The Gauntlet of Malum (Inactive)

Game Master rorek55

so, for those of you who made it this far, I've recently gotten the Idea to do a gauntlet game of sorts. That, by its very nature would consist of a bit of power gaming. Now Now, don't leave just yet! You haven't heard the juicy bits yet!

so, here is the hook. You will be starting out a a level 6 character, you will, for a deity's entertainment ( a certain god of chaos, discord, and mischief, named Malum, my own making) fight solo against creatures hand picked by me, to test your characters ability. you will fight, receiving no rests, until you win the gauntlet (and so a small reward!) or die. At which point, you will be resurrected, and forced into another gauntlet, after receiving a power boost.

now, more about the rules, regulations, and how it will function.
1. Each character will be given the exact same fights, in the same type of area.
2. Creatures will be chosen from CR's of your level +/- 1, so at level 6, you could face anything from CR5, to CR7.
3. the "arena" will be different at least every gauntlet, if not every fight.
4. You will have free reign of all official Paizo material, NO 3PP will be allowed.
5. You will go from level 6, to level 12, to level 16, and end at level 20. doing a gauntlet run for each. at level 20, creatures can be chosen from as high as CR 23.
6. You will be given WBL for your level at the start, and then awarded wealth enough to cover the difference for each advancement.
7. You will be allowed 2 rounds in between each fight, though you need not take them.
8. I would rather we stick with a single class, with perhaps a 1 or 2 level dip. PrCs however are fine.
9. I will only being taking 1 of a class, and will likely base this on a first come first serve basis.
10. You will be allowed to craft items. If you can make the DC, and afford it with the proper feats, you craft it.
11. The only houserules I will be using are those of the Elephant in the room feat tax rules and an automatic feat progression I wish to test out. The feat progression works as follows- If there is a chain of feats (X, Improved X, Greater X) once you take feat X, you gain the improved/greater versions for free as soon as you meet all of their prerequisites.
12. If you have ever been itching to test out a build, or just let your inner munchkin out, this is the time to do so.
13. You will keep the same character throughout, and advance them normally.

Now then, if you are still here, the following are the build Rules.
Level 6
25 pt buy, no min or max stat limiyd
Races: Core + aasimar, teifling, tengu, Oread, Undyne, Slyph, Ifrit,
HP: max 1st, half HD+1 for the rest.
traits: 2, no drawback
Feat tax rules in effect.
no 3pp.
weatlh: WBL
Crafting: Allowed, you must have the feats, and be able to meet the DCs with an 11+modifier.
Archetypes are allowed.
At most, only two of the same class will be accepted, and that is still highly unlikely.
the First person to finish a character, gets first dibs on the class. So, it player A finishes his Fighter before player B, Player A will have priority over Player B.
I WILL play the creatures I pick in a mix of two spirits, 1, in the spirit of the creature, and 2, with an intent to kill you. (In a friendly, for fun kinda way)

If you have any questions, feel free to ask away.

Hmmm, super interesting. It sounds like on this one only a minimal background is needed, you just need the build, correct?

Ah, Damn. I'm not sure I can access my PC before Monday. I'll try to have something thought out by then.

Here you go then, one half elf synthesist summoner. She has crafted all of her wondrous items, she cannot fail the check assuming an 11 on the dice.

I have assumed she can be fused with her eidolon and has cast mage armour, barkskin and activated her heroism scroll.

Background is optional, I may deign to add a bit of fun conversation between you and the deity and or the more intelligent creatures.

Also, recruitment will run for around 2 weeks. Or until no more interest is being shown. I'll be taking up to 8 players, I would like to take more, but even with the combat focus more than that may get too difficult to run.

We will assume 3 rounds of time for pre buffing at the start of the first fight.

Dot

Dotting as well. Likely a hydrokineticist, as this one got left behind in a campaign when I got sick a while back. Curious/ excited to try a high level kineticist!

Here is my Sorcerer/Dragon Disciple submission Ibriham Al Ramba.

I don't suppose the dimensional line of feats qualifies for your house ruled feat progression.

You mean the one ending in dimensional Savant?

You mean the one ending in dimensional Savant?

Yes

Hmm. Yes for now, I'd like to keep it to specific improved/greater chains. After I see some tests with it like this I will decide what to do with it.

