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<blockquote data-quote="Wolfwood2" data-source="post: 5120786" data-attributes="member: 39394">The terminology here confused me a little, because there's a distinction (for me) between combat being a grind and combat lasting too long in real time.&nbsp;I see &quot;a grind&quot; as being when a combat stops being interesting, because it's devolved into the party and the monsters just slugging it out.&nbsp; Every round everybody is doing pretty much the same thing, and nobody is moving around all that much or to much effect.&nbsp; I don't see much &quot;grind&quot; in 4E at the higher (paragon) levels, where everybody has at least 4 encounter powers to be throwing around, plus dailies and utilities and such.&nbsp; In my experience, fights tend to be dynamic and interesting all the way through.&nbsp;However, I do see a lot of combats lasting too long in real time.&nbsp; Every round of the fight is interesting in itself, but when we finish the interesting fight, we look up and it's three hours later.&nbsp; That frustrates me, because I want to be able to do both fights and roleplaying and inworld problem solving.&nbsp; Fights are fun, but I hate to see single fights taking up almost all of a game session.&nbsp;I'm not sure what can be done about this, though, because a large part of it is that on many people's actions there's a group discussion in tactics, where the mosnter needs to be movied, who we should focus fire on, and how things need to be set up for the next few PCs.&nbsp; That stuff is cool and fun, making combat interesting as a group activity.&nbsp; However, it takes a lot of time.&nbsp;Reducing monster hitpoints would mean that combat would last fewer rounds.&nbsp; That would reduce the total real time the combat takes to play out, but it also means that we don't get to see the tactical situation develop over the course of the combat.&nbsp; That's a bad thing; combat that lasts a lot of rounds means that there's a definite feeling of the advantage swinging back and forth.&nbsp; That's fun.&nbsp;Not sure what to do about this.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Wolfwood2, post: 5120786, member: 39394"] The terminology here confused me a little, because there's a distinction (for me) between combat being [B]a grind[/B] and [B]combat lasting too long in real time[/B]. I see "a grind" as being when a combat stops being interesting, because it's devolved into the party and the monsters just slugging it out. Every round everybody is doing pretty much the same thing, and nobody is moving around all that much or to much effect. I don't see much "grind" in 4E at the higher (paragon) levels, where everybody has at least 4 encounter powers to be throwing around, plus dailies and utilities and such. In my experience, fights tend to be dynamic and interesting all the way through. However, I do see a lot of combats lasting too long in real time. Every round of the fight is interesting in itself, but when we finish the interesting fight, we look up and it's three hours later. That frustrates me, because I want to be able to do both fights and roleplaying and inworld problem solving. Fights are fun, but I hate to see single fights taking up almost all of a game session. I'm not sure what can be done about this, though, because a large part of it is that on many people's actions there's a group discussion in tactics, where the mosnter needs to be movied, who we should focus fire on, and how things need to be set up for the next few PCs. That stuff is cool and fun, making combat interesting as a group activity. However, it takes a lot of time. Reducing monster hitpoints would mean that combat would last fewer rounds. That would reduce the total real time the combat takes to play out, but it also means that we don't get to see the tactical situation develop over the course of the combat. That's a bad thing; combat that lasts a lot of rounds means that there's a definite feeling of the advantage swinging back and forth. That's fun. Not sure what to do about this. [/QUOTE]

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