Mechanics

The mechanics here are paraphrased or altered from the D&D 5e SRD, found here, for official rules see here (TODO: put amazon link?)

#Creating a Character

One of the first things you will do in Season of Arena is create a character. You'll be able to customize certain aspects of your character, including the following:

#Race

#Human: A well-balanced race, found to be successful in many endeavors

#Half-Orc: A race known for their strength, and tempers

#Class

#Fighter: Fighters are the most common class for gladiators, as they train to withstand many blows, and inflict damage with their steel.

#Cleric: Clerics get their abilities through their communion with a god, in order to heal, hurt or empower.

#Abilities

Abilities are Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma. These are used to resolve conflicts between characters, or attempts at actions. For example, a character might attempt to grapple another character, causing a strength contest to take place. A dice is rolled for each character, and added to the strength bonus do determine the winner. Abilities also affect other stats, like effectiveness at avoiding certain types of dangers. At character creation, you are allowed to allocate a certain number of points to your abilities.

#Combat Mechanics

Combat take place on maps, which is broken into a grid of cells, each representing a 5-foot square of terrain.

#Combat Begin

At the start of combat, character turn order is decided by sorting characters by a value called initiative, which is based on dexterity and mostly chance. Characters are ordered on a cue (shown on the right in the HUD), where enemy names are written in red, and allies in green. The cue will only show characters that one of the player's characters or allies can see. If a character is out of sight, it is not shown on the cue.

#Taking Turns

Characters each take their turn. On a turn, characters can move and do 1 of each of the following: 1 action, 1 bonus action, and 1 interaction. Of course, characters can also just choose the "Wait" action, ending their turn early regardless.

#Victory Conditions

Whichever side satisfies their victory conditions, or eliminates all enemies first wins the arena match.

#Movement

On your turn, you can move up to your speed before, in-between, or after actions. Your base speed is determined by your race, and is typically 30ft (6 squares). A deviation from the official rules, is that you cannot move or melee attack diagonal squares.

#Vision

Characters project vision up to a certain distance, which is used to spot enemies. When enemies aren't seen, their actions aren't logged for the player to see, and their actions are not animated.

#Actions

There are many actions that characters might perform on the battlefield. Here are a few examples:

#Attack: Swing, shoot, or throw a weapon at your enemy

#Dash: Move twice your speed this turn

#Dodge: Focus on avoiding enemy attacks. Until your next turn, make you much harder to hit with attacks.

#Bonus Actions

Bonus actions are usually given by special circumstances. Here are two examples:

#Dual Weapon Attack: A bonus weapon attack given when you attack while wielding 2 light weapons.

#Second Wind: As a fighter, you can restore some lost hit points during combat, once per arena match.

#Interactions

Interactions can be taken to pick up, put down, or equip items. Drinking potions is also considered an interaction. Interactions can be used in place of regular actions if an action has already been taken this turn. For example, you can pick up an item from the ground, and equip it, but this would consume your action for the turn.