Have a tournament I'm running for my party, need a little help.

[Gwachitallemall]

Alright, as the title says I have a tournament in eberron, in Sharn, that my party will be participating in, if you remember me from the low op party thread, same party.
Human Wizard 5/Rogue 1.
Kalashtar Sorcerer 6.
Warforged Fighter 6 *2 (Cohorts)

The Tournament has a total of 250 Teams, each made of 4 people. Of these teams, generally all teams are going to have this set up.
2 Spellcasters of some sort.
2 Low level warriors.

Only 1 team breaks this mold, it's a team of four Hobgoblin Duskblades. (Straight from MM3, I believe, Maybe MM5.)

Next, there are 3 types of events.

Team Environmental events, where the team has to beat the environment, all 4 can try at this.

Pair against monster events, the pair of spellcasters has to beat a monster or monsters with any tricks allowed. No warriors allowed in this event.

Individual spellcasters duke it out, no melee or range attacks not made with a spell are allowed in this battle. Sword attacks with a spell channeled through them are fine. Anything that falls under this rule is also fine, the main one that is not allowed is no dragonfire inspiration.

Now, the scores go as follow. The team event will allow you to score 20 points, the Pair event 10 points, and the individual event 5 points each.

Also are 4 judges, who will be judging each event, in 4 S Categories. Style, Skill, Speed, Supremacy. 5 points can be awarded in each category, factoring in as bonus points. Meaning after 20 bonus points for each event, 4 events total, the maximum score you could get is 120 points.

Style: How flashy you are, explosions, etc. Anything that gets ooh's and ahh's from a crowd work good here.
Skill: Did you exploit the opponent's weakness, did you exploit the environment weakness, if you did, top marks here.
Speed: Did you complete the event swiftly, if you did, top marks here.
Supremacy: Did you complete the event with little to no expenditure in resources (Mainly HP, did you not take a scratch.) If you did, top marks here.

Now we get on to the opponents. For simplicity sake, there are 1000 opponents, almost 500 of them even are warriors, so not eligible for most of the contest. Therefore, I'll just sort out the spell casters, alphabetically, and then the number of them to the right, followed by their level range.

Adept 100 2-5
Artificer 15 2-7
Bard 20 2-7
Beguiler 15 2-7
Cleric 25 2-7
Dread Necromancer 15 2-7
Druid 25 2-7
Dusk Blade 4 MM3/5
Favored Soul 15 2-7
Mage Wright 10 2-5
Sorcerer 100 2-7
Ultimate Magus 1 (Level 9)
Warlock 25 2-7
Warmage 15 2-7
Wizard 100 2-7
Wujen 15 2-7

Everyone that doesn't have a set level, or is a pure NPC class, is determined by 1d6+1. NPC are 1d4+1, and the set ones are already set.

The monsters they could face are below.
Grey Render
4 Worgs
Achaierai
3 Ankhegs
Bullet
2 Cockatrice
Digester
Megaraptor
Dire Boar
Dire Wolverine
2 Medium Elementals of each main type
Ettin
4 Hippogrif
Howler
Five Headed Cyro Hydra
2 Monstrous Scorpion
2 Giant Wasp

Any monster that has a number is the amount that the pair will face.

The environmental events have not really been nailed down, need cheap suggestions for the tournament area, thinking so far, swamp, lava field, ice field, maze with traps, main goal in all is to get through.

Finally, I need suggestions on which 15-16 teams make it through, based on this. Any teams can be combined, except these 3 which will be in the top 16 if I can help it.
Ultimate Magus + Level 2 Mage Wright
Level 7 Bard + Level 7 Cleric
Duskblades (Not a necessary one to get in, if you can argue a better team to go in.)

Also need a required amount of points for the party to make, based on the scoring criteria above. I had set it at 60, but I don't know if this is too low or high.

To the flavor, this is a semi annual event, in which mages compete against each other to show their spellcasting abilities, to possibly win the prize. A Mage who has not been seen in a few events has come back with hired help (Ultimate Magus), and the winners of the last controversial competition (The Bard and Cleric) are back as well.

Any help you can offer would be appreciated, thank you.

Hopefully you can give me some ideas on how to explain every team making it in that does so, because I'll be giving a play by play of some events if my party goes to watch them.

