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.
No androids.
Please discuss in the discussion thread, thank you.
yeah, thought the link was to the discussion thread. just realized it was the gameplay. sorry!
hey guys! i was thinking about playing a counterspelling arcanist or wizard, but i'll play whatever if someone else had their heart set on arcane caster.
edit: i just realized it's a martial tournament. did you mean to say that only damaging spells are looked down upon or that the use of non-damaging spells is frowned upon?
You can bring them, but it is looked down upon. But no rules say you can't.
Hello Everyone :D thanks for having me
If possible I would like to play a Tengu Warpriest (Sacred Fist) of Hei Feng (CN Patreon God of the Tengu Race; god of the sea, storms, thunder, and wind of the Tian Xia Pantheon). My idea would be to wield a Nine-Ring Broadsword utilizing its monk weapon quality so i can use it for my flurry of blows and put an emphasis on performance combat, since I have found this really flavorful magic item called "Crackling Tassel" which goes well with the theme of the character and gives me a nice bonus to performance combat checks and crane style fighting.
The role I would fill in a team would be a supportive melee character with the ability to adapt and react to a lot of different situations while rallying the crowd and gaining us their favor.
That character sounds like a lot of fun to play in my opinion, I'll be fleshing him out a little bit today, but I want to wait until everyone got a chance to state what they would like to play, before I finish/post him. If someone else is hellbent on playing a cleric or warpriest I'd be willing to come up with something else ;D
Also it's a team effort, maybe we could get a ton of synergy with some teamwork feats?
- Probably the Teamwork Feat Broken Wing Gambit would be fun, I'd fight defensively with Cranestyle and Broken Wing Gambit and every time someone tries to attack us all the others would get a attack of opportunity, that paired with maybe something like Combat Reflexes or Paired Opportunist sounds hella strong. Also Wounded Paw Gambit if we have ranged Damage Dealers ^^
- Intercept Charge sounds nice too, kinda messes with the enemies advance.
- Out of the Sun would be a nasty surprise coupled with a Rogue.
What do you think? Those are a lot of feats, especially for classes without bonus feats, but I'd be willing to give it a try and take about 1-2 teamwork feats if one or more of you are game :D
Any other Ideas for group synergy?
I can't wait to hear what you guys and girls want to play!
Two Questions I have;
- for monks and rogues unchained or not (because I'd have to read into those rules)?
- how do we calculate hp? 1stHD full, then half / roll them up / something entirely different?
With best regards
Nemroider
interesting. in light of the more martial focus of the scenario, i was also considering monk. though i was planning on going unchained monk and dealing damage. i'm also willing to coordinate some teamwork feats.
@Nemroider - yes unchained is allowed. HP is max level 1 and average every level after that rounded up every other level. d8 classes get 4 every level after 1st.
Correction on my earlier statement; I ment 5 hp every level after 1 for d8 classes. d6 takes 4 hp every level after 1.
Still waiting for the other 2 to accept. I'll give them some time but for the most part all 4 players for this table has been selected.
Hi all, count me in!
Cuatroespada, if you've got a good idea for an arcanist type, feel free. Casters are my favorite but I'll play anything that works well with the party.
Nemroider, are you thinking of doing a pair of monk-style fighters with teamwork feats? I would be interested but would have to do some quick reading. I've looked at the teamwork feats in the past but never got a chance to play them.
Hey Radrick :D
Not necessarily monks, I think almost any melee class would work with Broken Wing Gambit and Paired Opportunist , Combat Reflexes would be the icing on the cake of course.
Imagine everyone using Broken Wing Gambit, when the enemy attacks anyone, all others in range would get a AoO, which would lead to all others in range to make an AoO and so forth at a +4 bonus to hit. I think it would work best with 2 characters soloing on 1 enemy, it's an ideal scenario of course and I don't know if we'd be able to use it all that often, just sounds awesome in my head. Also the enemy would have to be kind of stupid to fall for the trap more than once, in addition it is not viable for any ranged chars or casters. Plus there is the disadvantage of taking more dmg more often.
