Iron Chef Optimization Challenge in the Playground XVIII

[true_shinken]

Welcome, contestants, judges, and guests to Iron Chef XVIII. Here in Optimization Colosseum, contestants will endeavor to create an optimized and flavorful character using a specified D&D3.5 prestige class as a "Secret Ingredient".

Contestants: You will need to present your build at at least one of the following points: 5th level, 10th level, 15th, 20th, and a "sweet spot" that you feel is the high point of the build. Feel free to present as many of these as you like, and please give a rundown of the build's abilities and playability at all of the levels you didn't show. The rules are as follows:

Menu: For most challenges, the "special ingredient" will be drawn from Core plus Completes. There will, from time to time, be special challenges that showcase secret ingredients from other books--for example, the XPH.


32 point-buy is the presumed creation method, but we have generally allowed other levels of point-buy.
If you do use a different point-buy, please make your case for its necessity in your entry. Keep in mind that for using exceptionally large or small point-buys may warrant deductions in elegance and/or power.

Kitchen: Competitors will be free to use any official 3.5 rulebook in constructing their builds. Dragon magazine is disallowed, and Unearthed Arcana is allowed; but see Elegance below. Alternate rule systems from UA such as gestalt are not allowed, as they create a different playing field. Also, item familiars are forbidden because I hate 'em.

Cooking Time: Contestants will have until 11:59pm CUT on Friday, February 11th 2010 to create their builds and PM them to the Chairman, true_shinken (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/member.php?u=50679). Builds will then be posted simultaneously, to avoid copying.

Judging: Judging will be based on the following criteria, with each build rated from 1 (very poor) to 5 (exemplary) in each area: Originality, Power, Elegance, Use of Secret Ingredient.


Power level is up to you. Cheese is acceptable, but should be kept to a sane level unless you're showcasing a new TO build you've discovered. In the words of one of my predecessors, a little cheddar can be nice, but avoid the mature Gruyere unless you're making a cheese fondue.


Elegance could bear a little elaboration. It basically measures how skillfully you put your build together, and whether you sacrificed flavor for power. We're cooking here - if your dish doesn't taste good, it doesn't matter how well-presented it is. Use of flaws is an automatic loss of one point per flaw in this category. Other things that will cause lost points here are excessive multiclassing, and classes that don't fit the concept - using Cloistered Cleric in a front-line melee fighter, for example, will lose you points.


I am going to have to ask the contestants to PM me about any disagreement with the judges. Under no circumstances is a contestant to defend themselves inside the thread, since it breaks anonymity.

Presentation: Builds will be posted anonymously, in order to avoid the potential of bias towards a particular competitor. For this reason, please don't put your name in the build, as I'm likely to miss it when reviewing the entries!


Due to concerns about standardizing entry format, I'd like everyone to try to use the following table for their entry.NAME OF ENTRY
{table=head]Level|Class|Base Attack<br>Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Skills|Feats|Class Features

1st|New Class Level|
+x|
+x|
+x|
+x|Skills|New Feats|New Class Abilities

2nd|New Class Level|
+x|
+x|
+x|
+x|Skills|New Feats|New Class Abilities

3rd|New Class Level|
+x|
+x|
+x|
+x|Skills|New Feats|New Class Abilities

4th|New Class Level|
+x|
+x|
+x|
+x|Skills|New Feats|New Class Abilities

5th|New Class Level|
+x|
+x|
+x|
+x|Skills|New Feats|New Class Abilities

6th|New Class Level|
+x|
+x|
+x|
+x|Skills|New Feats|New Class Abilities

7th|New Class Level|
+x|
+x|
+x|
+x|Skills|New Feats|New Class Abilities

8th|New Class Level|
+x|
+x|
+x|
+x|Skills|New Feats|New Class Abilities

9th|New Class Level|
+x|
+x|
+x|
+x|Skills|New Feats|New Class Abilities

10th|New Class Level|
+x|
+x|
+x|
+x|Skills|New Feats|New Class Abilities

11th|New Class Level|
+x|
+x|
+x|
+x|Skills|New Feats|New Class Abilities

12th|New Class Level|
+x|
+x|
+x|
+x|Skills|New Feats|New Class Abilities

13th|New Class Level|
+x|
+x|
+x|
+x|Skills|New Feats|New Class Abilities

14th|New Class Level|
+x|
+x|
+x|
+x|Skills|New Feats|New Class Abilities

15th|New Class Level|
+x|
+x|
+x|
+x|Skills|New Feats|New Class Abilities

16th|New Class Level|
+x|
+x|
+x|
+x|Skills|New Feats|New Class Abilities

17th|New Class Level|
+x|
+x|
+x|
+x|Skills|New Feats|New Class Abilities

18th|New Class Level|
+x|
+x|
+x|
+x|Skills|New Feats|New Class Abilities

19th|New Class Level|
+x|
+x|
+x|
+x|Skills|New Feats|New Class Abilities

20th|New Class Level|
+x|
+x|
+x|
+x|Skills|New Feats|New Class Abilities[/table]

CodeNAME OF ENTRY
{table=head]Level|Class|Base Attack<br>Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Skills|Feats|Class Features

1st|New Class Level|
+x|
+x|
+x|
+x|Skills|New Feats|New Class Abilities

2nd|New Class Level|
+x|
+x|
+x|
+x|Skills|New Feats|New Class Abilities

3rd|New Class Level|
+x|
+x|
+x|
+x|Skills|New Feats|New Class Abilities

4th|New Class Level|
+x|
+x|
+x|
+x|Skills|New Feats|New Class Abilities

5th|New Class Level|
+x|
+x|
+x|
+x|Skills|New Feats|New Class Abilities

6th|New Class Level|
+x|
+x|
+x|
+x|Skills|New Feats|New Class Abilities

7th|New Class Level|
+x|
+x|
+x|
+x|Skills|New Feats|New Class Abilities

8th|New Class Level|
+x|
+x|
+x|
+x|Skills|New Feats|New Class Abilities

9th|New Class Level|
+x|
+x|
+x|
+x|Skills|New Feats|New Class Abilities

10th|New Class Level|
+x|
+x|
+x|
+x|Skills|New Feats|New Class Abilities

11th|New Class Level|
+x|
+x|
+x|
+x|Skills|New Feats|New Class Abilities

12th|New Class Level|
+x|
+x|
+x|
+x|Skills|New Feats|New Class Abilities

13th|New Class Level|
+x|
+x|
+x|
+x|Skills|New Feats|New Class Abilities

14th|New Class Level|
+x|
+x|
+x|
+x|Skills|New Feats|New Class Abilities

15th|New Class Level|
+x|
+x|
+x|
+x|Skills|New Feats|New Class Abilities

16th|New Class Level|
+x|
+x|
+x|
+x|Skills|New Feats|New Class Abilities

17th|New Class Level|
+x|
+x|
+x|
+x|Skills|New Feats|New Class Abilities

18th|New Class Level|
+x|
+x|
+x|
+x|Skills|New Feats|New Class Abilities

19th|New Class Level|
+x|
+x|
+x|
+x|Skills|New Feats|New Class Abilities

20th|New Class Level|
+x|
+x|
+x|
+x|Skills|New Feats|New Class Abilities[/table]


For entries with spellcasting, use the following table for Spells per day and Spells Known. (Spells Known only if necessary, i.e. Sorcerer or Bard, but not Wizard or Warmage)
Spells per day/Spells Known
{table=head]Level|0lvl|1st|2nd|3rd|4th|5th|6th|7th|8th|9th

1st|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

2nd|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

3rd|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

4th|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

5th|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

6th|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

7th|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

8th|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

9th|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

10th|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

11th|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

12th|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

13th|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

14th|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

15th|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

16th|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

17th|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

18th|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

19th|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

20th|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-[/table]

CodeSpells per day/Spells Known
{table=head]Level|0lvl|1st|2nd|3rd|4th|5th|6th|7th|8th|9th

1st|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

2nd|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

3rd|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

4th|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

5th|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

6th|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

7th|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

8th|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

9th|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

10th|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

11th|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

12th|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

13th|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

14th|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

15th|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

16th|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

17th|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

18th|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

19th|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

20th|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-[/table]


For other systems (Psionics, ToB, Incarnum, etc.) keep track of PP/maneuvers/essentia separately, preferably in a nice neat list.

Speculation: Please don't post or speculate on possible builds until the "reveal," in order to avoid spoiling the surprise if a particular competitor is producing a build along those lines.

Leadership is banned; we're producing a meal, not a seven-course banquet for a hundred diners.

So! Who wants to sign up as a contestant, and who wants to sign up as a judge? Looking for about 5 judges and as many contestants as feel like playing!

This week's special ingredient is:
Fey Features' Unseelie Dark Hunter! Our first online secret ingredient (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/fey/20030315a).
We will have trophies for 1st through 3rd places, as well as a special trophy for honorable mention. Judges, contestants and guests alike are invited to vote for honorable mention via PM.

Allez optimiser!

Judges
Grynning
dextercorvia
Talbot

Contestants
OMG_Ponies
Waker
Private-Prinny
Amphetryon
Clepto
gbprime
Nerdanel
Amechra
gbprime
Zaq
Thurbane
Draz74
Xiander
Duncan_Ruadrik
Deathslayer7
OMGPonies

The Builds
Skullface (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=10359354&postcount=106)
The Creeper (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=10359358&postcount=107)
Perpetua (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=10359362&postcount=108)
Reek (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=10359365&postcount=109)
Tamalin (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=10359371&postcount=110)
Faltino (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=10359378&postcount=111)
Ogar (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=10359380&postcount=112)
Tamlaine (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=10359384&postcount=113)
The Loyal Servant (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=10359388&postcount=114)

Past Competitions

Iron Chef I: Entropomancer (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=142470)
Iron Chef II: Psibond Agent (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=146583)
Iron Chef III: Cancer Mage (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=148584)
Iron Chef IV: Stonelord (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=150595)
Iron Chef V: War Chanter (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=152543)
Iron Chef VI: Master of Masks (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=156876)
Iron Chef VII: Green Star Adept (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=158633)
Iron Chef VIII: Pyrokineticist (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=160266)
Iron Chef IX: Animal Lord (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=162702)
Iron Chef X: Mythic Exemplar (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=164381)
Iron Chef XI: Blade Bravo (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=166539)
Iron Chef XII: War Mind (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=9426386#post9426386)
Iron Chef XIII: Vigilante (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=172233)
Iron Chef XIV: Seeker of the Song (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=174434)
Iron Chef XV: Drunken Master (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=176049)
Iron Chef XVI: Assassin (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=178202)
Iron Chef XVII: Ardent Dilettante (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=182492)

[OMG PONIES]

Competing, but can a link be provided?

:smallfurious: editing while I was posting!

[bartman]

Hmm, The special entry requirement for this one should make for some interesting reading in the backstories. Can't wait to see what we end up with.

[Deathslayer7]

question: how many levels of the dark hunter do we have to use? All or some? Also interested in as a contestant. Also, I can't seem to find Wilderness Lore. Can someone direct me to it?

[kestrel404]

Woo hoo! I was hoping it would be this one! Wis based arcane casting! Unseelie Court shenanigans! This should be a good one.

[Amphetryon]

Competing. Quick note: the Dark Hunter appears to be 3.0, as it references Wilderness Lore instead of Survival.

[Private-Prinny]

I actually have a pretty good idea for this one. Count me in.

BTW, are we going to use Survival instead of Wilderness Lore for the entry requirements, or are we going back to the 3.0 skill system?

[Cieyrin]

question: how many levels of the dark hunter do we have to use? All or some? Also interested in as a contestant. Also, I can't seem to find Wilderness Lore. Can someone direct me to it?

Past Iron Chefs tend to have high scorers taking most, if not all, levels of a secret ingredient. The typical range is 8-10, though I think some entries have gone as low as having 5 levels before jumping out. Don't think they scored too well, either.

[Waker]

Excellent, I've got plenty of warning for this one, so I'll be competing.

[Zaq]

Yeah, we definitely need some official clarification on the skills for this one. Saying that Survival is a prereq is fine, but there are a lot of outdated skills on its list. Best to nip that confusion in the bud, no?

Anyway, this one isn't inspiring me right now, but I'll say something if that changes.

[true_shinken]

I actually have a pretty good idea for this one. Count me in.

BTW, are we going to use Survival instead of Wilderness Lore for the entry requirements, or are we going back to the 3.0 skill system?

It's Survival.

[T.G. Oskar]

Chairman! Please clear that this entry is the Unseelie Dark Hunter, or place it as [Unseelie] Dark Hunter, since there's another Dark Hunter on the Complete Warrior and people might be confused.

Not competing, but not sure if I'll judge this one or whether I'll rest for a while.

[Tam_OConnor]

I think I'll just be watching, because standard D&D fey and I have some fairly major disagreements. If there's a need, though, I might be able to judge.

[Deathslayer7]

and if possible, translate the 3.0 skills for the Unseelie Dark Hunter into 3.5 skills. The major note being: Animal Empathy and Intuit Direction. I would add in Wilderness Lore but we already said that was survival.

[vikingofdoom]

My guess for Animal empathy would be handle animal/wild empathy (choose one). Intuit direction is likely survival.

[Deathslayer7]

I'm pretty sure wilderness lore is survival. Did you mean Gather Info?

[Cieyrin]

I'm pretty sure wilderness lore is survival. Did you mean Gather Info?

No, Intuit Direction got rolled into Survival alongside Wilderness Lore.

[OMG PONIES]

So how will that work? Can I be so bold as to suggest a SI that's already 3.5?

[true_shinken]

OK, for the update on (Unseelie) Dark Hunter:

They get wild empathy, as a Druid of the same level, instead of Animal Empathy skill
They get Survival as a class skill instead of Wilderness Lore and Intuit Direction

I don't think anything else needs clarification. Quite an easy update.

[Amphetryon]

Well, one idea tossed out already as unworkable. On to the second concept.

[Clepto]

I'll be competing in this one. Good luck everyone.

[Waker]

One quick question, are LA buy offs allowed? I didn't see any mention for or against it in the rules.

[dextercorvia]

One quick question, are LA buy offs allowed? I didn't see any mention for or against it in the rules.

That has been up to the individual judge in the past. Some of them frown on it more than others.

I'd like to try competing this time. I'm having trouble getting the prerequisite skills, though, so we'll see.

[Grynning]

He's back, and he's after justice...
or maybe just tasty entries...

Put me down for a judge slot. My hiatus was intended to be brief, but the length of the last contest made it feel like a very long time :smalltongue:

[Pechvarry]

Not only an affiliation PrC, but one that doesn't allow the player to possess a conscience (until they're done taking levels in it) by virtue of serving this creature:


The queen is a capricious creature, quite chaotic and quite evil.

Add to that, the only thing really noteworthy is wis-based arcane casting and a +mount speed feature.

Good luck, contestants...

[gbprime]

One quick question, are LA buy offs allowed? I didn't see any mention for or against it in the rules.

I'm starting to wonder if avoiding LA is the best tactic. I've been penalized for using LA buyoff and I've been penalized for NOT using LA buyoff. There's at least 1 judge on either side of that fence each round, so you're going to lose a half point from SOMEONE no matter what you do. :smallamused:

The bottom line is... do whatever makes sense for the build. Coolness and power are worth points too, and taking a half point hit from some judge is worth getting an extra point from several judges.

[Nerdanel]

I'm trying my hand at competing again. It's going to be interesting to see how many people had the same build idea.

[ArcanistSupreme]

I'm starting to wonder if avoiding LA is the best tactic. I've been penalized for using LA buyoff and I've been penalized for NOT using LA buyoff. There's at least 1 judge on either side of that fence each round, so you're going to lose a half point from SOMEONE no matter what you do. :smallamused:

The bottom line is... do whatever makes sense for the build. Coolness and power are worth points too, and taking a half point hit from some judge is worth getting an extra point from several judges.

I've seen some people say what they would do without LA buyoff, but also include options for if it is available. They cover all of their bases, and they can't be penalized either way.

And am I crazy, or is it possible to get every aspect of this class (minus speed bonuses, which aren't that great) from other sources? Maybe some kind of ToB gish build with Bloodclaw master?

[Nerdanel]

I have a question: Are the hounds and the mount considered class features or are they just suggestions for the kind of things typical Unseelie Dark Hunters spend personal resources to get?

[Waker]

It looks like they are meant to be suggestions. The class itself doesn't actually give you any improvements with your mount (aside from speed) or cohorts. The class looks like one that is best used with an NPC, but that is part of the challenge.

[gbprime]

Yeah, it doesn't come with any hounds or mounts. That's what makes it a tricky challenge... you have to involve beasts of some variety, unseelie devotion, AND classic ranger-type skills... all while trying to be unique and powerful.

Cool. :smallbiggrin:

Mark me down as a contestant again, please.

[Nerdanel]

It looks like they are meant to be suggestions. The class itself doesn't actually give you any improvements with your mount (aside from speed) or cohorts. The class looks like one that is best used with an NPC, but that is part of the challenge.

So... How can I go acquiring the right sort of mounts and hounds? I can hardly just go shopping for them (except for griffons).

It would be lame to be the only Dark Hunter in the Unseelie Court with mundane dogs...

[Waker]

Well, I could tell you how to go about doing that, but doing so would not only defeat the point of the challenge, but could be considered against the rules for talking about builds.

[true_shinken]

I have a question: Are the hounds and the mount considered class features or are they just suggestions for the kind of things typical Unseelie Dark Hunters spend personal resources to get?
Yes, they are suggestions. Get your pets from somewhere else. :smallamused:

[Nerdanel]

It looks like I'm going to have to bow out. Without access to the good critter stuff (even by Leadership) all I have left is a build that gets weaker by taking Dark Hunter and doesn't even get all that close to the flavor of a real Dark Hunter.

And I was thinking that here we have an Iron Chef contest that's friendly to people without all those splat books... :smallmad:

[dextercorvia]

So... How can I go acquiring the right sort of mounts and hounds? I can hardly just go shopping for them (except for griffons).

It would be lame to be the only Dark Hunter in the Unseelie Court with mundane dogs...

Some prior contestants have asked questions about their build in different threads on the forum though. Usually I don't realize that's what they are asking about until after the reveal. Just sayin'.

Don't give up so soon.

[Cieyrin]

And I was thinking that here we have an Iron Chef contest that's friendly to people without all those splat books... :smallmad:

Having lots of splatbooks just gives you more ingredients to make your dish that much more tasty, it doesn't win you the competition by itself. There've been builds that have worked well on a minimal amount of sources and scored high, so all having fewer ingredients means is finding a new use for something that others may not have thought of.

Hope that helps a little bit. :smallwink:

[Nerdanel]

Having lots of splatbooks just gives you more ingredients to make your dish that much more tasty, it doesn't win you the competition by itself. There've been builds that have worked well on a minimal amount of sources and scored high, so all having fewer ingredients means is finding a new use for something that others may not have thought of.

Hope that helps a little bit. :smallwink:

I got the second place in the War Mind contest without any books. However, in this contest I can't get the proper critters to be a proper Unseelie Dark Hunter and apparently some other people can. The lack of critters (or having to use far inferior critters) is fatal to my character concept and none of the cool tricks I thought of would apply. Maybe I could find another concept but I'm feeling really down right now.:smallfrown:

[Deathslayer7]

I got the second place in the War Mind contest without any books. However, in this contest I can't get the proper critters to be a proper Unseelie Dark Hunter and apparently some other people can. The lack of critters (or having to use far inferior critters) is fatal to my character concept and none of the cool tricks I thought of would apply. Maybe I could find another concept but I'm feeling really down right now.:smallfrown:

If it makes you feel better. All I'm using is the SRD and one other book. :smallsmile: I dont have all the splat books that are out there. Have most of the complete X, races of X and Libris Mortis and Heros of Horror/Battle and Spell Compendium, and the Environmental Books such as Frostburn. I also have Campaign Setting specific books.

But all I'm using is one book. It can be done, quite easily. :smallsmile: To be honest, I don't really have time to read through such books. :smalltongue: So don't feel down.

[Draz74]

I'll compete this time.

In fact, I already submitted my build. :smallcool:

[Akal Saris]

It looks like I'm going to have to bow out. Without access to the good critter stuff (even by Leadership) all I have left is a build that gets weaker by taking Dark Hunter and doesn't even get all that close to the flavor of a real Dark Hunter.

And I was thinking that here we have an Iron Chef contest that's friendly to people without all those splat books... :smallmad:

I can think of several core-only ways to get a pack of dogs and a decent mount, especially since half of the mounts on the list have a GP cost in the MM. I'm not even sure what non-core materials would really be important in this case.

[Xiander]

I might actually work up the courage to join this time around. Wish me luck.

[Duncan_Ruadrik]

yeah, even Im thinking about it... hmm... mid terms are over... I might have time.

[Zaq]

I lied. I suddenly got inspired. I'm in.

[Deathslayer7]

3 questions:

When you look at the table we should use the format, what do you mean by skills? :smallconfused: Is that how many skill points we get or where we put our skills?

When multi-classing, do you add the +2 for beginning level more than once per save or no?

What fluff should go with the class? And should we put in our own thoughts as to why we did something? :smallconfused:

[Urpriest]

3 questions:

When you look at the table we should use the format, what do you mean by skills? :smallconfused: Is that how many skill points we get or where we put our skills?

When multi-classing, do you add the +2 for beginning level more than once per save or no?

What fluff should go with the class? And should we put in our own thoughts as to why we did something? :smallconfused:

Not to be a jerk, but look at past competitions. Looking at other winning builds will give you a good idea about the range of formats that are accepted.

The +2 is added for every class that gives it. You even get it with the partial saves variant from Unearthed Arcana, weirdly enough.

[Deathslayer7]

Not to be a jerk, but look at past competitions. Looking at other winning builds will give you a good idea about the range of formats that are accepted.

The +2 is added for every class that gives it. You even get it with the partial saves variant from Unearthed Arcana, weirdly enough.

I didn't think of that. But if you dont want to be a jerk, then why mention your a jerk. :smallwink:

[Urpriest]

I didn't think of that. But if you dont want to be a jerk, then why mention your a jerk. :smallwink:

It's a little like a Freudian slip :smallwink:

[Xiander]

I didn't think of that. But if you dont want to be a jerk, then why mention your a jerk. :smallwink:

I suppose it's like the phrase with all due respect...

[OMG PONIES]

Not to be a jerk, but look at past competitions. Looking at other winning builds will give you a good idea about the range of formats that are accepted.

The +2 is added for every class that gives it. You even get it with the partial saves variant from Unearthed Arcana, weirdly enough.

If we're talking about fractional saves from UA, you don't get the +2 more than once.

[BobVosh]

I didn't think of that. But if you dont want to be a jerk, then why mention your a jerk. :smallwink:

Not to be a jerk but it's "why mention you're a jerk :smallwink:"

:P

I'm going to follow this one carefully since I can't really think of a build that uses this class for anything effective.

[Amechra]

I will participate in this one, I think.

No poorly thought out TO tricks this time, though!

[Zaq]

Build submitted. This was a hell of a lot easier than the last one, though that's probably because I didn't use eleven different classes like I did last time. Interestingly, the build ended up going in a totally different direction from what I had intended when I started. Sometimes all it takes is noticing one little possibility, then taking it and running with it like you're an action star in front of an exploding building.

[Urpriest]

If we're talking about fractional saves from UA, you don't get the +2 more than once.

I don't think that's correct. I can look at it again, but I think that avoiding the +2 per class thing is a further variant.

[dextercorvia]

I will participate in this one, I think.

No poorly thought out TO tricks this time, though!

Just well thought out ones, eh?:smallamused:

[Amechra]

Submitted my build, without a bit of TO in sight.

And there's time for a couple more!

[Thurbane]

Hey, I'm thinking of possibly submitting an entry...two things I wanted to clarify.

I see no mention of Armored Casting in the PrC...I assume that, despite being WIS based, the normal ASF applies?

The second level spell Endurance - is this the 3.5 equivalent of Endure Elements, or Bear's Endurance?

[Waker]

I don't happen to have my old PHB 3rd edition around, but I'm fairly certain the spell is supposed to be Bear's Endurance. Looking at the other spells at the same level would seem to indicate it.

[dextercorvia]

Endurance
Transmutation
Level: Clr 2, Sor/Wiz 2
Components: V, S, DF
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Touch
Target: Creature touched
Duration: 1 hour/level
Saving Throw: Will negates (harmless)
Spell Resistance: Yes
The spell grants the subject an enhancement bonus (1d4+1 points) to constitution.


I would guess Bear's Endurance, but I don't know if that is explicit anywhere.

[Thurbane]

*facepalm*

Just checked the 3.5 Core Book Errata, and Endurance is indeed now Bear's Endurance. It's where I should have looked in the first place. :smallredface:

That only leaves my ASF question, which I assume is a "yes".

[dextercorvia]

I went to check the description, to answer your question and this is what I found:


A dark hunter prepares and casts spells just as a sorcerer does and the spells are arcane.

Apparently, their spells are just a trick. Can we get a ruling as to whether they are a prepared class or a spontaneous class?

Either way, they will have ASF.

[gbprime]

That only leaves my ASF question, which I assume is a "yes".

Safe assumption, yeah.

[Talbot]

I'm not great at CO (I'm ok, but not contest-worthy), and I've never judged before, but I'd be down to judge, especially as there seems to be a need for more judges.

[Amphetryon]

Are we assuming the REF save listed for levels 7 - 10 is a typo, or a really spiffy progression?

[dextercorvia]

Are we assuming the REF save listed for levels 7 - 10 is a typo, or a really spiffy progression?

It's just level 6 that is off. This is a really horrible write-up. To think, it doesn't appear in print. They could have fixed it at any time.

[Amphetryon]

I went to check the description, to answer your question and this is what I found:



Apparently, there spells are just a trick. Can we get a ruling as to whether they are a prepared class or a spontaneous class?

Either way, they will have ASF.

They prepare spells. Sorcerers do too, after a fashion.

[dextercorvia]

They prepare spells. Sorcerers do too, after a fashion.

I'm not sure I follow you here. I could see the argument that they prepare spells just like a sorcerer, ie. they don't. But, what do you mean sorcerers do to?

[Amphetryon]

I'm not sure I follow you here. I could see the argument that they prepare spells just like a sorcerer, ie. they don't. But, what do you mean sorcerers do to?

I mean, Sorcerers are not list-casters like Beguilers, Dread Necromancers, or Warmages. They have to select specific spells which they can cast; they can then cast those spells more freely than a book-caster like a Wizard can.

I will grant that there were no list-casters published to my knowledge for 3.0, which is where the Unseelie Dark Hunter's publication range appears to fall.

[OMG PONIES]

I don't think that's correct. I can look at it again, but I think that avoiding the +2 per class thing is a further variant.

AFAIK, you add together all levels for your build that provide the good save progression, which means you add +2.5 for the first good save level, and only +0.5 for every level thereafter.


I mean, Sorcerers are not list-casters like Beguilers, Dread Necromancers, or Warmages. They have to select specific spells which they can cast; they can then cast those spells more freely than a book-caster like a Wizard can.

