- Oct 18, 2004
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She woke up with a start. The dream quicky faded from her mind, but there was one thing she clearly remembered — that she had died.
It was at this point I realized starting my return to D2 with a character whose purpose was to find stuff for builds I really wanted to play wasn't what I wanted to do. So, Amethyst cleared all of her stuff out of the in game shared stash tabs and I started planning my project.
There are two phases for the project with some different rules for each phase. Phase 1 lasts until all of the characters on the team earn the Matriarch/Patriarch title. Phase 2 takes the characters from Mat/Pat to level 96. Why 96? Well, it feels like it would still be a good challenge, but the level difference XP penalty hasn't yet hit full steam for champions and uniques in high level areas. It's also when a couple of the potential build plans I've got finish.
I consider this a long term personal project, but if the rules I've laid out catch anyone's interest, I wouldn't mind some company on my journey.
Background
I started a Fireball/Frozen Orb sorceress when D2R launched with the plan of using her to start building up my item pool for future characters. I got through Act 2 normal before I found myself without any gaming time for a couple weeks. Not being able to play didn't stop my brain from planning various builds (and checking in on the forum.) The untwinked 99 thread also took up residence in the back of my mind. Given that my natural playstyle is very inefficient and slow, I think 99 is pretty much guaranteed to burn me out, so despite the temptation I've been able to resist. I also like the idea of running a team of characters together that share items, which isn't truly untwinked (semi-twinked? team untwinked?) Still the idea of going team-untwinked with a goal beyond Matriarch/Patriarch really appealed to me. I've always been a bit sad that my characters who weren't item-finding based never got much play after Hell Baal died.It was at this point I realized starting my return to D2 with a character whose purpose was to find stuff for builds I really wanted to play wasn't what I wanted to do. So, Amethyst cleared all of her stuff out of the in game shared stash tabs and I started planning my project.
Introduction
Cause and Effect was the name of the "time loop" episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. As my plan involved restarting characters that died before Mat/Pat (but keeping their stuff) the name felt like a good fit.There are two phases for the project with some different rules for each phase. Phase 1 lasts until all of the characters on the team earn the Matriarch/Patriarch title. Phase 2 takes the characters from Mat/Pat to level 96. Why 96? Well, it feels like it would still be a good challenge, but the level difference XP penalty hasn't yet hit full steam for champions and uniques in high level areas. It's also when a couple of the potential build plans I've got finish.
I consider this a long term personal project, but if the rules I've laid out catch anyone's interest, I wouldn't mind some company on my journey.
Cause and Effect Project Rules
Both Phases
- Character teams can consist of two to seven characters.
- Softcore. Phase 1 has a harsh death penalty, but softcore allows me to keep items from dead characters and remove the death penalty for Phase 2 — where the in game XP loss mechanic will already hurt.
- Extended stash is allowed.
- Save and exit to avoid death is allowed.
- Respecs can only be used to optimize/tweak builds. The core build must remain the same.
- Reruns of areas are allowed.
- Only items found by characters on the team may be used.
- Items may be freely shared between characters on the same team with the following exceptions:
- Hellfire Torches may only be used by characters that have completed the Pandemonium Event.
- Annihilus Charms may only be used by characters that have defeated Diablo Clone or completed the Pandemonium Event.
- If a character falls behind (as a result of a death restart or level differences at the end of Phase 1) then all other characters are frozen in time until the character catches up.
Phase 1: The Quest for Matriarch/Patriarch
- All play will be done on the same players setting.
- All WPs must be found. (Although they don't have to be activated for Anya shopping/Pindle killing goodness.)
- All quests must be completed before moving on to the next act. (Rewards can be saved for later.)
- All bosses and superuniques must be hunted down and killed.
- Characters may not start a new act until all characters have completed the current act. They can travel to the next town, but they cannot shop/quest there.
- If a character dies they must be restarted. All of their items can be kept for use by the team.
Phase 2: Beyond Titles
Phase 2 begins when all characters on the team have achieved Matriarch/Patriarch status.- Characters gain immortality. (Dying no longer requires restarts.)
- The players setting may be changed freely with the exception that chest/poppable cheese is banned.
- Characters must remain within one level or each other.