How many rounds do your combats usually last?

[sunbeam]

Obviously there are many possible combats, from the big boss mob, to an army of mooks besieging a fort.

But on average how many rounds are in your combats?

Pathfinder doesn't run any faster than 3.x did as far as I can tell.

Since 2000 or when I started 3.x it seems to me most combats are pretty much over by 4 or 5 rounds.

Usually you know how everything is going to play out by round 2 or 3.

Occasionally I've seen combats go as high as 8 or 9 rounds but it is out of the ordinary.

[Weables]

4 or 5 is average, for sure. occasionally 1-2 when we get lucky crits, 8-9 when we cant hit worth a damn

[Darigaaz the Igniter]

about 5-6, give or take depending on the situation. Though my monk seems to have developed a habit of oneshotting things with a death from above power attack spear charge.

[Denim N Leather]

Unimportant combats are usually 2-3 rounds. Medium encounters around 6 rounds. Boss encounters usually run around 12 rounds, with a few high level ones going over 20!

[Robespierre]

3 to 6

[Adamantine Dragon]

I'd say the OP's experience is pretty close to my own. Ten rounds is a long, drawn out fight. With a caster heavy party anything over five or six rounds is going to start depleting spells and making the party start to look for a hole to hide in until they can regain spells.

[pipedreamsam]

Weables wrote:

4 or 5 is average, for sure. occasionally 1-2 when we get lucky crits, 8-9 when we cant hit worth a damn

+1

[Interzone]

Unless you are level 1 and fighting a Pugwampi with AC 19....
ARGH

Seriously, just got out of a 30+ round combat. Not even exaggerating.

But yeah, 4-5ish.
Some groups I have been in when things are a bit overpowered end up averaging more like 2-3 rounds, but 4-5 when things are normal (15-20 point buy and not cheesy)

[meatrace]

Depends.
With the assumption that it is between 2 and 5 creatures, and that the CR is APL +/- 1, probably about 3-4 rounds. However, in that calculation 1-2 rounds is "cleanup", i.e. the only creatures alive aren't really a threat, they're sleeping or disarmed, etc.

The longest combat in recent memory went about 18 rounds (!!!!!) but it was a flying, invisible opponent who had no offensive capabilities, and we were burnt out for spells and had no ranged attacks. So it was sort of just like playing a game of Battleship where the opponent moves the battleship every round to be a jerk. It eventually got impatient, attacked with melee, and we grappled it and pinned it in a round (it was Tiny sized). Oh and this was at level 1.

[redliska]

Well easy fights are usually 3-4 medium are about 5-7 and hard fights can go over 10.

These could be kept shorter if the groups I play with would ever let an opponent escape.

[Will Pratt]

It depends on what campaign I'm in (I play in 3)we have a range of 3-6 rounds for the one that is more kick down the door type (not including BBEG those can run from 10-25 rounds) in another that is more RP we have fights an average of 5-10 rounds because most of our fights end up being plot points since we get exp from how well we RP so we don't really fight to many mooks. And in the last one we have a bit of an even mix between the two and we tend to have 4-5 rounds per encounter however a big factor is of course going to be party size in all the games I'm in we have a party of 6-8 ppl

[sunbeam]

Will Pratt wrote:

And in the last one we have a bit of an even mix between the two and we tend to have 4-5 rounds per encounter however a big factor is of course going to be party size in all the games I'm in we have a party of 6-8 ppl

That is a lot of people. When I first started d&d long ago we thought a full party meant six people.

When I came back to d&d when 3.x kicked off it had somehow turned into 4.

6 to 8 is bigger than the usual group size now I think.

[cibet44]

Depends on the make up of the party and what they are fighting. In my previous campaign (CotCT) the 4 PC party was more of a fast, light, range attack party that did lots of little damage consistently. In my current campaign (CC) the 4 PC party is a more traditional heavy armor, heavy melee damage, healer party. The current group gets through combat at least 20 percent faster than the previous one. In the current campaign the average battle is about 7 rounds in the previous campaign about 10.

For whatever reason in general I rarely have battles that are only 4 or 5 rounds. I don't know why.

[Interzone]

redliska wrote:

Well easy fights are usually 3-4 medium are about 5-7 and hard fights can go over 10.

These could be kept shorter if the groups I play with would ever let an opponent escape.

It seems in my games the harder fights often don't take longer, they just have a higher chance of us being on the losing side. Unless it is a fight where one or more sides have defenses that the other side is having trouble bypassing, that is when it really drags out.

[Adamantine Dragon]

This is actually one area where I see a major discrepancy between Pathfinder or 3.5 and 4e. It seems most 4e encounters take 10+ rounds and we're lucky to get through two encounters in a five hour session...

[Alex Head]

I'm a fan of rolling battles. A lot of major combats run 5-7 rounds, but will usually be part of a larger effort that might involve two or three of these kinds of encounters. Lots of chasing down the BBEG and his minions as they escape, or fighting your way through the flanks of a horde.

That being said, a lot minor combat is over after two rounds as I usually have the mooks surrender if they get beaten bad enough. I've played in game where we were ill prepared for a battle that ended up necessitating flight and that took close to twenty rounds! But damn was it satisfying when it was over.

[gbonehead]

Hmmm ... sometimes as few as 1, on rare occasions over 20-30. Even normally, they vary a lot ... some are quick and some run 10-15 rounds depending how the combat goes.

[3.5 Loyalist]

4-5, some with defensive players going over 20.