Arena Tournament Exhibition, Reject #3 vs Gareth

[Schism]

Arena Tournament, Exhibition Match: Reject #3 vs. Gareth

Map


http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee221/Kyace/glasshouse.png



Reject #3 (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=134373) - Hustlertwo
Gareth (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=143576) - Schism

[Schism]

Initiative: [roll0]

Thinking over purchases.

[hustlertwo]

Init: [roll0]

[hustlertwo]

Wow, two matches in a row with a nat 20 on the initiative. Sucks to be me.

[Schism]

Maybe that should tell you something about your "I don't care about initiative so there" outlook. :smalltongue:

Purchasing a powerstone (force screen) and a psionic tattoo (metaphysical weapon)

Any reactionary purchases?

Edit: Wait, you're a monk. You can hardly afford socks at level 1.

[hustlertwo]

It just tells me the dice roller mocks me. And no, it's an exhibition, so no purchases. Also, no money, so even more reason for there to be no purchases.

[Schism]

Gareth, round 1

Starting in Y-13 with a powerstone in one hand and his greataxe strapped across his back.

Standard: Activate powerstone (force screen).

Move: Draw greataxe.

Done.

Stats: (Observers only)
HP: 8/8 - PP: 10/10
AC: 21 full, 14 touch, 18 FF
Currently in: Y-13
Psionic Focus: Yes
Buffs: Force Screen 1/10

[hustlertwo]

I start in B-13, shuriken in hand, and move to I-12.

Ready action to throw the shuriken if there is no cover or concealment between us at any time.

Stats:

HP: 13/13
AC: 13
Shuriken: I don't remember how many/It isn't likely to matter

[Schism]

Gareth, round 2

Move: To R-11.

Standard: Activate psionic tattoo (metaphysical weapon).

Done.

Stats: (Observers only)
HP: 8/8 - PP: 10/10
AC: 21 full, 14 touch, 18 FF
Currently in: R-11
Psionic Focus: Yes
Buffs: Force Screen 2/10, Metaphysical Weapon 1/10

[hustlertwo]

I move to I-7, same ready action.

[Schism]

Gareth, round 3

Move to L-7.

Ready action: (Observers only)
HULK SMASH if he comes within weapon range.

Stats: (Observers only)
HP: 8/8 - PP: 10/10
AC: 21 full, 14 touch, 18 FF
Currently in: L-7
Psionic Focus: Yes
Buffs: Force Screen 3/10, Metaphysical Weapon 2/10

[hustlertwo]

That trigger my ready action. Not much of a chance to hit if you have a force screen, but let's see:

[roll0]

[Schism]

Ping!

Shuriken deflects harmlessly off of an invisible object.

[hustlertwo]

I assume that's a miss. Moving on:

If this was a real match, I guess I'd use the fact that I have a ranged weapon and you don't to my advantage, dancing around and whittling away at you. But I'm curious to see how a grapple works, so let's go for broke: I move to K-7, and initiate a grapple.

[roll0]

If that hits, we'll go from there.

[hustlertwo]

OK, it does, so we're grappling, unless your ready action changes things.

Grapple check: [roll0]

[Schism]

Gareth's readied action triggers as you step into K-7.

Attack: [roll0]

Damage: [roll1]

[hustlertwo]

Grapple check: [roll0]

[hustlertwo]

OK, your attack misses. Now you roll an opposed grapple check.

[Schism]

Grapple: [roll0]

By the way, if you tried to snipe me with shuriken, I'd just double-move to an adjacent square and AoO you.

Edit: Well, crap. I was sure I was going to beat that.

Edit the second: Wait, you rolled a natural one. Auto-fail on the grapple, since it's an attack roll?

[hustlertwo]

Yes, but if you start a turn in a square next to me I get to use Flurry of Blows. So that's not so bad.

OK, so now you take damage equal to an unarmed blow from me:

[roll0]

And then I move into your square as a free action to keep the grapple going. Check the SRD for what you can do on your turn, then.

[Schism]

See my question above. It influences what I'm going to do.

[hustlertwo]

Two 1s in a row. Well, best to get that kind of luck out in an exhibition.

