D&D General Do You Play Out Every Combat?

[Shiroiken]

Generally I roll out every combat. The only exception is when down to the last (significant) enemy who's statistically going to die before their next turn. After their last turn, most of the time I'll call the fight in order to move the game along. It helps keep things from being a slog taking down the last few HP, or to clean up the minions.

 

[TiQuinn]

If we need to stop mid combat, it's always at the end of a round and I just take careful notes of what hit points, spells, etc. the characters are at and we pick up next session right where we left off.

I’ve always found that to be a chore as well as getting people back into the mood of the battle is difficult. The energy is usually gone.

 

[Swarmkeeper]

If we need to stop mid combat, it's always at the end of a round and I just take careful notes of what hit points, spells, etc. the characters are at and we pick up next session right where we left off.

We do side initiative so, if we’re at the 3ish hour mark, we will end when one side is done with their turn - which can be the end of a round - and I make a note of which side is up next. But I’m only tracking the HP, spells, etc for the NPCs/monsters. Players are trusted to have their characters’ resources tracked accurately.

 

[Reynard]

As to mid-fight session closure, I run most of my games on Fantasy Grounds these days, so picking up wherever we left off is easy. I generally agree that it gets a session started a little faster and with more enthusiasm, but if it has been a while between sessions due to scheduling kerfuffles, it can be a pain to get everyone back in "battle headspace."

 

[AlViking]

How? I get it in 4&5e, TPKs are not that common. But in 1-3e era, specially 1&2e, low level characters where wet paper. As a dm, depending on a system, 50-70% of my games ended via TPK.

Much like @Lanefan I've DMed for pretty much every edition and I've only had 1 TPK. I've come close frequently including a session a couple months back using the current rules. The only reason I didn't have a TPK then was because the party surrendered.

Characters have died here and there when they did something stupid. I guess I could flip it around and ask how the majority of your games ended in a TPK.

 

[Stormonu]

Can't think of any time I've just narrated a combat without actually running it. For me, if it's a foregone conclusion there's no reason to include it in the first place.

 

[Stalker0]

Even easy combats I will play at least the opening rounds. I do think its important for the PCs to get to curb stomp some monsters every so often so they feel powerful.... I find long term my party often remembers those encounters more than many others.

But that said, they will quickly shift to "and the enemies run away"...or especially if I'm down to the last monster and I know the monster cannot do any real damage to a PC that round I'll just handwave that they take it out.

 

[Lanefan]

We do side initiative so, if we’re at the 3ish hour mark, we will end when one side is done with their turn - which can be the end of a round - and I make a note of which side is up next. But I’m only tracking the HP, spells, etc for the NPCs/monsters. Players are trusted to have their characters’ resources tracked accurately.

While players tracking their charaters' resources is nice in theory, in practice notepapers get lost during the week or writing on the chalkboard gets erased by mistake (or by a passing cat, it's happened!) or - more commonly - a player can't make a session and we can't decipher (or find) the relevant notes.

And so, very shortly after I started DMing, I got in the habit of recording everyone's hit points, spell slots (or spell points when I used that system), and currently-ongoing effects e.g. invisibility or protection-evil etc.

 

[CacklinSlayers]

My enemies run away all the time when they’ve got no shot at winning. The issue is, I’ve had a lot of players who just can’t resist milking those opportunity attacks and trying to drop as many fleeing baddies as possible before they’re out of reach/range.

I don’t totally get the appeal, but if that’s fun for them, I’ll play it out to the last hit point. Personally, I’d rather skip ahead to the more interesting stuff.

 

[GrimCo]

Much like @Lanefan I've DMed for pretty much every edition and I've only had 1 TPK. I've come close frequently including a session a couple months back using the current rules. The only reason I didn't have a TPK then was because the party surrendered.

Characters have died here and there when they did something stupid. I guess I could flip it around and ask how the majority of your games ended in a TPK.

In 2e, level 1-3 characters died like flies. No max hp on lv 1 and roll for hp means even fighter can have naughty word HP (seen couple of them). Also, hirelings are not mindless automatons that obey every command without question. They have self preservation instinct and will flee or just refuse to go on adventure if they think it's too risky. In 3.x, crit multipliers were culprits mostly. Even with max hp at level 1, low lv characters are kind of squishy ( specially d4 HD classes). Also, roll for hp didn't help. On top of all that, in every edition, bad luck on player part, good luck on dm part, bad tactic on player part, biting of more than they can chew, etc. But point is, prior editions characters tend to be on the soft side first few levels.