The Ruby Phoenix Tournament Play by Post Build Rules
- Starting at LVL 11
- 2 Traits, no drawbacks
- 82,000 gp (do not spend all your money on one big item, please spread it out)
- All Races 16 or lower RP
- All classes are allowed except for 3rd party, Occult, Summoner or Vigilante.
- This is a Martial Arts Tournament. So your builds will be based on martial fighting. Casting is allowed but only damage spells are looked down upon.
- No Evil alignments
- 20 point buy for stats
- We are using Unchained Background Skills, just because we can.
- No animal companions or summons.
- Familiars are allowed.
- This is a tournament with the idea you’re not going to kill the contestants. It is frowned upon and can even disqualify you. It is encouraged to use non-lethal means to fight and also encouraged to use performance feats as there will be a crowd to hype up. However, there will be moments where lethal means are necessary and sometimes inflicted upon you.
- Like real tables, sometimes players can't make it and I have to NPC them. I will have a 3 day rule. If we are waiting for you to post and it has been 3 days, I will NPC your character to keep the game moving. If you don't post for a week and you don't explain to the table why, we will assume you are no longer interested in playing.
- This tournament assumes the party that entered will be the party that finishes. If a player suddenly stops playing, I will NPC their character as best I can with perhaps some modifications. We will not be recruiting to fill in anybody who quits.
- Submitting a character is a contract that you plan (with the best of your ability) to play the whole tournament through with your team.
The sorceress Hao Jin left an indelible mark upon the land of Tian Xia. Throughout her centuries-long life, Hao Jin—a devout follower of Abadar, god of contracts, wealth, and order—set out to amass her own First Vault, a collection of those items she deemed most perfect or wondrous in all the world.
Among the many Abadaran pacts and contracts that dictated Hao Jin’s life was her carefully contracted agreement with the temple of Abadar in Goka regarding the fate of her collection in the event of her eventual death. Fearful that her treasures would fall into the wrong hands or simply be lost to history, Hao Jin left strict instructions that were she not to set foot within the temple for 10 years and a day, on the 10 year anniversary of that occasion, an epic competition of martial arts was to be held, overseen by the city’s Abadaran clergy; the winning team would be allowed to choose a single item as a prize for their victory. Not only would this prevent the collection from immediately being broken up, but it also ensured her life’s work would attain its own legendary immortality through the prestige the contest would bring.
During her lifetime, many who knew of her will attempted to end her life prematurely, and many succeeded. But Hao Jin had contingencies in place to such a degree that even her most cunning and careful wouldbe assassins underestimated her ability to return from the dead. Each time an enemy killed her, she miraculously emerged unscathed days later, her red hair a shade more vibrant than before her death. Her ability to overcome death and the resemblance her hair soon had to an animated, flickering flame earned Hao Jin the nickname Ruby Phoenix, and over the centuries of her life, many believed her to be truly immortal.
Yet in 6891 ic (Imperial Calendar; 4391 ar), a recordkeeper at Goka’s Grand Bank of Abadar informed the archbanker that a decade and a day had passed since the Ruby Phoenix last visited the temple. The conditions of her will had been met. As no one had seen nor heard from the sorceress for several years, she was assumed to have finally met her end, and the preparations were made to conduct the first Ruby Phoenix Tournament 10 years later. That tournament also established the office of the Emissary, an Abadaran official appointed for life to run the proceedings.
Each decennial since, the greatest champions from across Golarion have vied for the victors’ spot, and most contestants have competed honorably and passionately. A decade ago, however, the Ruby Phoenix Tournament was the subject of a terrible scandal that resulted in the first disqualification of a contestant in over a century.
The Ruby Phoenix Tournament takes place on an island in the wide harbor of Goka, an independent city-state on Tian Xia’s western coast. Goka lies at the one break in the nearly impassable Wall of Heaven Mountains, making it a hub of culture and trade between Tian Xia and Casmaron, Vudra, and the lands of the Inner Sea region far to the west.
You travel to the Xielan Island to compete in the Ruby Phoenix Tournament, an exclusive martial arts competition held every 10 years to test the world’s greatest warriors. The island is home to a quaint fishing village, but otherwise appears largely abandoned, save for the trappings of the decennial tournament.
