A good D&D campaign is usually equal parts roleplay, exploration, and combat.
…So why does it feel like your party is always spending so much more time doing the latter?
Well, that could be because your DM is a monster who wants nothing more than to finally get that TPK he’s been threatening ever since session 1 — but it could also just be because the mechanics of D&D 5e make it so that combat encounters can drag out for what seems like (and sometimes actually are) hours.
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Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but if you find that your players are spending more time engaging with their phones than with the enemy, or if you’re having to split one fight into two (or even three) sessions, you may want to think about ways to speed up those “6-second” rounds.
Here are a few suggestions:
Let players know when they’re up next
It’s a pretty easy thing to do, especially when DMs have the initiative order right in front of them.
Just a quick “Hey Wizard, you’re on deck” lets the next player know that they’ve got one turn’s worth of action before they need to say what they’re planning on doing, which saves the entire table from sitting around while they get caught up on the lay of the land on their turn.
Push turn orders if necessary
We’ve all been there. The Bard ran off to the washroom, or to grab a snack, or to let their dog out, but that was like, 10 minutes ago, and it’s their turn now, and everyone’s just sitting around like, “What now?”
The DM says to just wait for them, and then a few other players go to the bathroom during the impromptu “break.” Of course that’s when the Bard shows up and finishes their turn, but then the whole cycle repeats itself because now the Rogue is still in the washroom.
The simplest and easiest way to fix this is to just postpone the Bard’s turn until the bottom of initiative/whenever they get back. This also has the added benefit of shaking up initiative order (if only for the round) making what might be monotonous hacking and slashing a little more exciting.
Use average damage for enemies
This is a big one for when you start getting into the higher levels.
If you’ve got a swarm of baddies hacking at the party, or even just one mini boss that has a bunch of attacks and legendary actions, don’t waste time by rolling the ridiculous number of damage dice for each individual monster.
The Monster Manual usually includes an average damage per hit to the stat blocks, so try using those instead of rolling and counting yourself — at least at the start of the fight. If it’s looking like the next hit might down a character, maybe switch over to rolling for damage to add a little bit of excitement.
Remind players that their characters are making split second decisions
If a player wants to do a quick perception check to see if they can make the jump, or catch X amount of enemies in a Fireball, or whatever, I say let them.
But when a player starts thumbing through their spell cards, and asks about how hurt every enemy looks, or has no idea what they want to do and says as much… you might have to remind them that these rounds are taking place over the course of six in-game seconds, so their characters don’t really have the luxury of considering every option.
Set timers
This one can come off as passive aggressive, but it is sometimes necessary for players who simply will not make a decision about what they want to do. I’d say that a full minute to decide on their next action is plenty, especially given the above point.
And if they don’t decide at the end of the minute? Well, you could either skip their turn, postpone it as though they were in the washroom, or have all your players designate a go-to combat action (a regular attack, a signature cantrip, etc.) that they have their character do if they reach that buzzer without making a decision.
Done properly, it could actually add an element of suspense and urgency to combat encounters.
Though, again, done poorly and it could come off as a DM forcing players’ hands, which is very much not the vibe.
Try to make it clear that you’re on the players’ side and that you’re only implementing any of the above suggestions as a way to make the game more fun for everyone involved, and you shouldn’t have much of a problem!
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