D&D 5E Length of Combat & Time Taken per Round (collecting data from my games - updated 3/13 with an hour 30 minute 11 round battle!)

[Hussar]

Five players plus DM and you can get through a full round in under 2 minutes? That seems a bit fast.

I screwed up the timing on my last session. I did have one combat with 4 PC's, 1 NPC'd PC (player absent) and 3 baddies - and it took 23 minutes. Not too bad. 8th level characters. I'll be more rigorous next time around. I think that Fantasy Grounds has a tracker plug in that will track a lot of this stuff. I might just buy that.

 

[MerricB]

I've been posting a lot of data about combat length in my recent session reports on my blog. For the last few games, all sessions have been on Roll20, using D&D Beyond and Beyond20 integration.

So...
1 Ogre vs 4 level 3 characters - 3 rounds, 10 minutes
4 Hobgoblins - 3 rounds, 15 minutes
1 Bugbear, 1 Doppelganger, 1 Dire Wolf - 6 rounds, 30 minutes
2 Giant Spiders - 3 rounds, 7 minutes

Now, when I say "3 rounds", that means combat entered the third round, but doesn't mean it got more than one action in! But around 5 minutes per round seems standard.

I think "2 minutes per round" seems very fast - unless you play an oldschool D&D, have everyone in melee rolling simultaneously. I have run games that way, and yes, it goes fast, but even then there's the time the DM needs to collect and apply HP losses.

Cheers,
Merric

 

[GreyLord]

Have you timed them? I'm not saying I doubt you, but... that sounds impossible. I can't even imagine anyone being able to articulate what they're doing in that time, far or less decide and roll. Do they all speak at once?

No, they don't all speak at once. It's normally goes something like this.

They roll initiative.

DM - Mark, It's your turn.

Mark (moves the Wizard a few spaces) - I cast Hold Person on the Bandit there. (He rolls the dice).

DM (rolls some dice) - okay, Bandit cannot move. Jan, your turn.

Jan (Moves her War Cleric a few spaces to be next to one of the Bandits) - I attack this Bandit (rolls some dice).

DM - It's a hit, roll for damage.

Jan - Okay, (rolls for damage). I do 10 points of damage.

DM - Bandit is still alive. Bandit is upset. Gary, your go

Gary - Hey, I was going to hit this bandit, but since this one is still alive do you want me to attack the same one Jan did?

Rob - Sure, go ahead.

Gary (Moves his Fighter) - I attack the same Bandit (he Rolls some dice).

DM - You also hit the Bandit, roll for Damage.

Gary rolls some dice.

DM - Bandit is dead. 4 left.

Rob - I obviously am moving next as per what the dice showed. I am still concealed and I move behind this bandit here and try to stab them from the rear. (rolls some dice).

DM - sorry, it looks like you missed.

Rob grumbles in frustration.

DM puts down four different colors of D20 besides the still surviving bandits. This one attacks here, this one attacks Jan, this one attacks Gary, this one shoots at Mark. (Rolls the 4 d20, see which hit, calculates for damage at one we go).

That entire exchange doesn't take long normally,. Some fights last us less than 2 to 3 minutes real time. I tell the players how we want to run the game and combat normally and other situations and it just...flows.

I generally have more difficulty with some of my board game players (analysis paralysis at times) than from my RPG groups.

It normally just doesn't take a ton of time. Of course, if I DO get a player that takes overly long (not a normal thing, but I have had it on occasion) we will start a timer (since most of the players have gotten used to how we run combat, no one likes to sit around for a long time waiting for someone else to take their turn) which is an hourglass sand timer which takes about 60 seconds. Anyone can use it if they feel someone is taking too long.

The longest I think I may have could be a new player if we are playing in a mid to high level game and they are a spellcaster and are unfamiliar with spells. Others are normally MORE than happy to help them decide in those instances though.

 

[GreyLord]

I've been posting a lot of data about combat length in my recent session reports on my blog. For the last few games, all sessions have been on Roll20, using D&D Beyond and Beyond20 integration.

So...
1 Ogre vs 4 level 3 characters - 3 rounds, 10 minutes
4 Hobgoblins - 3 rounds, 15 minutes
1 Bugbear, 1 Doppelganger, 1 Dire Wolf - 6 rounds, 30 minutes
2 Giant Spiders - 3 rounds, 7 minutes

Now, when I say "3 rounds", that means combat entered the third round, but doesn't mean it got more than one action in! But around 5 minutes per round seems standard.

I think "2 minutes per round" seems very fast - unless you play an oldschool D&D, have everyone in melee rolling simultaneously. I have run games that way, and yes, it goes fast, but even then there's the time the DM needs to collect and apply HP losses.

Cheers,
Merric

I DO play old school D&D. That's also how I play 5e like, I play it almost just like I played AD&D, BX and BECMI in some ways.

NOW...if we are discussing 4e I admit...those tended to be a bit longer in rounds and decisions.

It seems to sound as if my games move incredibly fast though from what I'm reading in this thread. I never really thought they would be fast, but it sounds as if they run fast enough people can't believe that they run that quickly!

There is one that may have run pretty fast though now that I think about it.

Hmm, a module I ran last year for Castles and Crusades/BX was a PF module called Thornkeep. I ran the entire thing in somewhere around 2-4 hours (can't remember the exact time it took except that we finished it all in one session, or one afternoon). That one was a bit bigger than my usual group with around 10 people though, so a few adjustments for that number. That was with extended family (Family Reunion) though so they really know how I like to run my games and we get along with how we see things pretty well. That probably ran even faster and smoother than other games simply because of that.