Regardless of how the you hear of the Ruby Phoenix Tournament, the adventure assumes that you have already won one of the prized spots in the competition in a previous qualifier.
If there was ever a time to make a cohesive working party of 4, now is the time. Try to take advantage of the fact that you are a team.
The module will start with your team getting on the ferry to get to the island, unless you have other ways to arrive.
Well this looks like fun, and since races 16RP or lower are available I think I'll play an android - I've always liked them and I have an alias ready to go.
Android is +Dex,+Int, -Cha so I'll need to build something that runs along those lines - otherwise flexible!
Other ideas include a Lashunta or a Gathlain though, so feel free to be what you want and I can come up with something around it!
Looking forward to meeting the rest of the group.
@Question for the GM - would you allow an awakened golem? Specifically a stained glass golem? It's an idea I've always wanted to try and a one-shot marshal arts tournament might be the place to try it!
Just checking in. Haven't read the post yet. Have training this morning. I will check it out this afternoon.
Poking my head in as well. I was considering building a Master Chymist as the team's resident 'Big Guy' but I'm pretty flexible.
No awakened Golem, and now that you mentioned it I don't think I can allow android.
Making a Sound Striker Bard. Will focus on inspiring the team and range support.
Checking in. I'm have a company-wide offsite most of today followed by my IRL D&D game, so won't be able to post anything until kind of late tonight. Also haven't read the build rules/posts yet. Might go for a a melee type (probably either fighter, barbarian, or monk), but I'll see what others are interested in first.
Excellent, this table is now filled. Your deadline is 7/16/2018
@GM DS, fine. Lashunta and Gathlain still ok? :)
So - partywise:
Anon A Mouse: something fighty
Han Del: Master Chymist
Ashe: Sound Striker Bard
Looks like we have a decent beginnings of a melee team. One thing I wanted to mention was whether we should look into teamwork feats? With 11 levels we could all spend a couple of feats on them and some can be absolutely devastating with some co-ordination - fluffy too if we're doing a competition team!
Looks like the main thing we need here is divine magic - do people want me to look into that? I could do a Paladin with plenty of LoH or an oracle. :) Also traps... Ashe, is that something you can handle? Or someone could VMC into rogue?
I'm thinking a Lashunta 'team leader' right now - uses her telepathy to co-ordinate the rest of the party beyond what would normally be possible! Possibly a nice Black Widow/Hulk vibe with Han Del's character, if that's something you're interested in HD?
Co-ordnated Charge - charge with your ally (high entry requirements, but very good!)
Escape Route - good if we have someone relying on flanks.
Lookout - never be surprised (hopefully!).
Outflank - so good! Best done with one person crit fishing (TWf with 15-20 crit makes this feat v. silly! ;)) and someone else with a really big weapon like an earthbreaker!
Phalanx Fighter - great bonuses if we're all good and stay in formation.
Share Spells - a nice follow up to Bonded Mind, enables personal buff sharing.
Target of Opportunity - nice if people want to go ranged.
If people aren't interested in Teamwork feats then please say so, just thought it might be a good time for them! :)
Teamwork feats were also something I was wondering about since this seems like a good set up for that. But then, I also somehow tend to struggle getting all the feats I want with a human fighter, haha. Which also seems to be what I'm leaning towards. Maybe trying to see if I can make a heavy armored dual wielding swords type character and having fun with fighter's advanced armor/weapon training, but I have yet to see how feasible such a build is. I was considering going for a high crit weapon in there, but I may be trying to bite off more than I can chew in terms of feats that I want, in which case I'll have to decide what aspects I want to focus on. Though I do rather like Nik's outflank idea if HD is interested in being a high-damage character I could set up; I could definitely give up some of the damage-focused feats I was eyeing in favor of focusing on TWF and large crit ranges.
Another thing that's kind of at the top of my mind is that we'll probably want to be able to deal with flying enemies and enemies who can use AoE things like entangle to mess everything up. I'm not really sure what we're going to be fighting, but seems like approaching more with the mentality of fighting another group of PCs makes sense instead of just your average monster hoards.
I'm also wondering if knowledge skills to identify enemies are going to be at all useful in this. Or if we'll get a chance to watch the bouts of our competition to try to get a feel for what kind of tactics they use before we fight them.
