The Gandhi Tournament

Quickdeath

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Sep 18, 2004
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The Gandhi Tournament

[highlight]The Gandhi Tournament [/highlight]

This is a tournament that will offer you different sets of challenges as you progress and will require you to apply your game knowledge in ways that are likely to be completely new to you.

The objective of the Tournament is to play an untwinked character who has no Mercenary and no Summons and who never attacks any monster ever – not even with a bare fist and a normal attack. All of your damage will be dealt via Thorns (or Iron Maiden), "Attacker Takes Damage (ATD) of X" modifiers, and modifiers that have “Chance to Cast upon Attack.” Modifiers. You will strive to kill normal Andariel and normal Duriel -a relatively short tournament.

I have played such a character – a Paladin named Gandhi II - up to the Inner Cloister in order to assess the difficulties of the Tournament and to assure this was actually achievable. I do recommend that you play a Paladin, but a Necro (and possibly a Sorceress with cold armor skills) might be viable as well.

Pointers.

1. How to start: At the outset, your character has no way of causing damage. You need to obtain equipment items with ATD =1 –a belt, shield and armor are the 3 items capable of getting that mod. You probably want to start out at Players =7 or 8 and run around the Blood Moor opening chests, etc. and acquiring items for sale or keep. Save & Exit and then repeat. I did this 7 times before I found (via shopping) a quilted armor, a sash and a buckler with ATD=1 mods. Then switch to /players =1 mode and go out into the Blood Moor and Den of Evil and level up!

2. Placing your bare-handed character on “throw” attack mode helps you to avoid attacking monsters accidentally.

3. If you’re a Pally, at level 6 you get access to Thorns. This will change your game style dramatically.

4. At Level 14, you get access to items with ATD = 2 or 3, which can help.

5. There is NO way to kill a monster that has only ranged attacks. You need to run and evade them. (I doubt there is a way to kill Blood Raven.)

6. Fortunately, some ranged attackers also have a melee attack, so if you get next to them you can kill them with ATD. Ranged attackers who can be killed include the Fallen Shamans, the Spike Fiends and the Tainted (the hunched monsters that breathe lightning balls.) In general, archers cannot be killed.

There is lots more for each of you to discover or work out – but I’ll let that be part of the Tournament.

Rules
1. Version 1.10 or 1.11. RRM and RWM are acceptable. HC or Softcore mode. (with one death and you are finished.)
2. You may play any character you wish, but a Paladin is recommended.
3. Your character must not intentionally attack any monster with any kind of attack –melee, ranged or attack skill. All damage to monsters should arise from their attack upon your character. You will not be eliminated if you accidentally attack a monster – fix your attack settings/weapon and continue playing.
4. You may not use a Mercenary. You may not use any Summons (other than Decoy.)
5. The gameplay must be untwinked. You may use ATMA as an infinite stash.
6. There are no restrictions on re-running areas, on use of /playersX mode, on use of Save & Exit or on investments of skill points or attribute points.
7. The objective is to kill Andariel and then Duriel. If you accomplish this without dieing, you are a winner. There is no requirement to find waypoints or finish any unnecessary quests.

That's it. This is a tournament in which leveling up to level 2 is a significant achievement! Early in the gameplay it may be tedious -but it gets very interesting as you acquire Thorns (or similar skills) and as you advance through A1 and A2. Good Luck!
 
I made a pala like this before.. I made it to act4 normal actually.. died early on in there though. Can you use equipment other then ATD? Like life/res type gear?
 
A few remarks and suggestions:
- Allow Spirit Of Barbs as summon, this is the only time that skill will actually be used by someone, so give it the go-ahead, nevermind that it's too high level to be reached in act I and II.
- A necromancer and a sorceress can kill ranged attackers, using curses and chilling armour (the latter won't be reached in act I and II though).
- I assume Blade Shield is allowed, but again won't be reached.
 
I had a skellimancer in 1.09 that ran out of minions and corpses fighting normal diablo. I wound up shopping a head with +1 iron maiden and dying a lot, but I did kill him, in the end.
 
Answers.

1. There are restrictions on equipment and gear, and armor with +res would be useful as would anything that increases life.

2. Sir Lister is correct - any three of the Spirit Summons will be allowed, as will the non-attack Vines. It did not occur to me that anyone would want to play Druid.

3. You may start right away.

4. Modifiers with "When struck" are indeed allowed.

5. You are correct that Necros and Sorcs can indeed kill ranged attackers. My bad. The Paladin cannot, though (even the use of Conversion requires striking a monster.) And yes, in priniciple, Blade Shield would be allowed. The combination of Cloak of Shadows, Blade Shield, and Fade could be viable -if you could ever get up to the level to get blade shield.

6. I established Duriel as the end point of the tournament so as to prevent the tournament from becoming stale. Its nice to hear that YoungDbl has done this before to A4 Normal. Participants are free to continue on beyond Duriel if they wish and report on how they are doing.
 
