How do you complete a combat so quickly?
How do you deal with a published module if you decide to level pcs every other session?
Published modules actually use the 10 encounters/level format. Though I don't run published modules. I don't decide to level them, they level because they actually earned that much XP.
As for combat, basic stuff. As a DM each PC has a d20, organized by color. I roll that D20 for any area attacks and I roll damage at the same time, so hit or miss I know the damage. PCs roll damage for area attacks first. Then they roll hits one at a time and I go through and check off damage if they hit a given monster (one of my PCs actually 7 D20s, ROYGBIV. They also happen to have a lot of AE. From the nearest corner, he rolls to hit
everything in the burst at once, and the rolls are ordered by die color according to the rainbow, going spiral clockwise from that corner. Easy). We keep track of conditions with little stands that have the condition name on them, easy to pick up/move around.
I do initiative using a paizo board. Each PC has their own magnetic thing, they fill in their init and hand it to me while I'm doing the monsters init. Initiative takes 10 seconds to roll and have on the board in front of me. My total time taking my round as a DM is always less then two minutes, and usually less then one. On a good day I spend less then thirty seconds in a round doing anything, unless I am fluffing an attack (usually do if the PCs haven't seen a particular monster before). Note I am saying ROUND, not turn. I can easily attack with 10+ monsters in a minute. I am fast, because I make sure I know what the monsters can do, how they interact, and I know my PCs, so I know what they are probably going to do. I plan my turns in advance, and I can do basic math in my head very quickly. And don't knock that last point, in my other group I memorized all the players attack modifiers and we now save 1-3 minutes per round just because they roll the dice in front of me and I do the math for them.
On the player side of the group I DM, everyone has power cards, everyone has their modifiers memorized or written down for every power. I announce the
next person's turn when a turn ends. People start planning their turn a little bit in advance that way. I give players 10 seconds to declare their action. If they can't make up their minds, their turn is skipped. I'd break out an egg timer and limit them to a minute total if fights ever started slowing down, but it has never happened.
An average fight is 5 rounds. I average ~60 seconds per round as a DM. Players are average around ~30 (all of this is barring fluff on my part or a player asking if they can jump somewhere etc., which takes up ~5 minutes at most of a given encounter). Add that up, you get fights that are less then 25 minutes at most, usually. Our sessions last ~6 hours. Skill challenges take about 10 minutes. So, over 12 hours, we have ~4 hours of die rolling. The rest is taken up by RP.
In my other group the fighting is almost constant. RP gets pushed to the side a little just to get through the fights and not go over. If you have combat incompetent players, point out to them that if they fight faster, they can RP more. They'll usually like that. And people who like combat always want it go faster. There is no good reason not to respect your other players and speed combat up in every was possible.