[hustlertwo]

That is a very good question. On the one hand, it deals damage, making it seem like an attack roll. But on the other, it's officially considered a check, and like a check goes against your own roll, instead of AC or something like that, And I don't know if a nat 1 is an auto-fail on a check (looking at the SRD, I only see it being one for saving throws and attack rolls). So to be honest, I don't know. And I'm interested in finding out.

Edit: Yeah, nat 1 is not an auto-fail on checks.

[Schism]

I guess we get to scour google for relevant information, then.

Edit: Or not. Crap. :smallannoyed:

[Schism]

Wish I'd gone with Expansion instead of Metaphysical Weapon. 10' reach would be nice right about now.

Gareth, round 4

Expend two power points to negate your damage.

Grapple check to escape: [roll0]

[hustlertwo]

Fairly good roll, does give you a chance to get out.

Opposed grapple to stop escape: [roll0]

Grapple to do damage [roll1]

So how does all the damage reduction go for a psionic, exactly? I haven't fought one of these characters yet, and I don't know much about them.

[hustlertwo]

Well, you're out. I know you do that in place of an attack, so I guess it's a standard action, but I can't say for sure.

[Schism]

Another 1. :smallbiggrin:

Escaping a grapple leaves me with the ability to take a standard action yet on my turn, doesn't it?

Also, Elans have an ability called Elan Resilience, which lets you negate 2 points of damage for each power point you spend. The feat Enhanced Elan Resilience ups that number to 4 per power point.

Edit:
Escape from Grapple

You can escape a grapple by winning an opposed grapple check in place of making an attack. You can make an Escape Artist check in place of your grapple check if you so desire, but this requires a standard action.

I'd have to say it's not a standard action based upon those lines.

[hustlertwo]

You might be right. Let's just go with it.

[Schism]

Good questions to know the answers to before it needs to be applied in a real match, no?

Gareth, round 4 continued

You're just going to grapple me again if I move, so...

Standard: HULK SMASH!

Attack: [roll0]

Damage: [roll1]

Stats:
HP: 8/8 - PP: 8/10
AC: 21 full, 14 touch, 18 FF
Currently in: L-7
Psionic Focus: Yes
Buffs: Force Screen 4/10, Metaphysical Weapon 3/10

Edit: Fixed round numbering

[hustlertwo]

I think what is becoming clear is that Improved Grapple was a bit of a waste. As soon as the monk became level 2 he'd get Improved Trip, which seems like a much better combat option (all you have to do is land a melee touch attack, and bam, they're on their ass and you get to have another attack on them that same round, and with a +4 to attack rolls for them being on the ground). Grapple relies on a steady string of good rolls, and is thus a risky venture. I kinda want to get eliminated from round 59, so I can redo Reject #3 in a way that makes him more viable.

Oh, and I'm at 0 HP, it would seem.

[hustlertwo]

So one last attack, so I can go into the negatives on my terms:

[roll0]

[Schism]

You could always punch Gareth in the nose as an act of spite and then start bleeding to death. It's the thought that counts. :smalltongue:

Edit: And it juuuust hits. Now you only need to deal 41 damage to put him into the negatives for a bleed-off!

[hustlertwo]

I assume a hit, let's see if I can make a point or two stick before I shuffle off.

[roll0]

And that'll be game for me, I assume you can negate more than enough of it.

[Schism]

Oh yes, more than enough. Gareth can negate up to 40 points of damage.

He's a bit sturdier than he looks at first glance.

[hustlertwo]

Is the negation something that is done automatically, or is it possible for you to die before it takes effect?

Also, what type of resistance did you choose? I didn't see it on your sheet.

[Schism]

It's an immediate action, meaning it technically takes effect before the damage applies.

I didn't choose a resistance because it's not damage reduction in the typical sense. It's at-will damage negation.

Edit: Here's the text from the XPH.


Resilience (Su): When an elan takes damage, she can spend
power points to reduce its severity. As an immediate action,
she can reduce the damage she is about to take by 2 hit
points for every 1 power point she spends.

Edit: Wait, you were talking about Elan Resistance with that last bit? It's not what it sounds like.


Resistance (Su): Elans can use psionic energy to increase
their resistance to various forms of attack. As an immediate
action, an elan can spend 1 power point to gain a
+4 racial bonus on saving throws until the beginning of
her next action.

[hustlertwo]

Nah, I had been asking about the resistance thing on your sheet, but I see it's different than the one I saw on another psionic character's sheet. his was specific to one type of damage, yours being a general +4 to saving throws.

