How do we quantify status effects?

[@DasBridges]

How, in some sort of quantifiable sense, can one categorize/rank damage and status effects? What amout of damage is "equivalent" to stun (save ends) from a action economy/game design perspective?
How many "effectiveness points" is slowed (save ends) worth, how many more is immobilized (save ends) worth?

Does anyone have suggestions re: systems that have modeled this well?

[kieza]

I'd say to grade status effects on the basis of how much damage they cause the target to take, and how much damage they prevent the target from doing. (The amount of healing that would otherwise be required, in other words.)

So, if immobilizing a creature lets a melee character close with it one round sooner, the immobilize effect is worth however much damage the melee character can deal in one round, on average. If the immobilize effect instead prevents a creature from closing to melee, it's worth however much damage the creature would have done, on average.

The problem with this approach is that quantifying "damage permitted, damage prevented" would require quite a bit of playtesting.

[Khedrac]

Also, for a point buy system, it is pretty meaningless to say something like:
"2d6 damage costs the same as a stun (1 round) effect"
unless you also say how many hit points (and armour points?) people have.
(In a system where the average hit points are 100 I would expect a 1 round stun to be a better spend, in a system where people average 7 hit points then the 2d6 damage is probably better.)

I don't have the rules so I cannot check, but I would think Champion is supposed to be one of the most detailed "point-buy for all abilities" systems so might be a good place to look.
You might get more useful answers in the "Other Systems" sub-forum, but probably not as I expect all of the readers of that forum to read this one too.

[CharonsHelper]

As Khedrac says, there are far too many unknown variables. You would have to have an entire system without them, and only then add character options to get them and figure out their value then.

Of note though, if the system had significant power increase as you level, many of those are force multipliers (stunning etc). A force multiplier is the same % benefit no matter what, and so for the same cost it would be of more value at high levels than low ones. You would then need to add limitations upon those effects in a point-buy, such as needing to increase the cost if you want them to work on higher level foes. It would also depend upon your allies.

Of course, this leads to my general idea that pure point-buy systems are virtually impossible to balance in a more complex/tactical RPG system. I actually like point-buy in theory though, but I also like balance. (NOT to say that games with levels are inherently balanced, just that pure point-buy is inherently unbalanced.) I actually prefer hybrid systems myself; they keep most of the point-buy customization with a more solid core for a designer to build around.

[Slipperychicken]

Too much of the answer depends on the context the status effects exist in, what kind of combat system they're part of, whether or not they can be resisted or nulled, ended early, and so on.

[erikun]

This depends a lot on the system, and how combat works in the system.

For example, paralysis in D&D3.5e is fatal. It typically lasts X rounds or X minutes, which will frequently be long after the fight as ended. It drops the target's AC and makes them vulnerable. It prevents them from moving or doing much of anything. It is roughly equivalent to the full HP total of an equal-level enemy in damage, or perhaps HP total * chance of success - probability of encountering something immune.

In D&D4e, paralysis is far less impressive. It is typically "until beginning of next turn" or save ends, which generally means 1-3 rounds in most cases. It doesn't penalize defense, and just prevents attacking. In this case, paralysis would generally be worth healing (or damage prevention) equal to the damage of two standard attacks from the creature.

It's fairly hard to give a specific answer to "how good is paralysis" compared to other status effects and even HP damage in such a situation. You would, at least, need to know the system to know how HP works. More accurately, you would want to refer to a specific status effect in a specific system and rank it appropriately with other status effects, to get a meaningful list. Seeing as how different systems could handle status effects differently - or even completely change how they work - it is not realistically possible to objectively rank status effects outside a system.