I ran a session recently where I threw a lot of chitines against my party. Chitines have 3 attacks each, and they get disadvantage on attack rolls when there are in bright light (sunlight sensitivity). I know, I know, that was bad planning.
Anyway, rolling so many attacks slows things down drastically, especially when I'm using Roll20 and toggling disadvantage on every attack. I know playing as a DM and a PC that large numbers of enemies slow down combat a lot. But it can be fun to have the party face a large number of baddies.
What methods do you use to speed things up or reduce the number of dice rolls without making the baddies too strong or too weak?
I thought of using a saving throw and adjusting the damage roll based on the number of attacks, but…too many variables. Any suggestions?
If you're rolling using Roll20, why don't you toggle advantage to always be on? Then you can choose the lower of the 2 numbers and compare it to whatever AC.
So that's just 3 clicks for 3 attacks. Is that still too slow?
I agree that works if you have just one or two monsters. I had 8 to start with, but some of them just ran away. I think I had up to 15 attacks in a turn.
Hm. If you're aware you're going to have a lot of attacks to roll, it's possible to generate a bunch of numbers before combat and just run down that list?
Or if it's massive combat with a TON of enemies and attacks you could break down the statistics of it all and have X% of all attacks hit until you get a manageable number of rolls.
OR give some range of 10-14, one hit, 15-17 is two hits, 18-20 is three hits of damage. That'd probably be a good method. Make a macro for 1 hit, 2 hit and 3 hit for damage dice too to speed it up even more.
Hm. If you're aware you're going to have a lot of attacks to roll, it's possible to generate a bunch of numbers before combat and just run down that list?
This worked for the best GM I have ever had in Champions. He invented what he called "pre-roll sheets" in the days long before computers were easily available to do it for you. He sat there in his living room one afternoon and rolled hundreds of 10D6, 12D6, 14D6, etc., attacks (you use D6 for everything in Champions) and wrote down the total damage (in STUN and BODY). Then he just used each number once and crossed them off the list. Battle went twice as fast with him doing that. So when my turn came to GM, I of course copied him.
So yeah, pre-rolls can work great.
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Players might object to such a system, since it means that the GM knows what different attack rolls will be before the attack is made and players can justifiably be concerned that knowing beforehand that an attack roll will be a low roll or a crit can influence how the GM calls attacks. Probably not a huge issue with chitins, since they don't exactly have a lot of different options in a fight, but I definitely would avoid doing it on any creature that has multiple attack options that aren't identical in effect.
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If 6 Chitines are attacking one player, think of them as 18 attackers (3 attacks each). But then divide the number of hits by 2 to figure disadvantage on the attacks.
So against a person with 16 AC, they need 12 to hit. That means 1 in every 2 attacks will hit - which is 9 hits total. Divide that by 2 (rounding down) and you have 4 hits.
If 9 Chitines (27 attacks) are attacking someone with 20 AC, that’s 1 in 4 hits for a total of 6 hits. Divide again by 2 for disadvantage and you get 3 total hits.
Pre-rolling does make a lot of sense. The drawback is working out the chance to hit against every player's AC, especially when there's a circle of the moon druid using her combat wild shape more than once. With 5 PC, 2 wild shapes, that's up to 7 different ACs. I also don't know which shape the druid will choose. We have a list of what shapes she knows, but I'd still have to prep for any I think she might use.
For damage, just using the average from the stat block is easiest, I guess.
Brewsky, I've taken a look in the DMG. I didn't realise that table was in there. It might still be a little clunky to use on the fly, but it looks like it will speed things up. Again, I'd just go with average damage.
Brewsky, I've taken a look in the DMG. I didn't realise that table was in there. It might still be a little clunky to use on the fly, but it looks like it will speed things up. Again, I'd just go with average damage.
Thanks for you input, everyone!
It’s definitely clunky and not exactly mathematically sound... but good in a pinch!
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Hi all,
I ran a session recently where I threw a lot of chitines against my party. Chitines have 3 attacks each, and they get disadvantage on attack rolls when there are in bright light (sunlight sensitivity). I know, I know, that was bad planning.
Anyway, rolling so many attacks slows things down drastically, especially when I'm using Roll20 and toggling disadvantage on every attack. I know playing as a DM and a PC that large numbers of enemies slow down combat a lot. But it can be fun to have the party face a large number of baddies.
What methods do you use to speed things up or reduce the number of dice rolls without making the baddies too strong or too weak?
I thought of using a saving throw and adjusting the damage roll based on the number of attacks, but…too many variables. Any suggestions?
Thanks all!
If you're rolling using Roll20, why don't you toggle advantage to always be on? Then you can choose the lower of the 2 numbers and compare it to whatever AC.
So that's just 3 clicks for 3 attacks. Is that still too slow?
I agree that works if you have just one or two monsters. I had 8 to start with, but some of them just ran away. I think I had up to 15 attacks in a turn.
Hm. If you're aware you're going to have a lot of attacks to roll, it's possible to generate a bunch of numbers before combat and just run down that list?
Or if it's massive combat with a TON of enemies and attacks you could break down the statistics of it all and have X% of all attacks hit until you get a manageable number of rolls.
OR give some range of 10-14, one hit, 15-17 is two hits, 18-20 is three hits of damage. That'd probably be a good method. Make a macro for 1 hit, 2 hit and 3 hit for damage dice too to speed it up even more.
This worked for the best GM I have ever had in Champions. He invented what he called "pre-roll sheets" in the days long before computers were easily available to do it for you. He sat there in his living room one afternoon and rolled hundreds of 10D6, 12D6, 14D6, etc., attacks (you use D6 for everything in Champions) and wrote down the total damage (in STUN and BODY). Then he just used each number once and crossed them off the list. Battle went twice as fast with him doing that. So when my turn came to GM, I of course copied him.
So yeah, pre-rolls can work great.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
Players might object to such a system, since it means that the GM knows what different attack rolls will be before the attack is made and players can justifiably be concerned that knowing beforehand that an attack roll will be a low roll or a crit can influence how the GM calls attacks. Probably not a huge issue with chitins, since they don't exactly have a lot of different options in a fight, but I definitely would avoid doing it on any creature that has multiple attack options that aren't identical in effect.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
Use Handling Mobs rules from the DMG.
If 6 Chitines are attacking one player, think of them as 18 attackers (3 attacks each). But then divide the number of hits by 2 to figure disadvantage on the attacks.
So against a person with 16 AC, they need 12 to hit. That means 1 in every 2 attacks will hit - which is 9 hits total. Divide that by 2 (rounding down) and you have 4 hits.
If 9 Chitines (27 attacks) are attacking someone with 20 AC, that’s 1 in 4 hits for a total of 6 hits. Divide again by 2 for disadvantage and you get 3 total hits.
Pre-rolling does make a lot of sense. The drawback is working out the chance to hit against every player's AC, especially when there's a circle of the moon druid using her combat wild shape more than once. With 5 PC, 2 wild shapes, that's up to 7 different ACs. I also don't know which shape the druid will choose. We have a list of what shapes she knows, but I'd still have to prep for any I think she might use.
For damage, just using the average from the stat block is easiest, I guess.
Brewsky, I've taken a look in the DMG. I didn't realise that table was in there. It might still be a little clunky to use on the fly, but it looks like it will speed things up. Again, I'd just go with average damage.
Thanks for you input, everyone!
It’s definitely clunky and not exactly mathematically sound... but good in a pinch!