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Message: <blockquote data-quote="kitsune9" data-source="post: 5859321" data-attributes="member: 18507">I had long combats at high level because of all the options and abilities available. My group and I don't mind it because we like it a lot. However, it's not for everyone and here's some suggestions on making combat shorter:1. Lower the HD threshold. All classes get the next lower HD. Drop monsters from their current hp to 2/3 or 3/4. Not having to wade through hp will resolve combats significantly quicker. Want to make your combats lightning fast? Increase the damage die to the next step. A greatsword does 2d8 instead of 2d6. A longsword does 1d10 instead of 1d8. Monsters get the same with their natural attacks. With a lower HD threshold and a higher damage output, you'll notice combat speeding up rather quickly. 2. Iterative attacks are capped at 2. At +6 BAB, you get 2 attacks with -2 penalty. This becomes -1 penalty at +11 BAB, and no penalty at +16 BAB.3. Cap your magic buffing to just three spells. At high levels, parties can easily add on quite a few spells before going into combat. Cap it. Want to make it a lot tougher? Cap it with magic items.4. Cap saves and HP progression at 10th level. As you gain 11th level or beyond, you no longer gain new hp and your saves no longer increase. This will make the last two modules of any AP very deadly business.Now you may look at this and feel, "Why bother?" You'd be right if you feel that way by capping everything, but it's one solution to making combat go faster with minimal work. After all, D&D and all its iterations and clones is really about whoever gets to -1 hp first loses the fight. If you lower the HP threshold and increase the damage output that speeds that race up. Also some fights can be anticlimactic because they may end too quick and can usually be decided by which side wins initiative (something that at high level, 3.0 was good at determining). Though I'm not sure about your GM wanting to trade one complex system for another complex system. GURPS can be really complex if the GM uses a lot of the optional rule sets. I personally like them as it simulates a lot interesting combats, but they are complex. Also, he has a lot of work to convert the AP into GURPS and how to figure out on balancing the encounters. I love to GM, but I don't want to put in that kind of work.If the GM really doesn't like scaling. He should probably pick up E6 or something like that or convert the AP to C&C or one of the retro clones that emulates BECM.</blockquote>

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