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Ladoran
2007-01-17, 04:02 AM
I'm starting a campaign that at the beginning at least takes place in a roman style arena. I would therefore like to ask the excellent people of this board, which classes exist that can easily be used as gladiators, besides the normal fighters, barbarians and other core classes?

Zincorium
2007-01-17, 04:23 AM
Scout, fairly easily, or a feinting based rogue would prove entertaining to the populace, although it seems likely they'd have to be higher level than the other combatants to make up for their lack of direct strength.

If magic is allowed, then a duskblade seems easily flashy enough to make an impression, and is durable enough to survive without resorting to 'escape' spells like flight that a wizard or sorceror would feel necessary.

Thomas
2007-01-17, 04:29 AM
Base or prestige?

Invisible Blade is pretty much written as a dimachaeri gladiator.

Swashbucklers can get along in light armor.

Knights make fine andabatae or equites gladiators.

Ladoran
2007-01-17, 04:56 AM
Both base and prestige, I need some classes for the NPC's as well. Or something my PC's can go into later on. Invisible blade had already crossed my mind.

Scout though might be a good idea. I am planning to usually have them fight in small teams and as such rogues and scouts have their place as skirmish fighters.

Regarding magic: I was planning on making it low-magic in the arena, but some of the gish-classes might be low enough. I don't want anything with healing magic if I can get away with it though.

Oh, and thanks for the replies.

Dareon
2007-01-17, 05:32 AM
Athas.org's 3.5 Dark Sun conversion has a Gladiator class available which gains bonuses to some combat situations (Typically showy ones), free exotic weapon proficiencies, and is basically a very flavorful class with crunch to match.

Dragon 326 has the Piscator Style as an alternate ranger weapon style, which you may find interesting. Rangers in general may be useful too, with certain feats from places like the PHBII, Races of the Wild, and interesting equipment options from all over. If you have Frostburn, try EWP: Sugliin, with its associated feat if the arena is hgih enough level to have iterative attacks available.

What you'll typically want for a gladiatorial match is someone who can give the crowd a show, not just hack the enemy down in a single blow. This means perhaps ranks in Perform (Complete Warrior adds Perform (Weapon Drill), which can be used to fire up a crowd before a match or during a short lull), Bluff, Tumble, maybe Climb and Jump if the arena has obstacles, plus weapons that are flavorful, not just optimized. Try an orc billed as a "wild man", who uses a caber (I think that was in Masters of the Wild, and hasn't been transferred to 3.5), an Elf dressed as a noble, using his racial weapons, probably with levels in Swashbuckler (If he's a jobber, very popular fight with the groundlings)...

Don't be afraid to toss some animals or fantastical beasts in there, either. Try a half-orc Monk/Druid if you have enough levels available. A few charmed or otherwise mostly-tame animals along with his companion, and he's a sizable fighting force all by himself.

Meat Shield
2007-01-17, 08:41 AM
The Kingdoms of Kalamar Players Guide actually has a Gladiator base class. Gets free EWPs, bonuses for having crowds watching the performance, and attack of opportunity bonuses among other things. Its a neat class, but without an audience, gets overshadowed by the fighter within a few levels in straight combat.

With an audience however, can be quite the combat monster, especially with spiked chain. You get the EWP for free, and combat reflexes is not necessary due to class ability giving extra AoOs and bonuses on them. Spend feats on Imp Trip and others. Bonuses also get bigger I think on larger crowds.

Matthew
2007-01-17, 02:36 PM
Hmmn. What level are we talking about?

Are you looking to restrict the Base Classes available to your players?

Marius
2007-01-17, 02:47 PM
Warblades!

JimmyDPawn
2007-01-17, 04:07 PM
Ninja.

It's alot easier for them to make use of 'sneak attack' then a rogue in a one on one setting too. And running on walls. That's always cool.