I will grant that there were no list-casters published to my knowledge for 3.0, which is where the Unseelie Dark Hunter's publication range appears to fall.

Sorry, amph, but I don't agree about there being two classes of spontaneous caster. From the SRD:


[A sorcerer] can cast any spell he knows without preparing it ahead of time...

That's a spontaneous caster. Yes, it's more limited by its spells known than a full-list caster like a beguiler. However, that doesn't make it a prepared caster. A sorcerer's spells known are not repicked every day.

[dextercorvia]

I think I would like to switch to judging as well.

[Talbot]

Since I've never judged before, I think it's fair for me to give contestants some idea of what I look for. So, stealing a page from OMGPonies book:



Originality

* 1: If your build's main trick(s) is(are) something I've seen a lot of before (for example, I don't really care how high you can get your charging damage unless you're doing it differently/in an interesting way, and if your build is a chain-tripper there should be more to it than Combat Reflexes and Knockdown), look forward to this score.
* 2: As long as you do something new/interesting, you will get at least this score.
* 3: If you're doing something new by using a lot of old pieces, you'll likely end up here.
* 4: Once I start going "Wow, I never would have thought of that", you're here and it's a good place to be.
* 5: If I spend the whole time going "Wow, I never would have thought of that", you're here, and it's the best place to be.

Note: Your backstory can score you a half a point, maybe a full point if it's really stellar, but you can get a five without it and won't be penalized for it in any way.


Power

* 1: Can't consistently beat a core-only Monk.
* 2: It works ok, but it's not going to stand out in most parties.
* 3: Nothin' special, but does its job.
* 4: At this point you're doing your job significantly better than most.
* 5: If your build is stronger than everyone else in the contest, and can stand up to a well-optimized build of the same role (don't worry, your melee build doesn't have to beat a full-caster... but your full-caster ought to be able to), then you'll snag a 5.

Elegance

* 1: If the build relies on exclusively on extremely iffy or cheesy tactics, you've earned a 1.
* 2: Assuming your build is at least mostly rules-legal, I'm basically starting you here and expecting you to move up.
* 3: Do the pieces fit together well? Better than the more obvious/conventional choices would have? If you're using cheese, is it reasonable enough that most if not all DMs would allow it? Getting past this point will require that your build has at least some versatility.
* 4: At this point you probably shouldn't have more than one dip, and I should see a lot of your classes complimenting each other in multiple ways. Doing everything you can to get SAD is nice, but not enough. At this point, if there's cheese, it shouldn't be much more than a light dusting of Parmesan.
* 5: Every class contributes in multiple meaningful ways and things fit together so well that when thinking of your character later I won't be able to remember the build so much as how (and how well) the character works; essentially, if it transcends class distinctions and becomes an entity unto itself, it gets a 5. If you dip, it better make a lot of sense and have a lot of payoff. And my 5s are lactose-intolerant.

Note: Builds that don't come really become interesting/useful till after level 10 can't score higher than a 3. Builds that don't become interesting/useful till after level 7 can't top a 4.

Use of the Secret Ingredient (UoSI)

* 1: You've included it because it's required, but your build doesn't actually benefit from it.
* 2: It contributes... in the same way the 12th man on a basketball team contributes.
* 3: It is now a vital part of the build. Probably the focal-point.
* 4: You've taken all levels of the Ingredient and/or you're making at least some use of all its Class Features.
* 5: Everything else you've taken serves to elevate the SI, and it's unmistakably the centerpiece of the build. More than that, it's using all of its features effectively and efficiently.

Note: You can potentially snag a 5 without using every feature or taking every level, but you better be getting a heck of a lot of mileage out of the features and levels you did take. I don't recommend this approach. Bonus points for getting the SI in early while still keeping the build playable.



As you can see, I'm pretty stingy with my 5s, but I'm also unlikely to give out 1s. I will get annoyed by builds that are poorly explained, and therefore less receptive to challenges/corrections later. I don't really expect that to come up, but in case it does I figured I'd mention it now.

[Xodion]

I've looked at this class, and nothing is really standing out for me, so I think I'll sit out this time. This week is going to be pretty busy too, so I won't have time even if I get an idea :smallfrown:.

Good luck everyone :smallsmile:

[gbprime]

I've looked at this class, and nothing is really standing out for me

It's a doozy, to be sure. Trying to make good use of all the PrC's features while getting decent originality points... I've puzzled and puzzled til my puzzler is sore, as they say. But I finally have something, just gotta do the formatting.

[OMG PONIES]

I'm in--back to competing. The only points I hope to earn are style points.

[Clepto]

Eh. Once again, I have to bow out of this one. I can't think of any build that would be improved much by this PrC, and most of the ones I've come up with actually lose quite a bit of effectiveness. Oh well. Better luck next time.

Good luck to those still in the game.

[Urpriest]

AFAIK, you add together all levels for your build that provide the good save progression, which means you add +2.5 for the first good save level, and only +0.5 for every level thereafter.


Nope. One of the examples is a Clr 5/Ftr 2 with a base Fort bonus of +7. The rules simply say that you add fractions from the classes, not that you treat all progressions as part of one big ur-progression.

[Thurbane]

Just a note: Even if people can't think of a way to use this PrC to mechanically enhance a character, Power is only one of the judging criteria. A good thematic build, with a nice backstory, can still do quite well.

Quite a few of the PrCs featured in Iron Chef have been mechanically subpar (especially compared to something like straight Druid or Wizard), so the build doesn't have to be all about enhancing the base class(es) of the build.

...of course, a character that is very weak mechanically is likely to take a significant hit in Power (and probably Elegance, too).

[Amechra]

Almost done with a second. How is everyone doing?

[kestrel404]

Have a build, writing background now. I just wish I had a bit more free time this week - it's been ridiculous at home and at the office so unless I set aside a bit of time for myself I'm probably not going to finish in time.

[OMG PONIES]

Trying to format, flesh out, and submit my build by the deadline. Is it just me, or have the past few rounds had a shorter submission window than previous ones?

[gbprime]

Shorter, no. More head scratching required for a build? Yes. :smallamused:

Still formatting.

[Private-Prinny]

I've got a hefty schedule this week, but then most of my commitments vanish next week. If there is still an open judging spot, I'll take it.

[Akal Saris]

I would have liked to enter, but RL has conspired against me and put my career-advancing exam on Friday :smallfrown:

Perhaps if I somehow have any energy afterwards I shall enter however. I've had 3 build ideas, though none of them have been developed yet.

[Waker]

Yeah, I've been going back and forth between about half a dozen builds, but I think I've settled on my decision. Hopefully it'll do well.

[Zaq]

I submitted my build last weekend. I have an interesting idea for a second, but I'm not certain I have the time or energy to do more than the outline of it.

[Amechra]

I have discarded my second build as untenable. I just couldn't get the last piece of information I needed.

[Draz74]

Yeesh, I shouldn't even be spending time making one entry ... and some people manage to do two or more? Mind-boggling.

Not to mention, even if I had loads of free time I only have one idea for this Secret Ingredient.

[dextercorvia]

I had two. One of them was incredibly cheesy and would have scored rather poorly on UoSI -- It worked for Dark Hunter, but would have worked equally well or better with a number of other indep. casting PrC's.

The other one really benefited from Dark Hunter, but was a little unoriginal and I couldn't get all of the qualifications for DH without being really obvious about it.

[Amphetryon]

Crunch done. Still working on the fluff.

[Amphetryon]

Whew. Done. Build submitted.

[BobVosh]

Somewhere around 16 hours left. How many people have actually submitted builds True S?

[true_shinken]

Somewhere around 16 hours left. How many people have actually submitted builds True S?

Four or five.

[Deathslayer7]

yeah, no way I can get it in by the deadline. At work currently and will be for the next 6 hours. Was planning to finish it tonight. Grrrr. stupid timezones. :smallannoyed:

[OMG PONIES]

I'm trying to slam together my submission now, though I just realized something about my build that makes it less awesome than I initially thought. Oh well, hopefully this change is for the better.

[Zonugal]

I'll be riding pretty close to the edge but should get mine in tonight.

[kestrel404]

Whew, that was tough. Good luck everyone still trying to finish a build - mine took about twice as long as I expected. Had I not been out sick yesterday I never would have finished.

[gbprime]

Build submitted. 5 hours to spare. :smallcool:

[OMG PONIES]

Oy, build submitted (finally).

[gbprime]

Oy, build submitted (finally).

What, you had 25 minutes left. There's no moment like the last moment! :smallcool:

[OMG PONIES]

I know. My entry's pretty slipshod, sad to say.

[Thurbane]

What, you had 25 minutes left. There's no moment like the last moment! :smallcool:
Is the deadline technically the time given in the OP, or until the first of the builds have been revealed?

[true_shinken]

Is the deadline technically the time given in the OP, or until the first of the builds have been revealed?

Until the first of the builds have been revealed. And I'm feeling sleepy - the reveal will be tomorrow.

[dextercorvia]

Is the deadline technically the time given in the OP, or until the first of the builds have been revealed?

Technically, the time in the OP. Traditionally, until TS posts the first build.

Edit: Did Jumik ever post the trophies for the last one? I remember she had some computer issues.

[Waker]

Well, just got home from a random Shadowrun. Sadly the build that I had in mind would require effort on my part and I'm feeling lazy. No real loss, since I didn't especially like this prestige class. The short of it is that I'm gonna drop out of this competition.

[true_shinken]

Did Jumik ever post the trophies for the last one? I remember she had some computer issues.

Getting flash to work properly on her netbook is proving a major challenge. I think we can expect the late trophies to be up this week, though.

Expect the reveal in a few minutes.

[true_shinken]

OK, now for the great reveal!

Our first contestant is a member of the happy family that includes Ogon Bato (http://re.catelli.zip.net/images/fantomas.jpg), Skeletor (http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/informatica/images/m020514heman.jpg), Red Skull (http://www.filmbuffonline.com/FBOLNewsreel/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/RedSkull.jpg) and Crânio Negro (http://cronicasemarton.blogspot.com/2009/09/black-skull-cranio-negro.html)...



Skullface

http://img824.imageshack.us/img824/7375/102523.jpg

The Story
Darcy Pendlebrook had always been fascinated by the Fey. His birth village was ringed with their toadstool rings and hidden grottos. It was only natural that he find his way to the court of the Unseelie Queen. She was the most beautiful being he had ever glimpsed, and her cruelty only sharpened his ardor. Though he was far from handsome, with deep-set eyes that gave his face the impression of a forlorn skull, he was determined to gain her favor. In this mood he arrived at her court, back from his longest hunting voyage yet.

"Milady, I come with a most exquisite prize for your amusement. This beast..."

"What is that?" The Queen leaned forward, a thin line of irritation disturbing her joyous marble countenance.

On the floor of the Queen's Great Hall sat a doglike creature, its fur striped with the faint pattern of a hyena. The chubby beast yawned and blinked at its unfamiliar surroundings, its batlike wings furled against its back.

"Milady, this most majestic canine is a thing most rare, a..."

"So you brought me a puppy?"

"Oh not just any puppy, Milady. Why this beast has..."

"You brought me a puppy. Do you know what I think, Darcy?"

"What, Milady?"

"You are trying to woo me, aren't you Darcy?"

"What? No of course not Milady!"

"You give me flowers..."

"Powerful herbs of the Orient!"

"And now you grace my court with a puppy. You are trying to woo me as you might woo a mortal girl."

"No Milady I wouldn't dare presume..."

"It's sweet."

"No Milady it's...it is?"

"Oh, it's positively adorable."

"Really?"

"Oh yes. So adorable, I almost wish I could remember you this way forever."

"You do?"

"Yes. Definitely. Guards, off with his head!"

As Darcy was dragged from the court kicking and screaming, one of the guards turned to the beast, still lying on the floor bemused. "Milady, what should we do with this?"

"Oh, that. Dispose of it how you wish. Drown it I suppose. That is what one does with puppies, isn't it?"

The guard approached the beast, ready to drag it away, when suddenly he yelped and fell flat on his arse. The beast hissed, its skin drawn back from its face to display the outlines of its skull. The court looked in horror at the guard, who sat mortified on the floor.

The silence was pierced by a faint giggle. All eyes turned to the Queen as the giggle grew to a laugh, and soon a full-throated guffaw. As her laughter finally died down, one of the Queen's courtiers approached with a handkerchief. "Milady?"

"Oh, keep it. That was the most fun I've had in quite some time. And while you're at it, train it to be a Dark Hunter."

The Queen bent down low to address the beast draped across her floor.

"Now go, before I change my mind."

The Build
Darcy Pendlebrook, Human Ranger 3

Abilities:
Point Buy for Darcy: Str 14 Dex 18 Con 14 Int 12 Wis 8 Cha 8

{table=head]Level|Class|Base Attack<br>Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Skills|Feats|Class Features

1st|Ranger 1|
+1|
+2|
+2|
+0|Handle Animal 4, Hide 4, Knowledge(dungeoneering) 4, Knowledge(geography) 4, Knowledge(nature) 4, Move Silently 4, Ride 4, Survival 4|Track(B), Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot|1st favored enemy, wild empathy

2nd|Ranger 2|
+2|
+3|
+3|
+0|Handle Animal 5, Hide 5, Knowledge(dungeoneering) 5, Knowledge(geography) 5, Knowledge(nature) 5, Move Silently 5, Ride 5, Survival 5|Rapid Shot(B)|

3rd|Ranger 3|
+3|
+3|
+3|
+1|Handle Animal 6, Hide 6, Knowledge(dungeoneering) 6, Knowledge(geography) 6, Knowledge(nature) 6, Move Silently 6, Ride 6, Survival 6|Endurance(B), Sharp-Shooting|[/table]

Or is it?


"Who's a good boy? Who always brings the Queen back exactly what she wants? Mmm?"

"A-hem. Milady, are you sure it was wise to send the Krenshar to the Shadowlands? Our mages report its levels of taint are quite high...it would take very powerful magic to cleanse it."

"You! That's right, you're a good boy! You you you!...Oh you were saying?"

"Milady, the taint that creature has absorbed could warp its body and its mind."

"Oh I'm sure he'll be fine. Won't you snoogums? I'm sure he knows just what to do with taint. Just leave him be. You just wish you were as good as him."

"And that's the legend, boy. The most fearsome hound of the Queen's Dark Hunt. Its face a rictus grin, its bark enough to freeze the stoutest warrior or mightiest mage. And its claws, full of arcane fire, rending and clawing... The Court is dangerous, boy. Never forget that. Your father went off to serve them, and look what happened to him. You understand?"

Davy Pendlebrook nodded to his grandfather, his eyes wide. Though he would never admit it, he yearned to hear the story again. Just to hear about the beautiful, capricious fairy Queen...

The Build, Take Two

Skullface, Krenshar Trapfinding Fangshield Champion of the Wild Distracting Attack Ranger 4/Unseelie Dark Hunter 1/Tainted Scholar 2/Unseelie Dark Hunter +9

Point Buy for Skullface: Str 12 Dex 14 Con 14 Int 14 Wis 16 Cha 8
Post Racial Adjustments: Str 10 Dex 20 Con 12 Int 10 Wis 18 Cha 12
Level-Up Increases go to Wis, giving Wis 17 at 6, Wis 18 at 10, Wis 19 at 14, Wis 20 at 18

{table=head]Level|Class|Base Attack<br>Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Skills|Feats|Class Features

3rd|Krenshar RHD|
+0|
+0|
+2|
+2|Move Silently 4, Hide 4, Knowledge(nature) 2, Survival 2, Concentration 2, Knowledge(arcana) 2|Track (B), Improved Scent|Scare, Darkvision 60ft, Iron Vulnerability, Damage Reduction

4th|Krenshar RHD|
+1|
+0|
+3|
+3|Move Silently 5, Hide 5, Knowledge(nature) 2, Survival 2, Ride 2, Concentration 2, Knowledge(arcana) 2|New Feats|Low-light vision, Scent, Vernal Touch

5th|Ranger 1|
+2|
+2|
+5|
+3|Move Silently 6, Hide 5, Knowledge(nature) 3, Survival 6, Ride 2, Concentration 2, Knowledge(arcana) 2|Weapon Finesse|Trapfinding, 1st favored enemy, wild empathy

6th|Ranger 2|
+3|
+3|
+6|
+3|Move Silently 7, Hide 5, Knowledge(nature) 3, Survival 7, Ride 5, Concentration 3, Knowledge(arcana) 2|Multiattack (B)|

7th|Ranger 3|
+4|
+3|
+6|
+4|Move Silently 8, Hide 5, Knowledge(nature) 3, Survival 8, Ride 5, Concentration 7, Knowledge(arcana) 2|Endurance (B)|

8th|Ranger 4|
+5|
+4|
+7|
+4|Move Silently 8, Hide 5, Knowledge(nature) 3, Survival 9, Ride 5, Concentration 8, Knowledge(arcana) 4|Improved Initiative, Blind-Fight(B)|Distracting Attack

9th|Unseelie Dark Hunter 1|
+5|
+6|
+9|
+4|Move Silently 9, Hide 6, Knowledge(nature) 3, Survival 9, Ride 5, Concentration 9, Knowledge(arcana) 4, Search 1|Fey Heritage(T)|low-light vision

10th|Tainted Scholar 1|
+5|
+6|
+9|
+6|Move Silently 9, Hide 6, Knowledge(nature) 3, Survival 9, Ride 5, Concentration 10, Knowledge(arcana) 5, Search 1|Fey Power(T)|blood component, tainted spellcasting, taint suppression

11th|Tainted Scholar 2|
+6|
+6|
+9|
+7|Move Silently 9, Hide 6, Knowledge(nature) 3, Survival 9, Ride 5, Concentration 11, Knowledge(arcana) 6, Search 1|Fey Legacy|Secret: Clarity of True Madness

12th|Unseelie Dark Hunter 2|
+7|
+7|
+10|
+7|Move Silently 10, Hide 7, Knowledge(nature) 3, Survival 9, Ride 5, Concentration 12, Knowledge(arcana) 6, Search 2||Fast mount/fast movement +10ft

13th|Unseelie Dark Hunter 3|
+8|
+7|
+10|
+8|Move Silently 11, Hide 8, Knowledge(nature) 3, Survival 9, Ride 5, Concentration 13, Knowledge(arcana) 6, Search 3||Darkvision

14th|Unseelie Dark Hunter 4|
+9|
+8|
+11|
+8|Move Silently 12, Hide 9, Knowledge(nature) 3, Survival 9, Ride 5, Concentration 14, Knowledge(arcana) 6, Search 4|Arcane Strike|Uncanny Dodge

15th|Unseelie Dark Hunter 5|
+9|
+8|
+11|
+8|Move Silently 13, Hide 10, Knowledge(nature) 3, Survival 9, Ride 5, Concentration 15, Knowledge(arcana) 6, Search 5||Fast mount/fast movement +20ft

16th|Unseelie Dark Hunter 6|
+10|
+9|
+12|
+9|Move Silently 14, Hide 11, Knowledge(nature) 3, Survival 9, Ride 5, Concentration 16, Knowledge(arcana) 6, Search 6||Scent

17th|Unseelie Dark Hunter 7|
+11|
+9|
+12|
+9|Move Silently 15, Hide 12, Knowledge(nature) 3, Survival 9, Ride 5, Concentration 17, Knowledge(arcana) 6, Search 7|Fey Skin|Improved Uncanny Dodge

18th|Unseelie Dark Hunter 8|
+12|
+10|
+13|
+9|Move Silently 16, Hide 13, Knowledge(nature) 3, Survival 9, Ride 5, Concentration 18, Knowledge(arcana) 6, Search 8||Fast mount/fast movement +30ft

19th|Unseelie Dark Hunter 9|
+12|
+10|
+13|
+10|Move Silently 17, Hide 14, Knowledge(nature) 3, Survival 9, Ride 5, Concentration 19, Knowledge(arcana) 6, Search 9||Freedom of Movement

20th|Unseelie Dark Hunter 10|
+13|
+11|
+14|
+10|Move Silently 18, Hide 15, Knowledge(nature) 3, Survival 9, Ride 5, Concentration 20, Knowledge(arcana) 6, Search 10|Fey Presence|Discern Location[/table]

(T) refers to feats gained from taint. Here it is assumed the character can gain moderate taint before taking a level in Tainted Scholar, and severe taint once Tainted Scholar grants Taint Suppression.

Casting
Spells per day/Spells Known
{table=head]Level|1st|2nd|3rd|4th|New Spells Known


9th|1|-|-|-|command, detect magic

10th|5|-|-|-|alarm

11th|6|4|-|-|hold person, invisibility

12th|7|5|-|-|true strike, detect thoughts

13th|7|6|4|-|hold monster, see invisibility

14th|7|7|5|-|locate object, dispel magic

15th|7|7|6|3|dimensional anchor, improved invisibility

16th|7|7|7|4|haste, displacement

17th|7|7|7|5|-

18th|7|7|7|6|greater command

19th|7|7|7|6|-

20th|7|7|7|6|-[/table]

*Depravity is assumed to be at the minimum of severe taint, with severe taint determined by pre-item Wis. This gives effective Wis of 40. Played riskily the character can get up to 69 depravity, or effective Wis of 79.

Q&A:
Q: So in the picture...you're the guy on the left?

A: Yes.

Q: Two builds? What's up with that?

A: The contest is for a 1-20 build. In the past builds with LA have been criticised for not actually existing at the lower levels. However, it's actually not particularly common for a player to play the same character 1-20. Here, in a campaign that starts from level 1 the player can play Darcy, then switch to Skullface at level 4 when Skullface can actually exist. You could switch later if your DM allows, since Skullface is a bit weak before he picks up Weapon Finesse and perhaps a few of his other tricks. Darcy is more of an example placeholder than an actual entrant, and as such his build is not particularly optimized.

Q: Aren't Krenshars cohort-only?

A: Nope. Look at their entry. While many other doglike magical beasts have the cohort-only tag, Krenshars don't. This wasn't changed in the errata, so Krenshars are fine as player characters.

Q: What about talking? Using objects?

A: While their starting languages aren't listed, Krenshars also aren't specified to only be able to communicate with barks or the like. They are described as quite social. Since mute PC races generally have specific text that designates them mute (Buomanns), we can presume that since Krenshars aren't cohort-only they can talk. Similarly, while not able to wield weapons, they can probably use their foreclaws to pick up simple objects, like rods. If your DM disagrees, consider trying to get the Gloves of Man from Savage Species.

Q: Tainted Scholar? Unseelie Fey? Something smells like Limburger...

A: Was that a question? Anyway, Tainted Scholar and Unseelie Fey are cheesy...on full casters with high Charisma scores. Here, they merely serve to give the character the versatility and power to make a decent Tier 3. Tainted Scholar gives Duskblade-like spells per day which primarily serve to fuel Arcane Strike and single-target control with DCs similar to those obtainable with Intimidamancy, and these tactics are both Tier 3 and lower staples. I'm merely taking what the class gives and making the best of it.

Q: What are you doing to manage your taint?

A: At higher levels you should make the save to avoid gaining taint from spellcasting pretty regularly. When you get close to maximum depravity you can pretty easily buy castings of restoration or potions of remove curse to lower it back to something safe. Most of your spell slots will end up going into Arcane Strike anyway.

Q: That many variants? Really?

A: This is an optimization competition, isn't it? None of the variants are essential to the build, and they're all intended to keep from wasting build resources. It makes sense to grab Trapfinding when you already get Track from your race, or to trade your one level of animal companion and spellcasting for Distracting Attack and a bonus feat (especially one that synergizes well with your natural Scent). While the original Fangshields are a good-aligned Forgotten Realms group, the substitution levels are designed to trade out things useless to a natural weapons-based character for things moderately more useful, which many DMs will think of as a reasonable trade. You have plenty of free feats later in the build, if you're forced to trade one for Multiattack it won't hurt your effectiveness.
Tactics and Build Explanation:

One you switch from Darcy to Skullface, your role begins as party support. Your Vernal Touch gets rid of a few relatively nasty effects. When casters get Celerity, you can remove their daze. If they stay up late, you can remove fatigue/exhaustion. You can do this at will. This helps the party forget the fact that you're not all that impressive in combat. Before Weapon Finesse you don't hit often, and even with it you don't have a source of bonus damage yet. You can occasionally make a decent full attack just on weapon dice, but you won't be making a consistent contribution to damage without a party member willing to buff you up (on the other hand, you're a very nice force multiplier for your local DFI bard).

In addition to your party support contributions, you're quite a good tracker. Scent lets you follow the lines of plot, track down the Unseelie Queen's enemies, and find hidden foes within 60 feet provided they haven't invested in Darkstalker. Wings from Unseelie Fey give you all-day extraordinary flight, nice at this level. While your Scare DC isn't amazing, you can occasionally pull it out on the weak minded, like the Unseelie Queen's stupider guards.

Taking Unseelie Dark Hunter increases your effectiveness. At first level, you're able to cast either command or detect magic once per day. Detect magic at least will be useful, as even someone with Darkstalker can be found by looking at their magic items. Command is less useful now, but it will be worthwhile next level when you take...

Tainted Scholar! Remember your Wis-based arcane casting? Well now you've still got Wis-based arcane casting, since your depravity score is limited by your Wis. Exploitation of taint gives you bonus spells galore and save DCs somewhere between useful and irresistable. Right now that's command, which makes for limited (but very difficult to resist) single-target control. Soon you'll have hold person and hold monster, which with your DCs can keep things immobile as long as necessary. Your Taint-granted bonus feats give you Fey Power to increase the durations on these and Fey Legacy for some nice spell-likes to increase versatility. At this point your Unseelie Fey DR begins to show up. Few monster habitually carry cold iron, so this is a decent boost to survivability. Finally, Clarity of True Madness is a nice wild card, allowing a once-per day near-automatic success on tracking someone, spotting something, or the like.

Further levels in Unseelie Dark Hunter give fast movement, which is useful for moving up to enemies after spending your standard action to root them in place, allowing you to full attack on the next turn. Uncanny dodge and its improved version are useful in general. At 14th level you pick up Arcane Strike, and you can finally put your bloated spell slots and three-attack full attack to work with a liberal helping of bonus damage.

Fey Skin explicitly stacks with your Unseelie Fey DR, which as you level becomes quite respectable, especially with the multitude of Fey Heritage feats you're taking. Finally, your Freedom of Movement and Discern Location abilities are a nice capstone, giving you tricks in addition to those gained from your spells. You can now hunt down pretty much whatever the Queen wants you to, freeze it in place with your tainted howl, and tear it to bits with your magic-infused claws.
Gear Wish-list:
Wis boosting items allow you to risk a higher depravity, further boosting your spellcasting. A Metamagic Rod of Chain Spell goes a long way towards turning your single-target control into battlefield control. Given your use for high numbers of low-level spells per day, a Ring of Wizardry would certainly not go amiss. Draconomicon and Magic Item compendium both are quite kind in terms of what items a quadrupedal creature with wings can use, so most of the items useful to other people are also useful to you.

