Close-Range Tourney Semi-Finals Match 1: Gaius Julius Caesar vs Phase Spider

[Naito-desu]

Gaius Julius Caesar vs Phase Spider

• 5 meters apart, Speeds equalized, standard equipment given
• Ranged equipment is restricted if there are any
• SBA otherwise

0.005 tons versus 0.0019 tons

A period of one week will be given for debate. After 7 days, if this match has not been concluded, the one with the most votes will advance. If it is inconclusive or equal votes by then, a coin toss will be called by either one who submitted the characters in their respective matches. The organizer reserves the right to shorten the period of debate at his convenience.

 

[DontTalkDT]

To everyone's surprise Caesar decides to pull out an antidote launcher

The fact that Caesar wears armour might actually do him some good here, as it means that not every attack holds the potential to poison as they don't necessarily penetrate the skin.

That aside, Caesar is teamed up with people like Einstein, who essentially uses the exact same strategy as Phase Spider. While that doesn't counteract the strategy itself, it at least means that Caesar is unlikely to be caught off guard by the move. When he sees the spider disappear a teleportation attack is what he will expect.
Caesar has inherited the original's genius in tactics, so he should be able to make the right moves in the situation. I would guess he will either always keep moving or have a wall in his back. And be ready to defend against assassination at any time.
When the spider appears he can counterattack or, if the situation is unfavourable, manifest a shield between them to defend.

It won't be an easy fight, but I can see Julius wearing the spider down and emerging victorious.

 

[Ciruno_Fortes_(COB)]

Yeah the armor hurts Spider's poison, and Einstein is a teleport spammy gal whom Julius dealt with before. Gonna vote Julius high diff FRA

 

[Tllmbrg]

I would guess he will either always keep moving or have a wall in his back.

The latter doesn't really do anything?
Just teleport to his face

Also Julius shouldn't have anything that the Phase Spider can't deal with in return, it is expected to fight 4 adventurers of relative stats to it which include stuff like Fighters who highly skilled with their weapons in their own right.
I should also mention that it's accurate enough with its bite that it can just land hits on their exposed body parts in the armor, since the stat blocks for the PS assume its bite injects poison into you afterwards which doesn't make sense if it hits armor.

This battle is really a question of if Julius manages to finish the Phase Spider before they get a good bite in, since once he gets poisoned it's likely game over

I for now will vote Phase Spider

 

[DontTalkDT]

The latter doesn't really do anything?
Just teleport to his face

It keeps the spider from teleporting behind him. If it teleports to his face, he would immediately stab it with the weapon in his hand before it gets to biting him. (given that the weapon he holds would either be like a few centimeter away from the spider's throat then or between him and the spider)

Also Julius shouldn't have anything that the Phase Spider can't deal with in return, it is expected to fight 4 adventurers of relative stats to it which include stuff like Fighters who highly skilled with their weapons in their own right.
I should also mention that it's accurate enough with its bite that it can just land hits on their exposed body parts in the armor, since the stat blocks for the PS assume its bite injects poison into you afterwards which doesn't make sense if it hits armor.

Julius' armor doesn't really have particularily exposed parts, though.

It might be able to fight adventurers, but I doubt it's supposed to be as skilled or intelligent as them, which are advantages Julius still has. Given that Julius wields each weapon with the highest proficiency, which reaches genius level, he is arguably more skilled than the adventurers at that. And the adventurers don't have his ability to instantly switch between a big variety of weapons.

This battle is really a question of if Julius manages to finish the Phase Spider before they get a good bite in, since once he gets poisoned it's likely game over

I don't think the poison is necessarily immediately lethal from its description and Julius should be able to resummon his armor to fix damages to it.

And Caesar can do stuff like pierce spears through its eyes, which I imagine is not much less lethal to the spider.

 

[Tllmbrg]

It keeps the spider from teleporting behind him. If it teleports to his face, he would immediately stab it with the weapon in his hand before it gets to biting him. (given that the weapon he holds would either be like a few centimeter away from the spider's throat then or between him and the spider)

I mean nothing prevents it from teleporting above him as it can freely scale walls, and somehow I doubt Julius would be prepared to an attack from that direction yah?

Julius' armor doesn't really have particularily exposed parts, though.

