How many rounds should a good encounter last?

[Nikosandros]

If you can win without even having a combat, than don't have a combat. Unnecessary combats are foolish risks of character death. Why do it?

Because they are fun?

If I want a grim and gritty game in which people are scared of fights and try to use every dirty trick available to gain the upper hand, I'll play a game that's a good fit for that style of gaming, like the excellent latest edition of GURPS.

To have some kind of middle of the way experience, I might choose something like AD&D (which I'm actually running at the moment).

If I'm playing 3e or when I'll be able to play 4e, I expect tons of cool powers that I can use and have fun with.

 

[ZombieRoboNinja]

I think the question really is one of time in real life rather than "rounds." Any combat longer than 30-45 minutes is going to be trying on people's attention spans. This is probably only 5 rounds in 3e. BUT, they're doing a lot of work to streamline stuff even more for 4e (no more iterative attacks) and hopefully get rid of the bottlenecks (it really was like an extra 10 minutes of rule-checking every time someone tried to grapple or cast Shapechange or whatever in 3e), so maybe that same 30-45 minutes will cover more rounds.

 

[beholdsa]

1-2 rounds. Any more makes combat drag on too long.

 

[zoroaster100]

I think the typical fight should take about four or five rounds minimum. One or two round fights are ok when fighting things way below your challenge rating. For the final climactic battle at the end of an adventure, the battle should last anywhere from 5 to 8 rounds. It's ok if some rare special type of fights take longer, such as when facing opponents that like to strike, run and return, or when the PCs are using such tactics. With 3e it was fine to have a fight take only 2 or 3 rounds because the rounds took so long, especially at high level, but if the rules are fixed so that the rounds go by quicker with less crazy math and things that grind the game to a halt, then the fights should last more rounds (though take less real time).

 

[Remathilis]

Simple Combats (melee monsters, animals, etc) @ 5-10 minutes
Complex Combats (Spellcasters, Etc) @ 20 min
Epic Monsters (dragons, etc) @ 30 mins

No combat should take more than an hour to complete.

 

[Li Shenron]

I'd like 80% or more of the combats to last 10+ rounds, as long as during that time there are at least a couple of dramatic changes. I'd like short combats to be the exception.

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

As long as it needs to and not a single round more or less.

Seriously, there is no timer that causes good encounters to turn bad just because they've gone over the preset limit on their credit card. Nor is there a minimum duration prior to which an encounter fails to meet federal guidelines.

 

[RodneyThompson]

Overall this seems to make the combats feel longer while actually taking less game time. I've found that I need to be VERY prepared for a game session because characters can roll through stuff with relative real time speed.

Yep--while running my Dawn of Defiance playtest games I still get surprised at how quickly the players chew through combats.

My personal optimum number of rounds of combat is about 8. That allows a player to take a round or two to move or do something other than make attacks without feeling like they "missed out" on combat. Plus, a skirmish lasting almost a minute feels about right for my cinematic tastes.

 

[Zaruthustran]

I enjoy cinematic games, so I like fights to last at *least* 3 rounds. That's the minimum to have a beginning, middle, and end. I prefer fights to last 5 to 10 rounds.

One of the interesting things about what I've heard about 4E design is that using up your "per-encounter" abilities reasonably models combat fatigue. By round 4 or so, you've likely burned through your "per-encounter" abilities and have to decide if you're going to break out a "daily" or settle on using your "at will" abilities. That's cool.

No other edition really has a mechanism for that feeling of depletion. They had hit points and per-day abilities (spells), and that was pretty much it. In 4E, even if you're a fighter who has managed to not lose a single hit point, if you run out of "per-encounter" abilities and the monsters keep coming you (as a player) are going to feel a bit tapped out. Feel like you've been struggling/competing/exerting your character. That's cool.

 

[Pinotage]

I'll go with 5 to 10 rounds. That's not to say 10+ can't be a good encounter, but I've found that the longer encounters typically just boil down to the two sides rolling dice rather than actually doing anything interesting or tactically. Less than 5 is a kind of 'It's over already?' thing.

Pinotage