How long does combat take your group?

[wilrich]

Hello all, new member after lurking for a year or so. I've finally been inspired to post by some recent threads regarding number of combats per session, tricks to speed up combat, etc. I want to conduct a little informal survey and see if my group is slow, fast or average (I thought about a poll, but am not sure how to set it up, so this will have to do for now.) So, here's the situation and question:

The situation: 6 10th level PCs are fighting 12 "bad guys" -- all of whom are humanoids with class levels: 6 3rd level fighter "goons," 3 5th level fighter "seargants," 1 5th level cleric "seargant," 1 8th level cleric leader and 1 8th level wizard leader (I know a pretty tough fight)

The question: How long (in real-world time), on average, would it take (best guess) your group to play through the above battle? If your response is 2 hours or less -- how in the HECK do you do that?!? What tips or tricks that have been suggested on these boards have you used that have allowed you to play through your combats so quickly?

And, my answer: 4-5 hours (which is waaay too long in my mind) but, then again, we're a pretty informal group that tends to get off topic, etc. (which is OK by us, but may be the biggest source of our problem)

Anyway, thanks in advance for your answers and advice.

 

[Wombat]

My group?

Hour and a half, absolute tops.

After that they would get severely bored with the combat.

[edit point: After reading some of the other posts, I should say that I was not referring to this scenario, per se, but ANY combat. Our group gets bored with any combat that lasts much over half an hour. We just don't enjoy it.]

 

[shilsen]

In the given scenario, I would guess 2 hrs max. It's six 10th lvl PCs vs. an EL 12 encounter, which is pretty balanced and shouldn't be difficult for the PCs. But the disparity in levels means that most of the opposition (the 3rd and 5th lvl guys) should go down with a single spell.

Of course, it depends to a certain extent how fast your players are. Half my group are newbies and only one of the players is quick with decisions, so we take more time than we should.

 

[hong]

Hello all, new member after lurking for a year or so. I've finally been inspired to post by some recent threads regarding number of combats per session, tricks to speed up combat, etc. I want to conduct a little informal survey and see if my group is slow, fast or average (I thought about a poll, but am not sure how to set it up, so this will have to do for now.) So, here's the situation and question:

The situation: 6 10th level PCs are fighting 12 "bad guys" -- all of whom are humanoids with class levels: 6 3rd level fighter "goons," 3 5th level fighter "seargants," 1 5th level cleric "seargant," 1 8th level cleric leader and 1 8th level wizard leader (I know a pretty tough fight)

The question: How long (in real-world time), on average, would it take (best guess) your group to play through the above battle? If your response is 2 hours or less -- how in the HECK do you do that?!? What tips or tricks that have been suggested on these boards have you used that have allowed you to play through your combats so quickly?

And, my answer: 4-5 hours (which is waaay too long in my mind) but, then again, we're a pretty informal group that tends to get off topic, etc. (which is OK by us, but may be the biggest source of our problem)

Anyway, thanks in advance for your answers and advice.

Assuming your group can use fireball and similar boom spells, the 3rd level guys should take 1 round to finish off. The 5th level guys should take just a bit longer, leaving only the leaders to deal with. I estimate this battle should take you about 4-6 rounds of combat. If you allow 2 minutes per person (which is pretty conservative IME at that level), that's 12 minutes per round, or maybe an hour. You must have a TON of off-topic chitchat going on, or there's some complicating circumstances you haven't mentioned.

 

[fourthmensch]

My group also tends to deviate off topic quite frequently (and we like it that way!), but I would say this combat would probably take an hour to 1.5 hours.

If you think your combats are taking way to long, are you looking for ways to fix it? Or just doing a survey to figure out how close you are to the average?

 

[S'mon]

Looks like it could be up to 2 hours (twice 'standard' fight duration) - but I run similar fights in my game & they usually take less. Most of the NPCs will be killed by a single area-effect spell, almost all will be killed by a single melee attack from a power-attacking fighter. There are no tough NPCs & it doesn't really look like EL 12 to me, I doubt the PCs will take much damage.

 

[Liquidsabre]

Just the other night ran 16 CR 3 creatures vs a group 5 PCs (2 7th & 3 6th), it was a pretty tough fight (and all the CR 3 creatures had longspears) but it only took us 2 hours, and that was a little longer than I expected. But then again, the Sorcerer (with fireballs) went down early due to monster tactics (and Sorcerer not thinking ).

 

[StalkingBlue]

Pretty tough?! You're kidding, right?

As people before me have said, your encounter looks like it should be a walkover for 6 10th level PCs. If it isn't, and you take more than 2 hours resolving it, that's two signs that people aren't paying attention to the game.

Of course by what you were saying abut out of game talk, gaming might be more like a garnishing for you guys hanging out together. Which is perfectly fair if that's what you enjoy. So maybe stop glancing at your watch and enjoy chatting with your friends?

 

[the Jester]

That fight would last three to four rounds.

On round one, the 3rd level guys would go down. Prolly all of them.

On round two, the fifth level guys would mostly drop. Maybe one or two would still be up, but hurt pretty badly.

On round three, most of the rest drop. If any last through this round they're doing well (or the dice have truly favored them). If there's a round four, the npcs are done- again, barring extraordinary luck.

Real time- hmm, I'm gonna say with our group an average of five minutes per person per round. So about 1.5-2 hours.

 

[Elrik_DarkFury]

There are other variables such as the kind of the combat.A set up would be much more difficult to cope with.The two 8-th level spellcasters can become annoying and dangerous for an unprepared party..However, three hours or more for a single combat seems far too much to me.
With some organization you can surely reduse the time you spend.Have your players read the spells they use,your fighters make quick notes with number of attacks,bonuses to hit, damage per hit etc. before beginning your session,give them a fixed amount of time to play,and most importand be prepared for the session for everyting that happens runs through you.
Don't push it to much though!After all the target is to have fun with your pals even this means that you spend more time than others do for a combat.

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The Wizard