I think you just need to go into the play-by-post sub-forums and start a new thread. That should let you name it (I'd suggest using some variation on what Jehova has been using - only include an additional 'Choon non-official' in the title or something).
Other than that, i'm not sure.
Choon, if you decide to run the practice arena game for mbauers, and you'd like for me to toss in an opponent, let me know. I have a half-orc in mind that would fit the bill, but I'd need to toss his character sheet to you. It's built in Hero Labs, and it follows all the rules for this thread, so there shouldn't be any issues. You'll need it to green-light it for the fight, though.
Let me know.
Ya, why not.
Mbauers, Eben, go ahead and email your builds. I'll set up a thread this afternoon when I get signal back on my phone. My work building is solid steel and concrete so I loose signal most of the workday.
Edit: I even made a special alias for the event. :)
You shoujld have my half-orc's character sheet in your PM inbox. I'll prolly use my usual glad alias (sans image) for the fight.
mbauers, this should be fun. :)
Yep, this should be cool. Thanks guys, for setting this up.
Looking over a good number of matches, I'm not sure my character stacks up very well, at least at Level 2. And I also think I overbought on consumables, hehe.
Well, that's what practice matches are for, right?
PM sent, mbauers.
Your character looks good, Eben.
I'll set up the thread when both characters are approved and locked in.
Cool. Let me know.
PM sent, also--
I won't change anything now. I'll probably buy fewer consumables for the real deal, but I don't think it'll change the outcome all that much for one practice fight.
Practice Battle 1: Krrick V Shigeharu
Fighters, to your marks!
I'm presently working on a rulebook for the full arena, but in case it wasn't clear, I fully support and endorse all this private arena nonsense! Have at each other and such. If I don't have final arena stuff about done by tonight, I'll set up some more official fights. There's also the matter of the consumables question, which I or we will need to answer for that rulebook to be accurate.
Muahahaha!! I have been Endorsed!
Jehova, m'Shimu is ready if we go another round of test fights.
As to the whole consumables thing, how can I help? It seems to me that there are differing viewpoints, and a decision simply needs to be made. Do you want to pick? I think the arguments have been made at this point.
Let me know. I can be ready for whatever. (My test game isn't going so well currently, anyway)
Maybe you could sum different possibilities with pro/contra up? You write really good posts, this could help :)
Observing the test fight, I pretty much had similar questions about post formalities during my first few fights. Maybe we should write up 2 examples for combat posts to go into the rules.
Maybe we should write up 2 examples for combat posts to go into the rules.
This seems like a good idea.
Also @ Aurum: It has recently come to my attention that I incorrectly handled bomb throwing in your fight with Syken.
Summary: If you miss either a grid intersection or an actual opponent, you then roll 1d8 for a random direction, with 1 pointing towards the thrower and then going clockwise for each number higher. Then you count out one range increment of what you're throwing, and it lands that far, in that direction.
Funny side note, I found this out by missing an attack on AC 5 (the floor). Smooth!
Since Aurum pretty much roflstomped Syken, I guess it doesn't make much difference but... the more you know!
Edit: Also, ha, magus fight! :P
Alright, I've gotten things well underway for a nice pretty rulebook and overhaul of our dear arena. I need desperately to sleep, so I won't be putting up fights just yet (sorry to anyone anxiously waiting), but here are the new and improved rules for wealth-by-level and consumables. Each character has wealth as shown below, and may spend up to 1/4 of this total wealth (rounded down to the nearest 100 gp) in consumable items (anything that may be 'used up' in the course of normal usage). One half of this value (~1/8 of total wealth) will be reimbursed after each fight if used up, to an exact amount. Any consumables used up totaling more than this value will permanently detract from wealth, though amount of consumables allowed in future fights is still calculated from the usual wealth-by-level.
Note that the wealth for each level has been bumped up to reflect it staying static between fights. These values are the average between a character's current level and the level above, and tend to reflect the approximate wealth a combatant would have after winning one and a half matches against an equal-level opponent under the old rules. While I appreciate that it's fun to get gold after each victory, I feel that incremental wealth gain (especially at lower levels) can easily lead to a snowball type effect where combatants become more effective the more battles in a row they win. Hopefully the gain of Reputation (which will be replacing VP), and bragging rights will be enough of a prize.
I'd appreciate feedback on these changes, especially those to the consumable rules. It does mean that a melee combatant can now walk into each fight loaded up with 5 potions, and suffer no long term wealth consequences, win or lose. It also means that archers won't need to worry about arrow loss, and some of the cool one-off wondrous items might see more usage. Keep in mind that with the hard limit different from the replaceable limit, it's also possible to bring a variety of consumables into a battle, choose the one or ones most suited to the situation, and sell the rest back after the battle. The only potential problem I see here is that classes with little use for consumables may find themselves up agains scrolls, potions, and wands more than they would prefer, but hopefully their extra 25% permanent wealth will make up for this.
