forums.cubicle7.co.uk
archive

TMG:

I would start things out slowly (in terms of power level), until you get the hang of the mechanics. A fight with 1 Snaga Tracker per party member should be fine. See how they do and adjust from there. While there's not a LOT of min-maxing in TOR, an experienced player will definitely be able to get more mileage form his/her character than an inexperienced one.

Here's some rough sketches to help you assess the system and bad guys in TOR:

Easy: These are all indicators of "easy" bad guys:
*Weapon skills: 2 or less. Players should be able to remain relatively unharmed by staying in Defensive stance. Note that if the enemy's weapon skill is favored, they add their attribute level. +2 or +3 can make a big difference.
*Weapon Damage: hits for 3-5 pts. damage. Pierce on an Eye, Injury rating 10-12.
*Endurance: 14 or less.
*Attribute Level: 3 or less
*0-1 Special Abilities.
*Example: Goblin Archer, Orc Soldier, Attercops
*The most common of the Shadow's agents, these should be thought of as minions, and generally 1 per party member will still result in a win for your group. Sprinkle them about liberally.

Medium:
*Weapon skills: 2 favored, or 3+
*Weapon Damage: hits for 5-7 pts. damage. Pierce on 10, Injury rating 14-16
*Endurance: 16-25
*Attribute level: 4-5
*2-4 or more special abilities
*Example: Orc Chieftain, Black Uruks, Orc Guard, Great Spider
*Adding 1 or 2 of these as backup to a group of minions (see above) will make the encounter much more challenging, and serve as a combat encounter "strong man" (sergeant, chief thug, etc.) A full party of these guys (1 per character) will be very challenging for inexperienced adventurers.

Hard:
Weapon Skills: 3 favored, or 4+
Weapon Damage: hits for 7-9 damage. Pierce on 9, Injury rating higher than 16
*Endurance: Generally in the 30-80 range (but some trolls will be even higher, for example)
*Attribute level: 6-8
*4-6 special abilities
*Example: Great Orc, pretty much any kind of Troll, the Gibbet King
*Planning, group effort, and foreknowledge of your enemy will be required to defeat a single one of this opponent.

Epic:
*Weapon Skills: 4-5 favored, or even as high as 6
*Weapon Damage: hits for 10+ damage. Pierce on 9 (or less), Injury rating 18-20. Other special affects on pierce.
*Endurance: 80+
*Attribute level: 9+
*Many special abilities.
*Example: Raenar, the Dragon from TfW
*A "random" encounter with this will kill your party, unless it's a scripted or "plot device" part of the adventure.

To be sure, this is not an exhaustive, absolute or "scientific" taxonomy of monsters. It's just meant to give you a general idea of what to look for.

Hermes Serpent wrote:Where does it say that combats have to be balanced?

The Run Away option is there for a reason.

poosticks7 wrote:This is residue thinking from playing games such as DnD and the like. A fair few of us have had to overcome that way of thinking (well I did any way )

My advice is that all combats in TOR are dangerous, PCs should not go looking for it, should pick their fights when they can and treat all enemies with respect.

Nevertheless, a new Loremaster needs a gauge of easy vs. medium vs. hard so he can engineer encounters to produce the likely outcome he desires for a story. TGM is doing right in looking here for that gauge.

Thank you so much, that's exactly what I was looking for. I had no idea whether four 'minions' per party member or one 'minion' per party member would be a 'good' number to shoot for, so that gave me the little bit of reference I needed. Considering a party of four, it seems like 4 minions would be a pretty easy fight, and 6 would be a medium fight. So based on what you said, am I right in understanding that two to three 'easy' monsters roughly (and I understand that you gave a very general guideline) equal one medium adversary?

I really appreciate it - and am really looking forward to my first session!

Rocmistro's guide is the best help you can get!

Answering to your question, 6 to 8 minions would be a medium fight, yes.
Let's say 1 minion per adventurer is easy, 2 minions per adventurer is medium.

