The arena, in the interest of providing a higher caliber of entertainment for the unwashed masses, has given our gladiators some special training, and they emerge onto the sand with fiercer expressions and more rippling abs. The crowd appears to have grown as well, and they loudly voice their desire for bloody sport. Rolg enters from the north, Charan from the south.
The red-maned, square-of-a-dwarf stomps out for his second foray into the thrill of the arena. His hunting must have been successful because he sports an almost completely new kit. His armor is now a new breastplate, and on both hands are shiny spiked gauntlets. The long-hafted hammer (Lucerne Hammer) still rests easily in his grip. But where before a sword gripped for giants' hands hung diagonally across his back, now a ridiculously large but well-made war axe hangs there instead (Large-sized Dwarven War Axe). His 5 chakram remain a part of his arsenal, though they've been joined by a couple of nets… stowed for easy reach. His armor bears an angular plant motif; a sprig of some plant at his neck.
He looks across the arena once more, barking out a grunt of disbelief at what opposes him. "Sist gang en gigantisk, stygg hund og hans kjæledyr dverg. Denne gangen en apekatt mann som valgte å komme bevæpnet med kjepper? Jeg tror dette kan være et skritt ned."
Dwarven:
"Last time a giant, ugly dog and his pet dwarf. This time a monkey man who chose to come armed with sticks?! I think this may be a step down."
He pulls the giant hammer off his shoulder and seats it in the dirt with a certain finality, his rough features set in an expression of grim readiness.
A monkey monk walks into a bar, no wait, an arena. He still wears his tan pants, wide white belt stowed with shurikens, and almost nothing else. The new "something else" is a flashy, five colored cape, composed of one deep purple stripe, one neon green stripe, one bright red stripe, and so on so forth in a general offense to fashion and good taste. Five javelins can be seen poking out awkwardly from it, mounted on his back.
"Haha, guess who has a prehensile tail and just bought an awesome cape!" Charan asks the crowd. His tail points to himself. "That's right, Charan the-so-awesome-my-enemy-committed-suicide-when-he-saw-me-coming!"
"LET'S DO THIS! Pulling a javelin out and back in his right hand, he poses manfully, or rather, monkeyfully, with his left palm and foot forward.
The dwarf cocks a red eyebrow at the throw, then uproots his hammer and marches forward. As he moves inexorably forward, he taps his heart then points at the monkey man with a brief shake of his head.
Arbiter:
Swift to activate Judgement of Healing; gaining Fast Healing 1 for the duration of the combat.
Ok, how do the pillars look, are they perfectly smooth or do they have rough texture? Cutting to the chase, do they look climbable? I have an automatic take-ten, even under pressure, of 26.
If so, I'd like to move to K12 and 10 ft up, which gives me cover against Rolg, allowing me to stealth. As flavor text for how he stealths, I'd like to have Charan take off his cape at the base of the pillar, hang it on one of his javelins so the wind picking it up makes it flit visibly a little bit around the pillar, at ground level, of course.
Stealth:1d20 + 10 ⇒ (12) + 10 = 22
Then, I'd ready action for creeping around the pillar in the opposite direction so I can keep cover against him, so my stealth doesn't auto-break.
Unfortunately, the pillars are perfectly smooth, meaning there is no way to climb them without magical enhancement such as a spider climb spell (even creatures with a climb speed need to make a climb check, and there is no possibility to make a check on a completely smooth vertical surface. That's an awesome idea with the cape, though there's no wind here so it'd more just be hanging there (still would probably be fooly). You can change your actions, remember that preparing an action is a standard action, also. Remember that swift actions are allowed in surprise rounds, so you may go into crane style in addition to a move or standard action, if you'd like.
Yeah, crane style, sure. I don't have any other swift actions I can do. I'll just leave the cape there and keep moving along to K13 with mah readied standard to step around the opposite direction of Rolg. Will that work?
Stealth and moving to K13 is all a single move action as non-sniping stealth is part of movement(and this is no longer surprise round (that was when I threw the javelin and miserably failed to hit), we already finished that, so standard and move and swift).
Woop, good point about it not being a surprise round. Taking off a cape and spearing it on a javelin in the ground would definitely be at least a move action. Either way I'm assuming you're moving and stealthing, but let me know whether you want to put up the cape or ready the moving, since you don't have enough time to do both.
