[Poll] Average Length of Combats (Redux)

Last January, WizarDru started this thread about the average length of combat in your 3E games.

I found it a fascinating subject - and am curious with new people and more people how the numbers will fall if we did this poll again. I broke up the choices slightly differently than he did (added more choices).

For myself, back then it was around 12 or 13 rounds per combat, with some lasting 30 rounds or more. I plan to look over my recent game logs and see if there has been any change (actually, I would guess the average has gone up).

For my own part, most combats in my game are not straight up fights, but environment and goals and lack of knowledge about what might be going on (something that happens when you play up all the consequences of poor decisions) definitiely makes them longer, and at times makes the PCs hesitant to jump right in for chopping.

As a secondary question: How many combats do you average per session?

I would say my own group average 1.5 per session. We may have three or four sessions with 2 or 3 combats each, but then will have two or three with no combat at all, or maybe one short combat.

Also, we often end session right at the beginning of a combat (one or two rounds into it) or sometimes right in the middle of big combat on some cliff-hanger. I love this because it makes everyone anxious to get started the next time and we can jump right into it.

I would be curious to cross-reference combat length with number of combats per session.

Our combats seem to last about 6 rounds. I only have 3 PCs so it can take a little longer for them to get things done. I have no idea how many combats we average. I have sessions wityh zero combat, and I have sessions with a half dozen full combat sessions.

Currently, we have either "small combat" sessions (with 3-5 combats lasting 3-5 rounds each -- party is in "exploration" mode), or "big combat" sessions (1 combat lasting up to 10 rounds, with lots of preparation or avoidance on the PCs' part).

Last session, they planned to assault the bad guys and gathered information on where the bad guys might be. However, the bad guys found them first -- not too hard, since the PCs were living in an old bad-guy hideout that they'd "cleared" earlier. So, they faced a midnight assassination squad, which was the "one big fight" of that session. (Since a PC had set up Alarm spells in good locations, the "combat" was several rounds longer than the fighting -- the PCs had a few extra rounds to wake up & get organized.)

-- N

Well, since many of our combats are against intelligent foes, four rounds usually more than decides the moral. Often the first couple of deaths frosts matters.

I put down 4 rounds, but 2 rounds is just as common.

Besides, we find long combats excrutiatingly boring.

Depends on how high level the characters are. I find that combats are shorter at lower levels and longer at higher levels -- I think part of this is that I don't want to bother with combat at high levels unless it's going to be an interesting/ unusual set-piece battle.

Wombat said:

Besides, we find long combats excrutiatingly boring.

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I think a long combat is only as boring as what people do with it. Leaping over obstacles, hiding ducking, fighting on a stairway, a ramp, on the edge of a cliff (bullrush anyone?), climbing on the cliff itself, combat between 3 or more competeing groups, etc. . .

EricNoah said:

Depends on how high level the characters are. I find that combats are shorter at lower levels and longer at higher levels

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What he said, except to add that I think that at high levels, unless it is a really tough/well protected baddie, combat time plummets again after 12th level or so. Death effects, area effects, and massive amounts of damage dealing capability mean that the fight is over in fewer rounds.

Of course, they have so many attacks per round that the fight isn't shorter in real time.

nemmerle said:

As a secondary question: How many combats do you average per session?

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One or two on average, but next session I really want to tap the player's resources, so it may end up being more.

Let me think this out before I vote.

The latest few combats (we're 7th level) was a two round battle with a gryphon, a 10+running battle with a group of bandits that ambushed us inside a mansion its a long story), a 1 round battle with 6 kobolds (I thought they were stronger then they were so I dropped a flamestrike.) And if you count the two warp woods I cast a 5 round battle with a wooden statue.

2+10+1+5=18 /4= 4.5 rounds of combat average. It would be higher but we the two short ones were random encounters and very easy.

Edit: So since there was a 5 round combat and no 4 round combats I'm voting 5.

Edit 2: Didn't notice the secondary question. We tend to average 1 to 2 combats a session. More when we're traveling long distances and get hit with a lot of random encounters. Dungeons don't really change the amount because they tend to have a few big battles instead of a lot of little ones.

Hmm, I don't think I should say because my average combat length is not the typical length. My games have either very quick encounters or incredibly drawn out events. The common "random" encounter usually is resolved in 4 rounds while plot-motivated combat can take several minutes such as the 30-40 round ship-to-ship-to-ship-to-ship combat that happened 2-3 sessions ago (excluding ship maneuver times that added another 4 hours of game time).

Personally, I'm not sure it matters as long as the players are enjoying themselves. One of the greatest fights of my gaming career took 3 hours to play out with more than a dozen players scattered throughout a castle over about 50 rounds . On the other hand I've been bored to tears five minutes into fights in a 4-person game.

I tend to dislike epic games because it turns into a drawn out slugging match while waiting to see who runs out of resources first. Lower level games aren't as bad because both sides start running low before it starts feeling like work. (If you've ever been in a situation where both sides are inflicting minimal damage you know what I mean)

Combats seem to last about six rounds on average, though 10 isn't unknown. There are the rare 1 or 2 round combats that are basically over before they begin, but again those are rare.

We tend to average about three combats every four game sessions.

hunter1828