Keeping track of combat length (for posterity)

[the Jester]

I forgot to track combat length at this weeks D&D Encounters session, but I asked one of my players to help me remember for our regular game this weekend.

We're starting mid-combat tonight, and there are several tough tough fights on the menu for this weekend, so we'll see how it goes!

 

[Jdvn1]

Here's my data, so far. I plan to keep that thing updated periodically.

 

[the Jester]

Well I sorta tracked stuff this weekend, though I did a piss-poor job of it.

I totally had to guesstimate the end times of all the combats (I forgot to write them down), I prolly miscounted rounds, I didn't track surges or dailies for the most part, and so on.

Nonetheless, when I get my stuff from my car I'll post what I have.

Pretty much every encounter they had this weekend was big and major, so the encounters were all longer than I expected. But a party of six (normally 7 but one guy didn't make it) pcs of level 5-7 going up against monsters centered around a level 10 solo and then a group centered around a level 12 elite... yeah, you gotta expect a little bit longer combat than is typical.

There was much of the awesome in these fights.

 

[the Jester]

Okay, here's my info, such as it is. I'd just like to point out that our wizard takes about half of the total time in each encounter, and he points out that it helps him simulate his superhigh intelligence score. Also, we party while we game, so there are a lot of, er, distractions going on.

ENCOUNTER #1
This was actually the second half of an encounter that we stopped in the middle of last time. The party was undermanned, got ambushed and was getting seriously trounced.

For the first half (last session) we had 5 pcs- 3 strikers (rogue x 2, ranger), 1 controller (wizard) and 1 defender (paladin). These pcs range in level from 6-8.

This time around we had 3 strikers (rogue, ranger, barbarian), 1 controller (wizard), 1 defender (paladin) and 1 leader (cleric). These pcs range in level from 5-7.

The monsters were: 2 zombie hulks minus the "rise again" ability (level 8 brutes); 1 osteopede (OG 145; level 8 elite skirmisher); and 2 coffer corpse warriors (level 9 soldiers), albeit with fearsome strike as a recharge power.

As you can see, these are higher level monsters with high defenses (including an elite built under DMG1 rules). This made for a scary fight. The first half, the pcs were getting their asses handed to them. The second half, the dice were seriously against me. The tide turned, but it was still a very satisfying battle.

Time this session (best estimate): 2:17.
Number of rounds, this session (best estimate): 8
Dailies used in fight (both sessions): 11 (includes daily utilities)
Surges used in fight (both sessions): 17 (!)
XP Total: 2200 (level 7 encounter for party of 7; level 8 encounter for party of 6; level 9 encounter for party of 5)
XP/Character: 314 (all seven pcs were in it, but never all at once!)

 

[the Jester]

ENCOUNTER #2

So the party is pursuing a wagon whose inhabitant broke into the wizard's master's tower and stole some information regarding artifact destruction/hiding. The party tracks said wagon to an isolated farmstead. It is already gone, but there are signs of violence in the yard and blood tracks leading to the barn. The party enters the barn (full of hay bales) and finds themselves in another extremely tough fight. Somewhere in the middle of the fight, the hay bales catch fire and soon the whole thing is aflame, and the party has the best moment of awesome that they've had yet when I think three or four of them are doomed (three are unconscious, in a burning barn, surrounded by monsters) and they manage to pull off an unbelievable rescue/escape.

The party: 1 leader (cleric), 4 strikers (rogue, ranger, barbarian, monk), 1 controller (wizard). Levels run from 5 to 7.

The monsters: 2 blazing skeleton volley hurlers (homebrewed; level 7 elite artillery versions of blazing skeletons)
1 vortex wraith (OG 192; level 9 soldier)
1 fading visage (most excellent homebrewed level 7 elite controller)
6 rupture demons (MM2 60; level 5 soldier skirmishers)

Time: 2 hours, 48 minutes
Rounds: 8
Dailies used: 3
Surges used: 3
XP Total: 2500
XP/PC: 416 (level 9 encounter)
XP/Minute: ~ 14.9


ENCOUNTER #3
The party catches up to the wagon, and then tracks down the bad guy that broke into the tower. He is mid-ritual, and needs five standard actions to complete it, though characters within 10 can try an opposed Arcana or Religion check to take away one standard action's worth of success.