Maybe it is worth a thought on the melee chars in the group or I am imagining it way better than it is gonna turn out. What do you think?
The other Team work feats I was thinking about would be coordinated charge which would require at least two full BAB melee characters in the group who specialize heavily on Team Work Feats or a Pack Rager Barbarian xD but I don't think we will be encountering any Gnolls or Orcs in this Tournament ^^
Maybe Intercept Charge to protect a vulnerable caster or ranged fight from being charged, is not too bad of an idea, but I think at this level the opponents will have other ways to get into melee than to charge head on into the enemies :P
Just collecting some thoughts, maybe you do have an idea that you do really like. I think we can work something out.
I like the thought of our group having fought in the qualifiers and having adapted to each others styles of combat tho ^^
well if someone plays a cavalier (order of the bro dragon or cockatrice would be ideal) the rest of us need to invest less in teamwork feats.
i would be willing to play a cavalier.
@cuatroespada if u want to play a cavalier thats great :D i guess you are right.
Do we know if these arena fights are big enough for mounts/ Do we know if mounts are allowed to fight along their master during the Tournament? Or would that be part of the no animal companion rule ? A cavalier without a mount is only so so useful, is there a archetype for cavalier without mount? maybe the sword saint samurai?
No mounts or companions are allowed in the fights. If you want to have one that is fine, just not allowed as an entry.
I am also setting your character development deadline 7/17/2018
This deadline might be extended because we have not heard from 'Captain collateral damage' yet.
yeah, if i do a cavalier it will probably be a daring champion. trades out mount and related stuff for swashbuckler stuff.
but i'm still pretty up in the air about what to play. if everyone is interested in playing a melee character and we're going to use teamwork feats i'll feel more inclined to do cavalier or maybe fighter with Cavalier VMC.
I'm here, just been a bit busy so I forgot to make a post here. :/
I currently have a bloodrager/dragon disciple character who's at level 10, but I'm willing to play whatever suits the party best. :)
Nemroider, What do you think about a Tandem Trip build? With Greater Trip it generates AoO's. Would that stack with Paired Opportunists?
I guess it would be flavorful to go full melee party, since it is a martial art tournament and all. I do suspect we will have to deal with flying enemies at some point tho, not uncommon for 11th level. So if we have abilities to beat those I think we can go full melee otherwise we will need ranged dmg of some sort. Just something we will probably have to consider.
If I'll stick with the character concept in my mind I'll be able to fly for like 1 encounter per day, but that is about it.
If everyone wants to do melee I think we can make that work, if someone wants to play something else other than melee fighters they are more than welcome to do so in my opinion :D
Radrick if you are willing to go for a trip build you can certainly count on my support with the tandem trip feat which sounds really nice, tho I myself do not really want to invest to heavily in the trip feat chain, since as a warpriest I am already very multi ability dependant and I don't think I will be able to muster the intelligence to go for combat expertise. As for Paired Opportunist, we will get 1 AoO at +4 to hit, but I do not think we will get multiple AoO out of one trip due to the wording of the feat. Maybe I am wrong...
A Dragon Disciple sounds awesome :)
well i also considered doing a luring musketeer cavalier with a gunslinger dip which would give us some range and still allow us to coordinate teamwork feats.
if you were planning on grabbing broken wing gambit, then we could get wounded paw too.
So I have done some building and my Feat list can support two Teamwork Feats at 5th and 9th level.
So any Combination of Paired Opportunist/ Tandem Trip/ Broken Wing Gambit would be doable. Alternatively I could do Broken Wing Gambit into Broken Paw Gambit.
What do you guys think, do you want to go for some teamwork feats or do you need your feats otherwise?
best regards,
Nemroider
Characters Submitted
Captain collateral damage - Sol Drakescale - Bloodrager/Dragon Disciple
if you guys pick up some teamwork feats, i suggest outflank and paired opportunist.
couldn't work out a ranged build that granted useful teamwork feats for you guys. ended up using tactician to grant some teamwork feats that help me at range. depending on what you guys want to do though i might still change it up. as of right now though i have a switch hitting luring musketeer cavalier build worked up.
