[2007] The Apprentice Program for Scavengers - Tournament [by Wolron]

[Grisu]

DISCLAIMER: Please do NOT post in this thread yet. We still need to migrate all posts from the old thread on diabloii.net to this thread. If you want to help, feel free to do so

This tournament has already ended. It was originally started by @Wolron on Nov 22, 2007. The last post was made Feb 3, 2008.
(link to original thread on diabloii.net) ​

The Apprentice Program for Scavengers - Tournament

The "Apprentice Program for Scavengers" Tournament

Bjorn Spotlick was barely of age. He was the son of the legendary Bruno Spotlick in the village of "Freeman's Well" which is just outside the former site of Tristram. (You remember Bruno, he was the scavenger who became filthy rich while pillaging the countryside and sifting through the remains of all of his victims.)

The village of Freeman's Well had not been attacked by the demons that had lain waste to Tristram. It was too small and unimportant to attract much attention. Nonetheless, an occasional incident had occurred and several people from the village (Bjorn's mother among them) had disappeared without trace. Bruno was no longer the man that he once was. He had numerous aches and pains from his exploits and they had caused him to grow old before his time. His infirmities led Bruno to worry that he would not be able to protect his son if the demons should come to their farm, so he decided to send Bjorn away to the Rogue's camp that lie beyond the Cold Plains. He explained that Bjorn was old enough to take an apprenticeship. He suggested that Bjorn was strong and might make a good blacksmith. He told Bjorn that an old friend named Charsi might be willing to take him on. Bjorn knew better than to argue with his father, so he did not let the old man know the plans that he had for an apprenticeship. Bjorn worshipped his father and longed to make his way in the world in the same way that Bruno had, through expert scavenging. Therefore, Bjorn wanted no part of being a blacksmith. His apprenticeship would be in the art of scavenging. In fact, Bjorn intended to honor his father, Bruno, by avoiding merchants whenever possible.
Bjorn still loved his departed mother. That love drove his obsession for revenge. He would rid the world of demons and their minions, but first he must learn to wield weapons and cast spells. He knew that he was not ready now, but after his apprenticeship, he would have his revenge!

In this tournament, you will work through your apprenticeship. It will take a long time to learn how to use the weapons that you hoped to acquire. It will take just as long to hone your spiritual and mental capacities to be able to control the magic that would be needed to offset the evil powers of the demons that awaited your revenge. Here are the rules.

PLAYER DIFFICULTY

When you begin your apprenticeship, you will not be able to confront the demons at the highest playing level. That will take time. Therefore, the player level for the first Act must remain at P1. Then, each new act will progress to a new level until you reach P8 in Nightmare Act 3. After that, you will begin to acquire the wisdom that comes from the experience you gain in your battles. As a result, you become smart enough to realize that the only way to guarantee that your revenge will be complete is to reduce a level for each act. In NM Act 4 you move back to P7, etc. Finally, if you live that long, you will play at P1 in Hell, Act 5. NOTE: There is one exception to this, you will always play "The Ancients" in Act 5 at P1. After all, there is no chance for a drop of equipment, and I have been told that the experience is always the same no matter what your level when you defeat them.

SKILLS

The apprentice scavenger may use any skill that he has placed points into, but there are restrictions on how and when he may assign skill points.

At the beginning of each of the first eight acts (ending with act 3 of NM difficulty), you must specify which skill you will develop during that act. Then, throughout that act, you may only put skill points in that skill and whatever prerequisites are needed to get to that skill (only one point per prerequisite!). All skill points that you acquire via leveling must be spent in the act where the leveling occurs. NOTE: Skill points rewarded for quest completion can be used at any time and in any way that you want.

After NM act 3, you may recall that it was mentioned that you will reverse your Play level back to P7 on NM act 4. That dictates the skill that you develop during NM act 4. It must be the same skill you developed the last time that you played at P7. That means that if you reach Guardian in the tournament, you will assign multiple points to 8 skills. Of course, single points will go into any number of prerequisites. NOTE: even the prerequisite skills can be used if you have a need.

