FEF GM Prototype Guide

Fire Emblem Tabletop GM Guide Structure/tentative ToC

Intro- talk about Fire Emblem as a series, what can be done with it in the tabletop space, and how running one is different from playing one

Campaign Design: Break down into 3 subsections
-Tone: Determining what sort of tone you want the game to have (low fantasy, high fantasy, good vs evil, gray vs evil, gray vs gray, evil vs evil)
-Scope: Determining the reach of both the players and what they do. Will they be heroes/villains told of for years to come, relative unknowns who only scholars know, do they protect/reshape the very world they live in, etc.
-Length: Determining how long you intend for the game to take. Also determining what level you intend for the players to reach by the end of the campaign

Map Design: Break down to 4 subsections
-Goal Structure: Introduce various victory conditions, and discuss how each should influence the maps that they're played on.
-Terrain Design: Using terrain, including open, defensive, and impassable, to create interesting places for battle to take place.
-Enemy Composition: Explanation of importance of splitting the enemy force into smaller squads to prevent mobbing or staggering enemies, reinforcements, etc, as well as adding specific counters to some players while also giving players opportunity to counter specific enemies
-Allies: The use and implementation of allied combatants

Enemy Construction: 3 subsections
-Intro: Detailed analysis of enemy strength vs player strength, including discussion on enemy class skills and the impact they have on combat as a whole.
-Enemy Table: Given progression rates for stated classes from the Player's Handbook, as well as the level progression formula for each class, as well as notes for boss type variants for each enemy class
-Bestiary: Basically the same as above but for monsters and obviously expanded upon since the book has nothing about these. Probably significantly longer as they'd include hopefully all monster enemy types from the Fire Emblem games as well as several randys for GMs to use

Experience: Give a couple experience tables with variants based on the number of players and desired speed of the game.

Treasure: 3 subsections
-Purchaseable Weapons: Price out available weapons and items from the handbooks, make note of "base costs" and talk about where and how costs and income affect campaign feel
-New Items: Include items from other games that can be used at GM discretion (buff consumables, Magic jewelry, etc), prices included, what they bring to the game
-Designing Custom Items: Notes on making custom S ranks or Prf weapons, how they impact gameplay, how they impact tone, etc

Rule Variants: Expansion of certain rule changes that can be made based on what kind of game you're running based on number of players and time table and what not
-Death: Review the two major death systems (three down counters and out vs. 3 injuries and out), float the idea of alternative systems, discuss how NPC death might need to be treated differently
-Inventory: Introduce the altered 5 slot inventory, compare/contrast with 3+ Con bonus inventory system
-Experience Sharing: Commonly filled EXP pool method and a greater focus on other experience systems
-Affinity choices: Different methods for determining affinity, transparency vs closed methods, etc
-Ailments and Counters: When they tick down, mostly, when to use ailments, what level of ailments are appropriate for given encounters, giving players access to ailments

Major NPCs:
-Lords: How to use them, when to use them, when not to use them, and why Player Lords aren't a great idea.
-Caravans: How and when to use, what sort of games they fit in, etc.
-Major Bosses: Knowing when to bend the normal game rules to make a fight more interesting and memorable, sample ideas for bosses

Two things that Fire Emblem has over other turn based strategy games is a limited use of RNG elements, and a transparent design. With a little bit of math it's always possible to determine the absolute possibility of any given situation. Because of this openness of design, it lends itself well to the Tabletop format. Without hidden factors, emulating the gameplay in a group setting is easy, even if the dynamic changes as the number of active players changes.

Though it has been around longer, the Fire Emblem Tabletop game, for us, came to prominence on the Bay12games forum in 2013. In that time, there has never been a true guide for GMs. Until now. This guide is intended to be a companion piece to the PHB for Fire Emblem: The Further Journeys. While it is not connected to the original creator, it is built with several years of playtesting and GM Experience behind it. It is intended to be a helpful advisor, extending the knowledge of those who have done before to you, and hopefully making the game that you run all the better for it.
By no means is it the last word in GMing however. Game Masters have been tweaking rules for their campaigns since the beginning, and will doubtless continue to do so. Certain alternative rule changes will be touched on in this guide, particularly those that apply to all players. This resource will give you quick resources for statting enemies and allies for your players, and guides to equipping them. In addition, for those new to the system, we've included discussions on campaign and map design, to help you make the game you want to run. We've also deposited many notes from our own past experiences, and what we took away from them as we moved forward with our games. May it all serve you well.