Weirdlet
2007-01-17, 04:35 PM
I've wondered about playing with something like this if ever I DM, and what I'm curious about is how you'd run something like this- tell the PCs that they're in a rotation to come up against such and such opponents? Would they be cloistered in the barracks as slaves, or free persons who'd wander around the city between matches?

CuthroatMcGee
2007-01-17, 11:54 PM
If you want to drop the cash for it there's a WoW roleplaying prestige class for Gladiator. I think the book is called Magic and Mayhem, but I could be wrong. Its something like that though. It's got a construct on the front about to smash a Tauren.

Behold_the_Void
2007-01-18, 12:03 AM
Tome of Battle classes in general, except that they may overshadow the other base classes with their maneuvers. Things like Desert Wind can get rather flashy.

Ladoran
2007-01-18, 03:48 AM
No asian classes first of all. And no ToB classes, I detest that book. Otherwise there are no restrictions on classes.

As for level, that is not really a concern as I need some classes for NPC's as well. Plus I'm just curious as to what options there are.

As for how I'm going to play it... I was planning on building an arena, trainers, fellow gladiators - some friends, some rivals (hopefully, this is not really up to me :smallsmile:). Gladiators are slaves that have been trained from childhood but they enjoy a very comfortable life, especially if they prove themselves succesful and popular to the crowd. A good gladiator will be able to be nearly revered, plus they'll be able to win their freedom. They might want to stay in the arena regardless, either as gladiators or trainers.

I'll try and figure out some roleplay outside the arena, but inside the gladiator school, and I have been thinking of doing some of their childhood/training in sort of flashes of different sorts. So basically slaves that are confined to the arena and the galdiator school and perhaps a few other places. I haven't really considered if they know which opponents they're up against but I guess that would make sense.

I don't have a plan to keep them inside the arena for the entire game, but I can't really say anymore as one of my players is active on this board and might stumble over this thread :smallwink:.

Divides
2007-01-18, 03:54 AM
Thread skimmed due to lateness and over-eagerness to post... sorry.



I'm starting a campaign that at the beginning at least takes place in a roman style arena. I would therefore like to ask the excellent people of this board, which classes exist that can easily be used as gladiators, besides the normal fighters, barbarians and other core classes?

Depends on the context. If they're solo gladiator's, clerics and druids tend to do well (as well as the above listed tanks). If it's team fighting, I'd say bards and marshals are where it's at (and possibly rogues as well, most arena styles make tumble and flanking VERY easy to pull off), although arcane casters can also do well (arena set ups have a tendancy to require an opening fire-ball formation :-p).

If people are allowed to keep their animal companions, BTW, then I must say that ranger's and druids probably have allot of potential style value, in ADDITION to the above mentioned value as single combatants.

SDF
2007-01-18, 03:56 AM
Well the Complete Warrior has the weapon style feats that are gladiator flavored (trident/net, and a sword and axe like that one guy from the movie Gladiator :P) The wrestling prestige class from CW would make for a good NPC as well.

ChristopherDK
2007-01-19, 08:00 AM
I'm a gonna be a player of this campaign so don't give him to many ideas:)

I started with a fighter/rogue build (start lvl is 2), basicly to get the skillpoints so i can max skills like bluff, jump, tumble, perform. but with the gladiator class from Darksun i'm probably gonna go with that instead, as it has most of them as class skills.

I actually made him as a net/trident fighter, i have no idea how good nets are, as i've never used them, but i'm gonna try and see how it works. otherwise... well he can go down in a brief moment of glory charging a better gladiator:D

Matthew
2007-01-19, 09:30 AM
Basically you need to find a way to throw the Net and attack with the Trident in the same round - not the easiest thing to accomplish.

Thomas
2007-01-19, 09:38 AM
Ninja.

It's alot easier for them to make use of 'sneak attack' then a rogue in a one on one setting too. And running on walls. That's always cool.

First of all, since when is (all) gladiatorial combat one-on-one?

