Monster Arena

Now to finish things off, I'd like to see how five Robotic Super-Swarms deal with a party. Stats are up above. I'd suggest using a dice-roller site so you'd not need to roll so many d4s.. .

Xel Unknown wrote:Now to finish things off, I'd like to see how five Robotic Super-Swarms deal with a party. Stats are up above. I'd suggest using a dice-roller site so you'd not need to roll so many d4s.. .

I'll do that one tomorrow

So how about them bee-combat stats? It's been a few days after all...

Oh right, I got pulled into a few things. I'll get it done sometime tonight

Here we go. I did a play-test of 5 robotic bee swarms:

Robotic Super-Swarm - 30 HP
Trait - No HP limit
Trait - Every two HP (rounding up) equals a bee in said swarm. If 5 bees or more are killed in one attack deal 1d4+1+X damage to all enemies. X equals the number of bees over 5 that were killed.
Trait - Keep the bee count well known and clear.

[+3] Bee-Aid
Robotic Swarm heals itself for 4d4 HP.
[0] Swarm Strike!
Choose One:
1)Spend 2 HP, then roll 1d8 damage for one enemy and give the target 3 vulnerability (save ends).
2)Spend 4 HP and spend -2 pips, then roll 2d10 damage for two enemies and give the targets 2 vulnerability (save ends).
3)Spend 6 HP and spend -4 pips, then roll 3d12 damage for three enemies and give the targets 1 vulnerability (save ends).
[-X] Full Swarm Attack!
For this combat talent, X equals the number of pips spent on this attack. (max: 10 pips) Roll Xd4+X damage for all enemies and each roll of a 3 or higher is a loss of 2 HP. (one bee)

It was a 5 vs 5 clash. The whole first round was treated as a build up to the real action. Bodies and bees falling left and right! The players managed to soldier through and snag a victory on the 8th round, but only because of a buffer of 5 temporary HP, if not for that, the bees would have won.

Player Status (HP/Pips) - Luck: Pretty much Average, (though they got 4 of their players to roll higher initiative than the bees, that's gotta count for something.)
Player 1 (18/3) (Was Unconscious at 2 separate times)
Player 2 (14/1) (Was unconscious 2 separate times)
Player 3 (10/1) (Was unconscious once)
Player 4 (25/2) (Was unconscious 2 separate times)
Player 5 (8/2) (Never fell unconscious)

Enemy Status: TKO - Luck: Also very average, (sometimes hard to tell when you are rolling so many d4's)

Danger Rating: 5
I rate it a solid 5 because at around the 5th round, the players managed to keep in the game with three hit-points to spare and then use miracle to cling to victory. That's the type of battle that will get the players on the edge of their seat. Fight these guys only if you are prepared for a challenge

Critique: Well, what can I say? These guys have been tested and they are a great challenge. It was a fun battle and I'd like so see some more neat monsters that make the players flirt with unconsciousness as these bees did Send any more monsters you want my way and I'll test them out next week.

~SilentBelle

P.S. I wonder when we'll see an official monster expansion. That's gonna be really neat when it comes out.

Well I'll say I'll try my best to think up some new fun monsters who are just as powerful as my other monsters. But my biggest monster project I'm on right now is building a Boss "SWAT-Team" build that should be UNBEATABLE for my Canpaign of Jokers characters to beet by pure combat. Or at least be uber hard to beat. So they'll have to be FORCED to RP to find non-combat answers to while mid-combat.

But then again... Let's see how my last set of monsters that I've made so far can do aganst normal players.

Try a battle of 2 Beeforged Ponys and One Robotic Spark hive. Bet they'll have a good deal of flaws needed to be hammered out of them.

Battle stats are as follows:

Spark Robotic Beehive - 30 (Racial-Templated: Robot) (Hive)
Trait - Spark Hive Goes first unless bloodied, then it goes last in the enemy turn order, and everything else moves up one...
Trait - Hi-Resistance
All Spark Robotic Hives have resistance 3+X where X is the number of Hives in combat. Total Resistance does not go higher than 6.
Trait - Defensive Spark Attack
Whenever the Spark Robotic Hive is attacked by any non-full-party attacks, they damage the attacking enemy with Xd6 damage, X is bees you decide to have be killed from this attack. (Max: 6)
Trait - PROTECT THE HIVE!!!
As long as there at least 8 Robo-bees are in combat, any attack that damages the total enemy party does zero harm to a Spark Robotic Hive and if there are at least 4 Robo-bees in combat, this hive takes half damage.

