Health Damage Asymmetry: Difference between revisions

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[[File:playervsmonsterHP.jpg|link=Final Fantasy VI|frame|A fairly balanced fight in the world of RPGs.]]

Generally seen in [[Role Playing Game|RPGs]]. When one compares the player's characters to the monsters (and bosses), they are essentially [[Glass Cannon]]s to [[Stone Wall]]s. Player characters tend to be able to deal out huge amounts of damage, usually well above their own HP's worth in a single hit. Monsters deal very low damage relative to their own HP. If the game allows for [[Player Versus Player]] combat, expect the damage to be scaled down immensely to prevent all duels from being one-hit kills. If the game has a [[Cap|Damage or HP cap]], expect most late-game monsters to have HP above the player's damage cap, and well above the player's own HP cap.

Generally seen in [[Role-Playing Game|RPGs]]. When one compares the player's characters to the monsters (and bosses), they are essentially [[Glass Cannon]]s to [[Stone Wall]]s. Player characters tend to be able to deal out huge amounts of damage, usually well above their own HP's worth in a single hit. Monsters deal very low damage relative to their own HP. If the game allows for [[Player Versus Player]] combat, expect the damage to be scaled down immensely to prevent all duels from being one-hit kills. If the game has a [[Cap|Damage or HP cap]], expect most late-game monsters to have HP above the player's damage cap, and well above the player's own HP cap.

There can be several reasons for this design:

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* In ''[[Billy vs. SNAKEMAN]]'' Phase Battles, Phases have 5000 to 21000 HP and have a small chance of dealing one damage (two if it's the final boss) on any given turn. You have 1 to 6 HP and deal hundreds of damage a turn.

== [[Role Playing Game]] ==

== [[Role-Playing Game]] ==

* Nearly every single [[Eastern RPG|JRPG]] ever. This can be taken to extremes with optional bosses.

** In ''[[Chrono Trigger]]'', Magus as a villain has [[Six Hundred Sixty Six|666]][[Four Is Death|6]] HP,<ref>Even ''after'' Lavos sucks away most of his powers</ref> [[Redemption Demotion|but doesn't have more than 999 under player control.]]

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== [[Tabletop Games]] ==

* Fourth Edition ''[[Dungeons ~~and~~ Dragons]]'': Player characters have healing surges which let them recover damage for a while as long as they use their skills well. Enemies generally don't have healing surges. The result is that enemies have many more hit points than player characters in order to keep balance.

* Fourth Edition ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'': Player characters have healing surges which let them recover damage for a while as long as they use their skills well. Enemies generally don't have healing surges. The result is that enemies have many more hit points than player characters in order to keep balance.

** Enemies do in fact have healing surges (1 for Heroic tier, 2 for Paragon, 3 for Epic), but there are very few official monsters that have abilities which allow them to be used so the point usually still stands. Usually.

** [[Subverted Trope|Subverted]] in that enemies generally deal about the same amount of damage as party members.

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* ''[[City of Heroes]]'' mostly averts this: the class most popular for solo play, scrappers, have about 1800 hitpoints at the level cap and strong attacks hit for about 400 HP. Bosses, the strongest rank of generic enemy, have about 2500 hitpoints and strong attacks hit for about 600 HP. Hitpoints, attacks, and, most importantly, in-combat HP regeneration scale with rank, so a minion (the weakest rank) does only minor damage to a scrapper and goes down in about three blows, while a giant monster (the strongest rank, comparable to a raid boss in other [[MMOs]]) can one-shot an unsupported scrapper and regenerate its massive HP reserve faster than a scrapper can damage it.

== [[Role Playing Game]] ==

== [[Role-Playing Game]] ==

* Tactical [[Role Playing Game|RPGs]] tend to avoid this, as most fights are often made up of the same types of characters and monsters that you can recruit for your own team. However, for non-recruitable bosses, they often raise the HP much more than they raise the damage output...

* Tactical [[Role-Playing Game|RPGs]] tend to avoid this, as most fights are often made up of the same types of characters and monsters that you can recruit for your own team. However, for non-recruitable bosses, they often raise the HP much more than they raise the damage output...

** ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics]]'' series

** ''[[Disgaea]]'' probably deserves special mention, as damage can rise to ridiculous levels (millions of damage per hit), but HP can as well. The damage output inevitably ends up overtaking the HP gain to the point where almost everything is a [[One-Hit Kill]], though.

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* ''[[Shin Megami Tensei]]'' largely averts this by having the enemy and your HP be on the same page. The randomly generated enemies will all have the same HP as you, and in many games, even the rare marks will never break the HP caps that your character normally has. This is only challenged when you come across enemies that are labelled as "bosses" but that generally is still limited to HP. The damage that is done is still the same for both sides because of the shared statistics. However, this does serve to throw a lot more problems at you in terms of boss fights. Since they damage that you deal is generally the same, boss attacks will hurt a lot MORE for you than for them. Even if your hits exceed 1000 damage, they not only can do the same to you, but for them it is a strong poke. For you it is a deathblow.

* The ''[[Valkyrie Profile]]'' series averts this, occasionally inverting it, with some enemies doing just as much, if not more, damage per round to you, while some bosses will [[There Is No Kill Like Overkill|hit you for several times your maximum HP]] ''per round'' while you have to whittle away at them.

* By comparison to other games, ''[[~~Earthbound~~]]'' averts this, with most bosses being on the same level as you and your party. However, you still have the advantage, since your party has a rolling HP system; even if you take mortal damage, you still have a chance to fight and heal yourself before you fall.

* By comparison to other games, ''[[EarthBound]]'' averts this, with most bosses being on the same level as you and your party. However, you still have the advantage, since your party has a rolling HP system; even if you take mortal damage, you still have a chance to fight and heal yourself before you fall.

* In ''[[Dark Souls]]'' both you and the standard enemies go down fast.

* The online game ''[[Ginormo Sword]]'' usually plays the trope straight but at one point throws out a duplicate of the player with identical stats. If the player isn't careful both sides will end up with a screen-filling sword that can kill the opponent with one hit, and [[Computers Are Fast]]...

[[Category:Health Damage Asymmetry]]

[[Category:CRPG Tropes]]

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