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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dragonblade" data-source="post: 5849411" data-attributes="member: 2804">If 4e combats are taking too long thats a problem with the players and the DM wasting too much time. When my group was prepping to compete in the Ultimate Dungeon Delve, which is a timed convention event, we really examined 4e combat and how long it should take to play through a turn.We determined that in almost every case, a player's turn takes time because they don't know their PC, they don't know the rules, or they aren't paying attention. If a player is chit chatting at the table and not paying attention to combat until their turn comes up, and then has to sit and have the battle recapped to them and then has to pore over their power list to decide, then yes combat will be slow. That's a truism that applies to all editions.If you know the rules, your PC's powers, and have been paying attention, no player's turn in a 4e game, with rare exception, should ever take longer than 30 seconds to get through.If I'm playing a simpler class like a Slayer, I can take my entire turn in under 10 seconds. As an experienced 4e DM running multiple monsters even with interrupts, I can still get through 5 or 6 monster's combat turns in under 5 minutes.Once my group stopped wasting time and started making sure we knew our PC's and paid attention to what was going on in battle, combat length ceased to be an issue. We can regularly get through 4 or 5 full blown combat encounters in a 3 hour 4e gaming session and still have lots of RP scenes. This isn't 4e specific either. 3e and even prior edition combat has the same issue. Player's not knowing the rules, their PCs, and not paying attention to what's going on are the reason that combat in any edition is slow. Interrupts may exacerbate things, but the real issue of slowness almost always lies with the group itself.</blockquote>

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