How long should a standard combat last?

[Wombat]

With the groups I have been in, if combat lasts longer than 15 minutes we get antsy.

Combat is okay, but there are other aspects of roleplaying that are far more important to us.

 

[buzz]

This'll probably get me kicked in the nads, but my answer would be: "I don't care how long any combat takes, as long as everyone is interested and engaged." Whether it's a fight with a BBEG or an orc with a pie is irrelevant, IMO.

And my side-comment would be that anyone who chose "5-10 minutes"—and likely anyone who chose "10-20 minutes" as well—should probably stop playing D&D and find a RPG that better fits their sensibilities.

 

[rowport]

This'll probably get me kicked in the nads, but my answer would be: "I don't care how long any combat takes, as long as everyone is interested and engaged." Whether it's a fight with a BBEG or an orc with a pie is irrelevant, IMO.

And my side-comment would be that anyone who chose "5-10 minutes"—and likely anyone who chose "10-20 minutes" as well—should probably stop playing D&D and find a RPG that better fits their sensibilities.

Buzz-

I agree in concept with your point, but would observe that the more players are "interested and engaged" the faster combat tends to go. Wandering attention is what sucks away time-- when folks are really worried about that last hit taking them into negative hp they stay focused on their actions.

I am surprised at the number of folks looking around the 10-15 minute range, though-- you guys must be tactical geniuses! Seriously! I voted 30 minutes, although find most non-BBEG encounters to actually take about 45 minutes to run.

 

[ExploderWizard]

This'll probably get me kicked in the nads, but my answer would be: "I don't care how long any combat takes, as long as everyone is interested and engaged." Whether it's a fight with a BBEG or an orc with a pie is irrelevant, IMO.

This makes sense. I can fully agree with that.

And my side-comment would be that anyone who chose "5-10 minutes"—and likely anyone who chose "10-20 minutes" as well—should probably stop playing D&D and find a RPG that better fits their sensibilities.

You lost me here. I enjoy combat and noncombat activity during a game. That means that a system that turns a 10-20 minute brawl into a two-plus hour slugfest is not going to be appreciated. Your point above being the primary reason.

 

[vagabundo]

At the moment encounter length is causing my group serious concerns. We are a veteran group of D&D players with many editions and years of experience behind us and we all love trying out anything new to see if it improves the game experience yet 4th edition is really messing with our heads. For instance, last night we did the last combat in the keep on the shadowfells and it took the group 3 hours to get Kalarel to bloodied before we stopped the session. This was 9 rounds of combat, so 3 per hour or 1 full round every 20 minutes. Given that there were 9 initiative phases (5 for the players, 4 for creatures) that means roughly 2 minutes per player/creature turn. Now given this includes all the messing about, making drinks, checking powers and there were no distratcions from the game of any type i cant help but think this is an extraordinary amount of time to be taking over a combat. It certainly put me and the guys on another downer for 4e as virtually all combats we have tried are taking much too long. I am resolved to find a solution to this issue but tampering with hit points (i was pondering over the idea of halving all hit points) sounds like a recipe for everybody to suddenly become tanks or ranged classed.

That sounds way to long, saying that, I havent run this encounter yet, but nothing Ive run has taken this long in 4e, unless there was significant disruptions.

What was taking 2 minutes for everyones turn? Are they paying attention? By the time it is their turn they should already know what they are going to do if they are.

 

[Agamon]

45 minutes is a good length. Once it gets longer than that it feels bogged down.

I've learned one thing in 4e: don't add NPCs to the party. Having to add an equal amount of XP worth of bad guys makes for a long drawn out battle in which I run most of the participants. Ugh.

 

[Agamon]

That sounds way to long, saying that, I havent run this encounter yet, but nothing Ive run has taken this long in 4e, unless there was significant disruptions.

What was taking 2 minutes for everyones turn? Are they paying attention? By the time it is their turn they should already know what they are going to do if they are.

I agree, that is kinda insane. I've had a 2.5 hour combat, but it was a massive BBEG fight with a solo black dragon that went more than 9 rounds...more closer to 19.

 

[The Human Target]

I voted that normal combats should take 15-20 minutes.

In the history of my 3E and 4E playing, combat has never ever been that quick and easy.

But it should be.

 

[buzz]

You lost me here. I enjoy combat and noncombat activity during a game. That means that a system that turns a 10-20 minute brawl into a two-plus hour slugfest is not going to be appreciated. Your point above being the primary reason.

My point is that D&D is not the game for someone who, as a whole, does not want combats to last longer than 10 (or even 20) minutes. Combat is the primary focus of D&D (3.x and 4e in particular). If combat is uninteresting enough to you that you don't want a combat encounter to last more than 10 minutes, D&D will waste a lot of your time.

So, if, as Wombat wrote, "there are other aspects of roleplaying that are far more important" to you, then D&D would probably be the last RPG I would recommend.

On the flip side, it's entirely possible that there are people who want a two-hour slugfest, and would happily eschew D&D for some of the hyper-detailed tactical RPGs out there.

 

[buzz]

I agree in concept with your point, but would observe that the more players are "interested and engaged" the faster combat tends to go.

I'd agree, in general. However, in the last big 3.x campaign I was in, an encounter would take, on average, 2-4 hours once we hit 12th-15th level or so. We were certainly interested and engaged, but the stakes of the battle (and the complexity of high-level 3.5) mandated that combats were only going to move so fast.

My basic point is that I couldn't put a hard cap on how long D&D fights are supposed to last in session-time. I've played four hour combats that were nail-biters, and I've played 20-minute combats that put me to sleep.

I could certainly see discussing a minimum time for combats. I.e., if the handling time of a game's combat mechanics are such that even a one-on-one fight between an inexperienced fighter and a baby kobold takes at least half an hour, then you've got a problem.