Gestalt Warrior Arena: Eldariel vs. Cespenar

[Eldariel]

Eldariel vs. Cespenar


A towering figure in a dark robe enters the room where you have been milling around sizing up the competition. His face is completely obscured by his hood. He raises both hands to get your attention and speaks in a deep voice.
Alya Montane, Kenji the Silent. You have been chosen to fight. Prepare yourselves! With that he brings his hands down and the two of you find yourself transported to the arena (http://excessivefreetime.org/arena/arena1.html)

OOC:
You've got time for one swift action and one standard action before you get transported in case you need to adopt a stance or activate an item.

On the map, green is open terrain, yellow is difficult terrain, red/brown is the cliffs (10ft, Climb DC20, blocks LoS). Arena has a 60 foot ceiling.

Opening post should have an initiative roll, anything you said after he called your name and what, if anything you did with the 'surprise round' before being transported. After that, start fighting in initiative order.


Announce preparations and fight will start in initiative order. We'll get an outsider to determine line of sight.

[Eldariel]

...let's try those starting locations again.

Starting Location
Only check your own location, please.

Kenji:
V: [roll]1d40[/roll
H: [roll0]

Alya:
V: [roll1]
H: [roll2]

[Eldariel]

Alya stands nearly 6' tall in her natural form, her green eyes shining with excitement and her blonde hair flowing freely in the wind. Before entering the arena, she addresses her opponent:
"It has been...long since I have fought in this form. Make no mistake, I still remember how. But as you requested, here I stand. I will take you on as a warrior, and as a Master of the Nine. COME!"

Preparations:
Standard Action: Initiate Greater Cloak of Displacement
Free Action: Activate Boots of Haste
Swift Action: Initiate Stance Leading the Charge

[roll0]
[roll1]

[Eldariel]

Kenji's Starting Location For One Last Time
V: [roll0]
H: [roll1]

[Cespenar]

Kenji, as he steppes into the arena, seems rather short for a warrior from a common point of view. In fact, his lack of armor and other accessories draw more of a peasant's portrait, except for a lone short spear in his hand.

Listening to Alya's words, Kenji lets out a muffled grunt and bows at her very slightly.

Preparations: Enter Step of the Wind. That is all.

[roll0]

[Eldariel]

OOC: Know what? Screw this. I'm gonna tell you my starting square and you're gonna take your action as if you didn't know it; this allows us to better keep a track of LoS and such. Presently, Alya is in S28. Take your turn as you will.

[Cespenar]

OOC: Okay, but I don't get it how it will matter unless we both play it open.

Anyway, movement.

Double move from AE11 to X1.

[Eldariel]

OOC: Well, we still don't know each others' actions; let's play open location-wise or something, 'cause getting a third party arbitrator is so much hassle. But yeah, I guess I'll need to know your location provided you're visible to continue.

[Cespenar]

OOC: If we play it open location-wise, we might as well know the movements too. So you may look into my last spoiler for that. And I'm perfectly visible.

[Eldariel]

OOC: Well, I'd like to keep other actions spoilered for now, 'cause they may be actually relevant and not-obvious. Anyways, Alya remains at S28.

Full-Round Action: Adaptive Style
Swift Action: Stance of Clarity

New Maneuvers:
Counter Charge
Zephyr Dance
Bounding Assault
Fan the Flames
Foehammer
Dancing Mongoose
Moment of Alacrity
Quicksilver Motion
Inferno Blade
Shadow Blink
Dragon's Flame

[Cespenar]

Hmph. To cut short this line of sight thing, Kenji double moves into T9 and stays there. We probably can see each other now.

[Eldariel]

OOC: Indeed we can. Time to get this show on the road.

Alya claps he Boots together and cautiously approaches her adversary keeping her guard up at all times. You can see her wearing a Belt, a Cloak that somehow makes her more difficult to pinpoint, a pair of Boots, a Robe, some manner of crown or tiara and an amulet.

She would pass for royalty should she so choose though she carries herself as an experienced warrior would. She carries no weapons, but keeps her hands in a defensive posture, making it clear she fights unarmed.


