What is your campaign balance? Combat vs Social?

[JacktheRabbit]

I start by fully admitting I hate characters that are uber optimized. Yes everyone is allowed to play any way they want, but I dislike when players do pure character optimization for combat. I find it very one dimensional and it turns DnD for a ROLE Playing Game to a combat board game. If that is how you want to play then just go buy a bunch of WH40K minis and play a pure math and combat game.

This brings me to my question. How do you balance your campaign? If your campaign is just a massive dungeon crawl then being 100% combat is the way to go, but a role play game should have balance. So how should a standard game be balanced? 50% combat 50% social interaction? Do you favor one over the other?

How much social do you think a campaign needs so that players who make balanced characters are happy and pure combat monsters are gimped enough to feel like they shoehorned their character by their choices?

 

[generic]

I start by fully admitting I hate characters that are uber optimized. Yes everyone is allowed to play any way they want, but I dislike when players do pure character optimization for combat. I find it very one dimensional and it turns DnD for a ROLE Playing Game to a combat board game. If that is how you want to play then just go buy a bunch of WH40K minis and play a pure math and combat game.

This brings me to my question. How do you balance your campaign? If your campaign is just a massive dungeon crawl then being 100% combat is the way to go, but a role play game should have balance. So how should a standard game be balanced? 50% combat 50% social interaction? Do you favor one over the other?

How much social do you think a campaign needs so that players who make balanced characters are happy and pure combat monsters are gimped enough to feel like they shoehorned their character by their choices?

These are merely off-hand estimates, but I think that my group tends to stick around these percentages, regardless of what my plans are hmm

65% Combat

35% Social

These values can, of course, change session-to-session, but they represent my group fairly accurately.

 

[Krachek]

I play in a game where 1/2 session have no attack rolls.

 

[JacktheRabbit]

These are merely off-hand estimates, but I think that my group tends to stick around these percentages, regardless of what my plans are hmm

65% Combat

35% Social

These values can, of course, change session-to-session, but they represent my group fairly accurately.

Do you feel that the 65/35 balance is enough to keep everyone from designing pure combat monsters that can barely speak full sentences?

 

[generic]

Do you feel that the 65/35 balance is enough to keep everyone from designing pure combat monsters that can barely speak full sentences?

At least with my players (who certainly don't represent all players), this seems to be the case.

I only have two true optimizer players (out of 7 individuals), and three players interested in social more than combat.

The other players lean on the combat side of things, but everyone gets a chance to engage with the setting in a way that feels fulfilling to them.

 

[aco175]

I tend to 75/25 in favor of combat. There may be weeks where there is a mystery or social investigation for most of the time, but there tends to be combat at least once every week. My group finds rolling dice and killing things to be a good stress relief from the week.

 

[Blue]

For 5e? Well, not every session has combat. I'd say half the sessions have combat. Sometimes it's several sessions in a row without combat., sometimes it's just a bit of combat, sometimes it's a block of combat with no combat around it. Say maybe 20% combat.

But this is at the table I run - very heavy roleplayers who enjoy it a great deal. Different tables have different balances.

 

[iserith]

I have as much combat and social interaction in my games as the players choose to have. Prep-wise, I leave room for either choice, as long as it makes sense (skeletons aren't terribly talkative, for example). In most of my campaigns, temporarily improving the attitude of NPCs or monsters to achieve a particular goal is worth as much XP as defeating them in combat.

 

[MechaPilot]

My group (which may actually be getting back together, it seems) tends to favor combat, so our sessions feature significantly more combat than non-combat. I'd say the mix is about 70/30. That's not my preference, but my players enjoy it.

That said, I try to inject as many social and non-combat challenges as I can; the adventure I've been working on for my group has a riddle that must be solved before the party can enter the adventure's first dungeon.

[SBLOCK=The Riddle]
If our cause you hold true,
You shall know what to do.
Wicked are book & blood & pact.
The bane of evil do now enact.
Only the righteous shall pass the test.
Death shall come for all the rest.
[/SBLOCK]

There's also a group of bandits occupying the area around the dungeon. If the party parleys with the bandits, they'll give the party free access to the dungeon in exchange for a cut of the loot. Or, they can just kill them, which'll probably end up happening. But, if they go that route I'll try to have the bandits flee, surrender, or offer the party a bribe and free access to the dungeon in exchange for sparing their lives. The party might just kill them anyway. Some of the members of my group are so dedicated they should have Thug Life like tattoos that say "Murder Hobo."

 

[MNblockhead]

Depends on the campaign. My current campaign is more heavily combat. But that is mainly in terms of table time because combat takes more time to resolve. In world - exploration, intelligence gathering, and puzzle solving take up more time and downtime activity plays a large role.

Also, social interactions can have far larger ramifications on the campaign than any single combat. Their is room to shine for all characters and plenty of times where combat optimization will not help solve a challenge.

In my current campaign, the optimization of characters to have amazing perception and investigation has been more of an issue, but there are ways to allow that while still making traps and hidden doors a challenge.