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D&D 5E How much fighting do a typical D&D session have?
- Thread starter Erechel
- Start date
Erechel
Explorer
Many noted that it wildly swings upon the adventure structure. And it's true. But I'm talking on average, most of the sessions. I've pointed that a "combat-heavy" session of mine usually lasts about 6 to 8 hours, and perhaps half of the session is combat (although the most combat heavy session I had contained only 1 fight that went dire to the players). I think that many of the combat-focused campaigns are made by the inability to actually put a non-combat challenge that actually drain resources of the characters, such as spells or features. I don't believe actually what Xeviat says is true: when you put a challenge or encounter that doesn't have an auto-solution, most players will engage with the situation, trying to solve it as best as they can with all the features they have at hand. Example: a big, windy cliff. Strong winds will knock off flying characters, and the other characters will have to look at their resources, plan and use creatively their skills.
In the last adventure I've DM'ed, a group of 3rd level characters had to navigate a swamp in the middle of a storm (we had a lizardfolk barbarian and an orc fighter/scout, so it was easy enough), followed by a riddle of a Sphinx (the sphinx was too powerful to fight it, and guarded the entrance to a unholy ruin), followed by a very long climb (100 meters to the entrance of the dungeon, 100 extra meters to the seas below) in a windy climate, so things like feather fall were dangerous, and the characters haven't enough rope, so they had to go back to the swamp, use their tools to make more rope to safely climb the cliff, then they had to open a very heavy door, which render the character opening it vulnerable to Opportunity attacks from the other side.
Then was the first combat, that lasted least than 10 minutes, because they destroyed the source that controlled the skeletons. Then the characters had to make a Super Mario Bros platform jumping over a chasm (the lizardfolk carried the rest of the characters, and gained a level of exhaustion), that took more than an hour to they to figure it out, as they were 15 platforms, way more than the monk could jump without exhausting its Ki points. Then the characters had discovered a rolling sphere trap, and discussed how to disable it or if they just risk and run forward hoping not to exhaust themselves before, and that took about 40 minutes. Then the second fight, that lasted even less than the other, as it was basically the same but without a chasm to pitfall the skeletons (the rogue shined here, as he disabled the mechanism). Then they encountered the rival group prior to go to the boss fight, and they parley and trick the other party to fight first and soften the monster (the 4el monk also snuffed out the torches and bonfire of the other party to allow the rogue sneak in to see the boss monster, and they decided afterwards). Then it was the final fight, against as chuul, that took a little longer (the chuul used its grapples to grab the monk, paralyze it and try to drown it, but the lizardfolk rescued it), while the rogue recovered the artifact.
In total, in a dungeon crawl, they take less than one hour fighting, in a 6 hour session. But that isn't unusual on my experience. (Sorry for the long recount)
It was in a convention, so even when two of the players were friends of mine from different tables, the other two were amateurs on 5e: one (the lizardfolk) never played D&D, and only played WOD before, and the other one (the rogue) is a 3.5 DM. The WOD player came surprised, having the (wrong) impression that D&D was all fight and no roleplay, and he liked a lot how we play. The other players had varied experience with D&D (the orc is my DM in one campaign, and a player of one of my campaigns, the monk is a regular player in a relatively new campaign), and neither of them came out very surprised on how much fighting was (except the 3.5 DM, that praised the speed of play of 5e).
Again, tl;dr: we didn't come on all that much fighting, and fights, although they may be deadly, take a lot less time to resolve than other challenges, like the platform jumping (the image below shows how it was-sorry it is in Spanish).
In the last adventure I've DM'ed, a group of 3rd level characters had to navigate a swamp in the middle of a storm (we had a lizardfolk barbarian and an orc fighter/scout, so it was easy enough), followed by a riddle of a Sphinx (the sphinx was too powerful to fight it, and guarded the entrance to a unholy ruin), followed by a very long climb (100 meters to the entrance of the dungeon, 100 extra meters to the seas below) in a windy climate, so things like feather fall were dangerous, and the characters haven't enough rope, so they had to go back to the swamp, use their tools to make more rope to safely climb the cliff, then they had to open a very heavy door, which render the character opening it vulnerable to Opportunity attacks from the other side.
Then was the first combat, that lasted least than 10 minutes, because they destroyed the source that controlled the skeletons. Then the characters had to make a Super Mario Bros platform jumping over a chasm (the lizardfolk carried the rest of the characters, and gained a level of exhaustion), that took more than an hour to they to figure it out, as they were 15 platforms, way more than the monk could jump without exhausting its Ki points. Then the characters had discovered a rolling sphere trap, and discussed how to disable it or if they just risk and run forward hoping not to exhaust themselves before, and that took about 40 minutes. Then the second fight, that lasted even less than the other, as it was basically the same but without a chasm to pitfall the skeletons (the rogue shined here, as he disabled the mechanism). Then they encountered the rival group prior to go to the boss fight, and they parley and trick the other party to fight first and soften the monster (the 4el monk also snuffed out the torches and bonfire of the other party to allow the rogue sneak in to see the boss monster, and they decided afterwards). Then it was the final fight, against as chuul, that took a little longer (the chuul used its grapples to grab the monk, paralyze it and try to drown it, but the lizardfolk rescued it), while the rogue recovered the artifact.
