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[ArtemisAlpha]

When a single villain is going up against a group of PCs, it seems like the rules against defending multiple attackers means that if the first character has better than just a slim chance of hitting the villain, then all of the subsequent PCs (assuming similar attack scores) will have an increasing chance of hitting, with the last one being pretty much a certain high damage hit.

Am I interpreting these rules correctly?

[alphawhelp]

the skill of the Attacker means FA to the multiple defense penalty.  If a guy with 250 defense gets attacked by a guy with a 5 attack, the defender's second defense he makes later that round is at a -30 penalty regardless.  Nothing changes if the 250 defense guy gets attacked with a guy with 500 attack.

If you would like a single villain to go up against a group of PCs, it is suggested that the villain be damage resistance, or have a really strong magical shield.

[Spirit_Crusher]

Balancing a single strong opponent against a whole team is very tricky in this game.
Damage resistance was very good, almost overpowered, in the original corebook.
In Core Exxet it became less powerful due to damage resistance creatures not rolling no more for defense, having just armor; against hard hitters they're actually far weaker than normal opponents, since the first time they suffer a critical they'll probably go down.

Shields are a very good idea for avoiding multiple defenses penalties, but the point is: if the big bad has attacks and defenses high enough to be markedly stronger than all the opponents, he's going to obliterate them on a lucky roll, expecially if paired with their unlicky ones. If their're not high enough, he's going down very fast.
Predetermined stuff could be very good in this situation. If the average party att\def is 200 and you put in front of them something that attacks and defends for fixed 280, maybe with a 320 superattack, and is hard enough not to go down with a single lucky shot, unless this lucky shot is of epic proportions, it should work.

Obviously you've got to take save or die\ save or suck effects and resistances in consideration, and armor\armor penetration too.

Personally, I don't care about balancing encounters at all. If the pcs go against something excessively strong, they get their asses handed to them. But to avoid excessive lethality, I've houseruled destiny points (or however the metagaming currency introduced in gaia is called) like this: a destiny point has a single use, which is a reroll on any roll. I use them liberally as a reward for good character interpretation and advancing\enriching the game. It works perfectly.

[Raybras]

Make it a selene assassin(tao) with lama, lamatsu, aikido, selene and what not an make her have see supernatral, hard to kill(more LP advantage) and whatever else you feel is needed.

[EVILrokzz]

1-on-many is IMO rather a foolhardy endeavor

If it's going to be like that, the villain should have some advantages and/or have, as mentioned, DR (a TON of LP and AT) and some shields.

I usually have PCs go up against a "boss" as well as minions to harass them or have a group combat 1-on-1 in a very anime fashion with PCs saying "You guys go after them, this guy is mine!"

In Dragonball, DBZ, Bleach and such you never see a mass of PCs go against a single opponent unless he is uber powerful (Omega anyone?) and I stick to that - 1-on-1 for every PC... makes things interesting
If I had to pick something like 1-on-many, I'd have them go up against a Dragon or something like that

[Lagnalok]

Well, I wouldn't consider 5 1vs1 battles a boss battle - they are nice as a pre-encounter for a boss battle thought

Basicly, you can use any tank-like enemy as a boss fight or enemy that are considerably strong than any single member of the party, if you use anything else the party will have a easy time if the dice are on their side.

The tank option is relativly safe as he can be attack and defense wise close to the party so it will take them longer to take him down but the chance of one-hitting either side is rather low. The extremly strong opponent on the other hand should only be used if you have a good balanced party with chars specialized in different fields (tank, healer and damage dealer) that know what their jobs are and can stick to them.

To give tanks a little variation you can have high DR creatures, low-mid DR creatures with extra shields, high regeneration opponents with a decent armor and defense, or the good old high defense high at tank.

To spice things up for "strong guy" fights you can use high stats opponents with a weakness or give let them have closer stats to the players but have special defenses with the one or other hole to be found and exploited by the characters. Its also fun to first let the players a few fights against the boss without them knowing how to defeat him but letting them always a way out until a final showdown were either they already found his weakness due to roleplaying or have a last chance to find it during the fight (or get something that gives them what they lacked before). Or a multi part fight like you would have when fighting with omega.

Thats atleast how I handle those things.

Thought, there are times when I use actuall weaker enemies for a boss fihgt but thanks to having supperior equipment (artifacts intended as loot for the players) and powers that profit greatly from this, so that in the end the boss is stronger than the players.

[The Dread Polack]

I wouldn't assume that the last attack would be a "certain high damage hit", since the defense penalty maxes out. If the defender's defense is high enough, he might still have the advantage even with this penalty, and it doesn't matter how many people are attacking him.

Although your point does bring up a tactic that has some merit. In our game, I would often have my wizard take a whack at the enemy early in the round to cause a defense penalty agains the "real" attackers later in the round. The high-damage/low attack ability people would go last. It doesn't end up being worth too much consideration, since the benefit often wasn't worth the hassle of setting things up.

[vytzka]

A simple way to make them last longer against multiple attacks is a ki technique with additional defenses. Scales of the Dragon from the corebook seems custom built for that.

But I think true group on one encounters should be rare. The boss should always have some lackeys around to entertain less dangerous PCs for a bit, or better yet the full Five Bad Band.