Hardest things to balance in game

[marune]

Players who like to optimize their characters vs players who don't.

# / day abilities vs "mana"-based abilities vs unlimited uses abilities.

 

[Lord Zardoz]

This is one reason to use point buy (a reasonable amount), and enforce an 8 (before racial mods) as minimal stats. Said barbarian won't last long if they have a Wisdom and Dex of 8.

I have pretty much always used a 28 point buy. An 18 costs 16 points. The Half Orc Barbarian that I am thinking of probably had something like this after racial modifiers: Str 20, Dex 12, Con 14, Int 8, Wis 8, Cha 6;

So there is a Skill point penalty, and a weak Dex score for someone who cannot wear heavy armour. But damn can he lay out the opposition when he lands a hit.

END COMMUNICATION

 

[Lord Zardoz]

Make several easy combats happen on the same day. The barbarian can only rage once at this level. Still get a big bonus from his natural ability score, though. But if you manage the timing right, the barbarian may be fatigued at the time, and the penalties incurred then will compensate for this.

Several combats in one day is a bit difficult to make work for levels 1 and 2. Its not really even all about the Barbarians rage ability. Even without the rage, plenty of CR appropriate foes are 1 hit wonders. But the stuff that the Barbarian is mowing down without difficulty is putting up a pretty stiff fight for everyone else except maybe the other front line fighter.

The difficulty, I find, is the razor thin margin for error when putting together an encounter. If the Barbarian stays in the fight for 5 rounds, he has taken out at least 4 opponents. But if that first opponent hits a solid critical in the 1st round, what then? I don't like breaking out the dice for combats unless the PC's have a reasonable chance of losing. Otherwise, I am just slowing down the game by running a fight. And if I manage to put the barbarian down early, what was a reasonably challenging fight suddenly becomes a life or death struggle.

Once you hit level 3, there is more leeway to run a couple of encounters in one day. And I am less hesitant to do things like toss out a Sorcerer with Sleep against the players, since I am pretty sure I wont wipe the party with it.

END COMMUNICATION

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

I have pretty much always used a 28 point buy. An 18 costs 16 points. The Half Orc Barbarian that I am thinking of probably had something like this after racial modifiers: Str 20, Dex 12, Con 14, Int 8, Wis 8, Cha 6;

So there is a Skill point penalty, and a weak Dex score for someone who cannot wear heavy armour. But damn can he lay out the opposition when he lands a hit.

END COMMUNICATION

One reason to use more varied enemies. PCs have a party, usually consisting of something like the core four. Enemy spellcasters are harder to use, but used they should be. With his low Will save, that Barbarian is Sleep bait, especially if caught by surprise. (Surprise is always good, and a surprised barbarian isn't raging yet.) An enemy party that includes a wizard and a druid (Entangle) could really lay the smackdown on said barbarian. I think Entangle is a little overpowered, but it would work really great.

Another thing to do is more terrain/archers. You can't charge through firm terrain like stone walls, nor is charging or running uphill easy (or even possible). Put archers behind the wall or above the gorge. However, that's not really solving the problem.

Maybe I'm too used to d20 Modern; everyone was human, so no +2 bonuses anywhere.

 

[FireLance]

The abilities that I tend to have more trouble balancing usually have all of the following characteristics:

1. Need to be activated in the presence of enemies, e.g. most offensive abilities
2. Significantly more powerful than what a "normal" character is able to do (possibly breaking the "metacap")
3. Usable a small number of times per day (less than the expected number of encounters per day)

These abilities include the frenzied berserker's frenzy, divine metamagic, sudden metamagic feats, metamagic rods, etc.

Such abilities tend to increase the variability of encounters since they create additional uncertainties: whether the ability has already been used, whether the ability will be used, and, as a related point, whether the PCs' opponents will be able to do anything to prevent the use of the ability.

That is why I am of the view that a system with abilities that are refreshed primarily on a per encounter basis instead of on a per day basis would help DMs balance their games better, since the PCs will start each encounter at approximately the same level of resources.

 

[Ravilah]

I also have a hard time with all-or-nothing/live-or-die saves. A single failed save on the part of the BBEG can make an otherwise exciting encounter simpler than a trip to the grocery store. The PCs then get a nice mass of treasure for the cost of one spell slot.

Am I an evil DM for having an emergency "extra bad guy" waiting in the wings when this happens? I don't always do it, and I only do it to make the fight cinematically satisfying.

(I also now favor teams of villains rather than just solo baddies).