XNA Role Playing Game Battles (nhot starter kit)

It is a question about a preference. As for me, the player should handle a strategy and the computer should handle a system. The Baldur's Gate is a good starting point. Apparently completely different, but indeed similar, was Heroes of M&M. You can add a better graphics and more action sense, but the idea stays the same. In some modern games which call themselves RPG, like Skyrim or Gothic, the battles are actually clicking contests + stats comparison + health bottle stock -- this is not a way to go. Frankly, I would prefer to remove battles at all, but then the games I mentioned would have very little to offer. If your game is worth playing even without battles, then you can use any system you want to. You have go opposite to all of the other game designers and move the focus away from battles. But this is hard and needs a lot of creativity.

So, as I said -- give a player a chance to choose a strategy he wants to and not to care about the system under the hood. Ah -- no hints, like saying "for opponent X you need to use startegy Y". It spoils all the fun. As you can presume, I had those though ready to use since I like the topic. ;)

Good luck :)