> > I. Advanced Strategy Options
>
> A simplified version of this is an idea I've had in mind since before I started coding at all. Nothing so complicated as the kind of conditional strategy options you mention, but things like "Attack Most Agile, then Strongest, then Weakest," for example.

Although I can think of a solution to this problem, it seems much too restrictive and would most likely be take more away from the game than it would add.

>
> The complications are twofold: What if the primary attack targets of your characters are (1) Strongest, (2) Least Agile, and (3) Roberto, and all three of these people are the same one? It violates the rule where the three characters aren't allowed to attack the same one off the bat. So I have to figure out which of the three characters should move on to the secondary target.
>
> Second, what if one character's attack list is "Strongest, then Most Agile, then Roberto," and this refers to the same character, who is, at this moment in the battle, dead? Who should be attacked next?
>

The obvious solution, in my mind at least, is to allow only one type of attack list. Players my choose their attack list either by name or by attribute, but not intermingle the two. Then "strongest, then most agile, then weakest defense", while initially might be referring to the same character, could not be referring to the same character after the "strongest" has been eliminated. "Most agile" would then be determined from remaining characters. Likewise with "weakest defense". However, in this type of strategy there would be no need for a third option, because the remaining character would always satisfy it.

>
>
> At any rate, an open call for discussion: How much should extra hit points cost, to keep the game balanced?

I don't know. I seem to lose a lot, so everything seems expensive to me. But it wouldn't seem fair for a player to effectively add an entire player to his defence, so something high enough to discourage doubling your hitpoints. I would think something in the range of 6 to 10 gold per hit point would be sufficient. Perhaps hit points could be like enchantments and the price would scale upwards as you purchase more, and they would evaporate after one round.