Some lessons learned over the years that I have applied to this latest endeavor:
- No matter what you may think, your map is too big
- Focus on terrain powers and effects that are small in number, but big in impact
- Let the dice, and the character builder, fall where they may. Don't fret "abusive" combos, the players will find a way to counter each other.
Humiliation: A creature rolling a natural 1 on an attack roll is knocked prone immediately after the attack. Being knocked prone in this way cannot be negated in any way.
Killing Spree Terrain Power
At-Will (1/turn)
Trigger: You reduce 2 or more enemies with at least 1 hit point to 0 hit points or fewer during the same turn.
Effect (Free Action): Gain an action point. You may spend more than one action point per encounter, but only one per round.
Teleportation Archway Terrain Power
At-Will + teleportation
Trigger: You move onto a Teleportation Archway.
Effect (No Action): You teleport to a random, different Teleportation Archway (roll 1d3). If the destination square is occupied, that creature dies.
Forced Teleportation Terrain Power
At-Will + teleportation
Trigger: You push, pull, or slide a creature onto a teleport archway.
Target: The creature that you pushed, pulled, or slid.
Effect (No Action): You teleport the target to a random, different Teleportation Archway (roll 1d3). If the destination square is occupied, that creature dies.
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 Teleportation Archway (roll 1d4). If the destination square is occupied, that creature dies.
You may also choose to draw a card from the Deck of Mortals.
(01) The Jailer – You are slowed for the rest of the tournament.
(02) The Hangman – Once during each match as a free action, choose any one creature origin (natural, fey, shadow, immortal, elemental) or any one Race (human, dwarf, elf, etc.) . All creatures of that origin or Race are immediately killed.
(03) The Curate – Your maximum and current hit points increase by 20 for the remainder of the tournament. (Bloodied value increases by 10, healing surge value increases by 5)
(04) The Charioteer – You take no penalties for Running for the remainder of the tournament.
(05) The Magician – Physically take each racial power from every other dungeoneer in the match and destroy one of them. Give each dungeoneer one of these powers back in any order. The dungeoneers lose their original power and gain the new power for the remainder of the tournament.
(06) The Princess – You are immune to all harmful status effects for the remainder of the tournament.
(07) The Lover – Until the end of the tournament, while you are adjacent to an ally gain resist 5 all and you may use second wind as a free action.
(08) The Medusa – You automatically fail all saving throws for the remainder of the tournament.
(09) The Hierophant – Until the end of the tournament, gain a random card from the magic item deck each time you use Respawn.
(10) The Traitor – Until the end of the tournament, you are not considered an ally to any creature. You may not count any other creature as an ally to yourself.
(11) The Witch – Until the end of the tournament, while you take any effect that a save can end or that lasts until the next turn, you are polymorphed into a harmless small animal. While in this form, you can take no actions other than moving. You revert back to normal when you end the triggering effect.
(12) The Jester – Until the end of the tournament, you treat all attack rolls and saving throws of 5 or less as if it were a natural 1.
(13) The Warlock - Choose one class power that an enemy dungeoneer possesses. Physically remove that power from the player's character sheet and take it, recharging it if it is expended. The enemy dungeoneer loses that power and you gain that power for the remainder of the tournament.
(14) The Leper - You take 5 poison and necrotic damage at the start of each of your turns until the end of the tournament. A creature ending its turn adjacent to you takes 5 poison and necrotic damage.
(15) The Summoner - On the Dungeon Master's turn, the Four-Armed Iron Golem Souldriver always moves to an adjacent square to you and also attacks you.
(16) The Knight - Gain a +4 shield bonus to Armor Class and Reflex until the end of the tournament.
(17) The Thief - You lose all armor and shields until the end of the tournament.
(18) The Dancer - Until the end of the tournament, you may shift up to 3 squares as a free action at the start of each of your turns.
(19) The Avatar - Until the end of the tournament, you cannot target creatures of your alignment with attacks. Creatures with no alignment listed are considered Unaligned.
(20) The Oracle - Once per match, each player must give you their character sheet for 60 seconds.
Lich Sarcophagus Terrain Power
At-Will + polymorph
Free Action
Trigger: You willingly enter a square with a lich sarcophagus (Squares G2 and H2).
Effect: Until you die, gain the following properties:
+ You become an undead creature and gain vulnerable 5 radiant.
+ You are immune to the aura of the Four-Armed Iron Golem Souldriver.
+ You deal an extra 4d6 cold and necrotic damage on all implement attacks.
Grinning Demon-Mouth Terrain Power
At-Will
Free Action
Trigger: You willingly enter a square with the green demon-mouth (Squares G9 and H9).
Effect: Until you die, your weapon attacks gain a +5 bonus to attack rolls and can score a critical hit on an attack roll of 18-20.
