Mixed group foes

[Albavar]

I've just started a Dresden Files campaign and have a team of 5, two pure mortals and three supernatural.  According to the book, I should total the whole group's refresh in powers (13) and subtract the total refresh worth of mortal stunts (also 13). This means that a straight up fight would be vanilla mortals with no stunts, right?  Obviously, that breaks down for this group. Any suggestions?

[Mr. Death]

First, completely ignore all of the book's suggestions about scaling encounters, because they're rubbish.

The real best way to balance encounters are numbers: The number of enemies, and their effective skill rating. That's really what you need to look at. I made a more detailed post about it in another thread, so I'll just link it here: http://www.jimbutcheronline.com/bb/index.php/topic,39391.msg1938825.html#msg1938825

[Albavar]

Thanks Death,

I'm having a bit of a time coming to grips with FATE. I've always been a story driven GM, but I've alway run very rules crunchy systems. The crunch was always for my engineer brain. None of my first time gamers ever knew that Rolemaster was a rules heavy system! OK. Just trying to set up my group's encounter with Renfields so they don't get completely crushed, but realize that these guys are part of a big league compared to the players. (7 refresh group)

[Taran]

Don't be afraid to mix the challenges a bit...separate the group a bit and get them focused on different things.

I have a submerged group fighting 1

(click to show/hide)

buffed Renfeild

and they're having a hell of a time.

I ambushed them, but poisoned the big hitter(crafter - stupid 10 shift blocks!) before-hand so he wouldn't be around for the ambush (too busy in the bathroom throwing up).  He showed up a round or two into the combat.

I compelled the Changeling to leave and go follow someone mid-combat. (the one who poisoned the crafter)

I hit an NPC with a Entropy curse forcing the mage to try to save him.

I compelled the Scion(our prime melee character) to duke it out sans powers because the fight is taking place in public and she can't reveal herself.
She's having a hell of time...although she's getting some really good rolls so she hasn't taken any big hits yet.

It also lets each PC focus on their strengths.

Anyways, I guess the point is to divide the teams focus.  Even multiple weak foes is more challenging than one Big Tough Foe.  And one Big Foe is probably more likely to hurt people badly in a single hit than multiple weak foes.

[Sanctaphrax]

First, completely ignore all of the book's suggestions about scaling encounters, because they're rubbish.

The real best way to balance encounters are numbers: The number of enemies, and their effective skill rating. That's really what you need to look at.

Yeah.

My usual method for determining whether an encounter is balanced is to imagine the first round or two of the fight. Look at who goes first, see how much damage they're likely to do if they open with an attack. Then look at who goes second, see how much damage they're likely to do.

Since fighting is only one element of the game among many, combat tends to completely ignore large sections of each character's abilities. A Wizard with Lore 6 and five Refinements worth of ritual magic bonuses isn't really more dangerous in a fight than a Wizard with Lore 4 and no ritual magic Refinements.

So if you look at the "input" end of a character you'll get a misleading idea of their combat ability. You've got to look at the "output" end.

[narphoenix]

So far, my PCs in Pirates have had one "mop the floor", one "not too shabby", one "Dammit, I lost" and one "RUNRUNRUN!"

This last one was very fun.

[dplanken]

This is a topic I needed to read without me knowing it! Awesome, thanks for asking the question Albavar. it's what I struggle with most.