Campaign Design: Unless your goal is to run a small series of thematically unconnected maps with the sole goal to be to challenge your players with tactical puzzles (and if so, hopefully our next major section is of help) you're going to want to structure your game with some level of narrative. Further, as each story must come to an end, it is important to determine how long you expect your game to be. Five maps? Ten? Fifteen? Shorter games will either start with more powerful characters, end with weaker ones, or level up at a breakneck pace. Depending on the tone you're shooting for, which we'll touch on later, certain options are better than others. In any case, a bite size story can be a good introduction for either a new GM, or new players as well.

Determining the tone of your campaign is going to be determined not only through the story itself, but also through your map design and the difficulty your players face. At the story level, a light hearted tone is likely best achieved with an uncomplicated villain who is clearly evil. A clear, uncomplicated goal without moral complexity keeps things very light. This sort of approach can be supplemented in little ways, such as having NPCs be eager to aid the players, access to useful items, and strategically advantaged map placement at the beginning of battle. These methods can also brighten the tone of more morally complex stories- The villain may indeed not be pure evil and fighting for justifiable reasons, but being able to rout his forces easily as the people of the land support you with all their hearts will work to keep your players from second guessing whether or not they're doing the right thing.  By the same token, all of this can be reversed to gain the opposite effect. Forcing the players into morally questionable acts in order to accomplish their goals damages their place as 'heroes', and NPCs who resent or perhaps even resist them will erode that heroic sense further. Stronger enemies with better tactics will also make battle feel more dangerous, which will affect the tone as well. Quick solutions or the lack thereof also affect game tone. If a group of knights ride into town, rout the local bandits, and are told that such an action will scare off their fellows for a long while shows a picture of a kinder, gentler world. In such a world, violence is the exception, not the rule, and the players are beloved heroes. However, in the same story, if the village elder offers a meager reward, and tiredly tells your group's leader that other bandits will be along to take the place of their fellows in a week or two, this tells a much different tale.

Its also good to determine the scope of your game early on. The difference between acting on the world stage and within one small corner of a country puts your players' characters into different perspectives. Keeping the characters confined to a small area for the majority or even entirety of the story allows them to be big fish in a small pond: Talented warriors perhaps, but not necessarily paragons of strength capable of taking all comers. If your players are moving all throughout the known world, or even traversing it end to end, it implies that their skills and clashes against the forces they meet are averaged against those of the entire area. In the end, such characters could, and perhaps should, represent the best of the best. Warriors of historic skill whose incredible deeds will be sung of for many years after their passing. None of this is necessarily tied to tone, as grim epics are certainly possible, but scope certainly shares a relationship with length, and should probably be matched. A long game confined to the corner of one country could easily leave the players feeling small and confined. It's acceptable if that is your intent, but difficult to avoid if not. A short game with a wide scope is much more difficultm and can feel very rushed, and is not recommended.

Map Design: We've broken Map Design down to 4 major subsections. Reasons.
Goal Structure: There are a couple different types of goals in Fire Emblem, some more prevalent than others. The two most common varieties are Rout Goals, and Capture goals. Rout goals typically require the players to kill the entire enemy force, but variations requiring the death of a certain number of units or a specific unit are similar enough to use the same term. Capture maps instead require one unit (sometimes a specific or allied unit) to take a space on the map, generally one previously held by an enemy.
These are not the only types of maps, of course. Other, less common goals include the Escape objective. Commonly done on maps with pockets of very strong enemies that need not all be engaged, Escape maps require the players to reach specific tiles to leave the battle, and only end once all players leave the map. These can be useful from a story perspective, but forcing the players to flee constantly can aggravate them, so allowing them to stand and fight against lesser foes from time to time may be advisable, even if you want to keep them on the run from a powerful enemy. Survival is another rare variety of map. Players are given a set number of turns to defend a specific area or character. In such scenarios, the players generally have a 'safe zone', far removed from enemies where they can utilize defensive terrain and chokepoints to address what foes eventually come their way. Of course, to keep things interesting, GMs may choose to sprinkle treasure outside of this area in order to bait players into, at least briefly, moving out into more dangerous areas of the map. Typically, these maps come to an in-game end after either reinforcements arrive to aid the allies, or the enemy is forced to retreat for some reason or another. Monsters could be pushed back as dawn approaches, Generals could be called away by their masters, or perhaps the enemy leader could simply grow bored. There are many options when constructing such a scenario, and putting the players on the defensive can create memorable and harrowing experiences.

