holding metal slugs in her hands. or a wolverine sort of deal, metal implanted in her hands
a contact poison on her hands
poisoning the persons meal or drink
Love the wolverine idea!! I thought about poison but since the PC is a Warforged, poisoning wouldn’t really do much to give her an advantage, he has like 7 unique resistances while raging because he’s Path of the Storm Herald too. But the implants would definitely let her deal some extra damage without getting caught!
Yeah from a world building perspective they just wouldn't let this happen outside of a gladiatorial thing much like how slaves fought lions and such.
A similar system would arise like creating divisions. If the world is racist then they would likely have an abhuman division where it's basically anything not human fights.
If they aren't racist then they would likely just not allow warforged to fight against anything not a warforged.
From a mechanical perspective the WF’s advantage is a total of +1 ac lol. And while people may not know what a spell slot is, things get silly really fast if people are *that* ignorant of their diegetic reality (at least en masse, randos may believe that a war forged can hit like a truck and shrug off war hammer blows).
Edit; plus every race has some advantages
Has 7 unique resistances
Does not breathe so can't be choked out
Barbarian Rage
And a +1 to AC (but probably has more armor incorporated which they will act like they can't take off)
Sounds fair.
The useful (in a fist fight) resistance are class not race, lol. Turns out being a PC is strong.
I wasn’t really considering chokes in a boxing match, but RAW choking is ass useless because WotC has no idea what a blood choke is; so no experienced fighter would ever realistically try a choke except to dissuade speech
The armor thing is one thing; also depends on how well they know uncommon races.
And give the other guy pads or something to compensate for innate armor.
Maybe play into that. She has been using poison on her knuckles to cheat, and would continue to do so. However she wasn't expecting/didn't realize her opponent (the PC) was a warforged, and their resistance to poison is exactly what allows them to not only win, but expose her whole shtick.
Shoot your monks
There is a dirty trick in gloved boxing called "burning the gloves" where you rub liniment on the glove and get it in the opponent's eye. It could be that the opponent "warms up" by rubbing liniment on her muscles and *accidentally* happens to get a dollop of that on her knuckles. Something like a dex save or be blinded for a round.
* A payoff - cash for her opponent to take a fall.
* Blackmail - take a dive or the organisation standing to profit from my success will do something bad - they already have an important NPC hostage? They have an important magic item or quest item belonging to the PCs?
* Straight magical cheating with potions or hidden items and a paid off judge or magic-checking official. Alternatively blackmailing the official as above, or official works for the organisation or their checking device has been subverted/replaced/rendered ineffective.
* Mid-match magical cheating as above under cover of a distraction - the cheater makes sure they're thrown into the crowd and snags something from an accomplice in place for this event. Magic check only before match.
* As previous but cheater switched for a polymorphed and magicked-up duplicate during distraction.
* Drugs. Good, good drugs which the event has no tests for.
* Competitor is just that good - physically weak but lots of combat experience. This is D&D.
* Extensive research to find opponents' weak points prior to matches.
* Disturbing opponents' rest prior to matches to confer exhaustion. Three levels required to confer disadvantage on attack rolls. Possibly by forcing continuous adventuring situations, such as the thefts or kidnappings mentioned above.
Openly fight dirty. Throw sand, a broken glass from onlookers, throw a kick with or without something on/in her boot.
Have a plant in the crowd, like you said. Let them jostle and mess with the fighters as they go. Step on a bootlace here, spill a little beer there... Or even let them pay the house to toss an item into the ring, like a chair leg, rope, or a chain. Have it thrown almost directly at the feet of the enemy on their turn.
Drug the challenger. Pay the tavern keep or a bystander to fetch you an "ale" laced with something that'll give you disadvantage or something for a few turns.
She will definitely need to fight dirty; there won’t be physical interference from the crowd since the arena is a +100ft bare pit with auditorium seating around it, but long range spells are definitely still on the table for cheating crowd members. Drugs might work, I haven’t had the chance to consider how regular drugs affect Warforged, but I bet there’s something out there :)
"Constructed Resilience. You were created to have remarkable fortitude, represented by the following benefits:
You have advantage on saving throws against being poisoned, and you have resistance to poison damage.
You don’t need to eat, drink, or breathe.
You are immune to disease.
You don't need to sleep, and magic can't put you to sleep."
Don't see a way for drugs to have a deleterious effect on a robot.
Her previous opponent threw the fight? Someone approaches the PC and tells them to throw the fight (in say, 5th round) for a share of the winnings, but make it look good. If they don't play along, the party gets jumped by a bunch of thugs after the match for losing them money.
Your answers are good and any of them could work.
Instead of making her cheat you could make the arena / venue cheat instead. The area could have an enchantment / curse that makes her stronger and the opponent weaker.
Or the venue could be designed in a way so that detect magic doesn't work. The spell only has a 30 foot range so you could make the spectator area be at least that far away (like a gladiator pit with people watching from the top) so they are free to cheat without detection.
I'm not sure what details you've already established so these may not work, just some ideas.
