Swordmage testing grounds. (Eurus)

[Jarian]

You come to standing on an unsupported platform floating in an endless sea of darkness. A door sits at one edge of the platform; looking around, you realize that you can see further blackness on the other side of the door.

A picture is glued to the door, apparently meant to give you some kind of indication of what your first opponent is to be.

http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/mm4_gallery/98674.jpg

As soon as you lay eyes on the picture, you gain the certain knowledge that the door will open with or without your aid in exactly five minutes.

Obviously, I don't want you googling around to find out what that is, exactly. It's meant to give you a general idea of what you'll be fighting. You have just enough time to prepare a list of Incantations before you'll be thrown into the fight.

[Eurus]

Musashi casually picks his teeth with the deadly-sharp dagger he wields, the very picture of unconcerned relaxation as he centers his mind and pages through his mental arsenal. "Round one..."

Oh ho ho. I recognize that thing. This should be interesting. I'll stick with the list of incantations on my sheet and see if it works.

[Jarian]

Well damn, guess I need to get more obscure from now on. :smalltongue:

After five minutes the door flies open, revealing a blindingly white portal. Something unseen throws you forward, into the portal. For a moment your senses simply fail to work - you float in nothingness, unseeing, unhearing, unthinking. Then, with a great rush of sound, you come to again.

A gray mist surrounds you, eddies and swirls constantly forming and reforming into vaguely menacing shapes. Looking down, you see that you stand on nothing more solid than the mist itself. You have the curious impression that if you truly wanted to, you could float in any direction you wanted, and when you stopped, the mist would again provide stable footing.

A voice suddenly sounds in your head, simultaneously grating and soothing.

Mortal, why have you come here? This place holds only death for your kind. Turn back, before it is too late.

Spot and listen checks, and a list of any relevant vision modes.

You possess a natural flight speed of 10 feet (perfect) in this place.

[Eurus]

[roll0]
[roll1]

Musashi pauses, tilts his head to one side, and replies out loud. "Turning back would be worse than death."

Initiative, for whenever it's needed.
[roll2]

[Jarian]

Then you will die.

A whisper-soft rustling of feathery wings reaches Musashi's ears, drawing ever closer. The nearer it comes, the more certain he becomes of its location, until all falls silent once more.

You win initiative. A map doesn't matter given the featureless nature of this place. Only distance between you two matters. Your opponent is five feet above you, and fifteen feet away. You do not currently see it, but you pinpointed its location with your listen check.

[Eurus]

Musashi closes his eyes, relaxed and undisturbed. A thread of mist twists, and forms into a pair of thin blades that drift off to each side of him. At the same time, he flicks his wrist in a smooth drawing motion and a volley of daggerlike shards arc from his palm toward the spot where he believes his foe to lurk, slicing it open in the process.

Move: 10 feet up

Swift: Dancing Guards, for two +5 Dancing Ghost Touch Rapiers. I believe that the rapiers granted this way do not actually attack despite their Dancing property, so that's the interpretation I'm going with unless corrected.

Standard: Daggerhail, metacanted with the Wounding and Vicious properties. I'm not entirely sure how this works - going by a literal reading, every single dagger would become Wounding and Vicious. Since I'm almost certain that was simply an unfortunate oversight, I suspect it would probably be best to only apply the properties once. :smallamused: Whether the same applies to the enhancement bonus from Enhanced Cant or not, I have no clue.

[roll0] + [roll1] + 1 point of Con damage (Wounding)
Add 5 dmg. if Enhanced Cant applies only once, or 35 if it applies to each dagger. Reflex DC 20 for half.

[Jarian]

Do not open:[roll0]

Derp. Well that's a pretty poor start.

Seven daggers fly into the mist, and seven thin trails of blood follow swiftly behind. An angry hiss sounds in your mind, and then you are assaulted by a rapid series of blows, seemingly striking from all directions at once.

[Jarian]

Attack 1: [roll0] for [roll1]

Attack 2: [roll2] for [roll3]

Attack 3: [roll4] for [roll5]

Attack 4: [roll6] for [roll7]

The attacks came from in front of you, ten feet away.

[Jarian]

Crit confirm on attacks 2 and 3.

Attack 2: [roll0] for [roll1]

Attack 3: [roll2] for [roll3]

[Eurus]

Musashi makes only a perfunctory attempt to dodge the attacks, while the rapiers dart in to defend him of their own accord, parrying with superb skill. Two of the attacks strike true regardless, batting the gauzy rapiers aside.

