Hello,

I'm designing this wonderful action-rpg and I am going for a rock-paper-scissors design to keep the playstyles balanced.

Can somebody help me finding the missing link ? ;)


#1: Single-target melee burst damage
#2: Area-of-effect damage
#3: Summoned minions
#4: ?????

#1 beats #2 beats #3 beats #4 beats #1...

So I'm looking for a style that is superior to the melee guy but gets overrun by the summoned minions.

What could #4 be ?

Thanks in advance, Anything is welcome.

Shield+Spear, Bow or an Evasion/Deflection/Reflection ability with cool down.

Maybe range of attack, or maybe even some sort of pure defense.

Channelled spell -- strikes only one target freezing them in place (effectively stopping the mellee) while draining their life therefore allowing the multiple summoned minions to overwhelm as it only strikes one and not multiple targets

Ranged is a good choice.

maintaining distance from the melee counter their attacks, but you can't shoot a entire horde before they get to you.

you can also remove the #4. minions probably can overwhelm melee attacks...

it's multiplayer?

what happens if #1 encounters #3 or #2 encounters #4??

Thank you all for your ideas.

I think I'm going to mix these things and give the player some single target spells like maybe:
- a movement slowing spell,
- a stunning trap,
- a melee lifeleech attack
- an evasion skill that makes you dodge all attacks dealing more than 20% of your MaxHP for X seconds.

@ Mito: I could remove #4 and the minions could perfectly overwhelm the melee attacker, but the setting of the game requires me to provide 4 different classes/playstyles.
The game will unfortunately not have a multiplayer mode (but with this system, it could) and the rock-paper-scissors style is only for keeping things balanced, as the enemies will also use these different playstyles.
Each "class" will be superior to one of the others, inferior to another and more or less equal in powers when facing the remaining "class"/stance/playstyle.
For example, the melee attacker has some mobility advantages to make sure he is able to get away from the minions.