D&D 3E/3.5 4e combat length compared to 3.5

[Otterscrubber]

Thanks, although I'm trying to get a feel for the number of in game rounds on average in the two editions, rather than the real world time it takes to resolve an encounter.

Hard to say as it depends on the make-up of the creatures my party is usually fighting, also how tough the fight is. If the fight is not a big deal my players tend to make quick decisions and fights can be over in 15 minutes. Tougher fights will involve more tactical decisions and discussions with the players and can take over an hour in some cases. More if we have new players or the players are playing with a newly made character they are not familiar with. I find this to be the case in both 3.5 and 4e.

Also of note, as the DM I often have to take time to get to know the monsters as they all also now have some unique abilities and if I want to challenge my players I have to figure out how to use those abilities well. So if I'm using monsters I've never used I can slow things down as I figure out how to run it.

 

[Nail]

Heroic teir fights in 4e take all three of the groups I participate in about 8 rounds. In two of the groups we track rounds fairly closely, so I'm pretty confident in that estimate.

In 3.xe, fights lasted 3 to 5 rounds, with maybe 7 rounds at most. In terms of "combat rounds", 3.xe was faster. In terms of "Real Time", I'd call them about equal.

 

[babinro]

Under typical conditions I find the combat in 3.x to be largely quicker than its 4E counter part. I would go as far as to say 4E encounters are roughly 1.5x as long in my experience.

The exception of course being any 3.x encounter where the enemy has a healer, or spells that greatly prolong combat such as mass suggestion.

 

[blargney the second]

I don't think that edition is an important factor in determining combat length. Other variables have so much more mass that edition is not significant in comparison:

1) Presence of one or more power gamers speeds things up hugely.
2) Inter-party coordination speeds it up.
3) Monsters that hose player abilities slows it down. (resistances, immunities, ridiculously high defences, healing, etc)
4) Lack of system mastery slows things down.
5) Really good dice speeds up, really bad dice slows down.

I've seen fights in both editions take between one and twenty rounds.
-blarg