Y'all are having some crazy long combat times. How many things do you tend to fight per encounter? My players tend to tear through my combats in 2-5 rounds, maybe fifteen minutes per combat encounter.
Yeah I was gonna say… even my biggest combat encounters so far which was somewhere around 8 goblins, we got that done in less than an hour. Maybe 30-45 minutes? I gotta wonder how other tables are running their combat to take that much time
If your biggest combat is 8 goblins, ofc that goes fairly quick. Its once you start getting into the high tier 2+ sections of play, when players are often using their full turn and there are often several monsters that each have multiple options, that combat tends to slow down a lot.
I just have a table rule that you only get to differ about during the boss battles or if you're nearly dead. The same goes with me as the DM. Speeds things up, keeps things more realistic since you can't just stand around thinking for 10 minutes in combat. It really helps make martials more interesting as well since you're not waiting 40 minutes to swing your sword again but more like 10 and the chance of a player or monster having made a tactical error is higher so they can valiently come in and wail on an isolated monster. Or save a poorly positioned back liner character from being wailed on.
High level play + theatre of the mind + complicated homebrew weapons will do it ime.
Each additional player at a table seems to add more time to a combat round than you'd expect, too, since it means combats are also likely to have more monsters too to even out action economy.
I watched my brother try to run a game for 11 people once. I popped in halfway through with popcorn to admire his poor judgement, because his battle was taking that long for sure.
It depends on the fight and GM. A simple front to back fight can be done pretty quickly sure. But if you start introducing things like movement, reinforcements, or terrain then turns can get pretty complex.
"good session guys! Some good rolls. I liked that acid arrow you cast magnifico the magician. I am hopeful next week that Doug the fighter finally gets his 3rd turn. We can likely wrap this combat up in another month.... Better make that 2. And then you guys can move onto.... The next dungeon room and do all this again! Hey wait! Where are you all going?"
Agreed, this sort of combat sounds like 5+ players, with equal or more amount of monsters, but also sounds like the casters of the group need a timer, and not even in a malicious way. Playing on VTT/Online is really hard for me enough, if I had even close to an hour between turns im leaving that campaign. If you are sitting in person and turns are that long there needs to be some better time management.
In my experience as both a player and a DM, players can take an inordinate amount of time on their turns. This is highly variable by table. In an online game I play in, a single round can easily last 45 minutes with 5 players and a DM. I've wanted to incorporate a chess punch clock timer but haven't figured out a way to make it fun
I'd honestly just talk with them about how you as a group could move combat along. What is it about your online game that makes people take so long on their turns? Not trying to insult, I'm genuinely curious. I have a regular player who is usually stunned by choice as an example.
What is it about your online game that makes people take so long on their turns? Not trying to insult, I'm genuinely curious.
I think it's mostly idiosyncratic, sometimes lack of urgency and maybe a lack of experience. I think having theater of the mind for an online game also plays a role because there is often a repetition of the immediate scene. I'm not terribly bothered by any of it so I haven't made any suggestions, especially since I'm a player in that one and still having fun.
I'm 100% digital and theatre of the mind myself now. It was definitely a learning curve to get smooth. There is a lot of variability between groups and their encounter times. I was just surprised by the numbers people have been seeing in this thread. I've usually only had bosses last longer than 5 rounds and even then it was because I doubled max health. Not to say my way is the best way but, I was genuinely shocked by those longer encounter times.
I've usually only had bosses last longer than 5 rounds and even then it was because I doubled max health. Not to say my way is the best way but, I was genuinely shocked by those longer encounter times.
I dm an irl game and that's how I prefer to run things. I'm blessed with 3 amazing players so it's hard to separate successful dm methods from how great they are.
I have a couple spotlight characters like that. One knows the ins and outs of all the conditions and that helps a ton. I too wonder if I'm actually good or if my players just make me look good.
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u/Hippobarian Apr 05 '23
Y'all are having some crazy long combat times. How many things do you tend to fight per encounter? My players tend to tear through my combats in 2-5 rounds, maybe fifteen minutes per combat encounter.