Since this is rather hard to understand when you first read it, here is a list of the fifteen acts and the P levels along with an indication of what skill is repeated for the last 7 acts:

Act 1 Normal: Play at P1 Assign skills to Skill "A"
Act 2 Normal: Play at P2 Assign skills to Skill "B"
Act 3 Normal: Play at P3 Assign skills to Skill "C"
Act 4 Normal: Play at P4 Assign skills to Skill "D"
Act 5 Normal: Play at P5 Assign skills to Skill "E"
Act 1 NM: Play at P6 Assign skills to Skill "F"
Act 2 NM: Play at P7 Assign skills to Skill "G"
Act 3 NM: Play at P8 Assign skills to Skill "H"
Act 4 NM: Play at P7 Assign skills to Skill "G"
Act 5 NM: Play at P6 Assign skills to Skill "F"
Act 1 Hell: Play at P5 Assign skills to Skill "E"
Act 2 Hell: Play at P4 Assign skills to Skill "D"
Act 3 Hell: Play at P3 Assign skills to Skill "C"
Act 4 Hell: Play at P2 Assign skills to Skill "B"
Act 5 Hell: Play at P1 Assign skills to Skill "A"

Example 1: If you are an Amazon, you may decide to put all of your act 1 points in Critical strike. If you reach level 15 during act 1, you would put all 14 skill points acquired via leveling into that skill. The Akara skill point that you get for clearing the Den of Evil can be put any place or it may be saved until later!

Example 2: If you are a necromancer, you may decide to put all your act 1 points into skeletal mage. Here is what would happen. You would have to place one point in raise skeleton (prerequisite). If you reached level 14 in act 1, you would end up putting three points in skeletal mage! The other 9 points are wasted until they become assignable in Hell act 5 when you are allowed to assign skill points to skeletal mage again.

NOTE: A skill that was given a single point as a prerequisite can be selected as the skill to give points to in a subsequent act. For instance, in Example 2 (above), the skill for act 2 could be raise skeleton. If you reached level 20 at the end of act 2, that would mean that you would put 6 points into raise skeleton and you would still be carrying those 9 wasted skill points until you get to Hell act 5. Counting the point given to that skill in act 1, you would now have 7 points in raise skeleton. After that, no more points could ever by given to Raise Skeleton until Hell Act 4.

Obviously, it is important to predict the level that you will attain in any given act and select the skill to assign accordingly. In fact, planning the entire tournament skill point assignment early seems to make a lot of sense. Of course, if you are like me, you have never played the acts at the P levels that this tournament requires, so it may be a little rough to predict.

ATTRIBUTES

A well rounded adventurer must not ignore any of his attributes. Each level must result in points being spent into at least three attributes. The fourth and fifth points can be used for any attribute. The Alkor points can be used in any way you like.

STORES

You can only use stores in the following ways:
1. You may be healed there.
2. You may repair items there.
3. You may buy identification from Cain if he will not do it for free.
4. You may buy potions/tomes/scrolls/keys/arrows and bolts.
5. You may sell socket fillers at any time.
6. You may visit there to get quest rewards. (ring from Ormus for instance)
7. You may sell items or gamble after the act boss has been defeated at the end of the act. Note: you may only sell items that you are able to save in you stash or that you are carrying. You may not scatter items around town, thereby saving them until the end of the act so that they can be sold.

EQUIPMENT/POTIONS/GOLD/ETC.

The Scavenger thrives on the hunt for new equipment. If he could keep everything that he found, that hunt would soon become tiresome. Therefore, at the end of each act, he sells most of his equipment. The only item(s) that he can keep are the souvenir item from that Act and all souvenirs from previous acts. NOTE: potions/arrows/bolts/tomes/scrolls/charms/keys may be kept and moved forward into the new act

Example: When Act one ends with the elimination of Andariel, the scavenger looks over all of his most prized possessions. He then selects the one that he decides he can never part with. Whatever that item is, it must be kept and it must be equipped for the life of the character. All other equipable items are sold. Assume that the item is a "Nagelring". That means that he will start Act 2 wearing only that "Nagelring".

Ways to acquire "Stuff":

(1) You are a scavenger. Anything you find in the field is yours.
(2) Gambling: In general, you cannot gamble for items. However, there is one exception. If you finish an Act and you have nothing that really strikes you as a souvenir, you may try to gamble for something that does seem to be worth using as your souvenir. If you use a gambled item, you must take a one point penalty in the scoring.
(3) Quest items {Yes, you can use Wirt's Leg if you like!}
(4) The Anya reward, the Ormus ring, the Akara ring.
(5) NOTE: The Charsi embue and the Anya personalization items must be found in the field.
(6) Potions/keys/scrolls/arrows/bolts may be purchased in the shops. You may also get healed there or have items repaired. However, you cannot buy anything else.
(7) In addition, you can enhance items with the socketing quest, crafting, rune words, etc.

MERCENARIES

Any mercenary may be used. The mercenary equipment is subject to the same restrictions as your character. In other words, it must be found in the field or gambled at the end of an act. In addition, the souvenir rules also apply for the mercenary.

