[4e] Monster Mash! 4e MvM tournament (Closed)

[covaithe]

This is an experiment I've wanted to try for a while. It's basically a PvP tournament run by 4th edition D&D rules, where each competitor controls a team of monsters.

The proposed rules are as follows, but are subject to discussion while we see what the interest level is like.

Rules

You get an xp budget of 2000 xp to build your team, according to the DMG rules for building encounters. Spend it on whatever mixture of monsters you like, from any published WotC source. (If your monsters are from a source I don't have, I'll ask you to send me stat blocks). You can apply templates, or increase or decrease their levels by up to 5 levels according to the Customizing Monsters section of the DMG, with the appropriate xp expenditure. No giving magic items to the monsters, though.

When you're done building your team, email it to me (my username at gmail.com) and I'll check to make sure I understand it and that its XP budget comes out right.

When we have some reasonable number of teams, I'll close recruiting and publish the teams. No further changes to your teams at that point. I'll fill in the team list up to a power of 2 with selections of monsters that I think would be interesting, if not necessarily optimal. I'll randomly draw pairings, and serve as DM/referee for the encounters. If we get a lot of interest, I may recruit some assistants.

While you guys are building teams, I'll be drawing up some maps. Probably 3 or 4 of them, depending on how much time I have. I'll try to get the maps finished and published before finalizing the list of teams, so you can try to plan for terrain.

Obviously, no undertaking like this would be complete without a shoutout to Gansk's classic Battle of All Alignments from 3.5e, which tragically seems to have been eaten by one of the recent board upgrades. (At least, I can't get to it any more; if someone can tell me how I'd be grateful.)

Here's some inspiration while you think about it:
[sblock=Monster Mash!][ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhMSMfHQxb4&feature=related"]Monster Mash[/ame][/sblock]

 

[renau1g]

Sounds fun, count me in.

 

[Atanatotatos]

Definitely, definitely interested. I'm going to look for something interesting...
Oh, what about class templates? Are they allowed too?

EDIT: I'd suggest not. I think the probability of overpowered combinations seems a bit too much...

 

[covaithe]

I'll tentatively say yes to class templates. I'm not as familiar with them, so they may turn out to be overpowered. But part of the point of the exercise is to explore that sort of thing, so what the heck.

 

[Atanatotatos]

Uhmm... now, I know I shouldn't have this doubt since I've DMed 4e, but it has come u to me: When a monster uses an attack power from a class template, does it use its normal bonus for that kind of attack, or the attack bonus for PCs?
The first is basically stat+level, the second, stat+half level+magic items. Monsters don't have magic items, so normally attacking with class powers sucks for them. I'd say this is the way to do it but I'm not so sure.

 

[covaithe]

I think that by RAW it has to be stat+half level. You're right that without the ability to give magic items to the monsters, they're going to have lower attack bonuses that way than by using their native powers.

 

[renau1g]

I'm still looking over the MM and I have to admit I'm interested to see how higher-level monsters handle from a more DM perspective. I've played against them here in Kombat Kraziness & DM'd low-level monsters at home... there's a ton of options to choose from and I have a few ideas of different teams.

 

[Atanatotatos]

I'm looking for interesting abilities and it seems that a crazy mix is coming up; I'm sure there's a mathematical way to be sure to choose the best combinations because of the difference in levels that will be there among monsters, but that's definitely not my thing!

 

[covaithe]

2000xp is a somewhat low xp budget for this sort of thing, I admit. It rules out a lot of powerful, interesting monsters. I hope that if this one goes well, I (or someone else, it doesn't have to be me) will do another one with a much higher xp budget.

 

[renau1g]

I like the amount, it allows a lot of interesting monsters and avoids being forced to use orcs, or kobolds, like I'm used to at low leves (or Deathjump spiders....*shudder*)

I'm trying to work out a somewhat cohesive team, we'll see how it goes.