Faster/More Efficient Combat?

[EOL]

I like the initiative keeper I think I'm going to try that. Most of the ideas discussed have been how to help players speed up the combat. I've found that because as the DM I may be running twice as many NPC's as PC's if I can keep it going faster then it helps out immensely. One way is to have a good idea of what the NPC's are going to do. If you're 75% sure they'll be hasted figure that into their AC already. Make a list of the order the NPC will cast spells in or their favorit tactics. Sure this will probably change but it saves you from staring at a spell list with 25 choices and trying to decide okay what should he do now?

 

[Sinjin the Rogue]

In my campaign, the single greatest cause of slowing down combat was kibbitzing. For instance:

I'd call for everyone to roll initiative and then we'd start. Invariably, the first person to go would state: "I am going to move here and then I'm going to try to slash the enemy with my sword"

However, the wizard would then groan and say: " No, don't do that, because on my turn, I am going to cast a lightning bolt, but you will be in my way"

And so the discussion began. Thirty minutes later, we would finish the first round of combat. We were typically getting through only three encounters a night. (Sure, if encounters include lots of role-play, I can see where this would be fine, but in a dungeon crawl, where the PC's are simply attacking everything that looks threatening, three encounters in 7 hours is horrid)

I then starting re-reading the faux encounters in the PHB and the DMG, and I noticed how smoothly the encounters seemed to go. I noticed right off the bat that there was no kibbitzing from the other players. The DM would simply ask what a character was going to do, and that is what the character did.

So, I introduced the "no kibbitzing rule" in my campaign. It has had two immediate effects:
1. The group is now making much better progress in combat encounters.
2. After an encounter is over, the characters debrief and talk about what went wrong and what could have been improved. Slowly but surely, they are developing tactics on their own, and it has made combat encounters much more strategic and interesting. In short, they learn from their mistakes. Before I introduced the rule, they did not learn anything, because they did not have to. In addition, they have all started reading more about the multitude of things they can do in combat:
Trip
Charge
Grapple
Melee
etc.
It has changed our tactical encounters from toe-to-toe brawls to much more coordinated efforts. The characters are thinking more than they ever did before.
3. The players are no longer creating characters that only specialize in Smack Down melee or "nuculur splosion" casting. Once they recognized that improved tactics require diverse skill sets, they started thinking about being able to use more than one kind of weapon and being able to cast utility spells more often. This has certainly improved their survivability.

So, the "No kibbitzing rule" has had a number of positive benefits to our game, but it has definitely helped pick up the pace.

 

[CRGreathouse]

You might want to note that the DMG says that you should only roll a single d20 in this situation, and then add the individual player's modifiers to that roll to see who is heard and who is not.

So you'd roll one d20 for the party's Move Silently and one d20 for their Hide. Then one d20 for the drwo's Spot and one for their Listen.

This rule is very important with regards to Spot as otherwise a party will pretty much ALWAYS see everything. If you give them 7 rolls, someone is bound to roll well. And when you tell that one person, everyone else at the table can't help but hear.

Page number, please?

 

[wolfpunk]

After seeing this before in a thread I bought two one minute timers. One of them I drained the sand out to make a 10-12 second time, the other one is bascially 2 minutes. the 12 second timer is my, state your action, roll your dice timer. The two minute timer is for any situation that arises that breaks up the flow of a game, meaning 2 minute to find an obscure rule, 2 minutes to discuss a house rule, or whatever, I have found using these two items has really helped our sessions.

 

[Victim]

Knowing the rules and the information about the character is important.

Having enough dice so that so don't have to roll 10 times to get a result on a spell.

Not rolling dice off the table and onto the hard floor that causes dice to bounce all over the room is critical.

Figuring out what you're doing before it's actually your turn speeds things up a bit.

The DM should have the characters' ACs and spell DCs so he doesn't have to query them every so often.

 

[Gaiden]

To: Sinjin the Rogue

The bit you wrote about kibitzing I find very interesting. I currently have a PC in RttToEE that travels with several other PCs. Basically, there are three players and the DM. Being the most versed in 3e rules and tactics I am typically advising my fellow players on tactics. I really like your suggestion about just nixing the whole kibitzing. Makes sense for the actual game and it would force the other players to think smarter. Unfortunately, the reprecussions of my fellow players not taking the wisest course of action can not only harm them but my PC as well. However, as I already implied, this is still more realistic. I think I will try what you suggest and recommend that my DM adopt this rule.

Thanks

 

[strongbow]

If you play on a grid map with minitures like I do, then there is yet another way to speed up combat. Too many times I have seen the DM have to pause and figure out exactly which monster out of the 12 half-machine stirges took damage. To speed things up when I play sometimes, we tape/sticky-tac (the sticky silly putty like substance) a number (1-12) to the base of the DM controlled minitures.

This works a lot better than writing a number on the grid map, only to have the monster move a moment later. To make sure the number system doesn't slow things down, have some numbers prepared ahead of time. It doesn't matter how you allot the numbers on the monsters, since you are tracking damage by number instead of by monster.

You really would be amazed how much faster combat goes when you roll to hit and damage together. Until some people I know started to do that, they would spend about 6 or 7 seconds shaking their d20 in their hand, then 6 or 7 seconds shaking the damage die, and so on. It's infuriating to watch sometimes.

Also, the NO KIBBITZING rule suggestion is fantastic. I am a relatively new player compared to everyone else. When I was getting advice from other players, I wasn't thinking for myself. After making a few mistakes, I learned better tactics. The monk in my group charged into combat unwisely once, and died. He doesn't charge as much now. The PCs had a discussion of tactics after that, and came to some agreements on how to proceed in battle.

Regarding advice however, if you can say something in character like "Don't charge" upon seeing someone start to move quickly, it might change their mind. It's up to the DM on how much of this to allow, but I've found that short in character advice is not unbalancing. Banning kibbitzing is designed to stop the OOC advice, not the IC advice.

I've even seen some groups develop CODEWORDS.

Ex: The wizard says SHAZAM! , and the fighter takes a 5' adjustment so that the incoming lightning bolt will not hit him.

When you get to that level, you are getting close to roleplaying combat instead of rollplaying it.

Tales of a improved player

Strongbow

 

[DMFTodd]

If you can use a computer at the table, you might try one of the many excellent DM-assistant programs. I've found they help a great deal. My personal favorite is DM's Familiar . Of course, I might be a little biased since it's mine. Roleplaying Master and Helge's DM screen are others.

 

[kreynolds]

If you can use a computer at the table, you might try one of the many excellent DM-assistant programs. I've found they help a great deal. My personal favorite is DM's Familiar . Of course, I might be a little biased since it's mine. Roleplaying Master and Helge's DM screen are others.

LOL

Shameless.

 

[dagger]

We use an intiative keeper. Whoever is doing it uses a small dry erase board we picked up for less than 10 bucks. That person keeps track of all pc and monster intiative's.