I took Tandem Trip and Paired Opportunists.
I was going to take Disorienting Maneuver but I'll switch to Outflank instead.
So I will be taking what exactly now? Tandem Trip and Paired Opportunist or Paired Opportunist and Outflank?
okay, so i have two cavalier builds for you guys.
the first is the luring musketeer and is a high damage dealing switch hitter (w/dazzling display for a little support).
the other is a bow using luring musketeer that is mostly supportive, but will be a significant boost to your ACs as well as granting a pseudo charge (or an ac bonus or attack bonus) once per combat.
i'm totally down to play either, so you guys can pick. feel free to ask anything about either. i can post the full builds for you if you want them.
edit: also, the reason i suggested outflank and paired opportunist is that the hit bonus from outflank is maybe only slightly less good than roll two take the better for the person doing the tripping and much better for the other person. i think it makes less sense to have more than one of you seriously invested in trip, so this way the teamwork feats you have equally benefit whatever fighting styles you choose for your characters. but that's just my 2¢.
Okay I see now, makes sense :D good input
I don't know what Radrick has been brewing together so far, but I am not a high damage dealer. I went for a fight active Warpriest being able to adapt depending on the types of foe we encounter with a lot of buffs (mainly to self-buff with fervor) and also resist energy communal and blessing of fervor. Also a bit of healing and due to spontaneous casting and fervor if needed.
So I think a dmg dealer would be neat, based on my evaluation. But I do not know how high dmg / defensive / supportive our other group chars are.
What kind of bonus to AC (dodge, morale, etc.) would your supportive char grant us?
+7 untyped via aid another. (maybe +8 depending on second trait)
also, GM DS, it says above that lethality is discouraged, does that mean we should seriously consider investing in the ability to do non-lethal damage or that we should simply refrain from killing anyone except where appropriate?
Just don't kill. The crowd likes honest fights.
OK, So my build is not high damage. I knock them down and disarm, (sweeping maneuver lets me do both as a standard action) then sucker punch when they try to get up. Rinse and repeat. A heavy hitter to keep them down would be good, keeping in mind to not kill.... BTW, Greater Trip gives anyone in range an AoO as they go down! So whoever is teaming with me may be getting some AoO's.
As for non-lethal, a monk using unarmed strike chooses between lethal or non-lethal damage. My weapons are for tripping and disarming attacks which deal no damage.
I'm AC22 before getting any buffs from anyone.
Other question: After covering my equipment I have 4600 GP left over. Any suggestions?
And can anyone cover healing between events?
+8 dayum xD
Awesome,so for teaming up with you I have Paired Opportunist, Outflank and Combat Reflexes at +2 I think we should be good with that?
I can cover the healing easily, about the same as a level 8 cleric spellwise, plus I can channel 4d6 energy AoE depending on how many fervor uses I have left at the end of the day.
Though I do not know how many fights we have to expect per day. Mind you I do not have level 5 spells yet, so no raise dead...
Mh can't think of anything in particular right now, maybe some flavor stuff (e.g. I went for a tengu drinking jug).
yeah, i saw overwatch style and cover fire and thought it would be fun to do the thing with the aid bonuses...
looks like Dahn Long will be the better fit though since we need damage and Ji-Min doesn't really deal any.
Characters & Marching Order
Captain collateral damage - Sol Drakescale - Bloodrager, Dragon Disciple
Nemroider - Kurasu - Warpriest
AGM Lemming - Radrick Anon - Monk
cuatroespada - Tran Danh Long - Gunslinger, Cavalier
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 Wednesday morning when I put up our first post.
