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Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
Making Pregens 'Fair and Balanced'
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<blockquote data-quote="doctorhook" data-source="post: 5210188" data-attributes="member: 58401"><p>A tip? Don't run PvP battles, not even non-lethal ones. I'm not sure your goal of "fair and balanced 4E PvP combat" is possible.</p><p></p><p>Remember that 4E doesn't design monsters the same way it designs PCs; monsters and NPCs are designed to "blow their wad" within one encounter, while PCs are designed to last all day. I don't know what all the effects will be if you face two PCs against each other, but suffice to say it will be much more difficult to balance or predict the outcome (since conventional encounter-building logic won't be applicable). In other words, PCs weren't meant to fight other PCs.</p><p></p><p>Remember that Daily powers are just suped-up Encounter powers when characters only have one encounter per day. This has implications for balance. Make your combatants fight more than once per day, and make sure they know they will.</p><p></p><p>Remember that 4E intends for PCs to be used as a part of a team. In one-on-one combat, Strikers rule supreme, Leaders are screwed, and Controllers and Defenders become fairly redundant (except that Defenders still have good hp and defenses). If you insist upon PvP combat, I recommend you let PCs fight as teams of at least three, especially if you don't want all your winners to be rangers.</p><p></p><p>Remember that combat between PCs is the type of D&D game with the most potential to kill somebody's fun. It's way too easy for one player to take it personally, especially since D&D is otherwise a cooperative (rather than competitive) game.</p><p></p><p>Remember that PvP combat can be addictive; once players have a taste for proving themselves against each other, you may have trouble getting them to play a campaign without it -- and its group-destroying tendencies.</p><p></p><p>If you must continue, I recommend switching to a system better designed for PvP than 4E is; 3.5E would be a slight improvement, for example.</p><p></p><p>Consider yourself warned! (And don't take my dire tone too personally. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink ;)" data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />)</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="doctorhook, post: 5210188, member: 58401"] A tip? Don't run PvP battles, not even non-lethal ones. I'm not sure your goal of "fair and balanced 4E PvP combat" is possible. Remember that 4E doesn't design monsters the same way it designs PCs; monsters and NPCs are designed to "blow their wad" within one encounter, while PCs are designed to last all day. I don't know what all the effects will be if you face two PCs against each other, but suffice to say it will be much more difficult to balance or predict the outcome (since conventional encounter-building logic won't be applicable). In other words, PCs weren't meant to fight other PCs. Remember that Daily powers are just suped-up Encounter powers when characters only have one encounter per day. This has implications for balance. Make your combatants fight more than once per day, and make sure they know they will. Remember that 4E intends for PCs to be used as a part of a team. In one-on-one combat, Strikers rule supreme, Leaders are screwed, and Controllers and Defenders become fairly redundant (except that Defenders still have good hp and defenses). If you insist upon PvP combat, I recommend you let PCs fight as teams of at least three, especially if you don't want all your winners to be rangers. Remember that combat between PCs is the type of D&D game with the most potential to kill somebody's fun. It's way too easy for one player to take it personally, especially since D&D is otherwise a cooperative (rather than competitive) game. Remember that PvP combat can be addictive; once players have a taste for proving themselves against each other, you may have trouble getting them to play a campaign without it -- and its group-destroying tendencies. If you must continue, I recommend switching to a system better designed for PvP than 4E is; 3.5E would be a slight improvement, for example. Consider yourself warned! (And don't take my dire tone too personally. ;)) [/QUOTE]
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Making Pregens 'Fair and Balanced'
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