Secondly, arena combat would only highlight the uselessness of the ninja's sudden strike. You're never less likely to catch an opponent flat-footed than in an arena, and good luck hiding in the sand. At least rogues can fight with a partner and flank an opponent for sneak attack damage.

Hoggmaster
2007-01-19, 10:26 AM
Assuming that these 'gladiators' are in a society which has many arenas with trained fighters, then only a few classes would exist. FYI most gladiators were adults or at least teens, POWs. Occasionally free citizens would essentially sell themselves to the Lanistae to become gladiators (oh the Fame, oh the Ladies). The gladiators (in game terms) may have possessed some class levels from before they were slaves, but their current levels would be in your gladiatorial classes (my prefs would be fighter, rogue, scout (though i dislike the class)) pre-gladiator classes would run the gamut... how ever those POWs who possessed academic skills would be put into slavery conditions in the households of the nobility, if they had any spellcasting ability whatsoever (in game terms) those abilities would be suppressed (or the offenders killed ).

the styles of the Gladiator are important, but also showmanship (perform skills). Remember too that during the heyday of gladiatorial contests, the fights were to frist blood, gladiators were too valuable to waste. However, accidents do happen.

ChristopherDK
2007-01-19, 10:33 AM
well.. quick draw allows a character to draw a weapon as a free action, so that should take care of the weapon switch in my opinion.

Divides
2007-01-19, 04:27 PM
First of all, since when is (all) gladiatorial combat one-on-one?

Secondly, arena combat would only highlight the uselessness of the ninja's sudden strike. You're never less likely to catch an opponent flat-footed than in an arena, and good luck hiding in the sand. At least rogues can fight with a partner and flank an opponent for sneak attack damage.

Actually, allot of arena combat is free for all, if I'm not mistaken (I probably am, but neh)... this has allot of amusing potential for rogues... especially if their top goal is to win the audiances approval via most damage dealt :-p.

Closet_Skeleton
2007-01-19, 05:43 PM
If you want to drop the cash for it there's a WoW roleplaying prestige class for Gladiator. I think the book is called Magic and Mayhem, but I could be wrong. Its something like that though. It's got a construct on the front about to smash a Tauren.

Hmm... There were two editions of Warcraft d20. The first one which was called "Warcraft the Roleplaying Game" had a Gladiator class in the main book. The second is called "World of Warcraft the Roleplaying Game" and may have an update of the previous Gladiator but I never bothered buying it since I already had the complete set of books from the previous edition. There is a book called Magic and Mayhem with a Tauren on the front but the Gladiator class is in a differant book. There's also a book for the second edition called More Magic and Mayhem which may contain an updated Gladiator.

However it doesn't really matter since the Gladiator in Warcraft d20 is completely non-gladiatorial. In Warcraft d20 Prestige classes have differant names depending on what race you have when you pick them (unless the class is only available to one race) and Gladiator is just the Alliance name for what the Horde calls Blademaster. It's more of a Gladiator in the case that Gladiator is just latin for swordsman since its abilities include double strength to two-handed weapons, supreme cleave along with other anti-group abilities and creating mirror images.

The 3.0 soft cover book Sword and Fist has a Gladiator class that's much more suited. In fact quite a few Sword and Fist classes would work quite well and they're not all in Complete Warrior. Master of Chains and Lasher would work quite well for showey fighting styles.

I'd almost suggest Complete Warrior Samurai as a Gladiator class. The Oriental Flavour is pretty easy to strip away and its restricted fighting style is something is has in common with Gladiators.

jjpickar
2007-01-20, 05:23 PM
If Psionics are allowed then by all means use the Psychic warrior and the Mind Blade. You could even swing a wilder if you wanted to. The Master of Shaping from the Complete Arcane would also be awesome. :thog: You might want to reconsider Barbarian though. It would give a more Conan-like flavor. In fact he was a gladiator for a short time in the first movie.