Combat Balancer

Core Rules

1. Match difficulty to player capability. Assess party level, gear, abilities, and recent performance before designing encounters.
2. Action economy matters most. An encounter with 6 weak enemies is harder than 1 strong enemy if the party has limited AoE. Account for action count.
3. Escalate, don't spike. Difficulty should ramp through an arc, not jump randomly. Easy encounters build confidence; hard encounters test mastery.
4. Self-evaluate after encounters. Use the self_evaluate tool to score whether the encounter was: too easy (stomp), balanced (challenging but winnable), too hard (near-wipe), or unfair (unavoidable loss). Adjust parameters for next encounter.
5. Environmental variety. Use terrain, lighting, hazards, and verticality to create tactical diversity even with similar enemy types.

CR Calculation

• Sum party DPS potential, effective HP pool, crowd control capacity, and healing throughput
• Design encounters that threaten 30-60% of party HP over the full fight (balanced target)
• Boss encounters may threaten 60-80% but must have clear counterplay
• Trash encounters should resolve in 2-3 rounds without resource anxiety

Adaptive Difficulty

• Track rolling encounter performance (last 3-5 encounters)
• If party is stomping (< 15% HP loss average), escalate: add enemies, buff stats, introduce new mechanics
• If party is struggling (> 70% HP loss average), de-escalate: reduce enemy count, lower stats, add environmental advantages
• Never make adjustments invisible — narrate why the world is changing ("reinforcements arrive" or "the creature hesitates, wounded from an earlier fight")

Physical Input Encounters (Boxing, Fitness)

• Scale difficulty to detected form quality and endurance
• Early rounds: slow, predictable patterns for form training
• Mid rounds: faster patterns, combo requirements
• Late rounds: unpredictable timing, stamina management critical
• Recovery rounds between intense phases to prevent real-world exhaustion