[+4] Release the BEES!
Spawn 1d8+4 Robo-Bees. If there are already Bees in battle this attack gives only 1d4-1 pips and only spawns one to three Robo-Bee.
[+1] Hive Sparks
Gives Robo-Bees one pip
[-7] Lighting Sparks!
Roll 1d8 and hit that many enemies with 2d10 damage... If the d8 rolls an eight, give whole enemy party 3d12 damage.

Beeforged-Pony - 40 HP (Racial-Templated: Robot) (Hive)
Trait - Beeforged Still Stands
Whenever an enemy’s combat attack destories all Robo-Bees all Beeforged-Ponies gains 2X Resistance for that attack (X equals the number of all Hives in combat) and loses all Vulnerability for that attack as well, but they regain ALL vulnerability afterwards
Trait - BEELESS RAGE!!!
At the start of any turn a Pony-Beeforged is in combat and there are NO Robo-Bees in combat deal 1d6 damage to X targets, where X equals the number of Beeforged-Pony in combat. This damage done is counted as a Free Action and on this turn the Beeforged-Pony may use their BEES 4 BATTLE combat talent again as a Standard Action.

[+X] Made of Bees - Immediate Interrupt
Trigger - Pony-Beeforged Hive is harmed by a single target attack
The X for this talent equals the number of Bees in combat. (max: 12) And the Hive gains Resistance X/2 (rounding down) for this attack, loses all it’s natural Vul and 1dX+(X/2) (rounding down) bees are killed by this talent (1dX is an even numbered die (rounding up to the next even numbered die when odd)) also this talent can only be used once per round
[+3] BEES 4 BATTLE! - Immediate Interrupt
Trigger - The Combat’s first turn starts
Spawn 4 Robo-Bees into battle and give Bees 2 pips
[+1] Robo-Bee Attack!
Spawn one Robo-Bee into battle or give Bees 1 pip
[0] Commune with Bees
Beeforged Hive gives robo-bees 1 to 7 pips and pay the same amount of pips for this talent.
[-2] Summon Bees
Spawn 3 Robo-Bees, while bloodied Pony may choose to either pay only 1 pip to spawn 3 bees or spawn 6 bees for two pips.
[-X] Bee Weapon LAZER
Kill an even number of bees (min: 4 max: 12) and spend that same amount of pips for this talent. Roll 4dX damage for one enemy or 2dX damage to all enemies.

Robo-Bee - 1 HP (minon)
Trait - Hivemind
No matter how many Robo-Bees are in battle they all take only one turn as a group for each Hive in combat and X in all of their combat moves equals the number of Robo-Bees in battle before the attack took place. (Max value for X is 13) They still count as multiple targets for everything else.
Trait - (un)Lucky Bees
Robo-Bees pip count cannot go higher than 7 per Hive (Cannot spend more than 7 pips in a turn) and the max Robo-Bees allowed in battle is 13 per Hive

[+1] Robo-Pollinate - Standard Action
Roll Xd4, for every 4 rolled target ally gains that many pips, max pip gain to ally is 6. Can only target a Hive.
[-1] Robo-Bee Sting(s) - Standard Action
Choose One:
1)Kill One Bee, then roll 1d8+X damage for one enemy.
2)Kill Two Bees and spend -2 more pips, then roll 2d10+(X/2) (rounding down) damage for one enemy.
3)Kill Three Bees and spend -4 more pips, then roll 3d12+(X/4) (rounding down) damage for one enemy.
[-X] Robo-Swarm! - Immediate Reaction
Trigger - Hive is dealt damage or is Killed
For this combat talent, X equals the number of pips spent on this attack. If the Hive has been Killed, destroy as many Bees as needed until the Bee Number is equal to the Bees' pip count. Roll Xd8+X damage for all enemies and each roll of a 5 or higher equals one dead Bee. The number of bees that die post attack must be form 2 to X-1... (Meaning you can't use this attack with only one Bee, unless a Hive was Killed of course.) Unless the Hive was KOed, then all bees are dead at the end of this attack and this attack ends with also giving one random Ally 1d4 pips.

Xel, you have some of the craziest monsters I know these guys will take a while to run, and I won't have time for them this weekend, but they are next on my list.

