Features of the Underdark Arena

The drow empire of of Undrek'thoz maintains an expansive subterranean arena and training yard, in a roughly cylindrical cavern about four hundred feet high and twelve hundred feet across.

This arena cavern is bound by powerful wards, that allow overseers attuned to them, to utilize the following spells as a 20th level caster.

• Battlefield Illumination, Greater Dispelling Screen, Forcecage, Mage's Disjunction and Wall of Force

These wards possess the following medium powers, which can be activated as a standard action, on the part of any overseer attuned to the wards.

• Zone of Respite: A blanket Zone of Respite effect covers the entire area, preventing teleportation and other extraplanar effects and travel of all kinds.
• Limited Scope: Spells and effects cast within the arena cavern do not leave the confines of the arena. A fireball cast at a wizard standing near the arena’s border does not extend into the area outside the arena. Monsters summoned within the arena cannot pass through its edge, rebuffed as if it were a magic circle of the appropriate type. This allows observers to watch in safety.
• Non-Lethal Damage: When properly activated, it becomes very hard to die within the arena cavern. Anything that causes hit points of damage to a creature within the cavern, instead causes non-lethal damage. Creatures that become unconscious from subdual damage are considered “killed” for the purposes of most duels.
• Ability Damage or Drain: Ability damage can still occur in the arena, although a creature that is reduced to 0 Constitution (or that would die from hit points lost due to a reduction in Constitution) does not die. Instead, she remains at the minimum Constitution necessary to keep her alive, is unconscious, and is treated as “killed” for the purposes of most duels. Attacks in the arena that would cause ability drain instead cause ability damage.
• Half Damage: All attacks that cause hit point damage, ability damage, or ability drain to creatures within the cavern, cause half the normal damage (and this damage is nonlethal damage, as described above). This applies to everything within the cavern, even attacks made by summoned creatures. This prolongs the action to make things more interesting.
• Negative Levels: All negative levels inflicted upon a creature within the area last for 1 hour, and are never permanent. Any time a creature would gain a number of negative levels equal to its Hit Dice, it suffers only enough of them to bring it to 1 effective HD or negative hit points, and instead suffers an amount of non-lethal damage equal to their current hit point total.
• Lethal Attacks: Attacks that result in the defender being killed outright (such as finger of death, and power word, kill) instead inflict non-lethal damage equal to half of the defender’s maximum normal hit points.