Slow combats

[Jack99]

Which other editions are you comparing this to?

Probably just 3.x - I can't imagine any other edition taking anyone longer.

 

[ggroy]

Another thing I've tried which significantly speeds up combat, is decreasing the monsters and players' AC (and other defenses) once they become bloodied. For every round a player or monster remains bloodied, their defense stats decrease by 1. So monsters which have no healing surges nor any other healing mechanisms, progressively have weaker and weaker defenses as their hit points remain in the bloodied range.

With healing surges taking a monster or player's hit points out of the bloodied range, their defense stats go back to their normal values.

In terms of fluff, I suppose one can imagine that a player/monster with arrows sticking out of them, several slashes or gouges from a sword, several knocks to the head, etc ... will cause a particular player/monster to be in pain and not paying as much attention to fighting (lower AC and lower fortitude), to react slower (lower reflex), and maybe not thinking straight (lower will). As the combat continues, the problems become progressively worse until the player/monster is finally killed.

The drawback of this method is that it only takes place when the monster is bloodied. It doesn't help much with the speed of the combat initially, especially if a particular monster is very hard to hit with a very high AC (and other defenses).

 

[ggroy]

Originally I also proposed having the players and monsters' attack stats being decreased by 1 for every round they remain bloodied, but none of the players liked it.

 

[Jack99]

Originally I also proposed having the players and monsters' attack stats being decreased by 1 for every round they remain bloodied, but none of the players liked it.

Your comments tell me a few things. Either you play at low level, or without a decent healer in the group. Because with a decent cleric, especially at higher levels, you are either dead or un-bloodied most of the time. My point is simply that your AC rule would do very little difference overall. IMO and IME and all that jazz of course.

 

[ggroy]

Your comments tell me a few things. Either you play at low level, or without a decent healer in the group. Because with a decent cleric, especially at higher levels, you are either dead or un-bloodied most of the time. My point is simply that your AC rule would do very little difference overall. IMO and IME and all that jazz of course.

My campaign is at level 14 right now, and there is a cleric in the group.

The way I design the encounters, the monsters/badguys don't have any healing surges except for maybe the bosses. The first rule of decreasing the AC and other defenses when bloodied, in practice generally affects the monsters first. It only starts to affect the players when they are out of healing surges.

This rule actually does speed up the combat encounters significantly, since the monsters/badguys don't have any healing surges and will remain bloodied until they're dead. The decreasing AC and other defense stats makes them a lot easier to hit.

In practice, the players which have run out of healing surges in my combat encounters using this rule, are typically the front line fighters, paladins, and rangers. Frequently this has happened when the "boss" is already bloodied and has no more healing.

 

[Jack99]

My campaign is at level 14 right now, and there is a cleric in the group.

The way I design the encounters, the monsters/badguys don't have any healing surges except for maybe the bosses. The first rule of decreasing the AC and other defenses when bloodied, in practice generally affects the monsters first. It only starts to affect the players when they are out of healing surges.

Fair enough, I read it as a player thing, my bad.

 

[ggroy]

The drawback of all these combat encounter speedups, is that all the ones I've tried so far have led to healing surges being eaten up a lot faster. Frequently by the time an encounter is finished, most of the players are out of healing surges.

What happens afterward is the players end up going back to town or to a "rest stop", and rest for the remainder of the day. Essentially for almost every major combat encounter, the players are all freshly loaded up with their daily powers.

 

[Jack99]

The drawback of all these combat encounter speedups, is that all the ones I've tried so far have led to healing surges being eaten up a lot faster. Frequently by the time an encounter is finished, most of the players are out of healing surges.

What happens afterward is the players end up going back to town or to a "rest stop", and rest for the remainder of the day. Essentially for almost every major combat encounter, the players are all freshly loaded up with their daily powers.

Thats not good. At least not in my book. I just want them to be able to take on the same amounts of combats per day (up to 6 or so), but the fights themselves should just be resolved quicker.

 

[ggroy]

Thats not good. At least not in my book. I just want them to be able to take on the same amounts of combats per day (up to 6 or so), but the fights themselves should just be resolved quicker.

I agree.

One major combat encounter per day and going back to town to rest for the remainder of the day, completely defeats the purpose of daily powers.

 

[AllisterH]

There's another disadvantage with faster combat....

Much more dependence on your build in being successful since the monsters only need half the time to kill you.