Terrain Design: Building a map that is interesting is a sort of nebulous endeavor and can be difficult even for professionals. Luckily, with a specific set of units whose statistics you can know in specifics, it is easier to avoid difficulty pitfalls by making enemies too difficult or easy. It is still very much possible to fall straight into said pitfalls, but we'll get into enemy power balance later on. When building terrain, the second thing you should consider (following the goal for the players) is the path that you expect the players to take through the map. A straight line with no diversions is not interesting, and should be avoided for all but the shortest of maps. Unless you intend to set the players against one group of enemies on even terrain, its not really recommendable. Ideally, maps should be broken up into 'encounter zones'. Consider where enemies will be, and break them into smaller groups instead of being a large mass of troops. Perhaps a trio of swordsman and an axe fighter here, a four man team of pegasi here, two knights supported by archers and healers over there. Players can approach these groups separately, and interact with and defeat them without having the entire enemy force come down on their heads. Players can then lick their wounds before moving to the next encounter group. Of course, you don't want them spending several turns healing and prepping for the next fight, especially in a play-by-post setting. To this end, timed elements are important for most any map. Chests and villages, in addition to being reward draws for players, can also be used as timed elements by introducing thieves to loot the chests, or bandits or pirates to destroy the villages. This forces the players to either keep a quick pace in order to reach the potential rewards in time, or forgoe the reward in exchange for a safer experience. Luckily, many players prefer to go after the reward. In this sense, thieves and chests are somewhat more effective than villages and brigands. Once a brigand reaches a village, its over, and the players don't even know what it is they've lost. When a thief reaches a chest, conversely, the players not only get a chance to see what loot was within, but have a chance to defeat the thief in order to recover the ill gotten booty. The thief, of course, should have a clear exit point that they should work toward once they've claimed their treasure.

Enemy Composition: As touched on earlier, rather than combining all enemy forces into one huge mass, consider splitting them into distinct groups. More importantly, make sure that your players have an answer to whatever the enemies have, unless you have a specific unit you don't want them to beat, such as a powerful recurring villain. Incidentally, such a unit should be placed well out of the way, and should probably be in complete isolation from the rest of the map, not blocking the path to any rewards or goals. Otherwise, give players an opportunity to make use of their class features. If you have a couple of archers, take opportunities to put fliers in front of them. Knights should have chokepoints to hold on occasion, and mages should have low resistance, high defense enemies to clear out. Be careful of creating situations where your players can easily bite off more than they can chew. At most, your players probably shouldn't be faced with more than two enemy groups at once, so creating situations where they can easily aggro three groups can be a recipe for disaster, even if a single group could be dispatched by the group relatively easily. The power curve in this game is very tight, and 'difficult but fair' is a stiff breeze from both 'laughably easy' and 'incredibly punishing', and player tactics can push it one way or another. For this reason, especially during the fragile early game, it can be a good idea to lean to the easier side of the spectrum.

Ailments: Ailment staves have strong range, use a hit system that bypasses standard evasion, and are capable of causing intense distress for players. Because of these factors, it is important not to over deploy them, especially if the players have no method of answering them in either the form of restorative staves, long range magic, or ballistae. As a general rule of thumb, check the level of equipment your player's have. Don't subject them to staves of a higher level than equipment they have. For example, if your players don't have anything above D rank, then Paralysis or Silence staves are probably too much. Bosses can be equipped a little more grandly, if only in part because there will only be one. If you do want to make heavy use of ailment staves, its important to equip the players appropriately. Staves to cure ailments work well, but so does a Barrier staff, which can increase their chance to avoid being affected. The main thing is to keep them from feeling as though they're being assaulted in a way they cannot counter.

