What if it were you - Battle Royale suggestions

[Tak Jr]

I have been asked to run a Battle Royale, and I would like suggestions/advice/constructive criticism on the arena. Please know, it has already been decided not to restrict any class/race characteristics/spells/abilities. I have seen the posts that suggest no banishment or no flying, for instance. We will not be doing this. We've also decided we want to utilize power ups, so what am I looking for is suggestions on the arena itself. Here's what I'm thinking....

There will be incorporeal orbs, 5 feet in diameter, blinking in and out around the arena as the battle goes on. In order to get the effect the character simply must pass through the space of the orb, so no action is required. The orb's effect, where it appears, how long it lasts, etc. will be determined by a roll of the die. Once the orb is used, it will not appear again, but there will be many orbs that will appear throughout the match. Since it will not be available again, I am also trying to figure out a way to incorporate a rarity to them, or to have some have much larger effects. Nothing game breaking or anything, but think of passing through one that casts the Heal spell on you. I have ideas for what the orbs should do, but I am looking for what you would like if you were in this battle. It could be something as simple as +1 to AC or something more complicated like giving the affected user to ability to rage.

So my basic questions are....What should the orbs do? How should they work? Should the characters know what they do when they appear, or should that be random as well? And, of course, anything else you want to discuss) In the end, I want the absorption of an orb to be as important as any other event that happens in the arena.

[Mastikator]

I had 3 ideas for how I would deal with the problem of "players don't move, they just attack every turn".

1. Good power ups distributed at random locations that are worth disengaging for.
2. Teleportation doors that only require that you walk through them.
3. Negative room-wide effects to encourage players to leave the room.

A second problem I foresaw was players ganging up on each individuals, players getting lucky/unlucky strikes and dying very early. For this I have the Inspired Token (see further down)

Spoiler: Power ups

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Battlefield bonuses
On initiative 20 a random effect is spawned into the battle arena, roll d12 for the room (9,10,11,12 = center room), d3 x d4 in room, d6 x d6 in center room.
The effect can be off 4 levels of power, roll 2d4 pick lowest number. From round 3 pick highest instead of lowest
Powers for 1

1. Heal 1d6 hp
2. Gain 1d6 temp hp
3. Add bless bonus until end of next turn
4. Add +20 speed until end of next turn
5. Remove all status effects
6. Teleport freely 10 feet before end of turn, requires line of sight

Powers for 2

1. Heal 2d6 and gain equal amount temp hp
2. Attack rolls against you have disadvantage until end of next turn
3. Advantage on all saving throws until end of next turn
4. Become invisible until end of next turn, or ends if make attack roll or force saving throw or cast spell
5. Regain 1 first level spell slot or 2 ki points
6. Teleport 30 feet before end of turn, does not require line of sight

Powers for 3

1. Heal 3d6 and gain equal temporary hitpoints, also remove one status effect of choice
2. Gain one additional action on this turn
3. Gain one additional bonus action on this turn
4. Teleport anywhere on the map before end of turn
5. Vampirism: regain HP equal to damage dealt for 1d4 turns
6. Gain one short rest instantly

Powers for 4

1. Heal 4d6 and gain equal temp hp
2. Gain one extra turn on this turn
3. Become greater invisible for 1+1d4 turns
4. Hand out 1 level of exhaustion to 1d4 other players
5. A quori spirit is summoned somewhere on the map, you choose where
6. Gain one Inspired Token

(these were designed for level 5 player characters, if it was higher level I'd scale them up, also some class features are missing, I knew the player characters in advance and didn't bother for classes not present).

The arena was made up of 9 rooms, a center room which had self-closing doors to each room around it. Each room around it had a door at the far side that teleported you into a random room.

The final rule was the Inspired Token, sort of like inspiration, but on steroids. The rules for Inspired Token was as follows:

Spoiler: Inspired Token

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Each player starts with an inspired token, which works differently than inspiration.
An inspired token can be used in two different ways:

• When a player character fails a d20 test they can trade it in and instead automatically roll a natural 20
• When a player character reaches 0 HP they can trade it in and on their next turn gain the benefit of a LONG REST and respawn somewhere randomly in the tavern. (roll d8)

Players start with 1 Inspired Token, you can get more through a very lucky power up pick up.

Edit- this game was intended as a "dream sequence/quest" where players could not use consumables in their inventory, and after the game is over they each get to choose a reward from a curated list of consumable items. The players get to pick in reverse order of their deaths. (they had 3 options for dream quests, this was one of them, I think they voted for another option because most of them had a bad experience from another DM running a PvP session)

[Tak Jr]

[SPOILER=Power ups]Battlefield bonuses
On initiative 20 a random effect is spawned into the battle arena, roll d12 for the room (9,10,11,12 = center room), d3 x d4 in room, d6 x d6 in center room.
The effect can be off 4 levels of power, roll 2d4 pick lowest number. From round 3 pick highest instead of lowest

I had forgotten to mention this. I did want to make the power ups more powerful as the fight went on. That looks like what you are doing here, and I like it!

[Tawmis]

So my basic questions are....What should the orbs do? How should they work? Should the characters know what they do when they appear, or should that be random as well? And, of course, anything else you want to discuss) In the end, I want the absorption of an orb to be as important as any other event that happens in the arena.

Depends on how much of detail you want to go into.
You could make it so - every even/odd round the orbs change.
During even number rounds - the orbs represent a boost to the player's stats that last for 2 rounds.
So for example, the player reaches the orb during round 2 - you can (depends on what you want to do) have the player select what stat it boosts - and they roll a d4 and for 2 rounds, that stat is boosted. Or you could have them roll a d6, and go down the line (STR, CON, DEX, etc.) for what stat it boosts.
During odd rounds, it's similar - but it boosts savings throws. And same idea. Select or randomize.

You could expand it further, that randomly - maybe when you roll x on a D20 - it provides a "burst of energy" - granting short rest type benefits, and allows them to expend hit dice during this "burst" of energy to heal up.

[Oramac]

I like what's already been said. I'd use a lot of Mastikator's Power Ups for sure.

The one thing I'll add is that, in my experience, the single most important thing for an exciting fight is movement. Whether forced or not, things moving around the battlefield (or the battlefield itself moving!) create tension and excitement.

I'd add a few random Orbs that do one of a few things:

- Forced movement on the player that picked it up (teleport to a random location, or some such)
- Allow Player to force movement upon a target (object or creature)
- Shift the battlefield around (rooms change places, loose objects thrown, etc.)

Get creative with these. There's a million different ways to implement movement.