Gladiators begin at 3rd level. A player may only have a single character at each level at a given time, but feel free to retire a character and create a new one at any time. No matter your previous record in the arena, any new character starts at 3rd level. You may have multiple characters so long as none of them are the same level.
Only Paizo published material is allowed when creating a gladiator. Anything used should be findable through The SRD, PRD, or Archives of Nethys (fills in some holes in the SRD). This is to allow an even playing field among those who own differing numbers of books. These regulations are in addition to any stricter restrictions on material below. If you have questions on something's legality, shoot me a PM, but please don't ask me about third party material, it's simply not allowed.
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— Abilities
Gladiators are created using 25 point buy. No score may be dropped lower than a 7 or boosted above an 18 before racial modifiers. A gladiator may be of any (adult) age, but they take neither penalties nor gain bonuses for being old. Here is a nice place to fiddle with point buy.
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— Races
Race can determine a great deal of what a gladiator is capable of, especially at lower levels. There should be as much room as possible to choose the perfect race for a given build, but some races are impractically unbalancing and are not allowed.
Alphabetical List of Legal Races:
Catfolk
Changelings
Dhampir
Drow
Dwarves
Elves
Gillmen
Gnomes
Goblins
Grippli
Half-Orcs
Half-elves
Halflings
Hobgoblins
Humans
Kitsune
Kobolds
Merfolk
Nagaji
Orcs
Ratfolk
Samsaran
Tengu
Vanara
Vishkanya
Wayang
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— Classes
All classes, be they core, base, alternate, or prestige, are allowed in the arenas. All archetypes are legal, and multiple archetypes may be stacked together provided they do not conflict in any way. Alternate classes may take archetypes from the class on which they were based (and vice versa), so long as they have each of the replaced abilities at the relevant level (a Ninja may take the Scout archetype, for example). As in Pathfinder Society gameplay, some classes are altered as a result of crafting, animal training, and leadership being disallowed.
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Altered Classes:[b]
Alchemists receive the Extra Bombs feat at 1st level instead of Brew Potion.
Cavaliers receive Skill Focus (Handle Animal) as a bonus feat instead of the Expert Trainer class feature.
Clerics with the Nobility domain get the Persuasive feat at 8th level instead of the Leadership feat.
Clerics with the Rune domain receive Spell Focus at first level instead of Scribe Scroll.
Druids with the Nobility domain get the Persuasive feat at 8th level instead of the Leadership feat.
Oracles with the Nature mystery receive Animal Growth as a bonus spell at 11th level instead of Awaken.
Witches may not select the Cauldron hex.
Wizards do not receive a bonus feat at 1st level.
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[b]— Feats and Traits
Item Creation, Performance, and Achievement feats are not allowed in the arena. All other feats from legal sources are fair game. Campaign Traits are not allowed in the arena. Any other traits from legal sources should be fine, but keep in mind that there may be prerequisites that a character is incapable of fulfilling (gladiatorsmay not be members of the Pathfinder Society). Any feats or traits that require a certain place of origin or religious affiliation must be consistent with other feats, traits, and classes.
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— Skills
There are no restrictions on skills or their usage in the arena, though those such as Forgery or Swim will be pretty useless in most situations. Any out of combat interaction between characters will be minimally regulated, so there may be more room here to make use of skills. Otherwise, keep in mind any prestige class prerequisites you may need to meet down the road.
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— Alignment
There are no alignment restrictions in the arena. Though the killing of intelligent humanoids for reputation and profit is a fairly evil past time, defeating an enemy in one on one combat is somewhat more honorable than many methods, and hey, nobody stays dead.
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— Hit Points
Gladiators follow the PFS method of hit point determination. Each character receives full hit points for their first level, and for each following level they receive half of their hit die, rounded up. This means that at each level after first a Wizard would gain 4 hit points, a Cleric 5, Fighter 6, and Barbarian 7. An animal companion or other non-player combatant receives one half of their hit die each level (including first), rounded down, recalculated at each new level.
