[DnD] D&D Arena Signups and Discussion

Welcome to GFF D&D Arena, where two gladiators team up and duke it out with all sorts of creatures for gold, glory, and girls! The Arena is a dangerous place. And this is made even more so by the two-character limit (which may change as I get more comfortable with managing greater numbers).

Here are the house rules that apply in the arena:

1. You will fight four battles per day. No more, no less. So ration accordingly.
   
2. Each battle will be progressively harder than the last. Difficulty in this case is determined by monster experience level. In my experience it is not a very good indicator of actual lethality but what can we do .
3. You gain one level after 4 battles (every day). The battle ground changes after every level or so.
   
4. You can spend one action point every battle. This will not carry over subsequent battles.
5. You gain the benefit of a short rest after every battle, and an extended rest after every day.
6. I will raise the dead three times only. After the fourth death, it's game over.
7. You can sell any magic item you own at 100% of its value.
8. I don't like to track mundane ammunition. Don't bother buying them. I do track magic consumables though.
9. When on higher ground (but not when you're flying), you gain combat advantage.
10. I don't like to say "no" if I can help it. Don't be afraid to ask if something is possible or not.
11. To speed up combat, I am awarding +1/+1 tokens for prompt posting. Details here.

There are two other campaigns that are ongoing at this point. The Arena differs from both in the sense that:

1. It is focused heavily on the combat aspect of D&D 4e. You will have very limited opportunity to role play outside of battle. With that said, I am a continuity buff and love character back-stories. The more material you give me, well...
2. It is considerably more lethal than the other campaigns. To an extent, I will be choosing monsters that synergize well with each other. Since there are only two of you, you will need to tweak your team composition and character choices accordingly if you want to do well.
3. At some point, I will be giving you free mounts. Why? Two reasons. I like to mess around with mounted combat, for one. More importantly, giving you mounts lets me employ better and more interesting and/or numerous monsters. With a clear conscience, since the monster experience point allotment increases when mounts are present.
4. Most of the time, you will fight everything you meet. Diplomacy is not an option, unless you can justify it. Intimidation is always an option however!
5. The arena battles are not chronological across parties. Feel free to set the time frame in the shared universe to any specific year that suits you.

Gladiators, Past, Present and Future

1. Shin - "Ivory", Longtooth Shifter Cleric retired
2. a lurker - "Ebony", Kobold Ranger retired
3. Rychord - "Smothas Bigraks", Dragonborn Paladin
4. Pangalin - "Cyrus Von Brandt", Half-Elf Storm Sorceror
5. Randi
6. Helloween
7. CetteHamsterLa

2 Player Arena - PvP

1. NinjaGuyDan

5 Player Dungeon Delve

1. Rychord

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Well, your intentions were noble.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

I guess they prefer your experience, superior maps, complete campaigns, and better wit to my brand of tyranny

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

For me the excitement was new and creative tactics brought about by changing circumstances. That all goes away if you're battling on the same map over and over. Also two players, it really just limits your tactical options.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

How bout if we make it PvP?

I was speaking idiomatically.

I'd be up for it

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Yeah you might want to do more than a 2 man party. But you can balance it by not only doing one fight but maybe like a series of five fights or something, or a little mini-dungeon, or something like that. Obviously there will be kinks that need to be ironed out.

FELIPE NO

Gee. I can't think of why people would be hesitant to play in a game run by zerg.

O yeah.

He's a fun rapist.

Seriously Zerg. Loosen the tie a bit. It's D&D.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Well I reckon it'd be fun, although I'd do it more in terms of exponentially harder fights until everyone's actually dead. It was me who suggested parties of two, the reasoning being the game would have quite a high turnover and people might want to buddy up to challenge the current best streak, plus contrary to what Radez said, it opens up millions of tactical options. Each game is a quick sprint, you're not developing characters here so much. I thought it might be fun to try out a load of different combinations of characters, see whether a balance of magic and swords would work, or take a tank and a healer and try to tough it out, or two barbarians and blitz through.

You people are all so negative sometimes.

Put me on the list Zerg, anyone want to team up with me?

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Alas, Shin. I guess nobody wants to play an arena game.

All right, suppose we change this into a dungeon delve? Basically, a team of five players traipse through a mini-dungeon, going through three battles. Once you beat it, that's it.

So... just to twink out a bit, Level 2 characters? And 752 gp to buy anything you wish.

Takers?

