Enemies too easy?

[Korik1]

I'm running my first ever FC campaign with a party of 5 PCs. I'm worried that I'm missing something in regards to combat because aside from one instance where a PC picked a fight above his weight class, the PCs have been plowing through the cultists they've been fighting.

The worst case of this was when 3 PCs (burglar, soldier, sage) and an immature Tiger animal companion defeated 6 standard NPCs, then got into a fight with each other where the soldier was shaken, fatigued, sprawled, grappled, and disarmed. At the end of that round 9 more standard NPCs and the PCs teamed up to take them down, which they did with little trouble despite the disadvantage the soldier started with. The Burglar has taken to calling it "kicking babies."

Am I missing something or is it just because these cultists aren't special characters?

[Bill Whitmore]

In general, standard NPCs do tend to go down fast as they are a single hit and poor die roll away from dying.  If you have a combat-heavy group, they fall quickly and easily.

Your party consists of a Specialist/Combatant (Burglar), a Combatant (Soldier) and a Backer/Wildard (Sage).  At least 2 Combatants, possibly a 3rd (depending on the Sage's Wildcard build), augmented by a Backer.  Yes, these guys are going to kick some ass in combat.  Put them in a situation where they need to track down a bunch of people and interview them to gather the information they need and they may find themselves wishing they had the services of a Talker and a Solver.

I also have a group that favors Combatants.  To offset this, I tend to mix special NPCs into encounters with a standard NPC group.  You can also make individual standard NPCs tougher.  This is a topic about Avatars, but the discussion goes into how to make standard NPCs more survivable.

[Korik1]

There is a fair bit of investigation in the campaign, which they have varying levels of success with, though often they've gotten their info via interrogation.

I guess I'll try throwing in a special NPC into the combats and see if that makes things any more challenging.

[Krensky]

Also, what do your cultist NPCs look like. It's entirely possible they're kicking babies because they are babies.

Also, what level are your PCs and are you using the Static NPC quality?

Thirdly, when determining the number of NPCs in a mob, include the party's Special NPCs along with the PCs and then add one for every mob of standards they have.

[Korik1]

The PCs are all level 1 and I'm not using the static NPC quality.

The cultists have been kidnapping people and then keeping them alive so that's why they might seem a little odd.

Str 10 Sex 10 Con 10 Int 10 Wis 12 Cha 10
Ini III Atk II Def II Res II Health III Comp II
Resolve V
Honourable, Devoted II (Protection), Interest (Protection alignment), Fealess II
Feats: Horde Basics, Wolf Pack Basics, Polearm Basics, Expert Disarm
Gear: Moderate Padded Armour, Dagger, Mancatcher
XP 40

After typing this out I think I've been forgetting to use the Horde and Wolf Pack Basics feats. I'll have to remember those.

[Dawnblade]

The PCs are all level 1 and I'm not using the static NPC quality.

The cultists have been kidnapping people and then keeping them alive so that's why they might seem a little odd.

Str 10 Sex 10 Con 10 Int 10 Wis 12 Cha 10
Ini III Atk II Def II Res II Health III Comp II
Resolve V
Honourable, Devoted II (Protection), Interest (Protection alignment), Fealess II
Feats: Horde Basics, Wolf Pack Basics, Polearm Basics, Expert Disarm
Gear: Moderate Padded Armour, Dagger, Mancatcher
XP 40

After typing this out I think I've been forgetting to use the Horde and Wolf Pack Basics feats. I'll have to remember those.

Sex 10!!! now there is your problem.  Too Damn Sexy.

[glimmerrat]

10 is nothing - that's average. You'd need a Sex of at least 15 to be considered 'sexy'.

[Coyote0273]

After looking at the bonuses that these particular NPCs do, they pretty much are pushovers. One or two hits on average from the soldier will kill them, and the burglar and sage aren't that bad of warriors either, not to mention an actual tiger. Thing to remember is this isn't D&D, even the wizard can be an effective combatant without spells.

The main thing to remember is to think of this as a cinematic game. The PCs are generally meant to be able to cut through hordes of normal bad guys until they get to that those few that can go toe to toe with them (usually standards, but not always).

My suggestion would be to bump up the npc stats if you want them to be better balanced against the party. You've got mostly 2's in the combat stats and 10s in the actual stats. That or give the npcs a higher menace level. Or a mixture of both.

[Mister Andersen]

Remember that if you want a challenge "comparable" to the PCs, a rating of V is roughly equivalent to midrange PCs

[LordKruelos]

I think most of the main points have been hit so far.

-- your party is geared toward combat, so they do it well
-- Standard NPCs in general are usually there for PCs to grind their way through. If you want to challenge your players, throw a Special NPC at them (alone with a squad of supporting Standard NPCs)
-- The specific Cultist Standard NPCs you've been using are not going to be a significant challenge on their own (they're kicking babies because they are babies).
-- As you noted, there are some options that you haven't used in game. Especially at level 1, the added boost from Wolfpack Basics and the added Defense from Horde Basics will have an impact, but this gets at another useful point -- be careful you don't overload your Standard NPCs with things that require a lot of decision-making in the moment. As the GM, you've already got enough on your plate, it's pretty easy to forget about a feat here or there.
-- From the GM's side, when I throw large packs of Standard NPCs at players, I use the Swarm NPC quality a lot to limit how many separate rolls I have to make and keep things flowing faster.

[Korik1]

Thanks for all the advice. Just to be clear this isn't the whole party, there's also an Assassin heading for Swashbuckler and a Mage heading for necromancer.

The last scene of the current adventure is probably going to happen next session. I was originally just going to throw 2 mobs of Cultists and 1 Standard Elite Guard (who I'll post the stats for shortly), but now I'm wondering if I should add in a mob of Standard Elite Guards to the mix.

Elite Guard 
Str 15 Dex 12 Con 14 Int 10 Wis 12 Cha 10
Ini V Atk IV Def IV Res IV Health IV Comp IV
Resolve VII
Honourable, Fearless II, Always Ready, Cagey I, Charge Attack, Ferocity, Rend, Tough I, Treacherous, Veteran I, Parry, Shield Block
Feats: Armour Basics, Wolf Pack Basics, Axe Basics
Gear: Axe, Metal Shield, Moderate Hardened Leather Armour with Light Fittings
XP 85

So assuming I have all 5 PCs (burglar, soldier, assassin, sage, mage) for this fight is 10 cultitsts, 5 elite guards, and 1 standard elite guard too much?

[LordKruelos]

Unless they've used up all their action dice -- no.

My advice: Run FantasyCraft like a Die Hard movie -- nothing feels better like narrowly winning, bloodied and bruised and barely alive

[Bill Whitmore]

One thing to keep in mind is you don't have to decide that before the battle takes place.  You can always add more during the combat by spending action dice (see page 368, GM Complications, Reinforcements).

The standard cultist you have is 40 XP.  Drop 2 action dice and you can introduce another standard Cultist squad or a special Cultist, once per round, every round if necessary.

I use this a lot.  One of my set piece battles relied on it pretty exclusively to represent the horde of minor (20 XP) demons that threw themselves at the party's defensive lines.  Every round I would spend an action die and have another squad of demons enter the map from the mountain pass they were coming from.

[Krensky]

Remember, your mob size should be the number of special characters on the player's side.

5 PCs and 1 Animal Partner equals 6 NPCs in a mob.

[Korik1]

Thanks for all the advice.

I'm thinking I'll have 1 mob of cultists, 1 mob of elite guards, 1 special elite guard, and if I need to I'll throw up to three more mobs of cultists at them.

...How the heck am I going to run this battle? Wish I had more minis.