I submit...

I could be convinced to submit a different build (a rogue)

How do you qualify for precise shot without point blank?

Also potions of see invisibility are sadly not legal as its a personal spell.

He is correct on the potion of see invisibility being illegal technically.

However, using the feat tax rules gets rid of point blank shot, and changes several other things.

And I would like the kineticist, always wanted to see how they hold up in the mid to late game, the numbers and abilities seem good, but haven't had the chance yet.

Also, I will ask for everyone to list out the price of each item they purchase, if you crafted said item, please denote it with a (C). Example: belt of giant strength +2 (2000g/2k) (c),

Also, I believe I will test out a couple of extra homebrew things, for a couple classes.

Fighter- fighters gain the following changes-
Fighters gain access to additional advanced weapon training abilities.
1- master weaponsmith, functions as master armorer save for weapons.
2- gain access to dispelling strike, this ability functions exactly as a barbarians sunder magic rage ability, save that the fighter can use it a number of times per day equal to double his weapon training bonus.
3- spirit warrior becomes an EX ability, instead of an Su.

Fighters gain perception and acrobatics as class skills.

Sorcerers- sorcerers gain their bloodline spells as soon as they gain access to that level of spell, (so they gain their 3rd level bloodline spell at 6)

That is all for now, nothing to big, but a couple of things I wanted to see the outcome of.

Will any of the arenas be underwater?

In that case, I will stick with Kineticist, so as to alleviate your curiosity.

I thought the feat thing was just for regular/improved/greater style feats. If it is applying to other feat chains what is included?

Point Blank/Precise/Rapid/Many/Improved Precise
Spell Focus/Greater Spell Focus
Spell Pen/Grater Spell Pen
Metamagic/Metamagic/Metamagic/Spell Perfection
Style Trees?

feat tax rules.
Use these rules, I've merely made an additional rule that any improved/greater feat chain reliant on BaB prerequisites (or an equivalent thereof) are gained for free at the level you meet the prerequisites like the two weapon fighting feats.

There may be areas of an arena that are underwater, or at least in water. However this won't be the case until at least the level 12 run.

Aha, I get to save a feat on power attack then.

Although I hadn't posted anything previously, I'm playing around with my third build for this (well, fourth, but the first idea was yet another kineticist and apparently those are surprisingly popular this time around) and am currently looking at a Warpriest.

Are background skills allowed? It didn't matter for my previous ideas (alchemist and fighter,) but now apparently it does for crafting purposes.

Will any of the battles be as a team, or will it just be a round-robin of solo matches?

Dotting for interest. Was initially thinking kineticist, but as that's taken, perhaps warpriest.

I may make a finale at level 20, or a finale for some of or all of the guantlet runz, where everyone fights an exceptionally hard enemy. (Based on paizo, HA!)

And sure, I didn't think about it much but background skills are fine, as skill checks may be relevant for a lot of folks.

You have my interest. I am thinking about a golem crafting/undead raising/summoning and generally critter focused wizard. It's frequently toted as one of the reasons Wizards are a tier above all others, and this sounds like a good way to test that without ruining anybody's day.

Indeed, I'd love to see how you do at level 6 and 12. It will also give me a reason to break out the construct rules again and re read over them, (just as the broken creature that is the synthist summoner haha)

I'm not sure about this. Would you rule that "Augment Summoning" and other feats/spells meant to apply to Summon Monster, applies to creatures summoned with the Servitor line of spells? Servitor seems to be the wordcasting variant of Summon Monster, right down to having exactly the same summon list.

Right, here's the creatively named Falcatania, Warpriest of Irori who's ready to do some killing in the arena. Let me know if it looks like there's anything off!

Do we have an idea of about how many fights we'd be going up against at each level if we make it through the gauntlet (like 5ish, 10ish, 20ish?)

Crunch for my warpriest, Thorak, half-orc follower of Horus:

Still need to pick cantrips, and spend a little more gold on some consumables. Let me know if I messed anything up!

Also, it turns out my build will be using EXACTLY 16,000 gp on constructs, which is my entire budget.

This, rather awkwardly, leaves me with no money for things likes clothes....

I'll try and make sure my wizard has a decent charisma score, if there's room in the budget.

I will submit a Paladin for this gauntlet.

