So in my campaign, my players have been hired by a Duke to help establish a line of dialogue with the city's thieves guild, but because the guild is so well hidden, the only chance the party has to find the leader of said guild is at an underground fitting ring, the rules are simple, no magic, no weapons, no killing, and have fun. Three of the players have just discovered the ring, and are contimplating placing bets on fights or joining a match themselves, but I am going to have another player be introduced via a match. They're a paladin, so they won't have any of the monk mechanics. My concern is that if I let the match ensue via traditional 5E rules it will take too long, since neither combatants are going to be monks, so with that in mind, should I temporarily enable both player and the npc the tavern brawler feat, or should I do something different and just use their athletics score for damage instead?
Not all matches are to knockout. They could fight until first contact (assuming no armor, probably that would be too fast). You could cut hp, say each person fights until they reach 50% (or whatever). That way players with higher hp still last longer, but it cuts down the time
Id be hesitant to give away the feat temporarily, because then if someone does have it, you end up cutting out their advantage. Actually that could be good for a champion, someone with that feat.
Also, there are some rulings that paladins can smite (but not improved smite) with a punch, you should read up on that and prepare. It has to do with the phrasing of melee weapon attack vs. attack with a melee weapon.
Not all matches are to knockout. They could fight until first contact (assuming no armor, probably that would be too fast). You could cut hp, say each person fights until they reach 50% (or whatever). That way players with higher hp still last longer, but it cuts down the time
This is a good way to go about it. You could also consider using a point system for the fight similar to how we score fighting in real life, for MMA or wrestling. The fight can last until 10 points are earned or so depending on the length of matches you want
Nah... no need to change the rules for damage temporarily, just let that part go, but you can add some dynamic content in the ring. If you make the stones / sand / pillars periodically have other effects... say lightning runes that light up one round prior to firing off, then suddenly tactics become important... pushing and kicking mechanics will also become important.. Make the whole board tilt and have other checks in place.
Of course, with a Paladin, who is going to be able to tell he is using a spell slot to Smite? Some of them don't necessarily make visible mechanics... and it's not necessarily different than a Monk using Ki... And how does a Paladin turn off an aura? I get the reasons, but if you allow Monks to use Ki, then there are some other mechanics that should help level the playing field. If you don't allow Ki for anything, even patient defense... Monks still have an advantage, so err on the side of reasonable generosity for other fighters.
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So in my campaign, my players have been hired by a Duke to help establish a line of dialogue with the city's thieves guild, but because the guild is so well hidden, the only chance the party has to find the leader of said guild is at an underground fitting ring, the rules are simple, no magic, no weapons, no killing, and have fun. Three of the players have just discovered the ring, and are contimplating placing bets on fights or joining a match themselves, but I am going to have another player be introduced via a match. They're a paladin, so they won't have any of the monk mechanics. My concern is that if I let the match ensue via traditional 5E rules it will take too long, since neither combatants are going to be monks, so with that in mind, should I temporarily enable both player and the npc the tavern brawler feat, or should I do something different and just use their athletics score for damage instead?
Not all matches are to knockout. They could fight until first contact (assuming no armor, probably that would be too fast).
You could cut hp, say each person fights until they reach 50% (or whatever). That way players with higher hp still last longer, but it cuts down the time
Id be hesitant to give away the feat temporarily, because then if someone does have it, you end up cutting out their advantage. Actually that could be good for a champion, someone with that feat.
Also, there are some rulings that paladins can smite (but not improved smite) with a punch, you should read up on that and prepare. It has to do with the phrasing of melee weapon attack vs. attack with a melee weapon.
This is a good way to go about it. You could also consider using a point system for the fight similar to how we score fighting in real life, for MMA or wrestling. The fight can last until 10 points are earned or so depending on the length of matches you want
-Earn a point for a successful hit
-Earn 2 points for a critical hit
-Lose point for critical misses if you want
Nah... no need to change the rules for damage temporarily, just let that part go, but you can add some dynamic content in the ring. If you make the stones / sand / pillars periodically have other effects... say lightning runes that light up one round prior to firing off, then suddenly tactics become important... pushing and kicking mechanics will also become important.. Make the whole board tilt and have other checks in place.
Of course, with a Paladin, who is going to be able to tell he is using a spell slot to Smite? Some of them don't necessarily make visible mechanics... and it's not necessarily different than a Monk using Ki... And how does a Paladin turn off an aura? I get the reasons, but if you allow Monks to use Ki, then there are some other mechanics that should help level the playing field. If you don't allow Ki for anything, even patient defense... Monks still have an advantage, so err on the side of reasonable generosity for other fighters.