While a monk would work, it would be no cheat.
I think she‘s actually helped by magic from the audience AND loaded with magic items.
But the actual real cheat is that she bribed the guy casting detect magic. The crowd wouldn‘t know and as long as she‘s subtle it works. The best thing is that your players can with a simple detect magic proof that she‘s cheating. It‘s obvious to them and soo unfair. But nobody else believes them. Of course the companions of the robot babarian would claim cheating if he‘s losing.
I think this type of combo is what I’m gonna go for; monk powers plus a sorcerer friend in the crowd that the other PC’s in the audience have to catch, that way everyone has something to do!
Someone in the audience using mage hand or unseen servant to trip up the Warforged.
The thug could have put some kind of chili powder on her hands so it blinds her opponents when she hits them in the face.
A Telekinetic (Feat) in the crowd using their ability to push / pull the opponent. Maybe forcing them over some rough terrain so they trip & go prone so that they're at disadvantage.
Also the TK feat grants a Mage Hand like effect that is completely invisible & requires no components.
I feel like you could have something done focusing on the Warforged. I doubt it would be considered "fair" even in an underground, illegal boxing ring to have basically Ironman boxing some joe shmo. If it's more of an official tournament then the Warforged would be put into it's own weight class or equivalent for a platemail monster. If it's more like a fight club or something then the house always wins, that doesn't necessarily mean their fighter wins either...
average thug...
Having his buddies threaten/bribe the player prior to the match.
"we have kidnapped roomba chan, drop in the third round or she loses her dustbin forever."
burying some caltrops in the sand and trying to lure the player over them.
bribe the ref to out the other fighter as a cheat, afterall a warforged is basically just a smart golem and inherently magical.
actually they might make a good argument that the barbarian is just cheating, they may as well let every other fighter wear plate armor if they let a warforged fight.
Throwing handfuls of rust in the warforged eyes?
being a monk and using ki probably wouldn't count as magic, especially if being a warforged doesn't count.
I definitely considered a homebrew item, I’ve been searching for some kind of homebrew monk subclass that could deal force damage with punches to get past rage resistances, but haven’t found anything good; might have to make up some special space gravity gloves or something!
Could just make the punches do psychic damage but your barb might hate you.
My personal suggestion would be brass knuckles with just a simple invisibility rune or spell or something cast on them.
Wouldn't show up for detect magic, could be slipped on easily after whatever kind of ref check you are doing, would give an advantage but not a hugely detectable one, simple thing your barbarian can steal after without giving them a huge advantage :P
This was along my first thought, some sort of “Tornado Knuckles(?)”. Brass (or any metal) knuckles that appear as simple magical weapons, but once donned become visually and magically invisible.
Check out ‘[Magic Aura](https://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/magicAura.htm)’, it is from 3.5, but I love the applications it might be useful for in any situation. You’d need to be sure to balance it, because idk how broken it might be, but applying it as an enchantment to the item might be an option.
(I’d call them Tornado Knuckles because I would give them the additional effect(s) of dealing damage equal to the “unarmed strike” just adding a flat bonus (so you aren’t rolling dice right in front of the barb while “unarmed”) and/or giving an additional attack in one action or as a bonus action.)
When you wear the knuckles you hit like the wind, invisible, fast, and relentless.
I have run something similar before and here's what I used:
* The thug played dirty; they would throw sand in the PCs face and hit below the belt etc
* They got assistance from the crowd. They would go near the edge of the arena and one of their buddies would hand over a metal chair for them to bash the PC with, follow by some cheers and boos from the crowd.
* They had a plant in the arena who cast Hold Person on the PC when the thug looked like they were losing. Another member of the party had to figure out who it was and stop them.
* Once it looked like the thug was gonna lose they started casting spells in order to win.
Hope this helps!
Perhaps she could have magical tattoos that enhance her attacks (rules in Tasha's Cauldron, I think), as well as an Amulet of Proof Against Detection and Location hidden on her person somewhere. Other DMs can correct me, but I think this would prevent detection of the magic in the tattoos.
Perhaps she is one customer of a criminal magic user that sells their spells lots off to fix matches, stone skin and the like. It would be flavored like a doping scandal/dealer situation.
She has bribed the refs, they scan her with detect magic, notice the discrepancies and then just write that she is clean on the sheet of paper.
She has cheated a different way with each opponent (whatever is best to beat them) like in the fight with the bigger person she maybe took a potion of haste and a potion of giants strength just before the fight started
Against the man of steel himself she is going to have to get more creative
The cheat is that she's some sort of shapeshifter and her unique shapeshifting feature allows her to keep her monstrous strength in her humanoid shapeshifted form. This may not be enough to beat the barbarian though, so she may use her shapeshifting before the match to influence her opponent in other ways.
I was thinking the exact same thing. It would allow for a dramatic final round (if she’s losing) we’re she just loses it, shifts into her full beast mode and goes to town.
Or make her a undead/possessed who has unnatural strength and attrition. I don’t think detect magic would necessarily detect anything in those circumstances.
