Quick question:
What’s a good rule of thumb for the number of enemies per PC in a combat encounter?
I understand that it probably varies depending on the situation (fewer enemies in a stealth mission than in war, for instance), but I’m just looking for balance in general.
Thanks in advance.
There is no rule of thumb, there are far too many variables. PC strength, NPC strength, Minions, Rivals, Nemeses…
Generally speaking, for 100 EXP characters of average combat ability, you’d do okay with one Rival or Minion group per PC.
As P-47Thunderbolt points out there are so many variables.
In our group for example our Wookiee - Hired Gun (Heavy) had better combat stats at character creation than my Twi’lek - Modder had at 500 XP, as I put all my XP into beeing better at modding our ship and building stuff. So it’s a lot about knowing your group and their abilities. :)
A fight might be easy for one group and hard for a different group at the same XP level.
So my advice would be to experiment, throw in a few easy enemies to gague how well the group does and increase the difficulty the next fight if it was too easy.
Remember to split up the party sometimes. It’s tradition in the movies.
A thought that occured to me today is that I like when fights have “something else” to do, my Twi’lek - Modder still sucks in a fight (now at 1000 XP), I have pretty low agility, only a few ponts of Ranged (Light) and a gun that doesn’t do much damage (or anything else). Our Wookiee - Hired gun does more damage in one combat turn than I would do in 4-5 turns (or more).
So in fights I like it when there is some secondary objective, like get the door closed so more stormtroopers cannot reinforce the ones we’re fighting. having to plot a course for our escape through the city as we need to make a quick exit, repairing our landspeeder so we can escape, or hacking a battle droid to fight for us instead of against us. So when balancing a fight, it’s nice if there’s something else to do for the characters who are less combat oriented.
My group of 5 is now at around 300xp each give or take…I usually go for a rival each (usually tied into their ObliMotivs or ongoing plot) or three rivals and a nemesis… they cut through minions like paper…