TOPIC: 2008 True Arena

You are very welcome Joyus and correct about the strength.  Its to balance the Tower Shield option.<br /><br />If there are any questions about the rules, please let me know and I will do my best to answer them.

Thanks for the information on regular hits and crits. So for the +2 keen scimitar, how is that handled? Is it critial on the a hit of 19/20 without having to slide again for the critial? Does it automatically do double damage without having to do another slide?

<br />As I posted earlier in this thread from the rules:<br /><br />

<br />From rules which were posted in another TA:<br /><br /><br />Critical Hits<br />Critical hits (a slide of a natural 20) will be handled as follows:  <br />· Each combat board will have special Crit. Spots within the target outline. <br />· If a player slides a natural 20 (or a natural 19 or 20 with Keen Scimitar), normal damage will be dealt, but the player gets an additional “bonus” slide. <br />· If the bonus slide is a hit, add the damage from the second slide to the first.<br />· If the bonus slide touches any portion of one of the Crit. Spots, a special <br />    effect occurs (see Crit Chart below) in addition to the damage from the first slide.  <br />· Note #1: Landing on a Crit. Spot during the first slide has no special effect.<br />· Note #2: On the second slide, you may end up doing zero additional damage (a miss) but also cause a critical special effect (covering a red circle). <br /><br /><br /><br />Crit. Chart<br />There are 6 Crit. Spots on the Combat Board designated by a red dot.  <br /><br />Crit. to Left/Right “Knee” = Player must slide standing on one leg (or seated if both knees have been hit) for rest of the duel.<br /><br />Crit. to “Head” =  Player is “blinded” and must slide with eyes closed for the rest of the duel. The player can place their slider and prepare to slide, but must close their eyes before their hand moves. <br /><br />Crit. to “Chest” = Player has the wind knocked out of them. The player's next attack is -2 to hit, and -2 to damage. <br /><br />Crit. to “Main Hand” = Player drops weapon and must spend a turn picking it up.<br /><br />Crit. to “Off Hand” = If using a two handed weapon, shield, or a mug, player drops it and must spend turn to pick it up. <br /><br /><br />

<br />Ring of Regen basically absorbs 1 pt of damage of the first attack. So basically it gives you 1 extra hit point.<br /><br />In the doc I listed in another thread talking True Arena it covers a couple purple tokens.<br /><br />Notes on token function variations inside True Arena:<br />· Ring of Regeneration; Negates first point of damage taken each combat.<br />· Gloves of Dexterity; +1 to AC, +1 to initiative.<br />· Cloak of Displacement; Works only against first attack that would normally hit. The opponent then rolls a d20, and a result of 11-20 means that the attack fails.)<br />· Nightshade’s +2 Short Sword;  If the attack hits and does “dagger” damage, treat this as an “8”. <br />· +2 Holy Great Sword; Gladiators are neutral therefore there is no +3 effect.<br />· +2 Keen Scimitar; Allows a bonus slide on a natural 19 or 20.  <br />· +1 Broadsword of Life Stealing – No life is gained from this token.<br />          · +2 Mace of Dispelling; All Gladiators are neutral therefore there is no dispelling effect. <br /><br />The volunteer who did the True Arena docs recently sent me the list in a batch of documents, so I need to look through it and will post it.<br />

<br /><br />WAIT!  why doesnt the broadsword of life stealing work?  the others make perfect sense as gladiators are neutral humans (and not rogues)...but the broadsword doesnt have any stipulation on its ability, just that you need to crit.  this is upsetting since true arena is the main reason i chose the broadsword over something else.<br />if the fear is that the heal would be too powerful, require it to hit on the bonus slide in order to heal.

You should have known better. It was fairly obvious.<br />

how is that obvious?  the keen scimitar still works in true arena.  every other weapon that doesnt work in true arena is only because the bonus does not work against gladiators (they arent evil, undead, large, etc)...so, actually, every other weapon is still working normally.  the broadsword is the only one to get nerfed specifically for true arena.  in fact, by my understanding of how the other non-weapon items work, the only other thing to be changed at all is the ring of regeneration...which got a power BOOST.  there is no precedent for an item to lose abilities in true arena.<br />even if it isnt going to change at all, i would at least like to hear the reasoning behind this ruling (i would presume 'power', but why nix the ability completely?  why not limit/adjust/downgrade the ability for true arena?).

