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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Stormonu" data-source="post: 4990575" data-attributes="member: 52734">I tried my hand again at 4E recently, and its quite apparant that 4E's combat system is not to group's liking; it simply takes too much time and energy for their tastes.  I'd like to be able to distill the combat system down to something that can be resolved in 15 minutes - or less.At the same time, I would like to be able to retain the flavor of powers and monster abilities, so a straight-up skill challenge for combat probably won't be the way I want to go, though I'd like to be able to use the principle for staging the combat.  I'd like to build something that doesn't require pulling out a battlemat, if at all possible - the tactical side of combat seems to be where my group is losing interest.I'm imagining most of the time the checks would be the characters using their powers to make "attacks", with the penalty of failing the check being the monster "hits" them and deals damage - probably equal to a healing surge; the monsters don't need to make a roll back at the PCs, I can just use the stat blocks to pick and describe how the monster wounds the PCs.I (or the PCs) could throw in checks that require other skill checks to help "spice up" a combat - fighting in a geyser field could require Acrobatic or Athletic checks to avoid getting scalded, Perception checks could be used to prevent getting ambushed, etc.Marks, push/pull/slide would probably just provide a +2 "manuevering" bonus - for leaders the bonus would apply to one character of choice, for strikers, it would be for their own advantage.  I'm not sure how to handle marking as part of a skill challenge, though I'm thinking something along the lines of either allowing the defender to move damage from another player's failed check to himself or granting a bonus of some kind.Instead of tracking monster HP, I'm considering using 1 successful skill check drops a minion, 2 successful skill checks drops a regular monster, 4 checks to drop an elite and 8 checks drops a solo.  If the encounter is a level above, it takes +0/+1/+2/+3 checks (depending on minion/normal/elite/solo, in that order) or +0/+2/+3/+4 for encounters that are 2 levels above, and so forth.The big question is, since I'm not too familiar with the game's powers, is what effects/abilities am I going to need to modify to be able to use this sort of "skill challenge" system and make it work.  Any shout-outs or considerations would be welcome.Again, my group isn't interested in playing the tactical side of the game - they want something narrative, and combats that resolve quickly.</blockquote>

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