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Ascension
2008-03-16, 12:41 PM
I played in a PVP game at a tiny college con (WittCon, at Wittenberg University) last night. Three teams of three, character level 6th, Core only, 13000 gp for equipment, no single item over 6499 gp, no items whose creation involves a spell 4th level or higher allowed. We were told in advance that it was going to be on a huge map, that we were highly encouraged to bring mounts, and that the distances were intended to be long enough to actually give archers the power to rain death down from a distance. There were three win conditions: We got points for capturing a flag inside a small keep at the top of a raised mound, for every turn spent uncontested inside a king-of-the-hill style area in a cave underneath the raised mound, and for each other player we killed.

We had very little time for character construction and one of the players who signed up for my team apparently had little to no clue how to play 3.5 D&D. We didn't exactly end up optimized. The teams came out as follows:

Green Team: Half-orc barbarian, halfling rogue, human cleric of Kord (played by a guy who had never played a cleric before). None were mounted.

Blue Team: Human paladin (ubercharger build), elven archer ranger built for mounted archery and with humans and dwarves as his favored enemies (Me. I took the guy at his word when he said the distances would be long enough for archers to make a difference.), mounted human barbarian with lance and greataxe (The guy who had no idea what he was doing. We wanted a wizard, but we gave him barbarian because it's simple.)

Red Team: TWF ranger, human cleric, dwarf wizard (all mounted)

Right off the bat my team was disappointed. The map wasn't as big as we had been led to believe and the mound could only be scaled via stairs, so we couldn't just ride by and grab the flag. Still, we followed our initial plan and went straight for it. We had horseshoes of speed on our mounts and got there first. Barbarian hangs back, hoping to cover our escape route, paladin goes forward to grab the flag (thankfully making the will save... the "flag" turned out to be a mind-controlling artifact), I move up to cover her.

Green team half-heartedly comes after us. The rogue loses a lot of time trying to move stealthily through difficult terrain, between the movement penalties for the terrain and his attempts at stealth and his already low speed, he makes little to no progress. I dismounted to go up the stairs to the platform, so the barbarian goes after my animal companion while the cleric goes after me. The barbarian comes into range before the cleric does, so I plug him a couple of times, he misses my horse a couple of times (I bought good barding), so he decides to go into the king of the hill area instead of bothering with me. The cleric keeps coming, trying to get into melee with me without stopping to buff first. I own him (he is my favored enemy, after all), but rather than stay to finish him off, I pull back with the paladin and the flag.

Red team buffs.

We get on the scoreboard with a flag capture, Green moves into the king of the hill zone and starts racking up points. Red team buffs.

We plant the flag in our base, it imbues the paladin's lance with awesomeness. Red team rides for the king of the hill zone.

We find out that the paladin's new lance is also mind-controlling, and that she'll have to make a will save whenever she does anything that doesn't take her towards her opponents. We ride for the KotH zone.

Red gets to the KotH zone first. Green team's barbarian falls to a hold person followed up by a coup de gras from the red ranger. Green team's cleric gets greased. The rogue hides.

Blue team shows up. The paladin rides her horse into the cave, not willing to give up her uberchargerness. I make my spot check and hit the rogue. The (now raging) barbarian comes very close to turning the rogue into a greasy smear. Green team's cleric makes it off the grease and goes after our paladin, who can hardly maneuver in the close quarters of the cavern. She can't quite get an attack, but her mount can. It misses. Green cleric casts darkness centered on himself. He and the paladin waste time trying to whack at each other in the dark.

Red team fireballs its opponents. Green's rogue and cleric fail their reflex saves and die. The paladin and I take half, the barbarian takes the full brunt of it. We ran out of time at this point, but Red would have owned us anyway. Between kills and KotH points, Red wins.

Green team ended up with a TPK, we had no casualties, but the paladin probably should've fallen, and the only team that actually focused on magic barely got hit. Granted, this was probably more due to Red's superior teamwork than the power of magic, but still, we never stood a chance. On the bright side, I hit almost everything I attacked all night. I just didn't do enough damage to kill.

(Semi-funny story: I was so rushed during character gen I didn't think to name my guy. When we're doing initiative the DM asks me for my character's name and I blurt out the first thing that comes to mind... Halcyon. The DM asks me to spell it for him, so I do, and then say "It's an adjective. Sorry, it was the first thing that came to mind." The paladin sitting next to me then grinned and said something along the lines of "Ooh, we can use adjectives? Can I rename my character Fluffy?")

Glyde
2008-03-16, 12:54 PM
Sounds like you had fun though, and that's all that really matters XD

Ascension
2008-03-16, 12:59 PM
Oh yeah. It was really a waste of an action when I could've full attacked him with my bow, but what was really fun was when the cleric, unable to charge up the stairs and unable to get into melee with me on a normal move, threw a shortspear at me and missed. DM said it landed at my feet. On my turn, I picked it up and threw it back. I didn't miss.

DM: "Okay, you have your spear back... it's sticking out of your chest."

Yahzi
2008-03-16, 11:09 PM
Red team fireballs its opponents.
The way you describe it, it sounds like Red cast one fireball and that was basically it. Which sounds kinda right...

Why not just play 3 sorcs with Improved Initiative and Fireball?

"Ha! We won initiative! We win!"

"Ok... wanna play again?"

Ascension
2008-03-16, 11:16 PM
Well, green and blue teams basically clustered together in a small enclosed area. We were asking for an area of effect attack. Yeah, you're right, three blaster sorcerers might've won the day (although if either of our barbarians had gotten to the squishy casters...). I think the key to how it turned out is that we had so little prep time that few wanted to try to figure out what spells to use as a full caster.

Reel On, Love
2008-03-16, 11:35 PM
Well, green and blue teams basically clustered together in a small enclosed area. We were asking for an area of effect attack. Yeah, you're right, three blaster sorcerers might've won the day (although if either of our barbarians had gotten to the squishy casters...). I think the key to how it turned out is that we had so little prep time that few wanted to try to figure out what spells to use as a full caster.

Fly sure sounds like a really freakin' good one.

Solo
2008-03-16, 11:40 PM
We had very little time for character construction and one of the players who signed up for my team apparently had little to no clue how to play 3.5 D&D.

This sounds like a job for Solo's Stupendously Superior Sorcerer Guide!
(Linked to in my sig)



Well, green and blue teams basically clustered together in a small enclosed area. We were asking for an area of effect attack. Yeah, you're right, three blaster sorcerers might've won the day (although if either of our barbarians had gotten to the squishy casters...). I think the key to how it turned out is that we had so little prep time that few wanted to try to figure out what spells to use as a full caster.

Glitterdust, Web, Blindness/Deafness, Grease, Shatter....?

Ascension
2008-03-16, 11:43 PM
Glitterdust, Web, Blindness/Deafness, Grease, Shatter....?

Web and grease did indeed get cast. The first time the web was cast, it failed (apparently there was some sort of antimagic effect in the immediate proximity of the "flag," but we never found out the details), the second time it effectively sealed off the ladders leading upwards from the underground king-of-the-hill area to the capture the flag platform. As for the others... Red team might've had them prepared. Whatever the case, they didn't need 'em.

Lucyfur
2008-03-17, 08:16 AM
Cool thread. Need more like these.