Help me reduce the No. of rounds/encounter

[ranger9]

Maybe give all monsters a "Damage Threshhold" equal to 1/4 hit points (or something along those lines).

Any monster hit for damage above that threshhold, on a single hit, when not bloodied becomes bloodied, dropping to 1/2 hit points (unless the hit actually takes him below that, in which case deduct hit points as usual).

Any monster hit for damage above that threshhold, again on a single hit, when bloodied dies.

So if a kobold has 24 hit points, any hit of six points of damage or more bloodies him, and, once bloodied, any hit of six points of damage or more kills him.

Critical hits of course would usually exceed these threshholds.

A similar system, of course, can be used for "wounds" on PCs-- say, -2 on all checks, attacks, and defenses, minus one healing surge, hit points at 3/4 maximum, until really, honestly healed by either the healing skill, healing magic, or a long enough rest (say four days of healing, each day that a healing skill succeeds he gets credit for two days, so two days minimum -- no one-night wonder healing).

In other words, wounds can't be "cured" by the morale-boosting rubber hit points of warlords and so forth, but only real medical or magical healing.

 

[77IM]

I haven't found combats too long or boring. The possible exceptions are some solo encounters

That's generally been my experience too. Certain high-level elites can do it also.

(Especially solo brutes, but that goes to my concerns about the brute role, not combat in general).

Oddly, I've had the opposite experience. It seems to me that it's the high defenses, not the hit points, that drag out combat. Combined with good tactics, a solo or high-level elite can keep the party from hitting with their dailies and encounters and avoid nasty status conditions (like daze-lock). Add some unlucky rolls from the players, and next thing you know, people are down to at-will powers and the bad guy is barely bloodied. Brutes, on the other hand, are easy to hit so you know they will be worn down eventually, and it makes them susceptible to all the mez powers and getting flanked by rogues and so forth.

-- 77IM

 

[mkill]

How long battles take is also a thing of group setup. We've had a campaign with 2 strikers (2w ranger and warlock) and an artificer for backup. With two low-defense high-damage dealers, combats were pretty nasty (in one combat, every single attack against the ranger was a hit, and we were fighting goblins...), with enemies falling quick and the ranger burning through hp just as quick.
Another group had no striker but two defenders, it took them much longer to take down enemies, but they also stood longer.

It also depends on player tactic skills: it takes a while for players, especially old D&D hands, to learn the tricks of 4th edition team work. That daily has a much higher chance to drive home its message if you have a +5 to hit from a buddy.

Still, combats were fun in both groups. I would say from my experience both as player and DM that it's not necessary to change anything in the rules to speed up or slow down combat.

But, there are a few tricks in the GM's toolbox that you can pull when combat drags on:

- Slashing hp: It's no problem to say "he goes down" when the monster still had 25 hp on paper. If you feel the battle is won an there is nothing interesting for the monster to do to turn the tide one last time, you can just let it drop. In the same way, important NPC's can pull a second wind or a healing potion if you feel it's just not their time to die yet. Just make sure you do it in a believable way so players don't feel cheated.

- Scene change: A drastic method. If your characters face an extremely tough fight, and they've burned through all their dailies and the monster is still not down, introduce a stage change. Think of boss battles in some computer games: You don't fight the boss in one stage. Once his hp are down to some level, he jumps on another platform, or polymorphs, or whatever.
Once this happens (after 10-15 rounds of combat), PCs gain back all their encounter powers, including the second wind. That way, they can do interesting stuff again and the continued battle is not a boring exchange of at-will blows.
Also note that sometimes, PCs just have to accept they can't defeat a monster and it's time to flee.

 

[scarik]

When I want fights to be faster i so the following:

Bloodied monsters run for it.

Artillery monsters (and artillerish controllers) that aren't Elite or Solo become Minions once the rest of the monsters are gone, so they drop from the next hit without having to bother with 6 people wailing on 1 or 2 monsters that have no melee attacks worth using.

Sometimes I charge a healing surge which any member of the party can pay to minionize a monster once its obvious its going to die but its just a matter of who takes its last hit or two.

 

[mach1.9pants]

Thanks for all you replies! Sorry I am so late in replying but I have been away for a bit (shouldn't have started a thread d'oh)

Anyway having read through all those I think I am going with Stalker's +1/2 level damage, simple and easy and will just speed it up that little bit. Will report back after tonight's session

 

[Morgan_Scott82]

Are you going to apply that proposed damage modifier to both sides?

 

[dammitbiscuit]

Are you going to apply that proposed damage modifier to both sides?

Yes, I don't understand why stalker's suggestions only apply to PCs. If all you do is buff the PCs, it simply makes the fights easier. I would at least give monsters 1/4 of their level to damage. It also makes strikers' high damage less significant as levels get higher and everyone has the same flat bonus to their damage rolls.

 

[WYT]

I think that "1/2 lvl bonus" to PC attacks makes the game unbalanced. Making the enemies run away when they are going to die or to lose the combat for sure is a simple alternative.

But if you finally want to aply the bonus, I would aply it on both sides. If not, the session would look like a very easy mode videogame.

 

[mach1.9pants]

I am going to start with both sides just to see.

Didn't trial this Mon as we had a sick player so the rest of us went to the pub

 

[Harr]

I have the same issue in my games. I'm going with everybody does max damage and criticals are double damage, myself, but only because I've genuinely come to beleve that everything in 4e has at least twice as many hitpoints as it should (and solo monsters have about ten times as many).

It may make things too swingy but to be honest at this point I'd welcome a little wildness or swinginess in combat instead of the mop-up job we always end up with.