There's nothing catching on fire here, but it's still a rough encounter- especially since we only had five players for this, and only four for about half the fight! This was another great fight; the BBEG got away, left the pcs with a bunch of clues and a deep sense of fear, and established himself firmly as the party's first real nemesis (that they haven't killed yet).

The pcs: 1 controller (wizard), 1 leader (cleric), 3 strikers (monk, rogue, ranger). Levels 6-7.

The monsters: Quah-Nomag (level 10 solo controller)
3 skeleton soldiers (OG 77; level 6 minions)
1 evistro (MM 54; level 6 brute)

(Had the whole group been there, there would have been one more skeleton soldier and two more evistros, but que sera sera).

Time: 1 hour, 40 minutes
Rounds: 5? (I bet there were 6 and I missed one)
No idea about dailies and surges- I think the pcs used pretty much everything they had in this one
XP Total: 2939
XP/PC: 587 (10th level encounter for 5 pcs)
XP/Minute: ~ 29.4


ENCOUNTER #4
You know Ripley in the loader exoskeleton thing at the end of Aliens? Think of the armor-bound canus juggernaut as being a lot like that. The pcs already knew they were going to have to do something about it sometime; it came up.

The pcs: 1 leader (cleric), 1 controller (wizard), 1 defender (warden), 3 strikers (barbarian, rogue, ranger). Levels 6-8.

The monsters: 1 armor-bound canus juggernaut (level 12 elite brute)
3 Double Javelin javelineers (homebrewed level 4 artillery)
1 gray wolf (MM 264; level 1 skirmisher)
2 human lackeys (MM 162; level 7 minions)

Time: 2 hours, 16 minutes
Rounds: 9
No idea about dailies and surges- again, I think many of them nova'd as best they could.
XP Total: 2200
XP/PC: 366 (8th level encounter for 5 pcs)
XP/Minute: ~ 14.1

 

[Jdvn1]

Well I sorta tracked stuff this weekend, though I did a piss-poor job of it.

I totally had to guesstimate the end times of all the combats (I forgot to write them down), I prolly miscounted rounds, I didn't track surges or dailies for the most part, and so on.

That's how I feel every single time.

My data is updated. Yours is the fourth chart.

 

[blargney the second]

I've added a link to the spreadsheet in the OP. If you guys want to use one of your posts to make summaries of your data, I can add links to those as well. That way all the relevant info could be quickly accessed from one point.

 

[blargney the second]

This was a pretty straightforward fight tonight with a large country house full of scavenging ghouls. We noticed early on that they were very hard to hit, so we switched on meat grinder mode.

The warchanter bard used Concerted Effort with an action point. For the second round we were attacking with +6 to +10 to hit and +5 damage. We've got plenty of multi-attack powers, so stuff really doesn't last long like that.

Session 8: 45 minutes total
#1) 45 minutes, 760 XP, 1 crit, 4 dailies, 2 action points, 3 surges. 3.5 rounds vs 3 minions and 3 skirmishers with ~460 hps.

 

[Jdvn1]

My last two DDE games:

1.
100 minutes, 170 xp each, 2 crits, 3 dailies, 4 APs, 15 rounds v 9 monsters. (It was the end of a chapter, so they pulled out the big guns and pretty much flew through a tough encounter)

2.
70 minutes, 125 xp each, 3 crits, 1 daily, 3 APs, 1 Surge, 6 rounds v 4 monsters. I didn't scale this for the party because I thought it'd be a too easy otherwise, and it was. Still, we had fun. 2 defenders in a party makes for some tough tactics.

Oh, and my sheet is updated.

 

[Goonalan]

Hi there,

Just a note- me and my players have run through the following adventures-

H1 Keep on the Shadowfell
H2 Thunderspire Labyrinth
DCC53 Sellswords of Punjar

En route we wrote everything down- or else someone did, so that's everything- the Init order what each PC and/or Monster did- Move, Attack Power or whatever; whether they Hit/Missed, how much damage they did, the new HP of the creatures hit, dailies used, surges used etc. etc.

To be honest I've been reading this thread, and others like it, we've had problems with time (grind) but that was playing via Maptools and Skype; now I'm playing round a table then I just have time to kill- hence all the stats.

Would the data be any use to anybody, I started writing it up (I've always kept good notes) but there's so much of it. Could I start a Thread in the Story hour and post round-by-round the action, would people follow that kind of mechanics/stat-based narrative...

Any suggestions?

Cheers PDR