Bards come with a lot of knowledge (normally at least!)
Artful Dodge can be a fun way of getting into TWF - lets you take TWF feats using Int rather than Dex, but armor training would make even heavy armor pretty good.
Roughly:
H: EWP (something good - I like Katanas)
F1: TWF
1: Double Slice
F2: Wp Foc
3: TW Defense?
F4: Wp Spec
5: Use feat for Advanced Weapons Training: Effortless Dual Wielding (count all weapons in group as light for TWF)
F6: Im TWF
7: Outflank
F8: Grtr Wp Foc
9: Improved Critical
F10: ?? (Bonded Mind?)
11: Grtr TWF
Even got a feat spare! :) With katanas you'd get
+17/+17/+12/+12/+7/+7, d8+6 15-20x2. Assuming 18str and basic katanas. Extra +4 if you flank someone :).
Worrying about other PC's is a fair point - I'm heading towards Oracle right now so I'll look into something with battlefield control/flying etc. Heaven's oracle possibly. Another things that's worth looking at is Celestial Mail (+9AC, good dex bonus and flight 1/day) - gives you a surprise flight when needed.
Yeah the big unknown will be in healing. Will we get to rest between fights. You know fights are easier to win if your not trying to conserve resources for the next one. Healing is not very effective in combat but could be very nice outside of combat. I won't have any feat room unfortunately but teamwork feats are cool.
@GM is crafting allowed? Not sure I have room for the feat/feats just wondering. Thank you.
@Nikolas:
Sure we could do something of a Hulk/Black Widow pair. Though I will say the mutagen personality will still be considerably more intelligent and eloquent than most people. In character I imagined the alchemist and his bestial alter-ego had something of an amicable relationship and the alchemist acts as his manger, lining up these sorts of bouts as an agreeable way for the beast to work off his aggression in a lucrative environment
Also, if you’re still interested in teamwork feats and a something of a leadership position, Holy Tactician Paladin might be a good fit.
@Everyone:
It is worth noting that in Performance Combat scenarios, healing during a fight can turn the crowd against us.
How are we doing HP?
@Nikolas:
Sure we could do something of a Hulk/Black Widow pair. Though I will say the mutagen personality will still be considerably more intelligent and eloquent than most people. In character I imagined the alchemist and his bestial alter-ego had something of an amicable relationship and the alchemist acts as his manger, lining up these sorts of bouts as an agreeable way for the beast to work off his aggression in a lucrative environmentAlso, if you’re still interested in teamwork feats and a something of a leadership position, Holy Tactician Paladin might be a good fit.
@Everyone:
It is worth noting that in Performance Combat scenarios, healing during a fight can turn the crowd against us.
I'm building an Outer Planes Oracle, in an attempt to cover the divine spells/healing side of things. At the moment I'm planning on taking bonded mind and share spells which lets me slap personal buffs like Righteous Might slapped on someone else if they take the feats too. I'm not really building a combat oracle so it would be a shame if I have to ignore all those lovely buffs! :)
He's going to be deaf, but his 11th level revelation is 100ft telepathy so that won't be an issue.
As to the Hulk/Black Widow idea - just a thought. Build the character the way you want and we'll go from there.
Current Party: Human Fighter (Anon)
Master Chymist (HD)
Sound Striker Bard (Ashe)
Dual Cursed Oracle (Niko)
Only thing I'm worried about is traps etc - can you squeeze an archetype in for that HD? Otherwise I think we're looking pretty good.
Other thing to decide - how long have we adventured together? Since my character is deaf it would obviously be helpful if some of us at least have been together a while (especially if someone else takes Bonded Mind and Share Spells).
@GM: on the healing question - what about status removal? Do we get healed between matches or is it a 'keep going till you die' type tournament where the only healing etc is whatever we provide?
Yeah, I can take Trap Breaker as an archetype for my Alchemist chunk. That should cover us.
I think we're good then - got the four major areas covered at least!
Main thing now will be co-ordinating teamwork feats and spell selection!
Alright, I'll be taking Awe-Inspiring Smash and investing in some Sunder feats to take advantage of that. So I should be rocking a +5 on performance combat checks and an additional 2+ depending on how I pick my targets. I've still got two open feat slots too.
