DFRPG - Power creep and imbalance

[Josefine]

Dear fellow FateRPG lovers,

I've been playing Dresden Files Fate for a while now. I think it's been 9 years. Usually the same characters, still the same troupe (yay!).

Now, our characters prefers the DFRPG rules to those set in the DF Accelerated book. But from 16-18 refresh, we found the system kinda ... broke. Kinda over-the-top imba.

Wizards, while more powerful than the rest of the character archetypes, get a ridiculous amount of options and damage, while non of the other scale with them. E.g.: White Court Vampires stop being able to buy additional damage at - I think - +4 mental, while Wizards can easily rake up 12+ on their roll plus 12 additional weapon's damage, adding up to 24. (And, yes, I do know that Fate is not all about damage, but DF is a pulpy, combat-friendly universe.)

Has any of you gentle readers encountered this problem? If yes - how did you fix it? Is there a DFRPG 2.0 floating around addressing issues like this, even if unofficial?

And please refrain from comments like "you're powergaming!" and "use DF accelerated, stupid!".

Thanks in advance!

Lena

[Blaze]

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Enjoy gaming!

~Blaze, as Mod.

[Sanctaphrax]

The balance does get a little shakier as Refresh rises. Spellcasting allows you to invest pretty much any amount of Refresh productively, while non-spellcasters sometimes "cap out" and run out of useful places to put their Refresh. And sometimes build choices that were reasonable at lower Refresh become rather problematic later.

White Court Vampires have it especially bad; their template is inherently poorly optimized, and it doesn't offer good opportunities for growth.

That said, non-wizards can still be effective. I've been running a PbP game that started at 18 Refresh for almost a decade, and all sorts of characters have accomplished great things. It probably helped, balance-wise, that the characters were built at 18 Refresh, and didn't have to grow organically from 10 or so Refresh.

It's possible that your non-Wizard characters would benefit from a rebuild. They may well have room to be a fair bit stronger with the exact same Aspects, amount of Refresh, and number of skill points. Particularly if they've been doing things like not taking Mythic physical powers.

Also, worth looking here and here.

PS: Do not let your players make mental attacks with Evocation. Maybe you don't need to be told that. But just in case.

[whitelaughter]

Haven't had a Dresdenverse campaign reach this level, but learned in other systems: niche specialization is more important that raw power. The wizards niche is solidly limited by the laws of magic, so understanding/manipulating/killing people belongs to the rest of the group. Notable that the restriction on transformation limits the usefulness of magic for disguises as well.

At the levels you are playing at, opponents are typically going to be smart and skilled, so should be researching PC weak points. Since the wizards are the most powerful, they will be the ones planned against.

Given the nature of the system, it might make more sense for the players to simply use the wizards as 'guns' and channel efforts through them. The fire spell does most of the damage? Fuel/air mix provided by Resources can enhance it. Social characters cheer the wizard on. Stealthy PCs act as artillery spotters.

I'm guessing you've already thought of most of this, but if there is even one thing I've included that is new, it's been worthwhile.