1. What is the best way to speed up combat?
2. Would it be fair to cut monster hit points in half, but double monster damage output?
1. Depends on what in particularly is slowing it down in your case. Identify that, then deal with it.
2. Oh hell no.
1. A VERY good way to speed up combat is to have every party member have their rounds ready for when their turns come up.
2. That sounds like it could get pretty crazy, pretty fast. Like the PCs-dying-left-and-right kinda crazy.
Doubling damage output is a very bad idea.
If you want to make combat faster determine what is slowing you down.
Are players indecisive?
Give them 30 seconds to decide their action from the time the previous player has resolved their turn, if they can't decide in that time their turn is delayed until after the next charcter's actions in initiative order.
Too many minions?
Limit them. I allow every player to have at most 1 permanent companion of any sort whether it's created undead, an eidolon, an animal companion, a cohort from Leadership (I don't allow leadership but that's a different discussion), the source ultimately doesn't matter. You get one. This keeps the game from getting bogged down, and doesn't allow one player to dominate things with their "I've got a friend to do that". In the case of summoned monster tell them to have the stats ready for the monsters if they're going to summon them, if they don't have the stats ready then they delay like above.
There are many solutions to making combat more efficient, it mostly depends on what you're exact problem is.
If you use average damage that will mean less rolling of dice. If you roll the 2d20s with one predetermined for the critical you won't have to reroll when a critical comes up. Maybe recheck all their character sheets to make sure the math is right.
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In most games I have seen it is actually the GM who is the biggest cause of combat going slow. When a GM is not prepared it slows things down to a crawl and leads to the players being bored. Waiting for the GM to look up a spell, or ability on a monster is about the most boring thing I can imagine.
The best way to fix this is to make sure you know what the capabilities of all the creatures in the encounter will be. Spend some time before the game going over the spells and abilities of your encounter. Also be familiar with your players abilities.
The GM should rarely if ever have to stop the game to look up something.
XP, random encounters, and treasure by the creature are legacies, not requirements btw. I just tell PCs when to level, skip to the plot relevant events (you fought off a few monsters on the way to such and such, now) and have treasure be by level.
Please remember that a lot of this advice isn't contradictory. You can have your players rolling 2d20s and make sure that all your stuff is prepared.
2. That'll just kill the PCs off in a few sessions. Which they might enjoy a deadly game, but be aware.
Yeah, my group killed XP for plot based leveling and we don't do loot during the session (for the most part). We started using WBL reset at each level (with current gear counting against it). If you find an item you would like to use between levels you can do so, but it counts against your WBL at next level up.
I strongly suggest looking into PF Unchained's automatic bonus progression. I've found that to be an excellent way to not worry about doling out stoopid amounts of treasure.
Since spell casters tend to have a ton of options, and options can lead to slow down, I will focus on them a bit.
1.make the players prepare spell cards- a brief summary of what the spell actually does. This helps to limit book look ups. Make sure they have additional copies of the cards for every creature they could reasonably hit with spells that might change stats.
2. use some kind of coin/marker/card system to indicate how many spells they have of each level left for the day (example- 4 blue marbles for level 1 spells, 3 yellow marbles for level 2, 2 red marbles for level 3, etc.; that is more for spontaneous casters- wizards might just need labeled cards with spell names). This will prevent you from having to check back to the sheet a lot, or rewriting things.
3. Just take average damage on damage spells that have things like 10d6. You will get around average anyway, and it saves the time spent getting the dice, rolling them, adding them, etc.
4. Ban multisummon options- I know, this weakens a good build type, but it can slow things down. Let them summon one big thing as needed- also, require them to have a stat sheet for their summons prepared beforehand.
Some of these can also apply to some martial mechanics... but spells are the more common causes.
Another idea- allow characters to move and get two attacks. There are various build options that allow this now (cornugon smash + hurtful). This allows at least some extra damage, but prevents it from getting out of hand.
Another idea- allow characters to move and get two attacks. There are various build options that allow this now (cornugon smash + hurtful). This allows at least some extra damage, but prevents it from getting out of hand.interesting, can you vital strike with the attack from hurtful?
No it doesn't grant you an attack action, only an extra attack.
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1 and 2 are bad ideas.
Here is what I do.
Who's on deck?
I announce who is up, who is next. If player 3 is slow they get a "your up in two."
The gm plays with an internet connection.
I keep the combat and magic sections of the srd open anytime I gm.
Prep during RP.
I have become much better at filling on initiative trackers or pulling up spells while doing a silly voice. Hope this skill comes in handy outside of being a gm one day.
Identify analysis paralysis and intervene.
When a player is taking a long time to make a decision present them with a little more information to nudge them in making a decision.
"You have 2 damaged targets and one looks fresh, that one looks like it is in rough shape"
"The wizard seems to be eyeing your friend"
"The rogue looks scared"
No it doesn't grant you an attack action, only an extra attack.Another idea- allow characters to move and get two attacks. There are various build options that allow this now (cornugon smash + hurtful). This allows at least some extra damage, but prevents it from getting out of hand.interesting, can you vital strike with the attack from hurtful?
No, but you can vital strike for the first attack- cornugon smash only cares about whether or not you power attack- it then lets you intimidate, which in turn can demoralize and trigger the conditions for hurtful (Swift action to attack an opponent you demoralize).
