[Rolling Recruitment!] Fantasy Monster-Fighting Gladiator Arena League!

[SmashingPots]

I for one think it's a very solid foundation to build on. Love the ascetic and the focus on brute strength with a reasonable drawback. That 3d8 is horrifying.
I don't personally believe that a character needs an extended backstory to be amazing. It's less about what has been, and more about what's to come. Actions are stronger than words after all, so in that way, the character can only grow.~ I commend you for your efforts, and I don't think you should sweat the lack of 'fake lore.' ;3

[SmashingPots]

Adventurer Info
Name:

Ember

Pronouns: Her/She
Sex: Female
Race/Class: Sprit Walker
HP: 50
Attack: d4, d6, d10
Armor: 0, +3
Brief Description:

In the harsh lands of the -enter fancy fantasy world name here-, there are those gifted with a deep connection to spiritual magic. These warrior-shamans, known as “spirit walkers”, serve among the many different tribes, offering their abilities in exchange for a community where they may live free and hone these unique traits. Born under the manic vibrations of a blood-red moon brought on by the gathering forces of blasphemous abnormalities roused from their restless slumber, Ember displayed an early awareness for the intangible. She could feel the raw emotions of the surrounding acres, resonating in sympathy with the mournful howls of an anguished world.

Hotheaded, impulsive and fearsome, Ember lives up to her name, embodying a smoldering inferno which unfettered flames spill in times of emotional peril and ferocious combat. Stalking the cobbled streets of the realm, her fierce and fiery physique is a distinctive sight.

Unforgiving by nature, few remain composed and stranding after earning her ire. Audacious and daring, yet brash and quick to anger, her short fuse is accompanied by the flaws of pride and arrogance, and when enraged, she may become reckless beyond reason. She possesses an indomitable faith in humanity, often inspiring those around her with fearsome courage and selfless determination – because one should not mourn the passing of a life well lived, yet celebrate their triumphs and forge onward in their stead.

Whenever a battle rears its head, odds are, Ember is in the thick of it, and when push comes to shove, she will be at the forefront of it all, charging headlong into combat with her wickedly abrasive sense of humor and explosive temper.

These days she indulged in the shameless grapples between competitors of the Arena Leagues using her experience with acrobatic performances and innate fire-bending capabilities to demonstrate and hone her skills as a nimble and formidable brawler.

Stunts

Smoldering Inferno (aura): Flaming aura damages targets within melee range. May cause disarms and weakened armor due to heated metals. Fluctuations in temperature cause physical changes that alter severity of aura.

• Standard: Ember's body is in a constant state of blistering heat - though some control of temperatures are present. Basic Smoldering Inferno (aura) +2 damage every two turns within melee range. Attack is d6. No time limitations.
  Fiery: Ember's ferocious core erupts in a shower of flames and molten magma. Enhanced Smoldering Inferno (aura) +2 damage every one turn within melee range. Attack is raised to d8. Two turn time limitation.
  Encased: Ember's temperatures plummet in the aftermath of her 'eruption,' crusting her in a dense layer of hardened lava. Smoldering Inferno (aura) disabled. Gain +3 armor for two turns while recharging, spend one turn stunned. Attack is lowered to d4. Return to Standard state upon recharging.

Blistering Lash: Magma-infused hair seconds as long ranged whips. Pulls and damages targets ensnared. May cause disarms and weakened armor due to heated metals.
Searing Smite: Causes seismic disturbances and volcanic eruptions. Stuns targets within sphere of influence, and leaves a burning area of effect in the affected area. May cause disarms and weakened armor due to heated metals.

Flaws

Disgruntled: Easily provoked, Ember may charge into a disadvantageous situation without second thought. Take additional +2 damage if provoked.
Overexertion: Heavy and extended usage of Fiery causes +6 self-harm for every turn extended past two turns.
Winded: End Fiery if the opponent rolls a 5 or higher. Foregoes Encased state, but receives stun regardless.


Interested In: Capable opponents that are determined and thirsty for victory, tentacles, out of the box thinking, domination, physical exhaustion,
How Often Do You Elliquiy?: Mostly daily. Regularly.
Ons: Bondage, sadomasochism - fairly light pain play/torture, corruption/humiliation, large endowments, non-con/dub-con, orgasm-milking, forceful/rough usage
Offs: The usual suspects, excessive sexual gore
[/list]

[BlueOrange]

I'm not great with backstories, honestly I don't really get a feel for my character until I've posted as them for a bit.

Same. They never come alive for me until they’ve started doing things. Then the backstory seems to fill itself in.

[Nastara]

Oh my God, I'm SO pumped seeing all of this!

I can't wait to start in with my own Arena and get matches going! The full IC space for between bouts will be up Sunday!

[Kimera]

Hello everyone.