Four-Armed Iron Golem Souldriver
The Four-Armed Iron Golem is considered a trap and is blocking terrain.
TRAITS
Invulnerable, Unstoppable
The Iron Golem is immune to all attacks and conditions and can never die. Furthermore, it is an unstoppable killing machine that has both phasing and truesight.
O Noxious Fumes (poison) + Aura 1
Any living creature willingly entering or starting their turn in the aura must roll a saving throw. On a failure, the creature dies.
STANDARD ACTIONS
M Whirling Censer Flails (poison) + At-Will
Attack: Basic Melee 1 (one creature); +6 vs. Reflex
Hit: 10 damage and 10 poison damage.
c Ghoul Vomit Spray (acid) + At-Will
Attack: Close blast 3 (creatures in blast); +6 vs. Fortitude
Hit: 10 acid damage and the target takes a -1 penalty to Fortitude until the end of the tournament.
TACTICS
+ The Four-Armed Iron Golem Souldriver activates on the Dungeon Master's turn.
+ If there is at least 1 conscious creature within 3 squares of the Golem, it attacks with Ghoul Vomit Spray, attempting to attack the most number of targets possible.
+ Afterwards, the Golem moves to the nearest adjacent square to the nearest conscious creature and attacks each adjacent creature with Whirling Censer Flails.
Most importantly, I like that the map is smaller!
ReplyDeleteNot partial to the new lich sarcophagus and grinning demon mouth, as I liked the EoE effects for a finite number of dungeoneers. It's almost a reward for winning initiative. You trade off the chance to deal damage for a buff that will help overcome the missed turn.
The change in their effects, however, I think will work quite well. Hitting is usually the key in a match, so a +5 is off the charts great. And being able to crit more always helps.
Alot more streamlined. As a player, I'd be far more likely to keep these rules all in mind while making decisions at the table.
ReplyDeleteThe size is much better.
I like it a lot.
No razorjack statues? No mithral river? No spectral staircase? Hehe...
ReplyDeleteI love the new Golem - much more interesting. I understand the changes in powerups (I remember doing something similar with 2Fort), though some part of me is disappointed, like Deuce.
Oddly enough, the only thing I'd want to change would be the columns. Just a personal quirk, but I think stepping them off the walls a square would provide more tactical interest.
Agreed with Angille on the columns. I know what you're going for with the four in the centre as you want to block off the power ups, but the ones to the left and right should be one square away from the wall.
ReplyDeleteMap updated; tada!
ReplyDeleteDo the Censer Flails deal 10 poison and untyped damage, or separate instances of 10 poison AND 10 untyped damage for a total of 20?
ReplyDeleteThe latter; 10 untyped damage and 10 poison damage, for a total of 20 damage dealt out.
DeleteI do this kind of damage type mixing sometimes in my FTDM designs so that builds with energy resistances feel like they're getting some bang for their buck.
Forced Teleportation reads:
ReplyDeleteTrigger: You push, pull, or slide a creature onto a teleport square.
Target: The creature that you pushed, pulled, or slid.
Why not replace this with
Trigger: You move a creature onto a teleport square with forced movement?
Target: The creature you subjected to forced movement
This encompasses teleportation forms of forced movement sourced from players as well.
Also, should 'teleport square' be teleportation archway?
Yeah good catch. I'll be cleaning these up (and similar on other maps) to be a little more streamlined soon.
DeleteChanges I'd recommend for the Souldriver Tactics:
ReplyDelete#1: I'd also change all mentions of 'creature' in the Souldriver tactics to 'Dungeoneers', so that summons/companions can't just chump the Souldriver into standing still and doing nothing worthwhile.
#2: I'd personally have the Souldriver move one square towards the nearest creature (random if multiple 'nearest') before and whenever he'd use his breath weapon. Both teams nearly always feed it a sacrifice to be Ghoul Puked so it remains immobile in practice. Boring IMO.
#3: I'd also specify that when the Souldriver moves to attack creatures with its Whirling Censure Flails, it always moves in such a way that it can make the most attacks (a random square if multiple squares would yield the most attacks).
So, putting it together:
TACTICS
+ The Four-Armed Iron Golem Souldriver acts on the Dungeon Master's turn:
A: If there is at least 1 Dungeoneer within 3 squares of the Golem, it moves one square towards the closest Dungeoneer and attacks with Ghoul Vomit Spray.
B: If not, it moves to a square adjacent to the nearest Dungeoneer from which it can attack the most creatures, and attacks all creatures in reach with Whirling Censer Flails.
+ If multiple destination squares meet the Golem's requirements, it moves to one of them at random.
+ The Golem always targets the maximum number of creatures.
Oh, and it should probably not go after unconscious creatures.
Delete