Here's a Table for tracking progress.

Code:
[B]Player           Build       Character Name      Level       Furthest Point Reached[/B]

Quickdeath       Paladin     Gandhi II             1         Rogue Encampment
 
Can't "chance to cast when struck" items give you something that can kill ranged attackers?
 
Code:
[B]Player           Build       Character Name      Level       Furthest Point Reached[/B]

Quickdeath       Paladin     Gandhi II             1         Rogue Encampment
Docturnal        Sorceress   Theresa               1         Rogue Encampment

EDIT: changed to a sorceress, just for the fun of it.
 
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Can't "chance to cast when struck" items give you something that can kill ranged attackers?

Yes, they can. So in principle its possible to kill a ranged attacker. But the "10% CTC a Lvl3 Charged Bolt when Struck" mod will be a mighty hard way to take on a mob of archers!

Believe me, there is no standard guide to this type of character. So we can all discover together what's possible and practical.



 
Oh, I suppose I can't resist.

Code:
[B]Player           Build       Character Name      Level       Furthest Point Reached[/B]

Quickdeath       Paladin     Gandhi II             1         Rogue Encampment
Docturnal        Paladin     Apathicus             1         Rogue Encampment
Scatha           Barbarian   Brick Wall            1         Rogue Encampment

I'm going to try a Barbarian! No skills to increase my damage, but I will have excellent crowd control, a great life pool, and (eventually) Battle Cry to reduce the amount of damage the enemies do. With skulls in a socketed shield I think I'll take my chances - I can even go for high defence as it'll be "attacker takes damage" gear, requiring them just to attack rather than to hit.
 
@Scatha: I have a Barbarian doing something very similar but I've allowed mercenaries and I plan on bringing him to Guardian but I've found that in order for the attacker takes damage to work they do have to successfully hit you. In the beginning I actually removed the shield to speed things up against monsters with low life and low AR such as Fallen. Clearing the Den was rather slow when they have 25%> chance to hit from your defense. I'll be posting my first update in the SPF when I successfully defeat Blood Raven.
 
Code:
[B]Player           Build       Character Name      Level       Furthest Point Reached[/B]

Quickdeath       Paladin     Gandhi II             1         Rogue Encampment
Docturnal        Sorceress   Theresa               1         Rogue Encampment
Arentol          Paladin      Draught              1         Rogue Encampment

I am throwing in on this one too.. first single player tourney ever for me. :)
 
This tournament actually seems interesting, but I dont think i will join just because its gonna take forever to get anywhere.
 
This tournament actually seems interesting, but I dont think i will join just because its gonna take forever to get anywhere.

Some areas will go reasonably fast - if you have thorns or IM or a skill like that. Also some areas require you to RUN !!! It is slower than normal though, and a lot of strategy is required.

Scatha - As Touch of Insanity says, it is necessary that attacking monsters successfully hit for damage to be taken. When I did my trial run, it was a tremendous relief to get the Thorns skill -having monsters take a damage of 3 on each attack is a very slow way to kill them. I'm just concerned that with a Barb your gameplay will become tedious. Well, let us know what happens.



 
I suppose it wont be that bad considering you are only doing the first 2 acts, but I still dont know if I want to put that much time into something like this where I probably cant get a salvagable character
 
Code:
[u][b]Player           Build       Character Name    Level       Furthest Point  [/b][/u]
Quickdeath       Paladin     Gandhi II           1         Rogue Encampment
Docturnal        Sorceress   Theresa             1         Rogue Encampment
Arentol          Paladin     Draught             1         Rogue Encampment
Scatha           Barbarian   Brick Wall          1         Rogue Encampment
adzicents        Paladin     Unscathed           1         Rogue Encampment

Fixed table and added myself. Seems like fun this one :wink3:.
EDIT: Also, starter gear I'm assuming we either drop or don't use?
EDIT2: Okay, Re-read. So we can use whatever we want as long as we don't directly cause damage?
 
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Count me in, im feeling like a bit of Sp action, and this seems bizarre enough to be fun :)

EDIT: I don't know how to put in code tags :(

Can the next person please add my character:

Patience, a level 1 paladin in the rogue encampment
 
Code:
[u][b]Player           Build       Character Name    Level       Furthest Point[/b][/u]
Quickdeath       Paladin     Gandhi II           1         Rogue Encampment
Docturnal        Sorceress   Theresa             1         Rogue Encampment
Arentol          Paladin     Draught             1         Rogue Encampment
Scatha           Barbarian   Brick Wall          1         Rogue Encampment
adzicents        Paladin     Unscathed           1         Rogue Encampment
Fists of War     Paladin     Patience            1         Rogue Encampment

Added you.
Also hit a jackpot and found a super-chest. Got something with thorns on second pop ^_^.
 
Thanks for that. I just found something annoying, if you don't find any id scrolls you'll be scrounging for cash to id your ATD items...

Just started, I did one run but only found non ATD items
 
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