@Nikolaus de'Shade - yes those races are fine.
@Anon A Mouse - some knowledges can be useful but there won't be a whole lot of that in this game.
@Ashe - there is no point to craft in a short game like this. You won't be able to purchase items at crafting prices so I don't see any reason to take it. This tournament lasts 5 days only.
@Master Han Del of the Web - Healing is fine, the crowd doesn't like magic spells that just due pure damage like magic missile and fireball, things like that.
HP is average. Max at first and average rounding up every other level. d8 classes take 4 each level after 1.
If I missed any questions let me know.
It is advised to bring something like a cure light wounds wand for out of combat healing between matches.
Are we going to level up in this module?
Nope.
Alright, this is what I'm working with so far. The he shouldn't be out of his mutant for combat unless something has gone very, very wrong. I haven't chosen his last two feats or his extracts. I'm looking at options to make him more tanky and give him some more fun combat options.
He's got Bombs (regular and void), claws (+16, 1d8+1d6+7 each), a bite (+15 3d6+7), and built in armor spikes (+15, 1d6+5)
I could drop Weapon Focus (Claws) and pick up the Uncivilized Tactics line of feats which would allow out monstrous friend to temporarily disable an opponent's limbs as a standard action. Extra Discovery to pick up Wings is a solid option. Also, Multiattack would let me take advantage of his iterative attack but would shuffle the natural attack chain up some.
Crafting would have been just to extend wealth thanks for letting me know.
Is Master Performer Allowed. Thanks again.
@Ashe - Yes that is fine.
wow been a bit since I looked at Sound Striker didn't realize the errata/nerf on weird words. I'm still providing range support/inspire courage as a archer bard, not taking as many bard level though. So will be range DPS and adding to everyone's attacks as well.
Correction on my earlier statement; I ment 5 hp every level after 1 for d8 classes. d6 takes 4 hp every level after 1.
I could drop Weapon Focus (Claws) and pick up the Uncivilized Tactics line of feats which would allow out monstrous friend to temporarily disable an opponent's limbs as a standard action. Extra Discovery to pick up Wings is a solid option. Also, Multiattack would let me take advantage of his iterative attack but would shuffle the natural attack chain up some.
I'd suggest Bonded Mind and Share Spells for your two remaining feats. Then I can hit you with Righteous Might and other similar buff spells!
Also - given that I'm playing a deaf oracle with telepathy I'm likely going to play some shennanigans based on the silence spell - we'll have to co-ordinate carefully Ashe :D
Read through those two, I can take Bonded Mind but it looks like you're the only one who needs to take Share Spells.
Read through those two, I can take Bonded Mind but it looks like you're the only one who needs to take Share Spells.
Didn't see that bit! Good stuff! :) I've got both so anyone who wants buffs (and to have been able to talk to my character before level 11) just needs Bonded Mind :D
I think I have most of the pieces for my character in place. Maybe have some gear juggling, but should be able to post a more-or-less complete character a little later tonight.
@Han Del: Do you want to be my flanking buddy and pick up outflank? My full attacks are going to be 6 attacks with a 15-20 crit range weapon. If not, that's fine; I'll just pick a different feat to grab.
@Nikolaus: Does your character know sign language? Since we have background skills, I figured I'd max out linguistics and pick that up as one of my languages. Especially since right now I don't have Bonded Mind.
@DM: How do you feel about campaign traits? Specifically, I'm looking at Serpent runner from Shattered Star. Both the TWF bonus and gladiator background work well for the character I'm making.
@Party: Is there anything we might want to buy as a group other than a wand of CLW?
No campaign traits.
Alright, I've updated with Outflank, Bonded Mind, and Multiattack after removing Weapon Focus (Claw). I don't have Combat Reflexes but striking with a claw attack as an AoO regularly should layer on some extra damage.
My attack routine should look like this:
Armor Spikes 1: +12 to hit, 1d6+11 damage
Claw 1: +10 to hit, 1d8+1d6+7 nonlethal damage
Claw 2: +10 to hit, 1d8+1d6+7 nonlethal damage
Bite: +10 to hit, 3d6+7 nonlethal damage
Armor Spikes 2: +7 to hit, 1d6+11 damage
If sundering, add +6 to hit and remove 1d6 from all natural attacks.