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— Equipment
Gladiators begin with 4,500 gp worth of gear. Items may be bought and sold freely between matches for their listed price. There is no haggling, and sell prices are equal to buy prices. Living creatures are not legal for purchase in the arena, and no living creature besides a player character may enter the arena with the exception of those gained through class features. A gladiator may spend no more than 10% of his or her current wealth on consumable items, but there are no further restrictions on the percentage of wealth that may be spent on a given type of item or items. All items must be purchased at full price and in the usual quantity (meaning you must buy 20 Whistling Arrows if you want any, and wands must be fully charged upon their purchase), but they may be sold back at full price for whatever percentage of use remains (you can sell back a wand with 25 charges remaining for exactly half of its listed price). Keep in mind that past a certain threshold, consumable resources that are used up in combat will permanently subtract from a character's wealth. See the Wealth section for more information on consumables.
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— Character Submission
Any character is welcome in the arena, so long as they are mechanically legal. No character will be turned away for poor flavor or an unoptimized build, and as soon as a character is properly submitted and confirmed to be legal they will be put into the pool for fights. Keep in mind that the player is responsible for their character's legality. The characters will be reviewed when they are received, and anything the reviewer notices will need to be fixed before the character is accepted, but if the reviewer misses something that later makes a difference, the player is responsible (and may suffer a fight loss and/or Reputation penalty if things are screwed up too badly). Just double check your sheets, and you'll be fine. If there's anything you have a rules question on, send me a message. Here is the template for sending in a character. This should be filled out in plain text and messaged to the Arbiters. Feel free to personally keep track of your character data wherever and however you choose, but for character submission the above template must be used. Each character must be resubmitted when changed in any way (primarily when leveling up), so keep a copy of the filled-out template to edit and send in when necessary. Hopefully Bungles is a good enough example for showing where to put information, but if you have any questions on the template, send me a message. Animal companions, familiars, eidolons, etc. should have their own stat block sent with their master's.
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— Character Profiles
Each character should have a full physical description in the alias that they are posted under, which should include all visible physical features and gear. Characters should also track their Reputation and Win / Loss record there (Administration will keep records as well). A new alias for each gladiator is not necessary, but the alias must not be misleading in any way, and an alias cannot contain multiple active gladiators at the same time. If the alias contains information for multiple fighters, the active character's information must be clearly marked, including a full description.
There is no need to contain any mechanical information in your character's alias. You know your own stat block, and the arbiter will have it on hand, so it's in your best interest to keep your secrets to yourself.
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ADVANCEMENT
— Reputation
Instead of gaining experience for defeating foes, gladiatorsgo up in Reputation with each bout. When a gladiator has enough Reputation to advance a new level, he or she loses all accumulated Reputation from the previous level and permanently gains the level. Gladiators earn reputation based on the following scale:
Win= 3 points
Tie= 2 points
Loss= 1 point
Forfeit due to Arena Freeze= 0 points for first time (-3 for second offense, -6 for third and so on)
The following chart shows the total amount of Reputation needed to advance from the given level. Remember, the amount of Reputation gained is always the opponent's level. Unless your character is challenging or being challenged by characters of different levels, this will stay quite simple.
Reputation Needed to Advance:
3rd 9
4th 18
5th 27
6tht 36
7th 45
8th 54
9th 63
10th 72
11th 81
12th 90
Etc.
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— Wealth
Wealth in the arena is based only off of a character's current level. There is no change in wealth between fights unless a character has gained a new level from acquiring Reputation, or has used up wealth in combat. Wealth for each level is the average wealth for a character midway through that level based on the Pathfinder Wealth by Level Chart.
Gladiator Wealth by Level:
3rd 4,500 gp
4th 8,250 gp
5th 13,250 gp
6th 19,750 gp
7th 28,250 gp
8th 39,500 gp
9th 54,000 gp
10th 72,000 gp
11th 95,000 gp
12th 125,000 gp
As mentioned in character creation, a gladiator may not spend more than 10% of his or her wealth on consumable items. If a character uses up consumables in a fight that do not exceed 5% of his or her total wealth, the expended wealth is reimbursed at the end of the fight. Anything used up over the 5% limit is forever subtracted from the gladiator's total wealth. Any items sundered or otherwise destroyed without their owner's intent or consent will also be reimbursed after the match, unless this is a possible side effect of normal use (use fragile equipment at your own risk).