Location: T23
50% Miss Chance
Mechanics:
Free Action: Declare Kenji as Dodge-target.
Free Action: Activate Boots of Speed.
Move Action: Move to T23
Standard Action: Ready an action, Total Defense if attacked.
Swift Action: Dual Stance into Leading the Charge + Stance of Clarity
Durations:
Major Cloak of Displacement: 14/15
Dual Stance: 4/4
Boots of Speed: 10/10
Status:
AC: 32 (10+3 Armor + 2 Deflection + 1 Natural Armor + 6 Con + 7 Wis + 2 Stance of Clarity + 1 Dodge + 1 Haste)
Miss Chance: 50%
To Hit vs. Kenji: +25 (13 BAB + 1 Devoted Spirit + 3 Diamond Mind + 5 Knowledge Devotion + 1 Enhancement + 1 Weapon Focus + 1 Haste)
Damage vs. Kenji: 2d8+10 (2d8 + 5 Knowledge Devotion + 4 Favored Enemy + 1 Enhancement)

Fort-save: +26
Ref-save: +10
Will-save: +22

[Cespenar]

Calmly assessing his opponent, Kenji twirls the spear around his hand and takes two slow steps northward. He eyes the various items on the woman curiously but doesn't make a comment.

(Move to R9)

Readied action:
If she enters his threatened area, strike with Ancient Mountain Hammer.

[Eldariel]

Noting his opponent's reluctance to approach, Alya explodes into action, rapidly closing distance and launching a blast of fiery energy at her adversary.

OOC: Kenji can recognize Fan the Flames-maneuver provided he's got Martial Lore. Getting hit by a fireblast doesn't leave much to imagination either way.

[roll0] for [roll1] Fire-damage.

Location: N12
50% Miss Chance
Mechanics:

Move Action: Move T23->R21 (15')->R17 (25')->N13 (30')->N12(5')
Standard Action: Fan the Flames
Durations:
Major Cloak of Displacement: 13/15
Dual Stance: 3/4
Boots of Speed: 9/10
Status:
AC: 32 (10+3 Armor + 2 Deflection + 1 Natural Armor + 6 Con + 7 Wis + 2 Stance of Clarity + 1 Dodge + 1 Haste)
Miss Chance: 50%
To Hit vs. Kenji: +25 (13 BAB + 1 Devoted Spirit + 3 Diamond Mind + 5 Knowledge Devotion + 1 Enhancement + 1 Weapon Focus + 1 Haste)
Damage vs. Kenji: 2d8+10 (2d8 + 5 Knowledge Devotion + 4 Favored Enemy + 1 Enhancement)

Fort-save: +26
Ref-save: +10
Will-save: +22

[Cespenar]

Kenji barely rolls under the red-hot flames and lashes at his opponent, bringing down the tip of the spear as if wielding a blunt weapon, but with unmistakable force.

OOC: Your attack misses barely against the Touch AC of 25.

Move to O11.
Striking with Ancient Mountain Hammer, as Alya would recognize too, if she has Martial Lore (Kenji has it).

[roll0]

Higher hits, twice because of Blind-fight.
[roll1]
[roll2]

[roll3]
[roll4]

Swift action to change into Pearl of Black Doubt stance.

[Eldariel]

"Impressive!", Alya quips, reeling from the impact. With that, she initiates a ferocious counterattack. Kenji can recognize Bounding Assault.

[roll0] [roll1]
[roll2] [roll3]
[roll4] [roll5]
[roll6] [roll7] (you may take an AoO on this one)


I'll wait and see for the outcome of this before continuing my turn. If you're going to use any counters, say so now before I continue.

EDIT: To clarify, if that attack finishes without problems, give me a go so I can continue.

[Cespenar]

Kenji bobs and weaves around the array of deadly fists and somehow comes out untouched.

OOC: Aside from all of them missing, Kenji doesn't do anything, no AoOs, no Counter.

[Eldariel]

Alya swiftly repositions herself for another charge.

OOC: Swift action, Moment of Alacrity rising my Initiative count to 38 allowing me to act first the following round.

Alya disappears into shadows and reappears some 30' away, charging at Kenji again (with Radiant Charge; as per Arena rules, works vs. all characters as if they were Evil):
[roll0] [roll1] + [roll2]
[roll3] [roll4] + [roll5]
[roll6] [roll7] + [roll8]
[roll9] [roll10] + [roll11]

OOC: Provided no effects declared, your turn.

