Just do what 5e did and dial the combats back. Place fewer enemies with fewer options, on simpler terrain. Lower monster hps a bit, up their damage a bit.I made the switch to 5e back when it first came out, but I've been having some nostalgia for 4e lately. Not a big fan of the hours long combats, though.
Right in this forum:Anyone know of some collected house rule sets for more streamlined combat mechanics in 4e?
FINAL RESULT
The final result of this exercise is the 4.5 Edition Conversion Guide which managed to deliver the kind of experience I was after, a 4.5 Edition which allow me as a DM to mix and match longer tactical fights (4th Edition like), with short fast skirmish fights (like 5th Edition), and I can more easily port 5th Edition adventures to this new format as it is built on the same 3, 6, or 9 encounters per adventuring day format.
4.5 Edition Conversion Guide
It's kinda a machette-to-the-rule-book solution, but you could theoretically speed up rounds a lot by eliminating immediate actions, entirely, and turns by doing away with minor & free actions. Any power or item that calls for a minor, free, or immediate action, just *poof* banned/gone.If you try to shorten combats by just making the rounds go faster, hm, you might just run essentials, and disallow any attacks that mess up action economy (so no dazing or stunning, and maybe make tripping less of a chore by letting people spend half their speed to stand up).
Weapons, feats, &c are usually just bundled up into a bonus associated with the weapon/implement & power in question, so are available ahead of time - in the CB if you still had it, typically, or just written on your character sheet if you don't mind doing so in advance.Magic weapon, flanking, racial feat, class feat, concealment penalty, and so on. I was hoping to find a 4e revision that addressed this specific issue, but as I revisit the core books and skim over that guide, I'm reminded how essential all those circumstantial modifiers are in delivering the tight tactical experience I otherwise loved.
You could take a page from 5e and toss all circumstantial modifiers into a binary Combat Advantage/Disadvantage state. Either just like 5e or +/- 2, if you want to keep it simple. If you have CA, +2, if CD -2 - if both (even if several of one and only one of the other), no modifier.
Precisely what I did in my own game, but it can hardly be called '4e' anymore really (though it is still not far off). In my rules system there are permanent bonuses, and they NEVER stack, level, ability, proficiency, and enhancement, that's it. Because none of them will vary (I guess enhancement and proficiency COULD if you switch weapons) and the ONLY situational modifier is (dis)advantage (5e style) things go quite quickly. There are conditions, but effects are generally either lasting the whole round or disappear at the end of the target's turn. In general combats seem to go pretty fast, though they still offer a wide range of tactical options.