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

[evilbob]

So it seems like thus far two major factors are cropping up repeatedly for those who say their battles last around an hour or shorter:
- Once the battle is a forgone conclusion, they stop.
- Heavily optimized damage parties go faster.

The second point is a hard one to really nail down, in my opinion, because if I know my party is heavily optimized, I just throw more stuff at them. That seems like a good idea for pre-made modules, but for on-the-fly stuff, it might be more subjective.

The first point seems very solid, however, and a really good idea. I'm definitely going to suggest that.

 

[Ulorian - Agent of Chaos]

My XP is about 1-1.5 hrs each, depending on a variety of factors, 5 PC's

I'm running at about the same pace, also with 5 PCs. This applies to encounters at Level to Level +3; lower level combats can take 45 minutes or (rarely) less. We had a combat at Level + 4 run a hair over two hours. Party started at 1st and is now at 6th.

Party makeup: Warlord, Archery Ranger, Melee Ranger, Paladin, Swordmage.

 

[CoarseDragon]

In one group we have five people all at around 7th level: Warlord, Fighter, Rogue, Paladin and Wizard. In this group our encounters take just about three hours to finish.

However in the other group (about the same level) we have a Beatmaster Ranger, Rogue, Warlock, one Cleric and one Defender, which is the new Warden class. These encounters take about 1 hour or less for very similar types of encounters.

I can only judge by this that the faster you kill them the faster encounters go.

 

[Smeelbo]

A lot of the posts in this thread are missing a vital piece of information: what level is the party? Party composition, and encounter level also useful.

Our party is hardly optimized, but favors strikers. And you're right, combat ends more quickly, one way, or the other.

I suspect that the combination of more options and more hitpoints relative to PC damage output means that higher level fights take longer.

Smeelbo

 

[DrSpunj]

A lot of the posts in this thread are missing a vital piece of information: what level is the party? Party composition, and encounter level also useful.

Good point!

For my group of 7 PCs that just dinged to level 3 we've got:
2 Defenders - Nail's BRV Fighter & an Assault Swordmage
2 Leaders - Battle Cleric & Tactical Warlord
2 Strikers - Archery Ranger & Infernal Warlock
1 Controller - Staff Wizard

 

[Lancelot]

A lot of the posts in this thread are missing a vital piece of information: what level is the party? Party composition, and encounter level also useful.

Our 60-minute average is based on a "balanced" party throughout the entire heroic tier; one of every role, with one extra striker or leader.

I'm running one campaign with 3 strikers and a controller. Fights are lasting maybe 30-45 minutes, tops.

Experience is based primarily on the heroic tier. After running a dozen or so paragon-tier adventures, I can confirm they added another 15-30 minutes to the duration. Having said that, I've been intentionally running fewer (but harder) combat encounters at the paragon tier to make it feel a little bit different from the heroic tier... so that could be due to the encounter composition, rather than anything on the player side.

 

[Truename]

We play weekly with a strict 3-hour time limit; we nearly always finish two encounters in that time. I'd say about 1 hour for the battle and half an hour for explore/role-play/treasure. Climactic battles take longer--typically about two hours, sometimes longer.

First six months: H1 with pregens and 3-4 players per game
Last month and a half: SoW2 (Bordrin's Watch), 5-6 players per game (3 strikers, 1 cleric, 1 fighter, 1 wizard often absent), extra monsters in encounters due to party being lvl4 instead of lvl3.

Factors that have made encounters shorter:
- equal level or lower encounter
- equal level or lower monsters
- fewer non-minion monsters
- 3-4 players
- players knowing the rules & their characters
- condition cards, power cards, & other table management
- rolling attack & damage simultaneously
- lots of strikers

Factors that have made encounters longer:
- higher level encounters
- higher level monsters
- more non-minion monsters
- 5-6 players
- players waiting until their turn to decide what to do
- table talk and goofing off
- monsters with healing powers (orcs, argh!)
- high AC/defense monsters
- multi-stage battles (monsters joining the fray in later rounds)
- lack of a controller

 

[Pbartender]

- Heavily optimized damage parties go faster.

Actually, I don't see a real big difference from optimization... I see a much bigger benefit from effective teamwork. Battels in which the players are working well together tend to go a lot faster than those in which they are fighting as individuals.

A lot of the posts in this thread are missing a vital piece of information: what level is the party? Party composition, and encounter level also useful.

My party started at 1st level and has worked their way up to 6th. They started with an Elf Rogue, a Dragonborn Warlock, a Tiefling Paladin, an Eladrin Cleric and a Human Wizard. In rent weeks, a Human Warlord has joined the party and the Rogue died and was replaced by a Dragonborn Ranger.

I've seen no appreciable difference in combat lengths due to levels.

 

[ExploderWizard]

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.

No comment on the playing out part of combat time but the map problem can be overcome. We use a battle mat with a thin piece of plexiglass over top. Simple open areas can be drawn. If you have detailed areas then you can prepare them in advance. You can get large pads of 1" graph paper from office supply shops. Take as much time as you like preparing the map and you can fold it up to keep it hidden. When the time comes just unfold it and slide it under the plexiglass. The glass will hold it firmly in place and keep it flat, and you can still use markers to draw temporary stuff on it.

We use wet erase markers of different colors for temp effects. Green for clouds, red for walls of fire, ect. You can spend as much time as you like, making the maps both for unique situations and stock indoor/outdoor areas and the game never needs to slow down.

 

[Ryujin]

I would say that we average 1.5-2 hours per battle. Easy ones are over in maybe 45 minutes. Rarely any less than that. One was almost three hours, because I think we ended up calling down two full encounters on ourselves simultaneously.

Our DM prepares the combat scenes on large sheets of 1" graph paper before the session, so there's no setup delay.