Sources:

Player's Handbook/Dungeon Master's Guide/Monster Manual
Dungeonscape, Champions of Valor, Player's Handbook II, Complete Champion (only used for variants, which as mentioned before can be dropped)Sa
Savage Species
Dragon Magazine Compendium
Heroes of Horror
Complete Mage
Complete Warrior
and of course, Fey Features

[true_shinken]

He creeps the steps and floor... final darkness.



The Creeper

The Creeper
http://pegasusnews.com/media/img/photos/2007/10/29/thumbs/jeeperscreepers2pic.jpg.728x520_q85.jpg

"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster." -- Friedrich Nietzsche

Birthed from nature itself and shaped within the perfection of the natural realm, The Creeper is one of the Queen's greatest hunters. A creature of the spirits, The Creeper has elevated himself into something stronger and stranger. Always foreseen within the arrival of his monstrous raven, The Creeper flied on the wings of hunger towards his prey. He flies towards them for a passion beyond his ever-loyal servitude to the Queen or even his sensual delight in the hunt. The Creeper flies to quench his hunger for perfection.

As long as you are in nature and alive, The Creeper will not stop in his pursuit. You have something he wants, he hungers for it. And soon enough you will be in him, just like all the others. Soon you will be a part of perfection, won't you join him?

The Creeper Build



Male Bamboo Spirit Ranger 5/Unseelie Dark Hunter 4/Fleshwarper 2/Unseelie Dark Hunter 4/Fleshwarper 3/Unseelie Dark Hunter 2.

{table=head]Level|Class|Base Attack Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Skills|Feats|Class Features

1st|Ranger 1|
+1|
+2|
+2|
+0|Heal 4, Hide 4, Knowledge (Arcana) 4, Knowledge (Nature) 4, Listen 2, Move Silently 4, Ride 4, Spot 2, Survival 4, Use Magical Device 4|Apprentice (Spellcaster), Track|Favored Enemy (Fey) +2, Spiritual Connection

2nd|Ranger 2|
+2|
+3|
+3|
+0|Heal 5, Hide 5, Knowledge (Arcana) 5, Knowledge (Nature) 5, Listen 3, Move Silently 5, Ride 4, Spot 3, Survival 5, Use Magical Device 5| |

3rd|Ranger 3|
+3|
+3|
+3|
+1|Heal 6, Hide 6, Knowledge (Arcana) 6, Knowledge (Nature) 6, Listen 4, Move Silently 6, Ride 4, Spot 4, Survival 6, Use Magical Device 6|Improved Initiative, Endurance|

4th|Ranger 4|
+4|
+4|
+4|
+1|Heal 7, Hide 7, Knowledge (Arcana) 7, Knowledge (Nature) 7, Listen 5, Move Silently 7, Ride 4, Spot 5, Survival 7, Use Magical Device 7||Urban Companion (Raven)

5th|Ranger 5|
+5|
+4|
+4|
+1|Heal 8, Hide 8, Knowledge (Arcana) 8, Knowledge (Nature) 8, Listen 6, Move Silently 8, Ride 5, Spot 5, Survival 8, Use Magical Device 8||Favored Enemy (Fey) +4, Favored Enemy (Magical Beast) +2, Wildshape (Small & Medium Animals Only)

6th|Dark Hunter 1|
+5|
+6|
+6|
+1|Heal 9, Hide 9, Knowledge (Arcana) 9, Knowledge (Nature) 9, Listen 6, Move Silently 9, Ride 5, Spot 5, Survival 9, Use Magical Device 9|Aberrant Blood |Low-Light Vision, Spells

7th|Dark Hunter 2|
+6|
+7|
+7|
+1|Heal 10, Hide 10, Knowledge (Arcana) 10, Knowledge (Nature) 10, Listen 6, Move Silently 10, Ride 5, Spot 5, Survival 10, Use Magical Device 10||Fast Mount (+10 ft.), Fast Movement (+10 ft.)

8th|Dark Hunter 3|
+7|
+7|
+7|
+2|Heal 10, Hide 11, Knowledge (Arcana) 11, Knowledge (Nature) 11, Listen 6, Move Silently 11, Ride 5, Spot 6, Survival 11, Use Magical Device 11||Darkvision

9th|Dark Hunter 4|
+8|
+8|
+8|
+2|Heal 10, Hide 12, Knowledge (Arcana) 12, Knowledge (Nature) 12, Listen 7, Move Silently 12, Ride 5, Spot 6, Survival 12, Use Magical Device 12|Graft Flesh (Undead) |Uncanny Dodge

10th|Fleshwarper 1|
+8|
+10|
+8|
+2|Concentration 4, Heal 10, Hide 12, Knowledge (Arcana) 13, Knowledge (Nature) 13, Listen 7, Move Silently 12, Ride 5, Spot 6, Survival 12, Use Magical Device 13||Aberrant Familiar (Size Increase)

11th|Fleshwarper 2|
+9|
+11|
+8|
+2|Concentration 8, Heal 10, Hide 12, Knowledge (Arcana) 14, Knowledge (Nature) 14, Listen 7, Move Silently 12, Ride 5, Spot 6, Survival 12, Use Magical Device 14||Elder Secret (Secret of the Gibbering Mouther)

12th|Dark Hunter 5|
+9|
+11|
+8|
+2|Concentration 8, Heal 10, Hide 14, Knowledge (Arcana) 15, Knowledge (Nature) 14, Listen 7, Move Silently 14, Ride 5, Spot 6, Survival 13, Use Magical Device 15|Dark Stalker |Fast Mount (+20 ft.), Fast Movement (+20 ft.)

13th|Dark Hunter 6|
+10|
+12|
+9|
+3|Concentration 8, Heal 10, Hide 16, Knowledge (Arcana) 16, Knowledge (Nature) 14, Listen 7, Move Silently 16, Ride 5, Spot 6, Survival 14, Use Magical Device 16||Scent

14th|Dark Hunter 7|
+11|
+12|
+9|
+3|Concentration 8, Heal 10, Hide 17, Knowledge (Arcana) 17, Knowledge (Nature) 14, Listen 7, Move Silently 17, Ride 5, Spot 6, Survival 17, Use Magical Device 17||Improved Uncanny Dodge

15th|Dark Hunter 8|
+12|
+13|
+10|
+3|Concentration 8, Heal 10, Hide 18, Knowledge (Arcana) 18, Knowledge (Nature) 14, Listen 8, Move Silently 18, Ride 5, Spot 7, Survival 18, Use Magical Device 18|Scavenging Gullet |Fast Mount (30 ft.), Fast Movement (30 ft.)

16th|Fleshwarper 3|
+12|
+13|
+11|
+4|Concentration 12, Heal 10, Hide 18, Knowledge (Arcana) 19, Knowledge (Nature) 15, Listen 8, Move Silently 18, Ride 5, Spot 7, Survival 18, Use Magical Device 19||Graft Mastery (Plant)

17th|Fleshwarper 4|
+13|
+14|
+11|
+4|Concentration 17, Heal 10, Hide 18, Knowledge (Arcana) 20, Knowledge (Nature) 15, Listen 8, Move Silently 18, Ride 5, Spot 7, Survival 18, Use Magical Device 20||Aberrant Familiar (Scales)

18th|Fleshwarper 5|
+13|
+14|
+11|
+4|Concentration 21, Heal 11, Hide 18, Knowledge (Arcana) 21, Knowledge (Nature) 15, Listen 8, Move Silently 18, Ride 5, Spot 7, Survival 18, Use Magical Device 21|Starspawn|Elder Secret (Secret of the Destrachan), Graft Mastery (Elemental)

19th|Dark Hunter 9|
+13|
+14|
+11|
+4|Concentration 21, Heal 11, Hide 20, Knowledge (Arcana) 22, Knowledge (Nature) 15, Listen 8, Move Silently 20, Ride 5, Spot 7, Survival 19, Use Magical Device 22||Freedom of Movement

20th|Fleshwarper 10|
+14|
+15|
+12|
+5|Concentration 21, Heal 11, Hide 20, Knowledge (Arcana) 23, Knowledge (Nature) 15, Listen 10, Move Silently 20, Ride 5, Spot 9, Survival 20, Use Magical Device 23||Discern Location[/table]

Unseelie Dark Hunter Spellcasting (CL 14)
Spells per day/Spells Known
{table=head]Level|1st|2nd|3rd|4th

1st|0/3|-|-|-|

2nd|1/3|-|-|-|

3rd|2/4|0/3|-|-|

4th|3/5|1/4|-|-|

5th|3/5|2/4|0/2|-|

6th|3/5|3/5|1/3|-|

7th|3/5|3/5|2/3|0/2|

8th|3/5|3/5|3/4|1/3|

9th|3/5|3/5|3/4|2/3|

10th|3/5|3/5|3/4|3/4|[/table]

Spells Known
1st: Create Water, Detect Magic, Detect Snares & Pits, Mount and True Strike.
2nd: Bull's Strength, Bear's Endurance, Detect Thoughts, Invisibility and Locate Object.
3rd: Clairaudience/Clairvoyance, Dispel Magic, Haste and See Invisibility.
4th: Ethereal Jaunt, Dimensional Anchor, Locate Creature and Scrying.


Attributes
Initial Ability Array: Str 15, Dex 14, Con 15, Int 12, Wis 14, Cha 8
20th Level Ability Array: Str 16 (+1 at 8th), Dex 14, Con 19 (+1 at 4th,12th, 16th, 20th), Int 12, Wis 14, Cha 8

The Creeper is a well rounded creature physically as well as instinctively talented. While gifted with a small amount of cunning, The Creeper relies primarily on his instincts to guide him towards his prey. Charisma is obviously going to be lacking for a being composed of the rewards of his hunts.

Variants
Urban Companion (Cityscape Web Enhancement (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20070228a)): While trading away an animal companion this variant allows the The Creeper access into the FleshWarper prestige class. Thematically the raven familiar works terrifically with the flavor of the build, so few is lost in that department.
Spiritual Connection (Complete Champion): Losing wild empathy, an ability I am not too fond for, in exchange for the ability to converse with animals & plants three times a day for five minutes grants The Creeper a far greater ability in hunting down his prey. I would gladly give up being friendlier to animals in exchange for all of nature being mine for questioning.
Wildshape Ranger (Unearthed Arcana): The increased versatility offered in being able to adopt an animal form can not be understated. Contributing towards improving mobility (burrowing or swimming) as well as the potential to disguise oneself as a small critter offers The Creeper greater ability to get closer to his prey. While it is only once per day for five hours it still offers considerably more than the lone feat of Two-Weapon Fighting.

Flaws: If allowed to take flaws this creator recommends Willing Deformity and Deformity (Madness) as very solid choices to beef up The Creeper's mental defenses (if such a course is taken attributes need to be changed as well with a physical stat taking a hit, probably dexterity, as to compensate for the penalty to wisdom).



Build Theory
When approaching the Unseelie Dark Hunter a lot of the abilities seemed thrown together. All of them were useful in the activity of hunting down a prey but very few were connected in any larger thematic frame. Fleshwarper adds that greater dimension by applying the aspect of The Creeper slowly gaining greater physical perfection through the grafting & digestion of individuals.

The feat selection is partly made up of both feats that help contribute to achieving access to prestige classes. Apprentice (spellcaster) aids in skill requirements as well as giving The Creeper the power & versatility of Use Magical Device. The rest of the feats fall into the thematic elements of the Aberrant Blood line which aids The Creeper in giving him the ability to draw sustenance from anything as well as a notable fly speed of 40 ft.

Tactics
The Creeper is dedicated to the hunt and primarily fatiguing his prey from running. Knowing that purely engaging his target is a fool's enterprise he simply continues the chase until his prey makes a fatal mistake. It isn't hard with his ability to eat near anything for sustenance and ability to become invisible as an agent of nature. Commonly packing wands of Restoration helps keep The Creeper in constant activity, only waiting for his target to wear themselves down.

When deciding to engage an opponent The Creeper employs tactics born of the wild, hit & strike techniques. He slowly picks off his opposition until he can take down his prey for a feeding. Commonly used weapons of choice are hand axes, which serve the dual purpose of being a handy utility tool when scalping foes to scare others.

Sources
Complete Champion: Spiritual Connection
Dungeon Master's Guide 2: Apprentice (Spellcaster)
Fiend Folio: Graft Flesh
Lords of Madness: Aberrant Blood, Dark Stalker, Scavenging Gullet, Starspawn, Fleshwarper
Magic of Eberron: Elemental & Plant Grafts
Oriental Adventures: Bamboo Spirit
Unearthed Arcana: Wildshape Ranger ACF
WOTC Web: Unseelie Dark Hunter (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/fey/20030315a), Cityscape Web Enhancement (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20070228a)

[true_shinken]

Who wants to live forever?


Perpetua
Female CE Elf Tribal Ardent 5/Anarchic Initiate 4/Dark Hunter 10/Anarchic Initiate +1
"My life for her majesty, always."

Levels 1-5
Backstory: I began life as any other elf--confined. Trapped within the halls of Aerenal, I learned the same lessons as the other elf maidens, ate the same food, heard the same tales of the Undying Court, and lived the same stale life. Even as a youth, I couldn't take it. My breaking point came when my family arranged to sell me in marriage to a rich young bore of an elf. I locked myself in my room for days on end, watching the butterflies outside my window come and go without a care...without a sound. I envied not only their beauty, but their stealth and speed. They could sneak anywhere, or dart about in plain sight--it mattered not to them. In my free time, I began to study them. Over time, I too learned how to move quickly while keeping quiet, and it was all too easy to escape the ornate prison that was Aerenal. I was free! Alone in the wild, yes, but free.
Tactics: Perpetua begins life as she breaks away from home, taking levels in Tribal Ardent (which replaces Psicraft with Survival, a needed skill for our S.I.). She picks up Move Silently via Aereni Focus, but could easily do so using Skill Knowledge if your DM is permissive (or you're not in Eberron). She snags Overchannel and serves as a basic blaster, augmenting her Energy Ray and Energy Bolt as much as she can. The versatility of the different energy types helps tremendously, and she also has Charm/Suggestion for social interaction. Dimension Hop and Hustle serve to speed up Perpetua, further enhanced by the speed bonus granted by the Freedom Mantle. Lastly, a high DEX and the energy resistance available from the Energy mantle boost her defensively. She snags The Planes mantle at 5th level, but we don't really need that yet.

Levels 6-10
Backstory: Life in the wild was perfect. New, frantic, and chaotic, but perfect. I was free to travel where I wanted, hunting my food or convincing wealthy travelers to provide whatever I needed. My years of study had payed off, and my mind was sharp. One night, I met a strange little man in a clearing--much like a gnome, but with gossamer wings like the butterflies of my youth. He introduced me to the world of the fey, and to the realm of the unseelie. He regaled me with tales of the Queen of Air and Darkness, a beautiful and fearsome woman who made mighty fey bend to her will. She sounded amazing--truly free to exert herself over the world. I determined that I would join her court, no matter the cost. I worked my way into the ranks of her followers and began fetching whatever she asked...or whomever. I found that with my "winning" personality and my ability to travel in the blink of an eye, I was able to complete her requests much faster than anyone else. She took notice, and I was invited to swear the oath of the Hunter. I obliged immediately, pledging myself to her in hopes of obtaining the same power and freedom that she had in abundance.
Tactics: Perpetua embraces chaos, moving into Anarchic Initiate to further her blasting capabilities. When she overchannels her blasting powers, she has a 50% chance to increase the damage output, so she'll be overchanneling whenever she has the HP. Her mobility increases via flight, freedom of movement, teleporting and planeshifting. Also, her go-to trick comes online at levels 8-9. Whenever the queen requests something (or someone), Perpetua can teleport or planeshift to the desired location, charm or suggest anyone she encounters into handing over the requested item (or simply taking her hand to join her on her travels), and teleport or plane shift right back to the queen. Her high speed and alternate mobility remain viable options when on assignment. Also, if someone resists the charm and fights back, she can blast them into oblivion before teleporting back to the Queen with the requested corpse (since she can bring objects along). At level 10, she enters Dark Hunter and begins to learn arcane spells. Her first spells, expeditious retreat and spider climb, contribute even further to her limitless mobility.

Levels 11-15
Backstory: I was the queen's go-to girl; she relied on me to fetch things for her when waiting was not an option, and again I obliged her request. I reswore my oath year after year, continuing to learn the path to true freedom under her watchful wing. I pushed myself to new heights, learning to spy on my prey long before arriving, and boosting my speed until my eyes watered as I ran through the fields. I earned the queen's favor through my devotion, and she smiled upon me daily. I lived in the lap of luxury--there was once a week-long feast in my honor after I killed and retrieved the horrid little half-gnome that had introduced me to the Court. Selling secrets to the Seelie, he was. I was the Queen's number one, often fetching other Hunters who had failed to uphold their oath.
Tactics: Perpetua gains fast movement, which stacks with the +10 ft bonus to speed she gained from the Freedom Mantle at level 2. Also, powers like Hustle help to multiply this speed bonus by granting extra move actions so Perpetua can get anywhere in a hurry. Her senses are enhanced for the hunt via darkvision, and her high DEX is assured to her thanks to Uncanny Dodge. She learns Mount to summon a horse she can grant the fast mount bonuses to, picks up Invisibility to enhance her stealth, and jumps into the divination powers. Detect Snares and Pits helps her find traps (since she's no rogue), while Detect Thoughts and Clairaudience/Clairvoyance allow her to spy on her quarries. Furthermore, if she views the area she's teleporting to for an hour beforehand, it counts as being carefully studied and thus severely lessens her chance of a teleporting mishap. She learns Phantom Steed (which nearly replaces Mount), since its speed far exceeds a normal horse. If items or flaws are available, she can boost her CL to 14 in order to have a flying mount that can travel up to 270 feet per round by level 20. Finally, speak w/ animals can be used creatively to aid her while tracking prey through the wilderness, while dispel magic can help lower any protections against charms her quarry may have.

Levels 16-20
Backstory: My feet never needed to move, so adept was I. I stood before Her Majesty, and with but a thought I stood before the object of her desire. I could blink and teleport myself around--even use partial teleportation to avoid the attacks of my enemies. I was the best. And you? You are nothing! You claim she has sent you to collect me as if you know Her Majesty's will? Ha! I TRAINED you, son. I know your tricks. I've been studying you for years. You think you can hold me, yet I escape your grasp. You think you can surprise me, but I know your every move. Not even your mind blank stopped my information gathering. I've even cast Dimensional Anchor to ensure you can't teleport me back to her. So finish your job with honor. Put your blade to my neck and slay me; I'd rather die in Her Majesty's favor than see her disappointment with me.
Tactics: Perpetua rounds out her casting ability with more movement-related spells--Dimension Door allows her to travel quickly without burning PP for teleporting, while Ethereal Jaunt (usually a level 7 spell!) and Displacement ensure that she's hard to hit. Her freedom of movement ability gained from Dark Hunter 9 is great because it kicks in automatically whenever it applies, meaning it will save Perpetua from situations where she can't manifest psionic Freedom of Movement. While Discern Location is great because you don't need the material component (since it's a SLA), it can still be blocked by Mind Blank. For that, we venture back to Anarchic Initiate at 20th level. Earth Sense and Earth Power mean that we can reduce the cost of powers by 1, so we can overchannel our ML up to 16 and snag Metafaculty as our last power, a nigh-unblockable divination.

Overchanneling and Manifesting
I know I might catch some flak for this, but I believe that you can use Overchannel to boost your Ardent ML while learning powers. Complete Psi specifies that an ardent must be able to manifest a power in order to learn it--using Overchannel is something that occurs while manifesting which leads me to believe you can use it to bump up your ML enough to grab new powers. At 20th level, Earth Sense/Power not only give us limited Blindsight, but allow us to lower the cost of powers by 1 while focused and standing on earth. We overchannel our ML up to 16 (thanks to Practiced Manifester), which is just high enough to manifest our 9th-level power (which has been reduced by Earth Power). Voila! A 9th-level spell with only 10 levels of psionic classes, and a darn good flavorful fit.

The Build
{table=head]
LEVEL|
CLASS|
BAB|
FORT|
REF|
WILL|
SKILLS|
FEATS|
CLASS FEATURES

1|
Tribal Ardent 1|
+0|
+0|
+0|
+2|
Know (planes) 4; Know (psi) 4; Move Silently 4; Survival 4|
Aereni Focus (Move Silently)|
Communication Mantle; Energy Mantle

2|
Tribal Ardent 2|
+1|
+0|
+0|
+3|
Know (nature) 1; Know (planes) 5; Know (psi) 5; Survival 5||
Freedom Mantle

3|
Tribal Ardent 3|
+2|
+1|
+1|
+3|
Know (nature) 2; Know (planes) 6; Know (psi) 6; Survival 6|
Overchannel|


4|
Tribal Ardent 4|
+3|
+1|
+1|
+4|
Know (nature) 3; Know (planes) 7; Know (psi) 7; Survival 7||


5|
Tribal Ardent 5|
+3|
+1|
+1|
+4|
Know (nature) 4; Know (planes) 8; Know (psi) 8; Survival 8||
The Planes Mantle

6|
Anarchic Initiate 1|
+3|
+1|
+1|
+6|
Hide 2 (cc); Ride 1 (cc)|
Improved Initiative|
Chaotic Surge

7|
Anarchic Initiate 2|
+4|
+1|
+1|
+7|
Hide 3 (cc); Ride 3 (cc)||
Anarchic Grace

8|
Anarchic Initiate 3|
+5|
+2|
+2|
+7|
Hide 4 (cc); Ride 4 (cc); Move Silently 6||
Wild Surge +1; Psychic Enervation

9|
Anarchic Initiate 4|
+6/+1|
+2|
+2|
+8|
Hide 5 (cc); Ride 5 (cc); Move Silently 8|
Track|
Clarity of Confusion

10|
Dark Hunter 1|
+6/+1|
+4|
+4|
+8|
Hide 6; Move Silently 9; Psicraft 2 (cc)||
Low-light vision

11|
Dark Hunter 2|
+7/+2|
+5|
+5|
+8|
Hide 7; Move Silently 10; Psicraft 4 (cc)||
Fast Mount/Fast Movement (+10)

12|
Dark Hunter 3|
+8/+3|
+5|
+5|
+9|
Hide 8; Move Silently 12; Ride 8; Survival 10|
Practiced Manifester|
Darkvision

13|
Dark Hunter 4|
+9/+4|
+6|
+6|
+9|
Hide 9; Move Silently 14; Ride 9; Survival 12||
Uncanny Dodge (retain DEX to AC)

14|
Dark Hunter 5|
+9/+4|
+6|
+6|
+9|
Hide 11; Move Silently 15; Ride 11; Survival 13||
Fast Mount/Fast Movement (+20)

15|
Dark Hunter 6|
+10/+5|
+7|
+7|
+10|
Hide 13; Move Silently 16; Ride 13; Survival 14|
Earth Sense|
Scent

16|
Dark Hunter 7|
+11/+6/+1|
+7|
+7|
+10|
Hide 15; Move Silently 17; Ride 15; Survival 15||
Uncanny Dodge (can't be flanked)

17|
Dark Hunter 8|
+12/+7/+2|
+8|
+8|
+10|
Hide 17; Move Silently 18; Ride 17; Survival 16||
Fast Mount/Fast Movement (+30)

18|
Dark Hunter 9|
+12/+7/+2|
+8|
+8|
+11|
Hide 19; Move Silently 19; Ride 19; Survival 17|
Earth Power|
Freedom of Movement

19|
Dark Hunter 10|
+13/+8/+3|
+9|
+9|
+11|
Hide 21; Move Silently 20; Ride 21; Survival 18||
Discern Location

20|
Anarchic Initiate 5|
+13/+8/+3|
+9|
+9|
+11|
Hide 23; Move Silently 21; Ride 23; Survival 19||[/table]

{table=head]ABILITY|POINTS|BASE|RACE|LEVELS|TOTAL|MOD
STR|0|8|+0|+0|8|-1
DEX|8|15|+2|+1|18|+4
CON|8|15|-2|+0|13|+1
INT|6|14|+0|+0|14|+2
WIS|10|16|+0|+4|20|+5
CHA|0|8|+0|+0|8|-1[/table]

PSIONICS/SPELLCASTING

Powers Known/PP per day
{table=HEAD]LEVEL|ML (overchanneling)|PP*|Powers Known
1|1|2|Charm, Psionic; Energy Ray
2|2|6|Dimension Hop
3|3 (4)|11|Suggestion, psionic
4|4 (5)|17|Hustle
5|5 (6)|25|Energy Bolt
6|6 (7)|35|Fly, psionic
7|7 (8)|46|Freedom of Movement, psionic
8|8 (10)|58|Teleport, psionic
9|9 (11)|72|Plane Shift, psionic
10|9 (11)|72|
11|9 (11)|72|
12|12 (14)|72|
13|13 (15)|72|
14|13 (15)|72|
15|13 (15)|72|
16|13 (15)|72|
17|13 (15)|72|
18|13 (15)|72|
19|13 (15)|72|
20|14 (16)|88|Metafaculty[/table]

*does not include bonus PP from a high ability score

Spells per day*/Spells Known
{table=head]Level|1st|2nd|3rd|4th|Spells Known
1st|-|-|-|-|
2nd|-|-|-|-|
3rd|-|-|-|-|
4th|-|-|-|-|
5th|-|-|-|-|
6th|-|-|-|-|
7th|-|-|-|-|
8th|-|-|-|-|
9th|-|-|-|-|
10th|0/2|-|-|-|Expeditious Retreat, Spider Climb
11th|1/3|-|-|-|Mount
12th|2/3|0/2|-|-|Invisibility, Locate Object
13th|3/4|1/3|-|-|Detect Snares and Pits, Detect Thoughts
14th|3/4|2/3|0/2|-|Clairaudience/Clairvoyance, Phantom Steed
15th|3/4|3/4|1/3|-|Speak w/ Animals, Dispel Magic
16th|3/4|3/4|2/3|0/2|Dimension Door, Ethereal Jaunt
17th|3/4|3/4|3/4|1/3|Haste, Displacement
18th|3/4|3/4|3/4|2/3|
19th|3/4|3/4|3/4|3/4|Dimensional Anchor
20th|3/4|3/4|3/4|3/4|[/table]

*Does not include bonus spells per day from a high ability score.

Adaptation

LA Buyoff: If allowed, Perpetua would be a half-fey for the great SLAs and flavor, not to mention flight without spending PP. Of course, the change to ability scores means we'd have to rework them, but it seems feasible.
Traits/Flaws: The Quick trait is a no-brainer for a fast character like Perpetua, and flaws would allow us to snag Earth Sense & Earth Power at level 1. With this, we could pick up Quicken Power (to charm quarries and teleport back in one round) and Practiced Spellcaster (boosting Dark Hunter CL to 14 for a flying phantom steed).
Suggested Items: an amulet of catapsi would be nice against other manifesters or casters, and it replaces the Chaotic Breach (minor) from Anarchic Initiate that we maddeningly missed by one level. Anything that boosts DEX and WIS are great, of course. Also, the Torc of Power Preservation can be used 3/day to lower PP costs by one--if you're able to snag one, your DM may allow you to manifest Metafaculty without the need for Earth Sense/Earth Power at all, freeing up slots for some more metapsionics.
ACFs: The Mind's Eye article has two great ACFs, so powerful I think they're cheap. Dominant Ideal allows you to get some more oomph out of one mantle for some cheap metapsionics (Energy would be great for augmenting) and Substitute Powers allows you to build your own mantles (to grab some great powers I couldn't wedge into this build).


