Over in this thread I was wondering how long people find encounters, on average, last in their games.

One of the things I found with all of the responses to this question was that there is a great deal of variance due to play styles and encounter design.

Then it just dawned on me that Pathfinder Society is probably a good place to look at in terms of collecting data because the encounters are fixed in placed and played by over and over again, and are designed to be played within game session slots. Sure, there will be variance in play even in PFS scenarios, but the variance isn't going to be as large as just comparing different home games.

The overall end result I got from the previous inquiry after getting over 130 responses was that encounters run, on average (can't stress the averageness enough!) to be around 5.86 rounds.

So, for PFS games, what do people find is the average length in rounds for encounters?

So, for PFS games, what do people find is the average length in rounds for encounters?

Groups of 4, normally get about 6 rounds for a fight EPL+2... Playing with level 3x 8s (although this group included Tiberius- the fighter who makes DMs Cry)in a group during a tier 6-7 (Devil you know part 3 to finish the storyline) not a single fight went more than 3 rounds. The same day, a group of 4 going through Lady of Silver had a 50 minute real-time encounter, in which my ranger almost ran out of bolts for his crossbow.

(Devil you know part 3 to finish the storyline)

There's a part 4. :-)

Cpt_kirstov wrote:

(Devil you know part 3 to finish the storyline)

There's a part 4. :-)

yeah, but by the time it comes out they'll be downplaying 2-3 levels(two of them hit level 9 this weekend), so I was stating that they flew through because they had level 8s at the time

Gotcha!

Mok wrote:

So, for PFS games, what do people find is the average length in rounds for encounters?

Groups of 4, normally get about 6 rounds for a fight EPL+2... Playing with level 3x 8s (although this group included Tiberius- the fighter who makes DMs Cry)in a group during a tier 6-7 (Devil you know part 3 to finish the storyline) not a single fight went more than 3 rounds. The same day, a group of 4 going through Lady of Silver had a 50 minute real-time encounter, in which my ranger almost ran out of bolts for his crossbow.

I would like to know more about this Tiberius.

As for me, I noted that most encounters don't really go beyond 6 or 7 rounds, which to me, is good, as it keeps the gameplay flowing, especially if you're in 5-hour blocks.

Tiberius is played by my eight-year old. He is a standard sword & board human fighter (bastard sword and tower shield combo).
Basic stats at lvl 9: str 22, dex 13, con 14, int 10, wis 10, cha 12. Feats: Cleave, Exotic weapon (bastard sword), great cleave, improved critical (bastard sword), improved initiative, iron will, power attack, step up, toughness, weapon focus (bastard sword), weapon specialization (bastard sword).

Attack info: +19/+14 with bastard sword for 1d10 +11 dmg (+6 str mod, +2 weapon specialization, +1 for magical sword, +2 from weapons training

Power attack: +16/+11 for 1d10 +17 dmg

If he drops the shield and wields sword two-handed and power attacks: +16/+11 fro 1d10 +20 dmg.

On an average roll of 10, he can normally hit an AC of 29 on his first attack, average damage (roll of 5), 16 points of damage. If both attacks hit, say average 32 points of damage between the two hits.

Now, keep in mind that my son is a lucky little guy with dice rolls, and is known to never roll under a 12 on 20 consecutive d20 rolls. But, his math skills have gotten much better :)

Cpt_kirstov wrote:

Mok wrote:

So, for PFS games, what do people find is the average length in rounds for encounters?

Groups of 4, normally get about 6 rounds for a fight EPL+2... Playing with level 3x 8s (although this group included Tiberius- the fighter who makes DMs Cry)in a group during a tier 6-7 (Devil you know part 3 to finish the storyline) not a single fight went more than 3 rounds. The same day, a group of 4 going through Lady of Silver had a 50 minute real-time encounter, in which my ranger almost ran out of bolts for his crossbow.

I would like to know more about this Tiberius.

As for me, I noted that most encounters don't really go beyond 6 or 7 rounds, which to me, is good, as it keeps the gameplay flowing, especially if you're in 5-hour blocks.