No Weapon

Hi all!

In my game there is this Character that fight using fists, so he doesn't use any weapon.

My question is: How can I balance this pg when all my other pg use weapons? 

Make some hand weapons, like brass knucles, or claws.

But doing so he will be using a weapon xD

I want him to not wear any weapon 

well you could give him some special skills exclusive of him that for example would have a better damage formula, those skills would some kind of martal art or you could also just make him more evasive and faster than the rest of the characters, also you could give him the possibility of attacking twice during his turn?

Yanfly has a script that adds a barehanded trait, which you can then modify to have his attack improve as he levels up. That might work for you

Oh, I didn't know!

That's what I need, thanks^^ 

Or simply make him have higher stats than the rest, or better skills

Yanfly's barehanded script works wonders.  Besides that, you can attach a passive ATK bonus (as a percentage) to the Class, so Monks, for example, get 150% * their normal ATK.  Then simply scale their ATK to balance the other players weaponed attacks.  So, if the other fighters have an average of 150 points for their ATK, give the Monk 150 * (1/1.5) =  100.  The "1.5" is the 150%.

The 150% multiplier lets a Monks' barehanded attack rise to a maximum of 382.

(Edit)

Another implicit multiplier is by having barehanded fighters get multiple attacks in a round and/or a much higher Crit chance (which quadruples damage!).  If you do this, be sure to drop the base ATK value so it's not ridiculously overpowered.

Basically, you should never see this:

"Look, my Monk had 2 hits, each of which was Critical, and the Final Boss went down in 1 round!"

Good to hear! I actually never tried that script, but remembered seeing that he had it, so hence why I recommended it.

You would only use that script if the class can actually wield a weapon but the player can decide not to... It was made so that not using a weapon becomes a bearable alternative for the player, coz if there's no bonus, why would the player choose not to wield a weapon?


If your class can't even wear a weapon on the first place, just make him have higher stats to begin with. No need for the script, you're just adding unnecessary things...


I'll tell you this, if you think that you need that script to balance a class that cannot even wear a weapon on the first place, you're doing something very wrong.

In my current project I have a bare-handed fighter.  I looked at Yanfly's script and decided not to go with it, because as Adiktuzmiko says, it makes no sense if your character can't use weapons to begin with.  It also looked like it would wreck any general balancing.  

Instead, think about how you structure your skills.  For example, for this character it might not be appropriate to use the standard a.atk * (x) - b.def * (y).  Think about using the AGI instead - assuming that you're making this character faster - so that you end up with something like a.atk * 2 + a.agi * 3 - b.def * 2.  Or maybe use LUK.

Why do players like weapons? Because weapons raise ATK. So, you should ask yourself how you can greatly raise attack at certain intervals as well as raise it slightly almost all of the time. The slight increases can come from leveling up. But the big increases (for your other party members, anyway) will come from new weapons found in dungeons and purchased at shops. That's how it's always been. You level up, your ATK goes from 20->22. You buy a new weapon, your ATK goes from 20->30.

So, let's math it. If you plan (on average) to have your party members gain atk on a curve of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5,    4, 3, 2, 1, 2, and so on, and weapons giving something like 10, 15, 25, 30, 55, 60, 85, and so on (BTW, this curve is n1 + 5 = n2, and n1+n2 = n3).                    {5 levels = 15}{5 levels = 12}

If a player is expected to gain one new weapon and 5 levels a dungeon, assuming a base ATK of 10 and a base weapon of 5, it would looks something like this:

After dungeon 1: lv. 5, ATK 25, W 10. Total ATK: 35.

After dungeon 2: lv. 10, ATK 37, W 15. Total ATK: 52.

After dungeon 3: lv. 15, ATK 53, W 25. Total ATK: 78.

After dungeon 4: lv. 20, ATK 65, W 30. Total ATK: 95.

After dungeon 5: lv. 25, ATK 77, W 55. Total ATK: 132.

Final Dungeon (No new weapons): lv. 30, ATK 92, W 55. Final ATK: 147.

As you can see, ATK scales pretty nicely. Now, let's change up that curve to 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 1, 2, and so on and see what we get.

After dungeon 1: lv. 5, ATK 25. People with weapons: 35.

After dungeon 2: lv. 10, ATK 60. People with weapons: 52.

After dungeon 3: lv. 15, ATK 95. People with weapons: 78.

After dungeon 4:  lv. 20, ATK 110. People with weapons: 95.

After dungeon 5: lv. 25, ATK 125. People with weapons: 132.

Final Dungeon: lv. 30, ATK 165. People with weapons: 147.

So your monk would be poor early game, but great for mid-game and late game.

I took way longer than I needed to explain this, but basically as long as his ATK scales better than people's with weapons, you'll be fine.

-Wallace

Why can't he wear gloves to up his ATK stat? Fist fighters use gloves to protect their hands from impact and gloves such as leather can be quite painful. It is not a weapon, just an addon to cover his hands/fists

In Final Fantasy IV, Yang (a barehanded fighter) uses Claws.  In that game, Claws just add elemental effects (i.e. Ice Claws) or status effects (Fairy Claws put enemies to sleep), but there's nothing saying you can't have Claws increase attack as well.

You can always set a fixed weapon for the actor and name it "Bare-Handed", seal the second slot (shield or 2nd weapon), and there, you got a bare-handed fighter without an ugly looking empty space at the equipment window.


Because there is nothing uglier than an unexplained empty space in any menu. >.>


And I wonder why would anyone make a bare-handed fighter's attack rate the same as someone with, for example, a sword, or even better, a great-axe? That is not balancing, that is stupidity (excuse the language :p ).


If someone got no weapon equipped, concentrating on attack only for "balancing" is not what a real game developer would do.


Give him more speed, crit, maybe an extra attack, and stronger skill modifiers or even some special skills, use your imagination.

Engr. Adik and ksjp gave you some really good advice.  You can basically scale the barehanded fighter's stats so that at any given point, with the expected levels and equipment you'd have for each party member, the barehanded fighter wills about equal to the other characters.