Every year, I run a fun D&D gathering called "Winterfest", typically after Christmas, but before the Spring Semester starts. Last year, I ran a sort of base defense game, but the biggest hit of the event was a small competition where the players randomly spawned inside the fort and fought it out.

Coupled with my intense fascination with character building and a little bit of inspiration from Eve Online's alliance tournament, this year I have designed a character team-based tournament. The rules follow below. Enjoy!

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The Great Planar Tournament

This year for Winterfest, a new sort of challenge is being concocted that will pit the minds of all the participants against each other. The Gauntlet, Lord of Tyranny, has decreed that all the souls on his plane will gather to do great battle against each other for his favor and the chance to escape their torments, and numberless masses have shown up at his keep to try and lay hands on their freedom once and for all. Can you earn the freedom of the brave few who have made it to the final rounds?

The Setup

Each participant will take the role of an entire team of combatants in The Gauntlet’s tournament, representing the brave few who have made it to the last rounds of his challenge. It will be up to you to decide the exact makeup of your party, utilizing a robust and extremely customizable point-buy system explained later. Then, each of the participants will be seeded and will do battle against other teams designed by your rivals. Not only will your tactical skills be put to the test, but your ingenuity and team-building skills will be tried as well.

The System

Each Team starts with 100 Points to purchase characters with. You may have a max of ten characters on your team, but you may have less. For every level you add to one of your characters, you must spend the amount of points listed below for each class. For example, a Knight5/Cleric3 would cost 17 of your 100 points.

NOTE: No one character can be above tenth level!

· One Level in Fighter, Barbarian, Monk, Swashbuckler, Knight – Cost 1

· One Level in Ranger, Rogue, Bard, Hexblade, Warlock, Psychic Warrior, Paladin – Cost 2

· One Level in Sorcerer, Binder, Spirit Shaman, Crusader, Warblade, Duskblade, Healer, Marshal, Swordsage – Cost 3

· One Level in Wizard, , Psion, Wilder, Favored Soul, Warmage, Cleric, Druid – Cost 4

Characters must be a Pathfinder Core race unless cleared with the event staff beforehand. Character stats are generated through 25 point buy, and hitpoints are averaged.

Each character must be built using skills, feats, spells, and other options from either a Pathfinder or Wizard’s of the Coast core or splat publication (Dungeon and Dragon magazine published material is not allowed). When the two have identical features that conflict (for example, the “Dodge” feat) the Pathfinder version takes precedence. In addition, the following exceptions have been made:

The Following Books are not allowed: Book of Exalted Deeds, Book of Vile Darkness, Dragon Magazine Compendium, Savage Species, Unearthed Arcana.

The Following Feats are not allowed: Leadership, Divine Metamagic, Faith Unswerving, Arcane Disciple, Initiate of Mystra, Sanctum Spell, Dragon Wild Shape, Wild Cohort, Dragon Cohort, Item Familiar, Troll-Blooded, Undead Leadership, Vow of Nonviolence/Poverty, Snow Tiger Berserker, Crafting Feats, Air Devotion, Chaos Devotion, Destruction Devotion, Law Devotion, Protection Devotion, Greenbound Summoning, Mortalbane, Arcane Strike, Extra Spell, Easy Metamagic.

The Following Spells/Powers are not allowed: Consumptive Field, Lesser Celerity, Celerity, Shrink Item, Ice Assassin, Syncronicity, Affinity Field, Bestow Power, Forced Dream, Contingency.

The Following Items are not allowed: Disciple Weapon Enhancement, Bane Weapon Enhancement, Animated Shield Enhancement, Festering Anger disease, Black Lotus poison, Dust of Sneezing and Choking, Candle of Invocation, Black Sand, Glyph Seals, all potions, oils, and scrolls.

All wands and staffs created must have full charges, and characters may not spend any of their money on other character’s gear.

All Animal Companions must be from the Player’s Handbook list.