Author Topic: Encounter strength  (Read 1201 times)

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Offline steff

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Encounter strength
« on: October 20, 2016, 08:34:25 PM »
Hey.

I am putting together an RMSS campaign for some friends and I will be the first to admit it has been a looooong time since I busted out this ruleset.  I have been playing a lot of Pathfinder and 3.5 over the years and there are a couple of equivalent items I'm looking for to help with this Rolemaster campaign. 

One is an equivalent encounter calculator.  In Pathfinder and 3.5 they have the challenge rating system, ie an average party of 4 characters of the specified level could defeat the monster or group of monsters with that challenge rating.  Does RMSS have anything similar?  A thumbrule?  With such severe criticals how do you gauge the power level of the creatures the party is up against?  Another way of thinking of it is if I have 4 1st level characters, how many 2nd level orcs would be equivalent?

The second thing I am looking for here is how to scale up the creatures in RMSS.  The rules have a list of NPC's but a) they are all at fixed levels (1, 5, 10, 15, etc) and b) they are the standard character classes.  I could make the case that the city guard is equivalent to a third level fighter but how do I extrapolate 3rd level attributes between the given first and fifth level information?

Any help is, of course, appreciated.

Thanks.

Offline Witchking20k

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Re: Encounter strength
« Reply #1 on: October 21, 2016, 08:34:38 AM »
In short, no.  I was reading D&D5E last night and musing over the same thing.  As a general rule I use OB/DB as the guide and then levels.  If a parties average OB exceeds the foes DB by about +20 they should be OK because it gives them the option to Parry etc and sill have a +/-0 in combat. Levels are really only used for spells, poisons, or similar effects.  So, basically, if an encounter is based off a foe or foes a lower average level than spells are more effective.

One of the differences between RM & D&D is evident when you read the sections on building encounters- the Challenge rating system is more based providing a guideline on how much of the party resources an encounter will exhaust rather than survivability.  In RM this would be be the opposite- survival first, resources second.  Particularly at low levels.
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Offline kwickham

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Re: Encounter strength
« Reply #2 on: October 21, 2016, 12:20:05 PM »
The second thing I am looking for here is how to scale up the creatures in RMSS.  The rules have a list of NPC's but a) they are all at fixed levels (1, 5, 10, 15, etc) and b) they are the standard character classes.  I could make the case that the city guard is equivalent to a third level fighter but how do I extrapolate 3rd level attributes between the given first and fifth level information?

Any help is, of course, appreciated.

Thanks.

I can help with the 2nd question by looking at the front of the Creatures and Monsters. I have the FRP version, but I hear that RMSS is almost identical.

At the beginning of my RMFRP Creatures and monsters has instructions for changing levels. They include a random level chart if desired. Then you take the change in level to alter the hits, exhaust, and OB with these formulas based on the level and level change code.

First is hits change using the Stamina Bonus from the Constitution Bonus Chart.
Quote
Total Hits = Hits + Stamina Bonus +/- [(Level Diff.) x (Hits/Level Diff.)

Then you figure out exhaust points.
Quote
Exhaustion Points = Stamina Bon (x3) + Bon Exh. Pts + 40

Then you can change the OB.
Quote
Actual Offensive Bonus = Offensive Bonus +/- (Lvl Difference x 5)