Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 6012491" data-attributes="member: 82106">I don't think monster complexity is the issue, at least not within reason. I can run an encounter with say 1 simple type of monster, one with say 2 attack options and a minor option, and a 3rd monster with several options or more complicated options. My total turn time will average no more than half that of the players, usually even much less. Remember too, as the DM I don't have to be too concerned about using the monsters in some optimum way. As long as I follow whatever strategy I had in mind and don't do utterly stupid things (at least out of character for the monster) it isn't like I'm expecting to win or have a stake in winning the fight. The players have a big stake there, so their decisions are more significant, on top of them having more options and adventure-long resource management to consider. I'd say in my games players turns are about 80% of combat time, monsters about 20%. I've just pushed things so that everyone knows when they are about to be up, has picked something to do already, and that nit picky little tactical tricks are less the focus than the whole big picture of the fight. Players can quickly make decisions based on story considerations that take them a lot longer when they're trying to dope out what sequence of powers to use to get the most bonus. In a 3 hour session we can do 3 or even 5 encounters depending on how big they are. Sometimes we do only one, but the other week we did a bunch of RP and still handled 3 combat encounters and several trap/puzzle ones.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="AbdulAlhazred, post: 6012491, member: 82106"] I don't think monster complexity is the issue, at least not within reason. I can run an encounter with say 1 simple type of monster, one with say 2 attack options and a minor option, and a 3rd monster with several options or more complicated options. My total turn time will average no more than half that of the players, usually even much less. Remember too, as the DM I don't have to be too concerned about using the monsters in some optimum way. As long as I follow whatever strategy I had in mind and don't do utterly stupid things (at least out of character for the monster) it isn't like I'm expecting to win or have a stake in winning the fight. The players have a big stake there, so their decisions are more significant, on top of them having more options and adventure-long resource management to consider. I'd say in my games players turns are about 80% of combat time, monsters about 20%. I've just pushed things so that everyone knows when they are about to be up, has picked something to do already, and that nit picky little tactical tricks are less the focus than the whole big picture of the fight. Players can quickly make decisions based on story considerations that take them a lot longer when they're trying to dope out what sequence of powers to use to get the most bonus. In a 3 hour session we can do 3 or even 5 encounters depending on how big they are. Sometimes we do only one, but the other week we did a bunch of RP and still handled 3 combat encounters and several trap/puzzle ones. [/QUOTE]

Verification