Location: N11
50% Miss Chance
Mechanics:
Swift Action: Moment of Alacrity

Turn Ends. Next turn:

Swift Action: Shadow Blink to K11
Full-Round Action: Radiant Charge
Durations:
Major Cloak of Displacement: 11/15
Dual Stance: 1/4
Boots of Speed: 7/10
Status:
HP: 110/165
AC: 30 (10+3 Armor + 2 Deflection + 1 Natural Armor + 6 Con + 7 Wis + 2 Stance of Clarity + 1 Dodge + 1 Haste - 2 Charge)
Miss Chance: 50%
To Hit vs. Kenji: +25 (13 BAB + 1 Devoted Spirit + 3 Diamond Mind + 5 Knowledge Devotion + 1 Enhancement + 1 Weapon Focus + 1 Haste)
Damage vs. Kenji: 2d8+10 (2d8 + 5 Knowledge Devotion + 4 Favored Enemy + 1 Enhancement)

Fort-save: +26
Ref-save: +10
Will-save: +22

[Cespenar]

Kenji raises an eyebrow as the woman puts out an impressive use of skill to mount up a ferocious attack- he probably didn't expect this to come. However, his unique posture enables him to dodge fist after fist with increasing efficiency, and Kenji -again- comes out not only unharmed, but tries to initiate a counterattack on his own as well.

OOC: Pearl of Black Doubt gives enough +2 ACs to evade all of those attacks:

AC 41 against the attack #1 of your second batch, AC 43 against the #2 and AC 45 against the #3. Talk about close call. :smallbiggrin:

Greater Insightful Strike on Alya.

[roll0]
Again, high hits.
[roll1]
[roll2]

Taking 10 on the Concentration check (thanks to Skill Mastery), it equals to 40, which is doubled to 80 if it hits.

If you use counters, etc. against this, you may say before I continue.

[Eldariel]

OOC: Hmm, I should be aware of your stance as you initiated it in my vision thanks to Martial Lore. Also, that raises the interesting question as to whether the touch attack counts as a melee attack for the purposes of Pearl too, thoguh sensibly it would. Anyways, no counters or anything. The attack hits. Feel free to continue.

[Cespenar]

OOC: Hmm, sorry about that. I somehow thought that since we can't see what stance our opponents are in right now, the issue was resolved. But now that I read it again, initiating any maneuver makes itself known to the Martial Lore user. If you wish, we can revert to your previous turn.

[Eldariel]

OOC: Hmm, sorry about that. I somehow thought that since we can't see what stance our opponents are in right now, the issue was resolved. But now that I read it again, initiating any maneuver makes itself known to the Martial Lore user. If you wish, we can revert to your previous turn.

OOC: Naa, let's proceed. After all, this isn't an "official fight". We're mostly running this on our own so I guess this'd be a Practice anyways. Go ahead and continue with your Moment of Alacrity :P

[Cespenar]

OOC: Okay then. But wait. I apparently didn't prepare Moment of Alacrity and just realized that. :smallbiggrin:

Hmm, I just want to see how this works, so with a swift action I'll change into Shifting Defense stance.

It's your turn.

[Eldariel]

OOC: That would be a problem. Alya isn't built to fight with 5' reach. Normally I'd have means to bypass the defense, but now... I guess I'll have to improvise.


Alya retreats a bit and readies herself for another attack sequence:

Location: C11
50% Miss Chance
Mechanics:
Swift Action: Quicksilver Motion, move to C11. Tumble the first 5'.
Full-Round Action: Adaptive Style, recharge maneuvers.

[Cespenar]

OOC: Hmm, even having a 10' reach would only entitle you to one attack, but then again, many of the good strikes are one-attacks. Anywho, moving on.

Seeing his opponent getting away, Kenji crosses his brows as his feet fluidly carries him speedily towards Alya.

Quicksilver Motion plus a move action to arrive in D11. Execute Insightful Strike.

[roll0]
[roll1]
[roll2]

Taking 10 yields 40 damage, if it hits.

[Eldariel]

OOC: That would be a miss. Also, Alya usually fights in forms with 15' reach and the reaches can go up to 60' so with those forms, reach wouldn't be a problem.

Dodging the blade, Alya responds with a shadowy string (initiate Shadow Garrote, provoking attack of opportunity from using ranged attack at melee range):
[roll0]
[roll1]

DC 20 Fort-save vs. becoming Flat-Footed if that hits. Continuing afterwards.

[Cespenar]

OOC: Okay, another conundrum. Say I want to use Baffling Defense against this attack. It simply says the Sense Motive check becomes your AC against one attack. It doesn't say anything against touch AC, but it does say that you can't use it if you're flatfooted. Since I'm not yet flatfooted, what would it be?