I tend to prioritize the hurtful combo for 2 handers when allowed (since extra hit mechanics always favor 2 handers- who have nice beefy hits with 1.5 str+power attack), but it is 'bad' to add vital strike stuff into it.
I might worry about the combo for a warpriest- while the combo is good, it runs into a lot of problems with classes that rely upon swift actions.
This is because one of the moments when you need move+damage the most (round 1)... that is when you usually use the swift action to turn on some damage mechanic. Sadly, this is particularly bad on some classes, like slayers (which need the swift action for every enemy).
It is still a nice little boost to damage in the round you full attack though.
I often use the cornugon+ hurtful combo on blood ragers when I don't want to go primalist (example- arcane bloodline has great powers straight through level 12). You need an extra feat to get it to work with arcane strike... but it works out by level 9. So I am happy with it.
In most games I have seen it is actually the GM who is the biggest cause of combat going slow. When a GM is not prepared it slows things down to a crawl and leads to the players being bored. Waiting for the GM to look up a spell, or ability on a monster is about the most boring thing I can imagine.
The best way to fix this is to make sure you know what the capabilities of all the creatures in the encounter will be. Spend some time before the game going over the spells and abilities of your encounter. Also be familiar with your players abilities.
The GM should rarely if ever have to stop the game to look up something.
So true this and a gm slow at keeping track of initiative.
Want to speed up combat? Borrow the "Escalation Die" rule from 13th Age.
Capsule version-
At the start of the second round of combat the GM places the escalation die (a d6) at 1, and increases it by 1 each subsequent round to a maximum of 6.
Players (and important antagonists but not mooks or rank and file baddies) add the escalation die to their rolls during combat.
If you want, if you decide the players are avoiding conflict or engagement, you can't you can reduce the number on the die.
Protip: this is the best excuse you will ever have for buying/constructing a giant d6.
it can be worked around, if i make my spells more of utility spells instead of combat buffs i wont need a swift for much else other than for the 2nd attackI might worry about the combo for a warpriest- while the combo is good, it runs into a lot of problems with classes that rely upon swift actions.
This is because one of the moments when you need move+damage the most (round 1)... that is when you usually use the swift action to turn on some damage mechanic. Sadly, this is particularly bad on some classes, like slayers (which need the swift action for every enemy).
...yeah, but that is like saying 'If I don't use rage on my barbarian'. The warpriest and the cleric both share the same spell list, but warpriests are only 6 level casters. Their other abilities are nice, but not comparable to level 9 spells.
The primary advantage of a warpriest over a cleric is that they do not waste time- a melee cleric is not great in melee if they don't buff, but buffing always has a problem in that the time spent buffing is time spent not attacking. In a 4 round combat, you lose 25% effectiveness if you spend the first turn buffing yourself alone (math gets a lot better if you do a party buff, like haste- then your action improves others). In comparison, the warpriest can buff itself instantly without wasting time- they can swift action buff themselves with pretty much any buff spell on their list.
You can patch it up a bit if you are an arsenal chaplain- the weapon training allows you to get decent attack/damage. But that is still troublesome, since buffing on the next turn (when you already spent the 1/enemy effective use of hurtful combo) is complicated since you would be in close range of your enemy (thus you have to deal with AoOs and combat casting stuff).
This is the struggle of the hurtful combo for a lot of classes. However, it is a great addition to earlier melee characters, like fighters, barbarians, rogues, etc, since they came around before Paizo started using swift actions for a lot of things.
I agree with lemeres spells, swift actions are fervor are best spent on buffing a Warpriest.
One small thing is warpriest using fervor don't need to cast defensively or make concentration checks. Those spells don't provoke. Of course this means giving up hurtful on round two.
Whoops. Missed that bit about concentration/defensive casting. So slightly better.
Still, there is no 'round 2' for hurtful, assuming you successfully used it in round 1. It is based off of demoralizing an opponent. So while there are some situations where you can get a second chance (Some fear cures, rolling precisely right so the demoralize only lasts 1 round, etc.)... typically, an enemy should not live that long when in your melee range.
So for most practical purposes, hurtful should only work once... on that opponent. You can use it again after the first one dies. So it makes a nice replacement for pounce- it just lets you get the better half of your full attack off.
Anyway, lets stop sidetracking- speeding up combat. How about you make it so that haste just lets you get in a second attack, even if you did a move+standard action attack? That would allow the players to eat through the enemies faster, and would prevent the lower class mobs from being a major threat (and allow the boss mobs to be a major threat when the boss has a buffer).
As a GM I use Combat Manager so that the bad guys take as little time as possible.
Having an initiative tracker out on the table helps because then people can see when their turn is coming and be prepared.
Have the player that just went look up any rules or clarifications for people rather than the GM (because they're tracking too many things) and try to avoid having everyone look up a certain thing because that will distract everyone from figuring out what they're going to do.
Also, as a GM, I will almost always rule in the players favour rather than looking something up (unless it's an important moment/fight). The players should be winning anyways so whether or not they take an extra round to do so doesn't typically matter.
Thank you, everyone.
Some great advice, here. I'll try and apply it and see how it works out. I'll especially focus on being able to GM more efficiently by being better prepared.
Rather than cutting monster HP in half and doubling damage output, I will look at applying some of the other solutions mentioned in this thread.
Thank you.