11.27.2011

E4M1: COURT OF THE STORM LORD

My first FTDM map is complete and ready to be stained with the blood of countless victims. Let the carnage begin!





Funnel Cloud:
At the beginning of the match a vortex of howling winds descends from the roiling clouds overhead. Starting in a random corner, the 5x5 column moves clockwise around the map. A dungeoneer that enters or starts its turn in the vortex’s area takes 10 force damage and is pushed 1d8 squares (the central square of the cloud counting as the origin square). The cloud blocks line of sight. At the beginning of each round, the funnel cloud moves 5 squares along its prescribed path.

A dungeoneer can make a blood sacrifice to appease the Storm Lord and gain some control over the howling tornado.

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Pits (hazardous terrain) :
The central and spiked pits howl with impossible winds. Any creature that enters a pit dies as it has the flesh flayed from its bones. If a creature has been rendered vulnerable by an obelisk when they die in the central pit, the vulnerability ends when they use Respawn.

Respawn                                 Terrain Power
At-Will (teleportation)
Trigger: You start your turn dead, dying or begin your first turn of the encounter.
Effect (No Action): If you are dying, you die. You regain all hit points and healing surges, remove all failed death saves and conditions, refresh all encounter powers and power points, and teleport to a random teleport square. If the destination teleport square is occupied, that creature dies.




Obelisks:
The tall metal obelisks in the corners of the maps act as lightning rods. At the risk of electrocuting oneself, a dungeoneer can use an obelisk to call down lightning and redirect it toward an enemy. A dungeoneer adjacent to an obelisk can use the following terrain power:



Fury of the Storm Lord:
The Storm Lord is a jealous and capricious being. Any creature that uses an action to fly that changes their altitude is immediately attacked by Call Lightning.

Lighting
Bright lighting is in effect across the map.
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Central Column:
The large stone column at the center of the map is inlaid with relief sculptures of dancing djinn. The surface can be easily climbed without an Athletics check. Atop the column is the symbol of the Storm Lord. The first denugeoneer to occupy one of these squares curses an enemy of his choice with the Lodestone.




While atop the central column, a dungeoneer can score a critical hit on a roll of 15-20 and has access to the following power:



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Sun Switches:
These two switches activate a vicious acid trap on the central column. A dungeoneer that enters or starts their turn on one of these squares must use the following terrain power, if able:


Teleportation Sigils:
The following terrain power can be activated by any creature entering the square of one of the teleportation sigils.

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Other:
The following terrain powers are in effect across the board.







17 comments:

  1. If anybody puts this into play, I'd love to hear all about it!

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  2. Just looking over this briefly, and a few comments/questions:

    The lightning obelisk isn't powerful enough. As a typical striker, I can easily deal 2d6+1d8+5 at-will damage, with a +6 attack bonus. This averages 2 damage less than the obelisk, but it doesn't kill me if I miss; and my attack will probably have greater range. Even as a non-striker, I can come close to this damage, and my encounter damage (which is what I'll be using most of the time anyway!) will match this. As such, why would I ever waste time using the obelisk? My suggestion is to make it target up to 3 people, and probably increase the range to 12; if any of your attacks miss, you die, but you still get to make your other attacks. I would also make it a close burst attack instead of a ranged attack, so that it doesn't provoke attacks of opportunity (and as a close burst attack, simply limit it to only a certain number of targets, similar to the healing word power).


    I want to conclude with: Most of my questions seem like they have pretty obvious answers, that just don't happen to be written quite correctly. The map itself, and the intent behind the map, seems awesome, and I look forward to getting a chance to try it out!

    Note: I'm specifically ignoring the blind; within the framework of these arenas, anyone who takes 3d8+5 damage is probably going to get killed by someone else before their next turn anyway, so the blind effectively never happens.


    Next question: I'm on a sun switch, person B moves onto the other sun switch, the trap activates, person B ends their turn on the other sun switch. It's now my turn, and I want to activate the switch again, but (for whatever reason) I don't want to or cannot move off of my sun switch. Can I activate the trap? Or do I have to move off of the sun switch?

    Is the central pit flaying winds a terrain hazard? I ask because their are powers that make you immune to terrain hazards (yes available at level 1), so it is always important to know what happens if someone immune to terrain hazards enters such a square. (I would presume the pit is also some 200+ feet deep, so they would fall to their (probable) death. But if someone with flying and terrain hazard immunity enters a central pit square?)

