Douglas vs Elya- Arena Championship Finals

[AmberVael]

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b46/quitmeyer1892/thearena2.gif

KEY:
-Each square is 5ft by 5ft.

-Colored squares: These are the starting areas. The challenger starts in the Red square, the defender starts in the blue square. You can start anywhere in the square.

-Big spikey circular thing in the middle: The Sarlaac pit. Or, for those who want to keep in more medieval, the Maw of Doom. Stepping in any of the squares the sarlaac touches starts a grapple check (Sarlaac has +25). Every turn while grappled, you take piercing and crushing damage, 3d6 each. After 2 full rounds of being grappled, you are sucked in and swallowed whole, taking 4d6 acid damage and 5d6 each of piercing and bludgeoning. The only way to escape is with a DC 25 climb check, which will let you escape from the digestive tract, but you're still grappled.

-Brown diamonds with red dots: Lava geysers. Every time you step in one there's a 25% chance that you take 10d6 fire damage (reflex half).

-Greenish blobs: Acid pools. 3d6 acid damage for every step through them. *

-Grey circles: Normal, boring, 5' diameter boulders. Use them for cover or for improvised weapons, or whatever else you can come up with.

-White circles with the two lines: Bunnies. Have absolutely no effect on the battle unless someone does something to them.

-Weird stick figure in the upper-left hand corner: Waldo. Oh, there he is. Basically like the bunnies, but he can be used as cover, too.

Douglas (http://www.thetangledweb.net/profiler/view.php?id=67) vs. Elya (http://www.thetangledweb.net/profiler/view.php?id=3630)

Elya will start in the blue square, Douglas will start in the red.

[Lord Iames Osari]

Aerin enters the stands to watch.

[AmberVael]

Elya comes out into the arena and focuses herself, getting ready for the fight. She uses a number of scrolls and powerstones, then waits for the fight to begin.
Initiative (1d20+5=13) (http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=830860)
Elya starts in P 35

Round 1
Elya brings up her Epic Dispel Ward, casts Entropic Shield, pulls out a powerstone of Temporal Acceleration and uses it.
Subround 1
Elya draws out a powerstone of True Metabolism and uses it.
Subround 2
Elya draws out a powerstone of Personal Mind Blank and uses it.

Round 2
Elya casts Death Ward and then pulls out a powerstone of Temporal Acceleration and uses it.
Subround 1
Elya pulls out a powerstone of Psionic Trueseeing and uses it.
Subround 2
Elya gains Psionics Focus and casts Greater Spell Immunity.
(Disentegrate, Orb of Force, Magic Missile, Force Missile, Avasculate)

Round 3
Elya manifests Shadow Body and then pulls out a powerstone of Temporal Acceleration and uses it.
Subround 1
Elya pulls out a scroll of Stormrage and uses it.
Subround 2
Elya pulls out a scroll of Spell Turning and uses it.
Spell Turning (1d4+6=7) (http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=830885)

Round 4
Elya manifests Touchsight (22-1pp) and then pulls out a powerstone of Temporal Acceleration and uses it.
Subround 1
Elya casts Assay Spell Resistance
Subround 2
Elya manifests Schism and draws her rod of absorption

Round 5
Elya casts a Miracle to duplicate Improved Invisibility, then manifests Planar Embrace before moving to M 38

[McBish]

Finn enters the arena to watch the fight.

[Douglas]

Douglas arrives for what he expects to be his toughest fight yet and bows to his opponent. One flurry of spellcasting later, the assault begins.
Initiative: (1d20+10=19) (http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=831868)
Douglas begins in O5

Preparation:
Round 1: Maximized (with rod) Time Stop
Time Stop 1: Imbue Familiar with Spell Ability (Complete Arcane)
Time Stop 2: read scroll of Summon Monster IX to summon a Couatl
Time Stop 3: read second scroll of Summon Monster IX for another Couatl
Time Stop 4: Moment of Prescience, Familiar casts Magic Circle Against Evil on Douglas
Time Stop 5: Assay Spell Resistance (Complete Arcane), Greater Arcane Sight, Familiar casts Fly on Douglas
Resume normal time:
finish turn by ordering Couatls to contribute 4th level spell slots to a ritual spell