It's not one full piece connected all to each other right?
I assume there are still gaps between the pieces one can target for an easier time to hit his body

It might be able to fight adventurers, but I doubt it's supposed to be as skilled or intelligent as them, which are advantages Julius still has. Given that Julius wields each weapon with the highest proficiency, which reaches genius level, he is arguably more skilled than the adventurers at that. And the adventurers don't have his ability to instantly switch between a big variety of weapons.

That doesn't change the fact that it's capable enough to take on a 4 person group which can have magic users + skilled warriors on its lonesome and offer them a good challenge.
Also idk if he's more skilled then your 3rd level fighter by that much, 1st level ones already have proficiency in all simple and martial weapons which covers basically any medieval weapon, and at 3rd level this is when you get into subclasses with the most relevant one here being Battle Master which are basically the fighting world's equivalent of scholars with them training to such an extent they have unique battle maneuvers to use against the enemy to easily disarm, knock them prone and so on.
So a Phase Spider is expected to be able to take on that + at least 3 more dudes who are equally as dangerous.

I don't think the poison is necessarily immediately lethal from its description and Julius should be able to resummon his armor to fix damages to it.

I mean it's poison that does heavy damage, at the very a single successful bite on his person ***** him over majorly right?

And Caesar can do stuff like pierce spears through its eyes, which I imagine is not much less lethal to the spider.

It has several eyes, plus the spider would likely just back off/try to dodge and proceed to go to the Ethereal Plane to go for another attack so

 

[Ciruno_Fortes_(COB)]

Considering how action economy actually ***** over enemies if you have even 1v2 or higher I heavily disagree with that. Usually enemies can handle those kind of enemies with legendary actions.

 

[Tllmbrg]

Action economy is just game mechanics, the CR either way denotes that in canon it can take 4 people of that level at the same time
So no

 

[Ciruno_Fortes_(COB)]

Tbh that sounds like cheesing. Why put an enemy that's made to handle 4 characters of its same tier, against a single character of its tier? That said 'handling' is different from winning. I mean what I'm getting from what Action Economy does it "If Team A has 4 members and Team B has a single member, Team A is gonna have an easier time winning".

Anyway with the Int score of 6 I find it doubtful that the Phase Spider is going to hit through the joints. It's also a Large Size creature and I doubt 'stealthing' by teleporting upwards against Julius is going to help with the shadow that it can cast and yes, Julius does handle enemies appearing above and behind him.

I doubt the spider can also attack and vanish into the shadow realm ethereal plane at the same time. Julius will time his attacks and just because it has multiple eyes doesn't mean Julius can't just blind them all.

 

[Tllmbrg]

Tbh that sounds like cheesing. Why put an enemy that's made to handle 4 characters of its same tier, against a single character of its tier?

Because I can

That said 'handling' is different from winning. I mean what I'm getting from what Action Economy does it "If Team A has 4 members and Team B has a single member, Team A is gonna have an easier time winning".

I never said it beats them straight on, but it possess a fair challenge for them

Anyway with the Int score of 6 I find it doubtful that the Phase Spider is going to hit through the joints.

It evidently already does that since otherwise it poisoning enemies with armors makes no sense game wise

It's also a Large Size creature and I doubt 'stealthing' by teleporting upwards against Julius is going to help with the shadow that it can cast and yes, Julius does handle enemies appearing above and behind him.

It has stealth mastery, and I'd like to note it has a +6 while its dex score is 15 (A +2) which means it mechanically has a proficiency bonus equal to a Rouge's expertise (See Player's Handbook 5e Page 96) so it's actually really skilled on that front a lot

I doubt the spider can also attack and vanish into the shadow realm ethereal plane at the same time. Julius will time his attacks and just because it has multiple eyes doesn't mean Julius can't just blind them all.

Actually it can, you're the one using action economy and if so a Phase Spider uses the Ethereal Jaunt as a bonus action while the bite is an action so they basically follow one another rather instantly.
Also after the first eye gouging (I don't think there's really a way for him to instantly target all eyes at once to blind it) I reckon the Phase Spider will be a lot more careful and use stealth a lot more
Its standard tactic is already hit and run tactics as is so

 

[DontTalkDT]

I mean nothing prevents it from teleporting above him as it can freely scale walls, and somehow I doubt Julius would be prepared to an attack from that direction yah?

Opponents that attack from above are not rare either. Fairly sure Einstein can in fact do that as well.

However, it's not really an option anyway. The proverbial wall here would, in Central Park, likely be a tree.

