D&D 5E Has D&D Combat Always Been Slow?

[Oofta]

1) Do you feel D&D combat is slow (or "drags")?

Yes. Unquestionably. I don't know how anyone could reasonably say otherwise. Relative to other systems I struggle to think of anything slower.

2) If yes, how do you address this in 5E?

Play a different system. I'm sorry, but there it is. If you want 6 hour combats, and many people do, then D&D is great. It's all a matter of taste.

3) Has it always been that way? I'm not familiar with very much of 1E or 2E.

Earlier editions had faster combats. I personally prefer BECMI's speed. D&D's combat has slowed with each subsequent edition because it has gotten increasingly detailed, and those details add up in time spent.

//Panjumanju

That was not my experience with the previous couple of editions*. Possibly going further back, but honestly I don't remember that long ago. I could always devise a system that's faster. Play rock-paper-scissors to see who wins for example would be much faster. Or play 3.5 at mid-to-high levels with a caster that knows what they're doing and just have everyone delay until the caster goes.

Different strokes for different folks and all, but I find 5E combat a reasonable compromise most of the time and we have a lot of fun in and out of combat.

*In 4E hour long rounds were common at higher levels.

 

[Dr Magister]

We use a 50" TV attached to our laptop to display the powerpoint we use for battlemaps and tokens for battles. We found it is faster than minis and drawing out or prepping the encounter areas, or trying to use online VTT systems. It is also easy to drag a battlemap into the powerpoint and resize it for our tokens.

Good to know I'm not the only one using Powerpoint as a VTT! It works really well for us, and doesn't involve buying and/or learning a whole new programme.