Round 2:
Familiar contributes one 5th level spell slot along with two 4th level from Couatls to:
Ward Against Dispelling (Epic Spell in character notes)
Round 3: Quickened Greater Blink (Complete Arcane)
Maximized Spell Turning
Familiar casts Reduce Person on Douglas
Round 4: Quickened Ray Deflection (Spell Compendium)
Superior Invisibility (Spell Compendium)
Familiar casts Haste
Round 5:
Familiar casts Lesser Globe of Invulnerability
Ghostform (Complete Arcane)

Familiar still has the following 5th level or lower spells available:
Teleport
Celerity

[AmberVael]

((You go first then))

[Douglas]

A pair of tiny red beads fly all the way across the arena, but few notice them as Elya's starting area is covered in a dazzling display of sparkling lights. When the beads arrive at their destination, the lights show suddenly becomes much brighter and an intense heat wave sweeps the stands near that end of the stadium as flames consume the area.


Quickened Glitterdust centered on O36, followed by a much augmented Delayed Blast Fireball. Move to O15, 60 feet elevation

Will save DC 25 to negate blindness from the Glitterdust.
Two reflex saves DC 30 for half damage from fireballs: Damage: (40d6/2+240=314.0, 40d6/2+240=310.5) (http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=831962)

[AmberVael]

The instant the match starts, Elya is surrounded in power and blurs out of her starting area to avoid any attacks Douglas might throw at her. Lucky too, since all the attacks hit the area pretty hard. She concentrates all her power on draining away Douglas's life energy after detecting him with her powers. Two massive columns of negative energy pour from the sky and burn away his life...

Elya manifests Anticipatory Strike as an immediate action to take her move action before anyone does anything else. She goes to M 29 and goes up to 5ft of altitude.
On her turn, she is in range of Douglas with both Trueseeing and Touchsight, and so she manifests Stygian Conflagration twice (each for 21-1pp), centering it on O 5.
Stygian Conflagration (1d4+2=4, 1d4+2=5) (http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=832006)
Nine negative levels, no saves, and apparently you have no SR.

[Douglas]

((Doesn't Anticipatory Strike make you skip your turn after using it?))

[AmberVael]

((Oh, I misread part of it. So yes, all of that is before your turn and uses up my turn to come
For some reason I thought I could take one action with anticipatory strike and then use the rest of my turn at normal time...))

[Douglas]

((In that case, you'd better edit your post or I'll be laughing at the columns of negative energy aimed at nothing. Also, if you're preempting the glitterdust with this, I'm pretty sure I get to notice your new location and change where the fireballs go, assuming you get close enough to make sure of exactly where I am.))

[AmberVael]

((There we go then. I am 130ft away from you
Darn, forgot to add in angles. I'll move a few feet closer and call that 130ft))

[Douglas]

Douglas's bracers glow momentarily and he grins as the torrent of negative energy utterly fails to have any effect. From his new position, he spies Elya through his Gem of Seeing and proceeds to lob another fireball at her.

The Death Ward power of my bracers activates automatically when the first Stygian Conflagration hits, rendering me immune to negative energy for the next 7 minutes. The position I ended last turn at is well within 120 feet of you, so I can see you to target the fireball. I'm guessing you're going to dodge it with another Anticipatory Strike and the rest of my turn depends on what you do with that. If I'm wrong, tell me and I'll roll damage and finish my turn.

[AmberVael]

((Mind blank. You can't see me with trueseeing))

[Douglas]

((I really don't agree with that interpretation, but that doesn't really matter. Psionic Mind Blank (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/mindBlankPsionic.htm), which is what you have, protects against spells or powers with the mind-affecting or scrying descriptors, neither of which True Seeing has. I'm pretty sure that was the intent of the original Mind Blank spell too, and it's just an oversight that it has not been errataed yet.))

[AmberVael]

((Oh come on, its clearly the psionic version of Mind Blank. For purposes of psionic transparency, they should be the same. But if you really want to argue about it, go ahead and cast your silly spells, because I am not in the mood))

[Douglas]

((Yes, it is, but it does not say "as Mind Blank", therefore the description of Mind Blank is irrelevant to its effects by RAW. If you want to go by rules as intended instead, you pretty much have to apply it across the board and I think it's pretty clear Mind Blank was not intended to make invisibility harder to beat.

So, are you using Anticipatory Strike or does the fireball hit?))

