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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Joshua Randall" data-source="post: 7281175" data-attributes="member: 7737">Combat's real-time length typically is irrelevant (except in extreme) cases. It is the *perceived* length and *pacing* that makes it sometimes feel like a slog.And, the majority of what controls combat pacing is edition agnostic: it's the players and some of the rules which I will cheerfully throw out.So: what takes time at the table?* Rolling dice.* Doing math.* Thinking.* Blathering.Let's take the easy ones first: blather and thinking.Don't blather. Yes, the game is a social event, but keep a lid on it. Every group is going to have their own tolerance thresholds for this; the best I can say is, talk about it.Don't think *too* much. Yes, 4e tends to change the battlefield every turn, and part of the game's appeal is the crazy combinations you can pull off with the other characters. But, pick something, and do it. Use an egg timer if you have to.Now the harder ones.Math. PCs should have everything pre-calculated. The character builder does a lot of this for you, but where it doesn't, do the math yourself *outside* the game (or at least, outside the combat).Players need to get good at arithmetic. You're going to be adding one- and two-digit numbers together, a lot. If you need to grab a calculator (your phone has one) do that; otherwise practice with flashcards (yes, I'm serious) until you can add your +17 attack bonus to the 14 you rolled on the d20 and get 31, instantly; and similarly with damage rolls.Rolling dice takes time, so roll them all together: d20(s) + all your damage dice. If the d20 comes up 1 or very low, you miss; move on. If it's very high, you hit; start calculating damage. If it's in the middle, tell the DM the defense number and if it's a hit, you start calculating damage. Oh and if you rolled a 20, that's a crit, which you should already have written down the damage for (you might be rolling extra crit dice but you have the base crit damage written down) so tell the DM because this often kills the monster anyway.For the DM: don't roll dice except when necessary, and don't do any math. I only use d20s and d6s (for Recharge powers) as a DM. The d20s are for attack rolls. I don't roll damage; I just use the average.As a DM, I don't do difficult math on monster HP either. Incoming damage (from the PCs) get rounded to the nearest 5 (Heroic tier) or 10 (Paragon / Epic) and that makes tracking monster HP *much* easier. I also not-so-secretly ignore any packets of damage that would be rounded to 0. (Paragon tier and you dinked something (non-minion) for 3 damage as some kind of weird splash effect from a power? This rounds down to 0, so I don't care. This is literally not worth the time to track.)Finally: don't roll initiative. It's a huge time suck. Just go around the table clockwise in one combat, counter-clockwise in the next. Intersperse monsters in between the PCs. Boss or "fast" monsters can sometimes go first (before the first PC). If a player really cares about going at the top of the round, he can sit to my left or right.I don't allow delay nor ready actions either. The occasional ability to pull off a crazy PC turn is not worth the vast majority of situations in which it makes no difference other than wasting everyone's time.</blockquote>

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