Bringing Back the Fighting Man

[Lanefan]

I've played similarly long ones, especially in 3.x, at higher levels. Speaking from a good deal of experience, hour long rounds suck.

They can, but it depends what's happening during those hour-long rounds.

 

[haakon1]

There's a common school of DM though that PCs should never ever encounter 1 hit die creatures after about 4th level, 'cause such encounters are "no challenge." Since they're no challenge, they're no fun - and if players do seem to find such encounters fun, then it must be false consciousness, or munchkinism, or some other morbid player dysfunction.

That sounds like a theory from someone who is afraid to roll all the dice for 80 1st level Warrior crossbowmen attacking. I did it (in 3.5e) and the number of crits (somehow I rolled 17 natch 20’s) was devastating.

It makes spells like Protection from Normal Missiles seem like more than a relic from D&D’s wargaming roots.

 

[Mannahnin]

They can, but it depends what's happening during those hour-long rounds.

Sure, but after a few campaigns of high-level 3E with rounds that long, 4E combats were a blessed relief.

 

[Lanefan]

Sure, but after a few campaigns of high-level 3E with rounds that long, 4E combats were a blessed relief.

This was 1e, or close enough.

A party of a dozen or so name-ish level characters vs a complex with about 25 levelled (some quite high-levelled) foes, with lots of room to move around and a whole lot of spellcasters. Part of the issue was that the overall combat quickly became a multi-ring circus with smaller sub-combats going on all over the place (e.g. one outside in the clearing, one in the left cave, one in the right cave, a pursuit inside the caves, etc.); I had to run these all side-along segment by segment as I never knew if-when one sub-combat might interact with another e.g. does someone's mis-aimed lightning bolt in the clearing spill over into one of the caves or does the pursuit (intentionally or otherwise) run onto another fight or does someone move from one brawl to jump into another, etc.

 

[Mannahnin]

This was 1e, or close enough.

I know.

A party of a dozen or so name-ish level characters vs a complex with about 25 levelled (some quite high-levelled) foes, with lots of room to move around and a whole lot of spellcasters. Part of the issue was that the overall combat quickly became a multi-ring circus with smaller sub-combats going on all over the place (e.g. one outside in the clearing, one in the left cave, one in the right cave, a pursuit inside the caves, etc.); I had to run these all side-along segment by segment as I never knew if-when one sub-combat might interact with another e.g. does someone's mis-aimed lightning bolt in the clearing spill over into one of the caves or does the pursuit (intentionally or otherwise) run onto another fight or does someone move from one brawl to jump into another, etc.

Yeah, every once in a while such a big epic battle can be worth a serious investment of time and effort. Especially if the stakes are there for the players and their interest is held.

Combats taking forever was just standard in high level 3.x. It wasn't ONLY special occasion battles, although I was particularly reminded of one or two really epic ones against high level enemy NPCs/an evil party.

4E combats also tended to run longer than in other editions, but individual rounds usually went quick, so at least there was a lot of action and not so much waiting around for your turn.

 

[Calithena]