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Post by Julianus Petronius Merenda on Feb 13, 2012 15:02:21 GMT -5
I'm working on an adventure (and possibly a campaign) (that I may -actually- run) for my gaming group. The number of players who will be playing has not been specifically identified. It will be somewhere between 5 and 8 people. What's the best way to gauge an encounter against the number of players in the game ?
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Post by mister frau blucher on Feb 13, 2012 15:27:58 GMT -5
Hey, Julianus,
Great question!
There certainly is no hard mathematical formula (like CR's in 3.0+) given the vagaries of the dice (though the bell curve helps).
I've taken a few different approaches, and learned from ny early adventures. For one, you have to know whether there will be an opportunity to rest and heal during the adventure. If so, you can be a little more deadly in your encounters than if they have to fight through to the very end.
Then, regardless of whether they will have rest opportunities, you have to determine how much healing (magical or otherwise) you will provide access to as they progress. If healing is slim, you might not want to make the encounters as deadly as if they had access to such.
A rule of thumb is - if they can rest and have access to healing, make around 25 encounters with the enemies being close to the characters in terms of power. So if you have 6 adventurers, they should face 4-6 enemies of comparable power (or less enemies, but more powerful).
If there is no opportunity to rest, and little chance for healing as they progress, make it 12-15 enecounters with enemies half their strength/number until they get to the final encounter. This way they are constantly being worn down, and need to worry about resource mangement, until they arrive at the climactic encounter(s).
You asked about encounters, and I made it a bit broader by looking at the whole adventure. They are tied together, but if I have totally missed your point, let me know and I'll try again!
Hope this helps!
Bret
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Post by gigglestick on Jun 14, 2012 15:33:10 GMT -5
Just remember, that characters will generally suffer from attrition of ST as the games go on where most enemies are "Fresh".
So, while eight, 34 point enemies might sound like a fair fight for eight, 34 - 36 point heroes, the balance shifts strongly in the enemies' favor if the heroes have been through a few fights and are low on consumables (like arrows), Health (from unhealed damage), and Fatigue (from spellcasting, etc.)
And be careful with animals and other enemies who have no DX penalty. Armor quickly reduces DX and lowers the probablility of hitting so keep that in mind as well.
Damage per attack can be vicious too. Battleaxes and Greatswords can quickly decimate a party. Especially if their access to armor and other equipment is limited.
Lastly, multiple weak opponents can be much more dangerous than a single or pair of tougher opponents. Multiple attacks in TFT/LAW can be brutal.
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Post by platimus on Dec 29, 2013 20:27:29 GMT -5
I know this is an old thread but I stumbled upon it after thinking about this myself. All of the above is good advice. I have attempted to make it formulaic.
If you have 4 starting characters (4*32) that is 128pts. But what about skill points? Convert skill points to character points by dividing by three. So, a starting character with 32pts and 4pts of skills becomes a 33pt character. Four starting characters would have a total of 133pts ((4*32)+(4*4)/3)
Let X = the total pts of the party. Let Y = number of enemies in an encounter. Let Z = the total pts of the enemies.
Most encounters should have Z <= 3/4 of X and Y should be less than or equal to # of characters in party. Special encounters should have a higher Z or higher Y. very rarely should Z and Y both be higher.
For calculating Z, I would let each point of natural armor or armor without DX penalty equal 5pts. Each special ability possessed by the enemy like poison or regeneration another 5pts. Each 3d6 damage weapon, another 5pts.
Although I'm trying to express things in a formulaic manner, it's still just a guide.
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