[AmberVael]

((I don't believe I actually can use it again, its got really wierd rules, and I don't feel like spending the Pp anyways))

[Douglas]

((The turn you skipped because of it has already passed, so you can use it again if you want. To clarify:

My first turn started
Anticipatory Strike interrupts
My turn finished (during this time you cannot use immediate actions)
Your skipped turn (from here on, you have an immediate action available again)
My current turn.

Since you're not dodging, I'll toss a Quickened Fireball in too. Four reflex saves DC 30 vs Fireball damage: (40d6/2+240=309.5, 40d6/2+240=304.0, 40d6/2+240=312.5, 40d6/2+240=317.0) (http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=832266)))

[AmberVael]

((okeydoeky, that looks right.
1d20+21=35, 1d20+21=22, 1d20+21=29, 1d20+21=33 (http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=832273)
I make two saves, here's the math:
154 damage, 304 damage, 312 damage, 158 damage.
I also have a ring of fire immunity, so half damage.
77 damage, 152 damage, 156 damage, 79 damage.
I also have shadow body, which takes off a further half from any fire damage I take. Its not a resistance, a subtype, anything, it just takes off half.
38 damage, 76 damage, 78 damage, 39 damage.
So 231 damage.
This brings up the contingency I had set for my Item Familiar, which casts a Miracle to full heal me, using one of my spell slots. I'm back to full health.
My turn))

[Douglas]

((It makes no sense at all to me that full immunity gets cut in half while a lesser resistance is unaffected, but that is the RAW.))

[AmberVael]

Elya goes into a blur, and as she reappears Douglas's Ward against Dispelling is assaulted, but not brought down. A smaller spell slips through the ward at the same time and dispels the Death Ward before Elya blasts Douglas with two pillars of darkened fire.
Elya manifests Temporal Acceleration for 19-1pp to gain three rounds
Round 1:
Elya stows her rod of absorption in her haversack and then manifests Reality Revision (17-1pp) to create what essentially is a Wand of Miracle. (50 charges, spell trigger, XP cost for power) 14,180 XP
Round 2:
Elya uses another Reality Revision (17-1pp) 5000XP to make her succeed on her next dispel check (Or maximize her next d20 roll.)
Round 3:
Elya casts Fortunate Fate and Delay Death
--Normal Round--
Elya casts Greater Dispel on the Ward, it does not work.
Elya manifests Dispel Psionics on the Death Ward effect (not the bracers, but the spell it cast). 1d20+10=26 (http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=833294) Then moves up 30ft into the air, so she is at M 22 and 40ft


As an immediate action just after her turn ends, Elya manifests Anticipatory strike to use her next turn now. Elya manifests Stygian Conflagration twice on the 0 15 for 21-1pp
1d4+2=6 (http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=832944)
1d4+2=5 (http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=833298)
11 Negative levels.
She then moves to R 25 and hides behind the boulder.
Hide check: 1d20=10 (http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=833646)
((I did not add modifiers so we can negate what needs to be negated. The modifiers are as follows:
Roll: 10 + 7 dex + 1 competance +20 invisible +15 shadow body
Total with spell modifiers: 53
Without spell modifiers: 18))

[Douglas]

((I don't think automatic success on anything but a save or attack roll is a legal use of Wish and similar spells, but an automatic natural 20 is reasonable. Said natural 20 gives you a 40 on your dispel check vs a DC of 41. Also, the spell's center is itself inside the ward, which I'm fairly sure makes the Greater Dispel blocked automatically.))

[AmberVael]

((In that case I will revise my actions, namely those after the failed dispel))
[hr]((Edit is done))

[Douglas]

((Dispel Magic is 3rd level and therefore blocked by the Lesser Globe of Invulnerability unless targeted specifically at it.

Edit: Oops, missed that the Globe is immobile. I'll be doing something to prevent the negative levels but I haven't decided what yet and it's time for lunch.))

[AmberVael]

((I thought globe of invulnerability was a stationary spell? This quote seems to suggest it:

You can leave and return to the globe without penalty.Or does that mean something else?
^: K, thought so))

[Douglas]

((Clarification: What exactly are these "subrounds"? The actions of your schismed mind? Also, Temporal Acceleration has the same invulnerability clause as Time Stop which you earlier ruled protects other creatures' buffs, so both Dispels have to happen after the Temporal Acceleration ends or they automatically fail.

See edit above for the Globe's immobility. If I had noticed that when designing my epic spell, Dispel Magic would have been on the list it blocks too, but I think it's too late for that now.))

