Speeding Up Combat

[Ahnirades]

I've been playing 4E for a short while now, and if there's one stand-out criticism I have of the system it's that combat can last a little too long. It's a concern that's been echoed in my group, with one player succinctly describing a recurring endgame where exhausted players cluster around the remaining enemy yelling "JUST... *******... DIE!" as they gradually beat it down with their At-Wills. There seems to be a point in every combat where both players and DM accept that it's all over bar the shouting, but feel compelled to resolve it systemically because, well, that's literally how they roll.

I'll be taking the DM's chair myself in a few weeks and am interested in hearing from people who perceive the same problem, as well as whatever soloutions they may have implemented. Ideally I'm looking for something with simplicity and elegance that doesn't devalue monster levels or experience awards. As an example I'm considering a +3 per-tier bonus to rolled damage (crits included), which can be applied to one hit or AoE per round, but haven't yet examined it's full implications.

So that's me. Now over to you. Hit me with your stuff!

 

[Mengu]

Since I have 6 players, and in one round they can take out any single opponent with average rolls, I made up a Last One Standing rule. When there is one enemy left, if the enemy is neither a solo nor elite, he takes -4 penalty to all defenses, and takes double damage from all attacks. This puts an end to the fight real fast.

And while I call the rule Last One Standing, I'll occasionally use it when there is more than 1 opponent left, but not much they can do.

I've implemented this rule because of some terrible luck the players have had trying to take down that last critter.

Of course this rule only comes into play if surrender or flight are not options.

 

[Bladesong]

Unfortunately I cannot tell you about all possible remifications for doing this because we will not be playing 4ed any longer, but I can tell you that the problem we ran into was that the 'at wills' just do not do enough damage and I refuse to magically/instantly turn something into a minion "just because" (which is the only "official-like" answer I have read). What I did was add another level of damage between heroic and epic (i.e. I added a damage increase at the paragon levels).
In other words, the damage for at-wills is normally something like 1[w] + ability modifier at 1st level increasing to 2[w] + ability modifier at 21st. I changed it so that it starts out the same, but the 2[w] + ability modifier starts at 11th level and at 21st level it changes to 3[w] + ability modifier.
All this really does is put the at-wills closer to being at par with the other powers, but does not take away from the "flavor" provided by encounter and daily powers.
We played two sets of characters from 1st to 30th level using this change and it seemed to speed things up quite a bit without unbalancing the game.

 

[Sadrik]

When I was playing 4e this was the very thing that we were dealing with too.

With 50% +/-10% chance to hit at every level of play and when you do hit you are merely scratching the beasty with your piddly damage you need to pump up damage!

Anyway, we were considering giving +1d6/+2d6/+3d6 to all damage rolls for the various tiers. Best of all this affected monsters too! A little more dramatic, and fits into your simple and elegant.

Ramifications: Combat is quicker and bloodier. Players love it because they pack a better punch and the DM loves it because the fights take less time and they can get through combat faster and too the story and their monsters are more dangerous.

 

[Avrus]

Couldn't agree more. I understand the idea behind the minion fights, but my players mentioned the other day they had more fun against the Ochre Jelly, than a fight against 12 - 15 varying mobs.

Combat rounds simply take too long.

I had to go to power cards after our first session because it was taking 5 - 10 minutes per round of combat for the players. Power cards help, but the monster side of things still takes far too long.

 

[PezlerPolychromatic]

just my two coppers,but i had thought about being able to recharge an encounter or daily power every time you roll a natural 20 on an attack roll, i.e. you hit so good that you set yourself up to be able to do something again.the only stipulation being that a power that has multiple attacks can only benefit from the first 20 rolled.certainly it slightly favors wizard powers,but the other classes have close burst and blast powers that hit multiple enemies as well,so it might even out. anybody's thoughts on this idea?

 

[Ahnirades]

Thanks for the feedback everyone. It's useful to hear that my experience isn't an isolated one.

Mengu - Interesting idea, a kind of 'powering down' that's contingent on PC success. I could see myself using it, but more as a specfic conditional effect that afflicts pack-based monsters and the like.

Bladesong - Cool, but I'm looking for something that provides oomph at the heroic tier too. There's also the issue you identified of encroaching on the ecncounter powers damage output. How did this work out at the table?

Sardik - I like it! Mind you, it is a randomized version of my own soloution. Have you implemented it at the table yet? What were the results?

PezlerPolychromatic - It's a neat idea, but it's only going to speed up the average combat marginally. Natural 20s just aren't frequent enough for it to have a appreciable effect. It's a nice way of giving the wizard some much needed love, though!

 

[Sadrik]

Sardik - I like it! Mind you, it is a randomized version of my own soloution. Have you implemented it at the table yet? What were the results?

Alas we did not implement it at the table. We likely would have had we continued to play 4e or something similar.

Here is another angle for you to consider. Give everyone a blanket +2 to their attack rolls. This will allow everyone to hit more frequently and in turn cause more damage which in turn speeds up combat.

 

[EP]

I've been allowing the players to improvise and come up with other means of dealing with bad guys. The most common one is to use an Intimidate check to scare the crap out of them and possibly scare them off, even if only for a couple of rounds. I've also started treating bloodied opponents as if they failed a morale check from 2e and still give full XP so long as the PCs are the reason someone is running away from the scene.

 

[PezlerPolychromatic]

Thanks for the feedback everyone. It's useful to hear that my experience isn't an isolated one.

Mengu - Interesting idea, a kind of 'powering down' that's contingent on PC success. I could see myself using it, but more as a specfic conditional effect that afflicts pack-based monsters and the like.

Bladesong - Cool, but I'm looking for something that provides oomph at the heroic tier too. There's also the issue you identified of encroaching on the ecncounter powers damage output. How did this work out at the table?

Sardik - I like it! Mind you, it is a randomized version of my own soloution. Have you implemented it at the table yet? What were the results?

PezlerPolychromatic - It's a neat idea, but it's only going to speed up the average combat marginally. Natural 20s just aren't frequent enough for it to have a appreciable effect. It's a nice way of giving the wizard some much needed love, though!

that's very true,the rule by itself won't speed the game up,but it's one of many things that makes it a better game.that way it gives you a little bit oomph,sure max damage is okay but also being able to get back a power?that's gold