How to balance encounters

[knightwriter]

I've recently developed a Fantasy Hero game and have created some characters and then pitted them against several of the fantasy creatures from the sixth edition bestiary.

What I've noticed is that my characters have not had much difficulty with defeating many of the monsters that I would think would be a challenge for most beginning characters, such as skeletons and goblins.

It's quite possible that I'm not used to the build of the characters (using 175 points), thus not familiar with how strong the characters are in actual play.

What I am wondering is if there is some sort of guage to indicate a challenge for characters, sort of like encounters levels in some games that reflect an appropriate challenge for the characters?

Thanks for any help.

[Nolgroth]

Re: How to balance encounters

 

It's not just the number of points, it is the campaign guidelines.

 

You have to determine:

 

• Maximum Damage Class
  
• Maximum Combat Value
  
• Maximum Defenses
  
• Maximum STUN, BODY, and END.
  
• Other things like Maximum Characteristics, Skill Rolls, etc.
  

If any of the first 3 are too high, then the published opposition is going to be too easy. If they are too low, then they will too hard. Basically try to keep things within a point or two in either direction. If the BODY, STUN thing is too high, then the characters might ultimately win, but it will take a while to wear down the baddies.

 

If you find that the monsters are too easy or too hard, adjust the stats on the fly. Remember that, as GM, the monsters have as many or as few points as you need them to have. I don't even approach them from looking at points any more. I focus more on things like how do the monsters compare in those first four bullet points., how fast they are in relation to the characters (Speed and Dex) and whether or not they have exotic defenses (Automaton Powers, Damage Negation or Reduction, Desolidification, etc) and whether they have exotic attacks (Drains, NNDs, Mental) or whatnot. For me, it is a lot easier to build the baddies based on those criteria than it is to try to balance points.

 

Good luck.

[NuSoardGraphite]

Re: How to balance encounters

 

Skeletons, zombies, goblins and possibly even Orcs won't provide much of a challenge for 150pt characters and possibly not even a 100pt character depending on how they are built. A 150pt "Fighter" should be able to slaughter multiple skeletons or zombies without too much trouble whatsoever. This is normal. But there are plenty of other creatures that WILL give such characters a challenge and in fact, kill them outright, so be careful.

 

The main thing is not necesarily the goblins stats and skill levels, but how you the GM utilizes them to make them a threat. If the skeletons were once a part of an army or mercenary company, they will still be wearing their armor and carrying military grade weaponry (possibly of high quality). Imagine an Automaton with no STUN, that continues to fight till it reaches negative Body but also has a resistant Defense of at least 6. Not a fun fight. Skeletons wielding battleaxes, maces and flails could be a significant threat.

 

Goblins and other intelligent (so to speak) enemies can and will use tactics when fighting tough opponents. To goblins, almost everyone is a tougher opponent, most certainly human/elven warriors, so I would think they would develop pack-style combat tactics. Make sure your goblin enemies swarm their foes, fighting at least 3 to 1, make use of flanking maneuvers. 1 goblin in the "pack" will hold its phase to block, then after the PC commits to an attack action and the first goblin blocks, the other two move in for the attack (and the PC will have moved that phase and will be unable to block or dodge!). Once the PC's run into such tactics, they will think twice about simply rushing in half cocked.

 

Good luck!

[Tasha]

Re: How to balance encounters

 

First off, Skellies and Gobbies are pretty low teir opponents. Unless your PCs are pretty low powered, those monsters will be more or less of a walk over.

 

For heroic games 1x avg DC is a good number for rDef. For total def use the standard 2x - 2.5x avg DC. This will keep the rDef Low enough that PC's will be able to cause BODY damage on higher than average rolls, and allows for enough def that their opposition doesn't constantly get stunned.

 

A challenging combat should have creatures that as a group are equal to the PC (ie Damage Class, Combat Values (DCV, OCV), and Defenses (esp armor aka Resistant Defenses). If there is a large group then the Damage Class Defenses and CV should be slightly less than the PC's (but not too much lower or your opposition won't be able to hit and will always be hit and Stunned).

 

When you change stuff on the fly be careful that you don't increase the def, and CV too much. Otherwise the PC's won't be able to hurt the opposition. This applies especially to creatures that have Automaton powers. Automatons that have too much defenses will be impossible for the PC's to beat. (their resistant should be at one less than the average PC's DC). Again don't increase CV and Def if the PC's are getting lucky on their dice rolls. you can create a situation where suddenly the opposition is too hard. What I usually do is increase STUN by enough that the big baddy lasts a few phases. Though if the PC's get super lucky ie Rolling Max on a rolled Head shot, I'll allow them their victory.

[AmadanNaBriona]

Re: How to balance encounters

 

A point to consider... a fairly common rule of thumb for rough conversions from D&D to Hero is that each D&D level is around 25 points. So a 175 character could be reasonably expected to perform something like a 7th level character. Pit those same goblins or skeletons against a 25 point Hero (Competent Normal, not dissimilar from a 1st lvl C) and you'll see results closer to what you might expect.

 

Also bear in mind that most of the "Lesser" foe writeups in the various books tend to reflect an average member of the culture. A Normal, as it were.

[Ternaugh]

Re: How to balance encounters

 

Tactics can make quite a difference on combat effectiveness. For goblins, I've used the Coordinated Attacks (6e2 44) and the Multiple Attackers (6e2 49) rules, which can make swarms of the little buggers particularly nasty.

