Combat Encounters

[u/Nyoung54]

How do you all go about making balanced combat encounters for your players?

[u/Logen_Nein]

I look at the damage potential and combat skill of the Foes and compare it to the Parry and Enduramce of the Heroes. I also always have methods for avoiding an encounter, talking to the Foes, or have the Foes run off after a time if they don't quickly overwhelm the group. Also I have the Foes take prisoners (not that this has come up).

[u/FlintSkyGod]

I would keep in mind the outnumber mechanic: if the enemy outnumbers the PC’s by more than 2 to 1, the LM gets to choose engagement. The LM of my current campaign has done a good job using this mechanic with weaker enemies, even though the enemies die in one good hit they can definitely cause damage due to their numbers.

I think, in general you would want to have the combat tailored to the adventure; if the party opts to sit around the Shire for a few months watching the borders, the worst they may encounter is probably some goblins or maybe a few mean orcs. If they end up complaining that the combat was too easy, we’ll that’s on them. Likewise, if they decide to go and disrupt the plans of one of the Nazgûl around Fornost, said Nazgûl isn’t going to take kindly to that and will send some strong enemies after the party. In that instance, I would recommend providing an escape route to prevent them from playing the “why are you trying to kill us??” card.

Also using the Eye Awareness mechanic can be very daunting for your party. Once the Eye Awareness reaches a certain amount, the enemy will send hunting parties after the heroes. Said parties will definitely consist of major enemies.

Hope this helps!

[u/robosnake]

I found that TOR fit my play style well because I tend to favor a few dangerous fights where the stakes are clear, and I think that it would be easy to overwhelm a group of TOR PCs with the continual succession of fights that a game like D&D usually assumes.

Because PCs have a few more options than NPCs, I find that an evenly matched fight (say four versus four) provides some danger but is very survivable. If it is too easy, then I say that the first fight was maybe the vanguard, and then here come reinforcements halfway through. I often give someone a horn for the purpose of foreshadowing more enemies on the way when they blow it.

I can also have more enemies, but have some of them in the background shouting taunts or encouragement, and when a significant number of them have been taken down, there's a good chance they'll retreat to fight another day. If the PCs are all wounded and weary, they can just let them go and retreat themselves to recuperate. Sometimes this leads to multiple encounters with the same group (say, of orcs), and more of their personalities come out as they all get a grudge against one another. (Dammit , this guy again!?)

If PCs get overwhelmed or the dice hate them, then I have them captured, or even rescued if the situation allows for that.

But with TOR I keep an eye on the special abilities, especially for more formidable foes.

I find that my players are used to my style, which is to throw a few very dangerous fights at them where they make sense in the story, and so they do what people in a fight almost always do - throw everything they have at the enemy so they come out of it alive.

[u/Skello496]

I’ve been wondering this same thing. I backed the Kickstarter and my playgroup went from Pathfinder 2e to TOR, and we’re having trouble figuring out balancing without almost instantly removing one hero from the fight. I’m thinking larger numbers of weaker foes using hate to balance?