How do you make combat faster AND more fun?

[Ken Murikumo]

As the title says really... I've read up on here (and everywhere else) about how to be a better DM. I have to admit, i have gotten exponentially better & i admit that im still learning. One thing that bogs our group down is the length of an encounter. I try to make encounters somewhat cinematic (instead of, i hit you - 12 damage, i'll describe the spells and attacks to SOME degree).

How do you guys speed up encounters AND make them so they are not a repetitive exchange of numbers until someone wins?

[bjoern]

One of the biggest things that has caused us problems in the past is getting bogged down by the rules.
For a long time if a situation came up and we didn't know what exactly should happen, the whole combat would come to a halt and everyone would have their noses in books for hours trying yo find the answer.
Now, if we don't know, we looks in the book where we think the answer might be. If it isn't there, we have a quick tally of how everyone thinks it should work (common sense wise etc) and rule it that way for the rest of that encounter . then between sessions we do the footwork to find the correct ruling.

[Hrugner]

1: "Anything is possible with a high enough DC or CMD" assume CR+10 DC for anything without rules and not too powerful
2: Morale, when the enemy can no longer succeed describe a cinematic route or death and end it. Treat some NPCs as "crowd" but describe their death or flight.
3: Lock out certain types of builds in larger games, anything with too many actions gets the axe
4: Terrain, a flat battle field with few obstructions is boring. Terrain doesn't get a turn and can work for either side of a combat.
5: Avoid NPCs that use turn skipping effects.

[mabriss lethe]

One thing I do as DM to speed up combat is insist on preventative book keeping. All players should have a quick reference sheet for common rolls. (saves, favorite attacks, etc.) As DM, I have my own quick ref sheet where everything is pared down to the simplest math possible. Where feasible, I also preroll my dice before the game session and write down each result in a column. Every time an NPC needs a roll, I take the top result, mark it off and plug it into the formula. The next time I roll, I take the second result in the column and so on.

[Ken Murikumo]

Snip
9 out of 10 times i know exactly where to look, or a quick google search will give me what i need. We can NEVER remember how to grapple right...
But, yeah i can see what your saying. When the need arises, i have given a ruling to move past a rule we're stuck on, then done extensive research between sessions.


Snap
1) That's a really good rule of thumb, actually. Thanks
2) I try to do that with enemies that arent fanatical, you know, fighting to the grim death. Also i count enemies as "dead" when they hit zero. Should the party really finish them off after, is up to them.
3) larger games... we have 3 guys and me. 4 if one isnt bogged down with work. Also, my guys dislike book-keeping so thats never been a real problem
4) I'm trying to do this more often. But sometimes, i think the players just want to hit stuff until it dies with minimal complications.
5) I may have done that once or twice. They seemed more annoyed IRL than anything so i don't use it much.


Cut
Yeah, next session we play i'm going to start by having everyone read... READ (all caps) their damn class features and feats, because last session was a train wreck of bumbling and "i think"s
And i plan on making an excel sheet that rolls initiative, attacks, and potential damage all at once for NPCs with minimal effort. If it comes along good, i'll share.

[Curmudgeon]

Every character has an index card with relevant stats on it. There's a free corner where initiative can get pencilled in. When players roll initiative, they update their cards and the DM intersperses them, in order of decreasing initiative, with the previously prepared and sorted monster cards. Play is then just a matter of cycling through the card deck.

When I'm DMing I use one edge of the battle mat as a round counter. When the next card in the cycle has an increased initiative rather than a decrease, it's a new round and I put an X through one grid square. When an effect with a duration in rounds starts, I'll make a line starting above the current square, extending to the right for the appropriate number of squares (rounds), and label it. When I cross out enough squares to reach the end of that labeled line I'll announce that the effect has ended. This is both faster and more reliable than using dice for effect counters, and having to rotate every blasted die every single round.

Roll all the dice together (Player's Handbook, page 142). Use different colors for different types of damage, so if (for example) sneak attack damage isn't included, those dice are easily ignored. Include an extra d20 and an extra weapon damage die (in contrasting colors) to deal with criticals. You should be able to roll just once for almost all contingencies. Pre-loaded dice cups are a big help.

There's only one place that's legal for dice rolls, and that's the dice rolling box in the center of the table. It's an aggravating distraction when people roll out of turn, and a waste of time when rolls near the edge of the table inevitably lead to dice on the floor.

