Shorten Combat: reduce complexity 20%.

[Pierson_Lowgal]

There have been many good threads and good ideas about how to speed combat up. When my current campaign ends, in June, my group is going to try something more radical to shorten length of combat.

Goal: Cut combats to one hour maximum & make creative choices, those not on combat cards, more frequent. Simplifying choices should leave creative space for better descriptions, both by GM and players, of character actions.

What do you do when combat takes 90 minutes, and its 10 O'clock (we play from 7-11PM) and the next encounter is combat? Stop after three hours of play time? I'm committed to finishing the session at 11, with 15 minutes of extra time if absolutely necessary.

1. Reduce monster hit points by some percentage, maybe 20-25% either by a literal reduction or having monsters run or surrender near 20-25%.
2. Choose less complex monsters, if possible. Adjust monsters to reduce complexity, if possible. A "normal" combat should include half complex and half simple monsters.
3. Reduce the number of encounter powers and dailies.
Cap encounter powers at 3. Cap dailies at 2 before 20th level paragon capstone.
At level 7, replace, rather than add a new encounter power. At level 11, choose either the paragon power or a lower level encounter power. At level 5, replace, rather than add a new daily.

Examples: At level 8: encounters are levels 7 & 3 and daily at level 5
At level 17: encounters are 17, 13, 11 and dailies at 15 & 9

 

[the Jester]

Reducing the number of daily and encounter powers pcs have will actually increase the length of your combats, as they'll be reduced to their at wills far more often (which typically don't end the fight as quickly).

 

[Ebylon]

Gutting the availability of encounter and daily powers will do the opposite of your goal. I can't count the number of times my players have decimated an encounter by pulling no punches and dropping dailies and encounter powers on the mobs.

Like Jester said, cutting the number of dailies/encounters means the players will be forced to rely more on their at-wills, which do less damage and are less impacting on the results of the encounter than their more powerful abilities. Plus, your players will get mighty bored if ALL they have are at-wills.

I'd suggest giving your players 1 action point per encounter as opposed to every two encounters if you want to help speed things up, as well.

 

[Fanaelialae]

I'll echo the idea that reducing encounters/dailies runs counter to your stated goal.

If you want to balance reduced enemy hp, I'd recommend simply increasing enemy damage. One option that I've found works well is Starfox's grind fix: http://www.enworld.org/forum/4e-fan-creations-house-rules/250441-my-grind-fix-half-hp-2-3-xp.html

 

[cdrcjsn]

In general, combats shouldn't be taking 90 minutes in the first place.

If it does, it probably means one of the following:
1) Too many players (each player is usually equal to about 10 minutes, so 5 players = 50 min tops).
2) Too many monsters (the average fight is supposed to be equal to their level, +/- 1).
3) Everyone is still learning the rules (no help for this unfortunately, but it should go away)
4) insubstantial creatures or lots of domination/status condition effects that prevent actions.

As for being more creative with power usage...just have a conversation with the players. Explain what you want them to do. Maybe even reward a "most creative use of powers" award at the end of the night.

 

[LostSoul]

I think that limiting encounter and daily powers would cut down on combat time, since players don't have as many or as complex decisions to make, but I think you'd have to seriously cut down on them - maybe 1 per tier.

Goal: Cut combats to one hour maximum & make creative choices, those not on combat cards, more frequent. Simplifying choices should leave creative space for better descriptions, both by GM and players, of character actions.

Check out my hack: http://www.enworld.org/forum/4e-fan...648-skill-combat-quick-combat-resolution.html

It is meant to supplement the normal combat system, not replace it.

 

[the Jester]

Also, allowing for more action points will quicken things up.

 

[Alisair Longreach]

Reducing PC encounter and daily powers is a bad idea, you are nerfing the players and it will not speed up combat. A better way would be to encourage the players to choose simple powers and feats for their PCs. This would reduce the mindspace the players would have to devote to the game stats during play.

Action Point per encounter is something I really can recommend as it speeds combat up because the players has the AP as a tactical choice every encounter and don't have to worry about and hoard Milestones.

Ignore the Milestone restriction on Magic Item Daily Powers and let the players either use any number of Magic Items in an encounter or, if you worry about PCs going nova, one Magic Item per tier per encounter.

Add the ½ level bonus to the damage of all PC and monster powers, this really speeds up combat at the Paragon and Epic tiers.

If you use the house rules above then you can speed combat up because of increased damage output and freeing up player mindspace for tactical maneuovers instead of worrying about and hoarding Milestones.

 

[Fridayknight]

One thing i would add is that if you just had the PCs choosing the attacks then you doing the dicework it speeds up the "is 19 a hit?" ect. talk and the next person can decide while you quickroll (in fact you could just roll X number of times before the playing time and use those for any rolls on any character that comes up. Also get a DM screen.

 

[chitzk0i]

If you're really serious about combats taking a maximum of one hour, you could just declare a victor after the battle has gone on for an hour. If you also reduce monster hit points and/or defenses, there ought to be a clear upper hand by that time.