You may train your abilities in any class listed as allowed up to level 5, and start with 12,000 gp in starting wealth.
Do not get too attached to your character.
You will fight increasingly difficult battles, with brief respites to recoup and plan your strategies. Once you win a total of 15 team matches, you will have a chance to battle the current Champion for your ticket to freedom. Each match will have different objectives and rules.
If you should fall, you are brought back to life twice. If you die a third time, you are animated as a mindless zombie for the games. Once you fall a third and final time, your team may replace you with a new gladiator equal to your current level -1. You will level up every 3 successful battles that you survive.
Allowed Races:
20-pt races: gnome, goblin, half-elf, half-orc, halfling, human, kobold
15-pt races: aasimar, catfolk, dhampir, drow, dwarf, duergar, elf, fetchling, grippli, hobgoblin, ifrit, orc, oread, ratfolk, suli, sylph, tengu, tiefling, undine, vanara, vishkanya
Allowed Classes: Antipaladin, Barbarian, Cavalier, Fighter, Monk, Ninja, Paladin, Ranger, Rogue, Samurai (As usual, variant classes do not stack with core classes. Alignment is relatively trivial in regard to team composition; in fact, drama and rivalry and make for good ratings.)
Other character generation rules:
-Allowed Books: Core Rule book, Advanced Player's Guide, Ultimate Combat
(we will not use traits, hero points, firearms, duels, performance combat, piecemeal armor, called shots, wounds and vigor, or armor as damage reduction)
-Max HP per level
-No traits.
-No middle/old age categories.
-No templates.
-No racial variants/favored class options from the APG.
-No Prestige Classes
-Mounts/Companions/Pets must have full stats on your profile.
-No Item Creation feats or Craft skill usage.
-No spellcasting. Any classes with spellcasting, such as ranger, must use a class archetype that replaces it. Paladins and Antipaladins may either keep their spellcasting or replace it with the ranger’s Trapper or Skirmisher archetype, at theirdiscretion.
-You can purchase any item up to 12,000 gp. Including trained animals, mounts, and hirelings (Any such creature must have full stats on your profile, and hirelings cost 10x the listed price, per match. You cannot hire spellcasters, as the game's producers are evil fiends who want to see you all die to boost ratings.).
-No Attacks of Opportunity. Abilities and feats such as Combat Reflexes, therefore, no longer exist, or will need to be modified on a case-by-case basis.
The only way to get attacks of opportunity is via the Attack of Opportunity feat, detailed below.
-Clever use of terrain, equipment, skills, unorthodox tactics, etc., will be rewarded, not punished, as long as it's viable and not outright silly.
-I'm not hand-holding; you need to be able to build a character by the rules without too many screw-ups. Check your HP, skills, favored class bonuses (either +1 skill rank or +1 HP per level), keep track of ammunition and consumables, get your saves, BAB, CMB/CMD correct, etc.