Uh. Attack 3 rolled a three. I'm fairly sure that's not a threat... :smalltongue: And the Dancing Guards attempt to deflect. Attack 2 is an auto-hit, but I'll still try to keep it from confirming. I'll have both try to deflect the first attack for safety's sake, and just one attempt to deflect the next three. That'll leave one rapier at two charges and the other at three.

[roll0]
[roll1]

[roll2]

[roll3]

[roll4]

EDIT: Dang. Attack #1 still hits, and attack #2 hits but fails to confirm.

[Jarian]

Derrrrrp. I think I saw the 19 in the total and got confused. I don't know. Not a threat, you're right.

This is easier with real dice. :smalltongue:

Your turn.

[Eurus]

Bleeding heavily, but still unfazed, Musashi tosses the dagger in his hand into the air and it vanishes as his bracers glow. A great curved sword made from pristine glass appears out of nowhere and falls into his hand, which he catches and uses to make a downward swipe that somehow reaches all of the ten feet toward where he believes his foe lies. The blade shatters, and in the cloud of shrapnel he spies a glimpse of the future.

The cloud suddenly reverses direction and coalesces around his hands, which reach out equally long and attempt to shred the creature with his crystal claws. All but one shard falls away, and he grabs that last one and drives it toward his unseen foe in a stab. His movements accelerate even as he conjures his next weapon; a great bronze-capped tetsubo that releases an explosion of thunder and light. Attack number six comes from the side, with a wickedly spiked chain that rips time itself asunder.

Aaaarg so complicated. :smalleek: Hope I didn't mess anything up.



Swift action to activate Greatreach Bracers, then full attack the spot where his attacks came from.

Attack #1: Blade of Fate (+10 on future attacks), using Arcanized Weaponry to put Wounding and Stunning Surge properties from dagger.

[roll0]
[roll1] + 1 point con damage

Attack #2+3: Bleed Out, metacanted Greater Dispelling. I'll leave the dispel checks to you (+15 modifier) since I don't know how many effects are on this guy. Fort DC 21.

[roll2]
[roll3]

[roll4]
[roll5]

Attack #4: Quickblade, metacanted Vicious (+1 additional attack this round from haste).

[roll6]
[roll7] + [roll8]
(Damage to self: [roll9])

Attack #5: Stun, fort DC 25 to avoid stunning.

[roll10]
[roll11] + [roll12]
[roll13], reflex DC 25 half

Attack #6: Ravages of Time.

[roll14]
[roll15]

I'll wait to get into my time-accelerated rounds until I know how this part works (or fails to).

[Jarian]

Minor issue - only attacks derived from BAB or incantations that specifically allow additional attacks can be used with Incantations of 1st level or higher. Quickblade was deemed far too good a while back, and thus got nerfed. I believe the accepted fix was that you could attack with a normal weapon, or with a cantrip, but not a 1st-9th level Incantation with the extra attack.

I'll let you keep the rolls if you just decide which attack you want to nix.

[Eurus]

Ah, okay. Must have missed that line. In that case, I'll drop the Quickblade itself from that attack routine.

[Jarian]

You didn't miss anything. The, er, 'incident' happened before the skills could be updated. My fault for not mentioning that earlier, if anything.

Do not open:Miss chances on attacks, in order: [roll0] [roll1] [roll2] [roll3] [roll4]

Dispel checks: [roll5] [roll6] [roll7]

[roll8] [roll9] [roll10]

Fort saves: [roll11] [roll12]

Reflex save: [roll13]

[Jarian]

Musashi's attacks have varying degrees of success. His attack with the crystal sword slices through open air, only to shatter against a portion of solidified mist an instant later. Guided by his glimpse of the future, he strikes true with both crystal gauntlets, drawing twin gouts of blood from his unseen foe. The bronze staff likewise strikes nothing, yet the following burst of electricity draws out a howl of agony from the general area where he believes his enemy to be. The time-killer chain strikes wildly, failing to hit anything, yet still slows the world around him to a halt.

Dispel checks have no visible effect. Continue with Ravages of Time rounds.

[Eurus]

Musashi takes advantage of the moment's peace to draw his hands back as if wielding a bow; and sure enough, a shimmering arrow of light appears as though he truly was. The arrow arcs true toward the monster, and bursts into a halo of shimmering witchfire when it strikes.

