D&D 4E How long are your 4e combats taking, real time?

[DrSpunj]

Forked from: Pace of level advancement in 4th edition D&D

Monday night I ran a session that lasted from 7:30-11:30 and we had 4 combat encounters plus some exploration/roleplay stuff added in.

I've seen lots of threads about how to try and speed up combat (most of which I've read and found some very helpful tips) but I still don't have a good feel for how long the average combat is taking most groups to play out.

Since our campaign started around Halloween my experience at PC levels above 3 is exactly zilch but over the course of a 4 hr session the best we've accomplished is 2 combats and a skill challenge (Obsidian, tyvm Stalker0!).

Typically a combat encounter takes us about 1.5-2 hrs to play out, generally lasting around 7-8 rounds. Now I DM a group of 7 players when everyone shows but unfortunately that's rare, usually we're around the typical 5 person party and "left the other guys behind in town" for the session or something similar.

So, Rel or anyone else, can you please elaborate on not only the number of encounters in a session or their average length but also describe their levels, number of rounds, numbers of combatants, etc.?

I'm curious if a lot of DMs are following the DMG guidelines about having some Easy encounters of less than the party level which I'd imagine are generally over very quickly. I've not run much of anything that isn't at least equal to party level and usually 1-3 levels above according to the XP budget table and while combat is usually very exciting and frequently tense, it's not usually that...short!

Thanks

 

[Smeelbo]

Our group is all beginners for 4E, myself and the GM included, and in our 3 hours sessions, we are averaging 2-3 combats with very little roleplaying (so far). We are mostly first and with now a couple second levels, heavy on strikers, no leader, and a very mixed and variable group, usually 3 or 4 characters (essentially whoever shows up to play at the comic book store Wednesday nights). Encounters are mostly at our level, and last usually 5-8 rounds. When I did a test last night, with 2 players, we did 5 combats in three hours.

I suspect that once one has the hang of it, at the low Heroic tier, combats will be about 45 minutes. However, it appears from what I read that combats last more rounds as party level rises.

Smeelbo

 

[evilbob]

I'm in a game with 5 regularly-showing PCs, all D&D vets. I'm running a game with 6 regularly-showing PCs, with mostly vets and some semi-new players. In both games, some combats have been hard and some have been cakewalks, so we're certainly getting a range of difficulty. In both games, we use tricks to speed things up, such as initiative cards, marking conditions physically on the minis, everyone's numbers (attack/damage/etc.) are calculated and ready, we encourage everyone to roll attacks and damage at the same time, etc.

Combat takes, on average, probably around 2 hours per battle (it's really closer to 2 than 2-3 like I said in that other post). The fastest we've ever steamrolled something still took close to 45 minutes. The slowest solo we ever slogged out took over 3 hours, maybe close to 4 - and we didn't actually kill it. Most battles hit about 2 hours; sometimes this includes a little bit of RP or other things leading up to the battle, so the physical battle time itself is on average probably slightly less. I think we're usually lucky to get two battles in per 4 hr session.


Some things just take a while, like drawing a map. My players joke that when I start to get a pen out, that means we're fighting - but seriously, it can take 5 minutes to detail a map, and the majority of the time you can't really draw them up beforehand, so hell no I'm not going to start drawing until it is necessary. Overall, I really cannot say what causes battles to take a while. I don't think "knowing the rules" has much to do with it in our group; I think it just takes a while. I know when I'm a player I blow powers left and right to help speed things up, and that seems to help, but obviously not everyone does it. When you have lots of non-minions and they're all about the same level as the PCs... it just takes a long time. When your PCs need 2-3 rounds to kill one guy and there are 6-7 guys, then battles can last over 15 rounds. And solos... well, solos just suck.

Personally I think battles take too long, but not by a horrible amount. An average of 1 hour would be much better.

 

[Akaiku]

I play online with a group of 5 people, including a gm. Our combats take around 2 hours, and this is with most of the group not bothering to roleplay any actions during the combat unless someone just died. The tactical nature of the combats make it so that you have to plan your action on your turn, as the whole setup could have changed with someone being bloodied or a bunch of enemies getting crit or something.

 

[Markn]

Our group consists of 6 players and I fully concur with everything that Evilbob said right down to the last word.

4E is great, but it would be nice if combats were closer to 1 hour as the norm instead of 2 (for us anyways).

 

[keterys]

Play online and face to face both, combats take about an hour each. In the four or so groups I play with, players vary from 3 to 6, with 4 and 6 being the most common numbers, and while there's variance it's very clustered around 1 hour.

And most of the characters are very much not optimized.

 

[Lancelot]

I DM a group of 3-5 players (depending on how many are available at any given session; usually 4). Our sessions are generally 5 hours in duration, and we usually get 3-4 combat sessions in that time.

Combats generally range between 30 and 90 minutes for us... although the longer combats generally only occur for climactic boss battles or otherwise important engagements. I've got no interest in watching a "wandering monster" fight go for more than an hour.

I use the typical tricks to speed up combat. Most monsters flee once it becomes apparent that they've "lost" (or are likely to lose) the battle. If the monsters have clearly "lost" but would not flee regardless(mindless undead, vermin, etc), I abstract the rest of the battle. e.g. "You spend another couple rounds clearing out the remaining bad guys..." A fight is only interesting when the outcome is in doubt.

Having said that, I've found that party composition has a huge impact on how long a fight lasts. I'm running one campaign where 3-out-of-4 PCs are strikers (and the other is a controller). Fights are very, very brief... one way or the other.

 

[kcwm]

In the few sessions I've played at a local RPGA event with 6 players, combat typically lasts about an hour...if that.

In the few sessions I've played with a homebrew group of 4 players, with one player controlling two PCs if needed, combat takes a little bit longer, more along the 1.5-2 hour route.

We really don't expand on combat RP, but in the home session, we have plenty of it. We typically play for 5 or 6 hours and get through a handful of combats...around 3 or 4.

 

[Markn]

One other thing i will add - We recently started to add a half level bonus to damage to see if that would help speed things up. We have given this bonus to monsters as well as PCs. It has shaved about 15-20 minutes of combat. We are currently in the high end of the heroic tier as a point of reference.

 

[lkjopajdowma]

A standard combat for our group (Wizard, Paladin, Cleric, Rogue, Fighter) takes around 1.5 to 2 hours. However, they can take even longer (up to 3), in the event we roll consistently poorly as a group--which happens far too often. We had a long one last session...I think we went nearly 3 rounds without really hitting anything (I think I may have managed to hit one enemy with a burst). We're pretty good at missing with encounters and especially dailies, as well, which leads to longer and more deadly combat.