How to balance encounters?
Hello, everyone! I'm in the middle of writing the combat encounters for my next game, Ker Nethalas: Into the Midnight Throne, and I'm faced with the same, usual problems that pop up each time I make a game: how do I balance this thing? Right now I'm contemplating two options:
- Level based: The classical way to balance enemies. You are level X, and will only fight enemies found in the encounter tables specifically tailored to that level. We all know how this goes: a level 1 character will face a lot of kobolds and that sort of easy opponents, and a level 20 will see a lot of dragons and planar monstrosities (these are not examples taken from my game, there are no kobolds or dragons). The higher the level, the more complex enemies become.
- Character level-responsive: What I mean by this is that you have a large list of enemies (I'm thinking Ker Nethalas will have about 50 different types of monsters at launch), and each one of them has a basic stat block. This basic stat block is modified by some parameters that are tied to your character's level. So when you face a kobold at level 1 it will be theoretically balanced to your level, but facing it at level 15 would mean that it's been buffed to your level, becoming as much of a threat as it was when you first encountered. Anyone familiar with Skyrim knows how this goes.
Each method has its advantages and disadvantages: with level based, you can get a bit tired of facing the same monsters all the time until you level up, but it's really easy to use because you just grab the monster's stat block and start rolling. With the responsive method, you never really know what you're going to face, but it can be annoying to have to adapt each encounter to your current level. It's not like there's a lot of math involved (it would be just adding more HP, better attacks and/or armor, and that sort of stuff), but it does slow down gameplay a bit.
My first inclination has been to go classic and make a table of enemies for each level. Later on you can find Elite versions of easier enemies, with their stats increased to match your higher level. But you're still just facing a smaller range of monsters each level.
So what do you guys think, what's the best option?
EDIT: Just in case it's not clear, in both cases I'm planning on combat to be always somewhat balanced, your character's level is always taken into account. My question is not if I should add balanced combat or not, it's HOW to do so. Ker Nethalas is a survival dungeon crawling game closer to a tabletop, not truly a real RPG with all the freedom that RPGs have. At least, not mechanically, speaking.
Comments (8)
While a lot is being said about Encounter Level balancing in response to character's power, I think that some of the greatest games I have played in was when it wasnt balanced. I think that players should be warned when an encounter is specifically way to powerful for them to conquer head on. Because it isnt what happens when you can easily defeat your opponents, but what fights you avoided or found another way around. One of the things I dislike about monster based xp, is that it just encourages the easy route of murderhobos instead of challenging players to out think or out maneuver thier opponents.
Yes, and I fully agree when it comes to RPGs, that's the best way of doing things. But Ker Nethalas is closer to something like Shadows of Brimstone (the dungeon crawling boardgame) than to D&D, and as such it's not really easy to add that foreshadowing and clues to encounters that would allow players learn beforehand that they might be over their heads. As for XP, since all combat encounters are somewhat balanced in Ker Nethalas, you cannot really go and grind low level mobs. This is a combat-focused game, so avoiding combat is not really a viable strategy. Like I said, this is not a true RPG mechanically speaking, more like a boardgame with RPG elements.
Hi! I picked level based as it most closely resembles how I like to see things: Enemies are there where they ought to be. So, if I go into a dragon's lair, there will be a dragon and gangers tough enough to keep up with it. And if I go into a kobold den, there will be kobolds. And dragons are strong (in absolute terms) and kobolds weak (in absolute terms).Or putting it the other way around, I don't believe in dragons becoming weaker just because a low-level character stumbles into their lair or standard kobolds suddenly growing body-builder biceps just because a high-level character wants to clean out their den.Picking the right fights is an important decision the player has to make rather than having things adjusted that he can have basically the same experience all the time. Putting it another way, if I use a low level character to challenge a dragon, I deserve getting send to character creation rather than having the dragon secretly level-drained just to make it a fair fight. And if I want to bully some kobolds with a high-level character, so be it. The rewards I get are probably negligible compared to what I already have, so in terms of character growth, it is probably a waste of time. Yours, Deathworks
Yes, I completely agree with you, and I was afraid I didn't express myself correctly. In both of the options I'm contemplating, encounters will always be relatively balanced to your character's level. So even in the level based option, if you're level 3 you'll only find level 3 enemies. I personally prefer to have a variety of difficulties, with some options being outright deadly for your characters, but my goal with Ker Nethalas is to have a more beginner friendly, tailored experience. Like I said, this is closer to a boardgame than to an RPG, mechanically speaking. I don't want characters to get stuck and not be able to continue because they can't defeat an enemy. In an RPG there are ways around that, but not in the type of game I'm making, which has very clear, finite mechanical options.
Obviously the answer is actually to make the game level-less, come on now!
Yeah you know how most of my games don't really use levels in a traditional sense, if they use them at all, but it's kind of useful in order to track progress and balance things. My preference is always no classes, no levels!
I prefer to avoid levels, so the character has to decide whether to engage in a fight or not, often depending on the circumstances. Perhaps it would not be possible to win against an orc in a fair fight, but that that means either run away or find a place to ambush it. Life is not always fair, and having an insurance that each fight will be the right level just for you always seemed kind of strange to me.
For a true RPG this is exactly what I prefer as well, it's up to your character to decide whether it's a good idea to fight or not. But Ker Nethalas is a dungeon crawler mechanically closer to a boardgame than to an RPG, so combat is not really something you can avoid: it's the whole point of the game, basically. That is why I've spent a lot of effort making sure combat is fun, actually. But this means that combat must be somewhat balanced. There are still some enemies that are more difficult than others, but every single enemy you face should be beatable.