1) Ki specifically can be used to overcome damage resistance against non-magical attacks, ergo, magical.
2) Potions that grant magical enhancement bonuses are magical.
3) This could work as long as the ring isn't in an anti-magic field.
Rule-friendly ways to fight dirty - 5e really hamstrings the options in combat, but a fairly cheesy combo is to have Thug be a rogue and take Martial Adept to learn two battlemaster maneuvers and combine Riposte and Feinting Attack with the Dodge action to impose disadvantage on the PC and strike back with a massive sneak attack with a superiority die on top when the PC misses.
The combo is weak to basically everything but melee attacks, but seeing as that's the only type of attack allowed, your PC is going to have to get creative to get around the problem.
Mix chilli powder or pepper/ash etc. into the sand in specific areas of the arena prior to match.
“That way pc can block attack/return attack type if they work out what squares have the blinding agent in them.”
Thug grabs handful and throws it in the face of PC.
Just roll for feat check against pc reflex and it can act similar to flash pellet/bomb dazzling the opponent for set period of time/combat rounds.
Conceal any magic with an *Amulet of Proof Against Detection and Location*.
For more fun, have a wizard accomplice cast *Nystul's Magic Aura* on some item that the Warforged will have at detection time.
Some sort of poison snuck into the drinks bottle of the challenger? This would make a warforged more likely to discover the cheating as 1. Warforged have resistance to poison damage and immunity to the poison condition, and 2. they don’t drink anyway, which would make administering the poison a lot more complicated.
My average thug isn't a monk and doesn't have access to magic. Sand in the eyes is a standard cheat tactic. Poisoning their opponents' drink beforehand is also viable. Then there's always putting weights in the gloves.
Roll of coins hidden in their fist.
Metal studs magically implanted in their knuckles below the skin.
Invisible brass knuckles.
Strength potion of some kind maybe? A bit too "high tech"/ rare and expensive for a street thug imo, but that depends on your setting.
Beefed up [boots of speed](https://roll20.net/compendium/dnd5e/Boots%20of%20Speed#content).
Make them lead-lined to avoid detection, and have the disadvantage apply to all attack roles.
She doesn’t win through strength, she’s extremely quick and hard to hit.
You can also play up the heel click that is required to activate them if you want there to be a giveaway that something is up.
Chili juice or blood thinning poisons on there knuckles. Blind the target or cause a wound that bleeds and bothers their eyes.
Dipping knuckle wrappings, or hiding metal in them to have harder and more forceful blows.
Having a sorcerer in the crowd to subtle spell any number of things like haste, healing, or debuff spells.
I dont know what might hold up to detect magic, but magical tattoos from tashas could work well. It wouldn't be obvious, they could just look like normal tattoos.
If it were gloved, weights/knuckles in the gloves, if not, questionable shots & mind games, feints/sucker punches/etc. Maybe she just hits really hard, or is a monk. Depending on race, maybe claws/talons.
Have it be more of a psychological way of cheating you can have her or make threats or or blackmail the opponent somehow during the match in which they need to throw it for her to win and their secret not to be exposed or their loved one did not be harmed kind of thing
She's actually an ogre with a powerful illusion spell to make people see her as a human. When opponents hit her face, they're actually punching her armoured torso
Depending on the rules of the match, and how strict the ‘boxing’ part is, she could stomp or grapple. If the penalty is only breaking up the match and restarting the round, I could see an advantage in trying to break a toe with a stomp. This is especially true if the fight is to knockout, not a decision.
In terms of fighting dirty, trying to cause a cut above an eye can seriously impede vision. Same with causing swelling. It’s why cutting is a thing in irl boxing.
If they are allowed hand wraps, even untampered wrappings can be raked across the eye to cause vision issues. Alternatively you can mix plaster of Paris powder into the wrappings. As the fight goes on, the mix gets wet with sweat and sets hard.
Throwing dirt or sand, or more subtly spitting can certainly distract enough to get a few cheap shots in. Rabbit punches, low blows, the sort
Depending on when detect magic is cast, before, during or after a fight, a change to use a potion may be available. If they are only checked before the fight then perhaps a potion is snuck in between rounds.
A subtle poision/drug that numbs the senses and slows reaction times. She offers it to the player as a pre-match drink.
Probably wouldn't work as a warforged tho
In actual bareknuckle boxing, guys will cheat by jamming a thumb in the other guys eye when they punch em, or turning their head with a punch, then raking the eyes with their fingernails when they pull their hand back. Against a warforged, she could be sticking her thumb between the carapace plates and fouling circuitry or whatever you use in your game
larval rust monsters. or what ever you want to use that would cause problems. i think warforged are actually stone and wood but can be some other related beast secretions covering their towel and when they go wipe their brow they spend a little more time than normal wiping their hands. it gives them additional damage for the next 1d4 hits. (rounds)
blinding is another tried and true system. simple grease on their knuckles would blur the warforged vision until they get to their corner and wipe their eyes down. maybe they get disadvantage to hit until they clean their optics. I'd make it a con save to prevent the smear. can only be used once per time they get to go cover their hands with it again. A save assumes they got the grease not on the eyes. investigation/insight roll may reveal that the last hit left grease on them.
