12 Steps to Faster Combat in Dungeons & Dragons

First time DM here, had my first session yesterday. Six thugs took nine players two hours. Now I'm here.

2 hour combat based on skill, tactics, and decision-making is fun. Not so much slowly beating down a monster with tons of HP and AC and legendary resistances.

I don't see the Immortals box set on your shelf next to the Basic, Expert, Companion, & Master sets.

Excellent content. I love the idea of more cinematic roleplay during a fight and overall faster combat.

For the "enemies converse with PCs," I tend to usually do that for taunting when an attack doesn't land. Rogue uses a sneak attack melee and somehow misses?

"The bugbear notices the movement you make and deflects it, and in doing so kicks you off of him, saying 'I wasn't even paying attention and still saw you coming, you're too damn predictable' with a chuckle"

Usually I say something per class. Barb raging and miss? Enemy goes "Muscle big, brain broken, try again!" Enemy has resistance/immunity to an element but PC tries it anyways? Think of something witty on the spot! Hell, even a simple "the enemy throws up the middle finger at you." It urks the PCs AND the players in the RIGHT way; they want REVENGR.

Start with a sided roll on initiative and generate complexity until you're satisfied, filter it through the DM and resolve. Or just sit there and have Player A take a minute, the DM try to remember what the order of combat is, move miniatures, have 4 separate attacks then introduce the legendary action of one monster than have player B go... oh right WotC made things crunchy and slow

If you kill your pcs in one turn, combat goes faster

If skipping the player's turn seems too harsh, I'll kick them to the end of the initiative order.

I was in a pinch for a character name and i accidently said Hes called Jigi Buttlover. My players fell in love with him xD

What's DPS?

less enemies of higher CR is not really the same as more enemies of lower CR, due to the action economy. 2 enemies get two turns and can easily be demolished in less rounds, compared to 10 enemies that have more chance to do damage and may need crowd control to be effectively managed.

1500 summons meet fireball lol😅

The truck marks seems like it's more mental gymnastics and opens all kinds of opportunity to mess it up especially with larger groups of enemies. Just thinking

dont worry about names. I accidently named a gnome Litcthr Thicfut (pronounced Lictor Thick Foot) and now my players cant stop laughing every time the name is brought up.

Lol in this one shot my friend hosted I would be slow on my turn because combat literally consisted of me rolling like 2 dice every ten minutes and just waiting around

"less compatents fasten the combat" loads the shotgun

I feel like the first one I can be pretty good at. also a monk btw. One thing I found to also be helpful to a "slow" combat. specifically bad roll streaks. Is realizing that fails/nisses can still be badass. The party was getting dragged down and/or laughing about how derpy this combat had to look. Monk on monk combat with any nisses in a row. Then I described an epic kung fu scene where both fighters were doing a lot of super sick dodging and blocking. Totally changed the mood at the table. Highly recommend that nindset.
I have a dead key autocorrect couldnt fix then all. What key is it? hahah

one of my personal favorites is the party being on session 15 and still having to discuss how flurry of blows works 2-3 times per combat

I started homebrewing player-facing combat into my games and it changed everything. I changed monster AB into an Attack Difficulty Check, player AC becomes an armor save. So instead of me rolling for my monsters to hit, the players roll to avoid getting hit by my monsters. Keeping the players rolling dice keeps them ENGAGED and invested.

>maybe we should just ban rogues and paladins
>2 years later, WotC wants to make Smite unable to crit in the new edition
Hate this shit company, lol