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<blockquote data-quote="NewJeffCT" data-source="post: 5314662" data-attributes="member: 10784">So far in my 4E campaign, combats have played out much quicker than in 3.5E.&nbsp; However, I'm sure combat times will increase as the group goes up in level.At the end of my 2.5 year long 3.5 campaign that ended in January, the big epic combats that came at the end of the campaign (level 15-18) would often take two entire sessions of wall-to-wall combat.&nbsp; The group had 7 PCs, plus the teenage son of one of the other players, for a total of 8, plus a couple of NPC allies.&nbsp; However, because the group was so big and so versatile, I had to put together &quot;big&quot; combats in order to challenge them... I had a CR+3 dragon once as the last solo encounter of the campaign, and it crushed 3 of the PCs with its initial attack, but the group still did over 300 hit ponts of damage to it in the first round alone on their counterattack, which was like 60% of its total.&nbsp; So, BBEGs would have a couple of major allies for support, plus some tough bodyguards and a host of minions.&nbsp; I recruited a friend of one of my players for the finale and had him run the pit fiend, ice devils and the royal bodyguards, while I ran the BBEG, the arcane and divine spellcaster support and the minions, plus the summoned fiendish beholder.I think the biggest holdup for the group in 3.5 was that we had three inexperienced players, so it took them a bit longer.&nbsp; Plus, the major bad guys at higher level are so complex with templates, prestige classes, magic items, special class/race abilities, and a whole host of spells to choose from that I had too many options each round and took longer than I should making decisions.&nbsp; However, most of those final combats were very challenging (in a good way) and fun for both sides.Thankfully, 4E is simpler in terms of ease of use for inexperienced players, and the bad guys usually have far fewer options.&nbsp; And, for my group, if we get through 2-3 combats in a session now, we're almost grateful that we accomplished so much... so, long combats are also a relative term.&nbsp; (&quot;Wow, we got through 2 combats in only 2 hours, plus we got some important clues from the old sage, and managed to meet a couple of other interesting NPCS...&quot;)</blockquote>

[QUOTE="NewJeffCT, post: 5314662, member: 10784"] So far in my 4E campaign, combats have played out much quicker than in 3.5E. However, I'm sure combat times will increase as the group goes up in level. At the end of my 2.5 year long 3.5 campaign that ended in January, the big epic combats that came at the end of the campaign (level 15-18) would often take [U]two entire sessions [/U]of wall-to-wall combat. The group had 7 PCs, plus the teenage son of one of the other players, for a total of 8, plus a couple of NPC allies. However, because the group was so big and so versatile, I had to put together "big" combats in order to challenge them... I had a CR+3 dragon once as the last solo encounter of the campaign, and it crushed 3 of the PCs with its initial attack, but the group still did over 300 hit ponts of damage to it in the first round alone on their counterattack, which was like 60% of its total. So, BBEGs would have a couple of major allies for support, plus some tough bodyguards and a host of minions. I recruited a friend of one of my players for the finale and had him run the pit fiend, ice devils and the royal bodyguards, while I ran the BBEG, the arcane and divine spellcaster support and the minions, plus the summoned fiendish beholder. I think the biggest holdup for the group in 3.5 was that we had three inexperienced players, so it took them a bit longer. Plus, the major bad guys at higher level are so complex with templates, prestige classes, magic items, special class/race abilities, and a whole host of spells to choose from that I had too many options each round and took longer than I should making decisions. However, most of those final combats were very challenging (in a good way) and fun for both sides. Thankfully, 4E is simpler in terms of ease of use for inexperienced players, and the bad guys usually have far fewer options. And, for my group, if we get through 2-3 combats in a session now, we're almost grateful that we accomplished so much... so, long combats are also a relative term. ("Wow, we got through 2 combats in only 2 hours, plus we got some important clues from the old sage, and managed to meet a couple of other interesting NPCS...") [/QUOTE]

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