Sources

Fey Feature (Dark Hunter)
Mind's Eye (Tribal Ardent variant, Substitute Powers variant)
PHB (Elf, Track, Improved Initiative)
Player's Guide to Eberron (Aereni Focus)
Complete Psionic (Ardent, Anarchic Initiate, Practiced Manifester)
Expanded Psionics Handbook (Overchannel)
Races of Stone (Earth Sense, Earth Power)

[true_shinken]

This reeks of fey!

Reek, Master of Her Majesty’s Menagerie

Fiendish Desert Goblin – Neutral Evil – Warlock 6 / Simple Variant Wilderness Rogue 3 / Beast Heart Adept 1 / Dark Hunter 10

Image
http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/rhod_gallery/95652.jpg

Backstory
The raiders came out of nowhere. An entire patrol was down before the horns sounded and the goblins rallied to the defense of their village. From his vantage point on the hill, Marthak sat astride his dire wolf and studied the interlopers with a spyglass. Elves, he thought, and a satyr… and uh… he wasn’t sure what that last one was, but it was big. And as fast as they rode in, they seemed now to be waiting… waiting for the worgs to charge.

That worried Marthak. It’s like they weren’t even interested in the village, they just wanted to stir up the nest to get the cavalry to charge them.

Then he spied the nets. Nets and a bag of… muzzles? They were here for the worgs. HIS worgs. His father may lead the tribe, but it was Marthak who captured and trained the beasts they used. Well if these elves wanted beasts, then he’d put on a HELL of a show.

A quick shouted discussion later, the worg cavalry aborted their charge, and circled back, and the goblins began raining the interlopers with arrows. Unsurprisingly, the arrow volleys did little. Looking annoyed, the intruders summoned mounts out of nowhere and rode in pursuit of the worg riders, nets in hand. Marthak fired on them at that point, his eldritch blast ripping the phantom steed right out from under the lead rider. That got their attention.

His assistants used slings to mark the area around the interlopers in sweet smelling fumes, and Marthak opened the cage he stood next to. Five winged carrion crawlers, their forms wreathed in leering faces made of flames, took flight and bore down upon the enemies the fumes had marked. He was proud of these beasts, some of his finest work to date, and procuring them had been expensive. And the look on the intruder’s faces was worth it.

Two of the crawlers didn’t make it down the hill, as magic from the enemy paralyzed them in mid flight. And while the elves were busy dealing with the remaining 3 and the worg cavalry that was charging from their other flank, the satyr pointed at Marthak and the ogrish one smiled. Suddenly, the brute teleported and was on top of the hill, right in front of Marthak.

The goblin warlock spurred his dire wolf, which unfurled it’s leathery wings, buffeted their assailant and breathed fire on him. The brute seemed surprised at the onslaught of fire, but otherwise ignored it, just like he ignored the Deep Slumber spell from Marthak’s wand. The dire wolf then backpedaled into the air, giving Marthak some distance from the fellow, but the Satyr had closed the distance now and cast something which bound his mount’s wings and sent them both crashing to the ground.

A few seconds later, Marthak was pummeled senseless and everything went dark.

He awoke bound, gagged, and blindfolded on the back of someone’s mount. It smelled unnatural, but he could scent worgs nearby. He tried to roll off, but was too securely tied.

“Quit squirming,” someone said to him in badly accented goblin. “Your village was spared. Be a shame if we had to change that.”

He could feel magic crinkling about them every so often as they travelled. They were plane shifting, probably through standing portals. When they finally stopped, he could hear a flute playing, and he was dragged off the mount and through a field of close-cropped grass. He was forced to his knees and his blindfold was ripped off, bringing him face to face with a gazebo seemingly made of silver and obsidian glass. It’s occupants were chatting casually in some fey dialect and were in exquisite physical shape. His eyes were drawn to the one in the center, a female of radiant beauty that his gut told him he should greatly fear.

She paused, and sniffed the air, finally bringing her gaze to rest upon Marthak’s captors.

“Dearest, I… smell… something. What reeks?”

“This one does, my Queen,” said the elf with the grip on Marthak’s shoulder. “Has a bit of a brimstone taint to him. Looks to be of Carcerian descent, Minethys I would guess. But he was leading the… resistance… on our hunting trip.”

“And you haven’t executed him for it because… ?”

“Because the goblins in his village tell us he’s the one that made THESE,” the elf said, gesturing grandly at several creatures being paraded up to the pavilion. Two of Marthak’s winged carrion crawlers were there, struggling but held fast in fine nets, and his winged dire wolf, its eyes glassed over and standing there listlessly. “The dog breathes fire as well,” he continued.

“And the reeking one… CRAFTED these?” the woman in charge said to no one in particular.

“Hunted, tamed, and… improved… yes,” Marthak said, clearing his throat.

The assembled court looked at him with horror, then at their queen. She leveled such a gaze at him… but her face snapped immediately into a honey-sweet mask and she looked away from the goblin again.

“So I suppose you could make for me an owlbear that actually flies?” she laughed.

“Or a myconid who breathes fire and is willing to sauté itself for your dining pleasure… your highness,” Marthak said as fearlessly as he could manage.

She turned to look at the goblin with a mix of amusement and mock horror on her face, then broke out in a wide and terrible grin.

“Oh now that’s something I simply MUST see! How soon can you craft one for me?”

“Well I would need some test subjects and a few reagents…” but he was cut off by her waving hand.

“Details bore me. Dearest,” she said to the elf that still held the iron grip on Marthak’s shoulder, “get little Reek here set up with a laboratory or something and whatever else he needs. Then take him hunting!”

“Of course, my Queen,” he replied, and then ushered the goblin and his creations away from the glade.

“Just so you’re clear, goblin,” he hissed as they were away from the glade and beyond the sound of the flute player, “you belong to HER now. Please your Queen and you get to live.”

“Fail her and I die?” the warlock asked, massaging his sore wrists.

“Heh,” snorted the pale elf ranger, “you wish.”

The Build

{table=head]STR|DEX|CON|INT|WIS|CHA|-|Level Bonuses
8|14|14|14|14|13|-|+1 CHA at 4th, +1 WIS at 8th, 12th, 16th, 20th [/table]
{table=head]Race/Template|Cost|Bonuses
Desert Goblin| - |-2 Str, +2 Dex, -2 Cha, Humanoid (Goblinoid), Low Light Vision, +2 Gather Information (racial), +4 Move Silently (racial), +4 Ride (racial), Size Small, Move 30’
Fiendish Template|+2 LA|Darkvision 60’, Spell Resistance (character level + 5), Damage Reduction (later), Resist Fire/Cold 5 (more later), Smite Good (1/day)
LA Buyoff| - |Levels 8 and 10[/table]

{table=head]Level|Class|Base Attack<br>Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Skills|Feats|Class Features

1st|Simple Wilderness Rogue 1|
+0|
+0|
+2|
+0|Heal (cc) 2, Handle Animal 4, Hide 4, Intimidate 4, Knowledge (Dungeoneering)(cc) 2, Knowledge (Nature) 4, Move Silent 4, Ride 4, Survival 4, Use Magic Device 4|Track, Improved Initiative|Trapfinding, Fighter Bonus Feat

2nd|Warlock 1|
+0|
+0|
+2|
+2| Knowledge (Arcane) 4|-|Eldritch Blast (1d6), Invocation (Call of the Beast)

3rd|Warlock 2|
+1|
+0|
+2|
+3| Intimidate 5, Knowledge (Arcane) 5, Use Magic Device 6|Practiced Spellcaster (Warlock)|Detect Magic, Invocation (Entropic Warding)

4th|Simple Wilderness Rogue 2|
+2|
+0|
+3|
+3| Heal (cc) 3, Handle Animal 6, Hide 5, Move Silent 6, Ride 5, Survival 6|Mounted Combat|Evasion, Fighter Bonus Feat, DR 5/magic
5th|Warlock 3|
+3|
+1|
+4|
+3| Knowledge (Arcane) 7, Knowledge (Dungeoneering)(cc) 3| -|DR 1/cold iron, Eldritch Blast 2d6 (3d6)

6th|Warlock 4|
+4|
+1|
+4|
+4| Knowledge (The Planes) 2, Use Magic Device 8 |Animal Affinity| Deceive Item, Invocation (Eldritch Spear)
7th|Simple Wilderness Rogue 3|
+5|
+2|
+4|
+5| Heal (cc) 4, Handle Animal 8, knowledge (Dungeoneering)(cc) 4, Move Silent 8, Survival 8|-|-
8th|Beast Heart Adept 1|
+6|
+4|
+4|
+7| Heal 10| -| Monstrous Companion, Monster Empathy, Monster Handler, Resist Cold/Fire 10

9th|Warlock 5|
+6|
+4|
+4|
+7| Knowledge (The Planes) 4, Use Magic Device 10| Graft Flesh (Fiendish)|Eldritch Blast 3d6 (5d6)

10th|Warlock 6|
+7|
+5|
+5|
+8| Knowledge (The Planes) 6, Use Magic Device 12|-|Invocation (Charm)

11th|Dark Hunter 1|
+7|
+7|
+7|
+8| Handle Animal 11, Ride 8|-| Spellcasting, Low Light Vision (3x human)

12th|Dark Hunter 2|
+8|
+8|
+8|
+8| Handle Animal 13, Heal 12, Ride 10|Combat Charm| Fast Mount (+10’), Fast Movement (+10’), DR 10/magic

13th|Dark Hunter 3|
+9|
+8|
+8|
+9| Handle Animal 15, Heal 14, Ride 12|-| -

14th|Dark Hunter 4|
+10|
+9|
+9|
+9| Handle Animal 17, Heal 16, Ride 14|-| Uncanny Dodge (Dex Bonus)
15th|Dark Hunter 5|
+10|
+9|
+9|
+9| Handle Animal 18, Heal 18, Ride 17|Mounted Archery| Fast Mount (+20’), Fast Movement (+20’)

16th|Dark Hunter 6|
+11|
+10|
+10|
+10| Handle Animal 19, Heal 19, Knowledge (Nature) 6, Ride 19|-|Scent

17th|Dark Hunter 7|
+12|
+10|
+10|
+10| Handle Animal 20, Heal 20, Knowledge (Dungeoneering)(cc) 5, Knowledge (Nature) 7, Ride 20|-| Uncanny Dodge (Flank)

18th|Dark Hunter 8|
+13|
+11|
+11|
+10| Handle Animal 21, Heal 21, Knowledge (Nature) 8, Knowledge (The Planes) 8, Ride 21|Martial Study (Shadow Stride)| Fast Mount (+30’), Fast Movement (+30’)

19th|Dark Hunter 9|
+13|
+11|
+11|
+11| Handle Animal 22, Heal 22, Knowledge (Nature) 9, Knowledge (The Planes) 10, Ride 22|-|Freedom of Movement
20th|Dark Hunter 10|
+14|
+12|
+12|
+11| Handle Animal 23, Heal 23, Knowledge (Nature) 10, Knowledge (The Planes) 12, Ride 23|-|Discern Location [/table]
Spells per day/Spells Known
{table=head]Level|1|2|3|4|Dark Hunter Spells Known

11th|0|-|-|-|1st (Detect Animals or Plants, Expeditious Retreat)

12th|1|-|-|-|1st (Mount)

13th|2|0|-|-|2nd (Invisibility, Locate Object)

14th|3|1|-|-|1st (True Strike), 2nd (Detect Thoughts)

15th|3|2|0|-|3rd (Haste, See Invisibility)

16th|3|3|1|-|2nd (Bull’s Endurance), 3rd (Fly)

17th|3|3|2|0|4th (Ethereal Jaunt, Locate Creature)

18th|3|3|3|1|3rd (Clairaudience/Clairvoyance), 4th (Improved Invisibility)

19th|3|3|3|2|-

20th|3|3|3|3|4th (Sending)[/table]
Level Highlights

NOTE – The meat of this build is Wild Empathy. There are 17 class levels with Wild Empathy, which can be used on Animals and Magical Beasts equally and without regard for the creature’s intelligence. Handle Animal is also maximized, and works at full effect on Animals, Magical Beasts, and Aberrations with INT of less than 3. Warlock Charm backs it all up and Fiendish Graft Flesh is used to make “improvements” to the creatures once they are trained. (Note that Reek has chosen not to use Graft Flesh on HIMSELF as it imposes a -6 penalty to CHA checks in many circumstances… such as Wild Empathy and Handle Animal. !!!)

Level 6 – At this level, Reek is a goblin outrider. He trains beasts for his tribe, he circles the edge of a battle using Eldritch Blast from the saddle. With a high ride check and DR 5/magic, he has little to worry about so long as he avoids melee and magic arrows. His equipment list features a coveted Circlet of Persuasion and as many scrolls and nearly-empty wands as he could scrounge up.

Level 10 – This is Reek as of the writing of his intro story. With Practiced Spellcaster and a Chasuble of Fell Power, he’s throwing 7d6 warlock blasts from long range and Charming anything that gets too close. His main function is to train beasts and aberrations and then make… enhancements… to them using Graft Flesh.

Level 12 – Sweet Spot – Now in the Queen’s employ, Reek has picked up some tips on using Charm, and critters no longer get a save bonus against it if his new friends are violent toward them. His job is to now acquire new hounds and mounts for the Hunters. Reek should now be properly outfitted with a +3 Mithral Feycrafted Twilight Breastplate, a matching Mithril shield, a Warlock Scepter, and a small selection of Wands like Web, Invisibility Sphere, and Hypnotic Pattern.

Level 20 – Reek’s capability has slowly grown over the past 8 levels. He can now fights invisibly and can divine the location of any creature he wants to trap and can make short teleports in combat as a move action. A Belt of Magnificence rounds out his equipment at this level, along with a good Staff or two for immobilizing opponents.

Source Books
{table=head]Sourcebook|Class/Race|Feats
Complete Arcane|Warlock|-
Complete Divine|-|Practiced Spellcaster
Complete Mage|-|Warlock Invocations
Dragon Magazine Compendium|-|Combat Charm
Dungeonscape|Beast Heart Adept|-
Fiend Folio|-|Graft Flesh
Monster Manual|Goblin, Fiendish Template|-
Player’s Handbook|-|Animal Affinity, Improved Initiative, Mounted Archery, Mounted Combat, Track
The Internetz|Dark Hunter|-
Tome of Battle|-|Martial Study
Unearthed Arcana|Wilderness Rogue, Simple Variant Rogue, Environmental Racial Variant, LA Buyoff|-[/table]

[true_shinken]

See, Tolkien. THAT is how you use a hawk.


“Nicenevin! Nicnevin! Queen of Witches! I call to thee!
I ask in your grace that you part the veil of night,
And open the gate to the Otherworld.
As we give honor to our ancestors,
We give honor to you who guides them here!
Drink with us and aid our rite,
In the name of the grand Mother Witch!” -Darker Superstitions of Scotland, p. 537

Tamalin, CN Killoren Ranger (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/classes/ranger.htm) 5/Unseelie Dark Hunter (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/fey/20030315a) 10/Moonsea Skysentinel (CoV 117) 5
Ranger Variant Used: Shooting Star Ranger Substitution Levels 3 & 4 (CoV 50)
Base Stats:
{table]Level|STR|DEX|CON|IN|WIS|CHA
1st|12|16|14|10|14|10
4th|12|16|14|10|15|10
8th|12|16|14|10|16|10
12th|12|16|14|10|17|10
16th|12|16|14|10|18|10
20th|12|16|14|10|19|10[/table]
Table does not include magic items.

{table=head]Level|Class|Base Attack<br>Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Skills|Feats|Class Features

1st|Ranger 1|
+1|
+4|
+5|
+2|Concentration +1, Handle Animal +2, Hide +4, Knowledge (Arcana) +1, Knowledge (Nature) +3, Move Silently +4, Ride +4, Survival +4|Improved Initiative (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/feats.htm#improvedInitiative), Track (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/feats.htm#track)(bonus)|Favored Enemy (Humanoid: Humans), Wild Empathy

2nd|Ranger 2|
+2|
+5|
+6|
+2|Concentration 2, Handle Animal 3, Hide 5, Move Silently 5, Ride 5, Survival 5|Rapid Shot (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/feats.htm#rapidShot)(bonus)|Archery Combat Style

3rd|Ranger 3|
+3|
+5|
+6|
+3|Concentration 3, Handle Animal 5, Move Silently 6, Ride 6. Survival 6|Mounted Combat (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/feats.htm#mountedCombat)|Weavespeak (CoV 50)

4th|Ranger 4|
+4|
+6|
+7|
+3|Concentration 4, Handle Animal 7, Move Silently 7, Ride 7, Survival 7|-|Bonus Spells, Improved Spellcasting (CoV 50)

5th|Ranger 5|
+5|
+6|
+7|
+3|Concentration 6, Handle Animal 8, Move Silently 8, Ride 8, Survival 8|-|Favored Enemy (Humanoid: Human)

6th|Moonsea Skysentinel 1|
+6|
+8|
+7|
+3|Spot +2|Mounted Archery (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/feats.htm#mountedArchery)|Dire Hawk Steed, Magical Defense +1

7th|Unseelie Dark Hunter 1|
+6|
+10|
+9|
+3|Concentration 7, Handle Animal 9, Ride 9, Survival 9|-|Spells, Low-Light Vision

8th|Unseelie Dark Hunter 2|
+7|
+11|
+10|
+4|Concentration 8, Handle Animal 10, Ride 10, Survival 10|-|Fast Mount, Fast Movement

9th|Moonsea Skysentinel 2|
+8|
+12|
+10|
+4|Spot 4|Wild Cohort (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20031118a)(Dire Badger)|Shield (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/shield.htm) 1/day

10th|Moonsea Skysentinel 3|
+9|
+12|
+11|
+5|Spot 6|-|Spell Turning (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/spellTurning.htm) 1/day

11th|Unseelie Dark Hunter 3|
+10|
+12|
+11|
+6|Concentration 9, Handle Animal 11, Ride 11, Survival 11|-|Darkvision

12th|Unseelie Dark Hunter 4|
+11|
+13|
+12|
+6|Concentration 10, Handle Animal 12, Ride 12, Survival 12|Extend Spell (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/feats.htm#extendSpell)|Uncanny Dodge (DEX bonus to AC)

13th|Moonsea Skysentinel 4|
+12|
+14|
+12|
+6|Spot 8|-|Magical Defense +2, +1 HD to Dire Hawk Steed

14th|Unseelie Dark Hunter 5|
+12|
+14|
+12|
+6|Concentration 11, Handle Animal 13, Ride 13, Survival 13|-|Fast Mount, Fast Movement

15th|Unseelie Dark Hunter 6|
+13|
+15|
+13|
+7|Concentration 12, Handle Animal 14, Ride 14, Survival 14|Magic Disruption (CMa 44)|Scent

16th|Unseelie Dark Hunter 7|
+14|
+15|
+13|
+8|Concentration 13, Handle Animal 15, Ride 15, Survival 15|-|Uncanny Dodge (can’t be flanked)

17th|Unseelie Dark Hunter 8|
+15|
+16|
+14|
+8|Concentration 14, Handle Animal 16, Ride 16, Survival 16|-|Fast Mount, Fast Movement

18th|Unseelie Dark Hunter 9|
+15|
+16|
+14|
+8|Concentration 15, Handle Animal 17 Ride 17, Survival 17|Dimensional Jaunt (CMa 41)|Freedom of Movement (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/freedomOfMovement.htm)1/day & 1 round/class level

19th|Unseelie Dark Hunter 10|
+16|
+17|
+15|
+10|Concentration 16, Handle Animal 18, Ride 18, Survival 18|-|Discern Location (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/discernLocation.htm) 1/day

20th|Moonsea Skysentinel 5|
+17|
+17|
+15|
+10|Spot +10|-|Shield (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/shield.htm) 2/day[/table]

Ranger Spells per day/Spells Known
{table=head]Level|0lvl|1st|2nd|3rd|4th|5th|6th|7th|8th|9th

1st|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

2nd|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

3rd|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

4th|-|2|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

5th|-|2|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

6th|-|2|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

7th|-|2|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

8th|-|2|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

9th|-|2|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

10th|-|2|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

11th|-|2|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

12th|-|2|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

13th|-|2|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

14th|-|2|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

15th|-|2|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

16th|-|2|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

17th|-|2|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

18th|-|2|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

19th|-|2|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

20th|-|2|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-[/table]

Ranger Spells: Entangle (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/entangle.htm), Hunter’s Mercy (SpC 117)

Unseelie Dark Hunter Spells per day/Spells Known
{table=head]Level|0lvl|1st|2nd|3rd|4th|5th|6th|7th|8th|9th

1st|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

2nd|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

3rd|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

4th|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

5th|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

6th|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

7th|-|1/2|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

8th|-|2/3|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

9th|-|2/3|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

10th|-|2/3|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

11th|-|3/3|1/2|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

12th|-|4/4|2/3|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

13th|-|4/4|2/3|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

14th|-|4/4|3/3|1/2|-|-|-|-|-|-

15th|-|4/4|4/4|2/3|-|-|-|-|-|-

16th|-|4/4|4/4|3/3|1/2|-|-|-|-|-

17th|-|4/4|4/4|4/4|2/3|-|-|-|-|-

18th|-|4/4|4/4|4/4|3/3|-|-|-|-|-

19th|-|4/4|4/4|4/4|4/4|-|-|-|-|-

20th|-|4/4|4/4|4/4|4/4|-|-|-|-|-[/table]

Unseelie Dark Hunter Spells: 1 - Command, Expeditious Retreat, Spider Climb, True Strike; 2 - Cat’s Grace, Bear’s Endurance, Hold Person, Speak With Animals; 3 - Dispel Magic, Fly, Haste, Hold Monster; 4 - Dimension Door, Dimensional Anchor, Displacement, Improved Invisibility

The Long Road Crossing to the Other World(Background)
My earliest memory is of the fire. The rangers we’d traded with, who found me and cared for me after, said the fire was from Zhentarim Sky Mages, ringing the forest with flames to drive my Killoren kin into the slavers’ nets. I’d fallen into a shallow ditch of muddy water, and the fire passed over me. I lost all that I knew that day, except the rangers, because of those filthy Zhents and their arcane fire.

The rangers raised me as one of them, caring for the forests that remained and grew. My hatred for the Zhents that killed my family and home remained and grew, as well. I made it my purpose in life to hunt those who used magic to herd and harm other people. I learned my own magic as I grew, using it to overgrow, rather than burn away, and to reduce suffering, rather than inflicting it. The rangers taught me to ride, to shoot, and to react faster, but not always fast enough. I even learned to work with wizards and their ilk, provided they promised never to use the spells that burned, or froze, or otherwise destroyed through similar energies.

I was chasing one of the accursed Zhent wizards in a thickly grown copse, when he vanished, as is their cowardly wont. I screamed in frustration, asking the world why I was so often too slow to catch them. The fey queen, Nicnevin, answered me that day. She promised me the speed, and the magic, by which I could catch those Zhent slavers and their killing magic. Queen Nicnevin introduced me to the Skysentinels, as well, to help fulfill her promise of enough speed to pursue the wizards. She had my loyalty, though, even as I worked with the Skysentinels.

Fifth Level
With the Shooting Star variant Ranger, the Ranger’s spellcasting ability expands. Archery style saves on feats and aids in survival at these levels, by keeping Tamalin out of immediate melee range most of the time. Feat and skill selection makes for a good mounted combatant with tracking and stealth ability, with a purchased mount because the animal companion was traded away for the extra spell ability and an improved caster level, which will come in handy later. Weavespeak lets him communicate with specific party members at a distance, without needing the message spell. The various immunities and bonuses of the Fey subtype are solid defenses at this point, while the Aspect of the Hunter improves several relevant stats. On days when he expects to need more punch, Aspect of the Destroyer provides just that, against a decent spread of enemy types.

Tenth Level
Moonsea Skysentinel works to keep Tamalin relevant in a battlefield that becomes increasingly three-dimensional at middle levels, while the Unseelie Dark Hunter improves both his speed, and the speed of his Dire Hawk mount. In addition, it improves his spellcasting abilities without increasing MAD. Remember I said the Shooting Star variant would come in handy later? Unseelie Dark Hunter is “arcane spellcasting from another class,” so the Shooting Star’s Improved Spellcasting ability explicitly applies. Hunter’s Mercy and True Strike make him a deadly combatant, Expeditious Retreat and Entangle give him and his team a significant movement advantage that the Unseelie Dark Hunter’s movement bonuses emphasize. The low-light vision increase makes him harder to hide from than your typical tracker. Wild Cohort for the Dire Boar fits the mythology of the Unseelie Dark Hunter, and gives the party a ground-based combatant to compliment Tamalin’s aerial assaults. Mounted Archery was a necessary step toward that aerial assault. Hopefully, a Distance bow is either in Tamalin’s possession by now, or he’s saving up for a quick upgrade, because Far Shot is not on the menu. Shield gives a decent bonus to AC, but more importantly takes a staple spell away from the enemy’s arsenal for that all-important first time. Because Moonsea Skysentinel’s skill points are sparse, he uses them only to increase his Spot modifier, which an archer finds so important.

Fifteenth Level
Tamalin stuck with Moonsea Skysentinel long enough to get the Dire Hawk advanced so it could remain viable longer as the threats he and his party faces increase. Magic Disruption works with those factors to help him fight the spellcasters that are increasingly common foes at this level. With Low-light and Darkvision and Scent to go with his abilities as a Tracker, few enemies will escape detection. Dispel Magic hampers their defenses, while Haste allows him and his team even greater tactical superiority. With Extend Spell, Tamalin improves his DEX or CON for long periods of time, or does the same for an ally in need.

Eighteenth Level (sweet spot)
Freedom of Movement is the real prize here. Couple it with movement speeds for himself and his mount that a Monk would envy, and Tamalin’s got the mobility advantage over most foes; Dimensional Jaunt helps assure this, with Dimension Door in reserve. Against those spellcasters trying to escape, Dimensional Anchor at an improved caster level is his answer. Displacement gives him a real defense now that AC is largely irrelevant, and even if they find him, they can’t flank him. He’s never been the heavy hitter in the group, but a Distance Bow with Collision arrows makes him a viable threat, particularly against his favored enemies, so he won’t just be ignored.

Twentieth Level
Having finished out Unseelie Dark Hunter for Discern Location, Tamalin revisits Moonsea Skysentinel for a second use of the Shield spell. Magic Missile may be less often encountered by now, but it’s still many a caster’s bread-and-butter spell, so the additional defense is worthwhile. This also keeps his BAB at a very respectable +18. His Dire Badger has continued to scale with his levels to be a decent melee addition to the party, and he is essentially the mobile artillery platform at this point, hampering enemy movements while keeping himself and his allies flying about the field.

