So I’ve been working on my RPG and have now finished most of my character customization system and decided to move onto making the combat system, however I’m not entirely sure what the best approach would be for a fair and balanced system where button mashing won’t guarantee a win.
I planned to include skills and magic in this system alongside using weapons, so what would be the best approach to this?
I think balance. For example, if a mage has generic power #1 and a generic weakness. Then Player2 can Use his power against the mage’s weakness although his weakness is the mages strength. I’m basically saying allow them to intertwine without making them too OP.
Playtesting.
You won’t get a fun, balanced and complex combat system right first time.
Make prototypes, try them out, look for problems and then iterate on your prototypes with the problems in mind. Don’t be afraid to scrap things you’ve tried, and don’t start serious work on fleshing out all of the skills and classes until you’ve got a base that’s fun on its own.
For inspiration, try Astral Hearts or Vesteria, which both pulled this off well.
As previously stated by @Cinema_Sin, you need balance. You need to have things such as cooldowns, energy cost, etc.
As for the fundamentals of a combat system, people with a higher level should 9 times out of 10 win against a lower level, however you do need to make it feasibly possible for a lower level to beat a higher level. I would do this by adding something called a “Damage Multiplier”, in other words, higher levels do more damage to lower levels, but not enough to ensure a 100% victory for the lower level. You also need to add, like previously stated, something like cooldowns and/or energy cost in order to balance things
Currently my plan for skills is that magic has mana cost + cooldowns while any other skill just has the cooldown, I may consider trying the Damage Multiplier later but for now I am gonna focus on the actual combat part and making it feel right and balanced.