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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Festivus" data-source="post: 4581510" data-attributes="member: 34532">I am just curious how many out there have run high level 3.5 and 4E games, and how do things compare at those levels?   I have this feeling that 4E low level takes a lot longer / "grindy" because of a) lack of options at low level, and b) the way everyone has a lot of hitpoints.  But 4E remains fairly flat in terms of time for combat resolution across the levels, where 3.5 is very quick combats in levels 1-12ish, but starts jumping up in terms of time to resolve at higher levels (does it plateau at some point in 3.5?)  My home 3.5 game we are at level 18 and things take a bit of time to resolve. I weigh this 4E low level action against how it might work high level (for the record, I have only run high level 3.5, not 4E yet... so this is speculation).  At high level 4E, I can see that the creatures have a few more hitpoints, a few more options, and the players have a few more hitpoints and options.  Does this increase the amount of time combats take?  I suspect less options makes for faster decisions when it comes time to use them. I know in 3.5, most of the time is spent adding up massive numbers of dice... one roll can consist of 30d6 a couple d8s and whatever else... in 4E it's going to be 3[W]+modifiers.  That has to help speed things up.  Also in high level 3.5 games, the stat blocks for the bad guys can span several sheets of paper, particularly with things like dragons (as I prepare to run a massive fight with multiple dragons and giants).  It takes a lot of prep time to figure out tactics and options, and the stat blocks are so large I often find myself forgetting about some power or ability in the heat of the game.  Thus far in 4E I haven't had that problem.</blockquote>

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