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Combat speed - works for our group; one-hour encounters
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<blockquote data-quote="lostingeneral" data-source="post: 5648132" data-attributes="member: 6674340"><p>I run a pretty large group. At one point it was huge, totaling eight players besides myself, and so I had to adapt a bunch of these things to keep combat flowing.</p><p></p><p>Our group does a lot of what was mentioned above, and some other stuff as well. To elaborate:</p><p></p><p> - Cut monster HP to 75%, increase damage by 1/2 level. I've tried other increases in damage and decreases to health, but in my experience this has led to encounters that are too tough or too easy, respectively. If the health is too low many monsters won't be able to really show off their range of abilities, and if damage is too high you'll wind up with a TPK here and there.</p><p></p><p> - Turn timers. I have a few players who like to really, really take their time on their turn, so I have a rule: you have 30 seconds to declare your actions and roll your dice. If you're not done in that time, you're on Total Defense. I know that might seem harsh, but it works.</p><p></p><p> - I post initiative where it is clearly visible. When we started out, I didn't do this; I kept initiative to myself. Eventually, though, I found an unused computer monitor in my basement which is now mounted on the wall when we play to display an initiative list. Players can see the turn order at any time.</p><p></p><p> - I delegate when the group is large. This doesn't make much of an impact when there are fewer people around, but if I have a full table I'll assign people things to do. Usually I have somebody keep watch on the initiative screen to tell people when their turn is coming around and who is up after them, while somebody else keeps track of monster damage, and another person still keeps track of ongoing effects, when they end, and who has saved. This reduces workload for me by a lot.</p><p></p><p> - I roll initiative for all minions together. This is a minor one, but I didn't always do this, and now I basically play the minions as one coherent blob unless there is a reason not do. It has saved a lot of time.</p><p></p><p> - I don't fudge anymore. I don't know if this is a problem for a lot of people, but at one point I was fudging once in a while to keep things interesting. Whether or not it achieved that is up for debate, but certainly when I decided to stop that combat started moving much more smoothly.</p><p></p><p> - We all started rolling damage with the attack rolls. This didn't seem intuitive, strangely, but once we got into the habit it worked quite well.</p><p></p><p> - No rules lawyers! We have a rule that when there is a rule ambiguity, I (as DM) will make a call and look it up after the battle if necessary. I'll compensate the player if I was significantly wrong, but this will never happen during battle.</p><p></p><p>There might be smaller stuff as well that I'm not thinking of at the moment, but that's the bulk of it. Hope this helps somebody.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="lostingeneral, post: 5648132, member: 6674340"] I run a pretty large group. At one point it was huge, totaling eight players besides myself, and so I had to adapt a bunch of these things to keep combat flowing. Our group does a lot of what was mentioned above, and some other stuff as well. To elaborate: - Cut monster HP to 75%, increase damage by 1/2 level. I've tried other increases in damage and decreases to health, but in my experience this has led to encounters that are too tough or too easy, respectively. If the health is too low many monsters won't be able to really show off their range of abilities, and if damage is too high you'll wind up with a TPK here and there. - Turn timers. I have a few players who like to really, really take their time on their turn, so I have a rule: you have 30 seconds to declare your actions and roll your dice. If you're not done in that time, you're on Total Defense. I know that might seem harsh, but it works. - I post initiative where it is clearly visible. When we started out, I didn't do this; I kept initiative to myself. Eventually, though, I found an unused computer monitor in my basement which is now mounted on the wall when we play to display an initiative list. Players can see the turn order at any time. - I delegate when the group is large. This doesn't make much of an impact when there are fewer people around, but if I have a full table I'll assign people things to do. Usually I have somebody keep watch on the initiative screen to tell people when their turn is coming around and who is up after them, while somebody else keeps track of monster damage, and another person still keeps track of ongoing effects, when they end, and who has saved. This reduces workload for me by a lot. - I roll initiative for all minions together. This is a minor one, but I didn't always do this, and now I basically play the minions as one coherent blob unless there is a reason not do. It has saved a lot of time. - I don't fudge anymore. I don't know if this is a problem for a lot of people, but at one point I was fudging once in a while to keep things interesting. Whether or not it achieved that is up for debate, but certainly when I decided to stop that combat started moving much more smoothly. - We all started rolling damage with the attack rolls. This didn't seem intuitive, strangely, but once we got into the habit it worked quite well. - No rules lawyers! We have a rule that when there is a rule ambiguity, I (as DM) will make a call and look it up after the battle if necessary. I'll compensate the player if I was significantly wrong, but this will never happen during battle. There might be smaller stuff as well that I'm not thinking of at the moment, but that's the bulk of it. Hope this helps somebody. [/QUOTE]
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