Combat Pacing

One of the more important aspects of RPG combat is it's pace. Too short and the game may feel too easy or too greatly influenced by outlier rolls. Too long and the game will feel slow and character advancement may feel like it doesn't affect gameplay.

After some simulation models were explored a formula explaining the relationship between pacings (rounds of combat), health and damage was found. It uses the marginal value of health (1d6 or 3.5 HP), the marginal value of damage (+1 for and additional ability), and the base chance for a successful test (which is TN10 or 62.5% for the simplest melee attack).

$Rounds = \dfrac{3.5}{1*0.625} = 5.6$

5.6 represents the number of rounds equally matched opponents should take in combat. In addition to the marginal formula one can use totals of the opposing sides to figure out. The number of rounds one side should last is the total of their health divided by the effective damage per round of the other team. The other team's damage should be calculated per character using the weighted average (by hp of the first team) of armor and defense.