[Development] Class and Magic Guide, Balancing in an RPG Options

[amerk]

OVERVIEW

I thought I had typed this one up before in replacement of my old two part guide, but who knows. It's not anywhere that I can see, so I figured I'll do this again.

First and foremost, while I was using RMVX when creating this guide, you should be able to apply the main ideas into your game regardless of the maker you are using.

In a nutshell, this guide was primarily made for myself as a template to creating characters and designing a magic system that was not too complicated but worked well enough to offer strategy; although some may find it too simple for their taste. It's considered complete, but not all together refined, and anybody using this should consider using it only as a template versus a direct copy & paste in order to give your game a unique edge.

Also keep in mind that in spite of the guides that are available, there is no substitute to your play testing. I've used several guides that are supposed to shave off game testing time, and while I agree they help, I still spend considerable amount of time play testing and making adjustments based on my own personal experiences. You can always use the battle testing option in the database, which really helps. And there are balancing guides currently available for VX. For a decent level/stat progression, the best guide you can probably find is that by ZeroManArmy and Mithos:

Making a Balanced Level Progression

This guide includes an EXP Calculation Fix which works well with VX. There's one for VX-Ace as well, but none that I know of for XP.

EXP Fix for VXA

However, I'll restate the above. While each program sports various features and different options, the overall idea behind balancing your game should remain fairly similar throughout the series.

BALANCING CHARACTERS BASED ON CLASS

Before we begin, here is a chart that can assist you:

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The High, Low, Average pertains to Class Stats. In other words, if a Warrior's High HP gain for each level is 100, average would be 75, and low would be 50. Likewise, if a high strength increase would be 10, average would be between 7 or 8, and low would be 5.

Now, to balance these out further, note that each Class Category has strengths and weaknesses. For example, the Warrior knows no magic and is vulnerable to Status Effects, but he's also one of the strongest characters available. Likewise, the Magician and Priest are the weakest characters, but they know lots of magics and fairly resistant to various magic attacks.

Using this as a stepping stone, this should hopefully give you some leeway on balancing out your own characters so they all have advantages and disadvantages. I've also started looking at weapon types and how they can be effective overall. While some weapons are classified under a specific category (ie., a stick will more than likely always be melee), some weapons can have two types of attacks. For example, a spear is good for overcoming weak points in armor, so it's classified as Piercing. But a spear can also be thrown at above prey, so it can also be classified as Throwing. Thus a spear can be great for short range or long range attacks. The downside is that a spear may not be as accurate or as swift as a sword.

BALANCING THE IMPACT OF MAGIC

Finally, I'd like to point out magic balancing. Everybody will have their own system of how spells should effect other elements around them. There's really no right or wrong answer, since in the real world elements can work in an odd and confusing way. If you want something complicated, then by all means go for it. But if you are looking for something quick and simple, then feel free to use this as a sort of helping hand. The percentages are set up based on how much damage it will cause or absorb in relation to another element:

Using a simple system of continuity, I came up with the following cycle:

Fire>Ice>Wind>Stone>Lightning>Water>Fire

From there it breaks down like this, where a negative refers to the opponent being healed versus damaged:

Fire:
-100% against Fire, 200% against Ice, 50% against Wind, 150% against Lightning, 100% against Stone, 0% against Water, 0% against Holy, 100% against Darkness.

Ice:
-100% against Ice, 200% against Wind, 50% against Stone, 150% against Water, 100% against Lightning, 0% against Fire, 50% against Holy/Dark.

Wind:
-100% against Wind, 200% against Stone, 50% against Lightning, 150% against Fire, 100% against Water, 0% against Ice, 50% against Holy/Dark.

Stone:
-100% against Stone, 200% against Lightning, 50% against Water, 150% against Ice, 100% against Fire, 0% against Wind, 50% against Holy/Dark.

Lightning:
-100% against Lightning, 200% against Water, 50% against Fire, 150% against Wind, 100% against Ice, 0% against Stone, 50% against Holy/Dark.

Water:
-100% against Water, 200% against Fire, 50% against Ice, 150% against Stone, 100% against Wind, 0% against Lightning, 50% against Holy/Dark.

Holy:
50% against Holy, 150% against Dark, 150% against Fire, 100% to everything else.

Dark:
50% against Dark, 150% against Holy, 50% against Fire, 100% to everything else.

NOTE: Holy and Dark magic both seem to have high advantages and very little weaknesses, making them more likely to be used in place of other spells. A good way to balance this out is to:

1. Make Holy and Dark spells available late in the game.
2. Make them 50% more costly in MP than your highest spells earned at the time of gaining these skills.

And for visual learners, here is my Magic Chart and how each type would effect another in terms of damage. Again, a negative 100 (shaded in red) means the opponent being attacked by that spell would be healed by 100% of the normal damage instead of receiving harm. The areas shaded in yellow imply that a person hit would receive twice as much damage as normal.

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