Help with a gladiator character!

[Tidus4444]

The rules for the gladiator competition can be found here:
http://www.geocities.com/aarddilligaf/Gladiator-rules.html

problem is, I have no experience whatsoever with characters at this high of a level. You guys got any tips?

 

[Pax]

Elemental resistances will be key.

Some means of dealign with invisibility will be CRUCIAL.

Mobility is very important; have a means to fly, teleport, or whatever. Just make sure you'renot restricted to running around on the ground ...

Get one magical adamantine weapon, then get a serviceable Cold Iron backup, enchanted to at least +1. Buy some Silversheen. Other than alignment issues, that should cover most of your DR-related problems.

Be prepared to deal with grapple-fu ... IOW, with monks (or others) able to reach out and grapple you, with obscenely-high bonusses. Freedom of Movement is essential in this process (it renders you functionally immune to grapples).

Before you start making a character, decide how you are going to win the match ... what strategy you will pursue. Make your choices (feats, spells, equipment, race, everything) based on TWO goals: maximising your ability to pursue your strategy, and, minimising your vulnerability to any and all situations you could conceivably find yourself in.

 

[Tidus4444]

Okay then, thanks for the tips. I don't think DR is going to be a problem though. I can't think of any way to get DR under the core rulebooks, other than stoneskin. I found this post in the sultans of smack thread, and I think I'll use it with some slight alterations:


"K. You got your prestige classes of uber-cheese only printed once in warbles and weevils magazine vol 1 smackdowns utilising +8 swords of monkey-beasting.
Here's something a bit simpler:

Half-Orc: Cleric (St Cuthbert) Lv16
Armed only with a common qurterstaff and these Feats:
Ambidexterity, TWF, Imp TWF, Power Attack

With Divine Favour (yes I am English), Greater Magic Weapon and Righteous Might cast.
With a strength of 24 activating your strength domain power gives a strength of 40 for a round, str 44 with righteous might.
So your base damage adjust is +17 (str) +25 (two-handed) +30 (luck bonus from divine favour) +35 (enhancement bonus from greater magic weapon).
You get 5 attacks this round the lowest attack bonus being +24, might as well use the smite ability on that one then for a grand total of:
191 + 5D8 damage
If you're being picky then Power Attack away to your heart's content.
Total cost of Smackdown ingredients = zip, not a single GP
Total number of dodgy classes and books used= zip, PHB only
So when you're butt-naked in the dungeon of ultimate despair you need only find a stick to prove that you are still the daddy.
For a bit of extra death you could use the Spikes spell out of DotF
I guess you could disallow the Righteous Might if you only had one round to prep, but you could take a Barbarian Lv (and a N alignment) and use rage to compensate, which would be slightly less effective but should still get the 200 pts in with a bit of power attacking"

I'm planning on the following:
1 level of Wizard so I can use scrolls.
the following buffs:
Str domain power: +16 strength
Scroll of Tenser’s Transformation: 1d6 hp/lvl, +4 AC, +2d4 str, +2d4 dex, +1 BAB/ 2 caster levels, +5 to fort saves
Scroll of Haste: 1 more attack/ round
Divine Favor: +6 to atk and dmg
Righteous Might: +4 str, better weapon
Divine Power: Fighter BAB

that makes the following BAB:
+44/+44/+44/+39/+39/+34/+29/+24
with the following damage:
1d8+49 per attack.

 

[FrankTrollman]

If you don't have Mind Blank you might as well not come.

As far as I can tell, everyone starts at ECL 20 (although I can't actually find a reference to a specific level, I'm just infering from the starting gold) and people are allowed to come in with crazy stuff.

Now, they've attempted to remove every possible access to incorporeality and instant death effect - but they've failed miserably.

For example, the Mind Flayer's Extract ability now "only" stuns an opponent for a d3 rounds. Of course, a stunned character can't escape from a grapple - which means that it's just going to trigger automatically next turn, and the turn after that. And so on forever, or at least until the mind flayer wins the fight.

In general, ECL races are lame beyond belief. But in this contrived setting, it's not about being "good" - it's about coming up with a combo your opponent isn't prepared for.

The Mind Flayer is a good example of that. Once you win a pinning test, your opponent is trapped in a stunning loop that they cannot escape from while you inflict damage every single round. Of course, with a LA of +7 and a Cleric's BAB you just aren't going to win any grapple tests at all.

...but you don't have to because you have a mind blast that stuns people.

Of course, if you run into someone with Mind Blank, or who is immune to Stunning (by being an elemental, perhaps), you pretty much automatically lose.

And so on.

You need to have a lot of funky immunities, because otherwise your opponent is going to pull out something stupid and you are going to die.

-Frank

 

[Pax]

Okay then, thanks for the tips. I don't think DR is going to be a problem though. I can't think of any way to get DR under the core rulebooks, other than stoneskin. I found this post in the sultans of smack thread, and I think I'll use it with some slight alterations:

Sure you can. Nixie, right in the revised MM1, is a +3 level-adjusted race that gives DR "5/cold iron" ... then there're Lycanthropes, with DR of 10/silver or 15/silver.

With Divine Favour (yes I am English), Greater Magic Weapon and Righteous Might cast.

For a Cleric with access to 9th level slots, I suggest the feat Persistent Spell. Just with core-book spells, you can get:

Divine Power, Persistent
Shield of Faith, Persistant
Divine Favor, Persistant

At caster level 20, that's +20 temporary hp, BAB boosted to +20, +5 deflection bonus to AC, and +6 luck to each of attacks and damage rolls. Power takes a 9th level slot, Shield and Favor (yes, I'm American ;-) take 5th level slots.

I'm planning on the following:
1 level of Wizard so I can use scrolls.

Take the Magic domain instead. More levels of Cleric.

 

[Tidus4444]

Core rules only- no persistant spell, which comes from T&B I believe. At any rate, persist spell wouldn't be too good for an arena character anyway. I get my spells and hp back at the end of every battle, and all of my spells last plenty long to finish a combat. Also- show me a god with both the strength and magic domains. I was unaware that such a god existed.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Core rules only- no persistant spell, which comes from T&B I believe. At any rate, persist spell wouldn't be too good for an arena character anyway. I get my spells and hp back at the end of every battle, and all of my spells last plenty long to finish a combat. Also- show me a god with both the strength and magic domains. I was unaware that such a god existed.

You can play a Cleric of no specific God and just pick up the Strength and Magic domains...