounters as well. I already found this old thread with 100 non-combat encounter ideas, which I can use for inspiration, but that doesn't really help with the limited amount of encounters per day.

If you want to burn resources, then get the party to think that there is a time clock ticking down.  They have to hurry so no time for rests.

Don't underestimate low quality high volume encounters.  A group of 20xCR 1/2s can burn more resources then a single CR10.  But vary the the big group and have a few "leaders".  The party may feel the leaders  are more dangerous and concentrate on them 1st which allows the masses/swarm to squeeze in and do some damage.

If you want to burn resources, then that is the end goal, not winning/losing an encounter.  So put out encounters not to challenge or even come close to being a win, but only to do a few damage points and suck up spells.

I mean, it's simple math of long rests vs encounters. Either you have to increase the number of encounters or decrease the number of long rests. One thing you can do beside making the wilderness in hospitable thus preventing long rests, is to give the party many healing potions / items and add a ticking clock so they are less tempted to take a long rest.