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How long do your combats last
- Thread starter Lauberfen
- Start date
Bayonet_Chris
First Post
Combat time
I just got done with one over lunch (6 players, 700 XP encounter) and it took around an hour and ten minutes. Usually I can get most combats done in an hour, but we had two people who had never done 4E before this afternoon.
Big encounters (boss fights, primarily) will sometimes take an hour and a half. Some smaller ones much less time -many have been completed in the 30-45 minute timeframe. This is usually with 5-6 people.
I just got done with one over lunch (6 players, 700 XP encounter) and it took around an hour and ten minutes. Usually I can get most combats done in an hour, but we had two people who had never done 4E before this afternoon.
Big encounters (boss fights, primarily) will sometimes take an hour and a half. Some smaller ones much less time -many have been completed in the 30-45 minute timeframe. This is usually with 5-6 people.
erik_the_guy
First Post
I think about 1 hour is a good estimate, maybe closer to an hour and a half. I think the rules are great for combat. When I play at the cardshop, people are loud and goof off a lot so combat takes longer. When I play at home my friends are very "no bulls
t" about combat, so it takes less time. I find that the rules are faster than with 3e.
Some people have mentioned that higher level fights (party level +4 or higher) take a very long time, around 2 hours, to finish. This makes sense to me. These are usually epic battles that meet the end of an adventure. You can try to spice them up by giving the PCs some special advantage since they will probably burn off all their encounter and daily powers in the first half of this encounter. Giving them a bonus action point or letting them recharge a power when the main enemy becomes bloodied is a good example.
One major slowdown on combat in 4e is getting used to the new rules if it is your first session. I find that you learn the combat rules for 4e faster than 3e, so again this is not a big problem.
t" about combat, so it takes less time. I find that the rules are faster than with 3e.Some people have mentioned that higher level fights (party level +4 or higher) take a very long time, around 2 hours, to finish. This makes sense to me. These are usually epic battles that meet the end of an adventure. You can try to spice them up by giving the PCs some special advantage since they will probably burn off all their encounter and daily powers in the first half of this encounter. Giving them a bonus action point or letting them recharge a power when the main enemy becomes bloodied is a good example.
One major slowdown on combat in 4e is getting used to the new rules if it is your first session. I find that you learn the combat rules for 4e faster than 3e, so again this is not a big problem.
I ran my first session as a DM in 4th last night, played through a balanced and +1 encounter with 6 players. took about an hour and a half for the first, then an hour fifteen for the second. This was the first proper game of 4th for all of us, and both encounters had quite a lot of terrain and cover which I was playing a bit more complicated than it should have been. I can see it speeding up quickly.
HerntheHunted
First Post
We´re still trying to get a full grasp of the rules, but since my group consists of experienced roleplayers & hobby tacticians we managed about an hour per encounter. That is a massive improvement compared to most of our fights in in 3.0 and 3.5.
At this point I´m a very happy gamer indeed.
At this point I´m a very happy gamer indeed.
Our first few combats ran an hour+ but as we play more they take less and less time. For a "typical" throw-down involving my 6 players vs. 5 to 7 bad guys, right now we're running at just under an hour. I don't expect it to get much quicker than that, except perhaps for those occasions where the opposition is particularly minion-heavy or something like that.
Donatello
Explorer
Well of course. You save 20-30 minutes just not having to look up the 3.x Grapple rules.
In a 4 hr demo with 6 players, I explained the rules, we did a bit of roleplaying here and there, and completed 4 combat encounters. The first encounter was about 40 minutes, the second encounter was a difficult one and took about 1:30 minutes, the other two encounters were about 20 minutes and 40 minutes. Didn't time any of them, these are just estimates, based on the 4 hr time frame.
I figure each player needs around 30 seconds to take their turn (some will be longer, some shorter). The DM takes about 3 minutes to take his turn earlier in a combat, around 1 minute late in the combat, say average 2 minutes, add another minute for gory descriptions, that's average 3 minutes. 1 round of combat should be about 6 minutes. Add another minute for interrupts, recording values, and such. 7 Minutes. An average combat of equal level should not take longer than 5 rounds, which is 35 minutes. A Level + 2 encounter may take around 8-10 rounds, with more dailies and monster activations lengthening combat, so it can take around 1:15 minutes. Add a bit more time to that for a Level+3 or Level+4 combat, so I would plan for at least 1:30 for those challenging encounters.
I figure each player needs around 30 seconds to take their turn (some will be longer, some shorter). The DM takes about 3 minutes to take his turn earlier in a combat, around 1 minute late in the combat, say average 2 minutes, add another minute for gory descriptions, that's average 3 minutes. 1 round of combat should be about 6 minutes. Add another minute for interrupts, recording values, and such. 7 Minutes. An average combat of equal level should not take longer than 5 rounds, which is 35 minutes. A Level + 2 encounter may take around 8-10 rounds, with more dailies and monster activations lengthening combat, so it can take around 1:15 minutes. Add a bit more time to that for a Level+3 or Level+4 combat, so I would plan for at least 1:30 for those challenging encounters.
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