    Magic items: If someone uses a daily or encounter power from an item, and then someone else gets the item, can the second person also use the power? If I use an encounter power, then I die, then I get the item back, can I use the encounter power again? Horn of Blasting/Javelin of Lightning/Necklace of Fireballs/Orb of Driving Rains: Who in the close blast/area burst is targetted? All creatures? All enemies? One target of some kind? Cloak of the Winter Witch: Currently this deals damage to the user when they use the daily. Is that intended? Javelin of Lightning/Vorpal Axe: Some very specific classes will not have proficiency with these weapons - as this is a VERY small number of classes, it seems like that might not have been intended. Is it intended? Vorpal Axe: The at-will power is an immediate reaction, which means you can NOT use it on your own turn. Thus, as written, you can only activate it when you reduce someone to 0 hp when it is NOT your turn, which will not occur very often. Also, as written, I could shoot someone 10 squares away with my hand crossbow, reduce them to 0 and (if it was not my turn) then kill them with the axe that I am holding in my other hand (but not wielding). Even if I need to be wielding the axe to use the axes power, I could shoot someone 10 squares away with a magic spell, and then use the axe to kill them. Is this intended?

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  3. @Nelphine: An important thing to note that I think you're missing is the extremely recent change to Respawn wherein it no longer removes conditions. That blind still sticks with ya.

    @RWaluchow: Welcome to my world.

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  4. @Nelphine: Nevermind, it's until they die. Curses, you got me again!

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  5. @C. Steven Ross: lol, I guess I was asking for it wasn't I?

    @Nelphine: I believe you are correct about the obelisks. I'm going to change it to a close burst 10 that targets one or two creatures. The blindness will be permenent unless the target dies in the central pit.

    I'm going to reword the sun switches so that it is a 1/turn free action terrain power to activate the sun switches if you are on a sun switch and both are activated.

    The central pit is not a terrain hazard. (there is no escape from the fury of the Storm Lord!)

    IT is my intention that encounter powers of items are recharged when a dungeoneer carrying it dies. Daily powers do not recharge in this manner. (forgot to write that in there).

    The bursts and blasts were intended to affect all creatures. I'll add in a target line.

    The cloak of the winter witch power is intended to affect its wearer.

    I'll rewrite the vorpal axe so that its a free action and only applies to attacks made with the axe.

    I thought all classes had proficiency with simple weapons (go figure).

    I will implement these changes when I get a chance. (whew)

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  6. no problem; like I said, most of my questions were simply clarifications - I like the map! Thanks for the response! (Incidentally, the other reason that I ask about the terrain hazard is that all other fourthcore PvP maps so far have terrain hazards, so someone who takes that ability gets use out of it, whereas this map doesn't have any. You may want to consider leaving the central pit as a terrain hazard (which is what it seems to be, fluff-wise), as the ability in question is a daily that only lasts until they die, so it's a pretty big investment if they do want to use it. And if they don't take it, then the central pit will just kill them anyway. Up to you though.)

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  7. This map is stinkin' AWESOME! I love the roving storm and the incentive it gives to keep moving. Very flavorful map concept.

    Would be awesome to play!

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  8. @Nelphine: no problem, thanks for the great feedback! I've decided to make the central pit a terrain hazard.

    @Extended Rest: thank you! I'm eager to see this thing in play!

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  9. the suggested clarifications have been implemented.

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  10. the only thing it looks like you missed was the updates on the Vorpal Axe (primarily the problem of immediate reactions not being useable on your own turn) and the possible issue of the simple weapons not being a proficient weapon for certain rare classes (wizard, rogue)

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  11. smacking my forehead: oops.

    I'm not convinced the simple weapon thing needs to be addressed.

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  12. I'm not either; I just wanted you to be aware of it. Leave it as is!

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  13. Wow, brutal on the flyers! I was expecting a huge current or something above altitude 1, but you just locked out pixies. Who wants a move of 4?

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  14. I know it's harsh, but they break the map otherwise.

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  15. The map has been updated to address some issues:

    -Call Lightning is a range attack

    -Ring of the Ram is a burst attack

    -Fury of the Storm Lord only applies if a change in altitude has been made and does not apply to the sandals of wind walking

    -Lighting has been clarified to be bright

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  16. Love it. This is probably my favourite map, with the possible exception of the Vault.

    My recommendations so far:

    Consider normalizing the Call Lightning damage to 15-16 lightning damage to reduce rolling.

    Limit damage from the Vortex to 1/turn; ping ponging with forced movement via stuff like Thunder of Judgment, Charm of Misplaced Wrath, Beguiling Strands, etc = instant death at worst (either because you get ping/ponged so much, or pushed into a pit) or tons of damage + prone + dazed/bad position at best, which can actually be worse as it pretty much means losing a turn.

    In short, forced movement is already strong enough as it is on this map without the recurring funnel synergy.


    Hosting an L2 PbP of this map later today, I'll link to if you're interested.

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  17. Another concern: are the stair portions meant to be difficult terrain on this map? By default they are.

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