Filled With Online

In theory, a single character should have good odds of victory against an enemy of equal CL, but given that a solo PC has fewer Skill options than a party of similar size, a monster that's normally pretty weak/strong against them might instead be overwhelmingly weak/strong.

Consider, for example, the following:

1. solo Cold Type-focused PC vs. a solo fire-related enemy
2. four Cold Type-focused PCs vs. four fire-related enemies
3. a party of four including one Cold Type-focused PC vs. an enemy group that happens to include a few fire-related enemies.

1 and 2 here are pretty similar, in that the PCs will find it trivial to strike the enemy's weakest defenses, but perhaps they might be more poorly-prepared for other challenges, such as a Crystal Beast who has an infinite Cold Defense (and thus demands the use of multi-elemental or non-Cold attacks.)

3 is a more typical play experience, where different players are covering different things, and you can choose (or modify) enemies to emphasize a particular PC's capabilities.

The Japanese team has also previously indicated that you could throw a player or group against enemies of up to twice their combined CL and still get a reasonably challenging fight, though this means sapping more of the PCs' resources per encounter.

Normally a player might opt to spend Fortune to rest and regain HP/FP, though for a solo player in particular it would be very appropriate to offer convenient opportunities to restock without spending Fortune.

Or maybe you're more mathematically-minded. To compare one of my playtesting characters (Peregrine, a level 6 "Fencer" who wields a stabbing sword and elemental magic) to two different enemies of the same level, one he's strong against and another he's weak against.

• Peregrine: 58 HP, 24 FP, 2 Fortune, 14 Initiative
  • Traits: Cognizant, Swift Reflexes, Total Klutz (can't spend Fortune to reroll.)
• Yako: 60 HP, 25 FP, 0 Fortune, 12 Initiative
• Swamp Runner: 82 HP, 32 FP, 0 Fortune, 9 Initiative

The enemies have marginally more HP/FP to burn than Peregrine, and Peregrine in particular can't use his Fortune to salvage a bad roll, but he gets the first-hit advantage. What do each of these characters like to do with their attacks, though?

• Peregrine: Fireball 2 (see Sorcery Gear for the skill text, gets +12 *2 damage from INT), Lightning (+12 damage from INT), Red Needle (Fire/Stab attack which gets +4 Accuracy and Criticality, for 20 Accuracy + 4 critrate, gets +Fireball SLv * 30 damage for +60 altogether, but has a full one-turn cooldown.)
• Yako: Illusory Katana for weak melee damage, Explosion Sign for ranged fire damage with 16 Accuracy (Fencers who normally get bonuses from Parrying can't Parry this), and Fox's Bonfire for the possibility of dealing FP damage.
• Swamp Runner: Bites for 3d6+18 Bash/Slash, and does Tail Smash for 3d6+26 Bash damage after the Action Phase.

In all, Peregrine has high Accuracy and a strong burst (3d6 + his 10 STR + 60 Red Needle bonus) that makes it possible for him to one-shot Yako 100% of the time on a successful hit, and one-shot Swamp Runner 37.50% of the time on a successful hit. What defenses does everybody have, though?

• Peregrine: Parry with a target of 18 twice per round, or Dodge with a target of 15 infinitely. Fencer Step grants him +2 Evasion until his next turn on a successful Parry, up to +6, but he can't parry the Swamp Runner's Bash, and the Yako's best attack ignores Parrying anyway. 14 Bash defense, 6 Slash defense, 4 Stab defense, 6 Fire/Cold/Shock defense.
• Yako: Dodge with a target of 12. Defenses are 4/2/0/8/8/8. As a Fencer wielding a Stabbing sword, Peregrine can opt to always do Stab attacks.
• Swamp Runner: Dodge with a target of 9. Defenses are 10/10/8/8/2/2.

Peregrine's evasion is particularly weak here since there's not much for him to Parry. The Yako can KO him in two turns (6d6+52 Fire damage, average 73), but Peregrine generally kills it faster (3d6 + 70 Fire/Stab damage, average 80.5), whereas the Swamp Runner can take him down in one round (3d6 + 18 Bash/Slash, 3d6 + 26 Bash, average 28.5 + 36.5), but needs to hit 17 Accuracy vs. 15 Dodge twice.

The first-hit advantage is big here, especially since Peregrine deals ~80 Fire/Stab damage every other turn, but in a more realistic scenario he has allies to either draw fire or protect him. Under the "All-Out Assault" rules, he can never lose since the Swamp Runner can't Tail Smash, and the Yako simply doesn't do enough damage.

As for a bigger group, you'd probably see the party consistently covering multiple niches that a smaller party might only have a single PC dedicated towards.

A party of 10 could have 3 PCs who're all ready to kill the first enemy that shows signs of being weak to Fire, for instance, and every additional PC also means additional Fortune to recover/reroll with, and additional inventory spaces for valuable restoratives.

The math will favor PCs even harder since there're 10 of them who all have the opportunity to score critical hits, boost allies, and perform rerolls.