Using Light Bow, metacanted to be Seeking (ignores miss chance if aimed at the right square) and Revealing (applies Faerie Fire if it connects). DC to resist dazing is 20, but since it's time-stopped no matter what I think that's fairly irrelevant. Want to find out if the faerie fire works before I post other actions, though.

[roll0]
[roll1]

EDIT: Wow. Of all the luck. Well, I'll figure out what else to do in the morning, I guess. >_>

[Eurus]

Okay. Attack #2 is the same as attack #1, but with the Iron of the Mind incantation instead. Still Seeking and Revealing.

[roll0]
[roll1]

[Jarian]

Whiff, whiff.

[Eurus]

Twitch twitch, rage rage. I want to SEE this guy, dangit. Fine, let's try this one. Attack #3, Grappling Hook, Seeking + Revealing. The Hook is a touch attack, so hopefully this one works. I'm not entirely sure if this works, since the Hook is kind of ambiguous as to if it actually qualifies as a weapon, but I don't have many other ideas right now, heh.

[roll0]
[roll1]

EDIT: More terrible attack rolls. Hopefully its touch AC is bad. Pulling it to my square if this works.

[Jarian]

Musashi's hook flies out and ensnares a large creature. Lines of arcane fire lash out from the hook, highlighting a creature nearly identical to the one seen on the door. It has been bloodied and singed, but still seems far more alive than dead.

Hit. Faerie Fire effect in place, nullifying his Greater Invisibility. Continue.

[Jarian]

Derp.

Opposed grapple: [roll0]

[Eurus]

Failure on the grapple. Suits me just fine. Tragically, I'm almost out of attacks. So... let's try one more. Taking a 5-foot step toward him and using the Critical Point incantation, metacanted with Impaling and Greater Dispelling properties. Activating the Impaling property as a swift action to make it a touch attack. And since I'm finally within range, my dancing spiked chain takes a swipe at him too. And that ends turn 1 of stopped time.

[roll0] EDIT: Crit threat, auto-confirm! :smallbiggrin:
[roll1]
Dispel checks are made at a +15 modifier.

[roll2] (I think? Not exactly used to dancing weapons, so I'm not sure if it adds my cha like normal or what).
[roll3]

[Jarian]

Do not open:Dispel: [roll0] [roll1] [roll2]

The creature becomes visible once more, though the Faerie Fire around it renders this point mostly moot. No other visible effect.

Continue with round 2.

[Eurus]

Musashi draws forth a hammer of crackling blue light, and whips it at the monster. A rift of light opens up when it strikes, trying to suck the creature in.

Alright, let's try this. Full attack, starting with Hammer of Return.

[roll0]
[roll1]
And a free Banishment attempt. Save DC is 23, but if it has 20 or fewer hit dice it takes a -4 penalty on the save.

[Jarian]

The creature is on its native plane here. Banishment attempt fails outright.

The hammer hits, but deals barely enough damage to leave a bruise.

[Jarian]

Heads up. Major changes have been made to the Swordmage, including most of the 9th level spells and the way Incantations themselves work (now can be dispelled, check against spell resistance, etc). These changes will go into effect after this combat.

Which is fortunate, given that this guy can both dispel and has SR. :smalltongue:

[Eurus]

Sorry for the delay. :smallsigh: Anyway, I suppose I should have known it couldn't be that easy. :smalltongue: Look forward to seeing the changes in action. Actually, we can always abort/restart this test if you want, since it doesn't make much sense to test an obsolete version.

[Jarian]

Let's do the tiiiiime waaaarp. Seeing the updated Incantations, and knowing what you know now, do you want to change your readied incantations before we start again?

[Eurus]

Yeah; I realize that several of my memorized incantations (like Divinity) are silly to have in a 1-on-1 fight. I'll change the list on my sheet momentarily.

Incidentally, I'm noticing that one of my biggest assets is the ability to spontaneously use low-level incantations metacanted with various abilities. Gives me a bit of utility, which is nice since there's no way to change my readied incantations in battle. (Have you considered a feat like Adaptive Style for swordmages? I don't think it would be broken, although I can't say for certain.)

[Jarian]

I've considered it, but I don't know how it could be made balanced (a Swordmage gets a lot more out of changing their Incantations than a Swordsage gets out of changing their maneuevers), and it's not like I could make it anyway. :smalltongue:

[Jarian]

How's it coming with the incantation changes?