[4e] Tips to Speed Up Combat

[Aron Times]

I thought I'd start this thread to help those who find their 4e fights taking too long to resolve. There was a similar thread back when it was first released, but I'd rather not get banhammered by Roland St. Jude for thread necromancy. Anyway, here goes:

1. Don't be afraid to use your action points. Action points replenish every other encounter, and they let you deal burst damage that can end the fight sooner.

2. Similarly, don't be afraid to use your dailies. Even at level 1, if you ration your dailies to one per encounter, you will benefit from the power of a daily for five (more or less, depending on the size of the party) encounters, which is usually more than enough for a given adventuring day.

3. Pay attention to the battle. You should be making tactical decisions on other players' turns so that you can act immediately when your turn comes up. This is one of the biggest reasons for fights taking too long to resolve.

4. Work as a team. A well-coordinated team with good tactics can easily take on higher-level encounters that would TPK a team with no teamwork. Teamwork is vital to victory in 4e, since the wizard can no longer one-shot the bad guys for the fighter to mop up.

5. Be responsible for your own character. The DM has enough work to do without having to constantly check on the players characters' stats and powers. Keep track of your own HP, healing surges, power usage, and defenses so your DM doesn't have to.

[Yakk]

For everyone:
1: Call out your provoking of OAs. Don't play gotcha with it.

2: Use "shift" when you shift.

3: Don't cheat, as cheating makes other people check what you do.

4: Use power cards generated by DDI, or precalculate all of your modifiers and damage for your powers and options.

As a DM:
A: Offer a +1 "fast action" bonus. If you have the power you are using ready to use when your turn comes around, and have no delays in your turn, you get a +1 bonus to all rolls in your turn (damage and to-hit, etc).

B: Expose monsters defenses to parties who make a monster knowledge check. Ask for them to roll it if they don't volunteer. Rolling against a target and saying "I hit" is far faster than saying "I rolled a ... carry the 2..."

C: Trust your players. If they do something funky, say "remind me to look at that power after the fight".

D: If a Ranger is attacking the nearest target, just assume it is the Ranger's quarry. Ditto for Warlocks. Do not "gotcha" players, as that makes players play paranoid (and slower).

[Sinon]

C: Trust your players. If they do something funky, say "remind me to look at that power after the fight".

+1

Twice with a cherry if you add "Players, trust your DMs." They can talk about their issues after the fight as well.

Double helpings for observing players: pay attention to your own turn; do not jump into how another player/the DM dealt with an issue that has nothing directly to do with you.

[demidracolich]

I thought I'd start this thread to help those who find their 4e fights taking too long to resolve. There was a similar thread back when it was first released, but I'd rather not get banhammered by Roland St. Jude for thread necromancy. Anyway, here goes:

1. Don't be afraid to use your action points. Action points replenish every other encounter, and they let you deal burst damage that can end the fight sooner.

What????? Since when were action points encounter based? Or do you mean by milestones?

2. Similarly, don't be afraid to use your dailies. Even at level 1, if you ration your dailies to one per encounter, you will benefit from the power of a daily for five (more or less, depending on the size of the party) encounters, which is usually more than enough for a given adventuring day.

I take it by this you mean a different party member uses a daily every encounter. Level one characters only get 1.

[Divide by Zero]

Bring in chess clocks. You only get a certain amount of time for your turns.

[cupkeyk]

What????? Since when were action points encounter based? Or do you mean by milestones?

That's why he phrased it every other encounter, because you reach a milestone, every other encounter.

[GoodbyeSoberDay]

That's why he phrased it every other encounter, because you reach a milestone, every other encounter.

Or earlier, but the point still stands.

Much of this advice seems like it could generalize to combat in any system, which is nice.

[Thajocoth]

Bring in chess clocks. You only get a certain amount of time for your turns.

This would be the only thing in the thread I disagree with thus far. It tends to make people more flustered and they have less fun.


Also, on your power cards or other form of pre-calculated numbers for your abilities, add your base crit damage. The builder does not do this on it's own. Imagine the nightmare of going "I crit on my Power Attacked Reckless Charging Howling Strike with my Large Mordenkrad and extra damage from all these items and two powers from my Paragon Path... Now what's 6d8 brutal 1 + 6d10 + 6d6 maximized?" Critting is awesome, but no one wants to sit there while you count it all up.

I'm surprised initiative cards have not been mentioned yet. Initiative cards are awesome. Even better than ordinary initiative cards are folded initiative cards. (My group recently made the switch to folded ones.) Instead of one of the players keeping track of who's next, the cards all lay over the DM screen so everyone can see the order.

Have players do what they can. While the DM is getting out the encounter's minis, somebody else should take the initiative to take initiative, putting the cards in order for when the DM is ready.

Also, colored status effect tokens are a great way to see at a glance what conditions are on who quickly... But you don't want to slow down your turn putting them on the board. A player who's turn it isn't should handle the tokens. This keeps the DM & current player's focus on the player's actions, while still allowing the tokens to speed up effect lookups.

[Divide by Zero]

This would be the only thing in the thread I disagree with thus far. It tends to make people more flustered and they have less fun.

I wasn't being serious, of course. We generally go by "take as much time as you need, but nothing more."

[Thajocoth]

I wasn't being serious, of course. We generally go by "take as much time as you need, but nothing more."

I assumed as much, especially since you mentioned a chess clock, but some people really do bring timers for turn length as an attempt at speeding things up, so I took the opportunity to point out why it's a bad idea.

[cupkeyk]

In our group, the DM penalizes suggestions from other players because the player whose turn it is gets flustered and even more confused. He treats suggestions as immediate interrupts. If you make another suggestion, you may only choose from a move, standard or minor action. If you make a third, you lose your turn. Since we have only four players we haven't really considered the possibility of a fourth suggestion, lolz.

[Thajocoth]

In our group, the DM penalizes suggestions from other players because the player whose turn it is gets flustered and even more confused. He treats suggestions as immediate interrupts. If you make another suggestion, you may only choose from a move, standard or minor action. If you make a third, you lose your turn. Since we have only four players we haven't really considered the possibility of a fourth suggestion, lolz.

My group has found that suggestion greatly help people towards deciding things more quickly, and it keeps everyone involved when it's not their turn. Penalizing players is generally a bad response to anything, and is better at getting people to leave the game than it is at getting people to speed up encounters.

[Excession]

1. Know what your powers do. The power card is a useful reference, but you should know roughly what's there without re-reading it every time.

2. The Character Builder sheet and power cards don't list everything about your character. Make a quick reference page for the rest. Then memorise that too.

3. If you can apply an unusual status effect, want to use a mount, plan on stealthing... make sure that you know the rules on it. Then make sure the DM knows them too. Before you first use it at the table.