[AmberVael]

((The subround is from when I cast temporal acceleration while in a temporal acceleration. I must have accidently taken out the section where I pulled out the powerstone of temporal acceleration... oh well. Moot point now))
[hr]((Edited))

[Douglas]

One wave of negative energy washes over Douglas, leaving him looking much more tired than before, but the second finds its target already gone. Far from giving up, he mutters "I have to end this now. My opponent is too good to play around with." One unheard utterance later, he is fully recovered from her attack in his new position directly above her. In a dramatic change of tactics, the intense balls of energy that erupt below him at the same time start the audience shivering instead of sweating. Four rays of the same bluish-white cold streak downwards, but all miss their target and hit the ground instead. Cursing, Douglas puts on a burst of speed and sends another burst of cold before anyone can react.

Munchkinly argument of questionable RAW validity that I'm not actually going to use: Stygian Conflagration has a saving throw of "Fortitude Partial; see text". The fact that the text places this save at 24 hours afterwards is irrelevant, the "Fortitude partial" part is enough for Mettle to grant an immediate "Fortitude negates" save.:smalltongue:

The following assumes that a) spell slots lost to negative levels come back when the negative levels are removed and b) the penalty to caster level does not in any way affect spell progression so I can still cast 9th level spells despite having caster level 16. If either of these assumptions is wrong, I will use Celerity to avoid at least some of the negative levels.

Familiar casts Celerity as immediate action, interrupting second Stygian Conflagration, and uses the standard action provided to cast Teleport. Teleport error: (1d100=69) (http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=833872) = On Target.

Maximized (rod) Time Stop
Round 1:
Read scroll of Limited Wish to duplicate Restoration, removing all negative levels
Round 2:
Use power stone of Bend Reality to duplicate Psychic Reformation, switching out the following:
Energy Substitution (Fire) becomes Energy Substitution (Cold)
Energy Admixture (Fire) becomes Energy Admixture (Cold)
Searing Spell becomes Piercing Cold (from Frostburn, identical except for affecting cold instead of fire)
Round 3:
Move to R25, 80 feet above Elya (you were being observed, so hiding was impossible until you actually arrived behind the boulder and gained cover. You may have concealment from me if I don't beat your hide check with a spot check, I'm not sure, but I do know which square you are in. Even if you somehow have Hide in Plain Sight, you're practically glowing like the sun to Greater Arcane Sight.)
Read scroll of Limited Wish to duplicate Favor of the Martyr
Cast Quickened Delayed Blast Coldball centered on Elya's square and set to detonate when Time Stop ends.
Round 4:
Read scroll of Limited Wish to get automatic 20 on next dispel check (equivalent to automatic hit on attack, which is on the approved list for Limited Wish)
Cast Quickened Delayed Blast Coldball centered on Elya's square and set to detonate when Time Stop ends.
Round 5:
Ready action to use power stone of Bend Reality to duplicate fully augmented Dispel Psionics targetting Elya's Delay Death spell.

normal time resumes, readied action and fireballs with changed energy type go off

Cast Quickened Polar Ray at Elya

4 saves DC 30 vs Cold Fireball damage: (40d6/2+240=309.5, 40d6/2+240=313.0, 40d6/2+240=299.0, 40d6/2+240=310.0) (http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=833746) (all damage is cold)

Unless the DC to dispel your Delay Death is 41 or higher, it's gone.

I expect Fortunate Fate will trigger at this point, possibly making the following necessary:
Polar Ray attack rolls: (1d20+25=45, 1d20+25=42, 1d20+25=42, 1d20+25=26) (http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=833750)
Polar Ray crit confirmation: (1d20+25=45) (http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=833752)
Polar Ray miss chance for concealment (1-50 misses): (1d100=33, 1d100=25, 1d100=14) (http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=833754) All miss:smallfurious:

If the healing from Fortunate Fate was enough to keep you alive, cast Celerity as immediate action before your skipped turn comes around and throw another Coldball at you.

