how long do you let combat go? why?

[alsih2o]

i used to be a wrestler and i have done a good bit of martial arts. so when i speak of how long combat lasts i come at it with the memories of legs shaking after 2 or 4 or even worse 6 whole minutes of full body work.

and this is with rests between periods.

how long do you let your players engage in combat before imposing penalties for exhaustion?

 

[ForceUser]

i used to be a wrestler and i have done a good bit of martial arts. so when i speak of how long combat lasts i come at it with the memories of legs shaking after 2 or 4 or even worse 6 whole minutes of full body work.

and this is with rests between periods.

how long do you let your players engage in combat before imposing penalties for exhaustion?

It's never come up, but if it did...


...being that PCs are heroic characters, I'd say (Constitution score x 10 rounds) of physical combat before making Constitution checks for fatigue. I doubt it'll ever come up, though.

 

[Mouseferatu]

I can't ever imagine imposing penalties for exhaustion after a long combat, but that's just because I'm not concerned enough with imitating "reality" in this particular instance that it's worth the headaches of keeping up with such things. Combat is a major part of D&D, even in campaigns that aren't as combat-heavy as "standard." (Whatever standard means. ) I don't see any need to make it harder on the PCs in this manner.

Now, that said...

I've never seen a combat in 3.x run longer than 10 rounds (unless you count fights that are interrupted by a reatreat or a tactical disappearance and picked up again later), and most (IME) don't go more than 5 or 6. So I'm not sure it would ever be an issue in my games even if I wanted it to be.

 

[Henry]

It's rarely come up, since we've never had a combat last for more than 10 rounds (1 Minute), we've never had a series of combats go more than 20 rounds, and there's almost always been a breather of at least 10 minutes between this and the next combat even in the most hostile of territory. I would probably start imposing something if the characters found their way to 40 or 50 rounds of consecutive combat, but it's never been an issue because most parties after this amount of time won't be able to continue effective for reasons that have nothing to do with exhaustion, anyway (low hit points, low spells, exhausted magic items, etc.)

EDIT - My gaming group is about to enter Myth Drannor in the Forgotten Realms, I just remembered. Looks like I'll be putting that to the test.

 

[dshai527]

I can't see imposing a penalty or a check for length of combat when there is no degradation in skill for being injured or recently restored to positive HP from a cure spell. I just let the combat go until one group drops from hp loss.

 

[Desdichado]

Never been an issue, as combats never take "minutes" of gametime.

I also don't believe D&D is meant to simulate reality to that level anyway. It's supposed to be heroic and all that.

 

[buzzard]

I'm going to have to follow the crowd with, "I've never seen combat last long enough".

In 3rd Ed, things tend to be so deadly, that if combat lasted more than a minute, you must have a continual supply of mooks being funneled in. Otherwise either you or the opposition is dead.

buzzard

 

[Old One]

I agree with other comments that 3.xE is substantially more deadly than 1E or 2E, plus the time frame has been compressed to a more reasonable 6-second round. That said, I have had a couple of running fights that did go into the 15-20 round range.

My general rule would be that PCs need to start making Fort saves to avoid getting tired after CON bonus minutes. So a character with a CON bonus of +2 would need to start making Fort saves in round 21 of combat. If a PC has a low CON or has their CON reduced by magic/poison, then I would shave 25% of time off for each -1 in CON penalties. If "Fred the Fighter" gets his CON knocked down to 6 (-2 penalty), then he would only be able to fight for 5 rounds before needing to make a Fort save. Whether or not you want to impose an immediate check if the PC has been fighting more than 5 rounds already depends on how mean you feel like being !

~ Old One

 

[Arnwyn]

how long do you let your players engage in combat before imposing penalties for exhaustion?

Until they hit 0 hp.

I don't appreciate "realism" in my D&D game, but that's just me.

 

[Rel]

In my last big campaign, the penultimate combat lasted a whopping 33 rounds and the final one lasted over 20. I've also run a session of my RttToEE game that lasted for 28 rounds and took pretty much all night.

In my view, there is no need to impose any sort of additional "combat fatigue" rule because that is alread reflected by Hit Points. Hit points (by my understanding) don't just represent wounds taken, but also the ability to turn a lethal blow into a scratch by virtue of dodging or parrying. As you lose them, you are considered to be more tired as well as more wounded.

Since, by the end of lengthy combats, most of the combatants have lost some portion of their hit points, I think this adequately reflects fatigue in combat. For other very strenuous situations (say, pushing a heavily laden cart uphill), I'd probably have them make a Fort save, every Con Bonus minutes or become Fatigued.