This looks like a very fun game with a ton of interesting concepts already out there. I have a couple rough concept ideas of either some beholder type char/lair with lots of flashy eye laser based abilities or some weird sea anemone / jellyfish girl who I picture as a sort of slow acting character with slowly debilitating the enemy.

sea anemone / polyp / jellyfish girl

[BlueOrange]

Ooh, that’s a sexy anemone. Makes me think of this:

Accumulating poison This attack inflicts a dose of accumulating poison that does 1hp/round of damage. Additional doses increase the damage taken by 1hp/turn. Targets with a normal susceptibility to poison take maximum damage at 3 doses.

If you combine it with a (separate) attack that does 1d3 damage, it has the same average damage output as a 1d8 attack (once 3 doses have been administered).

[Stendarr]

The power level between characters seems to differ a bit. It probably doesn't matter too much in the long run, but I want to hear from you, Nastara, about which characters so far you feel are well balanced.

I was thinking of making a character that is a wizard/witch with a holier-than-thou attitude. She would switch between elemental focuses at will to give her different bonuses.

I've got this urge to have awful things happen to her. The pretty, prim, perfect girl being shown who's really the boss.

Work in Progress Character Sheet

Adventurer Info
Name: Charlotte d'Anjou
Pronouns: She/Her
Sex: Female
Race/Class: Human
HP: 50
Attack: d6
Armor: -0
Brief Description: At least some physical, some personality

Stunts

• Elemental Focus: Before attacking each round, Charlotte can choose an elemental focus to enhance her powers.
  
  • Ice: Charlotte's attacks slow her enemies somewhat, allowing her to attack first. The consequences of her attacks are resolved before her opponent gets to attack.
  • Lightning: Charlotte's attacks chain from foe to foe. She can attack up to three enemies simultaneously.
  • Earth: Charlotte's attacks also serve as shields. She gains 1 armor.
  • Fire: Charlotte's attacks sear her foes. Her attacks deal 1d8 damage.

Flaws

• Overconfidence: If an opponent is below 25% health, Charlotte losses 1 armor.

Interested In: Varried foes. Big, feral, bestial, or animalistic foes. Being or having a controlling dom. Interested in things that penetrate, but girl on girl is okay too.
How Often Do You Elliquiy?: Usually at least twice per week.
Ons: Non-con, pain, gore, anything
Offs: Scat

[BlueOrange]

I’ve done a numerical analysis of the champions submitted so far:

Fyra Black: Average damage 5.1, Average armor 1.1 (hard to kill due to 4 points of armor at low health, we now know most players average less than 4 damage)
Aletta de Fanfaronne (vs1): Average damage 5.1, Average armor 3
Aletta de Fanfaronne (vs many): Average damage 3.5, Average armor -2
Kayla: Average damage 3.5, Average armor 1.1
Miyuki: Average damage 3.6 Average armor -0.2
Octavia Lavinia: Average damage 3 to 4 depending. Average armor 0
Cecile Feathermore: Average damage 5.5 (assumes reasonably efficient DoT usage). Average armor 1
Yama: Average damage 3.5 with spike worth 13.5 (if spike does not end the match, damage drops to 2). Average armor 3 vs physical, 0 vs other
Ember: Average damage 5ish. Average armor 0ish (very strong variations)
Proposed ‘accumulating poison’ attack: Average damage 4.3 (assumes target survives several rounds)
Charlotte d’Anjou: Average damage 4 (efficient vs groups), average armor 0.5

Estimated averages will be less reliable with more complex character rulesets.  Some characters will vary from their averages more than others. Debuffs of a discretionary nature were ignored. Execution of tactics assumed successful.



Some guides for people who might want to adjust their numbers:

The number of rounds it will take for an opponent to take you down is likely to be 50 / (their avg damage -your average armor). Consider how many attack poses you’ll want to do in 1 fight: a lot of these fights are shaping up to be epics, if heroes duel each other.

Average damage for a simple die roll:
1d6: 3.5
1d8: 4.5
1d10: 5.5

[SmashingPots]

I've revised a few numbers and clarified some things in my character sheets. Hopefully it makes sense/is more balance for their situations.
I removed Cecile's healing and gave her DoTs some specific values. As a boss-type of encounter it would be overkill with sustain, but I feel like 50 HP will be too low in a 1v2-3. Again, I'm not very experienced in this sort of scenario, but I'm during my best! I must preface that I'm not here to ruffle feathers or make Mary Sue characters, I'm just having some struggles with balancing, is all. I only really have game terminology and such to rely on for abilities and what not, but those obviously don't align perfectly with DnD-esque situations.
On a similar note, I lowered some numbers on Ember, specifically damage and armor, but added a risk versus reward sort of element, that I think could prove to be interesting. Let me know what you think.