Options
Tamalin would be largely unaffected by Vulnerable and Noncombatant, and could take those flaws to open up Point Blank Shot and Far Shot, which helps out his early game utility immensely

[true_shinken]

I'm the one that you wanted, I'm a superbeast

Diary of Dalgoth the Bard
War of the Weeping Clouds, Day 282
I remember the day we learned that the Dark Lord's alliances among the Fey ran deeper than we knew ... that he was supported by the Queen of Air and Darkness herself. It was a dour day ... but at least we also learned that we had an infiltrator, a saboteur deep within the councils of the Unseelie Court, the man who calls himself Moonrazor. Somehow, many years before this war even started, he was busy entrenching himself in the graces of Lady VelaaVuna and then the Queen, plotting their eventual downfall. Now ... this war has gotten mixed in with his plans, and the feys' fate has been entwined with that of Dark Lord Morrann. This may accelerate Moonrazor's plans, or it may doom them.

Moonrazor actually delivered one of his secret messages through me. I remember how he contacted me, speaking directly into my mind. My curiosity got the better of me -- fie upon bardic training! -- and I made the muddy trek into the forest to meet him. He looked the part of an Unseelie agent, other than being rather muscular. His armor was angular, an odd mix of forest colors and deep, depressing colors, the colors of midnight and madness. His spear had a long, knarled haft that looked like it came from a diseased tree, though it was clearly strong. Though he looked purely human, all of his equipment was the stuff of nightmares. Except the circlet on his brow ... it was oddly peaceful, pearly white and glowing softly.

I remember his eagle steed -- scariest-looking bird I have ever seen. Smaller than a roc, sure, but fierce as Hextor's codpiece, with talons that could sunder an ogre in seconds. I remember how he leapt from its back to the ground. Not the most graceful landing I've ever seen, but Moonrazor seemed like a few bumps and bruises wouldn't faze him much. Then there was the way he teleported onto the back of his eagle as it swooped past, after he delivered his message ... cute trick, that. Most of all, I remember his insufferably cocky dimeanor. I would have expected him to be paranoid about the fey observing his covert betrayal, but he was oddly confident that no one was watching.

He's a double agent to the core, there's little doubt of that. The battle plans he leaked us have been crucial, but he did also assassinate Colonel Muggriv last summer. I asked him, when we met, why I should trust him. He snorted. "Do you really think, bard, that anyone truly trustworthy would have even a prayer of pulling the wool over the Queen's eyes for even half an hour?"

Backstory
Named Moonrazor at birth (the fey named him Faltino later), he was born in a savage human village which may or may not be within the Feywild; it's hard to tell with that part of the forest. From childhood, a natural aptitude with animals, nature, and fey magic flowed through him.

In spite of his natural talents, he always had a particular pride in his human heritage, and resented the way his people were used constantly as slaves or playthings by the Fey of the Unseelie Court. His grandmother, the village Wise Woman, recognized this fierce independence in young Moonrazor, and trained him from an early age in the art of hiding his feelings. After she died, he left behind his practice of shamanistic magic to focus on winning the graces of the fey, with the intent that someday, somehow, he could strike a blow at the heart of their court.

He only really ever intended to deal with the local Fey Lady, VelaaVuna; but word travels, and the Queen of Air and Darkness heard of this talented young human who was willing to go to any lengths to prove himself a loyal participant in Unseelie politics and schemes. When she sent her Dark Hunter secret police to recruit him, who was he to pass up the opportunity for deeper infiltration? (Especialy since the Queen's invitations usually mean death if rejected.)

Faltino, Moonrazor
CN Azurin Totemist 6 / Human Paragon 3 / Chameleon 2 / Unseelie Dark Hunter 9
{table=head]Level|Class|Base Attack<br>Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Skills|Feats|Class Features

1st|Totemist (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20050907a&page=3)%201|
+0|
+2|
+2|
+0|Bluff 2, Disguise 2, Sense Motive 2, Spellcraft 2, Handle Animal 4, Survival 4, Knowledge (nature) 2, Ride 4, Move Silently 2|Able Learner, Wild Cohort (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20031118a)|Wild Empathy, Illiteracy, Meldshaping

2nd|Totemist 2|
+1|
+3|
+3|
+0|Handle Animal 1, Survival 1, Knowledge (nature) 1, Ride 1, Hide 2| |Totem Chakra Bind (+1 capacity)

3rd|Human Paragon 1 (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/races/racialParagonClasses.htm#humanParagon)|
+1|
+3|
+3|
+2|Bluff 2, Disguise 2, Sense Motive 1, Spellcraft 1|Mounted Combat|Adaptive Learning; lance proficiency

4th|Totemist 3|
+2|
+3|
+3|
+3|Bluff 2, Disguise 2, Sense Motive 1, Spellcraft 1| |Totem's Protection

5th|Totemist 4|
+3|
+4|
+4|
+3|Bluff 2, Disguise 2; second impression| |

6th|Chameleon (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/iw/20041210b)%201|
+3|
+4|
+4|
+3|Move Silently 4, Hide 1, Survival 1|Ride-By Attack|Aptitude Focus 1/day (+2)

7th|Chameleon 2|
+4|
+4|
+4|
+3|Move Silently 2, Hide 2, Survival 2|"Floating Feat"|

8th|Totemist 5|
+4|
+4|
+4|
+3|Bluff 3, Sense Motive 3| |Least Chakra Binds

9th|Totemist 6|
+5|
+5|
+5|
+4|Bluff 1, Sense Motive 5|Spirited Charge|Totem Chakra meldshaper level +1

10th|Dark Hunter (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/fey/20030315a) 1|
+5|
+7|
+7|
+4|Bluff 1, Sense Motive 1, Concentration 4| |Spellcasting, Low-Light Vision

11th|Dark Hunter 2|
+6|
+8|
+8|
+4|Bluff 1, Sense Motive 1, Concentration 4| |Fast Mount, Fast Movement

12th|Human Paragon 2|
+7|
+8|
+8|
+5|Bluff 1, Sense Motive 1, Concentration 4|Improved Initiative, Open Least Chakra (crown)|Dark Hunter spellcasting +1

13th|Dark Hunter 3|
+8|
+8|
+8|
+6|Bluff 1, Sense Motive 1, Concentration 4| |Darkvision

14th|Dark Hunter 4|
+9|
+9|
+9|
+6|Bluff 1, Sense Motive 1, Concentration 1, Knowledge (arcana) 1, Diplomacy 2| |Uncanny Dodge

15th|Dark Hunter 5|
+9|
+9|
+9|
+6|Bluff 1, Sense Motive 1, Concentration 1, Diplomacy 3|Arcane Disciple (spell)|Fast Mount, Fast Movement

16th|Dark Hunter 6|
+10|
+10|
+10|
+7|Bluff 1, Sense Motive 1, Use Magic Device 2; social recovery| |Scent

17th|Dark Hunter 7|
+11|
+10|
+10|
+7|Bluff 1, Sense Motive 1, Use Magic Device 4| |Greater Uncanny Dodge

18th|Dark Hunter 8|
+12|
+11|
+11|
+7|Bluff 1, Sense Motive 1, Use Magic Device 4|Mindsight|Fast Mount, Fast Movement

19th|Dark Hunter 9|
+12|
+11|
+11|
+8|Bluff 1, Sense Motive 1, Use Magic Device 4| |Freedom of Movement

20th|Human Paragon 3|
+13|
+12|
+12|
+8|Bluff 1, Sense Motive 1, Use Magic Device 4| |Ability Boost; Chameleon spellcasting +1?[/table]

Ability Scores
{table=head]Ability|Points|Base|Levels|Special|Enhancement|Inh erent|Total|Modifier
STR | 6 | 14 | 3 | 0 | 6 | 5 | 28 | +9
DEX | 4 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 18 | +4
CON | 10 | 16 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 0 | 26 | +8
INT | 6 | 14 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 14 | +2
WIS | 6 | 14 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 20 | +5
CHA | 0 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | -1[/table]

Spellcasting
{table=head]Level|1st|2nd|3rd|4th|Spells Known
10|0|-|-|-|(1) Detect Magic, Message
11|1|-|-|-|(1) Expeditious Retreat
12|2|0|-|-|(2) Invisibility, Pass without Trace
13|3|1|-|-|(1) True Strike; (2) Speak with Animals
14|3|2|0|-|(3) Clairaudience/Clairvoyance, Haste
15|3|3|1|-|(2) Silence; (3) Anyspell
16|3|3|2|0|(4) Dimensional Anchor, Scrying
17|3|3|3|1|(3) Phantom Steed; (4) Ethereal Jaunt
18|3|3|3|2|
19|3|3|3|3|(4) Dimension Door[/table]

Progressions
{table=head]Level|Class Progression|Wild Cohort Details
1|2 soulmelds; 2 essentia|Riding Dog cohort
2|3 soulmelds; 3 essentia; 1 chakra bind|
3| |Heavy Warhorse cohort; cohort +1 HD/armor, evasion
4| |
5|4 soulmelds; 4 essentia|
6|Divine Focus (+2 Fort/Will; 4/2/0 spells/day)|cohort +3 HD/armor, +1 Str/Dex
7|Divine Focus (4/3/1 spells/day); floating feat = Improved Initiative|
8| |
9|5 essentia; 2 chakra binds|cohort +5 HD/armor, +2 Str/Dex
10| |Dire Eagle cohort; cohort +1 HD/armor
11| |
12|floating feat = whatever you want!|cohort +3 HD/armor, +1 Str/Dex
13| |
14| |
15| |cohort +5 HD/armor, +2 Str/Dex
16| |
17| |
18| |cohort +7 HD/armor, +3 Str/Dex, devotion
19| |
20|Divine Focus (4/3/2/0 spells/day)|[/table]

Noteworthy Soulmelds
Riding Bracers - bound to the Totem chakra, this is one of Faltino's primary soulmelds at higher levels. It makes him excellent at performing Riding maneuvers, such as protecting his eagle from attacks using Mounted Combat. It also gives his eagle Evasion, and lets him Handle the eagle as a free action.

Shedu Crown - Faltino should use this soulmeld regularly even from low levels, just to strengthen his Will save. At levels 12+, he will bind it to the Crown chakra for telepathy (and eventually Mindsight).

Urskan Greaves - bound to the Feet chakra, these will add significant sonic damage to each attack Faltino makes at the end of a charge. Which is his main tactic. These three soulmelds are his primary high-level selections.

Blink Shirt - unlimited Dimension Door is a very strong utility to have at low levels, even if it requiring a standard action makes it less useful in combat. Faltino possibly shouldn't bother with this one after he learns to cast Dimension Door at Level 19, but until then it's a tempting option for his 4th soulmeld.

Displacer Mantle - a boosted Hide skill is always nice, but really this soulmeld is probably only worth it if it's bound to the Shoulders chakra, which will require using the Chameleon "floating feat" on Open Greater Chakra. But that's all very doable, and will give Faltino a 20% miss chance.

Manticore Belt - the skill boosts aren't super important, so this soulmeld is mostly for use at low levels, where binding it to the Totem chakra is a strong way to give Faltino a ranged option. At level 2, I suspect this will be his best tactic.

Beast Tamer Circlet - at Level 1, getting animals to fight for you is very strong. This soulmeld makes Faltino very good at doing so.

Hunter's Circlet - keeping Faltino's Survival skill up could always come in handy if some Tracking needs to be done. At levels 5+, this is one way he can have access to Track (a prerequisite) if he doesn't have the Mask of the Tiger.

Rageclaws - at low levels, Diehard is an incredible increase in Faltino's ability to not die.

Winter Mask - the cold/fatigue attack granted by this soulmeld is probably Faltino's best offensive option at Level 1. (Er, other than ordering his dog to attack things.)

Worg Pelt - at early levels, Faltino's stealth skills are decent, but can definitely use the boost. Meanwhile, movement speed is something he'll get a lot better at later on, but this soulmeld can get him started early.

Equipment
Hat of Disguise, Circlet of Persuasion: staples for any spy or party face.

Incarnum Focus (circlet): Combine with the Hat of Disguise and the Circlet of Persuasion (total: about 26k gp) for a head slot item that won't interfere with a soulmeld in the Crown Chakra.

Incarnum Focus (boots): In case Faltino wants to wear any good boots, and has a soulmeld bound to the Feet chakra, he can combine his magic boots with these.

Valorous Lance (+1-equivalent): If your DM will allow this overpowered item, it's a great boon to a mounted charging built.

Collision Lance (+2-equivalent): This is a lower priority than Valorous. But it's a lovely combination with it.

Eternal Wand of Heroics: To be put in a wand chamber, and make Faltino better at melee in a variety of ways.

Heartseeking Amulet (3k gp): A cheap way to improve chances of hitting with Faltino's attacks, especially if you can't get the Fractional BAB variant rule included in your game.

Mask of the Tiger (4k gp): Faltino's main source of the Track feat. Note that, if he loses access to this mask for any reason, he has two backup options to avoid losing the benefits of his Dark Hunter class: either select Track with his Chameleon "floating feat," or bind the Hunter's Circlet Soulmeld to the Crown Chakra (not desirable, as it precludes binding a Shedu Crown to the same).

Level 2 Pearls of Power (3k each): These are cheap. Each one of them represents another time per day that Faltino can Pounce using the Lion's Charge spell. He should buy a lot of them (at least three, preferably more).

Pectoral of Maneuverability (12k gp): Make Faltino's eagle a lot more flexible in midair combat, even if he gets stuck in extended melee rather than keeping up a hit-and-run dive-bombing pattern.

Novice Shadow Hands (3k gp): Use these to learn the maneuver Cloak of Deception. Greater Swift Invisibility 1/encounter is always nice to have, and rather fey-like.

Novice Slippers of the Setting Sun (3k gp): This is why we bothered to get Incarnum Boots earlier. (Total combined item costs 19.5k gp.) These slippers will let Faltino use the Baffling Defense maneuver 1/encounter to make an attack miss him (thanks to his excellent Sense Motive skill). To get past the prerequisite of Baffling Defense, spend a day with the Martial Study (counter charge) feat, courtesy of the Chameleon "floating feat."

Twilight Mithral Shirt - Pretty standard.

Spiked gauntlet or spiked armor - also pretty standard to complement a reach weapon.

How to Play
Faltino is essentially a gish mounted charger build. The basic idea is to end combat before it really begins, by casting Lion's Charge and swooping in for multiple attacks that each do triple damage (or quadruple damage, if your DM allows Valorous weapons), plus bonus Sonic damage.

At Level 1, Faltino is very strong just by training Riding Dogs to fight for him using the Beast Tamer Circlet soulmeld and using the Winter Mask soulmeld to attack directly. If he isn't too worried about having perfect control over his dogs, he can also use Rageclaws to be a very resilient Level 1 character.

At Level 2, Winter Mask is still an option, but access to the Totem chakra means several other soulmelds gain the ability to attack. At this level, becoming a ranged combatant using Manticore Belt is probably Faltino's best option. He also gets a third soulmeld, so he can shape Manticore belt and Rageclaws AND something else (Blink Shirt is probably the strongest option).

At Level 3, purchased dogs are still viable, but the Mounted Combat feat means Faltino should make his Wild Cohort something that he can ride, namely a horse. Time to start doing double-damage charges using a lance (good thing that Human Paragon gives proficiency with a single martial weapon!). Hard to say whether protecting his mount by shaping Riding Bracers to his Totem Chakra is worth it at these low levels.

At Level 6, Faltino has amassed the necessary spying skills to become a Chameleon. He can pick Wild Focus just to thematically continue his Wild Empathy; or he can pick Arcane Focus to collect various useful low-level arcane spells into his spellbook; but really on any normal day he will pick Divine Focus for some useful spellcasting and a healthy boost to his Will Save (and his already-good Fortitude save). His tactic is still mostly double-damage charging with a lance from horseback, but I'm sure there's some good divine buffs to supplement this tactic, such as Knight's Move.

At Level 7, Faltino picks up the ever popular "Schroedinger's Feat." Of course there are way too many good things to do with this feat, but here are a few of them:
Improved Initiative: a mandatory choice at Levels 10 and 11, for the sake of prerequisites.
Track: another prerequisite, although he has two better ways of getting it.
Bonus Essentia: A good default option, this is something no Incarnum character ever minds having.
Cobalt Charge: A weaker option, but kind of cool thematically to tie incarnum use and charging together.
Darkstalker: if he shapes Worg Pelt, Faltino can be a decent sneaky type even though he stops getting ranks in stealth skills after qualifying for Dark Hunter. Don't forget to supplement stealth with spellcasting, such as Invisibility and Silence.
Shape Soulmeld: Soulmelds created with this feat last until you unshape them, so in theory, if he has a couple weeks of downtime, Faltino can load himself up with a soulmeld in every body slot -- and he's got the Essentia to use them all. This option may get you smacked with a rulebook, so check with your DM.
Extra Spell: Faltino carries a spellbook for his divine spells. Faltino learns Anyspell, which he can convert into any Level 1-2 arcane spell in his spellbook each day. How does he have the arcane spells he wants in his book? By selecting Arcane Focus and this feat during his downtime days.
Open Lesser Chakra: In case Faltino ever wants to try out a new soulmeld ability at mid levels, just for variety.
Open Greater Chakra: In case Faltino ever wants to try out a new soulmeld ability at high levels, just for variety.
Craft Magic Arms and Armor: or other Crafting feats. Another way to try to get ahold of a Valorous weapon.
Double Chakra (totem): This will let Faltino give his mount Evasion and still shoot manticore spikes at the same time. Probably not a great option most of the time, since this still uses up two of his precious few chakra binds.
Natural Bond: make the Wild Cohort stronger for a day. Probably doesn't work by RAW, since the Wild Cohort isn't actually an Animal Companion.
Trample: Not a strong option, but if you really want to feel like a master of mounted combat, you can pick this, then pick up the Cavalry Charger tactical feat using the Heroics spell.
Practiced Spellcaster: A cute option for either Chameleon caster level (Divine Favor?) or Dark Hunter caster level. If Faltino's Eagle Mount dies, he can pick this feat until he can get a new one; then he can use Phantom Steed as a substitute flying mount.
Mindsight: It's a very strong feat, and for Levels 12-17 it's definitely a valid option for the floating feat.

At Level 8 or 11 (depending on whether Fractional BAB is allowed), Faltino gets an iterative attack, and Lion's Charge becomes his most important Chameleon spell. (He can cast it from a Level 2 spell slot, using the Ranger spell list.) He should start buying a lot of Level 2 Pearls of Power, so he can double the effectiveness of his opening charge each encounter of the day.

At Level 8, Faltino gets the ability to bind Urskan Greaves to his Feet Chakra to add sonic damage on each attack in a charge. This is a strong option, but not automatic, as he only gets one Chakra bind, and several other options are also tempting (protecting his mount with Totem-Chakra Riding Bracers, learning Track with Crown-Chakra Hunter's Circlet, or gaining telepathy with Crown-Chakra Shedu Crown).

At Level 9, Spirited Charge comes along, which means triple-damage charge attacks instead of double-damage charge attacks. Also, a second Chakra Bind means that Urskan Greaves are now a very realistic possibility.

At Level 10, Faltino trades in his horse for the wonderfully powerful Dire Eagle cohort. Hooray for flying. He also starts getting arcane spellcasting, although it's mostly just utility at this point.

At Level 12, Faltino gets much more flexible in his choice of floating feat, which is fun. He also uses a feat to get a third chakra bind, which will probably be used from now on to bind the Shedu Crown for telepathy.

From here on, Faltino's improvements are mostly just increased flexibility via spellcasting. The basic build is in place. At Level 14, Haste. At Level 15, Anyspell and Silence, each usable only once per day. At Level 18, Mindsight!

This build only has one really strong trick -- quadruple-damage mounted charge with pounce and bonus sonic damage -- but it has a LOT of semi-powerful options just to keep it flexible. Social skills, several means of teleportation, access to ANY Level 0-2 spell in the game, tracking, moderate stealth skills, a flying mount, Schroedinger's Feat, strong UMD at high levels, and a lot of creative tricks with soulmelds should keep Faltino useful even in situations where he can't use his mounted charging tactic.

Why Dark Hunter?
Admittedly, Faltino's most powerful features don't come from the Dark Hunter class. I don't see how they can, since the class gets no very powerful features and has a very limited spell list. But I think Faltino is a great Dark Hunter anyway, for a few reasons:

1. He FEELS like a Dark Hunter
A combination of nature, stealth, and deceptive/social skills. Flexibility and improvisation and minor spellcasting. Strong affinity with animals. Speed. A general Fey theme (lots of teleportation?). All of these things are part of Faltino both before and after he becomes a Dark Hunter.

2. He makes use of the features that Dark Hunter does give him
One of the Dark Hunter's more unique features is a boost to a mount's speed. So Faltino focuses a lot on mounted combat, and particularly charging (where that speed will come in handy). After an initial charge, I'm sure he'll also sometimes get off his mount and let it fight on its own, and his own speed boost can be useful too.

The other unique feature of Dark Hunter is Wisdom-based Arcane spellcasting. I unfortunately couldn't afford all the various tricks to make Faltino WIS-SAD, but at least he can boost his divine spellcasting (from Chameleon) and his arcane casting with boosts to the same stat. This peculiarity also makes Arcane Disciple a particularly friendly option, and Faltino uses that option to make his spellcasting a LOT more flexible.

Low-Light Vision isn't very exciting, but at least it doubles the range of the low-light vision granted by Mask of the Tiger. Darkvision isn't very exciting, but at least it's better than it would be on a race that gets it naturally. Scent is nice, especially in combo with Track. Mindsight, while not part of the class, builds on these other three thematically, and makes Faltino REALLY good at being aware of his surroundings (even with no Spot or Listen ranks).

Uncanny Dodge and Freedom of Movement are nice features for a melee-focused character, even if they're not really part of any combos.

3. Not taking the final level is forgivable, I think
If leaving out a level of the Secret Ingredient bothers you, there's nothing stopping Faltino from completing Dark Hunter instead of Human Paragon at Level 20, especially if the DM rules that Human Paragon can't be used to advance Chameleon casting anyway. But he's already completed Dark Hunter spellcasting, and Discern Location is, in my mind, thematically replaced by Mindsight. (I know that Mindsight is relatively short-range, while Discern Location isn't; but even for long-range scry-hunting, if an important target for some reason doesn't have Mind Blank, Faltino is reasonably competent by using Clairvoyance and Scrying.)

Side Note: Other Synergies
I know Chameleon isn't the secret ingredient, but I was amazed how many different ways it fit nicely into this build. I can't remember why I originally considered adding it; I think it might have been for pure fluff reasons, thinking that a double agent who sabotages the Queen of Air and Darkness might make an interesting twist on the class's "loyal servant" fluff. But then I noticed how Chameleon goes well thematically with Human Paragon; how its floating feat is a powerful asset for Incarnum; how it can even gain Wild Empathy; and how its spellcasting turned out to be a huge asset for a mounted charger.

Meanwhile, I've been itching to use Totemist in Iron Chef for a while, and it just keeps not fitting. But in this case, it's got a surprising amount of synergy with Dark Hunter -- thematically, in terms of having the right class skills, and in terms of multiclassing well.

Non-Core Sources
Magic of Incarnum: Totemist, soulmelds, Open Least Chakra, Open Lesser Chakra, Open Greater Chakra, Shape Soulmeld, Bonus Essentia
Unearthed Arcana: Human Paragon
Web: Wild Cohort, Unseelie Dark Hunter
Races of Stone: Dire Eagle
Complete Scoundrel: Second Impression, Social Recovery
Magic Item Compendium: Mask of the Tiger, Collision weapon, Incarnum Focus, Heartseeking Amulet, Eternal Wand
Unapproachable East: Valorous weapon
Lords of Madness: Mindsight
Spell Compendium: Lion's Charge, Spell Domain, Anyspell, Heroics, Knight's Move
Races of Destiny: Chameleon, Able Learner
Complete Divine: Arcane Disciple
Draconomicon: Pectoral of Maneuverability
Tome of Battle: Novice Shadow Hands, Novice Slippers of the Setting Sun, Cloak of Deception, Baffling Defense, Martial Study
Complete Arcane: Practiced Spellcaster
Complete Adventurer: Natural Bond
Complete Warrior: Cavalry Charger

[true_shinken]

Looks like there is no such thing as enough bears in Iron Chef.



