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Message: <blockquote data-quote="fissionessence" data-source="post: 4720662" data-attributes="member: 63357">Well I'm currently running (recently started) an interplanar campaign set in the Magic: the Gathering multiverse. It's great because I can just add my own planes and have potentially infinite space to work with. Anyway, the players were pulled from their home planes and stuck together in a world none of them has ever seen before. In a climatic scene that they haven't yet reached, I intend for them to be caught up in a planar whirlwind that starts throwing them around to random planes at different intervals of time. The first place they arrive will be the middle of a fighting arena. They'll wake up fully rested, and will be immediately assaulted by a group of five adventurers (there are five players as well). These NPCs are friendly, but figured the players wouldn't mind participating in some sportsman-like dueling. Of course, the players won't know it's not a fight to the death; they just know they're being attacked in a big arena and there are a lot of spectators. I want this fight to be tough. The players should have just hit 4th level when this fight occurs. The NPCs as monsters are all 5th level; I used 5th-level numbers, but some of the attacks and abilities probably make them stronger than that. I don't have any qualms about having the players lose this fight. They'll be healed, and everything will be explained shortly after in a "what's-the-big-deal?" kind of way. I'm imagining a big open arena with no notable terrain.I could use input on:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">whether maybe I should include terrain features, and what kind;</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">if the NPCs are way too powerful so as the PCs wouldn't stand a chance;</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">if my storytelling could use some help;</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">help fleshing out the NPCs' personalities, and appearances.</li> </ul>As this is a Magic: the Gathering setting, I decided I'd try to make a group of 5 NPCs follow some sort of balanced color scheme. Thus, they each represent an enemy-colored pairing. Here are their descriptions as I have them now:Nova: [Avian] Anumus Cleric — Three of these NPCs use Alluria Publishing's Remarkable Races line, and this is the first. None of the PCs in the party are human (or even close), so I wanted to parallel that with the NPCs. Nova has the head of an eagle and the body of a strong human male. He is red- and white-aligned, wielding holy magic and searing fire. He wears silvery plate armor and swings a sword when he's not shooting sacred flame.Gnara: Gnoll Warden — One of the players is a gnoll rogue, so I wanted to give her a potential friend in the form of this NPC. Gnara is blue and green, but I'm having a hard time making a gnoll fit into that scheme personatlity-wise. Mechanics-wise, I made her a warden to get a natury feel, and gave her form of winter's herald to represent the blue.Skinny Steve: Obitu Avenger — Another of Alluria's Remarkable Races, the obitu are skeletons basically. Skinny Steve somewhat resents his current nomenclature, but he hasn't picked a name for himself, so he goes by what his party has called him. Avenger seemed pretty obvious as a black-and-white colored class, and the skeleton aspect should help define the black part. For what he looks like, imagine the hooded avenger from the PH2 writeup, but replace the face with a skull.Vesterban: Entobian Sorcerer — The final of the Remarkable Races, entobians are small insect-people with an extra set of insectoid legs. Vesterban is the big talker of the group, and after the fight should be able to provide the players with a modicum of help as to what's going on with them. He is the one who 'caught' them as they were flying through the Blind Eternities between the planes and brought them to the arena. His sorcerer wild magic should represent well the blue-red color combination.Zirfein: Golgari-Elf Druid — I used the drow as the base for Zirfein, but he's a Golgari elf from Ravnica (I forget the correct term for 'Golgari elves'). Golgari are the black-green tribe, and Zirfein doesn't deviate from that. He has dreadlocks, a dark demeanor, hanging bone totems all over his body, and uses green ragged cloth against his black hair and clothes to visually represent his color alignment. He prefers to wild shape the form of a poisonous spider (drow much?)This band of adventurers wanders the planes on an 'astral skiff' (Weatherlight?). I'm thinking they mostly just wander for the fun and profit of adventuring, though they could have more focused goals. They'll help the players after they battle (slaughter?) them in this encounter, maybe showing up semi-frequently in later adventures. The city they're in will probably be pretty Sigil-like.Any help/ideas/inspiration as to the nature or personalities of any of these NPCs or their group as a whole is appreciated! Or, just grab the monster stat blocks and take them home <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />~ fissionessence</blockquote>

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