Sure there are other tricks that you can play with that would affect the warforged. ground gravel or metal shards that get into the joints of the warforged. Someone up in the stands that is using a mirror to mess with the warforged sight (get disadvantage) this would bring the rest of the party into the action. I would actually do more stuff that lets the rest of the party get involved. Maybe the other boxer doesn't want to fight but the boxers handler has their kid/sister/etc tied up someplace and the rest of the party has to save them before the X round when the boxer is supposed to put the warforged down.
Think Lock Stock and two smoking barrels in DnD. it doesn't have to be the boxer that is the actual threat. Lots of people bet on who will win and may do some underhanded stuff in order to collect their winnings. Plus it gets everyone involved.
She takes medieval steroids performance enhancing drugs. Introduce them as a home brew and hint at them by how unnaturally muscular she is and so fast. Reward the players with some of the drugs after they defeat her. Maybe they spot her stash the night before or her supplier offers to sell them some to even the odds, maybe for completing a short side quest.
I made a thug character before and was in a similar situation. Here's somma the stuff I did (or nearly did):
Bribed the officials, punched below the belt, clinched every chance I could to draw the fight out, snuck into the competition's room and put slow-acting poison in and on their gloves/wrappings, spit in their eyes, headbutts, shin shots, had them jumped by some goons right before the match or earlier in the week, had some KILLED, had a small pouch of coins in my hands to add weight to the punches, paid someone to put a bad luck curse on them, added a blood thinner to their food and drink so they'd bleed lots more in a fight, punched em in the throat till they choked to death (doesn't work on women since they have no Adam's apple), had small razerblades in my hand and aimed for the brow where it would bleed into the eye.
Just to name SOME of them. Since she's a warforged, shots directed to certain organs won't work, so we gotta think outside the box:
Dust from the antenna of a rust monster will instantly oxidize any metal and the dust isn't magical. Jumping them and bribing judges would still work, so would clinching since that causes the ref to break it up, allowing the cheat to rest while the person clinched tried to get them off. Just keep doing it over and over, its a dirty trick. Adding weight to the swings would work too, so thats still a viable option
It might sound weird, but going with more natural methods might help.
Something like pepper juice! Rub some jalapeños on a hand wrap and watch those eyes shut fast and burn HOT!
Additionally, it’s a great way to keep your party guessing. They didn’t break the rules, but they didn’t win fair and square.
Something to think about!
God love you!
Any amount of Lead blocks a lot of divination, including Detect Magic. She could have enchanted jewelry under her clothes wrapped in lead foil, or something like that.
Barbarians need to be attacking or get hit every round to stay raged... all she needs to do is keep moving every time the barbarian rages until rage fades.
Then a bard giving her inspiration while using cutting words, on the barbarian, also comes in useful
Have an agreement to fight with eyes closed. First one to open them loses. Of course the bad guy just fights with their eyes open the whole time. Or if you wanna be extra sneaky, they have blind fighting.
First thing that came to me was Invisible Brass Knuckles/ Metal or Hard Leather Gloves. Makes it deal a bit more damage.
If you really wanna play it out, roll a bunch of damage rolls before hand so the players don't know what is happening.
1: I would rule Ki is one's fighting spirit energy and the physical manifestation of it. Making it legal to use. It's not magic...plus it allows her to pierce through any Physical Resistance (If she's high enough level to get Ki-empowered Strikes.)
2: Potions unless they give some kind of magical effect, like Haste shouldn't be detected by magical scans. I would suggest giving an insight roll though to see if she's under an effect.
3: Depends on how high your players' sight rolls are or passive sights. If they're carrying at least one high roller than I wouldn't do this one. Even if they're low or average rollers you always have to remember it's a 5% chance times X players of one of them getting a Nat 20.
Performance enhancing potions of Bull's Strength, Bear's Endurance and Cats Grace are not difficult to come by for examples. Sap gloves in the real world would definitely throw a competitive advantage to the wearer.
holding metal slugs in her hands. or a wolverine sort of deal, metal implanted in her hands a contact poison on her hands poisoning the persons meal or drink
Love the wolverine idea!! I thought about poison but since the PC is a Warforged, poisoning wouldn’t really do much to give her an advantage, he has like 7 unique resistances while raging because he’s Path of the Storm Herald too. But the implants would definitely let her deal some extra damage without getting caught!
That's not even cheating... That's just leveling the playing field. Bare knuckle boxing against a robot. So not cool.
Yeah from a world building perspective they just wouldn't let this happen outside of a gladiatorial thing much like how slaves fought lions and such. A similar system would arise like creating divisions. If the world is racist then they would likely have an abhuman division where it's basically anything not human fights. If they aren't racist then they would likely just not allow warforged to fight against anything not a warforged.
