We've all seen the endless flame wars about the comparative power of different classes. We've seen the DPR Olympics and other optimization challenges, we've seen many broken builds and many people screeching their merits or detriments at one another all across the internet. It's time to put some of these theories to the test, and to have a bone-splinteringly good time doing so.
The Pathfinder Pits are a place for ongoing optimized play-by-post PvP. Everyone is welcome to create a character and jump on board, but only an elite few will ascend through the ranks, attaining much glory and bragging rights. The characters who join will be matched randomly against other characters of their level in single combat. Those who win gain reputation, advancing in wealth and level and generally being better than other people. Those who lose suffer a drop in reputation and are resurrected by the mysterious forces in control of The Pits in order to redeem themselves or die (even more) trying.
It should be clear before you read any further that this is a hardcore sort of 'campaign'. You may have opportunities to role-play, and everyone should have some amount of backstory and flavor for their character, but if you're not also a powerful and versatile one-on-one combatant you may find yourself frustrated. That said, there's nothing to stop you from re-rolling as often as you'd like and jumping back into The Pits with a better build, so go ahead and get creative!
The gameplay rules for The Pits are as strict as possible, with the intent that nobody will have a victory taken from them by any sort of biased judgment call or unnecessary house-rule. There is a goal of keeping all rules as close to the intended and accepted Pathfinder rules as possible, so that if multiple people were to be doing the arbitration their rulings would be as similar as possible. This may mean you can't do some really cool thing because it's not technically in the rules, and this is regrettable, but when it comes to PvP the rules are quite important. As in Pathfinder Society, there is no crafting, teaching animals tricks, or leadership, but pretty much all other aspects of the game are left unchanged, giving players as many building blocks as possible to create powerful characters.
If you plan on making a character and jumping in, it's recommended to at least scan through the advancement and gameplay rules beforehand, to make sure everything will work as you expect it to once you're in The Pits.
CREATING A PIT FIGHTER
Pit fighters 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 pit fighter. 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.
— Abilities
Pit fighters are created using 25 point buy. No score may be dropped lower than a 7 or boosted above an 18 before racial modifiers. A pit fighter 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.
— Races
Race can determine a great deal of what a pit fighter 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.
All classes, be they core, base, alternate, or prestige, are allowed in The Pits. 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.
Altered Classes:
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.
— Feats and Traits
Item Creation, Performance, and Achievement feats are not allowed in The Pits. 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 (pit fighters may 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.
— 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.
— Alignment
There are no alignment restrictions in The Pits. 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.
— Hit Points
Pit fighters 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.
— Equipment
Pit fighters 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 Pits, and no living creature besides a player character may enter the arena with the exception of those gained through class features. A pit fighter 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.
— 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 plaintext and messaged to Pit Administration. 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 (not Administration) a message. Animal companions, familiars, eidolons, etc. should have their own stat block sent with their master's.
— 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 pit fighter 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.
ADVANCEMENT
— Reputation
Instead of gaining experience for defeating foes, pit fighters go up in Reputation with each successful bout, and down upon failure (death). When one character kills another, he or she gains an amount of Reputation equal to the defeated foe's level. The beaten character loses Reputation equal to the amount their foe gained. The number of equal-leveled opponents one needs to defeat to attain a new level is always three, though losing fights between victories will drop your Reputation back down and require more total victories for advancement. When a pit fighter has enough Reputation to advance a new level, he or she loses all accumulated Reputation from the previous level and permanently gains the level. It is not possible to lose a level due to losses of reputation, nor can a pit fighters reputation drop below zero. Losing further fights when possessing no Reputation will not drop you lower than you are, though your win/loss ration will suffer.
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.
Wealth in The Pits 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.
Pit Fighter 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 pit fighter 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).
GAMEPLAY
— The Pit
Here is the current map of the pit. All squares that aren't dark stone are fully navigable, and the pit floor is hard packed dirt and sand. The rough-hewn stone of the pillars and the pit 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 pit, 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 pit'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 pit. 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 pit seal, and do not reopen until the outcome of the match has been decided.
— Combat Rules
Combat in The Pits 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. 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 pit, 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 pit fighter 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.
— 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:
Pit Fighter wrote:
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.
Greataxe 17 to hit, 22 damage. Bite 20 to hit, 4 damage.
— 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 pit fighter 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.
OUTSIDE THE PIT
— 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 Pits.
The combat for the Pathfinder Pits will be held in several different threads, each considered to be one of The Pits. There can only be one fight in a given pit at a time, so if there are enough people to fill them all up, new pits will be opened. It's conceivable that in the future there will be new kinds of pits with different layouts, and also possible that older pits 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 pit fighters (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 pit fighters 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 pit fighters of any level, and the combatants must mutually agree to the match.
A player may have any number of characters in The Pits, 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).
— Out-of-Combat Gameplay
Even pit fighters 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 pit fighters, and the pit facilities are immense and exhaustive. There are libraries, laboratories, sparring areas, kitchens, gardens, empty rooms, and pretty much anyplace else a pit fighter might want to spend time while not killing and/or dying. The only restrictions during downtimes are that the pit 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 Pits exist somewhere on or in Golarion, as far as anyone knows. None of the pit fighters can quite recall their journey to The Pits, 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 pit ranks he or she may gain the attention of more notable audiences, but no one is able remember the last time a pit fighter achieved such status.
Who or what is running the entire operation is also somewhat of a mystery. The Pits 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 Pits 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.
