How many rounds is your average combat?

[Etorian]

When I get back home I'll look back over it just to make sure but even if you're right I like the effect our misinterpretation of the rules had on our game. We've been playing it that way since the 90's so I will admit I haven't looked at it in at least 10 years.

Multi-weaving exists in 1st as well when do you gain access to it in 3rd ed? I believe only Illusionists get it in 1st and it's late (between circle 11-14) It would be a fantastic talent if it were accessible much earlier and available to more disciplines.

[Gkeckley]

Wizards get hold pattern at circle 10 which is a spell that allows you to lock a spell into a matrix with all its threads for 1 casting and it lasts rank days. Nethermancer gets multiweaving at 14 really to late in the game to make a difference. Illusionist get it at 13th. Wizard and elementalist never get it.

[Etorian]

Thanks for the clarification, just to late to be viable for most campaigns.

[kosmit]

I think that all magicians should have access to all those Multi-, Pattern- etc. that relates to casting spells. They are the core of every casting discipline. Differences between those disciplines should be shown in spells, halfmagic, talent knacks and talents like True Sight etc. and not things related to what they are doing = casting spells. I hope Mataxes see this post and answer to it. If he don't I will start new thread about changes in talents in 4th ed.

[Tanthalas]

[Kasbak]

The way we ran force casting for a long time was to make your weaving roll as normal, and if you got an Excellent success or better vs the weaving difficulty, you then had the option to force the next action, either casting or the next thread. You could only force one action per round, so no popping off 3 or 4 thread spells in a single shot.

As for combining certain talents in to knacks, I think it would work if the talent fundamentally serves the same purpose. Making Second Attack a knack I believe would work, but I don't think True Shot should be combined as the function changes (you're still shooting, but it ties in to the bullet time idea, slowing down the perception of everything around you to line up the shot). Spellcasting talents get trickier, as the mechanics for spell magic are a bit more complicated than swinging and hitting something. That would all depend on how you wanted the overall change to go.

[kosmit]

[Heretikzer0]

I use an alternative initiative system to cut down on the dice rolling. I have rolled inits in groups for enemies (helps best with large combats) and players go two turns on the same init. I have all the people with low rolls declare actions first. Spellcasters don't get much playtime in my games either. My players just don't particularly care for them. I then go up the numbers and the players at the top get their final comments in and then I play it all out as a single turn. This way, people with crappy rolls can go defensive if they like, and those at the top can get a chance to interrupt others.

I rarely go longer than 3 turns this way. I've managed large combats this way and they just seem to take less time. I also have a rule that states those that spend enough strain to pass their wound threshhold have the chance to actually get a temporary wound. What this does is push my players to always go full offensive to take advantage of ending a combat quickly. Only in rare big boss fights do I go beyond the 3 rounds. The longest I've gone in any single combat is 7, and that was a battle with a really powerful horror and its minions back when I did more playing than GM'ing.

[Mountainshadow]

In most games I ever ran or played in combat would last for 3-6 rounds if it was a mook-fight and between 10 and 15 rounds when the big baddy and his goons showed up. Melee chars do take up most of the combat time but in my experience casters can hit as hard and sometimes even harder. In my main group the Windling Wizard (Circle 8) regularly uses the Spell Stacking Knack and almost always kills the target by churning out total damage around 60 to 100 or even more hit Points for taking 6 or 8 strain. The Nethermancer loves to cast Bone Shatter even when he has to weave all the Threads one by one and the number of effects got nerfed to a maximum of 4. When cast up to 4 targets get hit by 30 - 40 damage almost always knocking them down to the ground. So the Players of those chars are mostly content with the brawlers going first and doling out damage with a flood of attacks before hitting hard themselves. Characters in that group: T'skrang Nethermancer (7th), Windling Wizard (8th), Dwarf Warrior (8th), Blood Elf Swordmaster (6th), Elf Scout (6th), Ork Beastmaster (4th) and a Dwarf Thief (4th) - Beastmaster and Thief being replacements for retired or dead chars and the Swordmaster spending most of his downtime by increasing his many skills.

[Etorian]

Yeah when you add in Stacking the casters can get it done, I've not had any problem with players keeping pace with each other. How are your players staying engaged with the game when their turn is just "I thread"?

I'm wondering if it's just my players not fully using there options, being less immersed than I'd like (I can only lead a horse to water though if you have suggestions I'd love to hear them), or if there is something I can add to my encounters/house rules that will work with the rules as currently written.

Worst case scenario I can just keep playing like we have, it's not broken but I'm vary curious how you all run your games. I'd love for more use of duration spells over one shots and more tactical decisions being made over a few more rounds.

Do you all have any tips to shorten the time each player takes that perhaps I haven't thought of? That would lessen the effect of thread weaving and speed up the fight so I could add another couple of rounds if it helps the drama/story.