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Making combat faster
- Thread starter Mike7273
- Start date
Chupacabra
First Post
No perusing thru spellbooks or the PHB during your turn (but before you make your declaration of action). Everyone should know the capabilities of their feats, spells and powers up front. If you don't want to play a complicated character, stick to a sword swinger.
Keeping a 15-20 second rule on for delcarations before the player is skipped for the round. (although I don't count down out loud or anything, I just keep a somewhat running clock in my head and give them about a 5 second warning that I'm about to skip them, words to the effect of "(insert character name) appears to be gripped with indecision while his foes advance". Get skipped twice in an encounter and I will drop your character's initiative to zero for the rest of the fight. D&D combat should be swift, exciting and deadly. Even though 3.0/3.5 is tons more tactically based that its predecessors, we ain't talkin' chess here, folks. I agree with your limiting your players to a non-birds eye view of the action.
Also, and most importantly, as a DM I keep to the above rules myself. There is no excuse for me not knowing the powers of the critters and NPC's that I am running. There is no excuse for me not knowing the AC of the PCs I am fighting against. There is no excuse for me not having a general idea of the tactics that my bad guys will employ as the fight unfolds.
As a GM, if you are going to throw a dozen bad guys at your players, you better darn well know how to run a dozen bad guys at once, spellcasters included. Nothing slows the game down more than a poorly prepped GM.
Keeping a 15-20 second rule on for delcarations before the player is skipped for the round. (although I don't count down out loud or anything, I just keep a somewhat running clock in my head and give them about a 5 second warning that I'm about to skip them, words to the effect of "(insert character name) appears to be gripped with indecision while his foes advance". Get skipped twice in an encounter and I will drop your character's initiative to zero for the rest of the fight. D&D combat should be swift, exciting and deadly. Even though 3.0/3.5 is tons more tactically based that its predecessors, we ain't talkin' chess here, folks. I agree with your limiting your players to a non-birds eye view of the action.
Also, and most importantly, as a DM I keep to the above rules myself. There is no excuse for me not knowing the powers of the critters and NPC's that I am running. There is no excuse for me not knowing the AC of the PCs I am fighting against. There is no excuse for me not having a general idea of the tactics that my bad guys will employ as the fight unfolds.
As a GM, if you are going to throw a dozen bad guys at your players, you better darn well know how to run a dozen bad guys at once, spellcasters included. Nothing slows the game down more than a poorly prepped GM.
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wocky
Masterwork Jabberwock
If you just give them 10 seconds to state they'll probably use the other players' turns to make up their strategy. That's usually a good practice, but it also means that they'll pay less attention to what the others are doing... particularly, they'll miss any flavourful descriptions of combat that might arise.
Combat gets faster when everyone is well aware of the rules, when attack bonuses are pre-calculated (not only standard attacks, but also special attacks, rage, manyshot, flurry, etc.), when casters use spell-cards or some other handy reference for spells, and the DM has every stat within reach.
Combat gets faster when everyone is well aware of the rules, when attack bonuses are pre-calculated (not only standard attacks, but also special attacks, rage, manyshot, flurry, etc.), when casters use spell-cards or some other handy reference for spells, and the DM has every stat within reach.
Initiative Cards and Pre-rolled Initiatives
I use initiative cards (like most people now do) and I have the players pre-roll initiatives. I have them roll a number of initiatives (10 to 20) before we start an adventure and I log them in random order. Between encounters, while the players are roleplaying or taking a quick break, I put the initiative cards in order for the next encounter.
When the encounter comes up, I jump directly into combat without the delay of initiative rolls, counting down, and organizing the cards on the fly. I also call out who's up and who's next in combat so no one has an excuse not being ready. It works VERY well for our group.
I use initiative cards (like most people now do) and I have the players pre-roll initiatives. I have them roll a number of initiatives (10 to 20) before we start an adventure and I log them in random order. Between encounters, while the players are roleplaying or taking a quick break, I put the initiative cards in order for the next encounter.
When the encounter comes up, I jump directly into combat without the delay of initiative rolls, counting down, and organizing the cards on the fly. I also call out who's up and who's next in combat so no one has an excuse not being ready. It works VERY well for our group.
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Planesdragon
First Post
I ask then next person what they're doing, go back to the late player, tell the next person to roll dice, go back to the late player, etc.Mike7273 said:
It works.
Kalendraf
Explorer
Initiative cards work well to keep things moving.
Know each character's minimum damage. When I'm DM'ing I can usually cut down on a dice roll here and there they need to make for damage. This is usually against weaker foes or those that are wounded where I can quickly determine if the minimum damage will drop that target. All you care about is if they hit or not in those cases. Of course if there's a chance for the enemies to stabilize and return to the battle, then exact numbers are necessary.
If you need a quick ruling from the PHB, have an inactive player look it up instead of the active player or consuming your own time.
If you use miniatures, have them preselected to avoid having to spend timing during the fight to locate them.
Know each character's minimum damage. When I'm DM'ing I can usually cut down on a dice roll here and there they need to make for damage. This is usually against weaker foes or those that are wounded where I can quickly determine if the minimum damage will drop that target. All you care about is if they hit or not in those cases. Of course if there's a chance for the enemies to stabilize and return to the battle, then exact numbers are necessary.
If you need a quick ruling from the PHB, have an inactive player look it up instead of the active player or consuming your own time.
If you use miniatures, have them preselected to avoid having to spend timing during the fight to locate them.