When it's legal to "take 10", that's a requirement unless the players have an option to take some other number (20, 12 with Savvy Rogue, or whatever). Don't roll unless the rules require it.

The DM should break monster characteristics into a list, and have pre-selected characteristics in random order for n Knowledge checks (where n is the number of characters). The hard part is making the numbered lists of characteristics ahead of time; getting a random number generator to crank out the lists is trivial. Don't bog the game down right at the start of an encounter because of poor DM preparation.

If you're having a hard time describing play, you could pre-generate a list of descriptive terms in "hit" and "miss" columns, like "flesh wound", "you ducked just in time", & c.

[Andezzar]

All good suggestions, Curmudgeon,but I don't quite get what you mean by mandatory taking 10. Are all rolls with a DC higher than 10+modifier that do not explicitly require a roll autofails or are those rolls examples of rolls that require rolling?

Depending on the life expectancy of the characters, I'd suggest laminating the cards and writing the initiative with an overhead marker.

[Curmudgeon]

... Curmudgeon,but I don't quite get what you mean by mandatory taking 10. Are all rolls with a DC higher than 10+modifier that do not explicitly require a roll autofails or are those rolls examples of rolls that require rolling?
If they can use "take 20", then that's more more in-game time but no extra play time. Otherwise, if they can't succeed with "take 10", they would fail with Spot or Listen or whatever for that particular reactive skill check. (They're likely to get a different opportunity to encounter whatever it is, but not guaranteed; I'm not going to waste table time just to sit around rolling dice to provoke an optional encounter. I use the same rules for the enemies, too, so it's fair all around.) If players want more skill checks to succeed, they need to train up their PCs' skills rather than depending on eventually rolling high. In addition to saving a lot of table time, this rule also avoids the tendency to immediately grind progress to a halt as paranoia sets if the DM says "Make Spot and Listen checks." Sometimes it's an approaching hostile force; other times it's just a chance at turning nearby game into dinner. But in neither case should a possibility of perceiving something cost play time; only the actuality of perception should matter.

Depending on the life expectancy of the characters, I'd suggest laminating the cards and writing the initiative with an overhead marker.
I've found that cheap index cards last long enough for one level, at which time their stats would change and they'd need a revised card anyway.

[Andezzar]

If they can use "take 20", then that's more more in-game time but no extra play time. Otherwise, if they can't succeed with "take 10", they would fail with Spot or Listen or whatever for that particular reactive skill check. (They're likely to get a different opportunity to encounter whatever it is, but not guaranteed; I'm not going to waste table time just to sit around rolling dice to provoke an optional encounter. I use the same rules for the enemies, too, so it's fair all around.) If players want more skill checks to succeed, they need to train up their PCs' skills rather than depending on eventually rolling high. In addition to saving a lot of table time, this rule also avoids the tendency to immediately grind progress to a halt as paranoia sets if the DM says "Make Spot and Listen checks." Sometimes it's an approaching hostile force; other times it's just a chance at turning nearby game into dinner. But in neither case should a possibility of perceiving something cost play time; only the actuality of perception should matter.Interesting idea. I might try that at some point. I usually keep the level of paranoia even by asking for spot checks from time to time even when there is nothing relevant to spot. Does not help with the amount of rolling but neither my players nor I complained about the amount.

[gooddragon1]

Lose the "no-sell" defenses. Magic immunity of golems to 50% reduced effectiveness. Spell resistance to 50% reduced effectiveness. Fire Immunity -> Unlimited fire resistance = 50% less damage from fire. Fire resistance 10 means 50% less damage from the first 10 points of fire damage, fire damage of 30 becomes 30 - (10/2) = 25. Damage reduction 10 means the same thing against physical damage. Diablo 3 was much more fun for me than diablo 2 because I never had to worry about something being outright immune. There may be a better way that doesn't involve math, but just remove the no sell defenses and add HP. Antimagic field becomes a will save to overcome (use wielder's will save in place of items).

[prufock]

While it changes the system significantly, removing iterative attacks is one option to speed things up. Instead, when you would get iterative attacks, you can instead take a -5 penalty to deal an extra die of damage. When you get your third iterative, you can take 10 to deal an extra 2 dice of damage, and so on. This is essentially the Star Wars Saga Edition method.