Thank you Silnetbelle, I do try. :3

Here we are, more bees! So I faced a party of five against your monsters, two beeforged ponies a beehive.

The way this battle works is that the beehive is really the important thing to kill, however it is suicide to try and attack it without first killing everything else.

The battle initial flew in the players' favour, only one character getting knocked out on the second turn (quickly saved by an ally), and all the others feeling relatively undamaged. By the end of the second turn they took out one of the beeforged. They kept it up and killed the other one on turn 4. Then Bam, the hive had enough pips to launch a huge assault. (Rolling an eight, so it did 3d12 to all the players (read 23)) This nearly killed off the players, but they hung in there.

Results:
Players' Status: (HP/Pips) Luck (Average)
Player 1 (19/0)
Player 2 (25/1) (Unconscious 1 time)
Player 3 (16/0)
Player 4 (7/1)
Player 5 (10/2)

Monster Status: TKO (10% above average)

Challenge Rating: 4
I felt like the Hive was strong enough, but the beeforged were lacking.
Suggestions for improvement: First off, get rid of the part of the Hive trait where it goes last when it's bloodied, because first and last are really the same position after the first round.

Now to focus on the Beeforged. I like their trait:
Trait - BEELESS RAGE!!!
At the start of any turn a Pony-Beeforged is in combat and there are NO Robo-Bees in combat deal 1d6 damage to X targets, where X equals the number of Beeforged-Pony in combat. This damage done is counted as a Free Action and on this turn the Beeforged-Pony may use their BEES 4 BATTLE combat talent again as a Standard Action.
Now here's a suggestion: Change the pip cost of the Bees 4 Battle talent to be [0] and make it also a free action instead of a standard when this trait is activated. I think that would seriously increase their potential.

Also the Beeforged have this talent:
[+X] Made of Bees - Immediate Interrupt
Trigger - Pony-Beeforged Hive is harmed by a single target attack
The X for this talent equals the number of Bees in combat. (max: 12) And the Hive gains Resistance X/2 (rounding down) for this attack, loses all it’s natural Vul and 1dX+(X/2) (rounding down) bees are killed by this talent (1dX is an even numbered die (rounding up to the next even numbered die when odd)) also this talent can only be used once per round.
What does this have to do with the beeforged? If it grants resist to the hive, that seems rather pointless... So during the battle I changed it to something useful like this:
[+X] Made of Bees - Immediate Interrupt
Trigger - Beeforged Pony is harmed by an attack
The X for this talent equals the number of Bees in combat. (max: 12) And the Beeforged gains Resistance X/2 (rounding down) for this attack, and 1dX+(X/2) (rounding down) bees are killed by this talent (1dX is an even numbered die (rounding up to the next even numbered die when odd)) also this talent can only be used once per round.

Also consider adding a talent to the Beeforged:
Abandon Nest - Immediate Interupt
Trigger: An attack would reduce you to 0 or few hitpoints
Create X Bees after the attack, where X equals your current HP.

I think that would make this battle challenging enough.

And that wraps up my review of Xel's Beeforged Ponies and Hive.
'Til next time,
~SilentBelle

Admittingly, "Made of Bees" was meant to work like that... I'm so bad with wording these talents... >.>

And the other two suggestions sound cool... Will totally take them and stuff, get back to you with fixed up combat stats for a round two.

SilentBelle have two for you will send in a pm but one special thing could you use the character builds included in the pm.

I've also sent a PM to Slentbelle. Think I had most likely sent mine before your Tyger. But given the fact that you dealing with a skype game and I'm not. I'll be fine if Slentbelle tests your monsters first dude. :3

Alright, I'll aim to get some of these tested today

Whenever you are feel, got a new boss to test out. This one was a personalized edit of Damnou's Rock Snake.

Giant Golden Stone Snake
Trait - Rock Hard
Starts out with Resist 2
Trait - It’s Super Effective!
Deals double damage on a d8 when rolled an 8. Deals double damage on a d10 when rolled a 9 or 10. Deals double damage on a d12 when rolled a 10, 11, or 12.

HP: 75
PiP: 0

[+3] Roar
All enemies get a -1 penalty to damage (save ends). Can stack for a -2 penalty max. (two saving throws for each)
[+1] Shockwave
Deal 1d8-1 damage to all enemies.
[-2] Diamond Eye
Deal 1d10 damage to target creature. Then Roll a 1d6, if the roll is 5 or 6, the target is stunned for one turn.
[-4] Stone Edge
Deal 1d12 damage to target enemy and each creature adjacent to it.