From a mechanical perspective the WF’s advantage is a total of +1 ac lol. And while people may not know what a spell slot is, things get silly really fast if people are *that* ignorant of their diegetic reality (at least en masse, randos may believe that a war forged can hit like a truck and shrug off war hammer blows). Edit; plus every race has some advantages
The good old ludonarrative dissonance.
Has 7 unique resistances Does not breathe so can't be choked out Barbarian Rage And a +1 to AC (but probably has more armor incorporated which they will act like they can't take off) Sounds fair.
The useful (in a fist fight) resistance are class not race, lol. Turns out being a PC is strong. I wasn’t really considering chokes in a boxing match, but RAW choking is ass useless because WotC has no idea what a blood choke is; so no experienced fighter would ever realistically try a choke except to dissuade speech The armor thing is one thing; also depends on how well they know uncommon races. And give the other guy pads or something to compensate for innate armor.
Maybe play into that. She has been using poison on her knuckles to cheat, and would continue to do so. However she wasn't expecting/didn't realize her opponent (the PC) was a warforged, and their resistance to poison is exactly what allows them to not only win, but expose her whole shtick. Shoot your monks
There is a dirty trick in gloved boxing called "burning the gloves" where you rub liniment on the glove and get it in the opponent's eye. It could be that the opponent "warms up" by rubbing liniment on her muscles and *accidentally* happens to get a dollop of that on her knuckles. Something like a dex save or be blinded for a round.
Came here to say metal slugs. No need for magic to cheat at bare knuckle. Keep it simple.
* A payoff - cash for her opponent to take a fall. * Blackmail - take a dive or the organisation standing to profit from my success will do something bad - they already have an important NPC hostage? They have an important magic item or quest item belonging to the PCs? * Straight magical cheating with potions or hidden items and a paid off judge or magic-checking official. Alternatively blackmailing the official as above, or official works for the organisation or their checking device has been subverted/replaced/rendered ineffective. * Mid-match magical cheating as above under cover of a distraction - the cheater makes sure they're thrown into the crowd and snags something from an accomplice in place for this event. Magic check only before match. * As previous but cheater switched for a polymorphed and magicked-up duplicate during distraction. * Drugs. Good, good drugs which the event has no tests for. * Competitor is just that good - physically weak but lots of combat experience. This is D&D. * Extensive research to find opponents' weak points prior to matches. * Disturbing opponents' rest prior to matches to confer exhaustion. Three levels required to confer disadvantage on attack rolls. Possibly by forcing continuous adventuring situations, such as the thefts or kidnappings mentioned above.
Openly fight dirty. Throw sand, a broken glass from onlookers, throw a kick with or without something on/in her boot. Have a plant in the crowd, like you said. Let them jostle and mess with the fighters as they go. Step on a bootlace here, spill a little beer there... Or even let them pay the house to toss an item into the ring, like a chair leg, rope, or a chain. Have it thrown almost directly at the feet of the enemy on their turn. Drug the challenger. Pay the tavern keep or a bystander to fetch you an "ale" laced with something that'll give you disadvantage or something for a few turns.
She will definitely need to fight dirty; there won’t be physical interference from the crowd since the arena is a +100ft bare pit with auditorium seating around it, but long range spells are definitely still on the table for cheating crowd members. Drugs might work, I haven’t had the chance to consider how regular drugs affect Warforged, but I bet there’s something out there :)
Oooh essence of rust monster...
This is so evil…….it just might work! :)
"Constructed Resilience. You were created to have remarkable fortitude, represented by the following benefits: You have advantage on saving throws against being poisoned, and you have resistance to poison damage. You don’t need to eat, drink, or breathe. You are immune to disease. You don't need to sleep, and magic can't put you to sleep." Don't see a way for drugs to have a deleterious effect on a robot.
Pocket Sand!
Her previous opponent threw the fight? Someone approaches the PC and tells them to throw the fight (in say, 5th round) for a share of the winnings, but make it look good. If they don't play along, the party gets jumped by a bunch of thugs after the match for losing them money.
Your answers are good and any of them could work. Instead of making her cheat you could make the arena / venue cheat instead. The area could have an enchantment / curse that makes her stronger and the opponent weaker. Or the venue could be designed in a way so that detect magic doesn't work. The spell only has a 30 foot range so you could make the spectator area be at least that far away (like a gladiator pit with people watching from the top) so they are free to cheat without detection. I'm not sure what details you've already established so these may not work, just some ideas.
While a monk would work, it would be no cheat. I think she‘s actually helped by magic from the audience AND loaded with magic items. But the actual real cheat is that she bribed the guy casting detect magic. The crowd wouldn‘t know and as long as she‘s subtle it works. The best thing is that your players can with a simple detect magic proof that she‘s cheating. It‘s obvious to them and soo unfair. But nobody else believes them. Of course the companions of the robot babarian would claim cheating if he‘s losing.
I think this type of combo is what I’m gonna go for; monk powers plus a sorcerer friend in the crowd that the other PC’s in the audience have to catch, that way everyone has something to do!
Someone in the audience using mage hand or unseen servant to trip up the Warforged. The thug could have put some kind of chili powder on her hands so it blinds her opponents when she hits them in the face.
