[OOC] Last Words

[davide15]

But the real question is how crazy is the format going to get? Will it include doubles matches? 3v3s? Multi-Fighter FFAs How about king of the hill fights? Or kill the carrier games!

[Ithamar]

Hopefully just 1 on 1. When you're waiting on 2 or 3 people to go, with possible immediate actions and AoO's, it just makes for very long turns. Edit: Ooh, and don't even get me started on readied actions...

[Lormador]

I will conduct the first round in order of postings, for the simple reason that the most active posters, hence those best paired with each other, are likely to be those first to post in the Matches thread. This might produce some brutal matchups, but hey- Olothruul's Arena is a nasty place to be.

In other news, it took all morning, but I finished the Arena map! You can check it out in the Information: The Colosseum thread.

The tokens will be much easier, have no fear. We should be well underway within 24 hours.

[aivanther]

Quick question about the map: What are the different colors of the terrain?

[Lormador]

They are for flavor purposes. The greenish blue area is a puddle. The sandy area is, well, sand. There are some bones and bloodstains on the floor, but nothing to get in the way.

Next to each iron door are candles. In the center of the room is a large, lit brazier. That's the only thing that could get in the way: it's a 3' high, 2' wide obstacle: nothing most combatants couldn't fly/jump over.

In other news, some matches have gone up! I am awaiting pictures/posts to get the rest of them going.

[Fil kearney]

we should post buffs and stuff secretly, and just share publicly any flavor text that goes along with it?

[Lormador]

That's right. Post buff round strategies secretly. It is important not to tip your hand.

Not that we're not all honorable warriors here, but I like the element of... surprise. It helps not to know the other character's action when plotting one's own.

It is something of a gamble, taking a buff round action. You have to figure the door could open that round. Would you have been better off with a readied action? What if the door opens right after you use your buff- and the opponent's initiative comes up? On the other hand, there's likely to be at least one full buff round: it seems a shame to waste that precious resource. That round could have bought a Schism, Control Body, Haste, that could have been your Wild Shape, etc. Those round/level buffs that don't often see play rise pretty far in value under the circumstances: if one is brave enough to bet that you'll score that buff round on the d3-1. But I didn't want this to turn into a buff-fest, thus I introduced some risk and made it credible to run a readied action/delayed action character who is fully prepared to engage on round 0.

I know it would affect my decision process if I knew my character was facing someone who had declared a full 2 rounds worth of buffing vs. readied an offensive action, hoping for an aggressive round 0 opening.

[Fil kearney]

Pretty sure I'm going to be killed sooner than later in here.

what did we have set as dealing with death?

[Lormador]

I'll figure something out case-by-case. You've got a nice arrangement already.

That reminds me, I forgot something.... the fabulous prizes!

[Fil kearney]

... prizes?

oh hey.. I don't know anything about touchstones... where is the refernce material for the evil node? (doh)

[Lormador]

Nodes are first covered in the Underdark book, and are expanded on in Champions of Evil.

Which broke them wide open, too. Without nodes I wouldn't know how to get to caster level 300+.

Planar Touchstones are covered in Manual of the Planar, I think, or maybe the Planar Handbook. They are easy enough. You take the feat, and you get the base ability when the (minor) condition is fulfilled. When you perform the unlock, you get the Higher Order ability.

Re: Fabulous Prizes, you know all those cool items / homebrew items that don't get into the game because they are so hard to price, or don't have prices? Well, what could be more priceless than a Colosseum victory! These items will be offered to the winners of various Colosseum matches. I'll take requests, too, but what I'm primarily interested in putting in (and what seems particularly apt given the context) are items supporting weird homebrew ToB disciplines.

[Inem]

Originally Posted by Fil kearney

Pretty sure I'm going to be killed sooner than later in here.

Same here.

[Lormador]

Well I'll just have to pair you two against each other!

I just spent quite a bit of time constructing cool Legacy weapons for the special homebrew ToB disciplines, to go to the victors. Hopefully this will make things interesting.

I don't think they could possibly have an overpowering effect on the play, particularly not with well-tuned characters already possessing that perfect piece of gear. And they have no real value on the market, being Legacy weapons. The perfect trophies. To make them formidable, one has to unlock their abilities, but that takes awhile.

[Inem]

That's a pretty brilliant choice of prizes, good job!

[Fil kearney]

Even if they aren't suitable for a particular character build, they ARE really cool items.

nice touch, Lor.

and the map looks fantastic.



Seriously, you all terrify me. Optimized PvP combat is what drove me to DM.