how many attacks should be allowed per round before its just nonsense or a pain for running a game.

[Shasarak]

6 attacks is probably enough. 8 attacks takes too long and no one wants to do 7 attacks, so 6 is just perfect.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Hey, I enjoyed getting 7 attacks every once in a while in 1Ed & 2Ed! Leave 7 alone!

 

[Tony Vargas]

Well, our group felt that 4Ed combats often dragged on too long, usually because melee characters didn't really have multiple attacks.

Interesting thing to blame it on...

OTOH, HERO doesn't really have iterative attacks, but in all the decades I've played it, I personally haven't heard anyone complain about their absence in combat.

Hero, even at launch as Champions!,had area effects, which would attack each target in the area, and had autofire, which resolved multiple attacks in a single attack roll. And, it had the infamous Speed Chart, so if you wanted a fast character you actually got more turns (phases) rather than more actions each round (turn).
Pretty amazing for '81.

how many attacks should be allowed per round before its just nonsense or a pain for running a game ?

One would not be unfair. Or, more generally, one "resolution" per round. Maybe it could be multiple attacks in some sense - affect multiple targets, for instance - but it should be the same level of complexity and effort to resolve as one attack or one significant action of any other sort.

Keep the game dynamic and the table-/spotlight- time 'fair.'

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Interesting thing to blame it on..

We only had 1-2 players in the group who had to think. Every. Thing. Through. And we'd been playing together for more than a decaden various systems (mostly D&D, though), so we really knew who would be slow and when.

Then 4th.

Even players who were prepped found combat lagging. Not enough hits; not enough damage being done by the melee types- actual casters typically had AoEs, and dependably affected at least one target per round. Not so the warriors. Swing once, fail or succeed, wait 15-25 minutes until you got your next attack.

There were other factors, yes, but that was a major one.

Hero, even at launch as Champions!,had area effects, which would attack each target in the area, and had autofire, which resolved multiple attacks in a single attack roll. And, it had the infamous Speed Chart, so if you wanted a fast character you actually got more turns (phases) rather than more actions each round (turn).

All true, but getting an additional attack in a given phase was virtually impossible barring one of those routes.

(Also elegant: AoE and Autofire were and still are options for melee attacks as well.)

 

[GMMichael]

In high-level D&D 3e a wizard casting a mass dispel could easily take half an hour to resolve

Oh good god. You're making me consider selling my Rules Compendium.

If you roll attack and damage every time, then 3 is already the maximum.

3 strikes and you're out. 3rd time is the charm. I'm down with a 3-attack-round. However, if you spend your whole round attacking, that doesn't leave much time for defending...

 

[Thateous]

I ran a spider summoning drow druid in either 3.5 or 4e. I honestly can't remember, but i was making 6-8 attacks a round. I sped all this up by rolling damage ahead of time and just slashing through it as I hit. It was fun, but still cumbersome even with the pre-determined damage.

 

[Li Shenron]

My instincts say three attacks.

Separate attacks are better than a single powerful attack because they provide the chance to switching to a different target when you kill one of them (or when you notice you can't hurt it). This is the main reason to have multiple attacks in a RPG, instead of one attack with more damage.

But if you ever need (i.e. find some benefit from) more than 2-3 attacks, chances are that an area of effect rule would probably suit the game better.

 

[MichaelSomething]

There should be a power where you have two real life minutes to make as many basic attacks as possible...

 

[Blue]

Depends on your system. And also what you count as an attack - if someone does an area of effect that requires a roll for 8 creatures caught in it but only a single damage roll vs. 3 iterative attacks, each with their own damage roll and possibly shifting targets.

Or something like Hero where you roll to hit, you roll something like 10d6 for damage. You count the 10d6 one way for stun damage which then needs to be subtracted from defenses (which might have an activation roll for partial-covering defenses), and then count the 10d6 a differetn way for body damage (also against defenses, etc.). That takes just as long as multiple attacks in a mroe streamlined system.

I think it's not about any absolute number of attacks, but rather how much down time between a player's actions, which is strongly influenced by how long each player's turn takes, how long the DM takes to run foes (which is often simplified vs. player turns for many foes), and how many players there are. If you are waiting 15 minutes between actions, most players will lose focus during that time. (Which then requires reaps and such which slow it down even more.)

So work backwards. If you want each player to go every five minutes and have 5 players, that means you need 4 other players and everything the DM needs to do to happen in 5 minutes total. If you consider the DM as 2-3 players worth because or multiple foes, that's about 45 seconds a turn. Can you make your decisions and get in all of your attacks during that period?

 

[tomBitonti]

I've found that it really depends on the player rolling the attacks, multiplied by the thinking delay and the number of rolls required for each attack.

Some players are slow to add their dice. i don't even want to think about a slow player using a system with a lot of effects to apply.

In 3-3.5E, two problem children are power attack and trip. Power attack because of the pause of figuring out how much to put into the power attack, and the extra math to figure out damage. Trip because of the multiple rolls required to resolve the trip attack. And because whip counts as a ranged weapon, meaning, rapid shot applies, adding another attack in the mix.

The power attack problem is fixed by a quick / ready player. I haven't seen a fix for the trip problem -- other than to not allow trip monkeys.

3-3.5E sneak attack is on the edge of being a problem, since it can require a lot of dice to roll damage. That goes alright if the player is quick to roll their attacks and add up their damage dice.

We've found that the game goes a lot quicker when players roll their multiple attacks all at once. Some players pre-roll their damage dice as well. Occasionally, one has to back up, say, because a creature died in the middle of the attack sequence.

Thx!
TomB