What proportion of your D&D game is combat?

[Roman]

How much time do you allocate to combat when playing D&D?

I would guess combat is very important for most groups, but I thought this poll might shed some light on the matter, though I know that EN World is not representative of the D&D community as a whole.

 

[TheYeti1775]

Depends on the campaign.

Current campaign, we are facing combats back to back at the moment. It doesn't help our cause we are in a underground dome 1000 feet below the sea surface with an undead infested city with demon and fire giants invading it. Needless to say we stumbled into this one unprepared, and have steadly been hiding and fighting the whole time. But in this campaign we have also gone 'real time' weeks without combat. We play once a week for about 4 to 4 1/2 hours.
I've been with the group about 1 1/2 years now (real-time), but in terms of game time we are talking about 3 months within the campaign.

Yeti

 

[T. Foster]

Too much. In a typical 4-hour session I'd guess somewhere between 1 and 2 hours is typically spent on combat.

 

[Roman]

I almost forgot: If you DM or play in various games or have had varied experiences, try to decide on some kind of average.

 

[Torment]

I guess, as a DM, 40% of my games are combat? Give or take?

 

[Agamon]

Typically 50%, give or take.

 

[Gort]

Thanks to the effects of running at 18th level, I find that about 80% of the game time is taken up by combat. I think it's too much, but the vast majority of the rules are written for combat, so it does kind of get pushed in that direction.

Did I mention I'm looking forward to starting a new game at first level?

 

[el-remmen]

Do you mean in any given session or overall?

 

[Roman]

Do you mean in any given session or overall?

I guess the answer would most likely be 'overall', but I am not completely sure I understand what you are asking.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Very little. There's a lot of build-up to combat, and when it comes, it's usually pretty harsh, with challenges of appropriate CR or above, and seldom lower.