How to Speed Up Combat and Remove Slog in D&D!

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Kobold reading a scroll art by Novatonix:

[julianlastname]

When I dm I tend to have intelligent enemies run away when it’s clear they can’t win anymore. It allows the party to skip the cleanup phase, or gives them a new challenge of preventing escape if they need information or think the enemy will be a threat later

[skama]

Watching this video in 2x speed so I can double the speed at which I accelerate my combat

[DangStank]

Kobold really hit us with a
“Watch until the end/ the last one may shock you”

[ADT]

Calling combat has been the biggest thing for my group, and that's something I've always recommended, glad a content creator tackled it.

[krazedkoi]

You briefly mentioned the skipping cleanup phase in a previous video and, well, I stole it.
My group is 6 or 7 players, and we only have 3 to 4 hours every two weeks of table time.
Skipping cleabup has allowed me to increase the number of encounters without slowing down my game's progression. Its a great suggestion, glad you made a video explaining it in more detail!!

[blakehudson]

“Skipping Cleanup” had a phrase back in old school DnD: Morale checks. Different monsters had different morale, and you could roll them when the first enemy died and when the enemy count is cut in half to determine if the enemy surrenders or runs away early. Kobolds for example are easy to scare off unless they know they have the advantage, but dragons are far less likely to surrender. It more or less builds cleanup skipping into the system.

[gac]

I’ve found I have a “close enough” rule that helps my combats. If a mob of creatures each have 10hp and a character does 9 in one hit, that’s close enough, go ahead and call it dead and make it sound like an epic kill. If they do 6, either mark 6 somewhere or make a “half” mental note for the next guy that lands a hit. Doesn’t apply for boss enemies or dungeon crawls but can expedite the more common combats and the players don’t feel like they whiffed for not doing enough damage.

[GeebzGBZ]

Here is my 3 step program on how I've gotten to having combats with a party of 6-7, and a challenging number of monsters for that group size.

Step 1. As the DM, have control of at least summon attacks, and ban the mass summon spells, they are poorly designed on many levels, how slow they are to resolve is a major one. Ask your players what their summons do and resolve it for them. Sells the whole commanding a creature thing, surprisingly fun. I also typically just generally rule all summons go after a player, reduces initiative bloat.

Step 2. Teach your players about turn planning, encourage questions during their turn, and develop good habits.

Step 3. Streamlining your end is important. Use average damage for fodder depending on combat density. And if you have a very obvious win, end the clean up, typically I don't do so until the party can wrap up combat without resources.

This all has sped up combats to being 10-15m a round typically, and I run some pretty gimmicky and complex homebrew enemies for this too. It's crazy how fast these make combat, the summon part has saved me a lot of time especially.

[Morjixxo]

I agree, and add:

1) "Morale" optional rule to cut the clean up phase.

2) (Advanced) Side Initiative optional rule to really speed up combat: The advanced version it's a trade off between the standard initiative and the side initiative. It plays like this:

-Sequential allies plays simultaneously
-Same named enemies have same initiative.

If you play online, rolling and sorting initiative is not a problem. The point of the Advanced Side Initiative is that it still uses the initiative order but is flexible on how a sequence of allies is played out, since what really matters is not the order of which the PC plays, but when the enemies act in that order.

For Example with this initiative order PC1, PC2 and PC3 can "combo" together:
PC4
Goblins (8)
PC1
PC2
PC3
Bugbear (1)

When the Bugbear dies, than all the PC get to combo together like in the DMG Side Initiative.

[endymon]

I like all the new content about optimising fun and logical situations rather than just builds. With all the builds you see on youtube, this is much more useful

[TheFuronMothership]

"Nobody would hurt a puppy, not even Vecna!"

Cruella de Ville: "Hold my fur coat."

[Elipus]

It's funny that you put this video up today. Yesterday, I had a session that brought us to the final encounter of our campaign.

The session ended after the end of Round 2 of combat. Two Reduced threat Red Slaads, one gibbering mouther, a gazer killed on BBEGs side, and our side suffered the loss of a single Thug. We're kicking ass. However, BBEG has us all suspended in the air with Reverse Gravity, and only one of us has Fly. BBEG put us in a position where we can't hurt her. If she loses concentration, we fall 100 feet, and that can easily kill a level 6 adventurer.

So, now we the players are working on a strategy. Not just for how to escape, but for how to win this fight and the final fight against someone who is helping us right now, but we're certain will betray us. We have a week to plan out two fights, and we have a week to figure it out. The most dangerous enemies are dead, just the BBEG and easily avoidable things like the gibbering mouthers and a few other gazers.

[Kingofredeyes]

My DM is thankfully pretty good about calling combat in smart ways, enemies running when out matched, or wild beasts looking for a dinner ditch once they realize it isn’t easy for example but will also throw the occasional zealots at us who will fight to the death as well.

My fav was when he had the idea of a big beast in a room with a bunch of small fry coming down a hallway on us. Well one cleric had gust of win from a ring and my cleric happened to get caught in a small intersection and was able to cast spirit guardians in such a way between the two the small fry simply couldn't get down the hallway. Soon as the big beast died, combat ended instead of making us wait out all the remaining trash running to their deaths.

[LanceDyas]

Great video its a technique that is probably cross edition and not just D&D centered guideline. Reminds me of something in Amber diceless roleplay.

[tomattorods]

Look it's a new video from Pact Attics!

[dawsonhealy]

The biggest thing I've done to speed up my group is by letting them take their turns "at the same time". If a bunch of players are in a block together, then they can act at the same time. While they generally cant actually go all at once, they can all roll their attacks together. And even when they're not actively doing something they're paying attention, because its still "their turn. I also run fixed initiative and have my players sit in their initiative order, which removes the guesswork.

[alexeybalabanov]

Yo I remember my players were about to assault the fortress of the last session in a year long campaign.

I planned a long epic fight before the end, but one of my players just asked to mass polymorph everyone into elephants, they had a few followers who couldn't contribute to the fight otherwise.

So basically this tactic would make the fight into a slog fest, like 30 something elephants.

But the idea was cool, so I just told them they win it. And asked them to describe how they beat their opposing giants.

It was super funny and fun

[RenoKyrie]

Top 3 Slog fights
1. Conjure Animals (Pretty much the only solution to this is if both the Player and the DM cooperate)
2. Gimmick Boss Fights (Honestly the least offensive, since i do understand most boss fights end WAY faster than expected)
3. Mob Spam (Pretty much 1 but somehow worse since its only the DM doing it against the player)

[sundrae]

That "agree to cut down some spells and cut to the chase of the fight" was also done by Brennan in EXU. I thought it was brilliant because it didnt really matter and got things moving.

[michaelmuirhead]

Honestly, I would have done this last session for my players, but they were learning more about teamwork, and what to do if combat isn’t going well for them.
I have done this before when they had fights won early, and that seems like the right call.