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Message: <blockquote data-quote="FormerlyHemlock" data-source="post: 6983941" data-attributes="member: 6787650">It's also possible to speed 5E up significantly by embracing an alternate initiative system. The trouble with cyclic initiative is that it leaves 50-80% of the players at a time sitting around with nothing to do; according to the rules, they're not really even encouraged/allowed to talk to the DM when it's not their turn. If you use more of an old-style system like "everybody declares, then everybody rolls their dice and resolves their actions" (per the 2nd edition PHB) you minimize that sitting around time. In that case the main constraint becomes the DM's ability to process information at the same time he is planning monster tactics, but even there you can speed it up some more if necessary by enlisting one of the players to be the declaration tracker who makes sure everybody declares an action each round.Cyclic initiative is the worst thing about vanilla 5E.Besides, the length of combat is tied to the number of decisions made during it, not the number of attack rolls. I've seen a first-level Barbarian fight an Ogre in a (gladiatorial) fight that went on for about ten rounds; it was over in about ninety seconds because they just took turns swinging at each other until someone went down. Attack rolls are fast.</blockquote>