Would people consider that fast?

Something I suppose people can consider is when looking at the tournament modules from the past. Those games were meant to be run in tournaments and so were meant to be gotten through. How long would it take people who have 30 minute combats to get through one of those today at that speed?

Trying to put it into perspective for those who can't understand how games can flow like this.

I never actually really thought my games were actually excessively fast, but...maybe it's just how they used to run when I first started decades ago and I just never changed?

Not sure. It's strange seeing the differences of time here.

 

[Hussar]

Would people consider that fast?

For me? That's incredibly fast. I play 3 hour sessions and it's very, very rare to finish 4 combats in that time. Most of the time it's 2-3. Note, there's other stuff going on, of course, but, 30-50 minutes for a combat seems about usual for us. At least, that's my gut feeling. I'm interested to see what actual timing results in.

 

[kigmatzomat]

Time & round count came from DDB history, starting with first action to the final blow.

I added a few extra bits as our group is 6 players and we have a number of familiars, animal companions & steeds that have their own actions that have to be tracked. (I am NOT counting summons/animated objects/spiritual weapons) The GM time becomes nontrivial to manage 13 NPCs, especially when 1 has legendary actions and 7 have AoE/multi-target spells so a "Average round/character" seems appropriate.

Encounter	Combat Type	Party Level	Nbr PCs + familiars/ steeds/ etc	IG Rounds	RW Time	Average / Rd	Average Rd per Player	Average Rd per character
Legendary Artificer, 4 bodyguards, 2 mymidons, 6 casters (13)	Grid	15	6+5	5 rounds	180 minutes	36 minutes	6 minutes	1.5 minutes

 

[FitzTheRuke]

No, they don't all speak at once. It's normally goes something like this.

They roll initiative.

DM - Mark, It's your turn.

Mark (moves the Wizard a few spaces) - I cast Hold Person on the Bandit there. (He rolls the dice).

DM (rolls some dice) - okay, Bandit cannot move. Jan, your turn.

Jan (Moves her War Cleric a few spaces to be next to one of the Bandits) - I attack this Bandit (rolls some dice).

DM - It's a hit, roll for damage.

Jan - Okay, (rolls for damage). I do 10 points of damage.

DM - Bandit is still alive. Bandit is upset. Gary, your go

Gary - Hey, I was going to hit this bandit, but since this one is still alive do you want me to attack the same one Jan did?

Rob - Sure, go ahead.

Gary (Moves his Fighter) - I attack the same Bandit (he Rolls some dice).

DM - You also hit the Bandit, roll for Damage.

Gary rolls some dice.

DM - Bandit is dead. 4 left.

Rob - I obviously am moving next as per what the dice showed. I am still concealed and I move behind this bandit here and try to stab them from the rear. (rolls some dice).

DM - sorry, it looks like you missed.

Rob grumbles in frustration.

DM puts down four different colors of D20 besides the still surviving bandits. This one attacks here, this one attacks Jan, this one attacks Gary, this one shoots at Mark. (Rolls the 4 d20, see which hit, calculates for damage at one we go).

I mean, it took me longer than a minute to read that far or less play it!

 

[MerricB]

I mean, it took me longer than a minute to read that far or less play it!

Is Greylord saying "round" when he means "turn"?

Just reminding everyone of current terminology:
A turn is an individual monster's or player character's go, where they move, take an action, and a bonus action. (Possibly).
A round is where every monster and player character gets their turn (generally in cyclical manner for 5E).

Because I'm playing on Roll20, I have the logs and timestamps so I can see how long it take us to play things.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

This is another one of these things that makes me wish I could see some comparative recordings/streams of these games. Something like volunteers from the fast end, the slow end, and a more a middle speed, all post videos of sessions playing List Mine of Phandelver so we can see exactly what's going on. No matter how much it's talked about, I still can't figure it out.

Last time I wondered about something similar I followed some suggestions to watch some non-D&D games...but you really can't compare unless it's the exact same thing.

 

[kigmatzomat]

And it changes at level. In my game (above), the fighter, monk, and paladin get 3 attacks and the Warlock gets 3 eldritch blasts. The cleric/paladin effectively gets two due to spiritual weapon.

Crits often trigger conditionals as it is prime time to use Smite or Bardic Inspiration plus higher level weapons (in our game) are prone to having bonus effects on crits. (Gm prefers flashy magic items with low base pluses but more specials). On his one crit the paladin rolled 2d8 (sword) + 3d6 psychic (weapon crit special) + 2d8 radiant (imp smite) + 10d8 (5th level spell smite). Slow but exciting.

AoE spells on both sides require numbers of saves affected by situational modifiers (how close is your paladin, which elemental type it is, do you have bardic inspiration etc). Casters need to make multiple concentration checks, etc, etc. And Animate Objects let's the bard (me) make 10+ attacks/round and provide flankers.

Some of that seems like it slows down the game, but it changes what success looks like. The warlock's wolf does 5 damage is meh, but if it knocks a foe prone it becomes a big buff to adjacent allies and is an "oh yeah!". The amusement factor of familiars under the affects of dragons breath spells is high (and requires more saves) and if it gets lucky and ends an enemy concentration spell it's another "oh yeah!" moment.