Super Pathfinder Brawl - Main Lobby

Game Master Nairb the Grey

Current Recruitment details:

Super Pathfinder Brawl!

Theorycrafting is a huge part of tabletop games, but too often it seems like some of the most epic builds we create end up as just fun ideas and never see a gaming table. With that in mind, I am opening up a Pathfinder Brawl tournament.

Tournament Rules:

The first and most important rule will be that everyone make every effort to separate player from character knowledge. You will be aware of your opponent's position at almost all times. You may also be aware of some of their strategy. You will be expected to play your character acting only on the information he or she has. At any time you are not competing in good faith you will be issued a Yellow Card, which will result in a sizable debuff for the remainder of that combat, or you may be issued a Red Card and immediately forfeit that round.

Each round you will be paired in a 1v1 deathmatch with one other competitor. The winner of that deathmatch will receive victory points equal to your current character level (1pt at lvl 1, 2pts at lvl 2, and so on). In the unlikely event of a simultaneous KO the combatants will split the victory points.

Battlemaps you compete on may provide special buffs or debuffs complicating your combat.

After each match both combatants will be magically transported to a waiting room where the loser will be revived and both participants will be fully healed.

At regular intervals (lvls 1, 5, 10, 15, and 20) there will then be a team play round where you may be paired with one or more teammates to see how your build plays with others. Every combatant on the winning team will again receive victory points equal to your current character level. Alternatively, at some levels you might participate in a multiple participant battle royale, 1v1v1v...v1.

After all matches in a particular round are completed and all characters are healed, you will then level up to the next level, upgrade old gear and purchase new gear to bring your WBL to an appropriate level and the next round will begin. Lather, rinse, repeat. Each level you will receive the difference between the previous level’s WBL and the next level’s. In addition, at no time can combat consumables make up more than 10% of your total wealth except for level 1 where you may have 1 scroll or potion costing no more than 50 gp. Also, no single item can make up more than 50% of your total wealth at any level.

As you level you may also sell back gear that you are no longer using. Standard 50% sell back rates apply. Because of this if you do a lot of sell back and use a lot of consumables you may end up significantly below the curve on WBL. Be aware of this.

At the end, wherever we decide to end, the player with the most victory points will win! You will walk away with a virtual trophy *OOooh, AAaaah* and bragging rights.

Build Rules:

This is a tournament of heroes! So, we will be going with 25pt buy builds. You may take 2 non-campaign traits. No traits may be taken that adjust the amount of your starting gold or provide you with equipment or equipment upgrades for free. This helps balance everyone’s wealth and makes it easier for me to give everyone the same amount of money as they level.

All Paizo Classes are available, but no 3pp materials. Guns? Occult? Summoners chained and unchained? All fair game.

For races, I tend to think that the race inequalities shake out within the first few levels of gameplay. With the tournament rules the way they are, sweeping levels 1-4 won’t matter much in the long run. For that reason, any paizo race with racepoints less than or equal to 19 is fair game. I know there are some really cool RP unknown races on the pfsrd, but there has to be a line somewhere.

It is 19 specifically so that Kasatha will be off-limits. The one racial ability that I think has real staying power is having more than 2 arms.

HP will be max for level one and then 1/2 hit die rounded up for all subsequent levels (d6=4, d8=5, etc). We will not be rolling for hp because I want to remove that randomness from the tournament and subsequent tier list.

Start your builds at level 1, but have an idea of a leveling path in mind. You don’t have to tell me, but you won’t have a ton of time to level up your character between fights, so having most of those decisions made ahead of time will help.

Starting wealth is 175 gp for every character. This puts everyone on the same page starting wealth wise and make additional wealth as you level easier.

Alignment is 100% open. The normal don’t be a d*** pbp rules do not apply here. You are meant to be evil and kill your opponent, so if you want to build and evil character then bring it.

Background is fairly unimportant since this will be more roll-playing than roleplaying, but there may be some light rping in between combats or while you guys wait for others to finish up...so having an idea of your voice would help. A full 10 minute background is not required...but maybe just a rough outline of their personality and appearance.

I plan to have recruitment open for 2 weeks, after which the maximum even number of builds following the build rules will be selected. Because this is a PVP unfortunately an odd submission would mean an odd man out each round, and that doesn’t really work. So if we get an odd number of completed submissions, I will be picking one of them at random to sit out the competition. Otherwise though, if you submit then you are in. Because of this I will be limiting submissions to one per player, so that everyone has a fair chance of winning the bragging rights and there is no chance of you being pitted against yourself.

