Keeping track of combat length (for posterity)

I see people here discussing combat length all the time, and it's made me curious enough to get scientifish about it. As of tonight's game I'll be using this post to keep track of how long our fights are taking, along with a few other variables.

If anybody is interested in story write-ups to back up this data, I can be persuaded.

Party composition at level 11: drow rogue, minotaur fighter, halfling rogue, dragonborn paladin, shadar-kai bard.

Session 1: ~2 hours total
#1) 45 minutes, 560 XP each, 0 (player) crits, 1 daily, 3 action points. 6 rounds vs 3 soldiers & 2 artillery
#2) 30 minutes, 500 XP, 4 crits, 0 dailies, 1 action points. 4 rounds vs 1 elite & 2 skirmishers(?)

Session 2: ~2 hours total
#1) 5 minutes, 140 XP, 0 crits, 0 dailies, 0 action points. 0.4 rounds vs 1 brute/trap/thing
#2) 40 minutes, 1160 XP, 3 crits, 1 daily, 3 action points. 1 round vs 4 brute swarms & 1 elite lurker

Session 3: ~2.5 hours total
#1) 120 minutes, 1200 XP, 3 crits, 3 dailies, 3 action points. 7 rounds vs 6 minions, 2 artillery, 3 soldiers, 1 elite skirmisher, 1 elite lurker.

Session 4: 2.5 hours total
#1) 45 minutes, 600 XP each, 2 crits, 5 dailies, 1 action points. 3 rounds vs 1 solo lurker


Party composition at level 12: drow rogue, minotaur fighter, halfling rogue, human wizard, shadar-kai bard.

Session 5: 2.5 hours total
#1) 10 minutes, 125 XP each (reduced by fiat), 1 crit, 0 dailies, 0 action points. 2 rounds vs 4 skirmishers and 3 artillery

Session 6: 2 hours total
#1) ~50 minutes, 800 XP, 2 crits, 0 dailies, 0 action points. 3 rounds vs 8 minions, 2 brutes, 1 controller (leader).

Session 7: 2.5 hours total
#1) 90 minutes, 2000 XP (!), 9 crits, 1 daily utility, 1 action point, 3 surges. 6 rounds vs 16 minions, 5 brutes, 3 skirmishers with ~1100 hps.

Session 8: 45 minutes total
#1) 45 minutes, 760 XP, 1 crit, 4 dailies, 2 action points, 3 surges. 3.5 rounds vs 3 minions and 3 skirmishers with ~460 hps.

Session 9: 3 hours total
#1) 105 minutes, 1020 XP, 1 crit, 5 dailies, 5 action points, 8 surges. 6 rounds vs 2 skirmisher 13s, 2 artillery 12s, and 1 elite lurker 13 with ~640 hps.

Session 10: 2 hours total
#1) 80 minutes, 940 XP each, 3 crits, 4 dailies, 1 action point, 8 surges. 6 rounds vs 3x brute 11s, 3x artillery 11s, and 1x controller 13 with ~820 hps.

Session 11: 2.5 hours total
#1) 130 minutes, 2000 XP each, 2 crits, 4 dailies, 4 action points, 5 surges. 8 rounds vs 3x brute 15s, 4x controller 16s, 8x minion 8s, and 8x minion 12s with ~1180 hps.

Session 12: ~3 hours total
#1) 90 minutes, 800 XP each, 0 crits, 0 dailies, 1 action points, 6 surges. 5 rounds vs 2x brute 14s, 2x soldier 9s with ~400 hps (mostly insubstantial).

Session 13: ~2.5 hours total
#1) 90 minutes, 1100 XP each, 2 crits, 3 dailies, 4 action points, 6 surges. 6 rounds vs 4x brute 11s, 2x artillery 11s, 1x skirmisher 12, 1x elite lurker 13 with ~970 hp.

EDIT: Jdvn1 has created a spreadsheet that includes results from several posters. (me, Jdvn1, and the Jester so far)

blargney the second said:

If anybody is interested in story write-ups to back up this data, I can be persuaded.

Click to expand...

oo! oo! I totally am! Because, sir, while I know nothing about your particular situation, having never met you except on this fantabulous internet forum, it sounds like you have an absolutely brilliant DM. I bet he's supercool and stunningly good-looking, to boot.

I would also be curious as to how many rounds...

On Sunday night I kept track of the 2nd of 2 combats

5 players Chaladin, Cunning Rogue, InferLock, Laser Cleric, and Ass SwordMage

Only the Rogue is optimized (by me for a new player) but 4/5 players are new to 4e (3 are new to RPGs!) and are having problems thinking tactically

#2: 9 rounds- ~2hours, 295 xp each, 12 non-minion combatants

LOL it was kind of sad. I have been reminding them to focus fire on occasion, but they wounded almost every enemy before they bloodied one.

Back in the day I kept track of some pretty detailed information for a number of encounters. I didn't keep track of time. Anyway, it might be interesting.

Here are the links:
http://www.enworld.org/forum/genera...t-features-keep-shadowfell-5.html#post4617608
http://www.enworld.org/forum/genera...t-features-keep-shadowfell-5.html#post4617650
http://www.enworld.org/forum/genera...t-features-keep-shadowfell-4.html#post4597427

You might want to contribute to my ongoing thread on this matter:
http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/272050-combat-length.html

Cheers!

Personally, I'm curious as to how Blarg is going to detail the monsters... although it might be fairly easy, considering how I actually labelled the first fight as "Soldiers" and "artillery"

(Best part, by the way, lest Blargney overlooks it, was his Minotaur fighter having to attack his own teammate, and dealing out a buttload of damage. It was, in fact, the only damage the bard took the entire session! Made my fiendish GM heart glow...)

I just stopped by to keep the Canadian content unusually high.

Wild Gazebo said:

I just stopped by to keep the Canadian content unusually high.

Click to expand...

This thread had been approved by the CRTC.

If the ratio starts slipping I'll start singing some Anne Murray.

Added Session 2 to first post: ~2 hours total
We are currently exploring a huge wine cave that's infested with drow aberrations. In tonight's session we cleared a tunnel with 4 vaults.

Encounter 1) 5 minutes, 140 XP, 0 crits, 0 action points. 0.6 rounds vs 1 brute/trap/thing
In vault #4 we spotted a control panel at the base of a statue. The halfling rogue successfully activated the panel, which immediately resulted in the statue activating and attacking us. It was dead after the two rogues and the fighter hit it.

Encounter 2) 40 minutes, 1160 XP, 3 crits, 1 daily (totally wasted), 3 action points. 1 round vs 4 brute swarms & 1 elite lurker
Vault #2 was filled with all sorts of flying insects and even some stirges. As soon as we stepped into the chamber, the stirges coalesced into 4 separate swarms and started to nosh on the two defenders. Then a powerful and rapid undead drow monstrosity tore through the defenders' line, shredding them with its claws. (At this point we took enough damage to realize that we needed to take them seriously.)

The bard blasted a path through the mass of enemies, and positioned the fighter squarely in the large space between them all. He also gave the entire party a whopping +5 to attack and damage. My fighter opened with a Come and Get It to clump everything together nicely. (I also used a Rain of Steel that turned out to be completely wasted...) After that it was pretty much a perfect storm of coordinated close blast and burst powers that killed everything dead with the very last action of the first round.

The monsters had a combined total of 720 hit points.