D&D 5E A couple of questions

[BluSponge]

1) How much longer, in practical terms, do 5e combats take over O/AD&D combats? I know there is a lot of hit point inflation, but I also hear a lot about glass cannons (1 big hit, but down in 2-3 rounds), both with characters and monsters. So how many rounds does an average (balanced) combat last in terms of minutes? (Concern: 4e combat was ridiculous! Even the most basic battle would often take 2 game sessions to complete.)

2) How difficult would it be to implement the regimented turn order from B/X/BECMI into 5e? I know the DMG has rough guidelines for group d6 initiative, but I'm talking about the whole Move, Missile, Melee, Spell turn order on top of that. How is that going to ripple through the system with reactions and bonus actions? What other parts of the system am I going to have to tweak to make this work?

Thanks for the feedback,
Tom

 

[Rya.Reisender]

Almost all my 5e combats so far took 2-5 rounds. 2-3 rounds is the norm for easy and normal encounter. The hard and deadly encounters are usually over after 4-5 rounds.

 

[Ranthalan]

1) I don't find much difference between combat length in 5E and AD&D. The determining factor in both is the number of combatants and focus of the group. (Do your players know what they want to do by the time it's their turn? Do the spellcasters know how their spells work or do they need to look them up?) Small encounters take my group about 10-15 minutes. Large encounters, say 18 combatants can take 45 minutes or longer.

2) I don't think it would be difficult at all. After a year of playing, it still feels kind of weird not to pick up a d6 for initiative, but I do really like the 5E initiative.

 

[Celtavian]

Fastest combats I've ever run. The concentration mechanic really prevents tons of buffing and spell use that used to slow down combat.

 

[bgbarcus]

With six players I've had a couple of combats run ten rounds but those are outliers. Compared to B/X/BECMI everyone has high hit points and high damage in 5e vs. low hit points and low damage in the old rules, so the combats are similar.

Using BECMI turn ordering would be a problem. 5e depends heavily on the action economy and movement so any major change in how those work might mess with capabilities of PC's more than you like. But, it would be very interesting to see a report on how it works if you try it.

 

[BoldItalic]

I think applying the BECMI turn scheme would make things work less well in 5e and not really give you any benefit but it's an interesting thought.

Creatures in 5e are not limited to melee, missile or spell actions - there are lots of other things that can be done on your turn - so you would need to introduce an extra stage for "anything else". Also, movement can be taken at any time during your turn - before, between or after your action(s) or all of those - so you would need to introduce an extra movement stage between each of the other stages.

Those adjustments would theoretically bring the two different set of rules closer together but I think it would be awkward for the players to operate. Each player would have to remember how much of his turn he had taken while all the other players were doing their partial turns; it's less demanding for a player to take the whole of his turn fluidly, then start thinking about his next turn as he watches what develops around him.

But that's just me trying to imagine how it would go. I haven't tried it, obviously.