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Message: <blockquote data-quote="eriktheguy" data-source="post: 5505295" data-attributes="member: 83662">Usually I do roll. If a player is surrounded by 4 minions I might just say "2 hits, 12 damage", but only if the player won't notice.I have player Defs written on a board and know what I need to hit. I try to stack multiple monsters on one player, so I can roll 3d20 at a time and immediately say "X hits". It takes maybe 10 seconds for a handful of monsters. More time is spent manipulating the battle-board, rolling, and communicating damage/effects to the player.That sort of book keeping is for the players. Sometimes I have to remind them. Sometimes everyone forgets and a condition doesn't get tracked, but I tend to remember things like stunned, unconscious, petrified. I try to avoid overusing those conditions anyways.This is what I'm doing during the players' turns. Sometimes I make stupid rushed decisions or misread an entry and apply an effect wrong. Whatever, that's combat. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />Actually, this can slow up the turn a bit. Good point.They can ask questions at any arbitrary time during the fight and slow things down. I don't see why there is any point in tracking this as time taken up by the monsters turn. What we are concerned about is whether adding additional monsters will increase the length of the monster's turn. Sure a 2 minute turn might take 7 minutes if I stop to explain cover to my new players, but it's hardly notable.Maybe 2 minutes on average, 3 mins when a player uses a reaction/interrupt or a monster has strange powers.I should point out that specific turns might take much longer if something interesting is happening. This can artificially drag up the average. It might be better to say 2 minutes is a median.My techniques for faster combat<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">ALWAYS use same or lower level monsters</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Don't roll damage, use an average or quickly select a random number in your head.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Generally don't use more than 3 stat blocks in a fight. Even if you have 12 monsters on the board it's much easier if there are many copies of the same monster.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Split the monsters into 2 or maybe 3 initiative groups of similar monsters. Use the passive initiative of the highest initiative monster in the group.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Write player defenses, initiative, passive perception on a whiteboard</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Also record monster initiative on the whiteboard</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Don't think too much on the monster's turn, make quick decisions</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Give all monsters 1/2 HP, sometimes add more monsters to the fight, but in general stick to 1 standard/player</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Don't roll against non-player controlled targets at all. If monsters are attacking monsters, or monsters are attacking AI, just mark down some damage against each target based on level and role differences</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">End the combat when the players have clearly won. Don't wait for them to sweep up all the monsters if they are not in danger.</li> </ul></blockquote>

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