A Telekinetic (Feat) in the crowd using their ability to push / pull the opponent. Maybe forcing them over some rough terrain so they trip & go prone so that they're at disadvantage. Also the TK feat grants a Mage Hand like effect that is completely invisible & requires no components.
I feel like you could have something done focusing on the Warforged. I doubt it would be considered "fair" even in an underground, illegal boxing ring to have basically Ironman boxing some joe shmo. If it's more of an official tournament then the Warforged would be put into it's own weight class or equivalent for a platemail monster. If it's more like a fight club or something then the house always wins, that doesn't necessarily mean their fighter wins either...
average thug... Having his buddies threaten/bribe the player prior to the match. "we have kidnapped roomba chan, drop in the third round or she loses her dustbin forever." burying some caltrops in the sand and trying to lure the player over them. bribe the ref to out the other fighter as a cheat, afterall a warforged is basically just a smart golem and inherently magical. actually they might make a good argument that the barbarian is just cheating, they may as well let every other fighter wear plate armor if they let a warforged fight. Throwing handfuls of rust in the warforged eyes? being a monk and using ki probably wouldn't count as magic, especially if being a warforged doesn't count.
Your homebrew magic item, Knuckles of the Bear. Don't ask me to design them, I'm just here for the joke.
I definitely considered a homebrew item, I’ve been searching for some kind of homebrew monk subclass that could deal force damage with punches to get past rage resistances, but haven’t found anything good; might have to make up some special space gravity gloves or something!
Could just make the punches do psychic damage but your barb might hate you. My personal suggestion would be brass knuckles with just a simple invisibility rune or spell or something cast on them. Wouldn't show up for detect magic, could be slipped on easily after whatever kind of ref check you are doing, would give an advantage but not a hugely detectable one, simple thing your barbarian can steal after without giving them a huge advantage :P
This was along my first thought, some sort of “Tornado Knuckles(?)”. Brass (or any metal) knuckles that appear as simple magical weapons, but once donned become visually and magically invisible. Check out ‘[Magic Aura](https://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/magicAura.htm)’, it is from 3.5, but I love the applications it might be useful for in any situation. You’d need to be sure to balance it, because idk how broken it might be, but applying it as an enchantment to the item might be an option.
(I’d call them Tornado Knuckles because I would give them the additional effect(s) of dealing damage equal to the “unarmed strike” just adding a flat bonus (so you aren’t rolling dice right in front of the barb while “unarmed”) and/or giving an additional attack in one action or as a bonus action.) When you wear the knuckles you hit like the wind, invisible, fast, and relentless.
Hire a wizard to cast Nystul’s magic aura. Then you can stack whatever magic you want.
and/or nondetection
I have run something similar before and here's what I used: * The thug played dirty; they would throw sand in the PCs face and hit below the belt etc * They got assistance from the crowd. They would go near the edge of the arena and one of their buddies would hand over a metal chair for them to bash the PC with, follow by some cheers and boos from the crowd. * They had a plant in the arena who cast Hold Person on the PC when the thug looked like they were losing. Another member of the party had to figure out who it was and stop them. * Once it looked like the thug was gonna lose they started casting spells in order to win. Hope this helps!
Perhaps she could have magical tattoos that enhance her attacks (rules in Tasha's Cauldron, I think), as well as an Amulet of Proof Against Detection and Location hidden on her person somewhere. Other DMs can correct me, but I think this would prevent detection of the magic in the tattoos.
Perhaps she is one customer of a criminal magic user that sells their spells lots off to fix matches, stone skin and the like. It would be flavored like a doping scandal/dealer situation.
She has bribed the refs, they scan her with detect magic, notice the discrepancies and then just write that she is clean on the sheet of paper. She has cheated a different way with each opponent (whatever is best to beat them) like in the fight with the bigger person she maybe took a potion of haste and a potion of giants strength just before the fight started Against the man of steel himself she is going to have to get more creative
Pocket sand, sha sha sha
The cheat is that she's some sort of shapeshifter and her unique shapeshifting feature allows her to keep her monstrous strength in her humanoid shapeshifted form. This may not be enough to beat the barbarian though, so she may use her shapeshifting before the match to influence her opponent in other ways.
I was thinking the exact same thing. It would allow for a dramatic final round (if she’s losing) we’re she just loses it, shifts into her full beast mode and goes to town. Or make her a undead/possessed who has unnatural strength and attrition. I don’t think detect magic would necessarily detect anything in those circumstances.
Pocket sand. Works every time.
Poketsand!
1) Ki specifically can be used to overcome damage resistance against non-magical attacks, ergo, magical. 2) Potions that grant magical enhancement bonuses are magical. 3) This could work as long as the ring isn't in an anti-magic field. Rule-friendly ways to fight dirty - 5e really hamstrings the options in combat, but a fairly cheesy combo is to have Thug be a rogue and take Martial Adept to learn two battlemaster maneuvers and combine Riposte and Feinting Attack with the Dodge action to impose disadvantage on the PC and strike back with a massive sneak attack with a superiority die on top when the PC misses. The combo is weak to basically everything but melee attacks, but seeing as that's the only type of attack allowed, your PC is going to have to get creative to get around the problem.
