Battle Guide

DH CORE · p.197

Open source p.197

This guide will help you roughly balance an encounter so you can determine how many and which adversaries to use. You’ll first calculate your starting Battle Points, which determine your budget for the encounter. Then you’ll adjust the budget up and down based on other factors. Finally, you’ll build the encounter, spending Battle Points to add adversaries until you have no more to spend. When planning a battle, start with the following formula to calculate how many Battle Points you should spend:

(3 × the number of PCs in combat) + 2

For example, if you have a party of three PCs, you have 11 Battle Points to spend. If you have a party of five, you have 17 Battle Points to spend.

Keep in mind that you might need to adjust this calculation as you become more acquainted with your party and their power level.

Adjusting Battle Points

Some factors might increase or decrease your Battle Points budget:

  • Subtract 1 point if the fight should be less difficult or shorter.
  • Subtract 2 points if you’re using 2 or more Solo adversaries.
  • Subtract 2 points if you add + (or a static ) to all adversaries’ damage rolls (to increase the challenge without lengthening the battle).
  • Add 1 point if you choose an adversary from a lower tier.
  • Add 1 point if you don’t include any Bruisers, Hordes, Leaders, or Solos.
  • Add 2 points if the fight should be more dangerous or last longer.
Spending Battle Points

Once you finish calculating your available Battle Points, craft your combat encounter by spending points until you have none left.

  • Spend 1 point for each group of Minions equal to the size of the party.
  • Spend 1 point for each Social or Support adversary.
  • Spend 2 points for each Horde, Ranged, Skulk, or Standard adversary.
  • Spend 3 points for each Leader adversary.
  • Spend 4 points for each Bruiser adversary.
  • Spend 5 points for each Solo adversary.

Tip: Some adversaries summon additional enemies when they use their features—you don’t need to factor those into your point total. Example: Ben is preparing an encounter for his party of four to help introduce a new enemy faction. Having four PCs means he starts with 14 Battle Points to spend. He wants this encounter to be a little easier, so he adjusts his Battle Points to 13. He spends 8 points on two Bruisers, 4 points on two Standards, and 1 point on four Minions. Later, the party has followed the faction’s trail and confronts a group on patrol near the faction’s outpost. Ben spends 10 points on five Standard adversaries, 2 points on a Ranged adversary, and 2 points on eight Minions. And finally, because the party has fought through the outpost to confront the faction leader, Ben decides to make the last fight more difficult. He decides he will add to all adversary’s damage rolls, giving him 12 points to spend. With this budget, he spends 3 points on a Leader, 4 points on a Bruiser, 4 points on two Hordes, and 1 point on a Support. The Leader also has an action that can bring in Minions as needed.