Note: If you are using a rogue mercenary in Act 1 and take a bow for your mercenary as your Act 1 souvenir, that means that you can never use any other weapon for the mercenary. In effect, you have limited your merc type because you are required to keep that Bow equipped on the merc from that point forward until you die! Equipping an Act 3 merc with a shield would have a similar restrictive impact on your merc type. In other words, you may not want to assign a permanent weapon or shield to a merc unless you are sure that you want to keep that type of merc for the duration of the game.

SCORING

You receive one point per Way Point activated and one point per Quest completed.

You subtract one point for each level. (This means that you start with zero points because you have one point for the Way Point in the Rogue Camp and you lose one point for the one level that you start with.)

If you gamble at the end of an act, you also must subtract a point from your score, even if it did not succeed in finding a souvenir item!

Scoring Example: If you finish act 1 (having done all 9 quests and activated all 6 way points) at level 14, you will have 1 point plus the scavenging bonus (explained next). If you had to gamble for your souvenir, that would leave you with no points except the scavenger bonus.
Scavenging bonus: Using the following point assignments, multiply by the Act that you assign the item in. Acts are numbered 1 through 15 for these purposes.
Helm - 1 points
Armor - 1 points
Gloves - 2 points
Boots - 2 points
Belt - 2 points
Rings - 3 points
Amulet - 3 points
Weapon - 1 points
Shield - 1 points
All mercenary items - 3 points
Example: If you take souvenir gloves in the first act, multiply 2X1 and add 2 to your score. If you take souvenir armor in the second act, multiply 1X2 and add 2 to your score. If you take a souvenir ring in the third act, multiply 3X3 and add 9 to your score. This goes on, act by act. If you save a ring position for the last act of Hell, you would multiply 3X15 and add 45 to your score!
This is intended to provide some gamesmanship. The really important items have a low value and saving their position (you cannot save the item itself!) until later acts (to optimize their power) will not give you much scavenging bonus. You have to decide whether to take the high score or to take the high power.

GENERAL RULES
1. Hardcore only.
2. Version 1.10, 1.11 and 1.11b are permitted. The Rune Word Module may be used. The Red Rune Module may be used.
3. No Multi-Player permitted. No trading permitted.
4. You may not use the escape key to bail out of a rough battle. If you cannot run away or portal out, RIP.
6. ATMA is permitted only as a repository for socket fillers. Look at ATMA as a gem/jewel/rune bag. No equippable items or potions/keys/charms/etc. may be saved in ATMA.
7. You do not have to solve all quests or activate all WPs. NOTE: Some places may be too dangerous to enter in NM or Hell difficulty, and if you desire, they may be skipped with only a small scoring penalty.
8. Rerunning areas is not allowed under any circumstances other than what is minimally required when you save and quit and then restart later. In that case, you may kill monsters in order to survive until you reach the spot that you had reached in your previous session, but you cannot pick up items or open chests in areas that you have already played. To avoid the problem, just quit at a way point and then go forward when you resume the game.
9. You are not allowed to go back to previous acts or previous difficulty levels for any reason. After killing Baal, you may play the Cow Level. (You do not have to do the Cow Level!) The Cow Level is considered part of Act 5 and you may go back to Harrogath after killing the cows to use your socket quest or Anya personalization quest. If you do the Cow Level, you sell your equipment and declare your souvenir after the Cow level is completed.

REPLAYS

Replays are allowed, but you must select a new character type each time. That means that you are limited to 7 attempts. If this becomes popular, there may be a special recognition for the best overall score for a player's seven characters.

POSTS

To enter the tournament, just add your character to the table that is provided. Here is one way to do this:

Begin by replying to the last post with the table in it. Erase everything before the table's {code}command and everything after the {/code} command. NOTE: I used "{" and "}" here because the square brackets would have been interpreted as commands. Do not erase anything inside the table!!! Update the table with your new character. Then, although it is not required, give us an idea of the type of skills that you intend to pursue for this character in front of the table. It might look like this:

Bjornetta will be concentrating on Lightning skills. She is planning to put points in static field in act 1. She will use Teleport in Act 4 because that should not result in too many points wasted there. She will develop lightning in Act 2, charged bolt in act 3 and nova in act 5 in preparation for Chain Lightning in NM Act 1. After that, we shall see.

[b][U][I]ALIVE[/I][/U][/b]
Character          Class             Forum Name    Level   Act       Last WP         Score
Scavasin         Assassin         Wolron        1        1         Rogue Camp        1

[B][I][U]DEAD/RETIRED[/U][/I][/B]
Character          Class             Forum Name    Level   Act       Death Site         Score

For providing updates, just do the same sort of thing, but modify your character's score line and move it up if you passed any of the other characters. Also, as your ideas for skills change or are further developed, let us know.