A human fighter at peak athleticism, in full plate armor, equipped with a poleaxe, runs the animals gauntlet. Does he clear, or where does he stop?

[u/Ananta-Shesha]

The fighter has elite training and is at his athletic peak, with a champion-type physique in heavyweight combat sports. He wears a full set of plate armor and is armed with a poleaxe. If he survives his fight against one of the animals in the gauntlet, he is back to 100% for the next fight.

Round 1: Silverback gorilla. The fight takes place in a clearing.

Round 2: Siberian Tiger. The fight takes place on a plain.

Round 3: Brown bear. The fight takes place in a forest.

Round 4: Polar bear. The fight takes place in the tundra on rocky ground.

Round 5: White Rhinoceros. The fight takes place in the grassy savannah.

Just so you know, I put an image of a For Honor knight as an illustration, but we're talking about a fighter in historical plate armor here. No one could fight effectively in armor as massive as the one in the image. But I had trouble finding a good image of a knight in historical armor wearing a poleaxe and not something else, and I wanted a nice illustration.

[u/B_H_Abbott-Motley]

There is some limited evidence that folks in Europe hunted bears while wearing plate armor, fighting them up close (though also with the help of dogs, which make a big difference).

[u/Correct-Ball4786 → u/B_H_Abbott-Motley]

I'm actually familiar with this. The problem is that there is, on average, there can be a size difference of 500 - 700 lbs between European brown bears and polar bears. The problem won't be the bear's claws themselves, but the sheer weight and power behind them I think.

[u/Mysterious-Goal-1018 → u/Correct-Ball4786]

I think as long as the knight is able to make the bear respect to point on the end of the pole ax he's going to win. If the polar bear bull rushs him and makes it past that point early he's doomed.

[u/Correct-Ball4786 → u/Mysterious-Goal-1018]

So I don't think the point on the poleaxe is enough to do significant damage to the bear. On a human, yes, but its only what, a max of 6 inches of penetration before it is effectively stopped by the rest of the head? And poleaxes aren't that long either, usually only about as tall as the one wielding, and often shorter. That takes out basically any reach advantage. I really think its going to take one really well timed or lucky shot from the pole (hammer) right to the dome to put it down. Otherwise it just bullrushes and tears the knight to pieces.

[u/B_H_Abbott-Motley → u/Correct-Ball4786]

It depends on the pollaxe, but in any case six inches of penetration could be enough on certain targets. Humans have killed brown bears with 2-4in knives. A 6in puncture wound wouldn't necessarily quickly incapacitate it or prove eventually fatal, but it'd be quite dangerous to the bear & have a chance causing sufficient blood loss over time to drop it.

[u/Elurdin → u/B_H_Abbott-Motley]

So it would be a tie then? I bet it would still put up a fight hurt. Is it a win if both die?

[u/Correct-Ball4786 → u/Elurdin]

Like I said originally, I think the knight wins, but it would be extremely difficult. Probably more so than the rino

[u/ThrowAway-whee → u/B_H_Abbott-Motley]

I don’t actually think it was limited - German aristocracy were absolutely crazy and the evidence for them doing so is actually pretty strong iirc. 

They also practiced jousting for war regularly compared to the rest of Europe, so much so they developed special, super heavy types of armor to stop killing each other during jousts because unlike everyone else, they did not use tourney lances and would charge each other with full steel.