How does that look to everyone? I haven't played high level in a while and the ranges for reasonable attack and damage have escaped me.
This is Anon's character. Still need to linkify several things and I'm debating swapping out the reactionary trait for something else as well as trying to figure out if I want to drop a feat in favor of bonded mind (maybe piranha strike?). Also need to actually type up his background. If anybody has preferences for different languages learned, I'm open to changing those as well.
@Han Del: I have no idea about what appropriate damage levels are. Sorry. :/
Submitted Characters:
Anon A Mouse - Takeshi Yoshida - Fighter
My attack routine should look like this:
Armor Spikes 1: +12 to hit, 1d6+11 damage
Claw 1: +10 to hit, 1d8+1d6+7 nonlethal damage
Claw 2: +10 to hit, 1d8+1d6+7 nonlethal damage
Bite: +10 to hit, 3d6+7 nonlethal damage
Armor Spikes 2: +7 to hit, 1d6+11 damageIf sundering, add +6 to hit and remove 1d6 from all natural attacks.
How does that look to everyone? I haven't played high level in a while and the ranges for reasonable attack and damage have escaped me.
Compared to the fighter I outlined a few posts back your accuracy is low, but that's accounted for by your not being full BAB and missing weapon focus. I'd say it looks good overall.
Quick question, I've never used a Permanency on a spell, but I hear you can get a +5 Magic Fang made permanent for only 8100 gp. Is this too cheesy/is the dispelling of Permanency a common threat?
No permanency spells for this game. Let's avoid getting too cheesy and min/max.
Righto. I'm still tweaking the build and looking at options to improve efficacy but apart from my Extracts, I'm done.
I'll throw together some fluff a bit later.
Not my finest fluff-work but It is late and I have had a very long day flying back home. I'll make another pass or two tomorrow after work to elaborate and flesh out.
Between some variation in my attack patterns and various bits of buffing, I am (cautiously) optimistic about how this build is going to play out.
Now I really need sleep
I think Takeshi is pretty much done. Ended up swapping out some of his gear, one of his traits, and dropping piranha strike for bonded mind. Fluff has been added as well.
Morning all, sorry was away this weekend. I will be finished up this morning or early afternoon.
Aayalla is ready. Didn't do any backstory or fluff yet, will work on that. She carries our Flag/Banner of Ancient kings, so we need a team name and some heraldry :)
Characters & Marching Order
Anon A Mouse - Takeshi Yoshida - Fighter
Ashe - Aayalla Rand - Monk, Alchemist, Bard
Nikolaus de'Shad - Say'ri Al Bashere - Oracle
Professor Guilliam de Creth - Han Del of the Web - Alchemist, Master Chymist
OK, let's get your marching order set. Most of the time you will be put in the ring top to bottom or left to right, on occasion double stacked 2 in front and 2 in back. Please come up with an order you'd like to be placed.
Make sure your characters are up to date as of tomorrow morning when I put up our first post.
I would probably like to be in a position closest to the other team. So assuming the top-bottom or left-right formations are for both teams, one of the middle two positions for those and then in the front row for the double stacked formation.
@Aayalla: With Int 12, I believe you should know a 2nd language.
I have no suggestions for team names, but for our flag, maybe we could have a shield split in to 4 quadrants and we each pick an image representing us for a quadrant? Mine would probably be something like crossed kukri (ignore the 3rd kukri in that image, and the points would be facing down instead of up). Maybe with some kind of flourish in there. If we do do a shield, a nice checkered color pattern would work well with that. Maybe blue and silver? Or something and silver, so my quadrant could have silver blades with the other color as the background.
So Takeshi 1 & Say'ri 4
Égaré in slot 2
Please dot and delete the gameplay thread with your character alias you plan to play with. Make sure you have selected your character image so I can pull them as your tokens.
Characters & Marching Order
Anon A Mouse - Takeshi Yoshida - Fighter
Han Del of the Web - Égaré - Alchemist, Master Chymist
Ashe - Aayalla Rand - Monk, Alchemist, Bard
Nikolaus de'Shad - Say'ri Al Bashere - Oracle
OK, what is your team name?