The monkey man nimbly darts sideways, disappearing behind the pillar to the right of his entrance.
Aw.. I was hoping I could have it for free as part of my stealth, as it has absolutely 0 mechanical effect other than depriving me of a javelin. Seeing standing next to my clever trick would be incredibly stupid, I guess I'll have to pass on it. Ready action. :(
:: Round 1 ::
A cat and monkey game, eh? Wait... do cats hunt monkeys?
Rolg holds his weapon at the ready as he steadily mirrors the monkey-man's movements.
"Hoo hoo HAAAAA HAAAAAAA hooo HAAAAA!"
His shouted monkey sounds are both comical and nerve-wracking.
Rolg moves through these squares: H.12 > I.13 > J.14 > (depending on the instructions in the spoiler) either K.13 or K.14
Arbiter Only:
If you're not Arbiter (this includes you, other readers), don't read any more, please.
Perception 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (11) + 8 = 19
I'm trying to find him and move to where I can make an attack (without cover if possible), and hopefully forcing the monkey-man to be adjacent to Rolg – to force him to either fight in melee or possibly risk an AoO as he tries to gain some distance.
A) If Rolg doesn't spot Charan, he'll end in K.13 and ready an attack with his lucerne hammer for if the monkey appears before Rolg's next turn and within reach of the hammer.
B) If Rolg spots Charan, Rolg will maneuver to get adjacent (which should negate any cover bonus to Charan's AC) and make a Spiked gauntlet attack.
C) If Rolg spots Charan but can only get close enough to make a lucerne hammer strike, he'll do so.
D) If Rolg spots Charan, but can't close the distance for even a lucerne hammer strike, he'll use his standard action to move adjacent to him, trying to position himself between Charan and as much of the arena as possible (I want to limit the monkey's avenue of escape).
For the time being, no additional actions or effects.
Lucerne Hammer strike (for A or C) 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (1) + 5 = 6
---> Damage 1d12 + 4 ⇒ (4) + 4 = 8
Spiked Gauntlet strike - same attack roll as above minus 1.
---> Damage 1d4 + 3 ⇒ (2) + 3 = 5
Arbiter, based on the spoilered, let me know where Rolg ends his turn. :)
Crap, sorry, I think the forum ate my post of a few hours ago. Rolg carefully moves around the pillar, but fails to see or hear Charan at all. He readies an action with his hammer to smack him when he does appear.
Charan Only:
Charan circles the pillar to stay away from the dwarf, ending up in I12, it's his turn.
Everyone but Rolg:
Charan nimbly moves to the side as Rolg heads towards him, always keeping his opponent on the other side of the pillar.
"STUNNING SNEAK HEADBUTT!" With a might noise, a jumping monkey appears behind Rolg.
J13 or K12, depending on how you're facing. If you're facing the pillar, it doesn't really matter. Not that facing matters in this game, anyway. Just for flair.
Who then promptly attempts to reverse back kick Rolg in the base of his spine, or gut, if he turned around in time.
Also, who wants to bet that I'm about to take a readied action to the face? I'm expecting to lose about 4/5s of my health presuming my opponent doesn't roll bad.
Stealth has been broken (by the war cry, if nothing else), so you do take a readied action to the face. You get a +4 bonus from cover, however (since Charan is moving to J13 from I12), and the cover also negates the attack of opportunity from leaving the hammer's threat range.
Charan Only:
You may deflect one melee attack a round, since you're now fighting defensively.
Ah, I didn't notice he had reach. Do you mind if the "jumping monkey" part of my post implies I'm attempting to tumble? I thought I didn't have to roll as I forgot he had reach, but that was the intent.
"BAAAAAHAHAHAHHAAH--AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" (That's deep belly laughter becoming a battle-scream)
The hammer-head swings in fast and accurate.
Arbiter + rolls:
If Rolg can rage as part of this AoO, then he will. Let me know if Rolg can begin raging here (it's a free action to rage, but there are some muddy rules on when a free action can be taken)
Charan was in square I12, stealthed. He broke his stealth, activating your readied action (he was within range of your hammer), but he had cover from your square (K13). Also yes, fortitude save please.
Rolg Only:
As for raging on someone else's turn, I'm going to go with no, especially based on this line from speaking in combat: "In general, speaking is a free action that you can perform even when it isn't your turn." I'll clarify this in the main rules as something that could be unclear, and we can certainly talk more about it. In this case it would not have impacted the outcome of the attack.
