## LEVELS AND RANKS

Use levels and ranks as "sliders" to adjust the challenge posed by a battle.

Example: When designing a battle involving three level 10 Player Characters, two level 10 soldiers would make for an extremely easy encounter, while a level 20 champion replacing four soldiers would be feasible but particularly challenging. Anything between those two extremes would be fair game — with a battle against three level 15 soldiers being the most “average” option.

## IDEAL LENGTH

In Fabula Ultima, a conflict should ideally last three to four rounds. Keep this in mind when you design your battles.

If you want to think in terms of damage, this means that on average, a successful enemy attack should do damage equal to one third of an average Player Character's Hit Points. Similarly, a PC's average attack should do damage equal to one third of an average soldier-rank enemy's Hit Points.

## DAMAGE TYPES

When designing a battle, consider what types of damage the group has access to:

- Combine adversaries with different Vulnerabilities and Resistances.
- Grant powerful adversaries the ability to alter their Vulnerabilities and Resistances.
- If a creature has a Vulnerability that two or more characters in the group can exploit, balance this out by enhancing their Defense, Magic Defense, or Hit Points.
- If a creature has a large amount of Hit Points (as champions often do), give them at least one Vulnerability that the party can use to their advantage.

Make it so that Player Characters cannot simply apply the same highest-damage option over and over during battles — that can get boring fast.