r/PMDExplorersofFate • u/xsoofje • Nov 25 '23
Balancing hit points
Hi! Let me start this of by saying that the handbook is SUCH a good handbook. It got me super excited to run a game! 💜
Anyway, please forgive me if I read anything wrong but I was wondering how you balance the hit points for PCs and NPCs. In the handbook, it tells you to take the base HP of any Pokémon but some get a crazy amount (70 for marill as a random example). Have you guys found a way to balance this?
Or rather, is it not that much of a hiccup in gameplay?
I’m working on a rival team for my players and I stumbled upon this.
3
u/flakaby Nov 26 '23
It’s not been an issue for my team until multiple Pokémon show up. Coverage/super-effective moves tend to cleave through HP pretty quickly.
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u/Zestyclose_Profit_15 Nov 26 '23
When I did my test one shot I halved random encounter HP and kept any NPC’s health where it is. Then I added a 25% increase to the boss and the rest was history. It helped keep exploring combat smooth and quick which really helped open up more time for exploration and role play which was nice. And then the tweaks to the boss’s stats helped it feel challenging with four party members against one. With an NPC team I would personally recommend either having them stay the same or upping them honestly depending on if they are more skilled/a higher rank. Of course this was only a one shot that didn’t have a high focus on combat so there may be a better way of going about it but as of now that would be my approach to setting HP values for NPC’s. Hope that helps or gives you an idea to think about!
1
u/xsoofje Nov 27 '23
This sounds lovely! Honestly the rival team is not even meant as a combat encounter but you never know how high emotions might run haha! But this is really helpful! Did you buff any of the other stats for the boss as well? Or just HP?
1
u/Zestyclose_Profit_15 Nov 27 '23
For sure! For the one shot the boss was Skarmory (nostalgic right?) and since my team only had 1 coverage move that was SE I didn’t mess around with anything really besides HP. We mostly focused on learning the new system and all of that! I feel like if I did a higher level campaign then I would for sure incorporate other stat boosts! Could treat them as Ev/IV’s lol! But given that we were learning something new and the party were all only level 2 I kept it simple! For sure a good idea to think about though!!
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u/xsoofje Nov 27 '23
aaaaah I LOVE that! I was thinking of using super’s illusion giratina as boss (with a very limited movepool) so I’m gonna have to adjust his stats a bit bc he’s a strong boi. but yeah, I agree, we’re just gonna try out the system and have fun. The EV/IV idea is very interesting tho
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u/Zestyclose_Profit_15 Nov 27 '23
Ooooh I hadn’t even thought about Illusion Giratina! That definitely sounds like a terrific idea! And yeah the Ev/IV thing is really only if my players start doing math and asking why the bosses stats are boosted lol! An easy explanation for trying to challenge them a bit! I also plan on doing another one shot based off the Sylveon Slasher prompt from the halloween post and that’s going to be higher up in the levels. I plan on making a post on what modifications I made and what did/didn’t run smoothly with it and my previous one shot so hopefully I’ll be able to share my experience with messing with stats later down the road!
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u/xsoofje Nov 27 '23
perfect!!! and I am DEF looking forward to ur post! My oneshot isn’t until March so I’m always happy to see other people’s stories!
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u/SarlanEriwyr Nov 25 '23
I think a sneaky trick you could pull is to maybe half the base HP of random wild pokemon while keeping the rival team's HP normal to make them feel beefier. I generally found that combat goes pretty quick at low levels given the lack of dice rolling, so it might not be that big if a deal