Cinco: Equipment & Encounter Difficulty

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Sort of a two-parter, since they relate to each other.

Combat Equipment

Assume characters can afford most things. What matters are what they can carry in their hands and on their body: let's say 3 bulk. Some items also require a hand (or two) to carry in order to use.

Pick weapons (magic weapons deal an additional ½ ♥ of damage):
  • Light weapon (–½ ♥) → 0 bulk, 1 hand
  • Medium weapon (–1 ♥) → 1 bulk, 1 hand
  • Heavy weapon (–1½ ♥) → 2 bulk, 2 hands

Pick armor (characters have a base of 3 hearts):

  • Light armor (+1 ♥) → 1 bulk, 0 hands
  • Heavy armor (+2 ♥) → 2 bulk, 0 hands

Possible combinations:

  • Medium weapon, light armor, shield
  • Heavy weapon, light armor
  • Medium weapon, heavy armor
  • Medium weapon, light armor (leftover: 1 hand, 1 bulk)
  • Light weapon, heavy armor (leftover: 1 hand, 1 bulk)
  • Heavy weapon (leftover: 0 hands, 1 bulk)
  • Medium weapon (leftover: 1 hand, 2 bulk)
  • Light weapon (leftover: 1 hand, 3 bulk)

Hands are a short-term "What are you holding right now?" thing, but bulk is a "What do you have on you?" thing. So only the latter needs to go on the character sheet. Leftover bulk can be used to carry scrolls, treasure, or other significant items.

Encounter Difficulty

This all makes characters less squishy, so monster longevity (for big bosses especially) should be increased to reflect that. Below are guidelines for encounter difficulty by level, for a party of four.

Party Level Easy Med. Hard Deadly
Level 1 4 8 12 16
Level 2 5 10 15 20
Level 3 6 12 18 24
Level 4 7 14 21 28
Level 5 8 16 24 32

A deadly encounter is the upper limit of what a party can undergo for one day, all at once without time to breathe; it is likely that at least one character may die. Having one deadly encounter is equivalent to having four easy encounters or two medium encounters, or some combination. A daily budget closer or equal to the hard encounter value is more forgiving if you want to avoid character death.

Would think of the following changes for monsters, to beef up ones that deserve beefing up:

  • Dragon (12–24 ♥ by age)
  • Giant (12–18 ♥ by type) 
  • Hydra (4 ♥ per head)
  • Ogre (6 ♥)
  • Troll (9 ♥)
  • Vampire (16 ♥)
  • Wraith (6 ♥)

Though specific monsters should be seen more as skins for encounters rather than each one having a set number of hearts. If you want a deadly dragon encounter at level 3, give it 24 hearts. Build encounters around in-world concepts rather than pigeon-holing abstractions to your needs, and adjust difficulty as you see fit for the situation at hand.

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