Karoht
2013-02-13, 11:26 AM
So in my current playgroup, I have a pair of friends who tend to be at odds. One is a heavy optimizer (we'll call him C) while the other... tends to muddle about and has a tendancy to be rather ineffective (we'll call him J).
I was driving J home just the other night, and he mentions how he can optimize better than C, he just chooses not to. And then I said a funny thing.
"Where and when. Seriously, I think you two ought to just have it out already and get it over with."
J was moderately interested in doing so, and when I spoke with C he seemed to be interested.
Now while I am aware that challenges such as this can be very poisonous to a group, I figure if we hold it on a separate night, and the characters are not part of any campaign (though there will likely have to be some setting specific rules I'm sure) then there is less attatchment to the characters so hopefully less hurt feelings.
I'm trying to set up a format for the challenge, as well as set some ground rules that should still leave both optimization and playstyle/tactics on the table, rather than emphasize just optimization.
I'm thinking a 3 round best of three challenge series.
Round 1-Melee Challenge
Round 2-Spell Casting Challenge
Round 3-??? Mystery Challenge-Randomly select a homebrew class, both players have 1 hour to build the character and then play it.
Each round victor will be a best of 3 matches. Melee Challenge Round, players are allowed to adjust 2 feats and 2 skills, 1 time only. Spell Casting round gets 1 spell list adjustment (rearrange any and all spells known/prepared). For the Mystery Challenge Round, no such adjustments will be permitted.
3 Rounds of Preparation will be permitted prior to entering the Arena (to be determined). Contingent effects will NOT be allowed.
Source Material is Pathfinder only (with the exception of the Homebrew class selected for round 3 and any related materials). PHB, APG, UC, UM, ARC. Campaign books and such resources are not permitted.
Arbitration is to be performed by:
-A DM
-A Co-DM
-A Floater who can look up rules quickly and also has DM experience.
Does anyone have any suggestions for this endevour? Some rules which might make arbitration a bit simpler? Any spells I should ban? Any feats I should ban?
I was driving J home just the other night, and he mentions how he can optimize better than C, he just chooses not to. And then I said a funny thing.
"Where and when. Seriously, I think you two ought to just have it out already and get it over with."
J was moderately interested in doing so, and when I spoke with C he seemed to be interested.
Now while I am aware that challenges such as this can be very poisonous to a group, I figure if we hold it on a separate night, and the characters are not part of any campaign (though there will likely have to be some setting specific rules I'm sure) then there is less attatchment to the characters so hopefully less hurt feelings.
I'm trying to set up a format for the challenge, as well as set some ground rules that should still leave both optimization and playstyle/tactics on the table, rather than emphasize just optimization.
I'm thinking a 3 round best of three challenge series.
Round 1-Melee Challenge
Round 2-Spell Casting Challenge
Round 3-??? Mystery Challenge-Randomly select a homebrew class, both players have 1 hour to build the character and then play it.
Each round victor will be a best of 3 matches. Melee Challenge Round, players are allowed to adjust 2 feats and 2 skills, 1 time only. Spell Casting round gets 1 spell list adjustment (rearrange any and all spells known/prepared). For the Mystery Challenge Round, no such adjustments will be permitted.
3 Rounds of Preparation will be permitted prior to entering the Arena (to be determined). Contingent effects will NOT be allowed.
Source Material is Pathfinder only (with the exception of the Homebrew class selected for round 3 and any related materials). PHB, APG, UC, UM, ARC. Campaign books and such resources are not permitted.
Arbitration is to be performed by:
-A DM
-A Co-DM
-A Floater who can look up rules quickly and also has DM experience.
Does anyone have any suggestions for this endevour? Some rules which might make arbitration a bit simpler? Any spells I should ban? Any feats I should ban?