[Eldariel]

OOC: Okay, another conundrum. Say I want to use Baffling Defense against this attack. It simply says the Sense Motive check becomes your AC against one attack. It doesn't say anything against touch AC, but it does say that you can't use it if you're flatfooted. Since I'm not yet flatfooted, what would it be?

OOC: My initial reaction would be that if I'm targeting your touch AC, your AC doesn't matter so you could initiate Baffling Defense but it would do nothing.

[Cespenar]

The shadowy string hits Kenji right in the arm but rather than flinching against its touch, he composes his mind to shrug off the maleficent after-effects.

OOC: It feels like a waste, but anyway. Initiate Mind over Body. Concentration check equals to 40.

[Eldariel]

OOC: Alright then, I'm going to try something a bit more...novel :smalltongue:

Seeing the string hit and his opponent distracted for just a moment by the auxillary effect of the string, Alya launches an attack that will hopefully bypass the pesky defensive stance her opponent is maintaining (you can recognize Bounding Assault).

With a running Jump, Alya is exactly above her adversary as she launches her flurry of attacks:
[roll0] [roll1]
[roll2] [roll3]
[roll4] [roll5]
[roll6] [roll7]


OOC: That should mean that regardless of where you move, I'm going to be able to land the hits. That is unless you have more AoOs to burn. Anyways, finishing turn afterwards.

Mechanics:
Swift Action: Take Full-Round Action from Belt of Battle, initiate Bounding Assault.

[Eldariel]

Rolling for the possible critical:
[roll0] [roll1]

[Cespenar]

Taking the full brunt of the deadly fists, Kenji reels back, trying to regain his senses enough to continue fighting. He hazily spots his target, and with a last burst of exertion he thrusts his spear to his target.

OOC: Okay, three personal feelings/notes. One, that Belt of Battle is lame beyond reason, though I know it is a mandatory part of every other character out there, and not exclusive to you. Two, I'm dumb for taking Evasive Reflexes and not accompanying it with Combat Reflexes. And three, attacking from up to bypass Shifting Defense is smart, if I may say so myself. :smallsmile:

Anyway, I can only do one 5' step, so your first two attacks hit for... 117 damage, I guess. But DR 5/evil brings it down to 107 damage, which really doesn't make a difference.

Hmm, since this will probably be my last attack, let's go desperate. I use Sudden Recovery and attack with Greater Insightful Strike.

All on the rolls now, if you don't have a counter-trick on your own.

[roll0]
[roll1]
[roll2]

Damage is 80.

[Eldariel]

Few issues: I still have a move action left, and you don't have swift action for Sudden Recovery as you used an Immediate Action last turn. I'm moving to M11. Take your turn, but you only have a Move and a Standard Action. Also note that you took 18 from Shadow Garrote in spite of the successful save so you should be at 125 damage.

[Cespenar]

Eh, I figured you were already done with your attacks since you said 'finishing turn afterwards'. But you are absolutely correct on the immediate action, my mind must be somewhere else.

Anyway, scrapping last post, I use a full round to regain my maneuvers via Adaptive Style. Okay, waiting for the decisive blow now. :smallbiggrin:

[Eldariel]

OOC: I meant that I'm going to finish my turn after finding out what happens with that. Anyways, stylistically I think it's time to give the same manoeuvre that started this fight a second chance:

Alya moves in and launches one final burst of fire intended to end the fight:
[roll0] [roll1] Fire-damage

EDIT: Well, not final, as it turns out. Move to I11 to launch that and Quicksilver Motion away to U5.

[Cespenar]

Kenji, weakened to his final ounces of vitality, barely dodges the fiery assault. He gazes at his now-distant opponent and suddenly disappears with a puff of shadowy smoke. He only blinks once in midway and reappears right next to Alya. He raises his spear for a final strike, be it his or his opponent's end.

OOC: I don't know if this is possible, but let me try anyway. Kenji uses both Shadow Blink and Shadow Stride to move into T6 (just covers it, I believe), and then attacks with Greater Insightful Strike.

Again, up to the rolls. :smallbiggrin:

[roll0]
[roll1]
[roll2]

[Eldariel]

OOC: Hm, I must've mismoved; the distance should be 110'. Ah well, miss chance finally becomes useful. Adaptive Style, Quicksilver Motion (jumping over the rough terrain; +34 = I automake 10' or even 15') to F1. Next turn, I can finally try and finish this again (provided I live long enough) :smalltongue:

I should probably be tracking durations, but I know enough to know that Boots of Speed is still on while Dual Stance ended long ago (leaving just Leading the Charge).