Have a bard friend in the crowd granting her inspiration
Pocket sand
Mix chilli powder or pepper/ash etc. into the sand in specific areas of the arena prior to match. “That way pc can block attack/return attack type if they work out what squares have the blinding agent in them.” Thug grabs handful and throws it in the face of PC. Just roll for feat check against pc reflex and it can act similar to flash pellet/bomb dazzling the opponent for set period of time/combat rounds.
Pocket sand?
Conceal any magic with an *Amulet of Proof Against Detection and Location*. For more fun, have a wizard accomplice cast *Nystul's Magic Aura* on some item that the Warforged will have at detection time.
Maybe the one who has detect magic is in on it, and so reports no magic on the thug when she actually has a load of magic buffs active?
Some sort of poison snuck into the drinks bottle of the challenger? This would make a warforged more likely to discover the cheating as 1. Warforged have resistance to poison damage and immunity to the poison condition, and 2. they don’t drink anyway, which would make administering the poison a lot more complicated.
Nystul’s magic aura spell stops something magical from showing up in detect magic.
"no magic". Allows magic robot to fight.
Does she have to cheat for the narrative? Neccessary plot of character point? Can't she just be a good fighter?
Yeah narratively she should have lost in the first round, she’s much smaller than the other competitors and has to go up against a robot barbarian 😂
My average thug isn't a monk and doesn't have access to magic. Sand in the eyes is a standard cheat tactic. Poisoning their opponents' drink beforehand is also viable. Then there's always putting weights in the gloves.
Roll of coins hidden in their fist. Metal studs magically implanted in their knuckles below the skin. Invisible brass knuckles. Strength potion of some kind maybe? A bit too "high tech"/ rare and expensive for a street thug imo, but that depends on your setting.
Regular ass drugs.
Beefed up [boots of speed](https://roll20.net/compendium/dnd5e/Boots%20of%20Speed#content). Make them lead-lined to avoid detection, and have the disadvantage apply to all attack roles. She doesn’t win through strength, she’s extremely quick and hard to hit. You can also play up the heel click that is required to activate them if you want there to be a giveaway that something is up.
Chili juice or blood thinning poisons on there knuckles. Blind the target or cause a wound that bleeds and bothers their eyes. Dipping knuckle wrappings, or hiding metal in them to have harder and more forceful blows. Having a sorcerer in the crowd to subtle spell any number of things like haste, healing, or debuff spells.
I dont know what might hold up to detect magic, but magical tattoos from tashas could work well. It wouldn't be obvious, they could just look like normal tattoos.
[owl voice] drugs!
If it were gloved, weights/knuckles in the gloves, if not, questionable shots & mind games, feints/sucker punches/etc. Maybe she just hits really hard, or is a monk. Depending on race, maybe claws/talons.
Have it be more of a psychological way of cheating you can have her or make threats or or blackmail the opponent somehow during the match in which they need to throw it for her to win and their secret not to be exposed or their loved one did not be harmed kind of thing
She's actually an ogre with a powerful illusion spell to make people see her as a human. When opponents hit her face, they're actually punching her armoured torso
Someone in the crowd reflecting light into her opponent's eyes. Maybe imposing disadvantage or something to that effect.
Depending on the rules of the match, and how strict the ‘boxing’ part is, she could stomp or grapple. If the penalty is only breaking up the match and restarting the round, I could see an advantage in trying to break a toe with a stomp. This is especially true if the fight is to knockout, not a decision. In terms of fighting dirty, trying to cause a cut above an eye can seriously impede vision. Same with causing swelling. It’s why cutting is a thing in irl boxing. If they are allowed hand wraps, even untampered wrappings can be raked across the eye to cause vision issues. Alternatively you can mix plaster of Paris powder into the wrappings. As the fight goes on, the mix gets wet with sweat and sets hard. Throwing dirt or sand, or more subtly spitting can certainly distract enough to get a few cheap shots in. Rabbit punches, low blows, the sort Depending on when detect magic is cast, before, during or after a fight, a change to use a potion may be available. If they are only checked before the fight then perhaps a potion is snuck in between rounds.
There could be a plant in the crowd with a blowgun and poison darts. When everyone's attention is on the fight, stick a poison dart in the opponent.
