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Message: <blockquote data-quote="SteveC" data-source="post: 4583436" data-attributes="member: 9053">There has been some concern about the speed of combats in 4E and the "grind" that can set in towards the end of a combat. To this end, I suggest combat qualities.A combat quality can be added to any of your combats that are dragging. They will tend to speed things up at a cost of greater injury to the victor. The first two qualities, Overtime and Sudden Death Overtime don't adjust the XP award for the battle at all. The final one, Mop Up will tend to reduce the XP award for the combat since it removes creatures from the battle and makes others weaker. Let's take a look at them:OvertimeAll creatures cause bonus damage equal to one-half their level on all their attacks.Sudden Death OvertimeAll creatures cause bonus damage equal to their level on all attacks.I suggest that you initiate Overtime on round 5 of a combat and Sudden Death Overtime on round 10+. From my group's perspective, that adds some extra incentive to finish the battle up quickly, because stalling will mean that the characters may end up getting hurt worse. Alternatively, consider instituting Overtime in round 8, and Sudden Death at round 16 if your combats  move quickly and you're just looking to speed things up at the very end. Obviously, this is a situation where you should consult your players and see where their interest in a battle tends to wain.I also present Mop Up, a quality when you want to make the combat end much faster, but don't simply want to fiat what happens. Mop Up will reduce the XP award for a battle, so use it sparingly with your group.Mop UpAll active Minions in the combat are immediately removed from play. No XP is awarded for their removal.All Standard monsters immediately become Minions. This reduces the XP award for defeating them to one-quarter normal.All Elite monsters become Standard monsters. Reduce the XP award for these monsters by one half. Make the following adjustments to their profile:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Reduce the action points the creature has by one.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Reduce three of the creatures’ defenses by two, including AC.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Reduce the creature’s current hit points and bloodied value by one-half.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Reduce the creature’s saving throw bonus by two.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Remove any special actions the creature is able to perform when bloodied.</li> </ul>Finally, any Solo monsters become Elite monsters. Be careful with doing this, as fighting a solo monster is supposed to be the main event for a conflict. Reduce the XP award for them to one-half normal. Make the following adjustments to their profile:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Reduce action points by one.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Reduce the creature’s saving throw bonus by three.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Change one of the creature’s at-will powers to an encounter power.</li> </ul>The conversion process for Elite and Solo monsters is more of an art than a science, but the goal is to simplify and speed up combat when it is dragging.That's the basics, what do you think?--Steve</blockquote>

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