In total, in a dungeon crawl, they take less than one hour fighting, in a 6 hour session. But that isn't unusual on my experience. (Sorry for the long recount)
It was in a convention, so even when two of the players were friends of mine from different tables, the other two were amateurs on 5e: one (the lizardfolk) never played D&D, and only played WOD before, and the other one (the rogue) is a 3.5 DM. The WOD player came surprised, having the (wrong) impression that D&D was all fight and no roleplay, and he liked a lot how we play. The other players had varied experience with D&D (the orc is my DM in one campaign, and a player of one of my campaigns, the monk is a regular player in a relatively new campaign), and neither of them came out very surprised on how much fighting was (except the 3.5 DM, that praised the speed of play of 5e).
Again, tl;dr: we didn't come on all that much fighting, and fights, although they may be deadly, take a lot less time to resolve than other challenges, like the platform jumping (the image below shows how it was-sorry it is in Spanish).
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ad_hoc
(they/them)
Do you stop roleplaying in your games when you get into combat?
Fights are too long. Not in game too long, but real-time too long. I do my best as DM to speed them along while trying to make them narratively exciting. My players are also good at declaring and resolving actions while adding a bit of descriptive spice.
But it gets draining as DM to handle all of that. Last session was introducing new PCs to the party and I basically sat back as the two remaining PCs talked with two new PCs in character and told them what was going on. It was fun.
So, I'm hoping the next adventure is one with more exploration in it as that's less in-game work for me but it's still fun.
But it gets draining as DM to handle all of that. Last session was introducing new PCs to the party and I basically sat back as the two remaining PCs talked with two new PCs in character and told them what was going on. It was fun.
So, I'm hoping the next adventure is one with more exploration in it as that's less in-game work for me but it's still fun.
Erechel
Explorer
No. That's why he was surprised. But it's easy to affirm that fights are the most gamist part of any rpg, as it is the part that most rules involve, and that isn't a pejorative sentence. I'm not in favor to say that role-play =\= combat, but that's the general impression many people have (like the WOD player). I'm only trying to know how much time combat has in a role playing session of D&D, to see how important it really is. I know that is important, but I wonder how much.
JeffB
Legend
I think for me this is edition/system dependant. I don't care if we have 10 combats in a 4 hour session of OD&D and variants because they run so quickly and it will likely take less than 1/2 the session. And in things like 4e and Pathfinder, 3 -5 combats in that same 4 hours might be completely draining on the soul. 
I ran some Pathfinder on saturday (CoGD- 5th level) just because we had not done so in 3 or 4 years and did not have all the normal players for our final D&D adventure. We had 2.5 hours to the session, and we had 2 combats , and they went pretty fast, probably 15-20 min. each. And that seemed to be nearing the edge of our tolerance for just "typical" fights (I.e. not a "elite" adversary) But I know if we were doing 10th level or so, things would really slow up and we would just scrap the session.
I ran some Pathfinder on saturday (CoGD- 5th level) just because we had not done so in 3 or 4 years and did not have all the normal players for our final D&D adventure. We had 2.5 hours to the session, and we had 2 combats , and they went pretty fast, probably 15-20 min. each. And that seemed to be nearing the edge of our tolerance for just "typical" fights (I.e. not a "elite" adversary) But I know if we were doing 10th level or so, things would really slow up and we would just scrap the session.
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MiraMels
Explorer
One combat, or no combat, is by far the most common amount of fighting in a typical session of mine, with the very rare Two Fight Session showing up every once in a blue moon. I usually run four hour sessions, and I never spend more than two hours total on fighting. When a fight appears, it is always relevant to the narrative of the game, with significant stakes, clear objectives, and complex motivations for all parties involved.
(Also, [MENTION=6784868]Erechel[/MENTION], you play eight hour sessions? I'm impressed and a little jealous.)
Henry
Autoexreginated
I've noted this before, but I think "combats per session" is an inaccurate form of measurement. How do you gauge your "1 or 2 per session" versus my "4 per session" without knowing if my sessions are 12 hours long and yours are 2 hours long?
To me a better measure is "combats per hour", where the number is a positive number, whole or fractional.
In my case, in our 5e games it probably averages to about .5 per hour. In a four hour session, we typically have two encounters, one fairly small and quick, with one being more substantial.
In our Pathfinder games, we average about .3 per hour - but one session might be all roleplay, and the next a two hour grand melee in the three bour session. Or, we might have one combat in between three hours of exploration. Due to the length of the combats, it takes on a different rhythm from 5e, which are far quicker, to the extent we can have more combat than our Pathfinder games, but it doesn't feel convoluted.
To me a better measure is "combats per hour", where the number is a positive number, whole or fractional.
In my case, in our 5e games it probably averages to about .5 per hour. In a four hour session, we typically have two encounters, one fairly small and quick, with one being more substantial.
In our Pathfinder games, we average about .3 per hour - but one session might be all roleplay, and the next a two hour grand melee in the three bour session. Or, we might have one combat in between three hours of exploration. Due to the length of the combats, it takes on a different rhythm from 5e, which are far quicker, to the extent we can have more combat than our Pathfinder games, but it doesn't feel convoluted.
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