I asked about this on the wizards board a couple of times, but never really got a response, so I thought I would try here.....
The PHB and DMG imply that a single attack action (a hit or miss) is in fact just part of an exchange of blows. Nevertheless, both my players and I tend to talk about combat in terms of individual swings, single arrow shots (unless the person has multiple attacks to begin with), etc. 6 seconds is a very long time in a fight, and we tend to just ignore the disparity between the descriptions and the amount of time we are supposed to be filling. If a PC attacks an orc with a sword, I will respond with a description of how severe the hit was, or tell him that the swing was parried, blocked, tell him the orc ducked, or whatever. I don't imply that the PC and the Orc were trading blows for a few seconds before he finally got a hit.
I'd be curous how others handle this. When you resolve an attack in combat do you describe it as a single lunge, parry, strike, swing, shot. etc or do you "Fill out" the space in between? I was watching the extended LOTR:FOTR last night and I was reminded of how much can happen in 6 seconds of fighting. I like the sense of giving combat a frentic immediacy, tracking every single blow and parry, but is that justified under the 3e system?
I guess I can be thankful that I'm not running 1st edition....
The PHB and DMG imply that a single attack action (a hit or miss) is in fact just part of an exchange of blows. Nevertheless, both my players and I tend to talk about combat in terms of individual swings, single arrow shots (unless the person has multiple attacks to begin with), etc. 6 seconds is a very long time in a fight, and we tend to just ignore the disparity between the descriptions and the amount of time we are supposed to be filling. If a PC attacks an orc with a sword, I will respond with a description of how severe the hit was, or tell him that the swing was parried, blocked, tell him the orc ducked, or whatever. I don't imply that the PC and the Orc were trading blows for a few seconds before he finally got a hit.
I'd be curous how others handle this. When you resolve an attack in combat do you describe it as a single lunge, parry, strike, swing, shot. etc or do you "Fill out" the space in between? I was watching the extended LOTR:FOTR last night and I was reminded of how much can happen in 6 seconds of fighting. I like the sense of giving combat a frentic immediacy, tracking every single blow and parry, but is that justified under the 3e system?
I guess I can be thankful that I'm not running 1st edition....