Additional Wealth as you level:

Each level you will receive the below additional wealth:
Level 2 - 825gp
Level 3 - 2000gp
Level 4 - 3000gp
Level 5 - 4500gp
Level 6 - 5500gp
Level 7 - 7500gp
Level 8 - 9500gp
Level 9 - 13000gp
Level 10 - 16000gp
Level 11 - 20000gp
Level 12 - 26000gp
Level 13 - 32000gp
Level 14 - 45000gp
Level 15 - 55000gp
Level 16 - 75000gp
Level 17 - 95000gp
Level 18 - 120000gp
Level 19 - 155000gp
Level 20 - 195000gp

Post Rate:

Because these are purely combat there is the potential for them to go rather quickly if both you and your combatant are online at the same time. I would still only request 1 post per day on weekdays though. If you do not post within 48 hours when it is your turn you will forfeit that combat unless you have communicated with the GM by private message ahead of time. If you forfeit two combats in this way you will be removed from the competition.

At the end of a combat round if we end up with an odd number of combatants because someone has been removed from the competition, the combatant with the lowest number of victory points will receive a bye for one round and automatically receive victory points as if they tied with their combatant that round (1/2 character level). If there is still an odd number of combatants after that round, the combatant that received the bye will be removed from the competition to keep the combatant number even.

If this occurs and there is a tie for the lowest number of victory points, the combatant receiving the bye and in danger of automatic elimination will be decided at random.

Answers to questions during build will be posted in the campaign info tab as well as responded to in recruitment.

Answers to questions asked during recruitment:

Upgrading details: You will be able to upgrade magical items without selling them back (so the 6k option in your example). The only exception is enchantments cannot be transfered, so the base item and any existing enchantments must stay the same. Eg, later on you decide you want a +1 flaming long sword, you can’t just change your +2 long sword into that. Either sell the +2 and buy a +1 flaming (net cost 4K), or pay the difference to making the sword a +2 flaming long sword (net cost 10k). Also, you would not be able to move your +2 enchantment over to say a battle axe, the same sell and repurchase would have to happen.

Firearms: Let’s go with guns being commonplace. That is the highest level of tech I have seen in a campaign that was not specifically about guns. It makes early guns somewhat more affordable and advanced guns something you can get to after a few levels. Modern guns do not exist. They are not balanced at all.

Crafting items: You May take crafting feats to craft your own magical gear and get a discount. We will be using the 25% WBL recommendation laid out in the pfsrd for limitations on how far that can go. :

Adjusting CWBL wrote:

You can take advantage of the item creation rules to hand-craft most or all of your magic items. Because you’ve spent gp equal to only half the price of these items, you could end up with more gear than what the Character Wealth by Level table suggests for you. This is especially the case if you’re a new character starting above 1st level or one with the versatile Craft Wondrous Item feat. With these advantages, you can carefully craft optimized gear rather than acquiring GM-selected gear over the course of a campaign. For example, a newly created 4th-level character should have about 6,000 gp worth of gear, but you can craft up to 12,000 gp worth of gear with that much gold, all of it taking place before the character enters the campaign, making the time-cost of crafting irrelevant.

Some GMs might be tempted to reduce the amount or value of the treasure you acquire to offset this and keep your overall wealth in line with the Character Wealth by Level table. Unfortunately, that has the net result of negating the main benefit of crafting magic items — in effect negating your choice of a feat. However, game balance for the default campaign experience expects you and all other PCs to be close to the listed wealth values, so the GM shouldn’t just let you craft double the normal amount of gear. As a guideline, allowing a crafting PC to exceed the Character Wealth by Level guidelines by about 25% is fair, or even up to 50% if the PC has multiple crafting feats.

If you are creating items for other characters in the party, the increased wealth for the other characters should come out of your increased allotment. Not only does this prevent you from skewing the wealth by level for everyone in the party, but it encourages other characters to learn item creation feats.

Example: The Character Wealth by Level table states that an 8th-level character should have about 33,000 gp worth of items. Using the above 25% rule, Patrick’s 8th-level wizard with Craft Wondrous Item is allowed an additional 8,250 gp worth of crafted wondrous items. If he uses his feat to craft items for the rest of the party, any excess value the other PCs have because of those items should count toward Patrick’s additional 8,250 gp worth of crafted items.

Each crafting feat you take beyond your first will give you an additional 5% bonus to your WBL to a maximum of 50%.