There's nowhere I can't reach.

I would be willing to play, but I'm not so sure I have the D&D rules down pat much, especially not 4th edition. I'll try and brush up on them in the next little while and report back when I'm comfortable enough with the rules.

If anyone happens to have a good starting place for such an education, I would be grateful, but it's no biggie otherwise as I'll surely find enough info on my own eventually.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

I have links to all the D&D handbooks in the OP of the D&D Discussion thread if it helps, Rychord. I'd suggest just winging it usually, but I suppose with Zerg at the helm it probably is necessary to get a grip on things first.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

I'll play with Shin's idea of the two-man challenge against crazy hard enemies.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by Pangalin

I have links to all the D&D handbooks in the OP of the D&D Discussion thread if it helps, Rychord. I'd suggest just winging it usually, but I suppose with Zerg at the helm it probably is necessary to get a grip on things first.

I'll go and check it out, it should probably be enough since I don't think I'm going to be producing any completed hybrids for the time being anyway. Thanks!

Originally Posted by a_lurker

I'll play with Shin's idea of the two-man challenge against crazy hard enemies.

I guess I'll take the next rotation with whoever is brave enough to try and break through Zerg's Matrix of Doom.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Originally Posted by a_lurker

I'll play with Shin's idea of the two-man challenge against crazy hard enemies.

So what awesome team of awesome should we go for?

I would say a couple of priests, but you did that last time. We certainly don't want to go with anything too sensible though. I quite fancy being one of those frog things, Bullywugs is it?

Edit: Whatever we pick, can we be one black dude and one white dude called Ebony and Ivory?

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This is acceptable provided only that one of you is a hotshot young rookie who doesn't play by the rules, and the other is a grizzled veteran who's only three days from retirement and is too old for this shit.

I think it would be in keeping with the intended high-lethality (and low-practicality) of the format just to generate your PCs completely at random, though.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Chocodecide says a Kobold Ranger and a Longtooth Shifter Cleric. I'd suggest the shifter be the old, black guy, who is of course called Ivory, making the Kobold a young, brash white dude called Ebony.

Let's do this shit.

You played an old cleric last time lurker so if you're happy with the team choices, I'll take Ivory.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Fuck yes. Shin I am so down. I'll be K-dawg, wiggering this the fuck out, ya feel me?

PEACE

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Do either of you two actually have any idea how to generate a character though?

Anyways by the time you kill off these two SAUS should be winding down so I'll have to time to play Round 2 with Rychord I guess.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

COUNT ME IN!

Not that I know what I'm really doing, but this can't be too terribly complicated, right?

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Not really! Master Pang will surely yell at me if I do something unfair!

Basically this is the battle portion of Dungeons & Dragons. Think World of Warcraft and you'll probably be fine. (If you want the full monty, Pang's own campaign has it all.)

Bare minimum is for you to choose a race and a class. Then during Battle, you just say "I attack Enemy X with Attack Y while moving to square Z." I can roll for you.

But of course I'll prefer it if you go to the trouble of optimizing characters. That way I can throw in more interesting enemies with a clear conscience!

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by Pangalin

Do either of you two actually have any idea how to generate a character though?

Of course not.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Okay then. You chose a ranger, currently my specialty. There are four types: guy who's purely bow and arrows, a guy who dual-wields swords, a cross between the first two, and a guy who uses an animal companion in battle. Which one would you rather be? (Or do you want to be surprised? Your choice of kobold with its dexterity bonus is better suited for long-range attacks)

Or, you could always let Pang outfit you. That's cool too.

Ebony (Kobold Ranger), played by a lurker

FELIPE NO

I'm probably going to be heading down the Dragonborn Paladin path since it seems to be a simple enough class choice with a good amount of physical abilities, yet it has a bit more complexity than a fighter so it will still allow me to learn more aspects of the game more quickly. I'll try to figure out the intricacies of rolling a character before my rotation starts. Hope this choice works with you, Pang.

Quick question: The player's handbook doesn't list Lawful Evil or Chaotic Good as alignment choices. Is this because they've been taken out of the game or simply because they are listed in a more advanced part of the guide? The evil divinities are not elaborated on as much (readers are referred to the dungeon master's guide for longer descriptions), so maybe these alignments are also covered in that book?

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

I think they've been removed from 4e. You could always play an evil paladin if you wish. Just hope that Pang doesn't play a good-aligned character in that case...

How ya doing, buddy?