LevelWealthConsumableReplacable
2nd ____2,000 gp______500 gp________250 gp
3rd_____4,500 gp______1,100 gp______550 gp
4th_____8,250 gp______2,000 gp_____1,000 gp
5th_____13,250 gp_____3,300 gp_____1,650 gp
6th_____19,750 gp_____4,900 gp_____2,450 gp
7th_____28,250 gp_____7,000 gp_____3,500 gp
8th_____39,500 gp_____9,800 gp_____4,900 gp
9th_____54,000 gp_____13,500 gp____6,750 gp
10th____72,000 gp_____18,000 gp____9,000 gp
11th____95,000 gp_____23,700 gp___11,850 gp
12th____124,000 gp____31,000 gp___15,500 gp
I think this is a good system to move forward with. It's a nice compromise. Limiting in some ways, but has some built in flexibility for those people who want to spend a lot of their income on consumable-use.
One thing I might suggest, however, is that ammo not be enchantable. It would be very easy for an archer-type gladiator to spendn 50g on a few select enchanted arrows per fight and be able to walk in with much more offensive flexibility than martials (whose price-tag on their weapon enchants can't be divided by 50 and taken piecemeal).
I really like that system! Saves a lot of hassle tracking character wealth. I might suggest going with 20%/10% because the numbers behave better (no need for rounding) ;)
@ Eben: Pretty much the same thing applies to partially charged wands.
Good call on the wands. I'd suggest a "wands are only purchaseable at full charge" clause to avoid that kind of abuse.
I was thinking only fully-charged wands, and if it makes things nicer we could extend this to ammunition too (must be bought in groups of 50). The 20%/10% thing also does sound good, let me check how that matches up with some common consumables at each level.
I think that would help.
So just to make sure we're on the same page.
If a level 3 gladiator chose to walk into an arena with a Wand of Cure Light Wounds (caster level 1), and then – through some strange series of arena play situations – used 40 charges and no other consumables (which is a 600g total value @ 15g a pop), his total wealth would be forever deducted 50g.
That sound about right?
I'm still up for a match in the test arena if you decide to do another round and I'm currently creating a new gladiator for the live arena.
So just let me know. And to make sure I'm doing everything correctly, a first level gladiator gets 500 gp to spend and can spend 125 gp on consumbables (62.5 of which can be regained at the end of every match), correct?
There is no 1st level gladiator, actually. Every new entrant starts at level 2, with the wealth allowances detailed above.
That is to continue on for the live arena as well?
From what I undestand, yes.
Jehova indicated he liked starting at level 2 to pad HP's a little bit (reducing the number of charge-splat situations) as well as allow gladiator concepts that require multi-classing to be realized (or closer to being realized) when they first step into the arena.
Looks good to me--thanks for putting in the time to do this!
Then my character will require a bit more thinking then.
There we go, now I've got a 2nd level character worked up for the Arena when it goes live. As long as it gets accepted, it will be an interesting match for whomever gets to face him.
I certainly hope so. :D
If he's still around, Azaelas could probably vouch for the "interesting" factor of my builds.
I'm liking the new wealth and consumables rules, they sound pretty smooth.
Same for me. I'm just wondering if 2000 GP at 2nd level is nota little too much. I would have stuck with 1200 or 1300 GP (25% more than normal wealth).
Since the Character Advancement Chart gives first-level wealth by class, I assume that its wealth-by-level values are for a character that has just gained that level. Since in the arena there is no actual adventuring and gathering of loots (or experience), characters are considered to be an average character of their level (not one who has just attained that level). If it helps to think of everyone starting at level 2.5 and advancing from there, that works too. For an average second level adventurer strictly following WBL, 2000 gp is just about normal wealth.
Since the Character Advancement Chart gives first-level wealth by class, I assume that its wealth-by-level values are for a character that has just gained that level. Since in the arena there is no actual adventuring and gathering of loots (or experience), characters are considered to be an average character of their level (not one who has just attained that level). If it helps to think of everyone starting at level 2.5 and advancing from there, that works too. For an average second level adventurer strictly following WBL, 2000 gp is just about normal wealth.
That makes sense. I had not thought of it like that.
Works for me.
Are there any items that are disallowed in the arena?
Not until somebody breaks them so horribly that we have no choice :D
So my instant orbital ion cannon is ok? ;-)
That one is mine.
Not until somebody breaks them so horribly that we have no choice :D
Challenge accepted!
Hello,
I've been following this thread on and off for a while and I've decided it's finally time to join in. I realize that a full version should be launching a few days but I figured I'd throw my hat in this ring and say hi.
@ Kurama: Cool, always good to see new faces. Hope you enjoy it here :P
Welcome, Kurama. Let us know if you have any questions; I'm not sure if all the rules are in any one single place (though that's likely to change once Jehova is able to get the real thread launched).
Out of curiosity, Jehova, do you have an updated ETA on that? I certainly don't want to rush you, but i also don't want this thing to lose momentum. (Plus, i want to get Rolg back out into some action!)
Can I make one more suggestion about consumable purchases?
The summoner gets a handful of fairly potent spells at a lower level than the more standard casters (haste is a big one that could have profound effects on the Arena). Can I suggest that no potions, scrolls, wands, etc. be created as if a Summoner had crafted them? It makes those potent spells cheaper and more easily available to everyone at lower levels... which is fine in that everyone has access to them, but if every other caster's spell list progression is any indication, those spells weren't necessarily originally intended to be easily accessible at such early levels.
That would be my preference. And what did you mean by that second line? I thought Jehova put the kaibosh on any crafting.
Do we have a max number of builds we can submit? In addition to Aurum I have two others that I can't decide between lol.