How long do your 3E combats last, on average?

[Someone]

I think the current Haste spell is responsible of the short combat durations at medium-high levels. We´ve reached 9th level in my game, we play without Haste, and combats last about 6-8 rounds usually. But I realize that if the wizard could cast 2 spells per round, they would be much shorter.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

An average of 3 rounds, but I've used the 3.5 osyluth and hamatula (from the Revision spotlights). I don't have all the necessary info (eg Scorching Ray) but the battles lasted longer, and took up a more appropriate amount of resources.

I had one battle last seven days, mainly because the opponent was scared of the players. (Neutral cleric, channeled negative energy - scary!)

 

[Grog]

So after almost 100 responses, 5 rounds is the most common response. It's split about 60-40 between combats taking 5 rounds or less and more than 5 rounds.

I would say, then, that 3E combats are definitely shorter than 1E and 2E combats were - at least, in my experience.

 

[Zogg]

I said 5 rounds.

Pretty amazing how quickly people can kill each other, huh - just 30 seconds!

 

[Grishnak]

Well in my last combat (Thurs night) I was knocked down from 222 hp's to 18 in 2 rounds by 2 hill giants (6 attacks a round) I was in a frenzy and barbarian rage giving me str and con pluses but also the minuses to ac which really doesn't matter vs high to hit rolls.

 

[Quickbeam]

Probably in the 5-6 round range...but it seems like more. Right now, my primary focus for game improvement within our group is finding ways to keep combat encounters moving along. I hate feeling the tension and anxiety leak out of a battle scenario while folks ponder what to do next, or double check spell/item functions.

 

[Celtavian]

Re

I tend to use terrain to great advantage, so combats last longer with our group. Our average is probably about 6 rounds, but I just finished running a 20 round combat. It depends on what they are fighting and what the terrain is like. I definitely like to have folks use cover to avoid targeted spells. I like to have them run for help if there are too many enemies, which means the players have to run them down or prepare for a larger force of enemies which makes combats last longer.

 

[Shadowlord]

Here's a question:

How long do your combat encounters last in real time?

- 5-10 min
- 15 min
- 30 min
- more than half an hour

Or should I start a seperate thread?

 

[Daredevill]

We average about 5 rounds right now. But in real time? Wow, we're slow. At least a 1/2 hour.

 

[WizarDru]

Start a separate thread.


I sponsored this poll a few months ago, when someone claimed (in a rules related thread) that a certain spell was unbalanced, and referenced an average battle length of 12 rounds. The results from that version of the poll were almost exactly the same as this one....4-6 rounds was the norm for almost everyone. Those who had much longer combats often used rules variants or had very infrequent and non-standard combats.