So then it really does make your effective HP 48. Unless I'm missing something, there's no way to get around that, is there? Of course, the character isn't foolproof, because for all that you can still get knocked out by the various instant death spells around, and the lack of ranged combat forces you to put yourself in harm's way just to have a chance at an attack. But still, it should be most effective in a variety of settings.

[Schism]

*nod* I'm a firm believer that Fell Drain should not be usable until at least level 2. No save, instant death from Magic Missile range is not fair.

And no, his effective HP is not 48. It's 18-48. A power point is burned up whether I choose to negate 1 damage or 4.

[hustlertwo]

That's true. Since I guess you have to decide right then about negating the damage, it turns an attack of 5 damage into effectively an attack of 8.

And you don't have to sell me on it. Fell Drain Magic Missile is what knocked Reject #3 out of the first match in round 59 without so much as a single offensive action. But to be fair, I was against Fell Drain before then, I just didn't care as much until it hit me in the face. Both that and the Sonic Snap seem unbalanced, but the refs seem to be allowing it, and it's far from the only overpowered option available at this level, so I guess it's hard to cry about it too much. In the future, when fighting against a character with Sonic Snap, I guess I'll need a Thunderstone to use on myself. And for Magic Missile....well, if I'm not a spellcaster with Shield, I'm pretty much up a creek.

[Schism]

*nod*

I only won this round (well, won so easily, at least) because you rolled, what, four 1's? You want a rematch, or another match against Torin?

[Mavian]

An error i noticed,


Escape from Grapple

You can escape a grapple by winning an opposed grapple check in place of making an attack. You can make an Escape Artist check in place of your grapple check if you so desire, but this requires a standard action.

Making an attack is a standard action, thus escaping from a grapple is a standard action.

Also, the way to be elans is with multiple sources of damage, they can only use resilience once per round, so if you hit them with two weapons, they'll take damage.

[hustlertwo]

Ah, I guess that explains why he said my barbarian would tear him up. With Whirling Frenzy, if I hit twice with my greatsword (or even my fists), he'd be very deceased. So you can devote as many points to stopping damage from one action as you want, but you can only do it once a round, then? Still impressive. A shame about the four character limit, I'd like to try a psionic, but I have other ideas for that fourth slot.

And I thought that was right. Pretty sure I still would have lost, though, a level 1 monk just can't deal enough damage with enough regularity to overcome something like this.

[Schism]

Rules always seem to make more sense when they're bolded. :smallconfused:

[hustlertwo]

Don't lie. You're a dirty rotten cheater and the whole world knows it. This has placed a permanent black mark on your reputation here, and none will ever wish to even acknowledge your existence, much less do battle with you. It's really the most low-down and dirty thing I've ever seen someone do on this or any other forum. For shame.

And yeah, if you want another exhibition match, I'm game. But not against Reject; as this battle kinda confirmed for me, he's by far the weakest of my characters until he gets to level 2 (at which point he still might be the weakest, but at least my a less wide margin). May seem like a rudimentary question, but you do get a feat each time you level, right?

[Schism]

Not unless the Arena has a houserule for it. The SRD doesn't tell you this, because it's not open game content, but you gain a feat at first, third, and every three levels after that.

Edit: Andddd... Torin vs. Fiorella?

[hustlertwo]

Darn, so no Weapon Focus for the monk. I guess that does make me at least reasonably glad my barbarian was a human, then, instead of an orc. The Strength boost would have been nice, but I'd have had to let go of either Toughness or Bladeproof Skin, both of which I rather like.

And sure. I think you'll still win; she's designed to deal loads of damage, but not quite as much as you're able to absorb. But on the plus side, she stinks.

[Schism]

Torin is my Xeph archer. No damage absorption. :smalltongue:

[hustlertwo]

Oh, this is the one with the ability to shoot three arrows, then? That works too, I'll fight either one.

[Schism]

Yessir, it certainly is. Care to set up the match?

[hustlertwo]

I'll give it a shot.

[hustlertwo]

Arena Tournament, Exhibition Match: Fiorella vs. Torin

Map


http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee221/Kyace/glasshouse.png



Fiorella (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=132451) - Hustlertwo
Torin (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=144573) - Schism

[hustlertwo]

Well, I meant to copy paste that into a new thread, so let's try it again.