 

JoeG

[prestidigitator]

Re: How to balance encounters

 

Yeah, if the PCs are getting by too easily, don't be afraid to be wily. Hold actions, Abort, Coordinate attacks, do multiple-on-one Grabs to hold down an opponent and pull off his armor.... At least if you can manage to keep track of everything that's happening. Likewise don't be afraid to pit them against some big scary opponents and be prepared with a (non-cheesy) way to scale things back if they are getting slaughtered.

[薔薇語]

Re: How to balance encounters

 

All the above is good advice. In the immortal words of Drew Carey, "the points don't matter." I know, you are shocked, but let it sink in for a moment. Every character, foe, and game is going to be slightly different and thus points spend on X in one game / situation are going to be super valuable while in others not so much. If I wrote up a 150pt merchant, I would probably think twice about tangling with any foes. But at the same time, as the GM, I can write a 50pt foe that could tangle with most 150 pt dedicated fighters. It is all about knowing the environment.

 

To parlay that into a DnD reference (not really sure what background you have and most people played DnD), there was a character design that would allow one to munchkin out at 2nd level (fighter/rouge) so that you could in most situations feint and flatfoot all your opponents. As such, I was (yes, I did this) able to easily take on humans and other such beings- but the moment it came to the undead or high armor (natural or otherwise) users, I was dead meat. Didn't matter what their level was, I was best off running away. Take from that the lesson that all things are relative and, "the points don't matter."

 

That said, something that is a good way to keep PCs on their toes without prolonging mook battles is to follow the principle of "big stick, glass jaw." Sure, even if the merchant hits the Goblin, the goblin is going down - but give the goblin some big stick (disease, primitive gun, etc) that if it hits can cause real effects on the PCs. Just make the mooks easy to KO and the Big Stick only moderately capable of hitting. Thus Players can feel like they are able to focus on the big baddies while at the same time recognizing that the little guys are still a threat. : )

 

Best of Wishes.

La Rose.

[Armitage]

Re: How to balance encounters

 

Digital Hero #3 had a Fifth Edition system for calculating a character's Effectiveness Rating, inspired by the old Combat Rating system that appeared in Adventurer's Club #3.

Various points are calculated based on OCV, DCV, attacks, defenses, Characteristics, senses, movement, etc.

The rule of thumb offered in the article was that 2 characters of X ER would be matched by 1 character of x+10 ER.

 

The approximate ER levels were:

Low Heroic - 40 ER

Standard Heroic - 50 ER

High Heroic - 60 ER

Legendary Heroic - 70 ER

Low Superhero - 80 ER

Superhero - 100 ER

Legendary Superhero - 120 ER

Cosmic - 150 ER

 

So, for example, a party of four characters with an average ER of 54 would be matched by 1 creature with an ER of 74, 2 with ER 64, 4 with ER 54, 8 with ER 44, 16 with ER 34, etc.

 

It would take some extra work to modify the system for 6e and calculate the Effectiveness Ratings for characters and monsters. The article says that there was supposed to be a spreadsheet on the Free Stuff page, but it's either gone or was never there.

[prestidigitator]

Re: How to balance encounters

 

Hmm. I could see assuming a basic campaign average of CVs, DCs, Speed, etc., and then doing something like adding +10 ER for each +3 CV (one standard deviation on the 3d6 distribution), +3 DCs (or whatever), x2 Speed, etc. Roughly whatever will (VERY approximately) "double" the amount of damage done each Turn. That way adding +10 ER for one creature and doubling the number of creatures should do approximately the same thing.

[gojira]

Re: How to balance encounters

 

Some things you can do if your PC's are having too easy of a time:

 

1. If they cut right through a group easily, have a second group appear immediately. Just reuse the exact same number from the first group.

 

2. Add "Boss" type characters to a group of easy NPCs. The goblins are being lead/bullied by an especially large orc. There's an evil necromancer controlling the skeletons. For an orc Boss, try the following: take be best Fighter in the PC party, and reduce his stats by 2 in most respects: 2 less Body, 2 less OCV, 2 less DCV, 2 less DCs, 2 less Def, etc. (probably not 2 less speed though). Then use the goblins as distractions while the Boss maneuvers for a good shot at a PC. Have goblins grapple characters to reduce effectiveness or to prevent spell casting, etc. The idea is not to necessarily wound PCs, but at least make them sweat it a little.

 

3. Slowly ramp up the difficulty. Replace goblins with half the number of wolf riders, then ramp up those numbers too. Add an Ogre or other large critter in the mix. Go from one necromancer with a handful of undead to an entire cabal of evil sorcerers, one spell caster at a time. Don't ramp up until the PCs are in mortal danger each encounter, just until you've got a feeling where the right danger level is.

 

4. Have the PCs make an enemy that's explicitly more powerful than them. They can't attack directly, so what can they do?

 

Also: how are you doing recoveries? Fantasy Hero suggests that you limit recoveries to prevent PCs from becoming energizer bunnies of nearly unlimited End. Consider limiting Recoveries out of combat too, so PCs should be down a bit of End after each encounter.

[TheQuestionMan]

Re: How to balance encounters

 

TheQuestionMan's Top 5 Hero GM Tips

1. A lot of basic Tactics (read "Cunning") and Maneuvers (read "Sneaky") can make even weak opponents in Hero System can really challenge the players.

2. Hide the GM's Dice Rolls. Cheat, but usually only to save the PC's.

3. Fast and Furious Combats. Bad Guys see they are losing will run away. Moral will break and greed will buy them off.

4. Presence Attacks is the greatest Hero Characteristic ever.

5. Have fun. If the PC's got their buts handed to them last session. Give them a chance at victory in the next.

 

 

Cheers

 

 

QM