RPG Maker Forums

Greetings, am new to forums this first post.

I want share a problem on class balance with community of rpg game devs, maybe you can help.

I have 16 character classes I wish balanced. They are balanced against each other individually, not as a party. Imagine the classes of an mmorpg, not a party of characters that fight cooperatively. I’ve already figured out a detail counter map and balanced such that classes has equal numbers of other classes they’re strong against vs ones they will struggle with, like the classic triangle warrior > rogue > mage > warrior.

Here’s my problem: How do I balance the counter encounters without degenerating the classes to appear the same?

Correct me here, I’ve tried balancing classes 1v1 (for reasons, let me know if I need explain why) and in such encounter the ultimate (and perhaps boring) result is good’ol Widowmaker’s “One shot, one kill.” Anything less appears to gimp a class that should be balanced against others.

Example: Class 1 vs Class1’ (prime = the countered) resolved in one hit
Class 2 vs Class 2’ resolved in two hits, not as good as one hit
Class 3 vs Class 3’ resolved in some heavy debuff or disable. Fine, the prime class is out of picture but wouldn’t it had been better just killing it? I don’t think I want punish player for eliminating aggressors, am not doing Undertale, less someone can think of better reasons than philosophy.

Problem is, if I allow each class to defeat their ultimate counter one shot, one kill, then it seems like they’re all the same with just aesthetic differences.

Can anyone help? Feel free to make changes to design, adding, removing things to explain your vision of balance.

Only thing I’ve been able to figure is that what makes the class different is how they reach that “one shot, one kill” situation, but even that has an ultimate, best scenario, that would give a Class an edge over others.

What u think?