Overview: Ogar, CE Aeshkrau Illumian

Ranger / Barbarian / Unseelie Dark Hunter / Bear Warrior

Abilities:
STR: 16
DEX: 12
CON: 14
INT: 12
WIS: 14
CHA: 10
(All level-up points go into STR)

Aesh sigil: +1 bonus per power sigil on STR checks and STR-based skill checks
Krau sigil: +1 bonus per power sigil to caster level (max of character level)
Aeshkrau power word: May use STR to determine bonus spells per day

Languages: Common, Illumian, Sylvan
HD: 8 + 9d12 + 10d6

Ogar
{table=head]Level|Class|Base Attack<br>Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Skills|Feats|Class Features

1st|Ranger 1|
+1|
+2|
+2|
+0|Hide +4 (4), Intimidate +2(cc) (2), K: Nature +4 (4), K: Arcana +2(cc) (2), Move Silently +4 (4), Ride +4 (4), Survival +4 (4)|Track (b), Mounted Combat|FE: Fey, Spiritual Connection

2nd|Ape Totem Barbarian 1|
+2|
+4|
+2|
+0|Hide +0.5(cc) (4.5), Move Silently +1(cc) (5), Ride +1 (5), Survival +1 (5)||Rage 1/day, Climb Speed (1/2 base land speed)

3rd|A. T. Barbarian 2|
+3|
+5|
+2|
+0|Hide +0.5(cc) (5), Move Silently +1(cc) (6), Ride +1 (6), Survival +1 (6)|Improved Initiative|+2 bonus on Intimidate checks

4th|A. T. Barbarian 3|
+4|
+5|
+3|
+1|K: Arcana +0.5(cc) (2.5), Move Silently +1(cc) (7), Ride +1 (7), Survival +1 (7)|Power Attack (b)|

5th|A. T. Barbarian 4|
+5|
+6|
+3|
+1|K: Arcana +0.5(cc) (3), Move Silently +1(cc) (8), Ride +1 (8), Survival +1 (8)||Rage 2/day

6th|Unseelie Dark Hunter 1|
+5|
+8|
+5|
+1|Intimidate +1(cc) (3), K: Arcana +1(cc) (4), Ride +1 (9)|Mounted Fury (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20031125a)|Spells, Low-Light Vision, Wild Empathy

7th|Unseelie Dark Hunter 2|
+6|
+8|
+5|
+1|Climb +1 (1), K: Nature +1 (5), Intimidate +1(cc) (4), Ride +1 (10)||Fast Mount (+10), Fast Movement (+10)

8th|Unseelie Dark Hunter 3|
+7|
+9|
+6|
+2|Climb +1 (2), Intimidate +1(cc) (5), Ride +1 (11), Survival +1 (9)||Darkvision

9th|Bear Warrior 1|
+8|
+11|
+6|
+2|Intimidate +3 (8), Skill trick "Dismount Attack"|Obtain Familiar|Bear Form (black)

10th|Unseelie Dark Hunter 4|
+9|
+11|
+7|
+3|Intimidate +1(cc) (9), Survival +1 (10), Skill trick "Never Outnumbered"||Uncanny Dodge

11th|Unseelie Dark Hunter 5|
+9|
+11|
+7|
+3|Climb +1 (3), Intimidate +1(cc) (10), Ride +1 (12), Survival +1 (11)||Fast Mount (+20), Fast Movement (+20)

12th|Bear Warrior 2|
+10|
+12|
+7|
+3|Climb +2 (5), Intimidate +2 (12), Ride +1 (13)|Improved Familiar (Howler)|

13th|Bear Warrior 3|
+11|
+12|
+8|
+4|Climb +1 (6), Intimidate +2 (14), Ride +1 (14), Survival +1 (12)||Scent (Ex)

14th|Bear Warrior 4|
+12|
+13|
+8|
+4|Climb +1 (7), Intimidate +2 (16), Ride +1 (15), Survival +1 (13)||

15th|Bear Warrior 5|
+13|
+13|
+8|
+4|Climb +2 (9), Intimidate +2 (18), Ride +1 (16)|Intimidating Rage|Bear Form (brown)

16th|Unseelie Dark Hunter 6|
+14|
+14|
+9|
+5|Climb +1 (10), Intimidate +1(cc) (19), Ride +1 (17), Survival +1 (14)||Scent (Su)

17th|Unseelie Dark Hunter 7|
+15|
+14|
+9|
+5|Climb +1 (11), Intimidate +1(cc) (20), Ride +1 (18), Survival +1 (15)||Improved Uncanny Dodge

18th|Unseelie Dark Hunter 8|
+16|
+15|
+10|
+5|Climb +2 (13), Intimidate +1(cc) (21), Ride +1 (19)|Arcane Strike|Fast Mount (+30), Fast Movement (+30)

19th|Unseelie Dark Hunter 9|
+16|
+15|
+10|
+5|Climb +1 (14), Intimidate +1(cc) (22), Ride +1 (20), Survival +1 (16)||Freedom of Movement

20th|Unseelie Dark Hunter 10|
+17|
+16|
+11|
+6|Climb +1 (15), Intimidate +1(cc) (23), Ride +1 (21), Survival +1 (17)||Discern Location[/table]

Spells: Spells per day/Spells Known
{table=head]Level|0lvl|1st|2nd|3rd|4th|5th|6th|7th|8th|9th

1st|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

2nd|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

3rd|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

4th|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

5th|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

6th|-|0|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

7th|-|1|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

8th|-|2|0|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

9th|-|2|0|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

10th|-|3|1|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

11th|-|3|2|0|-|-|-|-|-|-

12th|-|3|2|0|-|-|-|-|-|-

13th|-|3|2|0|-|-|-|-|-|-

14th|-|3|2|0|-|-|-|-|-|-

15th|-|3|2|0|-|-|-|-|-|-

16th|-|3|3|1|-|-|-|-|-|-

17th|-|3|3|2|0|-|-|-|-|-

18th|-|3|3|3|1|-|-|-|-|-

19th|-|3|3|3|2|-|-|-|-|-

20th|-|3|3|3|3|-|-|-|-|-[/table]

Spells known:
ECL 6: Detect Magic, Mount
ECL 7: Spider Climb
ECL 8: Locate Object, Invisibility
ECL 10: Expeditious Retreat, Bull's Strength
ECL 11: Haste, Fly
ECL 16: Pass Without Trace, Phantom Steed
ECL 17: Dimension Door, Freedom of Movement
ECL 18: Clairaudience/Clairvoyance, Improved Invisibility
ECL 20: Locate Creature

Story:Ogar's mother, the Queen of Air and Darkness, is a wonderful and kind creature who only wants what's best for everyone. At least, that's what all the unseelie courtiers say, especially when Ogar's around. Everyone knows that Ogar was actually spirited away from her real parents (a little substitute left in her place, at least for a while) when she was just a child, of course, but no one would dare to say anything about that. Those brave enough to ask the Queen what she saw in this Illumian changeling could get nothing out of Her Majesty except that she foresaw the potential of wild power written in the sigils slowly orbiting the child's head. No one alive is or was foolish enough to press Her Majesty for more information, so the matter is usually left at that, even today.

Regardless of Her Majesty's true motives, she had Ogar raised in her court and used the young Illumian to track down her enemies and unruly subjects. Ogar grew up among the wild forests and hunts of the land of the fey, very accustomed to riding off in search of whatever (or whomever) the Queen desires. She grew up equally comfortable riding across the wild moors and meadows, climbing into the dense canopies of the woods to lie in wait, gathering information from the plants and animals themselves in the language of the forest, and simply tailing a target on foot. Ogar rarely speaks, but those who raise her ire say that they can see some of her mother's legendary fury in the girl's most wrathful moments.

A barbarian who knows her way around the forest, Ogar starts out as a frontline fighting woman with plenty of out-of-combat utility. She's quite good at mounted combat and rides a warhorse whenever she gets the chance, though she's far from helpless on foot. Her climb speed can come in handy whether she's in the forest or in the dungeon. For obvious reasons, she favors using a lance, though she keeps a greatsword slung across her back just in case. She's stealthy enough to tail someone when she's tracking them, and Spiritual Connection (which allows her to speak with plants and animals 3/day) is useful whether she needs to ask where her quarry went, find out whether anything nasty lives in that cave, or just ask which branches are safe to climb on.

Her Majesty's plans are subtle and far-reaching, and although many were surprised when she granted her so-called child a measure of arcane power, none dared question it. Upon swearing her new and formal vows to Her Majesty, Ogar felt a calling in her soul, as though a friend were reaching out to her. When she asked permission to reach out in return, Her Majesty just smiled an icy smile and ordered Ogar to wait, saying that the newly appointed Dark Hunter needed to wait for a greater power to awaken within her.

The Queen of Air and Darkness is capricious, but her words are rarely to be disregarded. Sure enough, as Ogar explored her newly bestowed gifts, she did indeed feel a power awaken within her, roaring to life as though woken from a long winter's hibernation. The new awareness that Ogar felt and the new wind-kissed speed with which she moved excited and delighted her, but her greatest thrill came when she felt the power of a beast yawn and rumble to life within her. While Ogar had long been aware that a wild and emotional power yearned to be unleashed from her heart, she had never before felt her bestial instincts overtake her quite so literally in body and soul. Perhaps it was a side effect of the magic that the Queen had granted her, and perhaps it came from the call she felt from the power that burned to be shared, but whatever the source, Ogar discovered the feral instincts necessary to transform herself into a bear in the heat of the distorting battle-rage that caused her features to warp and spasm. What's more, as she felt the call in her soul beg more and more strongly to be shared with others, she found that her primal fury was not contained to just herself; instead, when she felt her rage overcome her, she saw that her faithful steed had likewise taken the form of a charging bear. Even though it was a little bit difficult to stay in the saddle when the change swept over them, Ogar's skill in the saddle also applied while she was riding bearback.

Ogar can now use a bit of magic, which is primarily useful out of combat. It is not useless in combat, though, and serves as a nice backup when she's not raging. Her greatest new asset, though, is not only that she now turns into a bear when she rages but also that she can share the effects of her rage (including improved rages, such as bear form) with her mount. She moves fast, her mount moves fast, and they can both turn into bears when the time is right.

The bear resting in Ogar's soul had awoken from its long sleep, but as she explored the powers that it granted her over her own form and that of her steed, she found that the call in her soul had not quieted. She could still feel a friend calling out to her, as simultaneously close and far as a dream. When Her Majesty informed her that it was time to answer her friend's call, Ogar was overjoyed. Stilling her raging emotions in ritual meditation, Ogar called forth a familiar spirit. As she completed the ritual, she saw a Howler sitting patiently in front of her. Ogar felt that she knew it already, and addressed it as though she were unsure if she had just met an old friend for the first time in far too long. ". . . Jile?" The creature nodded, and without another word Ogar saddled up and rode off on the Howler's back, best friends acting on the Queen's latest mission.

Ogar and Jile made an excellent team. The two ran as one, fought as one, and transformed into bears as one. They learned to track by scent, unleash bigger and stronger bear forms, and use the raw scariness of a stack of bears to send their enemies fleeing, as all proper prey should. Ogar's skill with the Queen's arcane gifts continued to grow, learning enough tricks that none who saw her in action would confuse her for an axe-wielding simpleton. Even in bear form, she was able to channel raw power through what she called "the Queen's rage," her muscles crackling with an awe-inspiring amount of energy.

Nowadays, it seems that the Queen was right to spirit away this particular little changeling. Whether she's a spellslinging Illumian on Howlerback or a bear-riding bear surging with arcane might, she's one of the most feared and respected forces in the Wild Hunt.

Ogar and Jile work very well together. She has enough spells to provide herself and her familiar with basic buffs like Haste and Fly if she doesn't have a support caster, and she has Arcane Strike to burn off any slots she doesn't need. Jile also gets the benefit from Intimidating Rage, and since two successful demoralize attempts can render an enemy Frightened, the Bear Tower o' Fear can be quite useful. Ogar can't cast while raging, but she can still use Arcane Strike to burn off her excess spells . . . and since her bonus spells are based on STR, she gets quite a few extra slots in bear form. Freedom of Movement, both the spell and the class feature, makes her hard to pin down, and Discern Location's uses should be obvious.


Strategy and Recommended Items:
Ogar is a frontliner through and through. No small amount of the build's power comes from the ability to channel her powers through her mount, a situation that only improves when her familiar becomes her mount and she gains the ability to share her spells. While she is by no means a wizard, she has enough spellpower to cover the basics and get to the face-bashing. Ogar trades away Wild Empathy from her Ranger class because it doesn't stack with the Wild Empathy she gets from Unseelie Dark Hunter; the same might be said of the Fast Movement she trades away from her Barbarian class, though this is slightly more ambiguous. Regardless, both she and her mount have no shortage of mobility. Her mount falters a bit at the higher levels but before Jile hits the scene, but Mounted Combat helps keep the warhorses safe and the ability to turn them into bears keeps them useful; if nothing else, the Mount spell means that you don't have to take a favorite steed into a suicide mission. Her Krau sigil boosts her caster level up high enough to qualify for Obtain Familiar and Improved Familiar. An exotic saddle is necessary to ride a bear or a Howler, but Ogar has enough ranks in Ride that she can easily handle the –5 penalty for an inappropriate mount.

Ogar carefully trades away the Fast Movement, Wild Empathy, and Uncanny Dodge that she gets before taking Unseelie Dark Hunter, thereby ensuring that she gets the most benefit out of the PrC.

As for items, be aware that Bear Form functions as Polymorph, which functions as Alter Self, which says that you keep any equipment that could still be used.
In addition to basic stat boosters, defensive gear, and so on, if she has the choice, a wand of Lion's Charge (SpC) (ideally in a wand chamber) serves Ogar extremely well, since her Ranger class allows her to use it. Anything that enhances Rage boosts both Ogar and her mount. Ogar's Will save is kinda low, so if your GM will allow you to buy Iron Will through the Otyugh Hole (CS), it'd probably be worthwhile to do so. If there's any question about whether or not Jile can benefit from Intimidating Rage (I believe that it falls under "improved forms of rage," but I allow that some people may not like it), you may want to invest in Fearsome (DotU) barding. Before Jile comes online, if you GM rules that it is "trained for war," a Clockwork Steed (MM4) is a decent mount (and, honestly, quite funny). Mouthpick weapons (LoM) are good for Jile and, arguably, for Ogar; you may or may not need to have an Unseen Servant or something similar equip it on the newly bear-shaped Ogar, but in any case Jile can get some use out of one.

Variants: If Flaws are allowed, you can take Power Attack without Ape Totem Barbarian, thus freeing up Fast Movement to be traded away for the oh-so-sweet Pounce (Spirit Lion Totem, CC). If you do so, Climb becomes less important, so you can take Jump or something else instead. Alternately, you could use two flaws to get Ride-By Attack and Spirited Charge. Still alternately, Wild Cohort is always an option for getting a scaling mount before you can ride your familiar.

You can pull off a similar build with a Small race (thereby fitting more easily on a mount in enclosed spaces), but the loss of the Krau sigil means that you'll have a lower caster level, thereby making you end up with a Medium (and weaker) Improved Familiar (like a Hell Hound or Krenshar) instead of a Large one. The tradeoff is that you'll have an easier time fitting in cramped spaces, but you'll have a lower caster level and you won't get all the lovely bonus spells from Aeshkrau.

Sources:
Player's Handbook (Ranger, Barbarian, feats, spells)
Complete Warrior (Bear Warrior, Arcane Strike, Intimidating Rage, Improved Familiar)
Complete Arcane (Obtain Familiar)
Monster Manual (Howler, Black Bear, Brown Bear)
Complete Scoundrel (Never Outnumbered, Dismount Attack)
Complete Champion (Spiritual Connection)
Unearthed Arcana (Ape Totem Barbarian)
Races of Destiny (Illumian)
Fey Features (Unseelie Dark Hunter (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/fey/20030315a))
Random Encounters: Wild Life (Mounted Fury (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20031125a))

[true_shinken]

A true fey knight!

Tamlaine

http://www.shadowscapes.com/picts_images/732.jpg

Statblock
{table=head]Level|Class|Base Attack<br>Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Skills*|Feats|Class Features

1st|Ranger|
+1|
+2|
+2|
+0|Knowledge (Nature) 4, Survival 4, Handle Animal 4, Ride 4, Hide 4, Move Silently 4, Concentration 4, Spot 4, Listen 4|Track, Improved Initiative, Able Learner|Favored Enemy (Fey), Wild Empathy

2nd|Knight|
+2|
+2|
+2|
+2|Survival 5, Ride 5, Move Silently 5, Hide 5, Handle Animal 5|| Fighting Challenge +1, Knight's Challenge, Knight's Code

3rd|Knight|
+3|
+2|
+2|
+3|Survival 6, Ride 6, Move Silently 6, Spot 5, Listen 5|Mounted Combat, Wild Cohort|Shield Block +1

4th|Knight|
+4|
+3|
+3|
+3|Survival 7, Ride 7, Move Silently 7, Spot 6, Listen 6||Bulwark of Defense, +1 Wis

5th|Knight|
+5|
+3|
+3|
+4|Survival 8, Ride 8, Move Silently 8, Spot 7, Listen 7||Armor Mastery (Medium), Test of Mettle

6th|Unseelie Dark Hunter|
+5|
+5|
+5|
+4|Survival 9, Ride 9, Knowledge (Nature) 5, Spot 8, Listen 8, Handle Animal 6, Concentration 6|Combat Reflexes|Spells, Low-Light Vision, Wild Empathy

7th|Unseelie Dark Hunter|
+6|
+6|
+6|
+4|Survival 10, Ride 10, Spot 8, Listen 8, Handle Animal 7, Concentration 7||Fast Mount, Fast Movement

8th|Unseelie Dark Hunter|
+7|
+6|
+6|
+5|Survival 11, Ride 11, Spot 9, Listen 9, Handle Animal 8, Concentration 9||Darkvision, +1 Wis

9th|Unseelie Dark Hunter|
+8|
+7|
+7|
+5|Survival 12, Ride 12, Spot 10, Listen 10, Handle Animal 10, Concentration 10|Stand Still|Uncanny Dodge

10th|Unseelie Dark Hunter|
+8|
+7|
+7|
+5|Survival 13, Ride 13, Spot 11, Listen 11, Handle Animal 11, Concentration 12||Fast Mount, Fast Movement

11th|Silverwood Arcanist|
+8|
+7|
+7|
+7|Survival 14, Ride 14, Spot 12, Listen 12, Handle Animal 12||Fast Handling, Skilled Rider

12th|Silverwood Arcanist|
+9|
+7|
+7|
+8|Survival 15, Ride 15, Spot 13, Listen 13, Concentration 13|Shape Soulmeld (Astral Vambraces)|Cohort Trick, +1 Dex

13th|Silverwood Arcanist|
+9|
+8|
+8|
+8|Survival 16, Ride 16, Spot 14, Listen 14, Handle Animal 13|Mounted Spellcasting|

14th|Silverwood Arcanist|
+10|
+8|
+8|
+9|Survival 17, Ride 17, Spot 15, Listen 15, Concentration 14||Cohort Trick

15th|Silverwood Arcanist|
+10|
+8|
+8|
+9|Survival 18, Ride 18, Spot 16, Listen 16, Handle Animal 14|Open Lesser Chakra (Arms)|Share Spells

16th|Unseelie Dark Hunter|
+11|
+9|
+9|
+10|Survival 19, Ride 19, Spot 17, Listen 17, Handle Animal 15, Concentration 16||Scent, +1 Dex

17th|Unseelie Dark Hunter|
+12|
+9|
+9|
+10|Survival 20, Ride 20, Spot 18, Listen 18, Handle Animal 16, Concentration 18||Improved Uncanny Dodge

18th|Unseelie Dark Hunter|
+13|
+10|
+10|
+10|Survival 21, Ride 21, Spot 19, Listen 19, Handle Animal 18, Concentration 19|Share Soulmeld|Fast Mount, Fast Movement

19th|Unseelie Dark Hunter|
+13|
+10|
+10|
+11|Survival 22, Ride 22, Spot 20, Listen 20, Handle Animal 19, Concentration 21||Freedom of Movement

20th|Unseelie Dark Hunter|
+14|
+11|
+11|
+11|Survival 23, Ride 23, Spot 21, Listen 21, Handle Animal 21, Concentration 22||Discern Location, +1 Wis[/table]
*Only skills being advanced at that level are shown on the table.

Human Ranger 1/Knight 4/Unseelie Dark Hunter 5/Silverwood Arcanist 5/Unseelie Dark Hunter 5

32 PB:
Str 14
Dex 14 (+2 levels)
Wis 14 (+3 levels)
Int 14
Cha 10

Spells
Spells per day/Spells Known
{table=head]Level|0lvl|1st|2nd|3rd|4th|5th|6th|7th|8th|9th

1st|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

2nd|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

3rd|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

4th|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

5th|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

6th|-|1/2|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

7th|-|2/3|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

8th|-|3/3|1/2|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

9th|-|4/4|2/3|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

10th|-|4/4|3/3|1/2|-|-|-|-|-|-

11th|-|4/4|4/4|2/3|-|-|-|-|-|-

12th|-|4/4|4/4|3/3|-|-|-|-|-|-

13th|-|4/4|4/4|4/4|1/3|-|-|-|-|-

14th|-|4/4|4/4|4/4|2/3|-|-|-|-|-

15th|-|4/4|4/4|4/4|3/4|-|-|-|-|-

16th|-|4/4|4/4|4/4|3/4|-|-|-|-|-

17th|-|4/4|4/4|4/4|3/4|-|-|-|-|-

18th|-|4/4|4/4|4/4|3/4|-|-|-|-|-

19th|-|4/4|4/4|4/4|3/4|-|-|-|-|-

20th|-|4/4|4/4|4/4|3/4|-|-|-|-|-[/table]

Spells Known
1st: Create Water, Detect Magic, Expeditious Retreat, True Strike
2nd: Bull's Strength, Cat's Grace, Invisibility, Locate Object
3rd: Dispel Magic, Fly, Haste, Hold Monster
4th: Dimensional Anchor, Displacement, Ethereal Jaunt, Freedom of Movement

Backstory

Hush now, child, and let me tell you,
of a man they called Tamlaine.
Beloved by the wood and town,
of which his father was the kind and honest lord,
yet hated by all the dark fae.
Save one.
Alas, this was his undoing

Woo! Level 1! Tamlaine is your standard 1st level Ranger, with the standard tracking abilities, empathy for wild creatures, and decent initiative. There isn't much tactics at this point; he goes up and hits things. Grab yourself a reach weapon, preferably a spiked chain, and do this in safety and style.

But before this dark one could strike,
Tamlaine was taken to court,
where he learned the ways of knight of the king,
but never lost his yearning for the woods.
And so, one summer's evening,
he went home
Unwittingly into his doom.

Tamlaine goes through knighthood during levels 2-5. He gets good at it, and he has a new strategy; Mounted Combat on a specially bonded Wild Cohort. A horse will be used for now, but this will change (mostly for cool factor). And now the reach weapon adds even more fun, due to squares Tamlaine threatens are treated as difficult terrain; this is nice, since he can use Test of Mettle to get people to attack him, and can waltz around in medium armor without it slowing him down. In other words, Tamlaine is going through his tanking period.

As he went home,
and went a-walking with his lady-love;
the Dark Queen,
most vile of faeries,
snatched him away,
and had him join her court.
His heart held in snare,
he swore vows to follow this dread Lady.
His love's heart,
torn asunder by this happening,
resolved to journey to save him

Tamlaine now begins his descent; first 5 levels of Unseelie Dark Hunter give him spells, which are quite a nice addition to his combat repertoire; True Strike and Haste are really helpful. He can also now use Standstill and Combat Reflexes to make people trying to pass him regret it, since he can just stop them in their traps. He can see perfectly in the dark, which is a pretty sweet ability; so sweet, in fact, that it requires a change in mount; yes folks, Tamlaine now rides a tiger into battle. Which is so freakin' sweet I shouldn't have to tell you, what with Pounce and Rake attacks and all. In all seriousness, though, Tamlaine is now faster, and so is his mount; besides that, he can't lose Dexterity through being flat-footed, and is quite a decent tracker; has been from level 1, in fact. Tamlaine now has rudimentary battlefield control, and rather good tracking abilities.

And so she went to the Road,
where the Unseelie are said to procession upon,
and saw Tamlaine,
riding as pretty as you please on a magnificent tiger.
The Queen,
seeing his lady love,
said unto her,
“If you can but hold on to him,
he is yours.”
And so she grasped his arm,
and the Queen turned him into a loathsome serpent;
but she held on.
The Queen changed his skin to that of a hind,
kicking in her grasp;
but she held on.
The Queen tried many a form,
to make his love lose her grasp,
but she held on yet.
The Queen was filled with anger,
but was held to her vow.
“I return him to you,
but by the time a score of years has passed,
I will return to reclaim him.”
And so they left,
happily.
Yet he was still in that most Dark of Lady's thrall;
may the heavens help us all.

Tamlaine takes a 5 level break from Unseelie Dark Hunter, and goes into the tasty, 5-level, Silverwood Arcanist PrC, wherein he gains the ability to cast better while mounted, and he becomes closer to his tiger, allowing him to share spells with it. So now the tiger can fly/attack an extra time/turn ethereal/whatever. Tamlaine still plays mostly the same way as before, except his tiger has a few more tricks. So, that is, battlefield control and tracking. Oh, almost forgot; he can also now shape a single Soulmeld, the Astral Vambraces, and bind them to his Arms chakra, which gives him a single Astral Construct Menu A option for as long as the Soulmeld is shaped. This means he can fly at will, basically, the Fly spell being so that he can fly faster/take his awesome tiger mount with him. Alternatively, he could grab Power Attack, making him a slightly more dangerous melee combatant. Astral Vambraces are just nice; let's leave it at that.

Tamlaine and his lady love lived on happily,
his deeds on his mount were mighty to behold,
and 9 years after he was freed,
his lady love,
now his wife,
became with child.
A beautiful boy it was,
born on the day 10 years after his father's release.
And so the Queen came,
and took that child's father away.
Now be careful,
my son;
wander not the dark in the woods,
lest you be taken like your father.
-Tom MacTamlaine, recounting a tale his mother told him as a child.

Tamlaine gains many tracking abilities in the levels of 16-20; one of my favorite is Scent, since he can already track things pretty damn well. He can also share his Astral Vambraces with his tiger, meaning that his tiger can fly with him, without the need for Fly; Fly lets them go fast, yes, but even with the inferior wings they get from the Soulmeld, they still go at 50ft a move action.Other than that, Improved Uncanny Dodge comes on line, which is nice for preventing being flanked. He can also act like he has Freedom of Movement up for up to a minute at 20th level; try to trap him now, on his flying tiger, bitches! Sorry about that. Anyway, he can also find something's location 1/day at 20th level, which kinda lets him find important stuff and people. All in all, if you need something tracked down, call Tamlaine, who will be able to retrieve whatever it is for you. Unless something really nasty took it, in which case you should have called the whole party, shouldn't you have? He also supplies some nice battlefield control, just to recap; after all, how many characters can turn the freakin' air into difficult terrain? Not many, that's who.

Final Bonuses... ...for his tiger

+30 ft for all speeds
Share Spells
Share Soulmeld (Astral Vambraces)
*Conservative reading of Wild Cohort*
+5 HD
+5 NA
+2 Str/Dex
5 bonus tricks (3 from Wild Cohort, 2 from Silverwood Arcanist)
Evasion

Tricks:
Ambush
Assist Track
Attack (Anything) (Counts as 2)
Defend
Down
Guard
Hold
Home
Mark
Subdue

Sources
Core, Unseelie Dark Hunter, [url=http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20031118a]Random Encounters 1[url], [url=http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20031209a]Random Encounters 4[url], Player's Handbook II, a bunch of books for the tricks. Look at Realmshelp, they are all there.

[true_shinken]

Is it just me or are nameless characters actually becoming a trend here?



The Loyal Servant


I have been a servant for as long as I've known the speech of man, and always with too many masters. I was first awakened by a powerful Wizard, the Netyarch(wizard-king) Zalathorm Kirkson of Halarahh. I was to be an unusual pet and companion for his bastard son (who's name I still may not reveal to this day), who had just begun training as a Shadow Marauder of the Crinti nobility. And because the Crinti were traditionally the enemies of the Halruaa, I was also to be a spy among them. And so I was born with two masters, my creator and my owner. My life has never been as simple again.

I was sworn by oath and Gaes to not reveal myself for what I was, and sworn again to protect and serve the Kirkson blood, and sworn a third time to avenge that bloodline should it be ended, and then I was sent to Dambrath, two days after my rebirth from a simple desert animal, to deliver a message from father to son. The man-child, for his age could have been no more than ten years, delighted in my strangeness. I became a bauble to be shown about to the other rich and idle Crinti among his peers, and as such I fulfilled my duty as spy, learning much about the Crinti and their way of life and war, reporting what I could back to my maker through the chain of messenger owls he enchanted for my use.

Years passed, and being a simple desert creature, I looked upon this life and considdered it terribly complicated. My future years would prove my folly in this, but resentment at ones lot in life is one of the many common failings of youth. I fulfilled my duties, teaching and being taught by my young master, watching the activities of the Crinti, learning and growing stronger. A strange and wise creature, another captive of the Crinti, began sharing secrets with me, who he saw as a fellow slave. He preached to me the wisdom and power of Bahamut, as filtered through an even stranger religion based around the spirits of Totem Animals and the power of dragons as totems. I absorbed this knowledge and even learned to tap the powers he spoke of, but at the time I had no intention of adding a new master to what I already considdered too many.

