Combat Balance

[Brett]

Does anyone have suggestions or a simple method of balancing combat encounters in FH?

 

I can do fairly well, but sometimes I make encounters that are just too easy or too hard and requires some fudging on my part to make them work.

 

It may be just an art form.

 

Brett

[Gunrunner]

Re: Combat Balance

 

You just answered your own question, bud

[Markdoc]

Re: Combat Balance

 

Yeah, it's an art form. I very rarely have any problems, but then I've been doing this for 20+ years, so my method is to think "Yeah, that should do".

 

It just comes with experience

 

Good luck!

 

cheers,Mark

[Talon]

Re: Combat Balance

 

The only objective-ish technique I use is to imagine an NPC (or monster) hitting the PCs, and taking a hit from the PCs. If the results are too heinous, then I either make sure there is a mitigating factor (very slow monster, lack of surprise, etc.) or adjust things a bit.

 

But yeah, it's really an art form -- and I've found that's true in D&D as well, despite their having the CR system (which is better than nothing, to be fair). You just get a sense for what works and what doesn't. In addition to point levels and obvious things like SPD, CV, DC, and defenses, number of foes makes a big difference. It's easy for a single yet powerful monster to get swarmed, whereas a large number of weak guys can do a lot of damage before the PCs can get them all.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Combat Balance

 

The closest thing I've seen to a "scientific" approach is the Effectiveness Rating formula in Digital Hero #3. It's rather involved when evaluating complex characters like superheroes, but much less so for heroic-level characters. You can extrapolate the suggestion that two characters of ER X are a match for one of ER X+10 to double the number of foes for each +10, although in my experience the accuracy/usefulness of the progression starts to break down after +20.

 

The formulas are pretty inclusive, but definitely leave room for judgement by an experienced GM; but if you're spanking new to HERO it would probably be helpful.

[Brett]

Re: Combat Balance

 

I remember the Effectiveness Rating. It was interesting, but seemed way too involved.

 

I was wondering if anyone had any guidelines for comparing OCV vs DCV, and Damage vs Defense.

 

I guess the two main things to compare are how often in a turn each opponent will likely land a blow and how much damage will be done on average.

 

However, how much of a CV advantage is needed to be a significant benefit? How much defense is enough to defend from an attack? If a 2d6 Killing attack does an average of 7 body, should a challenging opponent have a 7 resistant defense or higher?

 

I have tried to think of the important things to consider between two characters and seem to come up with most of the information on the character sheets. SPD, DEX, CON, BOD, STUN, resistant and non resistant defenses, average and maximum damage from most likely used attacks, Maxumum OCV and DCV, etc...

 

Like people are saying, I guess it is just more of an educated guess.

 

Do other GM's fudge the rolls when things get unbalanced?

 

Brett

[NuSoardGraphite]

Re: Combat Balance

 

When it comes to Combat Value, if the two combatants are within 2pts of one another, they are fairly balanced. 3 or more point difference is when it gets one-sided.

 

OCV-6 vs DCV-3 = 14- to hit.

 

OCV-3 vs DCV-6 = 8- to hit.

 

See what I mean.

 

Don't forget (and don't let your players forget) about equalizing factors such as OCV bonuses for weapons and maneuvers, DCV bonus of sheilds and skills (WF: off-hand) which can help even the scale. In HERO, a +1 to OCV or DCV can make the difference between a hit or a miss, especially at Heroic levels of power, where CV stays fairly reasonable (average CV being 5 or 6)

 

As far as damage is concerned, its pretty easy to gauge.

Simply compare the DC of the attack to the applicable defenes.

 

If the Defense is half or less of the DC of the attack, the target is in real danger of being killed or seriously injured. If the Defense is close to being equal to the DC of the attack, then unless the damage roll is extraordinarily high (or the attack roll was a critical success using the Critical Hit rules) there's a good chance the target will survive the hit. If the Defense is approaching double the DC of the attack, the target is effectively immune to Body damage from that particular attack. Here's an example:

 

In regards to a 2D6 killing attack (DC 6)

 

Def of 3 will take 4 body on an average damage roll (ouch!) and 9 body on a maximum damage roll.

 

Defense 6 will take 1 Body on an average damage roll (no problem!) and 6 body on a maximum damage roll.

 

Defense 12 will take 0 Body on an average damage roll and 0 Body on a maximum damage roll as well.

 

This method goes a long way toward gauging how deadly an attack can be in regards to the targets defenses. Note however that the above is in regards to BODY damage only, not stun damage, which can still be severe, even when the defenses are approaching double the DC of the attack.

 

As far as SPEED is concerned, as long as the combatants are within 1 SPD point of one another, there generally isn't too much of a problem. When Speed gets 2 or more points higher between combatants, the one with the higher SPD has a serious advantage. Of course if one is running a Heroic level Fantasy campaign, there shouldn't be much of a problem with this as most characters should be SPD 3 or SPD 4.

[Midhir]

Re: Combat Balance

 

HCS - Hero Combat Simulator. Throw your NPCs/Monsters/Villians, etc in and your PCs then you can walk through combat with them to get an idea of how it will go. Then of course you can use it to run combat during the actual game to take the number crunching and record keeping tasks out and allow you to enjoy combat (even large combats ex: I just ran a 15 Great Wolves and 24 Goblins vs a group of 6 PCs and it was a hell of alot eaiser).

 

P.S.

 

Did I mention it is oh so close to being able to open Hero Designer save files, reading in all the Powers/Advantages/Disadvantages/Limitations/Skills/Martial Arts that HCS supports?