My suggestion would be as follows:
1. Sol - because he has the most hitpoints and I think AC wise we are kinda all equal
2. Radrick - because he has good movement and maneuvers
3. Kruasu - because I want to stay next to Radrick (but do not want to be in the front row due to probably casting a Spell in the first round of combat)
4. Danh - Ranged Fighter
So our marching orders would be:
12
34
1234
1
2
3
4
any other ideas or amendments?
could you deactivate cuatroespada from the campaign so Danh shows up at the top of my alias list please?
and that seems fine for a marching order.
hey Radrick it looks like you have 3 teamwork feats. i haven't seen Kurasu's build since it isn't up yet, but from what we've been told there was only room for 2 teamwork feats in it so you might be wasting one unless i'm missing something. just fyi
EDIT: also, since we still have time to tweak, have you considered a level of brawler so you can have a flex feat that can become various maneuver feats as you need?
where should i post the char sheet? haven't seen anyone elses so far, so i have pmed the DM
edit: oh right I just edit the Alias, my bad xD
its true I have Paired Opportunist and Outflank.
I don't think brawler can be taken together with monk since it is a hybrid class of monk and fighter, which can not multi-class with their parent classes as far as I am informed.
That is correct you cannot, because Brawler has monk as one of its parent classes. Just like you can't multi-class fighter and brawler.
actually, that was something they did during the playtest, but the final release didn't have that rule.
Parent Classes: Each one of the following classes lists two classes that it draws upon to form the basis of its theme. While a character can multiclass with these parent classes, this usually results in redundant abilities. Such abilities don’t stack unless specified. If a class feature allows the character to make a one-time choice (such as a bloodline), that choice must match similar choices made by the parent classes and vice-versa (such as selecting the same bloodline). The new classes presented here are all hybrids of two existing core or base classes.
Fair enough, but I do find that a cheesy way to get around things. Do what you please.
not to be combative, but i'm not sure what things it's "getting around" here... it's just using the normal multiclassing rules.
Players have an obsession with Martial Flex, and it's just something you guys tend to do. You can if you want but there is no need to overly optimize for this module.
oh okay you were talking about martial flexibility specifically. i guess i get that, but to me it seems less like people are obsessed with martial flex and more like the system encourages specialization to the point that many tactical choices cease to be realistic options very quickly if they aren't your specialty. martial flex sort of fixes that and allows you to continue choosing your actions based on tactics rather than having to say "disarming (or whathaveyou) would be way better right now if i stood a chance at pulling it off, but i'm specced to trip, so i guess i'll do that."
At 11th level Monk I get Sweeping Maneuver as a standard action. That's what lets me trip and disarm at the same time.
I think I will remove Tandem Trip. Even if someone else had done it the benefit isn't that great for me. I get the roll twice and take the better number from Reliable Maneuver. I think instead I should take some other "Improved XXXXX", then if someone tries to use it on me I get an AoO before they get their attack, from Maneuver Defense. Thoughts? Improved Grapple?
Main weakness I see with this build is against other than people and a lack of ranged offense.
what about reposition? it'll help you and kurasa maintain a flank.
also, and this really isn't a huge deal to me because touch ac and sol is melee, but prone targets are harder to shoot.
Being Grappled does indeed suck, but monk CMD should be pretty high even without the +2, the additional AoO is awesome tho.
As for suggestions/ ideas; does vicious stomp stack with improved trip? deflect arrows would give you an edge over ranged foes. Can't think of anything else but improved grapple seems perfectly fine too.
edit: true reposition sounds good too. well i guess he will not be able to trip all the enemies in a fight at once, so I suspect there will be a fair amount of standing targets to aim at :D
oh i just had an idea. i don't really need enfilading fire. i grabbed it because i realized i was never going to use whatever i had before.
anyway, i can get paired opportunists in that spot and give it to everyone during combat. that way sol (and me when i melee) can benefit from the attacks of opportunity you guys generate for each other with outflank if we're all on the same target. mostly it helps you guys help sol do damage better increasing the overall teamwork synergy of the team.
edit: i meant to suggest broken wing gambit for you guys in place of paired opportunists if i take it to grant to everyone which i think i should. i need the help in melee more than at range.
Hmmm.... I like reposition. It works great with Outflank just like Trip works with Paired Opportunists if they try to stand back up. Maybe I should drop Greater Trip and take both.... ??
That all sounds great, but gotta remember that we aren't supposed to kill!