Help me reduce the No. of rounds/encounter

[mach1.9pants]

Hi all,

I have been away from my game for 3 sessions (1/week)... sunning myself on the Gold Coast, Oz I have been doing some internal 'how do I as a DM improve our game' thinking. And I think the one thing that is peeving our group is the sheer number of rounds so many combats seem to take.
The main thing is often the victorious side is all but decided. The PCs have won- there is no way the baddies can come back and win bar a series of 1's for the PCs and 20's for the enemy! However the combat, due to the high HPs of monsters and the relatively low damage of at wills, goes on for another 2, 4 or even 6 rounds. Sometimes more! It is dull... I have taken to fudging the deaths of the baddies ("Oh yeah he is dead from that hit..." when it still has 25HP) or having them run away...although that is tricky as the players generally want to pursue and finish off the evil doers!
So what are you clever, balance aware people out there doing to avoid this problem? Just to let you know the PCs are 6th level and I am running through modules so I would prefer a house rule (more damage per PC, less HP for baddies formula, etc) rather than changing the encounter composition or challenge level (sorry XP value!).
Thanks for your ideas in advance

 

[Stalker0]

You can proceed with this from several different angels.

PC Side

More damage
1) Give players a +1/2 level bonus to damage.
2) Give players the ability to recharge powers so they are not having to resort to at wills.
3) Give all players a 19-20 crit range.

Monster Side
1) Reduce hp
2) Give monsters extra vulnerabilities to damage when they become bloodied.
3) Use more minions.

While I didn't go into depth on any of those, that's a list that might spark some ideas.

 

[Guyanthalas]

I've seen this problem when i have controllers in the enemy group (thinking of a paticularly nasty goblin encounter for 1st level PC's), but other then that both of the games i'm involved in seem to be going pretty smooth. Are your players totally optimizing themselves or something? You might try increase the level of the baddies they are fighting if its that one sided. Personally, I think higher level encounters are more fun to play anyway!

 

[77IM]

Monster Side
4) Use poor tactics (or "arrogant" tactics for the smart villains... "I'm an Elite, their opportunity attacks can't touch my superior defen-OOF!")
5) Surrender/Flee. (Award full XP.)
6) Fudge the remaining HP: Last bad guy standing drops to 1 HP.

-- 77IM

 

[Tenniel]

Having all attacks do maximum damage would speed up combat.

 

[dammitbiscuit]

A common, simple rule I've had success with is that all monsters have +2 to attacks rolls and -2 to defenses. Invisibly handled on the DMs side, so if you want a combat to be longer or slower you can change the numbers, too.

 

[Odysseus]

Hi all,

And I think the one thing that is peeving our group is the sheer number of rounds so many combats seem to take.
The main thing is often the victorious side is all but decided. The PCs have won- there is no way the baddies can come back and win bar a series of 1's for the PCs and 20's for the enemy! However the combat, due to the high HPs of monsters and the relatively low damage of at wills, goes on for another 2, 4 or even 6 rounds. Sometimes more! It is dull... )

I've only seen this with monsters that are solos , elite, and some brutes.
Have you considered what type of monster this situation occurs with?

 

[the Jester]

Monsters might start fleeing when bloodied; then the fight finishes faster, and if the pcs pursue, one or two instances of running into a second encounter without a short rest will probably get the idea across that bad guys often flee to their buddies' lairs.

 

[invokethehojo]

maybe once a monster is bloodied if it takes damage equal to or higher than it's con score it dies, or maybe monsters could gain a condition when bloodied, like -2 attacks and defenses (to reflect the pain) or similar

 

[Morgan_Scott82]

I haven't found combats too long or boring. The possible exceptions are some solo encounters (Especially solo brutes, but that goes to my concerns about the brute role, not combat in general).

Are your PCs focusing fire on one enemy until that enemy drops and then moving on to the next? This wouldn't influence the overall number of rounds in the combat, but if all enemies save one are dead and that one still has full HP, it can make the battle seem as though the winner is decided but the battle has to go on for several more rounds.

If this is the case I would ask what the other mosnters are doing while the PCs all gang up on one of them? Make sure every monster is a threat and you'll make sure the PCs have to respond to all of them thereby spreading the damage around which mitigates the feeling of "well the fight is over, but we still have several rounds of cleanup".

I would second Guyanthalas's recommendation of playing with the level of the monsters if you want shorter or longer combats, in 4e leveling a monster up or down is so simple I've even done it on the fly entirely in my head in my own campaign.