The Arena is a self-contained, re-configurable demiplane, whose physical rules are set when the Arena is enabled for a crawl. The Arena can replicate any environs, from the heat-blasted magma fields of the plane of elemental fire to the vast cold emptiness of the void. While some god-champions are eager to prove their metal against the rigors of the crawls by themselves, and win solo glory and reward, others take a more cautious approach, allying themselves with like-minded god-champions to share in the challenge for greater chance of actually reaching award of honor and prizes.
Regardless of working together or apart, however, god-champions have been sponsored with the ideals of their gods in mind, and often reflect these ideals in how they approach the Arena and each other.
The Arena has established hard and fast rules regarding cooperative crawls, to prevent betrayal during these. Before entering into a cooperative crawl, all parties must be in solid agreement as to the division of spoils, etc. The first agreement made is the standard cooperative crawl compact which essentially states that willful attack upon another signer during the crawl will result automatic failure on the part of the attacker The Arena itself enforces this compact, booting offenders and applying the penalty for crawl failure. This does not affect persons acting under the influence of compulsions, etc created by the arena's denizens. Parties usually designate whom is to receive which award from the crawl before entering. For example, if the listed award for a crawl is 1 lvl Prestige Class, 1 Mythic Tier, and 50,000gp, a party must decide who gets what (all such rewards may also be agreed to be split- for instance 1/2 a Mythic Tier, 25,000 each, etc. Levels and Tiers must be accumulated to full numbers before having any effect.) Sometimes the designation is based on most kills or some other encounter-based philosophy.
A god-champion who takes on a crawl by herself greatly increases her risk of failure, but does not need to share reward and can find herself propelled through the ranks quickly. Penalties for failure are listed with the rewards for success.
There are five types of crawls. Challenge Crawls are the pvp arena. and have a different set of rules from the others. Aside from Challenge crawls, there are Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced Crawls, as well as the Ultimate Crawl. Only the current holder of the Champion's Belt (and any party members he invites) may participate in the Ultimate Crawl.
Beginner Crawls have lower CR-rated monsters, less risk, and a lesser reward. In order to participate in an Intermediate Crawl, a god champion must have defeated a Beginner Crawl (with or without the aid of others). Once a god champion has defeated a Beginner Crawl, he must choose Intermediate or higher Crawls to participate in, unless his loss in an Intermediate Crawl has reduced him back to Beginner Status. Failure of all three Beginner Crawls results in Total Failure, and the loser is no longer considered a god champion nor allowed to return to the Arena.
Each Beginner Crawl has a reward level of 1 Mythic Tier, 1 Prestige Class Level, and 50,000gp. Failure results in the most valuable (in gold pieces) magic item the character possesses being stripped away.
The following three Crawls are Beginner Crawls. The highest two CR creatures in the Arena are listed after the crawl's title. Note it is entirely possible highly likely that lower CR creatures have multiples. After each is listed a Diplomacy DC to gather knowledge about the crawl. Success indicates one piece of information is gained about the crawl. Each five points above the DC will yield another piece of information.
Disturbing Melody (17,16) DC25
Worms, Worms, Wyrms! (21,21) DC 30
Dire Laboratory (23,20) DC 30
Intermediate Crawls are listed similarly below. Intermediate Crawls have a reward of 2 Mythic Tiers, 2 Prestige Class Levels, 100,000 gp, and 1 miracle spell(CL20). Failure results in Remedial Loss: the character is dropped back to his status when he entered the arena, losing all mythic tiers and prestige class levels and being required to defeat a Beginner Crawl he has not already faced before returning to Intermediate or higher crawls.
The Garden of Evil (26,18) DC 40
Under the Sea (23,22) (23,22) DC 40
Baby, It's Cold Outside (23,22) DC 40
Let's Make a Deal (25,20) DC 45
It Came from the Void (25,21) DC 45
Advanced Crawls have a reward of 3 Mythic Tiers, 4 Prestige Class Levels, 250,000gp, a wish (CL20) and a miracle (CL20). Failure results in Remedial Loss, as described above, as well as the character(s) losing their three highest value magic items. Play Big or go home :)
Champions of Light (28,23) DC 50
Incarnations of Evil (27,25) DC 50
First World, Last Stop (28,26) DC 50
The Ultimate Crawl is Apocalypses... Now? (30,30) DC 75, which has a reward of 4 Mythic Tiers, 6 Prestige Class Levels, 1,000,000gp, and a ring of three wishes (CL20). Failure results in total annihilation, with no chance of coming back.
Challenge Crawls occur when one or more god-champions challenge each other to Arena battles. Any god champion who has defeated at least one Beginner Crawl may challenge any other god champion to a Challenge Crawl. The challenge does not have to be accepted, unless the person being challenged holds the Champion's Belt.
The Challenged god champion sets the reward (and therefore failure penalty) when accepting. The reward must be something possessed by both the Challenger and the Challenged, because the failure condition is loss of what the winner gains. If the Challenger feels the risk is too great, he may back down from the challenge, but this is a big ding to their honor. The exception, again, to these rules is the Champion's Belt, which is always up for grabs when the Champion is Challenged.
The Challenger then sets the basic environmental conditions of the Arena (pick a map from online and link it). The Challenged may designate one special condition within the Arena.
* Mythic Tiers may be substituted by approved Templates, more information to come.
** With the exception of alignment or race prerequisites, a god-champion does not need to meet the requirements for Prestige Class Levels gained in the Arena. Additionally, a god-champion can add racial levels of outsider instead of prestige class levels.
Knowledge Checks RE Mythic Monsters:
Knowledge wrote:
You can use this skill to identify monsters and their special powers or vulnerabilities. In general, the DC of such a check equals 10 + the monster's CR. For common monsters, such as goblins, the DC of this check equals 5 + the monster's CR. For particularly rare monsters, such as the tarrasque, the DC of this check equals 15 + the monster's CR, or more. A successful check allows you to remember a bit of useful information about that monster. For every 5 points by which your check result exceeds the DC, you recall another piece of useful information.
For the purposes of these checks, the DC for Beginner Crawls will be 15+the creature's CR. For Intermediate and Advanced Crawls, the DC will be 20+CR; Ultimate Crawl 25+CR.