2 saves DC 30 vs Coldball damage: (40d6/2+240=310.0, 40d6/2+240=316.0) (http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=833763)

[AmberVael]

((1) You need to provide 100 gp component for Restoration, which you did not.
2) the powerstone of Bend Reality does not supply enough XP to use Psychic Reformation, since Psychic Reformation has an XP cost))

[Douglas]

((1)When a limited wish spell duplicates a spell with a material component that costs more than 1,000 gp, you must provide that component. (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/limitedWish.htm)
2) Bend Reality has a minimum xp cost of 300 xp which is provided by the stone's creator and was included in the cost I calculated for them. That is sufficient for 12 levels of Psychic Reformation, more than enough for the changes I listed, and I have enough xp to pay the target's share.
3) Your ward spell blocks "Dispel, Greater Dispel, Tenacious Dispelling, Reaving Dispel and Mage's Disjunction spells, spell-like abilities, and even spell-like effects". Nowhere in that list or in the rest of the spell description is Dispel Psionics mentioned.))

[AmberVael]

((Hm... I could have sworn I had dispel psionics in there... oh well.
This is one turns worth, right?))
((Wait, I found it:

You can cast a spell at a lower caster level than normal, but the caster level you choose must be high enough for you to cast the spell in question, and all level-dependent features must be based on the same caster level.
Its on a different subject, voluntarily lowering caster level, but I think it should apply to this situation))

[Rebonack]

((Would magic-psionics transparancy cover the dispel magic/dispel psionics?))

[AmberVael]

((No, it does not specifically reference the Dispel Spell))
((Also, from the order you have listed, you took Energy substitution at level 9, so you might have problems going back that far))

[Douglas]

((By the order I have listed, I took Epic Spellcasting at 18th and some of my bonus metamagic feats for Incantatrix weren't actually metamagic. I didn't really concern myself with order beyond making sure I could satisfy PrC prereqs when I made the list, so order is unspecified. If I had specified it, I would have done so with Psychic Reformation in mind. I could and probably should specify order now, though.

For the caster level, as stated in my original post, I'm using Celerity to get out of the way since that assumption was apparently wrong. My familiar casts Celerity and uses the standard action for Teleport to move me out of the area of effect of the second Stygian Conflagration. Teleport error: (1d100=69) (http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=833872) = On Target. Instead of moving to R25 during Time Stop, my familiar Teleported me there.

This is all one turn, plus the immediate action for my next turn, taken before your immediate action becomes available again.))

[AmberVael]

((So wait, what exactly is your turn now?))

[Douglas]

((Turn edited. The only change was the insertion of my Familiar's action at the start.

Ordering of feats in progress.))

[AmberVael]

((And if you use an immediate action before the second Conflagration, I get to react to your teleportation, you know. I can still hit you with it, I just have to retarget it))

[Douglas]

((No, I'm pretty sure you can't. If it is possible to change an action in response to a readied action that interrupted the action, a spellcaster could choose to change which spell he cast or even do something entirely different when he discovered that someone had readied an action to counterspell him, which is patently absurd. I'm not completely certain the general rule for immediate actions is the same, but Celerity specifically states it works "as if you had readied an action".))

[AmberVael]

((thats because a readied action technically comes before the action it responded to. Immediate actions don't work that way, they can simply be used at any point in time))
((Also, my dual mind works in complete autonomy. They both technically manifested it at the same time))

[Atreyu the Masked LLama]

*The llama looks down in confusion as the two mighty warriors are both sitting on the ground pointing at books and talking to each other.*

"ummm.....Go Elya!"

*he puts down his Elya flag for now.*

[Douglas]

((All right, I'll grant that the RAW is unclear about immediate actions and interrupting people in general. However, the Celerity spell description specifically states "you can immediately take a standard action, as if you had readied an action. You can even interrupt another creature's turn when you cast this spell."))

[AmberVael]

((doesn't change my second point which I edited in, which is that they were both manifested at the same time anyways. If you get hit by one, you get hit by the other.
Also, what is your familiar's hp?))

[Douglas]

((Ok, in that case I dodge both of them with the Teleport. Alternatively, I can use the scroll of Limited Wish for Restoration as my standard action in normal time, and cast Celerity with my swift action for the Time Stop. That would leave me with no swift action for the Polar Ray, so that part would get dropped.
My familiar has half my hp, so 342/2 = 171.
Feat ordering finished.))

[AmberVael]

((Yeah, I'm screwed. Game over))

[Douglas]

Douglas descends to the ground to greet his opponent once the resurrection squad is done. "Good fight, that was a great deal more difficult than my previous three rounds."

[AmberVael]

((Good fight? It was over in less than a minute... man, if I had not been stupid and used my immediate action...))
Elya shakes her head.
You obviously know more about fighting than I do. As a healer, I don't think that should bother me that much though. Good luck with your next fight!
Elya vanishes.