Combat Design Issue?

[trollson]

I have just analysed this for non-EL reasons, and thought its conculsions would be worth posting here as well. Note that this post is about EL, the original analysis was not.

 

 

There is a problem with EL's combat system, in that the combat rating of characters diverges far too rapidly. I believe that this is down to how character's combat rating is allowed to progress as their character develops.

 

Consider what aspects affect a character's combat rating:

• Offensive ability -- the ability to score a hit.
  
• Defensive ability -- the ability to avoid being hit.
  
• Health or hit points -- the amount of damage which can be endured.
  
• Damage inflicted -- the amount of damage inflicted.
  

There are other influences of course, but these four form the core of the physical combat system.

 

Next review established and mature RPG systems¹, with known balanced combat systems, and see how these aspects are allowed to develop as a character progresses. I'll just mention two contrasting systems:

• D&D: Offense and Health improve, Defense and Damage are static.
  
• RuneQuest ² : Offense and Defense improve, Health and Damage are static.
  

Now, how does EL treat these factors?

• EL: Offense, Defense, Health, Damage all increase.
  

Interesting. Both D&D and RuneQuest only allow two of the four aspects to be improved, while EL allows all four.

 

What are the consequences of this?

 

Very roughly, EL characters' combat ratings increase at the square of their development, O(2), when compared to D&D or RuneQuest. If all effects where equal, this would mean that pitching a level 5 vs level 10 in EL would be comparable to levels 5 vs 50 in D&D.

 

This may be a rough back-of-the-envelope analysis, but it does explain what I have observed in the game³, and provides a useful rule-of-thumb when designing balanced combat systems:

Offense, Defense, Hit points, and Damage -- only allow two to be improved by character development.

 

[1] Which use combat systems which can be equated to ELs. I don't include systems such as RoleMaster for example, where damage is not measured against hit points.

[2] Including all Basic Role-Playing systems.

[3] Specifically, combat ratings progress too rapidly, combats against uneven opponents do not last long enough to offer any feedback to the less rated character. For example, against Skeletons I went from instant death to reliable victory without any noticable transitional phase.

Edited September 26, 2006 by trollson

[trollson]

What can be done about this?

 

Scope for change is very limited:

• Offensive, Defensive, and Health are published quantities -- these cannot be changed without it being obvious to the players, and thus the inevitable backlash.
  
• Damage is the only unpublished quantity¹ -- gradual change, over months to a year, could go unnoticed by the players (set against character developement and game changes).
  
  

Moving damage to a static feature would reduce the gradient of combat rating from O(2) to O(1½) (compared to established RPGs). An improvement, if not a complete fix.

This may eventually encourage the use of weapons?

[1] Without knowing the damage formula, I am assuming that both skill and physique/might are parameters. For the purpose of this analysis it doesn't really matter, other than it increases with character development.

[duran]

err, last time i read the D&D rules, all four increase. its just that two of them increase not by level, but by the use of money.

 

edit:

 

never mind, your using static in that they are set in stone and dont change by level, not that they dont change at all.

 

still, there are other rpgs out there that allow all of these to change as the character develops...

Edited September 29, 2006 by duran

[Entropy]

This is an interesting observation, but I think the problem is with the fact that some of the base attributes are not as viable as others for a fighter. One solution would be to make them more viable, either for fighting or for something else, so fighters won't invest that much in Co/Ph.

Stuff like some other perks, for example.