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GAMEPLAY
— The Arena
Here is the current map of the arena. All squares that aren't dark stone are fully navigable, and the arena floor is hard packed dirt and sand. The rough-hewn stone of the pillars and the arena walls rises 25 ft. above the floor, up to an observation and seating area where spectators can safely watch the bloodshed. There is an invisible field of force preventing anything from rising above the lip of the arena, keeping the audience safe and limiting vertical movement above the ground to 25 ft. upwards. The stone of the pillars and walls also extends 25 ft. down past the arena's bottom to a second floor made of stone. The stone floor, walls, and pillars are coated by the same force that covers the mouth of the arena. The stone ignores any attempts at damage or manipulation, and is considered a perfectly sheer, smooth surface (unclimbable without magical aid). When combat begins, the entrances of the arena seal, and do not reopen until the outcome of the match has been decided.
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— Combat Rules
Combat in the arena is no different from that in a normal Pathfinder campaign, except that your enemies will be much more powerful and intelligent and there will be no fudging of dice rolls by your friendly GM to keep you alive. We keep as close to RAW as possible but the final decision on a dispute lies with the Arbiter making the decision. Rules questions and discussions can be made on the discussion thread and changes can be made there. There are no major mechanical changes to the fighting gameplay; everything is meant to be as close to 'generic' Pathfinder as possible, though the set-up for the fights is somewhat nonstandard. Each combatant begins at one of the two doors leading into the arena, at the north or south. The combatant who is first in alphabetical order enters from the north, and his or her opponent from the south. Combatants begin in the left-hand square of their entrance (A11 in the north, L10 in the south). Any companions who are with a combatant in the arena (restricted to class ability companions only) begin at their master's right-hand side. When a match starts, each gladiator confirms his or her location and the location of any companions, and then rolls initiative. Combat itself begins with a shared surprise round, where neither combatant may take more than a single move or standard action (as well as any allowed swift or free actions). The highest initiative combatant starts the match off by taking his or her surprise round actions (even if they merely delay until next round), and then the fight is underway. Past the surprise round, all actions occur exactly as they would in regular Pathfinder gameplay, unless extraordinarily strange things come up that simply must be house-ruled, in which case they will be added to this document.
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— Combat Posting
Posts in combat need to convey all relevant information, preferably cinematically in addition to mechanically. For this reason, it is necessary to post both in-character text detailing what your character's obvious actions consist of, as well as posting a mechanical out of character explanation. It's also a good idea to post the round number at the beginning of each post, so everyone is clear when the fight has moved on (since some posts may be in reaction to something on the same round). Any dice rolling necessary should be done in spoilers. Note that since the arbiter has access to the character sheets, it's alright to only post a roll itself and not any modifiers, though most rolls will need their results publicly posted.
Here's an example of a fairly standard turn:
Round 4
Brutus bellows loudly, beating his free fist on his manly pectorals while shaking his axe in the air. Saliva splashes from his fanged mouth, and his already beady eyes narrow into slits. He moves in closer to his foe, bringing his hand back to the haft and making a savage swing with the weapon before lunging at the magician with his teeth.
Rage, five-foot step to E09, full attack on Jenkins the Squishy.
(this would be in a spoiler) [spoiler*=Arbiter Only:]
[dice=Greataxe]1d20+10[/dice]
[dice=Bite]1d20+5[/dice]
[dice=Greataxe Damage]1d12+10[/dice]
[dice=Bite Damage][/dice]1d4+3[/dice][/*spoiler]
Greataxe 27 to hit, 11 damage. Bite 21 to hit, 7 damage.
