I know some people play with a timer to speed up combat. My friends and I tossed this idea around a bit.
Assuming a base of 6 seconds what if for every point your INT modifier has score has you get an additional 3 seconds in order to represent the character's ability to make faster calculations (A character with 14 INT would have 12 seconds to declare his actions). Conversely a character who has INT penalties loses one second of time for every negative point his modifier is worth(to a minimum of 3 seconds).
Our thought process is that high INT characters will make the smartest decisions and the characters with less INT will actually be acting on impulse. Granted, the players will actually have everyone else's turn to think, but when it comes to crunch time, they'll have to decide immediately.
Thoughts? Ways to improve this? Would you ever try it?
I know some people play with a timer to speed up combat. My friends and I tossed this idea around a bit.
Assuming a base of 6 seconds what if for every point your INT modifier has score has you get an additional 3 seconds in order to represent the character's ability to make faster calculations (A character with 14 INT would have 12 seconds to declare his actions). Conversely a character who has INT penalties loses one second of time for every negative point his modifier is worth(to a minimum of 3 seconds).
Our thought process is that high INT characters will make the smartest decisions and the characters with less INT will actually be acting on impulse. Granted, the players will actually have everyone else's turn to think, but when it comes to crunch time, they'll have to decide immediately.
Thoughts? Ways to improve this? Would you ever try it?
No, I won't try it. Yes, I have the round of other players to think, but this isn't really true. For example, if I act just after the enemy (it doesn't matter wheter or not I won intiative, if I act after the monster as sequence), some thing I could have thought may be totally turned bad. Let's say I'm a cleric, and as the fight goes on, I think, in my turn, to land some buff. Then suddenly, monsters crits and do really high damage to the tank. What should I do? Cure Wounds? Channel? Cross fingers and land the buff? This is something that don't come easy to all. I stick well with 1 minute round time, because I can be slow to think some alternatives, or I need a bit more evaluation. I don't see why a player should act in the spawn of time of the character. Surely it render combat really concitate, but a cleric with low int, let's say 9, is surely wise enough to not cast a damage area spell he has previously planned to lend if battlefield nmodification incurs.
We've never tried this, but we are a fan of rules that make the game more challenging (in a fun way). My goal is to figure out a workable mechanic to institute this.
In regards to the timer, all of us play with digital character sheets, so having a timer app pre-loaded wouldn't be a problem.
We could possibly add bonus time every time you level up too.