[Cespenar]

OOC: Change into Step of the Wind, double move to Z15.

[Eldariel]

Alya tries to finish his elusive opponent one last time:

Move to P11, Shadow Blink to V15, Fan the Flames:
[roll0] [roll1] Fire-damage

[Eldariel]

[roll0] [roll1] Critical Fire-damage

[Cespenar]

If the earlier Shadow Garrote is somehow subject to damage reduction (I don't know what kind of damage it is), Kenji is reduced to 1 hit points. If not, he's down.

[Eldariel]

OOC: That's an interesting question, but given that Shadow Garrote doesn't spell out an energy type (which makes absolutely 0 sense given how damn obviously it SHOULD be negative energy...), I suppose it's normal damage and as such, subject to reduction. Also, I'd like to express my utter despisal at the dice roller (6d6 averages 21 damage so that's whoppin' 7 points under average).

[Cespenar]

OOC: Then I'm continuing? Also that same dice roller that you curse gave you at least two critical hits, so I'm not sure about that. :smallbiggrin:

Anyway, moving to W15 and striking with Ancient Mountain Hammer.

[roll0]
[roll1]
[roll2]

[Eldariel]

Nothing I can do about that. Alya falls over dead. Apparently, the beat-up Alya stands victorious after all because his opponent's final surge of power never happened. "Closest fight I have ever fought. Hope we can fight again", she says before being ported out of the arena.

OOC: And the two critical hits...only one confirmed (and the other required 7 or higher to confirm, but got a 3 instead). Also, I'd like to point out that:
- I missed my first flurry entirely when I needed 8 to hit on two attacks. Second flurry missed too, though that was due to the whole Pearl nonsense.
- I've done 5 Touch Attacks requiring 7 or higher to hit and hit with 2 of them.
- My damage rolls for hitting attacks have consistently been way under average (5d6+7 averages at 24.5; I got 18 - 6d6 averages at 21; I got 14 - 2d8+32 averages at 41 and I rolled 35, 39 and 43 and that's all for my hitting attacks out of the...what, 18 I've thrown at you counting crit confirmations (only 3 of which didn't have a realistic chance of hitting)). All I can say is, I was cursing the fact that I decided to give up all the abilities of my other side including the Luck-domain granted power.
- You never seem to roll your attack on such a range that I could e.g. use Zephyr Dance. I basically needed you to roll 35 or under at any point to be able to avoid the damage, but all your hits were in the 40+ range.

So yeah, I do think I lost this fight basically solely due to the dice roller. Thanks for the fight though, it was an interesting one even if I was hammering my head at a wall whenever rolling dice. Of course, I could also blame myself for not trying harder at the end (I had Shadow Blink and Boots so I could've engineered situations where you could not have counterattacked, but honestly, I was getting tired of the dice rolls; I could also have used Hiding or some such, but that didn't feel appropriate for a "real fight") and not just using Bounding Assault for much higher chances of winning, but bleh.

[Cespenar]

Well, I certainly can't refute that, luck dominates the majority of d&d, though for what it's worth, you played tactically quite well, or better than me at least. Overall, I must thank you- both because this was an interesting fight and the fact that I've learned a good deal from this.

Edit: By the way, solely out of curiosity, could you explain how you got a +32 damage bonus on those unarmed strikes?

[Eldariel]

Well, I certainly can't refute that, luck dominates the majority of d&d, though for what it's worth, you played tactically quite well, or better than me at least. Overall, I must thank you- both because this was an interesting fight and the fact that I've learned a good deal from this.

You're welcome then. I could've done a thousand things better, but in trying to keep it a "fair" fight, I ended up holding back quite a bit tactically too (my speed- and action-advantages are so immense that I have tons of options; I didn't make use of the fact that I could basically just walk to the other side of the arena, ready actions again, come in, blast you with something and get out-of-reach with a swift action).

The thing that annoys me with the dice is that I've been rolling so many dice this match that they should begin to balance each other out already...but that didn't really happen. Not only that, but I didn't really get any hits around the average; all of them were really high or really low, which kind of trivializes all the bonuses I've got (highs hit anyways, lows don't anyways).