Ailment Table: Insert here

Allies: This section isn't dedicated to long time NPCs with names and backstories who accompany the players, but rather one to two map characters or groups of characters acting, while not under the direction of the players, in concert with their efforts. The use of allies and their place can further vary maps, and have different uses depending on what map they're present on. Allies are generally either meant to be protected by the party, assist the party, or a combination of the two. Defense type maps can make use of allies by giving players more flexibility to defend key areas while splitting up, as well as potentially rewarding them after the map ends based on the number of survivors. This can be used for other map types, such as rout or capture maps, though will likely be used as a timing element to keep the players moving, so as to keep their allies in good condition and not allowing them to face the enemy alone. Helpless allies are another option- Units who are either defenseless, or not capable of defending themselves for very long against the foes they find themselves beset by. Of the two, totally helpless allies are simpler to implement. By giving them strong defensive abilities, you can get a fairly decent read on how many turns they can stand to survive before players have to step in. Allies that can fight back affect this fairly significant with their capacity to potentially kill attackers. If you choose to use such an ally, avoid initially equipping them with devil weapons or high crit weapons, as either can widely impact survivability. As with assisting allies, having several helpless allies can be part of a sub goal: Protecting a set number until the end of the map can, and probably should in the case of helpless allies, be rewarded. On defense maps, helpless allies should generally be placed near to player start locations, without multiple points of attack for the enemy forces. Also, if the allies you place will be mobile, either make their movement patterns known to your players, or consider allowing them to influence their actions.

Enemy Construction: With your map created, and a general idea of what you want to place on it, its time to build the enemies for your characters. There are a couple things to take into account when doing this, as always. Some of it, such as tone, has already been discussed, but some has not. The most important thing is power balance. Three levels on an enemy can be the difference between laughably easy and a fair challenge. Or a fair challenge and a frustratingly difficult encounter. Generally speaking, without skills and without special armaments, enemies should be between 2 and 4 levels above the players at the beginning of a map. Anything less and the abilities available to players tips the balance too far toward the players, and any more and characters tend to only hold up against units that their build specifically counters. With class skills, you can scale that back to 1-3 levels, but keep in mind that even though the numeric advantage is no longer as great, this becomes a huge source of variables, and may be the difference between a very viable player plan and a suicidal one. An alternative middle ground is to give class skills to only some 'elite' enemies. Such enemies should be worth more experience than their weaker fellows, even if they are the same levels. Also, some enemies should always have some class skills. Knights, for example, should have Armored, though you may choose to withhold Hold the Line from their abilities. Any mounted unit should have their related mount ability, classes with levitate should have it, and thieves and related classes should have the lockpick ability if nothing else.
Bosses are naturally something a little bit different. Bosses should, as a rule, always have at least their class skills, should probably have a character skill, and personal skills are also generally worth having on them. A boss unit, depending on the type of map, can be intended to be up to 5 levels higher than your players at the time they reach the boss.  In the end, they are likely to surround and hack at your boss unless you intentionally sequester them in a place difficult to approach. Further, without flexible range, they are likely to be picked at at a range at which they cannot counter. For this reason, bow locked classes tend to make poor bosses. This can be mitigated slightly with personal skills, but the goal isn't to curb the players on every turn, but rather to present them with a challenge that they have the tools to overcome.
Below have been provided every character class presented in the Player's Handbook, as well as several classes of monsters for campaigns that make use of them. Alongside them are sample growth rates for these units as well as a table of levels that represent averaged levels for such enemies with the sample growth rates. We encourage you to use these enemies as they are presented, but we do not discourage you from adjusting them to suit your needs. Each of the classes presented here will also be paired with specific weapon subcategory specializations, but feel free to adjust these as well.

Enemy Tables: insert here

Experience: One of the most valuable rewards for your players is going to be experience, and the vast majority of things a player can do will give them experience. The question is: How much? Several tables are presented below, each with experience outlines for a variety of situations. Choose one to use based on the intended length and style of your game. If you only have a few chapters in mind but want your players to have a chance to promote before the end, take an option with greater experience. If you have a long campaign and you don't want your players spending a significant portion of it at the level cap, choose a slower EXP gain.

Experience Tables: Insert here

Treasure: In this section you'll find a condensed version of the weapon tables found in the PHB, with weapon names and prices. In addition to this, some additional weapons and items have been included. Additional weapons are, of course, self explanatory, but the new items take a little bit of explanation. Held items that grant constant buffs are a good reward, as they never go away, and can provide minor boosts that can allow your players to overcome more difficult odds. They are also very enticing as a reward for timing elements or as things for a thief to steal from bosses.

