Keeping track of combat length (for posterity)

[blargney the second]

Are you guys satisfied with the amount of combat and the number of combat decisions you need to make for your characters?

I'm seeing a lot of 3 hours and 6 combat rounds being discussed and it leaves me a puzzled.

Interesting question!

Looking over my logs, the three longest combats my group has experienced (since I started keeping track) were:
7 rounds in 120 minutes
6 rounds in 105 minutes
6 rounds in 90 minutes

The top two of those featured MANY monsters or traps that were chucking out multi-target dazes and stuns at will. That drastically reduces the number of decisions we get to make, which means each individual decision is more important. (ie fewer decisions, but more impact per decision)

The third one featured 24 enemies coming in four waves. It just takes time to chew through that many monsters! Plenty of decisions to make there.

Other than those three big'uns, none of our fights has lasted more than 50 minutes, with most in the 30-45 minutes range over 3 rounds. A lot of our party's firepower is front-loaded; we all use almost every single action available to us over the first two rounds. It's really quite devastating.
-blarg

 

[blargney the second]

All in all, I don't think 2-3 minutes per round is unreasonable at all, so I'm definitely happy with my games.

Yep, I think that's fine as well.

If you saw us at the table, you'd see that each player's turn is resolved fairly quickly. I'd say a good third or more of each round is taken up by the DM. Wik has to run all the monsters' attacks, the environmental effects, and provide descriptions of what we're experiencing. He's quite good at all that, and it makes for a very engaging game!

 

[the Jester]

Yeah, I have no gripes about the number of decisions that pcs get to make.

I do wish the combats moved a little quicker, but they do whenever the mage isn't there. Again, though, he's got a point- his pc is much smarter than any of us, and he ought to be able to think his action through. Sigh. Can't fault the logic.

 

[Jdvn1]

I found out last night that I might end up having one or two new players, so we'll see if the minutes-per-turn stat stay in the same range (though, they're similarly new players, so there'll be a learning curve).

 

[Jdvn1]

If encounters take fewer rounds (though, longer rounds) at higher levels, it seems ironic that you have fewer encounter powers at lower levels. It seems like you might not even have the opportunity to use all of your encounter powers every encounter.

blarg, do people ever use at-wills in your games?

 

[blargney the second]

At low levels we often ran out of encounter powers. As a result we typically had to use at-wills once or twice per combat. We also looked for p.42 opportunities more frequently.

Nowadays we often don't even use all our encounter powers before the fight is over. As for at-wills, I've used Footwork Lure once in the last 4-5 months, and I pop off a Brash Strike maybe every other fight on average. The rogues use their at-wills more often, if only because they've each taken a minor action encounter attack. My gf particularly likes her Sly Flourish, using it 2-4 times per fight. (ranged attack + frequently dazed = bloody useful)

 

[the Jester]

Okay, stats from last night, tracked... er... moderately well, I guess.

There was one fight; 7 pcs consisting of 4 strikers (2 rogues (levels 7 & 8), 1 ranger 8, 1 barbarian 6), 1 controller (wizard 8), 1 leader (cleric 7), 1 defender (warden 6).

VERSUS

3 ogre savages (lvl 8 brutes)
1 oni night haunter (lvl 8 elite controller)
1 orc chieftain (lvl 8 elite brute)

It was a pretty good fight, and the oni got away to fight another day! Hurray for a new party nemesis...

Real Time: Approx. 2 hours 19 minutes
Number of Rounds: 8
Surges Expended: 2
Dailies Used: 7

BTW, I've been counting daily utility powers in the "dailies used" column and NOT tracking utility powers separately.

 

[Jdvn1]

Hey, it's your fastest minutes/turn yet!

I've been keeping track of dailies the same way you have.

Thanks!

 

[Wik]

At low levels we often ran out of encounter powers. As a result we typically had to use at-wills once or twice per combat. We also looked for p.42 opportunities more frequently.

Nowadays we often don't even use all our encounter powers before the fight is over. As for at-wills, I've used Footwork Lure once in the last 4-5 months, and I pop off a Brash Strike maybe every other fight on average. The rogues use their at-wills more often, if only because they've each taken a minor action encounter attack. My gf particularly likes her Sly Flourish, using it 2-4 times per fight. (ranged attack + frequently dazed = bloody useful)

Both rogues do use their at-wills more often than anyone else - the other rogue (the halfling brutal scoundrel) is particularly fond of using Deft Strike to get into position. But yes, a lot of fights seem to be encounters + Dailies only. I have slowly been upping the difficulty of encounters, though, and trying to tie as many encounters together as possible, lately, because the group is now strong enough to tackle them, so we'll see how that changes events in the game.

And Blargney has used Footwork lure more than he suggests. He used it last week, and a few weeks before that. But it is very much a "maybe once a month" sort of event.

 

[Jdvn1]

Mind you, I don't thin it's bad to use At-Wills so sparingly at higher levels--it may even make more sense for that to be the case--I just find it interesting.