Oooh, if this is still open it might just be an excellent place to try my battle Cleric build! I will try to get Sir Aether the Indomitable ready within the timeframe alloted!

Quick question, you mentioned getting 2 rounds between each fight. Do we also get such before each fight?

And do we need all the builds immediately or just the level 6 one?

just the level 6 build required for now.

you get 2 rounds between each combat, that is all. (so, two turns worth of actions before initiative will be rolled again)

I think that Edge93 was asking about the prep before the fight. It looked like you had said 3 rounds for that.

Submitting Mu Ridenhou, the Level 6 Paladin.

I am not sure if our GM will be using it but the Ring of Seven Lovely Colours was nerfed in a PFS campaign clarification to automatically break the polymorph effect if you attack while under it.

See here

I used a random name generator and this was legitimately the name I got. I'm keeping it.

I'm nearing completion, need to finish up my spell list, buy some scrolls with Hedge Magician money after I discovered that trait, and put my constructs in a nice format. Might make some separate aliases for them.

@rorek55 Could I get an answer on whether Servitor spells count for Augment Summoning?

what about VMC?

If words of power are allowed, I can't see Unchained material being banned.

As for the Words of Power user, if all you want are standard action summons, have you checked out the Academe Graduate feat?

It is a nice feat, to be sure, but I'm also wanted to get access to Words of Power's scaling Mage Armor equivalents for the future runs once I've got a nice CL. I'd also like a few other cherry picked Words of Power effects. Given that it's going to take a few feats to get everything I want, figured it would be a good idea to start early.

Also, don't count your chickens on Unchained yet, because I guess I technically should have asked whether Words of Power are allowed.

"You will have free reign of all official Paizo material" made me assume yes, but, I could be wrong.

Let me see about making a half-orc dirty fighter. That should be fun.

do I understand correctly, that the total time of one gauntlet is in the range of several minutes?

I want to reserve the bard class.
I'll submit an Ifrit Arrowsong Minstrel bardic archer maybe today, maybe tomorrow.
But I will be away traveling until Jan 5th. And won't be able to start playing before that.

Let me check the feat progression option
Since Improved Trip is replaced by Deft Maneuvers, Does picking up Deft Maneuver automatically lead to Greater trip?
Do style feats also count as linear feat lines that qualify?
(Shield Gauntlet Style>Shielded Gauntlet Attack>Shielded Gauntlet Master)

I'm guessing non linear feats like Viscous Stomp (assuming I have the Improved unarmed) doesn't come for free.

Sorry all, holidays taking up time as always (not that I'm complaining mind)

I'll go ahead and make an addendum to the feat progression, for the sake of ease of use, for now assume that only feat chains with either BaB or skill rank prerequisites count for it. (So, you would get them at the level you meet the BaB or skill rank prerequisites) style feats even with the above conditions are to work under normal rukes for now. (This may change, as the way paizo did style feats is so inconsistent and strange, and I don't have time to look over every style and arrange it accordingly at set intervals. So for now, use it only for feats with improved/greater in their name and have the above mentioned conditions.

As for combat maneuvers, you only gain one greater maneuver feat once you meet the prerequisites. (So you get one greater version, any others require feats)

As I've never used words of power, I'm hesitant, I'll have to look over that bit when I can get a little more time. As alternative system rules are imo different from normal paizo product.

For servitor, if words are a go, yes that would work with augment summons, however the creature still wouldn't get an action until your next turn.

To further simplify things, I'll change the time between each battle to one minute.

Gauntlet runs will vary in length depending on which level you are at, I've not decided on a set number, but assume at least 5 fights for level 6, likely a few more.

Selections wont be made for at least another week, and likely the game wont start any sooner than January 11th(give or take a day or two for unseen circumstances)

Did I miss anyones questions?

Here is

In terms of timing, a minute to set up at the start would be lovely, but will we still be able to pass on the time between fights if we want to? I'm looking at trying to make better use of shorter duration buffs.

No, the "break time" in between fights will be the same for all. It shouldn't matter too much at the later levels once the min/level spells hit 10+ minutes.

Presumably none of the 3PP replacement archetypes for the Unchained Monk would be allowed ... ?

Gotta withdraw my application, sadly. You all have fun!

You realize that summons that are summoned with a standard action get to act on the turn they're summoned, right?