Then, disaster. A marauding army of kobolds marched from the mountains to the East, normally believed to be impassable and left unguarded. My master, now fifteen, was among the few on that side of the region. He quickly raised a band of serfs and minor warriors to meet the invaders, but the odds were against us a hundred to one. But my master was clever, inheriting more than me from his father, and we used the tactics of bandits and brigands against the force as it moved, striking at stragglers and cutting away small groups to be slaughtered. We wittled down hundreds each day they traveled and slowed them down enough that there would be a force to meet them at the walls of Cathyr. But this enraged the leader of the band, a canny and cunning old kobold called Smoke. He marched out alone from his forces, and despite knowing it to be a trap, my master could not pass up such tempting bait.

We struck at dusk, when shadows ruled the landscape, to give us maximum advantage. Or so we thought. But my master was not the only being to draw power from darkness - Smoke turned out to be not a kobold, but a Shadow Dragon! The small war band my master had forged now shattered under the weight of the dragon's fearsome aura of power. Nine men out of ten ran, though this did not save them. My master, reckless as any man-child of fifteen years, attempted to use shadow against a creature of shadow, and payed for it. Appearing behind the beast, he managed to land several blows, but none of them so powerful as to prevent the counter stroke. And Smoke was a most potent foe, wielding both great strength and arcane power. He cast a single spell, and tore my master from this plane of existence.

Of course, at the time, I believed my master to be destroyed and so my third duty was activated. I became enraged, and swooped upon this foul creature. But knowing that the most dangerous of the band had been vanquished and seeing that the majority of the defenders still ran, the dragon merely withdrew from the field of battle by the simple expedient of a dimension door.

I did the only thing I could that might yield any vengence - I returned to the Crinti and reported what had happened. My master had bought them sufficient time to prepare their defenses, and the kobold force smashed themselves against the well defended walls of Cathyr. But despite my searching gaze, I could find no sign of Smoke in the battle - either he had fled, knowing defeat to be inevitable, or the entire invasion had been a mere distraction for some other plot.

On inertia, I remained with the Crinti. I would have immediately set out to fulfil my final duty to my master, save that I had no way of knowing where Smoke had disappeared to. According to the rumors I heard from the nobility, he was known to pop up in every region and kingdom within the Realm to cause some minor trouble, with no rhyme or reason behind the incidents. I was promised information on any new sightings, for the Crinti understood well the lust for revenge, but that just chained me ever more to the people of Dambrath.

My hatred for Smoke and the Kobolds that followed him was enough to make me a willing disciple of the Dragonborn slave. I offered to purchase and emancipate him in return for undergoing the Rite of Rebirth, seeking any edge I could in hunting down my master's destroyer. And despite my ambivilence towards the morality of humans, I was accepted by Bahamut for my strong sense of loyalty and honor.

As I awaited word from the Crinti about my nemesis, they decided it would be poetic to train me in the ways of the Shadow Marauder, to use the darkness that failed my master to hunt down his killer. Seeking any source of power that I could, I accepted this training and took to it with great fervor. I learned from my tutors not just the ways of riding and killing, but also how to hunt and track, skills I knew would serve me well in my quest.

I grew strong, perhaps as strong as my master had been, and in time rumors finally drifted south to Dambrath of Smoke having struck once more, this time in the Yuirwood. Having no better lead to go on, I set off at once. The Crinti wished me well on my quest for vengeance, having never once suspected me of being a spy among them, or else never caring.

My quest took me all across the Realms, and in my travels I took every opportunity to bolster my strength. I traded my Crinti-bred mount and a few trinkets for the egg of a Gryphon, which I hatched and raised. I encountered a pack of dire wolves and was forced to kill them, but took to raising the three wolf pups as my own. I had little desire to see the many strange lands I passed through, but I ever sought to be stronger. My quests and loyalties drove me, beyond even what the old wizard who laid those gaes upon me so long ago could have expected.

I found a fresh trail in the Yuirwood and followed it, but in time it turned stale. I had to stop travelling once more, and this time I swore to find not just Smoke's latest 'prank', but also the base of his operation. Many questions and not a few bribes later led me to a place few would have expected to look and fewer still would have dared - the court of the Unseelie fey. But my loyalty and my duty took me there, and sealed my doom.


"What brings such an interesting morsel before me? Tell me, dragon-bird." Queen Mab sits upon her throne, ever-changing around her eternally beautiful form.

"I seek vengeance against the Dragon of Shadow known as Smoke." My reply is simple, but provokes a reaction from the court.

"Really? You seek revenge upon the traitor-dragon? Such delicious irony, one half-dragon to hunt another. And you bring with you a full hunting pack as well! Oh, the Wild Hunt shall be well served by you indeed! Tell me, why do you seek vengeance?"

I think for a moment, but see no harm in answering. "Oh great Queen Mab, Smoke took from me my beloved master, son of my creator, who I was sworn to protect or avenge. I could not protect him from Smoke's magic, but I will avenge him."

Mab smiles then, and this is a truly scary sight to behold. It strikes fear into my heart even as the words promise all I desire. "Well, fearsome hunter, I will offer this bargain. If you swear to serve me, and me alone, for all the rest of your days, then I will send you to the realm of shadow from which the traitor Smoke makes his raids. Your first service to me will be to slay him, his mount, and all his hounds, and then I will bring you back to finish your term. Do you agree to my bargain, little bird-dragon?"

I did not hesitate or question my good fortune. Perhaps I should have, but I did not know the ways of the Unseelie court then and even now I might not have suspected the truth. "I will do so happily, My Queen." I bowed before Mab, Queen of Air and Darkness, and swore my oath of service and loyalty. In turn, she appointed me one of her hunters and gifted me with many tools that would make my coming battle easier.


The battle was hard fought and hard won. My hounds were outnumbered, but Dire Wolves will beat Worgs any day of the week (with or without shadow goblin riders). It may have helped that I managed to catch more than a few in my breath weapon strikes at their leader, of course. My Gryphon was on equal footing against the Nightmare that smoke rode, each magnificent beast tearing strips of flesh from the other. I managed to unmount Smoke, who had taken the guise of a drow, but was soon after thrown from my own saddle.

We took to the sky, then. My breath against his spell in a struggle for dominance. The gifts of Mab were used, one by one, each one allowing me to avoid or counter Smoke's tricks. I wore him down, and finally, with great satisfaction, forced him from the sky.

He lay, bloody and helpless at my feet. The battle was done, his hounds were dead and his nightmare lay bleading to death from a great wound to its neck. He spoke to me in the dragon's tongue as I moved in to kill him. "So, Aunt Mab has finally found an assassin she deemed worthy of killing me. I wonder what took her so long. I find it strange, small one, that I do not recognize you. My aunt, she likes so very much to play her little jokes, and I would have though she would have sent someone I would recognize to end me. Have we ever met?"

Knowing this to be only a ruse to halt my hand, I did not reply until after I had landed a killing blow. "We met just once, on the field of Dambrath. I was the owl-man who watched over the princeling marauder who you vanished. I have hunted you ever since, pledging myself to any master who would help me avenge my first lord."

As the light faded from the monster's eyes, the half shadow dragon chuckled. "Yes, a fine joke it is. For even as you slew me, you also slew my mount..." So saying, the half-fey slipped away into death. Curious, I moved over to the dying nightmare who was also gasping its last. And as I watched, the spell which gave it the shape of a nightmare ended. And there, dead at my feet by my own claw, was my young master, gray haired and not so young anymore, with a set of horseshoes nailed cruelly through his hands and feet, and a cruel barbed bridle set in his mouth.

My pack gathered around me and mourned with me. I spent half a day in that in-between place making a pyre for my master's body, knowing that final death would be a kinder fate than bringing his flesh back to Mab for her to play with. Then, to enact final vengeance upon my master's killer, I returned to Mab. I bowed to her and swore to serve her. And perhaps, some day, when I have punished myself enough, I will take my oath of fealty to her one last time as I strangle the life from her.



Name: None. He was never given a name, and never took one. If a title must be given, he asks that he be called simply 'Servant'.
Race: Dragonborn (Heart) Anthropomorphic Owl
Align: LN
Starting stats: 16 str, 14 dex, 16 con, 14 int, 20 wis, 6 cha

Servant
{table=head]Level|Class|BAB|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Skills|Feats|Class Features
1st|Ninja 1|
+0|
+0|
+2|
+0|Hide 4, MS 4, Bluff 4, Ride 2, Search 4, Balance 4, Disguise 4, Sense Motive 4|Stealthy|Wis to AC, Sudden strike, trapfinding, Ki power
2nd|Totemist 1|
+0|
+2|
+4|
+0|Handle Animal 5, Ride 3||Soulmelds, Wild Empathy
3rd|Totemist 2|
+1|
+3|
+5|
+0|Ride 6, Know(Nature) 3|Mounted Combat|Totem Chakra(+1 Capacity)
4th|Ninja 2|
+2|
+3|
+6|
+0|Hide 6, MS 6, Search 5, Ride 7||Ghost Step
5th|Ninja 3|
+3|
+4|
+6|
+1|Hide 8, MS 8, Ride 8, Bluff 5, Sense Motive 5||+2d6 sudden strike, poison use
6th|Crinti Shadow Marauder 1|
+3|
+4|
+8|
+1|Survival 3|Improved Init|Shadow Ride
7th|Crinti Shadow Marauder 2|
+4|
+4|
+9|
+1|Survival 6||+3d6 sudden strike
8th|Crinti Shadow Marauder 3|
+5|
+5|
+9|
+2|Survival 8, Handle Animal 7|Trample|Shadow Walk
9th|Crinti Shadow Marauder 4|
+6|
+5|
+10|
+2|Hide 10, MS 10, Handle Animal 9|Track|+4d6 sudden strike
10th|Crinti Shadow Marauder 5|
+6|
+5|
+10|
+2|Ride 12, Handle Animal 11||Shadow Pounce
11th|Unseelie Dark Hunter 1|
+6|
+7|
+12|
+2|Handle Animal 13, Survival 12||Low Light, Spells
12th|Unseelie Dark Hunter 2|
+7|
+8|
+13|
+2|Ride 15, Survival 15|Bonus Essentia|Fast Mount, Fast Movement (+10)
13th|Unseelie Dark Hunter 3|
+8|
+8|
+13|
+3|Handle Animal 16, Ride 16, Survival 16, Know(Nature) 4||Darkvision
14th|Unseelie Dark Hunter 4|
+9|
+9|
+14|
+3|Handle Animal 17, Ride 17, Hide 12, MS 12||Uncanny Dodge
15th|Unseelie Dark Hunter 5|
+9|
+9|
+14|
+3|Handle Animal 18, Ride 18, Hide 14, MS 14|Entangling Exhalation|Fast Mount, Fast Movement (+20)
16th|Unseelie Dark Hunter 6|
+10|
+10|
+15|
+4|Handle Animal 19, Ride 19, Hide 16, MS 16||Scent
17th|Unseelie Dark Hunter 7|
+11|
+10|
+15|
+4|Handle Animal 20, Ride 20, Hide 18, MS 18||Improved Uncanny Dodge
18th|Unseelie Dark Hunter 8|
+12|
+11|
+16|
+4|Handle Animal 21, Ride 21, Hide 20, MS 20|Soulsight|Fast Mount, Fast Movement (+30)
19th|Unseelie Dark Hunter 9|
+12|
+11|
+16|
+5|Handle Animal 22, Ride 22, Hide 22, MS 22||Freedom of Movement
20th|Unseelie Dark Hunter 10|
+13|
+12|
+17|
+5|Handle Animal 23, Ride 23, Hide 23, MS 23, Balance 5||Discern Location[/table]

Soulmelds:
Levels 3-9: Kruthik Claws bound to Totem, Dragon Tail, Blink Shirt
Levels 10+: Blink Shirt bount to Totem, Wyrm Claws, Dragon Tail


Spells:
Only spells available are granted by UDH, so here are spell choices.
1 - command, true strike, expeditious retreat, mount
2 - detect thoughts, invisibility, speak with animals, hold person
3 - haste, clairvoyance, dispel magic, hold monster
4 - dimension door, greater invisibility, scrying, sending


Equipment:
Since we have no real need to pick up either weapons or armor (natural attacks + wis-to-AC + arcane spells = wide open budget) there are a couple of big-ticket items that we should try to acquire. The most important gear is going to be a belt of magnificence (since any unarmored fighter is going to be at least a bit MAD, and the only stat that we don't get much out of raising is Intelligence), although individual items of Strength and Wisdom enhancement could suffice. Also very nice would be an Necklace of Natural Weapons enchanted for 3 weapons (2 claws + tail) with a +damage enchantment (acid damage is nice). A ring of Evasion is a good idea, since our Reflex save is ridiculously high anyway, and a ring of Blinking would be worthwhile just for its ability to guarantee us a surprise strike.
Speaking of surprise strike, getting a few weapon augment crystals to allow us to critical undead and constructs (and thus deal surprise strike damage to them) might be a good plan. Even if they cannot be attached to the Necklace (which really should work, since you can enchant it with +x enhancements), you can still pick up a dagger and use that.
Any magic item you can find that grants an additional 'natural' attack (for example, a mask that allows you to make a bite attack) is a must have. I'm sure they exist, but was unable to find an example.
Once we hit 11th level, we get a number of nice spells on our 'spell list', which means we can pick up wands for a number of useful low level spells. Aside from that, standard equipment (cloak of resistence, +AC items, etc.).


Use of Secret Ingredient:
Spells - Perhaps the most unique aspect of the entire class is the Wisdom based arcane spellcasting. This puts a limitation on the armor that the Hunter wears and even at the high end only provides a small selection of spells up to 4th level. However, if you combine this with a monk-like class that grants wisdom to AC when unarmored, you get a serious incentive to have a high wisdom and no armor, making this apparent deficit into a point of synergy.
low-light vision - Owls would normally not need this, but like most of the other racial features of the character's former owlness, it is stripped away by the Dragonborn rebirth. For a character who's primary mode of operation is stealth in darkness, this is an invaluable tool.
Fast mount - A useful mount-boosting ability that combos quite well with the ability to move one's mount through shadow given by the Crinti Shadow Marauder. This class is obviously inteded to be highly maneuverable, with a specialization in tracking down (and then chasing down) chosen prey. For this reason, in addition to the mounted combat feat, the Trample feat allows us to overrun our foes on our mounts. Follow this up with a shadow jump BACKWARDS to right next to the trampled foe, and you can trample them and then use Shadow Ride at the end of your movement (as far as I can tell, it's not a seperate action) to teleport backwards and add serious injury to the insult from trample.
fast movement - More mobility! So not only are we expected to ride down our enemies, but engage them on foot? Well, that's still not a problem since our at-will move action teleport ability won't let us take our mount with us anyway. But more importantly, this ability doesn't limit itself to land speed - this is also a 10'-30' boost to our fly movement, which gives us a real edge in aerial combat!
Darkvision - A real godsend for the stealthily inclined, and being in total darkness generally means that EVERYTHING is in shadow (and if not, a few small light sources tossed about can be quite disorienting to the enemy).
Uncanny dodge/Improved Uncanny dodge - Getting surprised or flanked is always a pain to the unarmored fighter
Scent - Yet another tool for tracking ones prey. This is a skill that is well suited for use in chasing a fleeing opponent through a misty forest or dank cave, where line of sight is a difficult thing to maintain. For an invisible, teleporting stalker? It's a terrifying tool for hunting down prey that has gone to ground.
Freedom of movement - Get out of jail free! Just like the Cleric domain power that grants freedom of movement just on the one or two rounds where you really need it, this power might not last all that long, but you've got it when you need it. In the case of the invisible, teleporting hunter/stalker? The cases where you need it are even rarer, but with it there is literally nothing that can stop you.
Discern location - One of the most powerful scrying spells available, 1/day? Yes please! Does the big nasty wizard use mind blank to stop you from finding him? Discern location on his spellbook. Going after a specific nasty dragon? Find their horde. This is in many ways the best way to begin a scry&die, and if you can't find your target today, you can always try again tomorrow. More, for someone who's very nature is that of a spy, you can just use it every day to find the location of someone or something important, effectively maintaining a magical spy network right from your own home!


Tactics:
Level 5: Right out of the gate, you're a nasty piece of work. On the ninja side, we get wisdom to AC, poison use, 2d6 sudden strike damage and swift greater invisibility 6/day. From totemist, we've got 3 soulmelds, one bound to the totem chakra. To start out with, we can bind Kruthik Claws to the totem chakra (which is where we'll be putting our essentia most of the time), which by itself gives us +8 to both stealth skills (for a total of +20!) in addition to the two primary claw attacks that each deal 1d6+2d4 acid damage (+strength). Add in the Dragon Tail soulmeld (from Dragon Magic) for an extra tail attack, and a utility soulmeld (like, say, blink shirt) and we're talking some real flexibility at low levels. On top of that, we've got a breath weapon and a fair number of useful skills, making for a versatile and well rounded package.
Level 10: And we've already hit the big combo - breath weapon + (totem bound, move action) blink shirt + shadow pounce = breath weapon + mobility + full attack. That's right, we can use our (standard action, at will) breath weapon, and the move action teleport from Blink Shirt (effectively a 10' step if we don't have any essentia invested) to initiate our shadow pounce. On top of this, we've got a few more options for initiating shadow pounce (like Shadow Ride), we've swapped out the Kruthik Claws (goodbye +8 stealth) for Wyrm Claws (which give 2 claw attacks without needing to be bound to a chakra), and we're up to 4d6 surprise strick damage.
Level 15: At last, the secret ingredient. While it doesn't add anything directly to our damage dealing combo, it complements our other strengths very nicely. A variety of spells up to 3rd level, a couple of movement abilities, darkvision and uncanny dodge. While these might seem like general utility enhancements, each one has its place in our combat style and generally makes up for a deficiency or weak point (see use of secret ingredient above). The addition of 2 more essentia (doubling our essentia pool!) from the bonus essentia feat, and a mobility limiter from Entangling Exhalation (allowing us to put less essentia into the Blink Shirt soulmeld) go a long way towards keeping our 3 meager soulmelds relevant. Also, by this time, we've got enough Handle Animal skill to take on and train both our special mount (Gryphon) and Hunting Dogs (Dire Wolves). While Gryphons are magical beasts and not normally subject to Handle Animal, they're explicitly trainable if you raise them from an early age. Whether we acquire an egg or buy one trained, they make for an excellent mount, and can handle themselves equally well in the ground or the air. Dire wolves are animals, and as such you can use Handle Animal to raise and train them just like any other animal. In effect, these companions are the answer to the eternal question of 'how do you play a frontline fighter with low hit dice' - bring more hit dice!
Level 20: We get Dimension Door and Greater Invisibility, in addition to a few other useful spells. But in truth, that's all we need. Greater invisibility is our best self-buff because it means we can surprise strike to our hearts content without expending those daily uses or attempting to sneak up on people (though we've got more uses now thanks to a higher wisdom and we're really good at sneaky). Dimension door as a spell now lets us teleport our entire pack around for awesome mobility or a really surprising entry (and surprise round full attack, in our case). The Soulsight feat is there to either provide an extra point of essentia or to make us even more difficult to evade or hide from. Having maximum ranks in handle animal also means having a small army of woodland creatures (and dire beasts) to strike terror into the hearts of anyone invading your territory - or any poor sap unlucky enough to get a wild hunt chasing after them. Really, being chased by Dire Squirrels is equal parts humiliating and terrifying, and having them lead by an ice-breathing saurian owl just makes it into a really bad acid trip.


Build Notes:
For any judge who missed it, Anthropomorphic Owl is an LA+1 race (and 1d8 hit dice, which is replaced by taking the Ninja level). That means either LA Buyoff or not taking the last level of the secret ingredient. While not having LA buyoff available does put a bit of a damper on the build, it does not in any way make it untennable, it just removes the rather nice capstone of 1/day discern location (freedom of movement isn't nearly as nice for a capstone) and pushes all the good stuff back by a level. So, having LA buyoff is nice (and assumed for the build above) but not vital.
Flaws could allow for some nice additions to the build. With 1 flaw, you could make a dex-focused build (replacing Anthropomorphic Owl with the ever popular Anthropomorphic Bat), taking the Weapon Finesse as your 3rd level feat by making Mounted Combat a 1st level feat. With a second flaw, you could add Multiattack at 6th level (again, moving Improved Init down to 1st level), giving you a much higher attack bonus for each attack while also improving your stealth ability significantly.


Sources:
Complete Adventurer - Ninja
Magic of Incarnum - Totemist, Bonus Essentia, Soulsight, Blink Shirt, Kruthik Claws
Dragon Magic - Wyrm Claws, Dragon Tail
Races of the Dragon - Dragonborn
Savage Species - Anthropomorphic Owl, Necklace of Natural Attacks
Miniature Handbook - Belt of Magnificence
Magic Item Compendium - Weapon augment crystals

Everything else is from the SRD.

[true_shinken]

That's the last of them. Ready, set, JUDGE!

[kestrel404]

OK, I know that the secret ingredient requires track, but...that's a LOT of ranger.

[gbprime]

OK, I know that the secret ingredient requires track, but...that's a LOT of ranger.

Yeah, but it's all pretty original. For those keeping track at home, there are 9 submissions. Listing race and base classes (omitting other PrC's) they are...

Krenshar Ranger
Bamboo Spirit Ranger
Elf Tribal Ardent
Fiendish Goblin Rogue/Warlock
Kiloren Ranger
Azurin Totemist
Illumian Ranger/Barbarian
Human Ranger/Knight
Dragonborn Anthro Owl Totemist/Ninja

[Akal Saris]

Heh...only two base races out of nine submissions =P

Glad to see the interesting mix of characters here - there's a few PrC's I've never heard of, and I've never seen a build focused on Wild Empathy either.

Now get cracking, judges!

[Waker]

Wow, I'm amazed that there are 9 submissions and none of them are like the builds I was gonna submit. Now I'm slightly disappointed that I decided to be lazy. Well, I suppose I could post my builds later after the judging is done.

[Amechra]

Dang, no one took my second idea; too bad I couldn't get the fluff right. Le sigh.

I'll post it after the judging, sans backstory, because it is seriously a fun looking build.

[Grynning]

I'll get started judging tomorrow. 9 builds isn't so bad, hopefully we'll have this one knocked out pretty quickly.

[T.G. Oskar]

Well, at least you can post the idea, no? In spoilers, in any case.

Alas, I was too late to decide whether I should judge or not, but I think a swift round of competition might be needed. I think I took far too much time on the last one.

In any case, watching something I could have done, I was thinking something along the lines of:
Scout 4/Ranger 2 (or really, anything of utility)/Unseelie Dark Hunter 2/Virtuoso 1/Wild Soul 1/Unseelie Dark Hunter 6+/Sublime Chord 1/Wild Soul +3

The idea was to reinforce the fluff of the unseelie by taking the one other class with strong fae fluff, then advance UDH casting up until 3rd level, and Sublime Chord casting up to 6th level.

Of course, the idea is a bit ridiculous given that:
The dependance on Wisdom and Charisma aside from Dexterity which makes the build MAD, Sublime Chord being an easy trick, plus the Virtuoso and Ranger dips, and only 6th level arcane spellcasting, even though you'd get the use of spontaneous spells from Wild Soul, not to mention the poor stacking of Skirmish and the lack of solid mechanics to enforce it.

So it wouldn't have been a good entry. Then again, I really would have done that far too haphazardly so as to ensure a proper entry.

In any case, while I'll be watching, I'll have to wait for next competition to see if I'll compete OR judge again. Geoffrey shall be avenged!

[Waker]

Well, I suppose I could give the gist of my builds. I never finished everything, so this is just the summary.

First build was going to be Aasimar Ranger 1/Hexblade 4/Mortal Hunter 6/Dark Hunter 8. This guys trick would be to grab the ACF Dark Companion, then later grab Obtain Familiar and Improved Familiar for a Worg. All of his arcane casting classes (all but ranger) would stack for determining his familiar/mount, so he'd make a decent mounted combat/skirmisher type.

Second one was Uldra (Frostburn) Ranger 5/Bloodhound 7/Dark Hunter 7. Would be all about the tracking and disabling of the target. No crazy tricks, just a hunter who you could never seem to lose. The other variant I had for this build was replacing some levels of Bloodhound with Assassin.

Last build was going to be a Shifter Barbarian 5/Beast Heart Adept 7/Dark Hunter 8. No subtlety here. Go with the Charge/Pounce build, backed up by some monsters (Wyvern/Worg probably).

[Amechra]

Fast version of mine:
Divine Minion of Set Dvati Wilderness Rogue 3/Zhentarim Fighter 3/Dark Hunter 10/Swordsage 1, with Dragon Wild shape at one point. Yes, one body would ride the other, and the rider would recharge the maneuvers using his full round action. Tried to get Multivoice on there, but failed.

[Zaq]

No one mixed the CW Dark Hunter with the Unseelie Dark Hunter? I can't blame you (the CW one is not very good), but I would have thought someone would try.

My second idea was to be a kobold and take Druid / Unseelie Dark Hunter / Arcane Heirophant, thus using WIS for arcane and divine spells and using the companion familiar as a mount. The kobold was for Slight Build, so I could ride Small critters if I wanted. This, of course, ran into two problems: First, do you use Arcane Heirophant to advance UDH casting but not max UDH, or do you sacrifice some of the dual progression? Second, why not just be, y'know, a Druid?

Anyway, I'm looking forward to reading these in detail. Good luck to everyone, and may the judges make us proud!

[Waker]

Zaq
I considered going with the CW Dark Hunter, if for no other reason than to be silly." I am the Darkest Hunter!"

[gbprime]

I'm actually not surprised that nobody took no-wildshape Druid as a base. Judges would likely rip such a thing for power. (Why take this PrC when more levels of Druid could rule the universe?)

I am surprised that nobody tried to qualify with scout. The movement boost was synergistic at least.

My 2nd idea was an Equiceph Scout using Improved Skirmish and Bounding Assault. But I ran out of time.

[Waker]

gbprime
I didn't expect to see many spellcasters in this competition, since the prc doesn't advance it. The lack of scouts is something of a surprise, but the Fast Movement thing probably wouldn't work. The Dark Hunter is a 3.0 prc, but nowadays classes don't stack Fast Movement together since it's an enhancement bonus.

[Cieyrin]

gbprime
I didn't expect to see many spellcasters in this competition, since the prc doesn't advance it. The lack of scouts is something of a surprise, but the Fast Movement thing probably wouldn't work. The Dark Hunter is a 3.0 prc, but nowadays classes don't stack Fast Movement together since it's an enhancement bonus.

Not always, there are quite a few common ones that are untyped.

[Waker]

Not always, there are quite a few common ones that are untyped.
What ones? I'm not recalling all that many classes that grant Fast Movement.

[Cieyrin]

What ones? I'm not recalling all that many classes that grant Fast Movement.