[Andezzar]

I don't know how well that works in Star Wars, but in D&D that would make non-casters even worse than they are right now. Not only do you decrease the likelihood of hitting (lower AB, fewer rolls) you also make it less feasible to sacrifice a part of your AB for extra damage from power attack.

[Geddy2112]

I have a 30 second rule. If you can't start explaining or performing your actions on turn within 30 seconds, we skip you to the next initiative. In a combat round that lasts six seconds, you need to be thinking on your feet-It makes perfect sense that you might want to take a few seconds to sit back and think, particularly if you have a lot of options like a spellcaster. This ensures that players know the basic mechanics of their class, and that other players don't have to sit and wait while the druid spends 10 minutes deciding what monster to summon.

I enforce this both ways-If my NPC's/monsters either can't figure out what to do, or in that situation if they would delay and "wait and see" what happens, they do.

Another trick is to roll damage dice with the attack dice when possible. Use color coded dice to pair damage with the correct attack dice. If the attack misses, then no big deal. If it hits, damage is ready to go.

[Jay R]

Never wait on a player:

DM: Fred. It's your turn. What does Ancalagon do?
Fred: I'm not sure yet. I'm trying to decide ...
DM: Ancalagon stands unsure. He'll move at the end of this round. OK, Mary, you're next. What does Chrysophylax do?

[Flickerdart]

Use fewer creatures. This has other problems (such as action economy disadvantages) but will make combat go faster. If you want to keep the pressure on the entire party, use enemies with multi-target or area attacks.

Avoid stacking debuffs of the "-1 to everything" variety because it takes time to add up all those niggly little penalties.

Avoid spells that require you to roll more than once (and use RNGs instead of handfuls of dice whenever rolling a LOT of dice). Damage for fireball is fine. Rolling on a table, checking the table, then rolling again for the result on the table is not so great.

Create simple heuristics for your critters ahead of time - if the enemy does X, then respond with Y tactic. Most Monster Manual creatures already have this listed.

Keep a list of your PCs' relevant statistics on hand so you can declare success or failure as soon as the monster rolls (unless they have immediate-action abilities - but you should know that too).

[BWR]

I try to:
* Write up as much as I can beforehand. Initiative, varying stats for creatures depending on buffs or common debuffs from PCs
* use Aid Another for mobs of lesser enemies improving one more powerful guy. Just allow AA to work on ranged attacks and don't bother rolling and you can have massive battles with lots of enemies yet spend little more time than you would with just the creatures they aid.

As for fun, I throw in a fun description every now and then. I try to do it on the first attacks of the opponents so the players get an idea of how the enemy fights, on something special like a combat maneuver or critical or fumble, and on spectacular deaths. Describing every attack and counter is time consuming and strains my poor little imagination.

[GreatDane]

I'll +1 the "never wait for the player" suggestion. I have one player who is awful at deciding what to do; he winds up holding his action a lot.

To facilitate this, make it clear at the beginnino of the campaign that classes with a lot of paperwork (prepared spellcasters, anyone with wild shape or a similar ability) will be expected keep up with the guy who moves, makes two attack rolls, rolls damage, and ends his turn. For example, I have a Master of Many Forms in my current campaign, and I told him at the beginning that he has to do all of his paperwork before session. I occasionally have to stop him from looking up a new form in the middle of combat.

On the bright side, groups who get good at speedy combat can popcorn through battles and develop a knack for thinking quickly. It basically comes down to everyone being familiar with their character's abilities (including the DM).

[DrMartin]

don't let an encounter last longer than the tension it generates. If the players have already won, instead of wasting rounds rolling dice and counting damage, have the monster surrender, or die, or run away - but once you realize that the tension is gone, change the scene.

Also don't have your player roll more dice than absolutely needed - I second most of the advice above :)

[danzibr]

Never wait on a player:

DM: Fred. It's your turn. What does Ancalagon do?
Fred: I'm not sure yet. I'm trying to decide ...
DM: Ancalagon stands unsure. He'll move at the end of this round. OK, Mary, you're next. What does Chrysophylax do?
Ancalagon the Black and Chrysophylax Dives? ;)

Man, I love the ideas of this thread. I would like to reiterate some (like Curmudgeon's dice and Flickerdart's monsters) and add my own.

