Well, there's several ways to deal with this.
To know for certain how to come up with a good, powerful but legal character, I need, really, to know WAY more specifics.
For one -- is there a rule about "playing keep away" ... ? Many arenas penalise a combatant, if they don't make ANY aggressive actiosn for some set number of rounds; if all you're doing is running away, you essentially have conceded the match.
For two -- is there any guarantee that you will NOT, in fact, require the use of magic items merely to SURVIVE in an arena? IOW, are you at all confident you won't HAVE to drink the potion of water breathing the ref hands your PC just before the match?
If the above two have answers of "yes", or even "probably" ... you could borrow my current Arena character, "Lohtek" (featured in The Exodus, on RPOL.net).
In short: he's an antimagic melee fighter, ECL 25 (so 300,000xp needed; leaving you 100,000xp for gold, which is WELL more than you likely NEED).
Critical equipment, with prices:
Code:
[color=white]
27,600gp Adamantine Mercurial Greatsword [+2 enhancement]
[+1, Eager; Market Price = +3]
21,000gp Epic Rune of Antimagic Field [Quicken], x2
[sl10, cl21; 21r duration, free action to activate]
[10.500gp each]
12,600gp Rune of Antimagic Field, x2
[sl6, cl21; 21r duration, standard action to activate]
[6,300gp each]
9,100gp Rune of Haste [Quicken], x2
[sl7, cl13; 13r duration, 1 use per day, free action to activate]
[4,550gp each]
13,500gp Adamantine Dendritic Armor (+11AC) with Ysgardian Heartwire (+2AC vs criticals)
2,020gp Adamantine Large Shield (+3AC)
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This sums to 85,820gp, leaving you nearly 15,000gp for some other item(s) -- I suggest some strong poisons. Dragon Bile works well, if you think the referee will permit use of that in glass vials, as a grenadelike weapon (Dragon Bile is contact based). Otherwise, Purple Worm Poison on your sword will work, though you risk exposure yourself, with that one.
Now the trick is, classes. Lohtek was built pretty simply: Fighter(14)/Weapon Master(11). Now, you won't be able to afford the massive numbers of Tomea and Manuals I gave Lohtek, but even without them -- a solidly high STR and CON are a must.
As for feats, you'll definitely want to differ here, because equipping a cohort would be QUITE costly, but my Lohtek has:
Code:
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Feats:
Race Dodge
Cha 1 Mobility
Ftr 1 Exotic Weapon: Mercurial Greatsword
Ftr 2 Cleave
Cha 3 W. Focus: Mercurial Greatsword
Ftr 4 W. Specialisation: Mercurial Greatsword
Cha 6 Spring Attack
Ftr 6 Power Attack
Ftr 8 Expertise
Cha 9 Improved Critical: Mercurial Greatsword
Ftr10 Whirlwind Attack
Cha12 Combat Reflexes
Ftr12 Quickdraw
Ftr14 Great Cleave
Cha15 Leadership
Cha18 Monkey Grip [S&F]
---------------[ Epic Threshold ]---------------
Cha21 Overwhelming Critical: Mercurial Greatsword [ELH]
Cha24 Devastating Critical: Mercurial Greatsword [ELH]
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Come to think of it, you could go Half-Orc for the STR benefit, and just rearrange the feats to omit Leadership.
The idea is a simple one: be functionally immune to anything short of an artifact, yet, lose NOTHING yourself, in the process. Adamantium is a nonmagic +2 to hit and damage, hence the sword.
The sword is magical because you don't START the round in an antimagic field, so you get the initiative boost of +2 (and my Lohtek has other gear to draw and use during round 1, so the free action to draw WITHOUT using quickdraw, is nice too).
Straight off, you activate the quickened rune of haste. Quickdraw your sword, use your haste action to close with the enemy if needed, then activate a non-quickened rune of Antimagic Field.
If they're in range for a partial charge, skip the haste rune, and go right for a quickened AMF rune. Pop it, run up, suppress all their toys, and proceed to hack away.
It's not perfect, but, it's potentially effective.
...
One caveat: beware the sorcerors and wizards (and even a few clerics) who can drop Mordenkainen's Disjunction on you; in a PvP environment, that spell is ludicrously overpowered (in an RP campaign, you have a self interest in NOT casting MDJ on the enemy, as it stands to ruin YOUR loot; in an arena ... no mroe motivation to avoid casting it).
Timestop -- especially if any epic characetrs can maximise or extend it -- can be very, very nasty too.
If you forgo much for equipment, you can make one hellacious spellcaster (a blaster sorceror, for example); with Blood Magus, you not only increase DCs by using Blood Component, you also eliminate the need for even a Spell Component Pouch ... or expensive components/foci ... etc.