I'm looking forward to getting things rolling.~

[BlueOrange]

I've revised my calculations for Cecile. Ember is really hard to calculate (that’s an interesting and good thing), but the baseline performance seems largely unchanged.

There’s a lot of things we don’t know at the moment. The most critical thing we don’t know is “How many poses until the fight gets boring?” I’m an impatient sort, so my feeling is (for dueling at least) that damage numbers are low across the field. Easy enough to fix in the two main arenas at the moment, we can just dial up the environmental damage.

I would be much more inclined to buff the weaker characters than to nerf the stronger ones. It’s easier, given that the stronger characters feature a lot of numbers that are close to zero.

[Vonandi]

I added another qualifier to the unsteady flaw, I was also wondering if I should make the slow flaw minus -2 instead of minus -1 so it doesn't take as many people to work?

[pdragon]

I think either raising base damage or lowering base health would help fix any pacing issues.

Given how slow forum based combat can be, perhaps the base health should be 20-25 instead of 50? That way if people are doing max base damage fights can end in as few as 4 or 5 turns, which could translate to like 8-10 posts between two people and maybe 2-3 weeks in real time. I think it would also give armor more of an impact, while also keeping it from stretching out fights too long. If someone is averaging 3 damage then 2 armor would make a fight turtle slow if they both have 50 health, but 20 it could be more manageable time wise, while also feeling like each individual point is more valuable.

Admittedly I wasn't sure what the stats on monsters themselves would be, which is why I aimed higher with my stats. I figured they'd probably be doing way more than just d6 damage, so I figured having an ability that would give you a big boost right at the end of their health would be more of a gamble, since it'd be possible that she took enough damage to kill her before her second stage even properly triggered.

[avarus]

I think either raising base damage or lowering base health would help fix any pacing issues.

Given how slow forum based combat can be, perhaps the base health should be 20-25 instead of 50? That way if people are doing max base damage fights can end in as few as 4 or 5 turns, which could translate to like 8-10 posts between two people and maybe 2-3 weeks in real time. I think it would also give armor more of an impact, while also keeping it from stretching out fights too long. If someone is averaging 3 damage then 2 armor would make a fight turtle slow if they both have 50 health, but 20 it could be more manageable time wise, while also feeling like each individual point is more valuable.

Admittedly I wasn't sure what the stats on monsters themselves would be, which is why I aimed higher with my stats. I figured they'd probably be doing way more than just d6 damage, so I figured having an ability that would give you a big boost right at the end of their health would be more of a gamble, since it'd be possible that she took enough damage to kill her before her second stage even properly triggered.

I think this is the best solution, with 25 health my charry would go down (in an unfavourable situation) in 5-6 turns, I think that's more than enough for a 1v1

[SmashingPots]

I wholeheartedly agree. There's nothing worse than a situation dragging on for too long.

[Kimera]

Ooh, that’s a sexy anemone. Makes me think of this:

Accumulating poison This attack inflicts a dose of accumulating poison that does 1hp/round of damage. Additional doses increase the damage taken by 1hp/turn. Targets with a normal susceptibility to poison take maximum damage at 3 doses.

If you combine it with a (separate) attack that does 1d3 damage, it has the same average damage output as a 1d8 attack (once 3 doses have been administered).

Something along those lines would certainly fit with the concept I had in mind.

Assuming worst case someone doing only 1 damage a turn (average rolls and armor and such), then 50 rounds to to take down another gladiator, one hundred posts in total sounds pretty scary from a game managing point :3

[BlueOrange]

Something along those lines would certainly fit with the concept I had in mind.

Assuming worst case someone doing only 1 damage a turn (average rolls and armor and such), then 50 rounds to to take down another gladiator, one hundred posts in total sounds pretty scary from a game managing point :3

Yeah, I think I underpowered it in very much the same way that everyone else is underpowered. If you remove the ‘maximum number of doses’, then you’d win a duel in round 10 (with an average damage of 5.5, purely from DoT).

I’m well in favor of high-powered characters, but ultimately, we’re just going to have to experiment.

[Kimera]

Uhu, although I was mentioning it as more in general. But you are right, the cumulitive poison would still be quite effective.


I was also toying with the idea of using various status effects instead. Like doing low damage / damage over time paired with taking away enemy turns with effects like stuns or paralysis. Offcourse this might risk turning fights even slower paced (and boring) so I dunno if it would work.

[BlueOrange]

That does seem quite appealing: the mechanical inventiveness has been a joy to support. The danger with stuns is typically that once CCed, people can’t do anything. However, I think there’s a number of people here who enjoy being unable to do anything, so it’ll just be a matter of getting the pairings right & some OOC courtesy.

[Kimera]

Perhaps some chance die to see if a stun effect is triggered and perhaps another one to break out of it.

