I dont know if this has been said but the way I do it is 10 secs or you dodge. The players should know the turns and if not a simple "hey player x its your turn, player z youre on deck" should remind them. As soon as you say "player x its your turn" mentally count 10 secs. if the player does not have even their movement or a simple action planned they dodge and its player y's turn. Give the first two players in combat a few extra seconds if need be but if player 5 hasnt figured it out by their turn then that sucks for them.
Encounters run for 11-15 rounds. We roll for initiative at the beginning of an encounter. DM rolls for each monster individually.
Yikes, that's the average duration for your battles? For a non-boss battle I'd expect to be seeing a lot of swings & misses on both sides if the fight is going on that long.
Would be interesting to know if you guys use a VTT or not. Are you a group that transitioned from playing in person?
Especially in the current situation, alot of players who never played online before have no or little experience with these tools. The fact that they have to manage a new medium like this and their combat together can draw out a game by more than you would initially think. That being said, my experience for combat encounters mostly ranges in the area of 3-6 rounds.
There are some little things that can speed up combat in online rounds, for example the option to automatically roll advantage and damage when you use your abilities. Properly setting up your character sheets with complete macros can go a long way aswell. You might have to invest 30 minutes, but that can get you a really good payoff. If you are the only Martial, the others are likely to have to manage templates for AoE Spells aswell. Setting these up beforehand can also be helpful :-)
It would be useful if the OP could tell us more details of what's happening in a given combat. We could give much better advice on how to speed things up instead of just guessing.
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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.
Probably worth evaluating your DMs encounter building first. Combat shouldn't have that many rounds really (apart from climactic and complicated encounters), and maybe group some of the monsters as each having their own initiative is likely causing issues too.
Once that has been looked at you can start to address the player times. Maybe the problems that are being presented to the players is leading to extended decision making time?
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I dont know if this has been said but the way I do it is 10 secs or you dodge. The players should know the turns and if not a simple "hey player x its your turn, player z youre on deck" should remind them. As soon as you say "player x its your turn" mentally count 10 secs. if the player does not have even their movement or a simple action planned they dodge and its player y's turn. Give the first two players in combat a few extra seconds if need be but if player 5 hasnt figured it out by their turn then that sucks for them.
Yikes, that's the average duration for your battles? For a non-boss battle I'd expect to be seeing a lot of swings & misses on both sides if the fight is going on that long.
Would be interesting to know if you guys use a VTT or not. Are you a group that transitioned from playing in person?
Especially in the current situation, alot of players who never played online before have no or little experience with these tools. The fact that they have to manage a new medium like this and their combat together can draw out a game by more than you would initially think. That being said, my experience for combat encounters mostly ranges in the area of 3-6 rounds.
There are some little things that can speed up combat in online rounds, for example the option to automatically roll advantage and damage when you use your abilities. Properly setting up your character sheets with complete macros can go a long way aswell. You might have to invest 30 minutes, but that can get you a really good payoff. If you are the only Martial, the others are likely to have to manage templates for AoE Spells aswell. Setting these up beforehand can also be helpful :-)
Cheers and stay safe!
It would be useful if the OP could tell us more details of what's happening in a given combat. We could give much better advice on how to speed things up instead of just guessing.
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.
Multiple small easy combat encounters that push narrative forward instead of 1 difficult encounter.
Probably worth evaluating your DMs encounter building first. Combat shouldn't have that many rounds really (apart from climactic and complicated encounters), and maybe group some of the monsters as each having their own initiative is likely causing issues too.
Once that has been looked at you can start to address the player times. Maybe the problems that are being presented to the players is leading to extended decision making time?