Someone's got a shiny Onix boss fight coming up, I think.

It might or might not happen... I'm still unsure, that's why I'm letting the stats be shown.

After testing the Shiny Onix up above to see how that'll deal with a normal party... I'd like to test Mr. Flunky... He be a weird one...

Alrighty, here a nice announcement I got for all of you. I've started gathering monsters for the Compendium. (I only have two in there as of this post) I'll share it with all of you, hopefully later tonight after I sift through as many monsters as I can. I'm thinking of changing the monster arena to a place where we can tune up your monsters with the intent of getting them into the Compendium. So if you want your monsters in the compendium send 'em here. (Don't repost ones that I have already run on here, I'm adding those ones, but it takes a great deal of time to standardize them all, making sure the wording is proper, and hammering out their Danger Rating.) I'm gonna be adding them for the next few hours, since I have my eyes on a few

For those curious, so far I've added the Clockwork Alicorns (Xel's neat creation), and Link (Warrior's well-flavoured Solo). I'll also be looking for some unique feeling single monsters and monsters with minions.

Edit: Oh, I'd like it if there was only one monster per person at a time Don't drown me in monsters

But I want to flood you with monsters! XD

Welcome to the first round of the Monster Arena: Equipped Edition
In this battle we pitted 5 characters against a shiny Onix Giant Golden Rock Snake.

This battle was over so quick the spectators in the stands hadn't even gotten halfway through their popcorn.

Here's a the results of the battle...

Players Status: (HP/Pips) - Luck 40% above Average
Player 1 (27/2)
Player 2 (24/3)
Player 3 (17/6)
Player 4 (27/6)
Player 5 (30/3)

Monster Status: TKO - Luck (based on the one roll it got...) Average (4 on a d8)

Yeah so this monster was DESTROYED. A frostfall knocked it out for a turn, and a second one was actually what killed it (a 23 damage frostfall, it's almost as if it was... Super Effective! )

Danger Rating: 2 (More of an estimate really, can't be too certain, given how easily it was defeated)

But honestly if you want this thing to face a party of 5, it needs some serious strengthening. Maybe up the resist to 4, and give it the ability to roll saves against stun effects at the start of it's turn (even if a save couldn't normally end it) and you should substantially increase it's damage. You want this monster to cause a serious punch on it's turn so that half the party has to focus on mitigating and healing up that damage before the next turn. It plays a lot more like a single monster than a solo at this point.

Well that's my quick review of Xel's Onix Golden Rock Snake Thing.

The bar has been raised, thanks to the 3000 Gold worth of equipment that each of the Monster Arena characters now have.

Oh and on a side-note, I plan on adding 1 monster a day to the compendium if possible, so I'll be digging through some monster threads and such.

I'll test out Mr. Flunky soon. Also, I wouldn't mind if someone managed to make a challenging Hydra to face off against the party.

~SilentBelle

Admittingly thankful to see my other monsters get tested... Do have the whole Worst-Cast upcoming boss fight team for Jokers to also deal with that I'm also waiting on...

Xel Unknown wrote:Admittingly thankful to see my other monsters get tested... Do have the whole Worst-Cast upcoming boss fight team for Jokers to also deal with that I'm also waiting on...

I can do that tonight I was sort of putting it off simply because I know that's gonna take over an hour to test properly but I have the time tonight.

Ah, that is understandable... Given the number of enemy targets and junk.

Heya everyone, it's me SilentBelle, the guy who plays around with these monsters in an attempt to make a comprehensive compendium for all DMs who don't want to home-brew all their monsters, and I've got a request for all of you

In the wake of the new expansion of combat talents I would love it if any of you would be willing to make some new Pony Tales Arena Characters for me to Play-test with. It's very easy, and I figure you guys might see some awesome combos and such that I might have looked over (I'm certain there are tons more combos waiting to be found). Just post a series of stuff in this order:
1) Special Move
2) A series of 5 combat abilities (listed in order from + to - cost)
3) And finally, 3000 gold worth of equipment

That would help me get the Monster Arena back in full swing quickly. I can't wait to see what neat combos we can achieve.
Thanks,
~SilentBelle

I shall build. Broken-Pony... Or at least something with Critfisher and Gather Energy! XD