Rolg, prepared to strike, instantly turns and brings his hammer crashing down towards Charan in reponse to the war cry, but the monkey-man manages to twist half of himself back behind the pillar for an instant, dodging the deadly blow. He then nimbly darts past the hammer, and strikes Rolg in the chest with his bare hand, injuring the dwarf even through his armor.
Rolg is completely unaffected by anything, and yes, if Charan had something to make a character fail a saving throw on a natural twenty, we would all need to be quite worried.
Well this is another weird question: The rules for readied actions shift your place in the initiative order to the time when your action went off, and they also state that a readied action goes immediately before the event that triggers it (in this case Charan's yell), but Rolg couldn't take the action until Charan was known to him. I'm going to assume that while for initiative purposes, Rolg acted immediately before Charan, he lashed out after hearing the battlecry. This means that Rolg's place in initiative is immediately before Charan, so I suppose he does get to go now. Does this seem right to everyone? Other interpretations, as far as I can tell, would either disallow Rolg's readied action (doesn't make much sense), or put Rolg's initiative within Charan's turn (makes even less sense).
From my understanding, yes.
.
Rolg readied an action.
Charan attacked, triggering the readied action and resetting Rolg's initiative to just before Charan's.
.
Unless there was something else at play.
Putting Rolg's initiative at the same time as Charan would mean that they both acted simultaneously, aka, swung at the same time (which they presumably did, as Charan didn't battlecry BEFORE his turn and then wait for a second for Rolg to attack him.) Which would mean that the next turn goes to whoever has the higher initiative modifier, as is normal for ties.
Well, the readied attack interrupts Charan's action, he doesn't wait around for Rolg, Rolg just takes a swing. I'm also pretty sure that ties don't occur after initiative is underway. I'll look more into it, but I think we should carry on for now on the assumption that Rolg's readied action hasn't changed the order in which they're acting. Charan has just hit Rolg, Rolg beat the fortitude save, and it's Rolg's turn. Rolg is in K13 still, and Charan is in J13.
As Rolg's interrupting hammer comes down, a foot comes up. While attempting to kick Rolg, Charan sets one of his hands on the ground and brings his OTHER foot up, catching the shaft of the hammer before Rolg manages to get the momentum built up, while still kicking Rolg in the chest.
"HAH! Take that. I'm awesome." He flips himself back onto his feet after landing his attack.
"Err... You can fall down now... Uh.. You look angry?" He then takes a step back,* eyes widening as he sees the Dwarf Rage.
".... NOT THE FACE, I'M TOO BEAUTIFUL TO DIE!" He shields his face with both hands and tail, cowering.
*As in non action, like 6 inch step.
Talking is a free action! Presumably, I'm spouting all this off at the end of my turn before yours comes up. Also, I'm predicting you rage next turn? :P
I'm appreciating all of the narrative, but Rolg's attack missed because Charan dodged behind the pillar :P I suppose your account of events doesn't change anything, though, so we can pretend.
If the scream triggered the readied action, then Rolg's initiative shifts to just before Charan's turn. Seeing as how Charan's turn just ended, Rolg would be up.
.
If that scream happened after some other action by Charan, then I'd suggest their initiative count becomes the same (which gives priority to Charan). And since Charan's turn just ended, Rolg would be up.
.
Either way, Charan ending his turn means Rolg is up, i would think.
:: Round 2 ::
The dwarf rubs his stomach with a surprised grin, "Du er rask."
Dwarven:
"You're quick."
Then his stubby leg swings out in an attempt to sweep the monkey's legs out from under him.
Charan leaps over the Dwarf's attempt to trip a monkey, simultaneously launching a spin kick to the Dwarf's head, and as he comes down, making another kick. However, this one has it's rotation completely off and orbits like a foot* over the Dwarf's head as Charan dizzily lands and wobbles in place.
I hit AC 18 for 4 and AC 9 for 9. Was not tripped.
"Hmm..." The monkey says, looking thoughtfully at the hammer blow which was quite might at destroying sand, then back at Rolg. "You're very good at that. Lot of strength. You should attack the ground more often. That's what dwarves do, right?"
Cue 5 ft step forward and a knee to the gut attack.