Because a crit hit with the broadsword does the equivalent of up to 3x damage*. That's so far beyond what anything else provides, it should have been obvious it'd be yoinked just like we don't let people do the quivering palm for one-shots. I can only assume you forgot the quivering palm since the whole 'no precedent' thing falls apart when you consider it. You'll notice it's not on the list either. You're also dead wrong about the non-weapon items too. The Amulet of Thorns was excluded from last year's True Arena for also obvious reasons. Just as I'm sure the Cloak of Curses won't be allowed in this year.<br /><br /><br />* Just in case someone couldn't quite get that:<br /><br />1x the damage from the original hit<br />2x the damage from the critical hit<br />3x the gain of getting 8 points of life<br />

From what I have read in this blog I believe the +2 Keen Scimitar does have reduced powers. If your in the dungeon and hit a 19 with it, it hits and crits automatically, in the arena it looks if one will have to roll determine more damage and/or hit the red spot for the critical. Correct?

Not a roll, a slide. Posted from earlier:<br />

<br />From rules which were posted in another TA:<br /><br /><br />Critical Hits<br />Critical hits (a slide of a natural 20) will be handled as follows:  <br />· Each combat board will have special Crit. Spots within the target outline. <br />· If a player slides a natural 20 (or a natural 19 or 20 with Keen Scimitar), normal damage will be dealt, but the player gets an additional “bonus” slide. <br />· If the bonus slide is a hit, add the damage from the second slide to the first.<br />· If the bonus slide touches any portion of one of the Crit. Spots, a special <br />    effect occurs (see Crit Chart below) in addition to the damage from the first slide.  <br />· Note #1: Landing on a Crit. Spot during the first slide has no special effect.<br />· Note #2: On the second slide, you may end up doing zero additional damage (a miss) but also cause a critical special effect (covering a red circle). <br /><br /><br /><br />Crit. Chart<br />There are 6 Crit. Spots on the Combat Board designated by a red dot.  <br /><br />Crit. to Left/Right “Knee” = Player must slide standing on one leg (or seated if both knees have been hit) for rest of the duel.<br /><br />Crit. to “Head” =  Player is “blinded” and must slide with eyes closed for the rest of the duel. The player can place their slider and prepare to slide, but must close their eyes before their hand moves. <br /><br />Crit. to “Chest” = Player has the wind knocked out of them. The player's next attack is -2 to hit, and -2 to damage. <br /><br />Crit. to “Main Hand” = Player drops weapon and must spend a turn picking it up.<br /><br />Crit. to “Off Hand” = If using a two handed weapon, shield, or a mug, player drops it and must spend turn to pick it up. <br /><br /><br />

<br /><br />So basically, if you slide a natural 20, you get a bonus slide to try to do more damage and/or a crit special effect.<br />What the keen scmitar does is let you try for the bonus slide on a natural 19 or a natural 20. No ensured extra damage, no ensured crit special effect.  Just at a natural 19 or natural 20 the opportunity to get the bonus slide. That's it.

Joyus is correct (thanks for stepping in).  <br /><br />The Broadsword was just too powerful in True Arena.  Gaining 6 life for a slide of 20, would have been too powerful.  People were hitting 20s with fair regularity.  However, sliding 20 on the bonus slide seems reasonable and in the spirit of the token.  So you would need to slide two "20"s in a row and skip all criticals to gain 6 life.  Not to mention that the Broadsword is already handicapped with the +1 to-hit/dam instead of the +2.  This is also more in alignment with the Keen Scimitar nerf.  I will talk with Joyus and see if we can get the rules updated.

i'm with kurtreznor, i also got a broadsword of life stealing to use in the arena. i understand it is maybe too powerful for true arena. i do like the idea that if you crit you need to slide a second twenty to gain the health, but is that in addition to doing bonus damage? im sure kurt and i are probably not the only ones who would be disappointed if it didnt work in some way in the arena.

<br />I understand what you guys are saying, however, as a general rule, you shouldn't assume that any one token will be allowed in True Arena or that if allowed, will have the same function.  Some tokens don't translate well and its probably best to wait until the True Arena rules come out before picking up a token primarily for True Arena.