Combat is faster - right?

[Sijan]

Consider also that the preview format is reportedly a delve format where the DM is keeping a very tight pace. .

Well, there is a 4E Delve, but there are also two preview mods being played in 5 hour slots.

 

[themilkman]

When I played today, combat did move along much faster than 3.5. It's just like people say; each combat took more rounds, but it didn't take more time. Mostly it was the small things, like not having to count movement more than once, not have to keep track of rounds left on effects, and not have to compute DR for spells and saves.

It generally took melee combatants a bit longer to decide what they wanted to do, since it wasn't just Full Attack Action, Full Attack Action, Full Attack Action. It took Casters much, much less time to decide what they wanted to do, since they didn't have two dozen spells to choose from.

Also, the first few encounters took a bit longer while other people learned their powers, but after that it was easy to say, "I use my move action to shift right, my minor action to lay hands on the Ranger, and my standard action to use Bolstering Strike on the kobold."

 

[Falling Icicle]

I won't know until I play it, of course, but I haven't seen anything that would indicate that combat is faster in this edition. In fact, everything I've seen thusfar indicates just the opposite. There seems to be alot of tedium in this edition, numerous bonuses (particularly annoying aura bonuses) to keep track of, all kinds of different maneuvers and triggers, etc. Not only that, characters have far more longevity now, due to a vast increase in hit points and the addition of healing surges. In any case, I'm not believing any hype about faster, easier combat until I experience it myself.

 

[shilsen]

In all honesty, I'm fine with fights taking the same amount of TIME with more ROUNDS. But that's just me.

Absolutely. I have no problem at all with an exciting combat that spans a couple of hours. It's when the exciting combat spanning a couple of hours is actually taking 3 rounds of game time that I have an issue with it.

 

[LostSoul]

I think "faster" should be defined as "more meaningful choices made per unit of time."

 

[PeterWeller]

I won't know until I play it, of course, but I haven't seen anything that would indicate that combat is faster in this edition. In fact, everything I've seen thusfar indicates just the opposite. There seems to be alot of tedium in this edition, numerous bonuses (particularly annoying aura bonuses) to keep track of, all kinds of different maneuvers and triggers, etc. Not only that, characters have far more longevity now, due to a vast increase in hit points and the addition of healing surges. In any case, I'm not believing any hype about faster, easier combat until I experience it myself.

So, when other posters who have played the game say they think it's going to play faster, it's hype?

Also, numerous bonuses? There's numerous bonuses that will make combat tedious in 4E that weren't there in 3E? Are you high?

 

[WhatGravitas]

In all honesty, I'm fine with fights taking the same amount of TIME with more ROUNDS. But that's just me.

And less pageflipping! If I want to spend less time on combat, I do less combats. But if I get more combat into my combat time, then that's great!

Cheers, LT.