Edit: By the way, solely out of curiosity, could you explain how you got a +32 damage bonus on those unarmed strikes?

Certainly: +5 Insight from Knowledge Devotion [Complete Champion], +4 Untyped from Favored Enemy: Human, +1 Enhancement from Necklace of Natural Attacks +1, +7 Wis from Swordsage's Insightful Strike (on Diamond Mind; the charge I keep using is a Diamond Mind one), +15 from Leading the Charge-stance. Normally I'd be adding 15 points of Str or some such to that too, but for obvious reasons that was inaccessible now.


By the way, I just realized that Favored Enemy and/or Knowledge Devotion might apply to Shadow Garrote given that it's normal damage; if they do, I would've won O.o Actually, I'm fairly sure Knowledge Devotion does apply to it and maybe even Fan the Flames given that it only states "attack and damage rolls against creatures of that type".


Also, I'm changing my Favored Enemies, Knowledges and such now that I'm reworking my equipment too to suit this new arena better (this was my last fight before the rework); the old arena had a ton of Humanoids, especially Humans ('cause it's an insanely good race; it forced spreading LA across both sides of the Gestalt so LA actually hurt), so Favored Enemy: Human made sense, but this new arena definitely seems to favor Favored Enemy: Undead or Outsider or some such.

[Cespenar]

Oh, right. I'm not savvy about those Devotion stuff but the bigger part of that damage was apparently the Leading the Charge stance, which I've forgotten.

And to note, I'm absolutely aware of you giving a lot of headstarts and other advantages in this fight, it was the main reason I accepted this. :smallbiggrin:

And even with those you might have won, if what you're saying about Shadow Garrote is true. Again, I'm not too savvy about those stuff, but even to me, the wording of that maneuver (or the whole Tome of Battle in general) seems to be a little botched.

[Eldariel]

From now on, I'll start rolling dice with [rollv]. That'll enable me to see just how dumb the individual dice are. Let's see few Fan the Flames and Shadow Garrotes:

[roll0]
[roll1]
[roll2]
[roll3]
[roll4]
[roll5]
[roll6]
[roll7]
[roll8]
[roll9]


EDIT: Well, NOW I get those average rolls (for Fan the Flames anyways; Shadow Garrote was still about a number under) *headdesk*

EDIT#2: With regards to Shadow Garrote, the only way I could see it not being affected by Knowledge Devotion would be if it ignored your DR, so yeah, I think in the end I won by...4 life or something either way.

Kinda annoying; I haven't actually been in a fight where I'd had used those before so I haven't had to figure that part out. Ah well, at least I'll remember for the future.

[Cespenar]

Anyways, thanks again (and congrats on your win), I'm off to Kenji's sheet to make some obvious corrections. Like adding Combat Reflexes. :smallannoyed:

[Eldariel]

Anyways, thanks again (and congrats on your win), I'm off to Kenji's sheet to make some obvious corrections. Like adding Combat Reflexes. :smallannoyed:

Yeah, I was a bit surprised that a character with Evasive Reflexes and Shifting Defense doesn't have Combat Reflexes. And yeah, Vow of Poverty is a huge drawback; its effect is only emphasized by this arena as daily items are obviously much stronger on an arena than normally and VoP has no daily abilities.

Btw, don't you think it might be an interesting idea to e.g. go Master of the Nine? Seems like you could benefit quite a bit of it with Devoted Spirit & Iron Heart access, and getting Dual Stance and especially Counter Stance (what a wonderful ability, allowing you to switch stance precisely to what you need while countering opponent's attack). Then it would only be a matter of picking up a variety of different defensive stances and profit.

[Cespenar]

The thing was that I misread Evasive Reflexes as it also giving the Dex bonus to the number of AoOs in a round. Silly but true. And Vow of Poverty was mainly taken because of fun, and actually I was going to accompany it with Vow of Peace for a +12 to AC but I had forgotten to ask if I could deal nonlethal damage with my maneuvers before the match started.

About Master of Nine, is it possible to take prestige classes into both your progressions?

Edit: By the way, I looked up the Devotions from Complete Champions, and... don't they seem a little bit overpowered? I mean, for example, if I would take Law Devotion for Kenji, he would get +7 to attack rolls or AC (which can be changed as well) for 1 whopping minute. Really?