1) Forbid players from summoning spells/having more than 1 underling. In my group, for example, a Druid has total control over his/her AC. Having 2 AC's and several summoned creatures leads to one player having an absurdly long turn. Boring.
2) Likewise, as Flickerdart said, limit your number of bad guys. Turns can take a long time because of too many baddies. The idea of a huge swarm of weak zombies attacking is cool and all, but then you have... a huge swarm of weak zombies.
2.5) Right, DMNPC's are lame.
3) A lot of people might be opposed to this, but I have the players go first (in order of Initiative modifier, so no rolls), then baddies. And seat people in order of Initiative. That way everyone knows who goes next.
4) As others have said, put a time limit on turns. It's a little harsh, but... it's also in the spirit of the game. Every round is supposed to be 6 seconds. If something unexpected happens, you wouldn't have minutes to think about all your options and their consequences.
5) Roll all dice at once and in the middle of the table. I also encourage no secret rolls. Have the players do all the rolling, too.
6) I actually don't agree with the voting thing. I use my best judgment, and am rather lenient.
7) Index cards are good, yeah.

[jiriku]

As a player who has earned trust from the DM, I pre-roll my dice when the previous player is wrapping up her actions and I can tell I'll soon be up. Just as the DM is realizing that it's now my turn, I can tell him "I move to D3, attack eight times, miss once, and deal a total of 87 damage over seven hits. That ends my turn." My turns are done fast.

As the DM, I see some common problems and have tried several solutions:

Especially in a larger group, many people like to sit inattentively and don't notice when their turn comes around. I aggressively push the next player to start acting as soon as the previous player's action is resolved, and if the next-next player seems inattentive, I'll give them a quick reminder "you're next once she's done, please be thinking about your turn".

Dice get rolled in a safe zone, and dice that are cocked to any degree at all must be rerolled. Spare dice are in a pile by my side -- if your dice go on the floor, roll some spares instead and pick up your dice when it's no longer your turn. It's a waste of time to chase dice or debate whether a cocked die needs to be rerolled.

Some players are really bad at adding up their dice rolls. I will pair these players with someone who can do the math for them, or I work with them between game sessions to create spreadsheets that automatically calculate bonuses for them. It's a pain waiting 45 seconds for someone to add up 10d6 or 90 seconds while someone figures our their primary attack bonus for the fifth time that night.

DRAMA! When there's a big combat, I spend most of the encounter standing up and moving around. I speak quickly and urgently with a loud voice. I lean into the board and make big gestures. I command player attention so that everyone is engaged. Sitting behind the DM screen and staring down at your laptop while speaking in a small voice gives players permission to let their minds wander -- as DM you need to be doing something INTERESTING if you expect your players to pay attention.

No waiting. If someone is in the bathroom or getting a snack or on the phone when their turn comes, they're delaying. If they don't come back before their initiative count comes around again, they've lost the turn. If someone's not sure what to do when their turn starts, I give them about 15 seconds to think it over, then I step in and either help them decide or help them decide to delay. Sometimes the only encouragement an indecisive player needs is just for me to say "You can move over there without provoking any attacks and then make a full attack against that caster; do you want to do that?"

[ace rooster]

I would suggest a modification to what people are saying about large numbers of enemies. Instead of limiting the numbers I would tread groups of mooks as a single entity a bit like a hydra (which I run as a large creature surrounded by small creatures anyway). Instead of going "mook A charges you and attacks", you get that "the mooks charge you and attack", and then rolling all the attacks at the same time. Their hit points are abstracted slightly, with them all contributing to a pool of hit points. Any individual attack cannot do more damage than the hit points of an individual, and every time the group loses the hit points of an individual one of them dies. Summons that generate more than one creature are permitted, but they will be treated as a group. Summoners are only permitted one type of minion in a combat, and after the first any minions are under the control of a different player.

Having cheat sheets prepared that include the numbers that a group loses an individual is important.

Coloured dice make rolling multiple different attacks at once much faster. For things like dragons this can be a considerable time saver, as well as being intimidating.

[NevinPL]

Since you're already doing it ("make encounters somewhat cinematic"), take it further, and limit the use or dice to a minimum, or go "full roleplay".
But the later requires a greater than average trust level, maturity, and skills.

