Since there are lots of authors here, I'll ask a question: How do you find a basis to start your balancing work from?
So I'm writing an RPG, and I've got a skeleton of the basic mechanics down. Figure I'll try it with a D&D type setting first, since that will be easy to get player for and shows a lot of the bits of the system (magic, races, etc).
But that means I need to make spell lists. How do I work out a good starting point for how much damage each spell does? #GameDesignRPG
Or how do I work out if Stone Shape or Summon Mount is a harder spell to cast? How do I work out the appropriate power of 'soft' resources that are useful but don't have numbers attached?
I'm also thinking of a tick based initiative. As in, swinging a dagger costs you 2 ticks, whereas swinging a longsword costs you three. You can act again that number of ticks later.
Which means I need to balance both damage and speed, and I'm not sure how to get that started. I'm thinking a spreadsheet of average damage over 10 rounds, with bigger weapons having an edge, say 1.2 times the damage on average. #RPG #GameDesign
Since getting to act again sooner is a big advantage, there should be a tradeoff, in less total damage over time. Plus it seems most games favour light, fast, weapons over big slow ones. (Rogues with sneak dice deal more damage then a plate wearing fighter, in video games light weapons usually have higher DPS, etc) #rpg #gameDesign
One of my design goals is that a traditional sword and board fighter should be a valid option. Since I basically NEVER see that in D&D. It is all glaive this and two handed sword that.
Also give people a reason to use spears. When was the last time you saw someone use a spear? #RPG #gamedesign
Oh and avoid the overused tank/DPS/support triad. Its been in a million games, STOP.
So: No buff spells, or only a few. They slow things down to much.
Fighters in armour deal the most melee damage. They've got the biggest weapons, it makes the most sense.
Rogues and other 'light' characters will probably stick to bows. Less damage, but safer to use. Frees up the fighter from being just a meatsheild.
@Halfjack I disagree. Most games have explicit support for a lightly armoured, high damage character. D&D gives rogues sneak damage, for example. It might have been an accident when it emerged in MMOs on Everquest, but I don't see it much in games before that.
I'm just going to work the math so that the best physical way to deal damage is to pick up a big two handed sword. Which makes more sense anyway.
@Halfjack First since it is a skill based game, I'm not adding explicit support for rogues. No bonus dice or what not. So if you want to be sneaky you should use a ranged weapon and skulk at the back of the fight. Ranged weapons will deal less damage, but you can pick your targets.
@Canageek I don't think the tank/dps/support triad emerged as design but rather as an effective tactic given a large number of options. So to fight it, one thing you could think about is not just banning it or making it impossible, but rather making it not optimal somehow from the design side.