[Eldariel]

The thing was that I misread Evasive Reflexes as it also giving the Dex bonus to the number of AoOs in a round. Silly but true. And Vow of Poverty was mainly taken because of fun, and actually I was going to accompany it with Vow of Peace for a +12 to AC but I had forgotten to ask if I could deal nonlethal damage with my maneuvers before the match started.

Meh, still soooo not worth it. Equipment is my idea of fun :smalltongue: At least it offers variety. But yeah, Vows are an interesting path to explore, only falling a bit short efficiency-wise as the feats are really underpowered compared to wealth per level.


About Master of Nine, is it possible to take prestige classes into both your progressions?

Of course, you just may not take one on both sides of the progression at any given level. So e.g. moving EWM a bit earlier and taking 11-15 in Master of the Nine would work just fine.


Edit: By the way, I looked up the Devotions from Complete Champions, and... don't they seem a little bit overpowered? I mean, for example, if I would take Law Devotion for Kenji, he would get +7 to attack rolls or AC (which can be changed as well) for 1 whopping minute. Really?

Again, you must remember that they're intended for normal campaigns; they especially shine in arena settings where the duration is hardly an issue and you know when to activate the boost to get most out of it. But yeah, they're powerful and they're part of what I was giving up with my other side; between Law Devotion, Rage, Feral Trance & Animal Devotion, I would have had:
+7 to AC/Attack
+10 Str, +4 Con, -2 AC
+4 Dex, +2 to Unarmed Damage

Which amounts to +2 AC, +5 To Hit, +7 Damage, +30 HP and +7 to AC/To Hit as I desire. Oh, and flight.

For normal campaign, I think Devotions actually hit a sweet point of sorts; the only issue is that they mostly buff Clerics which are already insanely strong. But yeah, I think Devotions are just right as feats power-wise; they scale with level (just like buff spells and equipment do), they have very strong effects but they're limited by activation requirement and duration to keep them in check. Just, very strong for an arena.

[Belial_the_Leveler]

Silly question: why are buffs more powerful in an arena? If the opponent sees you relying too much on buffs, he can ready move actions to move away each time you try to hit him and repeat until your buffs run out.

[Eldariel]

Silly question: why are buffs more powerful in an arena? If the opponent sees you relying too much on buffs, he can ready move actions to move away each time you try to hit him and repeat until your buffs run out.

Because you know when to activate them and you don't have multiple encounters per day. It's especially the Encounters Per Day; if you expect to fight multiple times in a day, one-shot abilities are far less appealing. Of course, having to burn actions to activate them hurts too; using your actions to kill people instead tends to be a good idea.


Also, readied actions here are handled thusly that you can either move after opponent attacks, or before he begins attacking. Therefore, if someone e.g. Bounding Assaults you and you ready an action to move away, you either take a hit or risk him having enough move to follow up on you and take the brunt of his full attack. Also, due to the way in which readied actions work, anything that enables attacking or attacking and moving as a swift action means that you'll be eating hits while giving none back if you go with the "ready an action to GTFO"-plan.

You may e.g. see Alya vs. Moira (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=123226) for a scenario where Moira readied an action to escape (instead of attacking) but ended up dead as a consequence due to Moment of Alacrity (and same could frankly be achieved with Belt of Battle-charges). Note that the fight was before the present system for handling "move away"-readies was in place.

The real change is a limitation on triggers; "opponent begins to attack" isn't a valid trigger by arena rules, but instead you must either trigger actions before the attack begins or after it finishes. "Interrupting attack" isn't considered valid ready trigger.

[Belial_the_Leveler]

I didn't know about the ready actions limitation.

Still, an opponent with a tower shield could ready action to total cover behind his shield. You can't attack him at all, no matter how you move, if he does. Then he can wait out all your buffs to end.

[Eldariel]

Still, an opponent with a tower shield could ready action to total cover behind his shield. You can't attack him at all, no matter how you move, if he does. Then he can wait out all your buffs to end.

Meh, Tower Shields are wonky, but I suppose you can just Sunder the shield if it comes down to someone using it as Total Cover.

[Oslecamo]

Really, why are casters allowed all kind of cheesy stuff, but when a fighter hides behinds a tower shield, wich is completely allowed by RAW, you all start calling foul play?:smalltongue:

[Eldariel]

Really, why are casters allowed all kind of cheesy stuff, but when a fighter hides behinds a tower shield, wich is completely allowed by RAW, you all start calling foul play?:smalltongue:

*booming voice from the sky*"CASTERS DO NOT EXIST HERE!"*/booming voice from the sky*