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— Etiquette
This is intended to be a friendly place to smash one another to dust and try out crazily optimized character ideas. The fights are meant to be competitive, but also friendly, with no permanent character deaths and everyone getting as many chances at glory as they desire. Keeping this in mind, please don't make winning the absolute most important part of your arena adventures; no matter how long you've spent crafting the perfect character there can always be those terrible rolls or horrible match-ups that lead to a loss. This is part of being involved in an arena and it's expected that anyone planning on fighting will be able to accept even the 'unfair' losses with honor, dignity, a minimum of sulking etc. Note that this does not mean your gladiator can't be pissy about losing, just make sure that most of the whining stays in-character.
Also, please refrain from peeking in other players' spoilers. If you just cannot help yourself you'd better be very sure any information gained doesn't affect your character's actions in combat, because meta-gamed knowledge is the height of dishonorability in PvP. Remember that you can always PM your more secretive actions to the Arbiter if you wish.
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OUTSIDE THE ARENA
— Logistics
The current plan is that these rules, all maps, and any other necessary information will be posted in the Campaign Info Tab, along with permanent links to each of the arenas.
The combat for the arenas will be held in several different threads, each considered to be one of the arenas. There can only be one fight in a given arena at a time, so if there are enough people to fill them all up, new arenas will be opened. It's conceivable that in the future there will be new kinds of arenas with different layouts, and also possible that older arenas will be retired. Links to the gameplay threads will be posted publicly in the discussion thread when fights are assigned. The gameplay thread will be used for in-character but out-of-combat interaction between gladiators (more on this below). The discussion thread is for questions, concerns, and comments not related to recruitment, and for official fight match-ups. The recruitment thread is only for recruiting and recruitment discussion.
Fights will be assigned randomly between gladiators of equal levels, and the paired-off combatants will each be given a pit. Randomization will not occur if there are fewer than five combatants ready for a battle, unless there are fewer than five active combatants of that level in total. Challenges may be made within the arena, but they must be broken up by assigned fights (no combatant may participate in a challenge two battles in a row). Challenge fights are no different from the normal kind except that they may be between gladiators of any level, and the combatants must mutually agree to the match.
A player may have any number of characters in Blood in the Sands, but may not have more than one active character of a given level (an active character is one who is in the pool for random fight assignments).
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— Out-of-Combat Gameplay
Even gladiators can't spend all day hacking one another to bits, and since fights don't run more than once a day and last only a few minutes (if that), downtime is inevitable. The main gameplay thread is a place for characters to relax. Here they can have actual conversations or attempt to genetically engineer super-camels, all that stuff that there's no time for in combat. There's a great deal of freedom for gladiators, and the arena facilities are immense and exhaustive. There are libraries, laboratories, sparring areas, kitchens, gardens, empty rooms, and pretty much anyplace else a gladiator might want to spend time while not killing and/or dying. The only restrictions during downtimes are that the arena fighters must not interfere with other combatants in any permanent way (there are very extensive wards against such things), and they must not leave the facility. This part of gameplay is not particularly moderated; go nuts, but keep it in character.
— Setting and Story
The arena exists somewhere on or in Golarion, as far as anyone knows. None of the arena fighters can quite recall their journey to The arenas, but they have all come of their own free will, to prove themselves against one another, to gain the love of the crowd and the respect of their peers. The arena is never lacking in audience; the fights are watched by crowds from every social group and race. Peasants, nobles, soldiers, and scholars, humans, elves, dwarves, and orcs, all of them shout and cheer and wager as the fighters clash on the sand. It is rumored that as a someone rises through the arena ranks he or she may gain the attention of more notable audiences, but no one is able remember the last time a gladiator achieved such status.
Who or what is running the entire operation is also somewhat of a mystery. The arenas are incredibly well-funded, and have access to some very powerful magic when it comes to keeping them running. It's difficult to fathom the reason for the Arenas existence in the first place considering its apparently already infinite budget and lack of entrance fees for audiences. The external facilities are run by seemingly normal staff of every race. They cook, clean, run the various facilities, and provide equipment for combatants, but none of them seem to have an idea of who is at the top of the operation.