Pair the teams however you want to, I made a d1000% if it's necessary, of all the teams. Just note that a few teams have already been decided. The Ultimate Magus is pretty arrogant, and he doesn't work well with others.

Individual facings are paired up like this.
For the party, if they roll on the d1000% Table-
1-2%- Ult Magus
3-10%- Dusk Blade
11-30%- Mage Wright
31-70%- Bard
71-100%- Warmage
101-300%- Adept
301-350%- Cleric
351-400%- Warlock
401-600%- Sorcerer
601-630%- Artificer
631-660%- Dread Necromancer
661-690%- Wujen
691-720%- Beguiler
721-750%- Favored Soul
751-800%- Druid
801-1000%- Wizard.

Again, thank you for your help and commentary.

[Honest Tiefling]

I have not read the other thread, but I must ask: How likely is it that your characters will try to cheat? Even if they do not, they might detect others doing so...

[Gwachitallemall]

Even being chaotic neutral, I'm pretty sure cheating is far beyond what they would do. Actually, there's not much way for any of their opponents to cheat as well, only a few things are forbidden in this tournament, and any of them are grounds for immediate disqualification.

The pot's pretty big, 20K Gold total, especially for a 6th level party.

A few things I didn't note beforehand, is that I will try to make sure there is an equal amount of each level of character, 3 through 7, giving more to the lower levels when I can't divide the 15 or 100 or what have you equally.

Besides all of that, the main thing I'm looking for is an easy way to determine who the finalists will be, does anyone have any solid ideas? I could go through the full building and testing each type of character against his possible enemies, but that's a little complex.

IF anyone would like to do so, assume these other standards- when ever possible, if the class allows choices as part of it's nature, an equal amount took the different choices. If the choice is an alternate class feature not normally taken, only 1 or two at max took that alternate class feature. An example would be, there are several of each specialist school of wizard, but only 1 or 2 of a alternate class feature (Like the conjurer rapid summoning benefit).

Most likely all of the finalists are going to be the toughest fiercest guys out there, if you can explain why a 5th level made it in when a 7th level of another class did not, go ahead.

Also, on average, the races are going to be fairly common, the rarest race would be kalashtar, most likely. I'd expect a large amount of humans, a smattering of elves, some half-elves, some dwarves, some gnomes, and a few of the other dragonmarked races, and a couple of warforged.

Speaking of Dragonmarks, If the dragonmark could help you in the tournament, you could expect to see one of them here. Most likely, it would just be the mark of passage, house Orien, who you would see.

Hope I gave some extra information, thanks for the help.

[Gwachitallemall]

Just to give some final information, I actually decided the level 7 teams. (Through random dice roll) Maybe, this will help us decide who the top 16 could be.

As follows, assume everyone is level 7 unless noted.
Favored Soul, Druid
Wujen, Cleric
Artificer, Favored Soul
Druid, Druid
Dread Necromancer, Wujen
Warmage, Wizard
Wizard, Bard
Beguiler, Cleric
Bard, Cleric
Artificer, Beguiler
Bard, Wizard
Druid, Warmage
Sorcerer, Cleric
Wizard, Warlock
Dread Necromancer, Sorcerer
Sorcerer, Wizard
Warlock, Warlock
Sorcerer, Warlock
Wizard, Sorcerer
Sorcerer, Wizard
Wizard, Wizard
Wizard, Wizard
Sorcerer, Wizard
Wizard, Sorcerer
Wizard, Wizard
Sorcerer, Sorcerer
Sorcerer, Sorcerer
Wizard, Sorcerer
Sorcerer, Sorcerer
Sorcerer, 6th Level Cleric.
9th Level Ultimate Magus, 2nd Level Magewright
4 Hobgoblin Duskblades from MM3

Alright, that's all of the teams, besides the players, that I expect to see near the top of the list. Anyone want to take a shot at the top 16 teams now?

[Bucky]

The environmental events have not really been nailed down, need cheap suggestions for the tournament area, thinking so far, swamp, lava field, ice field, maze with traps, main goal in all is to get through.


Obvious ones you're missing are open water deep enough to swim in, walls to climb over or break through (I suggest at least one glass wall with no handholds to communicate that 'just break it' is an option), balance beams over water/pits and smoke clouds. 3' high tunnels that tall creatures need to crawl through at 5' per round.