Weapon Table

New Weapons

New Items

Designing New Weapons: Occasionally you may find that, for one reason or another, you want to give either your players or a villain a weapon that just doesn't exist. Perhaps your game has some lore that speaks of legendary weapons, or you want to offer a reward to a player specifically complementary to their build. Or maybe you want to offer them an even bigger, sharper, double edged sword. You have these options. We'll discuss creating end game equipment first, and address low or mid tier equipment afterword.

S Rank: Generally speaking, end game equipment will either be S or A rank, as most classes offer characters these weapon ranks for at least one subcategory in their arsenal. There are a couple different ways to create such equipment. Your first, and simplest, option is to simply take existing S rank weapons and re-name them. For instance, say your players are challenging ancient dragons that have been pushed back before. Perhaps you could rename an S rank Light tome and make it available to the Inquisitor in your group. This offers a greater connection to the lore and history of the world for very low effort. If you wish to create a weapon from scratch, however, try to keep it in keeping with the weapon category as a whole, and try to keep it balanced with other endgame equipment you make available.

Mid-game: As the base inventory list has around 300 pieces of equipment, most bases will be covered in terms of what you may wish to give to characters. However, you may feel motivated to give special equipment out as either a gold sink or as a potential reward. During the creation of this equipment, take care not to make it better than weapons with higher rank. Otherwise, let your imagination run wild. A fire tome that doesn't damage undead? Put it on a permanently berserk skeleton mage and Drop tag it. A Sword that behaves like an Axe on the weapon triangle? Why not? An enormous Greatbow that can only fire one shot regardless of the wielder's speed? Sure. You have tons of option when designing special weapons, even if you choose not to give them these sorts of gimmicks. Maybe it's just like a steel sword, but with a few points in crit, and has a backstory. Such a weapon can impact the story and your players just as easily.

Rule Variants: Some larger overarching rules for this system are not perfect for every game. Sometimes, the format of a game might necessitate these rules be shifted, or changed. We intend to discuss such rules here, starting with the big one.

Death Rules: There are a couple different methods for determining when a character dies, and what happens when they go down. The most popular ruleset used at time of writing is the Death Counter system. If a character is reduced to zero hit points, they enter a dying state, and gain three death counters. At the end of a player phase, their death counter is reduced by one. If the counter reaches zero, the character dies, and are removed from the game, generally permanently. This applies to PCs and named NPCs, though unnamed NPCs and Enemies die when they reach or pass zero HP. This system has the advantage of making death a serious threat, but healing a character quickly keeps it from being too much of a problem. As a result, intentionally leaving a character down until the last minute and using them as a roadblock (as units may walk through, but not stop on a space where a unit is dying) is a notorious strategy that can be employed in dire situations, even if it is remarkably unimmersive and 'gamey'.
There are, of course, alternatives. One that is worthwhile in a tabletop setting (where players have a finite amount of time to plan moves and must move without taking the time to inspect every minute possibility) in the Injury system. Very similar to the Death Counter system described above, the major difference is that characters receive an injury if they reach zero on the down counter, rather than dying outright. Only by being injured three times does a character's journey come to a premature end (unless of course the entire party is reduced to zero HP). This variant does make death a significantly reduced threat, but for either inexperienced groups or for fast paced sessions, this method can allow for a more relaxed, lower tension game.
For those seeking to make the condition of dying more threatening, some variants have been suggested, though never implemented at time of writing. One system suggests allowing characters to reach negative HP, and forcing them to be healed through that damage. For example: Frank the Fighter is at 10 HP, and is hit by an enemy myrmidon who performs a critical hit on him for 27 damage. Ouch. Under the standard rules, Frank would have zero HP, and any healing would be halved and applied to that zero. Under the Overkill system, as we'll call it, healing performed on downed characters is not halved, but will not necessarily always restore a character to their feet. So getting back to Frank, who for the purposes of this example now has -17 HP, will need a concoction or stronger medicine, or the help of a fairly competent healer to get back on his feet after that hit. This system has the obvious advantage of making higher damage enemies more threatening, but has some drawbacks as well. Medicine, as a whole, becomes worth significantly less, as it cannot be used as a catchall anti-death method. Further, it makes character skills like Wrath and Resolve much more dangerous to the user, as these skills rely on the user being at low health to reap the benefits. If you do choose to make use of this rule set, perhaps consider modifying overkill damage to half- In our example, this leaves Frank only at -9 HP, capable of being saved and put back on his feet with a vulnerary.
Another way to disincentive your players to let themselves get downed willy nilly is to use what we will call the Fatigue System, where death counters are only restored by spending full phases above zero HP. For an example, Frank the Fighter goes down again. Two phases pass, leaving him one counter from death. Frank is healed, and struck down again on the EP, and starts the next PP with 3 counters. Under the Fatigue system, however, he would start the phase with only 1, as he hadn't had a chance to recover his counters, and is thus in danger of dying at the end of the phase if not healed. While this method reduces corpsewalling, it has the drawback of making the job of the tank even more perilous. That said, this method could potentially be combined with the injury system to keep it from being quite so incredibly lethal.

