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<blockquote data-quote="KarinsDad" data-source="post: 5066340" data-attributes="member: 2011">D&amp;D is about action economy.With 4 on 4, the PCs should start out having 3 of the PCs attacking the weakest looking NPC and the 4th PC defending and holding off the rest.The faster the first NPC is down, the faster the group can take out the rest. And, it takes less real time per round to run 4 PCs and 3 NPCs than it does 4 PCs and 4 NPCs.This general strategy of quickly taking out the weakest or most hurt NPCs every single round tends to work best. There are always exceptions, like a monster that has such a devastating attack that this monster is causing too much damage to be ignored, but for the most part, the main idea is decrease the number of foes as quickly as possible.Another thing that can be done is for the DM to not overload the PCs. N level encounters will go a lot faster than N+4 encounters. So, a discussion with the DM might result is slightly less difficult encounters. Some DMs might not realize how many extra rounds are added by adding one level to the encounter. A level N encounter might take 5 rounds, N+1 6.5 rounds, N+2 8 rounds, etc. So, DMs should be cognizant of this when creating or adapting adventures.Tactics. Out of combat, the players should discuss their abilities and tactics. In one of our campaigns, we had a command called &quot;Pumpkin&quot; (long story). When I was running the Wizard, I would yell out &quot;Pumpkin&quot; and ready an action. The other players would shift their PCs on their turn so that the several of the NPCs would be in a close burst 1 area, but the PCs would not. When this occurred, my PC would then cast Scorching Burst on the NPCs. This allowed my Wizard to attack multiple foes and often more foes, more often per encounter without targeting any PCs. Group tactics can almost always be improved, but only by having the players discuss them. And, even gaining a level can add to the tactics if the PCs gain certain items or powers.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="KarinsDad, post: 5066340, member: 2011"] D&D is about action economy. With 4 on 4, the PCs should start out having 3 of the PCs attacking the weakest looking NPC and the 4th PC defending and holding off the rest. The faster the first NPC is down, the faster the group can take out the rest. And, it takes less real time per round to run 4 PCs and 3 NPCs than it does 4 PCs and 4 NPCs. This general strategy of quickly taking out the weakest or most hurt NPCs every single round tends to work best. There are always exceptions, like a monster that has such a devastating attack that this monster is causing too much damage to be ignored, but for the most part, the main idea is decrease the number of foes as quickly as possible. Another thing that can be done is for the DM to not overload the PCs. N level encounters will go a lot faster than N+4 encounters. So, a discussion with the DM might result is slightly less difficult encounters. Some DMs might not realize how many extra rounds are added by adding one level to the encounter. A level N encounter might take 5 rounds, N+1 6.5 rounds, N+2 8 rounds, etc. So, DMs should be cognizant of this when creating or adapting adventures. Tactics. Out of combat, the players should discuss their abilities and tactics. In one of our campaigns, we had a command called "Pumpkin" (long story). When I was running the Wizard, I would yell out "Pumpkin" and ready an action. The other players would shift their PCs on their turn so that the several of the NPCs would be in a close burst 1 area, but the PCs would not. When this occurred, my PC would then cast Scorching Burst on the NPCs. This allowed my Wizard to attack multiple foes and often more foes, more often per encounter without targeting any PCs. Group tactics can almost always be improved, but only by having the players discuss them. And, even gaining a level can add to the tactics if the PCs gain certain items or powers. [/QUOTE]

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