For some reason, this post is showing as written by Wodenkrait, but it's actually Cobwebbed Dragon that's posted this. Curious...Quote:
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I would just narrate the battle with the skeletons, or roll a few dice to deal with the skeletons as a group,
An interesting idea, but how would you do this? Do you have a simple way to roll up big combats quickly? Some games have a way of resolving encounters with 'brute squads' (or 'extras' or 'spear carriers', which are basically 'spear carriers' that the players should have no difficulty with but which have to be there to satisfy certain dramatic conventions about these kinds of encounters. Also, how feeble does an enemy need to be (and in what numbers) before you decide it is not worth using any rules at all to resolve the encounter and just describe the whole thing? Are your players satisfied with this kind of thing? In the past mine have balked when I've done similar things, calling it playing on rails (some have actually made train noises...)
If they're just mooks of no value to the story other than a bit of exciting 'filler' for the characters, then if the players were in the mood to roll dice, I'd just implement a one-hit, one-kill system. You're right that you have to read the mood of the players - sometimes they're in the mood for a lot of dice rolling and sometimes they just want to get on with the story; it's your job as GM to give them what they want
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but focus on all the tense detail as the cult leader and his lieutenant trade blows with whichever party members are still standing.
Without being arbitrary, how would you determine how long the players are taking to mow down the skeletons so they can get to the meat of the encounter? If the cult leader decides to flee (for instance) it will be important to determine fairly how quickly the players can get past the pests and catch up with him.
If the combat serves a purpose (in this case to slow down the party to give the cult leaders time to escape), then I'd absolutely play through each round. I'd only 'skip' the encounter if it was just flavour for the adventure as a whole.
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As for speeding up combat, I'd roll the armour bypass die with the attack roll, and I'd just give anyone with a shield a +2 Defence bonus to each attack (it's one less die to roll).
Makes sense. Also makes a +3 enchanted shield an impressive possession! Do you provide a bigger bonus for Expert Parry, or for different kinds of shields?
Yup, any +3 magical item is a considerable boon to a character, which is why I reserve handing those kinds of rewards out for the truly auspicious adventures. And even then, they may not be exactly what they seem...
As for Expert Parry, I don't use the 'standard' Knight Skills of the Mighty, but have something similar: Shield Mastery, which confers +3 Defence instead of +2 Defence when using a shield. And i don't complicate the game with lots of different types of shield.