Inventory: The base handbook suggests a variable inventory system, consisting of 3 slots, plus 1 for every 5 CON a unit has, generally resulting in units having between three and six slots for items and weapons. However, a popular alternative system is to simply give all units a static five inventory slots. This does slightly diminish the value of CON. However, it is already useful enough that making it more important is largely unnecessary.

Experience sharing: As mentioned in the Experience chapter, the most common method of handling experience gain is by having all units contribute to a single pool, and levelling all characters at the same time based on that pool.

Affinity Selection: The Handbook covers what affinities are, what they do, and how they can be chosen. However, one thing that it does not address is the role of transparency in affinity selection. Affinities provide support bonuses. As a player will usually have an idea of what manner of build they intend to pursue, they will tend toward choosing affinities that they believe will provide the most advantageous bonuses, and, in extreme cases, will actually choose other characters to focus on for supports based on their affinities. A possible counter to this is to have players choose from a list that correlates to the affinity list, or having players choose their affinities in seclusion of each other. All in all, these are all fairly minor points or problems.

Counters: With the exception of Death Counters, all status effect counters tick down at the beginning of the turn, rather than the end. This permits single round buffs to last through an opposed phase. As to why it is that Death Counters tally down at the end of the turn, rather than the beginning, this ensures that players always have a full three player phases to stage a rescue (with standard rules that is).

Major NPCs: The players, of course, are not the only figures in the world, and still aren't when you dismiss the faceless mass of enemies that they will inevitably cut down on their path through the story. Shopkeepers, villagers, and the like all have their place as well, but Great Lords and Terrible Villains also have a place in these worlds.

Lords: Lords are characters controlled by the GM, similar to a PC, but with lower base stats and higher growth. While Lords are traditionally of high social standing, and therefore in a position of authority above the other soldiers, this does not need to be the case in this system. Depending on the disposition of your players, it could even be detrimental, and cause them to seek to usurp the Lord's authority. No matter what social standing you give your Lord, it is important that, first and foremost, they serve to guide the players toward the story, rather than dragging them along on it. Lords are not always necessary to a game, though they can certainly serve to keep it moving.
On the Subject of Player Lords: While it may be tempting to allow a player to play as a Lord, and guide them through the game world by other means, this is generally a poor idea. Lords tend toward much greater stats toward the end of the game than non-Lords, and can leave other players irritated as the Lord outstrips them in power. This is to say nothing of the capacity of a player to abuse their position as Lord and ignore the counsel of other players. In the end, its better to run without a Lord than with a player run Lord in most cases.

Caravans: Generally speaking, Supply Officers are not a hugely important feature. In classic Fire Emblem, their primary use was to hold items and weapons previously held by soldiers who have since been relegated to the rear lines, and allow characters to send items to the caravan should they acquire an item despite having a full personal inventory. In any case, an army with forty men may find a need for 100 supplementary inventory spaces, but a dozen never will. However, as Supply Lines do heal in a radius around them at the beginning of every turn, they can keep the pace up, especially for groups that have only a single healer.

Major Bosses: A final imposing figure to cap a major story arc or the entire campaign sounds good in theory, but Fire Emblem has a delicate power balance. There is a fine line between an enemy who is unbeatable, and one who simply rolls over and dies. Giving an enemy grossly inflated HP can keep your players from ending the battle too anticlimactically, but over doing it can lead to a boring damage sponge. A Character Skill is suggested, but several is probably better. Awareness is probably a poor choice though- Restricting the options of your players for such a momentous combat would be a waste.