As a potential weakness, I was considering making my character slow herself only acting on odd turns (but being passively active during even turns with DoT's and the mentioned stun effects). This would give enemies the chance to break free or out of status effects.

[BlueOrange]

Now I worry that you wouldn’t have enough to do. Perhaps simply a a 1-turn cooldown on each ability, forcing you to vary your attacks?

[Kimera]

Yeah that might be true.

I like the brainstorming though and the cooldown rotation is pretty interesting :3

[BlueOrange]

Glad to be of service!

[BlueOrange]

Wow, nothing like creating a tentacle venue to bring tentacle-based concepts into the open!

I’m now starting work on a ‘defend the lair’ concept, where NPCs will attack (and inevitably overwhelm) a section of the Lair that is defended by 1 or more champions. A ‘survival defense’ mode, if you will.

[Sethala]

I’ve done a numerical analysis of the champions submitted so far:

Fyra Black: Average damage 5.1, Average armor 1.1 (hard to kill due to 4 points of armor at low health, we now know most players average less than 4 damage)
Aletta de Fanfaronne (vs1): Average damage 5.1, Average armor 3
Aletta de Fanfaronne (vs many): Average damage 3.5, Average armor -2
Kayla: Average damage 3.5, Average armor 1.1
Miyuki: Average damage 3.6 Average armor -0.2
Octavia Lavinia: Average damage 3 to 4 depending. Average armor 0
Cecile Feathermore: Average damage 5.5 (assumes reasonably efficient DoT usage). Average armor 1
Yama: Average damage 3.5 with spike worth 13.5 (if spike does not end the match, damage drops to 2). Average armor 3 vs physical, 0 vs other
Ember: Average damage 5ish. Average armor 0ish (very strong variations)
Proposed ‘accumulating poison’ attack: Average damage 4.3 (assumes target survives several rounds)
Charlotte d’Anjou: Average damage 4 (efficient vs groups), average armor 0.5

Estimated averages will be less reliable with more complex character rulesets.  Some characters will vary from their averages more than others. Debuffs of a discretionary nature were ignored. Execution of tactics assumed successful.



Some guides for people who might want to adjust their numbers:

The number of rounds it will take for an opponent to take you down is likely to be 50 / (their avg damage -your average armor). Consider how many attack poses you’ll want to do in 1 fight: a lot of these fights are shaping up to be epics, if heroes duel each other.

Average damage for a simple die roll:
1d6: 3.5
1d8: 4.5
1d10: 5.5

Thanks for the analysis!  Something that I think is worth examining with this: armor does a *lot* to stop fighters.  Let's assume HP is cut down to 25 instead of 50, and let's take a character with a flat +1 bonus to damage, so about 4.5 average damage.  With 0 armor, a character could survive for about 6 rounds.  With 1 armor, that goes up to about 7 rounds; with 2 armor it shoots up to 10 rounds, and 3 armor means they can last about 15 rounds.

[Kimera]

Still a work in progress and mostly a collection of potential stunts and weaknesses at this point. I'm still toying with various status afflicting effects. Suggestions and ideas are welcome ^^

Adventurer Info

Name: Hydorah
Pronouns: Her/she
Sex: Female
Race/Class: Roper (sea anemone / jellyfish)
HP: 50
Attack: d1
Armor: -0
Brief Description: At least some physical, some personality

Stunts

• Tentacles:
  
  
  
  • Slippery Tentacles They slip through and get in everywhere, even underneath armor. Even though her tentacles do only one damage, they can bypass (worn) armor.
  • Grappling Tentacles Target gets entangled
  • Groping Tentacles Some erotic effect
• Poison: Each strike of her tentacles has a chance to poison her victims. (Victims can choose to negate any poison damage but becoming paralysed instead)
  
  • Accumulating poison: This attack inflicts a dose of accumulating poison that does 1hp/round of damage. Additional doses increase the damage taken by 1hp/turn. Targets with a normal susceptibility to poison take maximum damage at 3 doses.
• Engulf: Paralysed or entangled victim is swallowed whole. Once engulfed, the victim takes 1d10 damage per turn. Can only engulf one enemy at a time
  NSFW

  
• Psychedelic allure: flashy bio-luminescence, you know you want to take a closer look. when under the effect of this alluring  light, enemies are naturally drawn towards her, even if they normally wouldn't. Enemy is forced to take their move towards her.

Flaws

• Sessile: Very slow movement, usually prefers to sit on one spot
• Temperature sensitive: Weak to fire and cold attacks (maybe suffer additional harm)
• Stuffed: Only in effect when engulfing a victim. Can take no other actions until spitting out her victim

Interested In: Being a happy tentacle monster towards a nice willing or unwilling enemy, either as a gladiator or on home defence in a specific arena
How Often Do You Elliquiy?: Mostly during weekends, sporadic during the week.
Ons:
Offs: