The Arena [News and Offical Disucssion]

[Xathan]

Blast, i forgot to bring my books back to res with me. Looks like it's just basic characters for now.

Anyways, i would be interested in each level bracket, but 1st level tend to be very similar, and 20th very complicated, so i don't know about those. Also, any melee character would get anaialated by high level casters since they could just fly away and use all their spells at once, while melee characters have more long term endurance but can't put out nearly so much of a burst of power.

questions.

- Do we know ahead of time when our matches will start (in game time, not IRL). Why i ask this is to whether we have time to prepare/buff beforehand.

- What are the rules about allies? Are animal companions etc allowed? what about cohorts? what about followeres? I assume summoning is allowed.[/quote]- a combination of the last two questions. Do dedicated summoners/necros get time to summon beforehand? can they have beeen assumed to have already created stuff? are there bodies availiable for zombies, etc? if i buy golem manuals, can i bring golems?[/quote]- are we allowed to play as monsters? if not, what is the cuttoff where something counts as a monster? if yes, should we use HD + LA or CR? (LA is supposed to be balanced for pc's who have to fight many encounters a day  and ration their strength, while CR is meant to be balanced for single encounters. I know that the standard method is LA, but i think CR might make more sense in this case since we only need to fight one battle a day and as such, a spell/day list is much more potent relative to at-will spell like abbilities.)[/quote]Something that could also be really cool, and would help to balance the caster vs melee problems, would be to do team fights. Party vs party with each tem being run by anywhere from one person, to a colllection of people each running their own teams.
[/quote]

That is a fun idea, and I'm definatly playing with that sort of idea. Look for information on it in the future!

[Xathan]

Supadupaman's last comment reminded me of something I read in the DMG that applies to this kind of stuff, and is often forgotten in my experience.

If you're playing a one-shot random dungeon, one-use items cost 5 times their normal price and charged items have 1/5 as many charges.

This reminded me of something else I was going to suggest that would, in fact, probably negate this.

I thought we should get our gear normally, but not have it "refresh" after every battle.  (We should still have HP and spells refresh after each battle, not arguing against that.)  We could win a moderate amount of money if we won.  That way, we could purchase new stuff after our old stuff wore out.  I'm not suggesting we gain XP, so we would still be limited to 1/5th of our max starting gold.  So, no saving up to buy items way above what you could reasonably have to start with, but you could continue to replenish your healing potion stock, or buy more arrows, or whatever.

That is what I had in mind, thanks for covering it. The tournaments and other matches will have money rewards, so you can replenish your items. :)

[Xathan]

Oh duh, how has this question not been asked.  What kind of ability score system are we using to create characters?  Predetermined scores?  Point-buy?  How many?  Roll on this thread?

On a side note, I'm figuring to be a level 4 Halfling Sorcerer.

Rolling, in this thread. I don't like point-buys or predetermined scored. :)

[Xathan]

I second DarkXarth's idea, and further it by proposing that this could be a way to include betting and bookies.
Also, if you character does well (instead of gaining experience), you could write them a new statblock in the next level bracket, representing them gaining fame and going to play with the big boys.

That's an option you will have once further develop the rating system, which I'm still working on, and will be for awhile.

[Captain Obvious]

Rolling using what method? 4d6 discard lowest? plain old 3d6? something else?
Maybe there could be 4d6, discard lowest for most people, but then we could have a chump league, where it's all just 3d6 stats or maybe some other handycap (i wanna play an aenemic peasant with a peg-leg!)

The assumption of CR is that the creature is facing a party of four players, not just one. I'm going with LA + HD for ECL, same as always. However, as long as it's under level 20, you can play anything you want. (I might have a later, epic league, but that's not for awhile, since epic rules give me headaches.)

it is meant for facing 4 characters, but it's not supposed to be the equal of 4 characters. the pc's are expected to lose. a cr 4 higher, or 4 of the pc's level is supposed to be a very tough battle where either side has an equal chance of winning (roughly). A good example of this is the fact that a lvl6 fighter is CR 6 and an EL of 6. 1 level = 1 CR (for single encounters. if a creature with at will abilities became a PC, he would have an advantage since the mages can only cast a fe times per day, whereas he was given unlimited to make encounters simpler to run. but since the encounter would only last a few rounds, he ccan only use his at will maybe 3 or 4 times and then only if he takes no different actions.). It is your arena and your decision, but i do think that CR would be evenly balanced with levels during these fights.

[Xathan]

I was going to suggest the alternate rule of "you pay 5x for potions, but they magically refill themselves after each fight"--or was that the default?

a combination of the last two questions. Do dedicated summoners/necros get time to summon beforehand? can they have beeen assumed to have already created stuff? are there bodies availiable for zombies, etc? if i buy golem manuals, can i bring golems?

lot[/i] harder to beat a fighter.

Also on the topic of mages flying around and owning, a dungeon-style map might be called for. A wizard can't fly up and rain safe death from the sky with 8-foot ceilings. Aside from just wizard vs. fighter, i think it'd be an interesting map to have. (listen checks matter, pass wall is handy, etc.)

Also in terms of class balance? Should there be a "four encounters per day" rule? Each player has four fights before they can heal, or maybe each consecutive fight raises price/xp or something?

A lot of this is going to come down to the tournament system. The d20 system isn't really built with PVP combat in mind, so some of these things are going to be winged right now. The limit on buffs/summons pre tournament match will reflect the disparity between magic and melee.

I'm definatly working on a laberythe map, one which will have walls that are transparent to the audiance but opaque to the combatants. Other maps include a map with the minor positive dominant trait, a foresty map, a graveyard arena (complete with zombie obstacles), a swamp area, an "islands of rock in lake of lava", and other ideas.

When it comes to the four encounters per day...I'm not going to be working on that. Most of these matches really don't cover anything the CR system deals with, since the CR system has the basic assumption of a party of four vs CR, and people will usually only have one fight per day. (This will change for "Endurance tournaments, which will feature four matches with no time to rest) If this proves to be  unbalancing, then it will be amended.

I really want peoples characters so I can start testing things out. All of this is theory right now, I want to see how this plays out in actual matches. So, for an incentive, people who have a character made and complete a fight by October 25th (ten days from now) will receive a bonus to their rating regardless of win or loss. (Once I figure out how the rating system will work, I'll assign an appropriate bonus.)

[Xathan]

The assumption of CR is that the creature is facing a party of four players, not just one. I'm going with LA + HD for ECL, same as always. However, as long as it's under level 20, you can play anything you want. (I might have a later, epic league, but that's not for awhile, since epic rules give me headaches.)

I'm keeping it ECL right now. If that proves to be grossly unbalanced, I'll change it, but  I am no where near convinced one level is equivalent to one CR. The ECL system is by no means perfect, but it's also the best system avaliable. As this goes on, I'll work on it, and anyone who suffers because of changes made will later on be compensated - I want this to be fair and fun. :)

[Lmns Crn]

[ic=Grumpy Old Man #1]So, Grumpy Old Man #2, do you think young Xathan here will succeed in pulling this off?[/ic]

[ic=Grumpy Old Man #2]Well, it's an ailing franchise, but I think a little new management might be just the thing to get the blood flowing through its veins again.

That is, assuming we don't have a repeat of the semi-finals from the Year of the Emancipated Badger. Talk about managerial gaffes![/ic]
[ooc]We should probably come up with names other than Grumpy Old Mans #1 and #2 at some point in the relatively near future. :) [/ooc]

[Darkxarth]

I really want peoples characters so I can start testing things out. All of this is theory right now, I want to see how this plays out in actual matches. So, for an incentive, people who have a character made and complete a fight by October 25th (ten days from now) will receive a bonus to their rating regardless of win or loss. (Once I figure out how the rating system will work, I'll assign an appropriate bonus.)

Can do.  Will do.  (Soon to be) Done.

My character's ability rolls.

[dice]4d6[/dice]
[dice]4d6[/dice]
[dice]4d6[/dice]
[dice]4d6[/dice]
[dice]4d6[/dice]
[dice]4d6[/dice]

[Darkxarth]

Not too bad, I suppose.

Here's Saren Shiningpalm

If I screwed something up, let me know.

[Captain Obvious]

Here's the rolls for !maeba, my halfling Fighter/Barbarian (using the hunter Barbarian variant from Unearthed Arcana).

 [dice]4d6[/dice] = 16
 [dice]4d6[/dice] = 14
 [dice]4d6[/dice] = 10
 [dice]4d6[/dice] = 8
 [dice]4d6[/dice] = 13
 [dice]4d6[/dice] = 15

Charater sheet in process and i have other ideas for characters in each level bracket cooking.

[Darkxarth]

Here's the rolls for !maeba, my halfling Fighter/Barbarian (using the hunter Barbarian variant from Unearthed Arcana).

 16
 14
 10
 8
 13
 15

Charater sheet in process and i have other ideas for characters in each level bracket cooking.

Not cool.

[Captain Obvious]

My halfling can beat up your halfling. :hammer:

p.s. how much money does a 4th level character get?
i don't have my DMG and i can't find that info on the SRD.

[Darkxarth]

My halfling can beat up your halfling. :hammer:

p.s. how much money does a 4th level character get?
i don't have my DMG and i can't find that info on the SRD.

Nuh-uh!  My Halfling has magic!

P.S. 5400 GP  Which means no item over 1,080 GP. ;)

[Captain Obvious]

Mine has poison and axes and dogs (and a rainbow feather cloak).
He could totally take you.
Here he is...
!maeba, fierce halfling warrior {don't laugh}