OBSTACLES AND GIMMICKS

<h1>OBSTACLES AND GIMMICKS</h1>
<p>You may add extra complexity to your battles by including:</p>
<ul>
  <li>
    <strong>Defenders.</strong> Some creatures might completely shield an ally
    from attacks; characters must either defeat these defenders or find a way to
    circumvent them (probably through a Clock of some kind, generally eight to
    ten sections).
  </li>
  <li>
    <strong>Limited options.</strong> Some adversaries might only be susceptible
    to specific actions until the heroes manage to alter the situation in some
    way.
  </li>
  <li>
    <strong>Gimmicks.</strong> Some battles might require characters to perform
    actions in a certain order or use specific damage types to disable their
    enemies' most powerful attacks. For instance, a golem might be unable to
    unleash its lightning beam if struck by bolt damage while charging its
    elemental coils.
  </li>
  <li>
    <strong>Waves.</strong> This is a common situation in video games. Each wave
    consists of a group of about three to five enemies; defeating one wave
    causes the following wave to arrive on the scene, turning the battle into a
    war of attrition. If you want to make things easier for the Player
    Characters, give them a round to regroup and recover between each of the
    waves.
  </li>
  <li>
    <strong>Reinforcements.</strong> You might have new enemies join the battle
    at the end of each round. These enemies should have simple attacks and be
    relatively easy to defeat. You should establish a limit beyond which no new
    enemies will be added to the scene until some have been defeated.
  </li>
</ul>
<p>
  Regardless of which options you choose, you should design battles to challenge
  the heroes' ability to work as a team: don't shut down any of their Skills
  completely, but rather push them towards experimenting with what their
  characters can do in ways that are different from the strategies they
  previously adopted.
</p>