Average Combat Length

[Creamsteak]

I feel like I'm the only one used to 15+ round combats...

 

[Zappo]

Generally speaking, if people just whale on each other, combat takes between 3 and 5 rounds. If tactics come into play, though, it can get a lot longer. Moving around, shaping the battlefield, summoning creatures, this sort of stuff can really add to the duration.

 

[CombatWombat51]

I put 7+. And it's generally in the 10 to 15 range. That goes for whether my group is 1st level or 15th.

I think the reason that our combats take longer is because all parties often try to avoid Warcraft Syndrome, where we stand toe-to-toe and take turns slicing off hit points.

We do lots of maneuvering, like taking cover and stuff. Well, by "we" I mean "mostly I", but I'm the DM, so "I" actually means "nearly everyone"

Finally, I try to avoid Party vs. Big Thing fights, where the whole gang gets to clobber the Big Thing.

I remember one battle in 1E where I was a player... the adventure was Mordenkainen's Something (Castle? Adventure?). In the dungeon was this big golem thing. It had like 120 HP and only took damage from two specific weapons in the dungeon. And it only took damage equal to the "plusses" from those weapons. One was like a +3 spear and the other was a +1 dagger. It took something like 2 hours (real time!) of simple 1E combat to kill this thing *groan*

 

[Ryltar]

I'm with Creamsteak and CombatWombat here. Combat tends to take 10 rounds as an estimated average, with most of the fights easily going into the 20+ range (especially bossfights). My players also do lots of tactical stuff, and I play the bad guys accordingly .

 

[Liolel]

3 to 4 round would be the average but a good deal of the time the combat is very short or very long. Longest battle that I'm been the dm for was 11 rounds, although the battle itself was a walkover as the dice hated me that battle. Also there is a few quick battles every now and then where it lasts only a round or two usually because the sides are mismatched in power.

 

[derelictjay]

I'd say the games I've played in run 5-6 rounds. Mainly because, the group I played with half of us were tacticians, and using tactics and strategies can slow the game up. However, if the DM don't use tactics and the players do (as in the case of one campaign I played in) we wiped the floor with those beasties in just a couple of rounds.

Hit die and Armor class don't really come in to play for how long a fight takes, I've always been curious why. Of cource attack bonus does.

 

[Quasqueton]

In the game I DM, there are 6 PCs currently at 7-9th level. The vast majority of their combats throughout the campaign (from 2nd level) have been against multiple opponents. Combats usually last 7+ rounds. There have been a few that have lasted 20+ rounds. One actually lasted 55 rounds, although after the first it was only 2 PCs versus a single BBEG until about round 50. (Blasphemy is a terrible, terrible thing.)

In the game I Play in, there are 6 PCs currently at 2nd level. All our combats in this campaign (from 1st level) have been against about an equal number of opponents (5-8). These combats have lasted only about 4 rounds (though some have ended because the bad guys flee after loosing half their number).


From earlier such polls, it seems that most players see very short combats. This surprises me, because my experiences have been with medium (5-9 rounds) to long (10+ rounds) combats. [I have actually kept track of the number of rounds in the game I DM.]

Quasqueton

 

[Wombat]

In general, 3-4 rounds pretty much decide a comabt.

This doesn't mean all the opponent are dead -- often a combat ends in one side or the other making a defensive withdrawl.

Longer combats get very boring for my group. Combat is not our highest priority, by a long shot.

 

[el-remmen]

The last time I took a sample of combat lengths from my game and did the math the average length was about 13 rounds (this was ignoring the shortest (one round) and the longest (37 rounds)).

I also started this same thread a few months ago, which was itself inspired by a previous thread: http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=67721

 

[doseyclwn]

Elephant,

If your fighter only misses on a 1 or a 2, you are not challenging him enough. That being said, I voted 7+, with most being around 8 to 10 I would guess.