Jack Zander
2011-03-16, 12:55 AM
So I starting running a more tactical campaign where the players often fight other small forces similar to themselves of humanoid opponents with class levels near equal to their own (but seriously gimped on wealth to keep WBL mostly intact).
What I found is that the classes are actually pretty much balanced when they aren't fighting monsters. A mage will dominate the encounter when there is no other mage present, but I usually have at least one mage in each enemy party and it often becomes a battle of counterspelling, silencing, and dispelling while the fighters actually take out the opponents. With multiple mages on each team, most save or suck spells usually don't last more than 1 round. The battle becomes an effort to neutralize the opposing casters, and the less magical characters play a big role in that.
I had the misfortune of criting two players and causing a TPK. I was going to fudge because stray crits for max aren't cool in my book, but they told me I shouldn't so we kept it and well, 2 rounds later the party was wiped. They decided to make an all wizard party. Granted, this was only level 3, but the wizards had such a hard time dealing actual damage that all their webs, greases and glitterdusts simply weren't enough to actually take out any of the enemies. It just simply delayed and annoyed them for several rounds until they finally broke out or the effects wore off. Even with one wizard being built to handle physical attacks as well as a wizard could at his level plus another one being an evoker (they figured they had enough wizards in the other departments that they could use at least one focused on blasting), they simply couldn't actually bring any one creature down.
Now granted this was only tested at level 3, but I have a feeling that even at later levels, the mages of each group will spend so much of their time undoing the other's effects that the fight will still mostly be determined by which side has their fighters hit the hardest.
Also, if any of you enjoy tactical combat, I highly recommend playing a game like this. The only downside is that it takes quite a bit of preparation from the DM, as I typically have to make at least 3 new NPCs each session. I can only recycle so many before the group levels up, plus it is boring to have the players fight "Ranger level 3" over and over again. Also, expect each combat to last an entire game session, assuming a party of near equal strength and numbers. However, each combat becomes very interesting and worth the extra time each turn takes, aside from the cleanup rounds maybe.
What I found is that the classes are actually pretty much balanced when they aren't fighting monsters. A mage will dominate the encounter when there is no other mage present, but I usually have at least one mage in each enemy party and it often becomes a battle of counterspelling, silencing, and dispelling while the fighters actually take out the opponents. With multiple mages on each team, most save or suck spells usually don't last more than 1 round. The battle becomes an effort to neutralize the opposing casters, and the less magical characters play a big role in that.
I had the misfortune of criting two players and causing a TPK. I was going to fudge because stray crits for max aren't cool in my book, but they told me I shouldn't so we kept it and well, 2 rounds later the party was wiped. They decided to make an all wizard party. Granted, this was only level 3, but the wizards had such a hard time dealing actual damage that all their webs, greases and glitterdusts simply weren't enough to actually take out any of the enemies. It just simply delayed and annoyed them for several rounds until they finally broke out or the effects wore off. Even with one wizard being built to handle physical attacks as well as a wizard could at his level plus another one being an evoker (they figured they had enough wizards in the other departments that they could use at least one focused on blasting), they simply couldn't actually bring any one creature down.
Now granted this was only tested at level 3, but I have a feeling that even at later levels, the mages of each group will spend so much of their time undoing the other's effects that the fight will still mostly be determined by which side has their fighters hit the hardest.
Also, if any of you enjoy tactical combat, I highly recommend playing a game like this. The only downside is that it takes quite a bit of preparation from the DM, as I typically have to make at least 3 new NPCs each session. I can only recycle so many before the group levels up, plus it is boring to have the players fight "Ranger level 3" over and over again. Also, expect each combat to last an entire game session, assuming a party of near equal strength and numbers. However, each combat becomes very interesting and worth the extra time each turn takes, aside from the cleanup rounds maybe.