I'm thinking of halving hit points

1/2 hp and double damage goes a long way to speeding up combat. As you get the hang of what your party can do, you can continue to modify things further. If you simply double all damage output you'll likely kill of the party really quick, particularly if you double aura damage on monsters.

A problem with 1/2 hp on all monsters is that some particularly fun creatures will die before they can accomplish much of anything. This was especially true in my campaign where we have two strikers teaming up to spike.

I'd recommend running solo monsters with their existing damage outputs, but run two of them with HP = to their bloodied values. This works very well for most solo creatures and helps against the boring 4-5 round lockdowns that occur. Again, this will be a tweaking process as some dragons have very mean breath weapons and doubling them up can lead to PC's lockdowns as well. Consider scaling back the conditions as necessary. For example, the first use of a dragons breath can immobilize/stun, as can the bloodied use of it. However, every refreshed use of the breath will only slow/dazed.
 

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I have tried nearly every scheme of HP/Damage changes to quicken combat... IF you are sure there is no other way, adding 1 point of damage per 3 levels and +1[W] Critical Damage while reducing Monster HP to 75% works very well without to many unintended problems (Higher Damage = DR/Temp HP are less useful, for example)

Not using Level +3 Encounters unless I wanted an epic fight, replacing most Soldiers with Skirmishers, replacing most Controllers with Artillery Monsters helped my game much more, though.

And advice your players to go for a damage oriented group. A group with a Bravelord is so much faster than one with an Inspiring Warlord, it is not even funny.

I think most combat grind results from 4e's ability to have groups that can win with an extremely strong defense and a very weak offense.
 

I did a campaign where I halved all the monsters hit points. It was just my girlfriend and I playing 5 characters and we were going through modules. It sped the encounters up a small amount and the rogue occasionally killed a regular monster in one hit but that didn't bother us. THe solo fights were still challenging and we still had a PC go down occasionally for a turn.

It made for a less grindy game. I think a game like is better for players who like to roleplay more and combat less. Now we were only playing in heroic levels. I do not know if the balance would change in paragon levels. More powers to use each encounter might speed things up too much.
 


I use half hp, 2/3 exps some of the time (a rule of Simontm's). But in general I simply scatter minions like candy and avoid higher level soldiers.

I do something not far away from this. In my case I still use soldiers just not too many of them during an encounter. For me though minions are an absolute godsend. They can be used to make things so much more interesting.

How many soldiers to use kind of depends on party makeup and players play styles so you sort of have to eyeball that bit and go by feel.
 

Encounter length is only a problem if people are finding it unfun.

That said, there are ways to shorten encounters or make it more fun that don't involve ravishing the fundamental math.

1) Make the defenses of Monster Manual 1 solos and elites at parity with normal monsters, and at the same time, lower paragon and elite solos' hps by a fifth.

All this is doing is putting them in line with the latest monster design guidelines. Don't do this with newer monsters, tho.

2) Stop trying to make every encounter 'a worthy challenge for the players.' If you're making every encounter L+3, then the reason your fights are taking so long is you're giving every monster +3 to their defenses and giving them 24 extra hps.

I wonder how that might affect your issue!

3) Vary your encounters more. An encounter that is an hour long doesn't feel it if halfway through, something changes the encounter. Maybe when the big bad gets bloodied, he activates a device that creates zones of death the players must avoid; suddenly the big bad's array of pushpull becomes much more important, while his array of 'stand here and take you all on' fades into the background. It's like fighting a new monster!

Look to World of Warcraft raid encounters (the ones with phases) as some sort of inspiration on how to do this successfully.
 

We did get some grind at some point in mid-heroic because the party was too defense/healing-heavy. Now we have a better balance with some better DPR (rogues just rip them out), and it goes better. I've learned to put more high-damage lower-defense enemies in there too, with less soldiers. My players have also learned to let the soldiers alone till the end where they can often get them to surrender and such. Makes for interesting fights. Also for Solos and Elites I started converting any old/MM1 creatures to the MM2 formulas, helped a ton. They're just at level 10 now, and I've been planning for Paragon (obviously) and thinking of implementing some house-rules regarding hp and damage. I like the 25% less hp, 33% more damage.
 

I like the arena football idea in theory, sounds like it may make things more interesting on some levels. But I think, like arena football, it will not be long before the novelty wears off. I really dont have a problem with combats taking awhile, I play this game for the combat as well as the roleplay. More combat equals more game to me. Also, although I've only played in heroic for the most part, I don't have too many issues with fights taking awhile. A well balanced party dishes it out quite well.
 

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