You'll see that TOR isn't so mathematical, but that's a good enough advice to start with.
In the first fights use medium foes (Orc guards, Black Uruks,...) only once per adventure, and only if needed as the "final boss" or similar. After that you can adjust. Also, take a detailed look at the different special abilities from the adversaries you choosed. They make a great difference is used right and make each foe different and special.

Based on that, does this look fairly reasonable for some villain stats? My story basically involves a prestigious Gondorian cavalry company (Dawn Company), supported by some infantry, turning traitor. While a lot of the adventure should revolve around semi-politics, I still foresee some Dawn Company attacks occasionally. Maybe having to defend the nobles or such.

Dawn Company Infantryman:
Attribute Level - 2
Combat Skills - Sword (+2), Dagger (+1)
Endurance - 9
Parry - 3+2
Armor 2d
Hate 1

Dawn Company Infantryman's Sword:
Damage - 4
Edge - Sauron Eye
Injury - 12



Dawn Company Knight
Attribute Level - 4
Combat Skills - Sword (+2), Dagger (+1)
Endurance - 18
Parry - 4+2
Armor - 3d
Hate - 3
Special Rules - Mounted (Homebrew)

Dawn Company Knight's Sword:
Damage - 6
Edge - 10
Injury - 14

Also, here's a link to my mounted combat rules.

viewtopic.php?f=56&t=4006

Mainly for reference with knight, in case it's needed.

I sincerely have to thank all of you very much - if you guys are anything to go by, the TOR community is extremely welcoming and friendly.

TheMonarchGamer wrote:Based on that, does this look fairly reasonable for some villain stats? My story basically involves a prestigious Gondorian cavalry company (Dawn Company), supported by some infantry, turning traitor. While a lot of the adventure should revolve around semi-politics, I still foresee some Dawn Company attacks occasionally. Maybe having to defend the nobles or such.

Dawn Company Infantryman:
Attribute Level - 2
Combat Skills - Sword (+2), Dagger (+1)
Endurance - 9
Parry - 3+2
Armor 2d
Hate 1

Dawn Company Infantryman's Sword:
Damage - 4
Edge - Sauron Eye
Injury - 12



Dawn Company Knight
Attribute Level - 4
Combat Skills - Sword (+2), Dagger (+1)
Endurance - 18
Parry - 4+2
Armor - 3d
Hate - 3
Special Rules - Mounted (Homebrew)

Dawn Company Knight's Sword:
Damage - 6
Edge - 10
Injury - 14

Personally, I'd make the Dawn Infantry sword on par with a normal sword stats. The diminished weapon stats are typically for inferior Orc weapons. So give them dam: 5, pierce: 10, injury: 14 (unless it's a short sword, in which case modify down to that.)

I'd probably give your Knight a weapon skill of 3 to reflect his greater skill and experience, but make this sword stats the same as a regular sword. The increase skill level will reflect more hits, and possibly great successes (+4 damage - attribute level), and will offset the diminisehd base damage.

Thanks. I think I'm going to end up taking your advice and making the sword the same for both of them. I decreased the attribute bonus of the Knight to 3 and kept the Sword skill at a (+2), but also made the Sword skill favored. I want the knights to be at the low end of the medium adversary level, and I think/hope that will fit nicely. Especially with the mounted combat rules allowing the Knight to convert Hate to combat advantage dice.

**EDIT**
I also just realized that having hate points for the infantry, who have no special ability, is rather useless. I just got rid of those.

You probably want to give each opponent at least 1 Hate. When an adversary reaches 0 Hate it becomes Weary. And it would probably be a bit silly to have all the infantry start out weary... Give them 1 Hate and let the players use the task Intimidate Foe to good effect if they want.

Ah, that makes sense now. I forgot that hate can be taken away by intimidation and such, not only special abilities. Thanks.