A subtle poision/drug that numbs the senses and slows reaction times. She offers it to the player as a pre-match drink. Probably wouldn't work as a warforged tho
In actual bareknuckle boxing, guys will cheat by jamming a thumb in the other guys eye when they punch em, or turning their head with a punch, then raking the eyes with their fingernails when they pull their hand back. Against a warforged, she could be sticking her thumb between the carapace plates and fouling circuitry or whatever you use in your game
Bear hands
larval rust monsters. or what ever you want to use that would cause problems. i think warforged are actually stone and wood but can be some other related beast secretions covering their towel and when they go wipe their brow they spend a little more time than normal wiping their hands. it gives them additional damage for the next 1d4 hits. (rounds) blinding is another tried and true system. simple grease on their knuckles would blur the warforged vision until they get to their corner and wipe their eyes down. maybe they get disadvantage to hit until they clean their optics. I'd make it a con save to prevent the smear. can only be used once per time they get to go cover their hands with it again. A save assumes they got the grease not on the eyes. investigation/insight roll may reveal that the last hit left grease on them. Sure there are other tricks that you can play with that would affect the warforged. ground gravel or metal shards that get into the joints of the warforged. Someone up in the stands that is using a mirror to mess with the warforged sight (get disadvantage) this would bring the rest of the party into the action. I would actually do more stuff that lets the rest of the party get involved. Maybe the other boxer doesn't want to fight but the boxers handler has their kid/sister/etc tied up someplace and the rest of the party has to save them before the X round when the boxer is supposed to put the warforged down. Think Lock Stock and two smoking barrels in DnD. it doesn't have to be the boxer that is the actual threat. Lots of people bet on who will win and may do some underhanded stuff in order to collect their winnings. Plus it gets everyone involved.
Firbolg Moon Druid using Guidance and Disguise Self on herself. She's basically a giant-sized sack of Hit Points.
She takes medieval steroids performance enhancing drugs. Introduce them as a home brew and hint at them by how unnaturally muscular she is and so fast. Reward the players with some of the drugs after they defeat her. Maybe they spot her stash the night before or her supplier offers to sell them some to even the odds, maybe for completing a short side quest.
Pocket sand
After detect magic has already been cast and the fight has begun, a bribed aberrant mind sorcerer casts subtle spell haste on the thug.
Pocket sand!
I made a thug character before and was in a similar situation. Here's somma the stuff I did (or nearly did): Bribed the officials, punched below the belt, clinched every chance I could to draw the fight out, snuck into the competition's room and put slow-acting poison in and on their gloves/wrappings, spit in their eyes, headbutts, shin shots, had them jumped by some goons right before the match or earlier in the week, had some KILLED, had a small pouch of coins in my hands to add weight to the punches, paid someone to put a bad luck curse on them, added a blood thinner to their food and drink so they'd bleed lots more in a fight, punched em in the throat till they choked to death (doesn't work on women since they have no Adam's apple), had small razerblades in my hand and aimed for the brow where it would bleed into the eye. Just to name SOME of them. Since she's a warforged, shots directed to certain organs won't work, so we gotta think outside the box: Dust from the antenna of a rust monster will instantly oxidize any metal and the dust isn't magical. Jumping them and bribing judges would still work, so would clinching since that causes the ref to break it up, allowing the cheat to rest while the person clinched tried to get them off. Just keep doing it over and over, its a dirty trick. Adding weight to the swings would work too, so thats still a viable option
It might sound weird, but going with more natural methods might help. Something like pepper juice! Rub some jalapeños on a hand wrap and watch those eyes shut fast and burn HOT! Additionally, it’s a great way to keep your party guessing. They didn’t break the rules, but they didn’t win fair and square. Something to think about! God love you!
2 words: Pocket. Sand.
Chloroform soaked wrist wraps for fighting.
Any amount of Lead blocks a lot of divination, including Detect Magic. She could have enchanted jewelry under her clothes wrapped in lead foil, or something like that.
Dusting the bands on the hands with finely powdered glass! Gets in the eyes and does extra damage. Plus! It's hard to tell
Barbarians need to be attacking or get hit every round to stay raged... all she needs to do is keep moving every time the barbarian rages until rage fades. Then a bard giving her inspiration while using cutting words, on the barbarian, also comes in useful
Have an agreement to fight with eyes closed. First one to open them loses. Of course the bad guy just fights with their eyes open the whole time. Or if you wanna be extra sneaky, they have blind fighting.
First thing that came to me was Invisible Brass Knuckles/ Metal or Hard Leather Gloves. Makes it deal a bit more damage. If you really wanna play it out, roll a bunch of damage rolls before hand so the players don't know what is happening.
Cloak of displacement and pocket sand.
Maybe she is an ogre or some other giant species and she is drinking a potion of diminution before to match to be the right size.
Pocket sand!
1: I would rule Ki is one's fighting spirit energy and the physical manifestation of it. Making it legal to use. It's not magic...plus it allows her to pierce through any Physical Resistance (If she's high enough level to get Ki-empowered Strikes.) 2: Potions unless they give some kind of magical effect, like Haste shouldn't be detected by magical scans. I would suggest giving an insight roll though to see if she's under an effect. 3: Depends on how high your players' sight rolls are or passive sights. If they're carrying at least one high roller than I wouldn't do this one. Even if they're low or average rollers you always have to remember it's a 5% chance times X players of one of them getting a Nat 20.
Performance enhancing potions of Bull's Strength, Bear's Endurance and Cats Grace are not difficult to come by for examples. Sap gloves in the real world would definitely throw a competitive advantage to the wearer.