Also, hanging ropes/vines as difficult/hazardous terrain for anyone who tries to fly over everything. Possibly ropes that are on fire, if you really want to ding flier supremacy.

[Gwachitallemall]

Hmm, those are pretty good.

I have 6 environments now, Fire/Magma field, that they have to pass with a fire/magma/steam mephit, and floating rocks that block line of sight, as well as a noxious cloud that sits above that you can't fly over, and steam jets that spit out hot steam.

Ice field, with thin ice, and a cavern they have to enter, that the entrance is on the other side, with fast winds above that block flight.

Swamp/Jungle that has a large amount of trees blocking line of sight and flight, you need to get something, and ooze mephitis and crocodiles, with quicksand and a moderately deep swamp they have to cross.

Maze, with glass walls and traps, as well as a monster or two blocking the path through.

A large tank of water, that they have to get a pearl from a clam, there will be 20 or so clams, one or two traps that spit nets, a water mephit, and some rafts at the top.

Finally, an underground passage, you need to find a gem, with large amounts of spider webs and a single phase spider, there's plenty of dead ends as well, and it's completely pitch black.

That gives me 6 options (A d6), 20 options for monsters (d20) and a d1000 table for opponents. I'll call them wheels that they have to spin as I roll the dice, all 4 events will be picked for them simultaneously.

Only thing left is just tweaking, and figuring out stat blocks for the average people they'd face, as well as who my top 16 teams could be out of the 30-32 teams I've suggested.

[dascarletm]

If this has been addressed ignore me, I just skimmed the post.

2 of 3 events are spellcaster only. Half of each team are not spellcasters. Is there a reason this tournament is "mundanes need not apply?"

I would recommend removing the restrictions. Warforged player is going to be forced to sit out of most every event.

The monster fight is especially sad warriors cannot join since this (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UC8W5VC9je8) cant happen. (Shh! I know she's actually a wizard in the show)

[Gwachitallemall]

If this has been addressed ignore me, I just skimmed the post.

2 of 3 events are spellcaster only. Half of each team are not spellcasters. Is there a reason this tournament is "mundanes need not apply?"

I would recommend removing the restrictions. Warforged player is going to be forced to sit out of most every event.

The monster fight is especially sad warriors cannot join since this (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UC8W5VC9je8) cant happen. (Shh! I know she's actually a wizard in the show)

The two warforged are cohorts, and are not actually players of the campaign. There's only 2 players, the wizard and the sorcerer.

The tournament itself was recently a spellcaster only event for the past several years in the campaign, and because of an unorthodox cleric bard duo the tournament was changed to allow non-spellcasters to participate for the first time ever.

It is still primarily a spellcaster event. The public wants to see fireballs and lightning bolts, not people beating each other with their fists. The Sharn Inquisitive told the players this itself in one of it's daily issues.

[Bucky]

I have a few concerns about the environments.

First, several of them seem to be luck contests; did you guess the correct fork in the maze? How many clams did you need to check to find the one with the pearl? Unless the point is to make divination required for a quick challenge on top of everything else, or they aren't being graded on speed.

And second, it's hard for the public to see what's going on in an underground tunnel/bog/smoke cloud.

[Gwachitallemall]

I have a few concerns about the environments.

First, several of them seem to be luck contests; did you guess the correct fork in the maze? How many clams did you need to check to find the one with the pearl? Unless the point is to make divination required for a quick challenge on top of everything else, or they aren't being graded on speed.

And second, it's hard for the public to see what's going on in an underground tunnel/bog/smoke cloud.

I can see the problems, in a normal game, with the public seeing. However, there is a magic item in Eberron that takes care of that problem. It's in the Magic of Eberron, called an Image recorder, mainly used by the entertainer's house to aid in their performances. A couple of these babies set up around the passages, or with the contestants (These would have been bought long ago when the tournaments first started), and you don't really have to know what's going on yourself, you can see it all.

Divination is the main thing required in the environment challenges, did you leave enough spells open for a divination, because the environment are the last challenge. You also have your two allies at this point, who can go forward and take out the traps and enemies, while you think on the best way to get through.

Of course, if there are any other challenges you could think of, I could use them instead.

All of the challenges need to be considered CR 7, so with the monster they have, and the hazards of the environment, need to make it CR 7. Not an optimized CR 7, just a normal CR 7.