The phase spider is, if my googling capabilities don't fail me, about 3x3 meter big (10ft x 10ft). It's physically likely too big to climb up a tree. Both due to being too heavy for the tree to hold (imagine an elephant climbing a tree) and too wide to really clasp unto it with her legs.

It's not one full piece connected all to each other right?
I assume there are still gaps between the pieces one can target for an easier time to hit his body

It's not one connected piece, but the gaps are small. Too small for the spiders big fangs. And that is with the assumption that a creature of ******** intelligence would even go for such a thing.

That doesn't change the fact that it's capable enough to take on a 4 person group which can have magic users + skilled warriors on its lonesome and offer them a good challenge.
Also idk if he's more skilled then your 3rd level fighter by that much, 1st level ones already have proficiency in all simple and martial weapons which covers basically any medieval weapon, and at 3rd level this is when you get into subclasses with the most relevant one here being Battle Master which are basically the fighting world's equivalent of scholars with them training to such an extent they have unique battle maneuvers to use against the enemy to easily disarm, knock them prone and so on.
So a Phase Spider is expected to be able to take on that + at least 3 more dudes who are equally as dangerous.

Pretty sure a genius-level fighter is much more skilled than that.

And remember that CR assumes that the spider will lose without killing one of them. It's not designed for the spider to, on average, have a chance at dealing relevant damage to such a player party. And that's with the party fighting it openly and without Caesar's capability to defend against blows without being bitten. (I mean, the players can, just not reliably.)

And I'm fairly sure its skill and similar aren't why it can take on such an adventurer party anyway. I don't know D&D mechanics enough to analyze the situation for sure, but if I had to guess I would say that its bite probably deals pretty massive damage to such adventurers.

I mean it's poison that does heavy damage, at the very a single successful bite on his person ***** him over majorly right?

Its poison does decent damage if it hits, but not instantly incapacitating from the way I interpret what is said.

Let's also talk about how Caesar is apparently 2.5x more durable and strong that Phase Spider. So again I doubt the armor will have such an easy time penetrating his armor anyway.

It has several eyes, plus the spider would likely just back off/try to dodge and proceed to go to the Ethereal Plane to go for another attack so

I don't think the Phase Spider can react such that it would instantly phase to the Ethereal Plane when it is counterattacked. (Bonus actions aren't instantaneous reactions and all that) Probably takes a bit of time.

And with Julius' skill and ability to switch weapons, I doubt it could dodge. Smaller more skilled things than it couldn't really dodge his blows.

Stabbing the eyes wasn't entirely to blind it. Spider eyes are long tubes of jelly that reach deep into the head and past their exoskeletons. As such stabbing a spider into the eyes is worse than stabbing a human into the eye, as there is hardly a barrier to just proceeding to stab into the brain behind them. (or, well, the central nervous system) #WhoThoughtIWouldEverProfitFromKnowingThat

It evidently already does that since otherwise it poisoning enemies with armors makes no sense game wise

Unless it's a factor of a chance of penetrating the armor. Given, if it goes for gaps and its fangs aren't too big, Julius would definitely avoid giving it that opportunity with his genius skill.

It has stealth mastery, and I'd like to note it has a +6 while its dex score is 15 (A +2) which means it mechanically has a proficiency bonus equal to a Rouge's expertise (See Player's Handbook 5e Page 96) so it's actually really skilled on that front a lot

Sealth proficiency doesn't cancel out big shadows, though. More so signifies that it probably is skilled enough to not try to stealth by hanging above the opponent, knowing that it will cast a shadow.

Actually it can, you're the one using action economy and if so a Phase Spider uses the Ethereal Jaunt as a bonus action while the bite is an action so they basically follow one another rather instantly.

That is only the case if the spider already is on the material plane, I believe. If it uses its bonus action to appear, then it can't disappear until next round in my understanding (otherwise it would use the same bonus action twice in one turn and adventurers would stand no chance). Meaning that Julius gets a chance to attack, if we go by round logic.

 

[Tllmbrg]

I'mma be real I disagree on multiple things in your post but I can't really argue around the stat edge + armor so bluh

 

[Ciruno_Fortes_(COB)]

Bump

 

[Naito-desu]

Goes without saying but one day until match concludes, get your votes in

 

[Naito-desu]

I'm going to presume DT voted and that Julius advances