-- combat -- taking down enemies --
There has to be a quick way of ripping through enemies. After watching the Lord of the Rings, I realized that there was a simple way.
If you can deal damage equal or greater than half of an enemies total hit points in one blow, they are no longer a concern. They are effectively out of combat. Also, natural 20 critical hits may also take enemies out of combat. These won't work on everything, and indeed, you do not know the hit points of most creatures, so a success or failure will be determined by me and a covert DC. I will assign a DC for knocking an enemy out of combat, and roll it if there is any question in my mind. A success means that that enemy is no longer a threat - they are disabled to the point of non-combatant. They can still try to get in your way, or perhaps stab you from the ground, but those attemts are usually clumsy at best.
This should allow combat to move faster and easier than before. After combat ends, you will all have the option of "cleaning up". This will not have anything to do with combat, and if you decide to kill them all, it will be faster and more efficient to just assume sticking a knife in the back of someone already unconscious is easy enough that you don't need to make a "to hit" check. You will also have the option to leave them there alive to whatever fate awaits them.
One word of caution though - an enemy may be disabled, but at times this will not stop them from running and summoning more aid, or attempting to kick you from the ground, or stab you. Also, most animals will not stop fighting simply because they've been severly injured - usually, this makes them worse to encounter. So this is not a rule for every encounter.