A problem at my table is combat flow. It seems at times my encounters drag out, and peopel begin losing interest in whats going on. What are some suggestions for speeding up combat while maintaing the drama/interest of the encounter?

edit: sorry, 4th or 3rd editon D&D please

You could try nerfing the enemies. Regular enemies that go down in 1-2 hits tend to keep the interest of players a lot better than long, drawn out battles when you play by the book. Players like to feel empowered and are often embittered when they see someone else going through enemies while they stumble about.

Maybe a little divine intervention?

You may want to ban any sort of magic that involves time-stopping, skill and memory stealing. I've seen too many players use this to their advantage when they're unsatisfied with their skill sets by robbing their allies. A sign of a bad player, I'm sure, but the temptation should be taken out of the equation or something...

Well the very first thing to do is look at your process for managing combat.

Are you being as quick and efficient as you can be so that you are not the bottleneck? I'll  spare you a long list of techniques right now, but think about it. Even rolling the attack and dmage dice at the same time shaves a few minutes off.

Are you keeping opponents close to the party's level? In 4e, defense scales up faster than offense, so you don't really want to throw monsters at the party that are more than 2 levels higher.  When I want to make a bad guy really tough, I keep his defenses at level = party level + 2, give him normal to high hitpoints, and make him hit like a truck (party level +4 damage). Also make certain that you are not putting out more standard monsters than the number of players in the party. Minions, on the other hand, go nuts. In general, I take about 10% off of a standard monsters hit points

Are you keeping the players engaged and thinking about combat? I like to announce who's "on deck" so that the player will be ready to take his turn when it comes without eveyone waiting on him. I have tried an egg timer as well, and rather liked it on occasion. Also, make sure that every encounter is directly tied to advancing the plot or is a consequence of the player's choices.

Are you keeping the victory condition in mind? In gaming and in real fighting, "slaughter everyone" is rarely the requirement for victory...and it's usually employed by really ruthless villains. Achieving a victory condition can often happen before all the opponents are dead. Think about all the different ways victory can be achieved: sieze, escape, rout, defend, protect someone, capture, for example.

Try some of these and let us know how it worked for you!

Asking Boomer for his opinion on D&D game mechanics is like asking for a dissertation on the subject.  Hey, maybe once we have something of a community, we could have an "Ask Boomer" feature for people with specific concerns with their D&D game.

Sounds Good!

Make it so, Number One.

Hey Boomer, thanks for the tips!

I really should use a timer of sorts once the players are acquainted with the game, I find that they are often nervous and indecisive (causing other players to wait for too long and hence get bored and lose interest in the current scenario). The newbies like to, against my advice to go for "cool and funky" classes with esoteric abilities that they don't bother looking up, hahaha. They get the hang of it eventually, but what you suggested to streamline the experience a bit is interesting and I'll give it a try.

I am horribly slow at counting multiple die, so I may commit the ultimate sacrilege by creating a programme to roll and add up several die of different type.

What I like to do is to foreworn the players with creative narrative by describing to them the sounds, smells, sights and the such. I like to put in each level a dangerous and totally optional encounter that must be defeated in a slightly creative fashion (ie: everyone pounding on it the same way they pound on everything else will not really work :)).

The real issue is with the defense. I think that I may have, in retrospect, used monsters of too high a level because attacks would often not make much of an impact. I'll try to reduce the level of the encountered monsters or stats by just adding some malady that nerfs defense and hitpoints ;).

I recently did that for an optional boss, made use of an overpowered monster but made it afflicted with an in-game disease that made it blind. The players had difficulty defeating it but they had a real blast with the high-stress situation.

(I use 3.5e, I'll look into 4e if its really an improvement)

So yeah, thanks for that, but in the end I fail at the mechanics a little and try to make up for it in other ways. :)

 OK. A couple more notes: I think 4e has been a big improvement, especially for me as a DM. You should definitely pick up the boxed set or just the core rules and try it.

Second, if your players are unfamiliar with their  classes and the rules, and you need some brushing up, then you should plan to take your players through a couple of delves. This is the way to practice the combat mechanics of the game and it's fun. to have some senseless violence without too much plot. 

I'll keep that in mind for when I next have a new game going. :)

I'll see about finding the core rulebook for 4e, thanks.

I agree with Arkus

Sometimes the encounters can drag on and player's lose interest which generally puts a hamper on the whole encounter. Our DM nerfs some mobs and also tries to create as dynamic environment as possible to make sure player creativity isnt hindered by the monotony of gray dungeon after gray dungeon.

Dirty dice are used exclusively in every game I DM. I haven't played in a coupla years, but I always had fun. Wth, you can't take any game with your own original worlds and character classes to a tournament anyway, so why not? It is well within the guidelines of the Dungeon Master's guide I use, (my Father-in-law's old first edition FTW!) and it is not only fun, but also keeps gameplay fluid and manageable. I used to be a more traditional DM when I was in College, (I still made my own worlds, but I followed the combat and character system fairly faithfully) but honestly I had a lot more fun playing with my dirty dice. Players will (and can) try to convince you that a roll like massage foot is better than it looks and a contender with more ummmm...exotic rolls, which can lead to a lot of hilarity in a mixed group, and it allows for a lot of leeway for story advancement. My husband could get pretty creative about his methods of persuasion. Dirty dice D&D FTW!