RPG Maker Forums

Like most of the discussions I start, this just came up while I was idly messing around with things. A thought's occurred to me. Negative statuses designed to stop people in their tracks...They're a nightmare to balance, aren't they? It seems more often than not the solution tends to be 'Party is easily affected by them unless they have equipment that resists it' and any enemy beyond random encounter trash just laughs it off. What's that? You want to put a boss to sleep? Haha, no. Paralyze it? Not happening. Silence? Not on my watch!

Now of course, the simple solution would be just make success rates good and don't make bosses stupidly resistant to negative statuses. But that brings about a new problem. Just picture it.

-Boss appears

-Someone uses Sleep, it works, boss is out like a light.

-Boss takes damage and gets woken up, but because he was put to Sleep he doesn't get to act that turn.

-Someone uses Sleep again, boss is out like a light.

-...And this just goes on and on until the boss is dead without a chance to even act.

So therein lies the question. How do you make negative statuses viable during encounters beyond random ones, but keep them from being abusable? The only thought I've had so far would be diminishing returns where an enemy gains resistance each time they're hit by a negative status, with the possibility of these resistance bonuses to stack to the point they become fully resistant.

Anyone else have thoughts on this?