[Vhaidara]

My goal generally doesn't make combat faster, but it does make it more engaging. For example, my last session was about 6 hours long. It was a single fight. But here's how it played out.
First, they entered the boss room. The boss had been warned they were coming, so she was prebuffed to the ears, and I was able to describe her magic barriers and the totems pulsing with magical energy, instilling strength in her and fear in the PCs (one of the effects was no save Shaken)
They ganked her pretty fast, which triggered Stage 2. All of her buffs exploded, and she switched to two handing her sword after becoming Large. Some one gets a nasty Sneak Attack crit, she is hamstrung. She nearly drops the tank, at which point the GMPC (who, canon, was there because they were going to need help) calls in a favor from his boss to get the tank's power up item (that I was going to hand out after the fight) a little early, allowing him to shapeshift into murder mode. They drop stage 2.
Stage 3 teleports them to the Abyss, and summons up her Huge Eidolon, while she herself moves up to Huge. The arena is surrounded by flames, and there are fire geysers dotting the map. When the tank charges, the party discovers that both of their foes have the ability to knock people around the field on hit, forcing them to position to avoid both the fire and being flanked by 2 incredibly strong enemies. The GMPC (who the party actually liked) got mauled down to 2 HP by the Eidolon, and reactively teleported across the arena to get away. Then, seeing a chance to flank, teleported behind the boss. And rolled a 1.
I do cinematic crits and fumbles. Nothing crippling, but entertaining. It's resulted in things like the telekinetic guy boomeranging his kukris through multiple kobolds at once, but also getting some of his knives stuck in walls just out of reach (forced him to move close to the fight). In this case, since the boss was on the edge of the arena, the GMPC misjudged his teleport, and ended up in the flames. With 2 HP. He was completely gone.
This forced the other GMPC I'd added (this one to make up for a missing player) to also leave. Now the party is on the hardest stage, they are battered, and they just lost a third of their standing forces. The boss drops the tank and knocks him into the fire. The vivisectionist gets a massive crit, disembowelling the eidolon, which is only protected by the fact that I linked the two health pools. The occultist, who will die if he doesn't drop the enemies, lands a very lucky crit, killing them and dropping to the death throes.
Then the GMPC returns to fix them up. A little singed, but alive, having been pulled out by his "employer".

And, to make up for this, next session is going to be dominantly roleplay as I introduce them to my setting properly.

tl;dr: You don't have to make combat faster to make it fun. Add weird mechanics to bosses, like multiple stages (especially if they are all explained), environmental hazards, and interactions with said hazards (like my knockback ability).

This was the Nualia fight. I use four sheets. My game is a gestalt one, and the players were level 3 with two level 4 GMPCs. I use Spheres of Power, Dreamscarred Press (including playtest), and Radiance House (including playtest)
Stage 1: Gish Nualia (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=184797) (ends when her HP reaches 0 and her wards detonate in a healing surge, restoring 25% HP to the entire party and entering stage 2)
Stage 2: Brute Nualia (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=202317) (ends with HP reaching 0, when she calls out to "Mother" to aid her)
Stage 3: Demon Nualia (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=202349) and Her Baby (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=202351). Yes, her eidolon is her stillborn child as a demon. And yes, this is an arena fight in the Abyss.

[Andreaz]

Mobile is a traitorous thing and thus I'll reply without reading past the OP.

Combat is made more interesting by giving it a good pace. Most of it comes from good bookkeeping and catching the attention of your players.

So, bookkeeping. Everyone has to do it. Everyone must learn to optimize their references. The first page of the character sheet is fine. Second page is a waste.
List the main attack routines in the weapons, and beside it the most common modifiers (power attack, 2wf, expertise). It is very helpful to copy it on a notepad for the scene. This way whenever a buff our debuff comes online you just have to modify that and go to town.

Have a cheat sheet ready for the entire table, with the rules you know they'll use.

Everyone should have the detailed mechanics of their shiny toys available to reference without needing to open a book. This includes maneuvers, spells, tactical feats, anything not simple and ubiquitous enough to go in the first page.
One character uses maneuvers liberally.
http://i.imgur.com/0Yw7bsw.jpg
I note what maneuvers are prepared by picking from the deck. When I use a maneuver, I tap it. When I recover, I untap it.

In my experience, the sheet expands to three pages. Very worth it.
-----------
Now on to keeping people attentive. Be large and in charge, move around, change your tone and volume. If players get caught with rules or bookkeeping, help them with that (preferably another player). Once they get used to their own character things should go faster.
Also, and this might be unpopular, if people wander into chitchat or cellphone browsing, shut that down. Digital media is simple: if you aren't using it to find a rule (out of your turn!), it lies face-down and silent. (you would be impressed how often people forget most group messages can be silenced).