Yup. This covers “forgetful players”, but it also helps me: a DM with ADHD that can get very lost in “meatspace” (“which of these four monsters that look exactly the same took 40 damage, again?” or “I am sure I had that monster token here somewhere…”)
So I make tokens with pictures for the creatures on the top and space on the bottom to scribble the damage with dry-erase marker. Really helps.
Also: adding up is much faster than subtracting damage
Really recommend that method for anybody that wants to try and speed up combat
Nah, we know it’s hard. But if failure has no consequence in a given scene, then why not skip over and just assume it was done?