Barbarian and Celerity domain come immediately to mind.

[Draz74]

Freedom Mantle, too, IIRC. And then the Speed of Thought feat is an Insight bonus.

[Waker]

Barbarian I was aware of. I always forget the Celerity domain since it's a domain not associated with any gods. Anyways, I suppose I should have phrased my statement as most classes that grant fast movement don't stack as opposed to a blanket statement for all classes.

[Cieyrin]

I always forget the Celerity domain since it's a domain not associated with any gods.

How do you mean? It's associated with Baervan Wildwander, Brandobaris, Corellon Larethian, Ehlonna, Erevan Ilesere, Fharlaghn, Grankhul, Huhueuteotl, Istus, Labelas Enoreth, Olidammara, Rillifane Rallathil, Sheela Peryroyl, Solonor Thelandira, Vhaeraun, Xan Yae and Zuoken of the Greyhawk gods. Can't really say about any other campaign setting's pantheon, though.

[Talbot]

I'll start my judging tonight, but I was actually pleasantly surprised by how many builds didn't use Ranger moreso than I was annoyed or disappointed by the ones who did; it's a logical entrance, after all.

[Thurbane]

He creeps the steps and floor... final darkness.
Every time I hear the name "The Creeper" I think of this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdlNG7XR7A0) song (http://www.justsomelyrics.com/703110/Skatt-Bros-Walk-The-Night-Lyrics). :smallbiggrin:

---

I was expecting to see a lot more Swordsage or Monk for WIS to AC. I was also expecting more Beastheart Adept, to pick up hounds or mounts.

[dextercorvia]

Barbarian I was aware of. I always forget the Celerity domain since it's a domain not associated with any gods. Anyways, I suppose I should have phrased my statement as most classes that grant fast movement don't stack as opposed to a blanket statement for all classes.

Fist of the Forest (CC) grants Fast Movement, and arguably explicitly makes all of your Fast Movement abilities stack.

[kestrel404]

My only other idea:

Swordsage 7/UDH 6/JPM 5/Swordsage +2
The idea here is Wis synergy and stacked fast movement leading (ultimately) up to the Tornado Throw maneuver at level 20
Problem was that you can't get a 9th level maneuver with more than 6 levels in non-initiator classes and the build's 'sweet spot' is 20th level.

[OMG PONIES]

I had two ideas I didn't submit. The first was a monk/bloodhound build focused on Fast Movement, tracking, and nonlethal damage. The second was a swordsage/psywar/JPM focusing on maneuver spam via psychic renewal+hustle+psychic meditation. The first reminded me too much of a previous entry of mine (Dymphna, to be precise) whereas I abandoned the second for fear of unoriginality.

[gbprime]

Not always, there are quite a few common ones that are untyped.

And in this case, it works, since the Dark Hunter's movement bonuses are untyped. They'd stack with a scout's enhancement bonus, for example.

[Nerdanel]

I was thinking of making a ranger-based horse archer... riding a nightmare as mentioned in the article for the Unseelie Dark Hunter. I was thinking of maybe dipping into Arcane Archer after that since I met the prerequisites.

Unfortunately, a nightmare turned out to be unattainable. I can't get one as a gift from the Queen of Air and Darkness for being her dark hunter, and I can't get one from Leadership since that's banned. (Leadership would have been terribly MAD but it would have been worth it.) There are all sorts of neat (read: overpowered) tricks you could do with a nightmare. A horse or griffon just doesn't compare. That made me so depressed I dropped the build. I'm not surprised to see plenty of non-SRD content in other people's submissions.

[gbprime]

Yeah, without some way to pick one up as a cohort, you're left with just a Figurine o' Wondrous Power (Obsidian Steed). Sure, it gets the job done... but only once a week.

[true_shinken]

Yeah, without some way to pick one up as a cohort, you're left with just a Figurine o' Wondrous Power (Obsidian Steed). Sure, it gets the job done... but only once a week.
You could use summoning spells, mount or phantom steed as well.

[Cieyrin]

You could use summoning spells, mount or phantom steed as well.

Can you say Planar Binding? :smallbiggrin:

[OMG PONIES]

Can you say Planar Binding? :smallbiggrin:

:smallfurious: Okay, you bound me, foolish human. Let's talk--what do you want in exchange for my freedom?
Let me ride you? :smallbiggrin:

I can just see it now.

[gbprime]

:smallfurious: Okay, you bound me, foolish human. Let's talk--what do you want in exchange for my freedom?
Let me ride you? :smallbiggrin:

I can just see it now.

It was expensive, but the Nightmare served faithfully for 7 days as bargained. On the 8th day, it Plane Shifted me to Carceri and now we're negotiating again... :smallfrown:

[true_shinken]

:smallfurious: Okay, you bound me, foolish human. Let's talk--what do you want in exchange for my freedom?
Let me ride you? :smallbiggrin:

I can just see it now.

Reminds me of...
http://www.acervoclube.com/images/cavalo_de_fogo_1.jpg

[dextercorvia]

If anyone is curious, I'm about a third of the way done with judging. Some of these builds are much more difficult to judge than others. My thanks to those who not only listed their sources, but what came from each source.

[OMG PONIES]

Thanks for the update, dex! How are the other judges doing?

[Thurbane]

One build I briefly considered was a Jermlaine Ranger/Beastheart Adept/UDH...but depite having great WIS and DEX modifiers, their STR penalty was too big to inflict much damage...and the CHA penalty kind of hurt Handle Animal shennanigans...

[Amechra]

I briefly considered a Shaper 5/UDH 8/Constructor 7, using the Personal Construct ACF. Discarded as focused on Constructor.

[dextercorvia]

3.5 builds yet to evaluate. Hopefully, I'll be done tomorrow.

[Amphetryon]

3.5 builds yet to evaluate. Hopefully, I'll be done tomorrow.

I thought all the builds were 3.5. :smalltongue:

[dextercorvia]

Well, UDH is 3.0, and I had considered taking advantage of that to use some un-updated 3.0 material. While technically fine, this has often meant a hit in elegance in the past. I had hoped judges would overlook that on account of the secret ingredient.

[Amphetryon]

Well, UDH is 3.0, and I had considered taking advantage of that to use some un-updated 3.0 material. While technically fine, this has often meant a hit in elegance in the past. I had hoped judges would overlook that on account of the secret ingredient.
I just couldn't get it to work elegantly with Candle Caster.

[true_shinken]

I just couldn't get it to work elegantly with Candle Caster.

That class is so weird. Oh, god.

[Cieyrin]

That class is so awesome!. Oh yes!

Fixed that for you. :smalltongue:

[Draz74]

3.5 builds yet to evaluate. Hopefully, I'll be done tomorrow.

I hope so. I'm not sure IC has ever gone this long without a single Judge's results before. :smallwink:

[Talbot]

Sorry about that. My hangovers keep getting interrupted by stuff to do, and that's the time I'd planned to spend judging. I'll get super drunk tonight, though, and lose my phone or something and make sure to get a big chunk done tomorrow.

[Urpriest]

Sorry about that. My hangovers keep getting interrupted by stuff to do, and that's the time I'd planned to spend judging. I'll get super drunk tonight, though, and lose my phone or something and make sure to get a big chunk done tomorrow.

You judge while hung over? That explains so much...

Actually I don't remember your judging style. But it probably does, doesn't it?

[Thurbane]

While we're waiting for the juding, I'll throw out a couple of suggestions/requests for upcoming comps:

Death Delver (HoH): 10 level PrC with it's own limited divine casting, mishmash of abilities, awesome capstone and interesting fluff. The challenge is getting it to synergize with any other (base) classes.
Shadowblade (ToM): 10 level PrC focussed around imbuing your weapon with quasi-magical abilities drawn from the plane of shadow. Medium BAB, so the challenge would be using it in an effective melee build.

[Zonugal]

While we're waiting for the juding, I'll throw out a couple of suggestions/requests for upcoming comps:

Death Delver (HoH): 10 level PrC with it's own limited divine casting, mishmash of abilities, awesome capstone and interesting fluff. The challenge is getting it to synergize with any other (base) classes.

Yes, YES!!! Please do the Death Delver.

[Dusk Eclipse]

I would actualy prefer to see some shadowblade builds, shadow magic is not as widespread as it should.

[dextercorvia]

I just couldn't get it to work elegantly with Candle Caster.

You would have had to be a Goblin.

[Zaq]

Fun Fact: Death Delver was my original choice for divine caster for Aesc in the Ardent Dilettante competition.

[T.G. Oskar]

I would actualy prefer to see some shadowblade builds, shadow magic is not as widespread as it should.

Shadow magic requires a slight bit of finesse to make it work. The thing is that while you can take advantage of some stuff (Child of Shadow and Noctumancer come to mind), the rest relies on the Shadowcaster mysteries, which are rather weak if you come to think about it. They aren't weak in that a spell can do mostly the same, but that you have far too little options to use them; at the very best, they are 1/day spells. Not enough options to upgrade them into spell-like abilities. The shadowcaster is great if you know how to use it, since eventually you get 3/day supernatural abilities out of your lower-level mysteries, but it's the lack of uses that make shadowcasting unsurprising. And the lack of choices: you get only 69 mysteries, with the only other support being a web enhancement for Cityscape. Meanwhile, Incarnum got much more support, Binding (of the same book!) got more support, and just about everything except maneuvers and truenaming got support. And of the latter two, shadowcasting is already better than truenaming (aside from Zaq using it) and ToB is just right at the point between "complete" and "needs a bit more".

Judging by the spirit of the competition, though, Shadowblade is the definite choice, since it's rather hard to optimize. Death Delver, on the other hand...it's just too easy to optimize, given that what it gives is just pretty. Far too pretty. And it's pretty independent, so it's not hard to optimize with base classes:
For the love of all that's good and sacred, you get Rebuke Undead! You don't use Rebuke Undead in such a weak way to get undead under your control, you get them for Divine Feats! That's free access to a great deal of divine feats, and just about everyone will get good benefit from it, but specifically martial classes which will just enjoy the added boons from Divine Might and Divine Shield and probably Divine Armor and whatnot.

Besides, the spells aren't half as bad. So I'd give my vote to shadowcasting, which should really be a challenge to behold.

Speaking of challenges...shinken, have you already posted the trophies of the earlier competition, or are you waiting for this one to finish to unveil both?

[gbprime]

Speaking of challenges...shinken, have you already posted the trophies of the earlier competition, or are you waiting for this one to finish to unveil both?

He's a master of suspense, for sure. :smalltongue:

[OMG PONIES]

Speaking of suspense...judges?

[true_shinken]

Speaking of challenges...shinken, have you already posted the trophies of the earlier competition, or are you waiting for this one to finish to unveil both?

Jumilk promised to make'em this weekend.

[Grynning]

Speaking of suspense...judges?

Sorry, I've been heavily distracted lately and haven't been able to sit down and get in the mindset. I'll definitely try this weekend.

[Clepto]

While we're waiting for the juding, I'll throw out a couple of suggestions/requests for upcoming comps:

Death Delver (HoH): 10 level PrC with it's own limited divine casting, mishmash of abilities, awesome capstone and interesting fluff. The challenge is getting it to synergize with any other (base) classes.
Shadowblade (ToM): 10 level PrC focussed around imbuing your weapon with quasi-magical abilities drawn from the plane of shadow. Medium BAB, so the challenge would be using it in an effective melee build.


Don't get me wrong, I'd love to do either of those, particularly the Shadowblade (I <3 Shadow magic). But, I was under the (possibly mistaken) impression that the SI is drawn from Core and Completes (and now Online) so that more people would have access to them. I have access to them, and I'd imagine that most CO people on these boards do, but I'd put money on some people not being able to compete because they don't have those books.

[true_shinken]

Don't get me wrong, I'd love to do either of those, particularly the Shadowblade (I <3 Shadow magic). But, I was under the (possibly mistaken) impression that the SI is drawn from Core and Completes (and now Online) so that more people would have access to them. I have access to them, and I'd imagine that most CO people on these boards do, but I'd put money on some people not being able to compete because they don't have those books.

The SI is mostly drawn for Core+Completes. We've had many SI from books out of those (Book of Exalted Deeds, Planar Handbook and XPH spring to mind). The next SI will be from Core+Completes, though.

[Cieyrin]

The SI is mostly drawn for Core+Completes. We've had many SI from books out of those (Book of Exalted Deeds, Planar Handbook and XPH spring to mind). The next SI will be from Core+Completes, though.

Shadowbane Inquisitor (CAd)? :smallbiggrin:

I'd be all over that in a heartbeat, favorite "underpowered" PrC besides Scion of Tem-Et-Nu. The problem would be making something 'original,' as I've spouted a couple nice builds around the Inquisitor prior on these boards, but one can only hope.

[Zaq]

Core + Completes next? I have to wait at least another iteration for my Incandescent Champion? *sad puppydog eyes*

I'm so judging in that one. So judging.

Maybe Dungeon Delver (CAdv) would be interesting? It's a solid but not amazing class with a very clear focus. Like Blade Bravo, the challenge would be making it unique and interesting without sacrificing what makes it tick.

That said, I still think Geomancer (CD) would be interesting. Anyone can get in with whatever level of early entry shenanigans you're comfortable with and still get a character with 8th or 9th level spells . . . but can you justify taking it instead of taking anything else? That's the challenge.

[Thurbane]

Don't get me wrong, I'd love to do either of those, particularly the Shadowblade (I <3 Shadow magic). But, I was under the (possibly mistaken) impression that the SI is drawn from Core and Completes (and now Online) so that more people would have access to them. I have access to them, and I'd imagine that most CO people on these boards do, but I'd put money on some people not being able to compete because they don't have those books.
That's true...but as TS pointed out, it's mostly core and completes.

Have a look through nearly all of the past entries - there's hardly one that doesn't have levels or feats plucked from the more "obscure" books. Heck, I own basically all of the non-campaign-specific 3.5 books, and there's always stuff in some of the entries I've never even heard of. :smalltongue:

[dextercorvia]

Here goes...

Skullface

First of all, I like the fill-in character to cover the first 3 levels. I would have preferred if he were a little more fleshed out, but that might have detracted from the Secret Ingredient. Now, I was about to bash you that Krenshar is indeed cohort only, thanks to d20srd.com, but I checked the official SRD, and the MM errata, and it appears that you are correct. Nice find.

Krenshar gets full BAB for their RHD, by the way. But, bah, more ranger.

Fangshield is setting specific and involves membership in an organization that is at odds with serving the QoAaD. Tainted Scholar is standard TO fare. It quite overshadows the Secret Ingredient in this case. Yes you are amplifying the strengths (spellcasting) of Unseelie Dark Hunter, but you are also illustrating that almost any arcane spellcating class would better benefit from Tainted Scholar. Taking Clarity of True Madness was perfect for this, though, because it convinces me that you can actually return to Unseelie Dark Hunter and finish it. Since you are running at Severe Depravity though, that should put your effective casting stat in the 50's at minimum, which would translate to 6-7 bonus first level ranger spells. That is a lot to trade away for Blind-Fight.

While the Fey Heritage/Power/Legacy line may fit thematically, the Fiendish line would have been more powerful and not outside the flavor of Skulface. Fiendish Power would apply it's +1 CL to all of your spells thanks to Tainted Scholar. Fiendish Legacy grants Teleport instead of Dimension Door and SMV instead of SNAV. Neither Confusion nor Unholy Blight are great, but Unholy Blight is at least not another Mind Effecting spell. I'm not claiming that even this would be an efficient use of three feats, simply that you missed a numerically superior, thematically similar option on the same page. I see where you were going with Fey Skin, but I'm not sure the difference between 15 and 19 points of DR/Cold Iron makes that worthwhile.


The Creeper

Ranger5 is the expected entry for Unseelie Dark Hunter. Urban Companion is functionally very similar to Summon Familiar, but it isn't the same ability. This would prevent you from qualifying for Fleshwarper. Starspawn gives you the ability to fly very late in your career, and costs you two practically useless feats. (So useless that you never mention which benefit of Aberration Blood that you picked up).

While The Creeper fits with the Unseelie Abomination theme, he seems to have no tactics other than "fatiguing his prey from running."

On the spell selection, ECL8 is probably early enough that you will get some use out of Bull's Strength or Bear's Endurance, these will quickly fade.


Perpetua

Clever use of Tribal Ardent and Aereni Focus to qualify for the secret ingredient. It was also refreshing to see Anarchic Initiate. While Unseelie Dark Hunter is adding a lot of mobility to your blaster (never a bad thing), it is doing so at the cost of PP which are already at a premium for an Ardent. Even with a +6 item factored in, I estimate your daily PP at ~140. Your build suffers from the same problems as a Druid going into the SI. More Ardent/AI would have benefited this character more than the SI. The spoiled princess turned expert survivalist is both a bit of a stretch and somewhat overdone.

You can only access Metafacutly at 20th through acrobatics, and with a reduced ML. At ECL 20, Your chance of failure against a CL 20 Mind Blank is 40%. At 17 PP and 1000XP, that is an expensive gamble. Your primary attack is rather weak, dealing an average of 74 damage per round at level 20. Earlier, you get more bang out of Overchannel. But, with a d6+1 HD throughout your career, it is also exceedingly dangerous.

You only mentioned it in passing, so no deduction, but I'm fairly certain that as an ACF, you can only take Dominant Ideal if you hit Ardent 10.


Reek

I always forget about the Wilderness Rogue. I'm not sure about that 3rd level of it though -- it seems to only be for the skills. Practiced Spellcaster does not increase Eldritch Blast damage -- that scales with Warlock Level not Caster Level. Taking away that and your Chasuble, your EB caps out at 3d6. UMD is strong though, and you have enough to use any wand or staff. I like that your pets don't seem like they were tacked on to the story, but an integral part of the build itself. Beast Heart adept is a nice touch, and that is a lot of Wild Empathy.


Tamalin

Ranger5 is the expected point of entry for Unseelie Dark Hunter. Three different associations, the only one of which really fits your backstory is the Knights of the North. Their fluff implies strongly that they would ferret out applicants with loyalty to something other than them, especially a capriciously evil queen. A one off comment about an introduction is not a justification in your back-story.

I do like the mechanical benefit of Shooting Star to augment UDH casting.

You have presented a highly maneuverable aerial archer build without any source of damage. The only archery feats you have are Rapid Shot, and Mounted Archery. DR will eat you alive at mid to high levels.

I like Wild Cohort for this secret ingredient, but your text and table disagree Boar vs. Badger. Etiher way, I'm not sure why you would want a land bound creature once you already have an aerial mount capable of great speed.

You wasted spells known on Cat's Grace and Bear's Endurance at ECL 11. By then, these needs should be handled by basic equipment.


Faltino

One of my two thoughts for Unseelie Dark Hunter involved a totemist, so it wasn't completely unexpected, but at least it isn't more ranger. So you have a charger/light magic gish. 13 BAB is low for a Gish. The totemist entry, while awesome for this Secret Ingredient, is hard on BAB. Normally, the Totemist gets around this by using Natural Weapons, but you are relying on a lance for your Sprited Charge. Also, without Pounce, you aren't taking advantage of your iteratives either. You would likely have been better to Bind Girallon Claws and Sphinx Claws for 4 attacks at x2 damage rather than one at X3.

Anyspell will not help you since you do not have a domain slot in which to prepare your Sorcerer/Wizard spell. Also, it is only of marginal benefit since you have had the ability as a Chameleon to prepare any arcane spell you would have used for Anyspell since level 6.

Chameleon, by the way, has some steep RP prereq's, which you seemed to have missed in your backstory. I get the dual 'allegiance' thing, but no mention of your training.


Ogar

Ranger Dip and Barbarian is quite an expected point of entry. Ogar does not qualify for Howler Familiar at ECL12 with Arcane Spellcaster level of 5. (Krau Sigil does not work that way.)

I find it questionable whether Bear Form is an improved rage ability, since it is something that you can do while raging, but even if your DM allows it, it doesn't work the way you want. Your mount loses the benefits of rage as soon as you become dismounted. When you both turn into bears, you are now the same size category.... I'm fairly certain that you can't ride a creature of the same size, which would lead to an auto-dismount situation.

This is a rage focused character that can only Rage 2/day. You should have found a way to fit Extra Rage into the build.

Two problems with Arcane Strike. You don't get extra slots from temp stat boosts. (Spell slots refresh after 8 hours rest and 15 minutes of meditation -- raging isn't restful even if you could do it for so long. An all day wildshaping character, may be able to make the argument, but not Bear Warrior.) And, Arcane Strike only applies to one of your weapons which makes it less useful when using natural attacks. (You specifically mentioned doing this while in Bear Rage since you couldn't use your slots normally then.) However, this does help you with the encounters that happen when you aren't raging.

I think Bull's Strength is going to be a wasted spell. By, ECL10, this benefit should be provided to a melee character by a standard item.

Most of your problems would have been solved if you had picked a mount capable of holding you in Bear form. Then you could have applied the standard rage benefits to the mount.


Tamlaine

Ranger dip, but Knight was unexpected. Silverwood Arcanist has light fluff about being a protector of the Silverwood, but that doesn't come through in the actual requirements. It is a good fit with UDH thematically and mechanically. The Share Spells is especially a nice touch.

Tamlaine needs to decide whether to be a Controller or a Charger. You choose a Pouncing Raker for a mount, but take Combat Relfexes+Stand Still as feats. Your build is slanted somewhat more toward control than damage. Either way, you remain a Melee focused character with a 14 BAB, no source of bonus damage, and your only source of extra attacks is combat reflexes. Low Dex is going to limit your effectiveness as a tank/battlefield control. Your reach is only coming from a reach weapon. The only one you mention by name is one you are not proficient with. Low strength is going to lead to low damage, which will translate to Low DC's on Stand Still. At ECL 8 assuming a +4 enhancement Tamlaine will have an 18 strength. Assuming a Glaive or similar this will put the DC for Stand Still at an average of 21.5. This isn't too bad. He'll be able to disable a number of CR 8 melee critters 75% of the time. But it is only going to scale based on 1.5*Str bonus, which will top out at a +5 without access to a tome. Even with a +4 tome and a +6 item, the DC of his Stand Still will cap at an average of about 26.

I stand by my earlier statement that Bull's Strength and Cat's Grace may get some use at ECL 8, but they will quickly be replaced by standard equipment.


Servant

So you have a Dragon Ninja Owl that shoots icy lazers from its beak. Cool. Shadow Pounce with Natural attacks and a move action teleport yields a very nice attack routine. This isn't a completely original build but it plays nicely to the strengths of Unseelie Dark Hunter without succumbing to the (many) weaknesses. I have two main beefs with this build. The first is that it really needs Multiattack since your BAB tops out at +14. The second involves the Dragon Tail soulmeld. I know we have both seen it called a natural attack. But it takes a standard action to use, doesn't threaten, and can't be used to make attacks of opportunity. It isn't even called a tail attack. Some DM's (myself included) would be inclined to not allow a secondary attack with it. This has the potential to be very strong, but the build still feels a little unfinished.


The Scores

Scores
{table=head]\|Skullface|The Creeper|Perpetua|Reek|Tamalin|Faltino|Ogar|Tamlain e|Servant
Originality |4 |2 |3 |4 |2 |3 |1.5|2.5|4

Power |3 |1 |3 |3 |1.5|2 |2 |2 |4

Elegance |1.5|2 |2.5|2.5|1 |2.5|1.5|3.5|3.5

Use of Secret Ingredient|3 |3 |2 |5 |3 |3 |3.5|3 |3.5

Total |11.5|8 |10.5|14.5|7.5|10.5|8.5|11|15
[/table]

[kestrel404]

Yay, judging! How's everyone else coming along? Any chance of the another judge chiming in this weekend?

[Grynning]

my weekend doesn't start until Tuesday, but I hope to have mine up by that evening.

[Clepto]

The SI is mostly drawn for Core+Completes. We've had many SI from books out of those (Book of Exalted Deeds, Planar Handbook and XPH spring to mind). The next SI will be from Core+Completes, though.


That's true...but as TS pointed out, it's mostly core and completes.

Have a look through nearly all of the past entries - there's hardly one that doesn't have levels or feats plucked from the more "obscure" books. Heck, I own basically all of the non-campaign-specific 3.5 books, and there's always stuff in some of the entries I've never even heard of. :smalltongue:

I realize that they don't always come from Core+Completes, I was mostly just wondering. I either have, or have access to, the greater majority of 3.5 material, but that's not the case for everyone. If I ever get inspired by one of the SI's one of these days, I'll happily compete regardless of source. That being said, there are a lot of nifty PrCs in the Complete set that don't get much love.

Someone mentioned Geomancer earlier, and I'd be all in for that. I'd also be in for anything that's less casty.

[true_shinken]

Someone mentioned Geomancer earlier, and I'd be all in for that. I'd also be in for anything that's less casty.
I think something less casty would be in order, yes.

[Robert Blackletter]

Could I suggest the dragon disciple for the next one. I would love to see what could be done with it.

[dextercorvia]

I think Shinken already has something in mind.

[Thurbane]

Could i suggest the dragon discipl for the next one. I love to see what could be done with it.
That has been mentioned before - in fact, I started on a DD build once for the comp. Got frustratingly close to what I wanted, but was just a feat or two (restricted by levels) shy of my perfect build.

[true_shinken]

I think Shinken already has something in mind.

Actually I don't. I had one, but now I want a less cast-y SI.

[Cieyrin]

Actually I don't. I had one, but now I want a less cast-y SI.

Shadowbane Inquisitor? :smallbiggrin:

[Amphetryon]

Ghost-Faced Killer

[Talbot]

They violate the heck out of Core + Completes, but Kabuki Warrior and Dragon Warrior from Dragon 298 are both A) really interesting from a CO perspective and B) really fun to mess around with. IIRC, Dragon Warrior has no casting and Kabuki Warrior has very little.

Failing that, Battle Trickster could be fun.

[Cieyrin]

Dragon Warrior

Would you accept Dragon Samurai (MH)?

[OMG PONIES]

Talbot, Dragon Mag is usually out of ICO due to limited availability, but those are two good ones.

On an unrelated note, any good judging hangovers lately?

[Zaq]

Would you accept Dragon Samurai (MH)?

Oh god. That class is so . . . boring. I can't even imagine what you could do with it that would be interesting or powerful. I'd sooner play an Expert.

Which, I suppose, makes it a decent candidate for ICOC. Just don't expect me to join. I don't even like the flavor.

[Clepto]

I'd sooner play an Expert.

Heh. Not the next one, but at some point the SI should be one of the NPC classes.

Frankly, I'd like to see some more of the DMG classes done as well. Dragon Disciple, Duelist, Shadowdancer, Horizon Walker.

[gbprime]

Frankly, I'd like to see some more of the DMG classes done as well. Dragon Disciple, Duelist, Shadowdancer, Horizon Walker.

Horizon walker is famously done already, and Shadowdancer has been a staple so long it'd be hard to see something new out of it. Duellist... well, what CAN you do besides a Swashbuckler lead in if you want to synergize their INT stabby-ness? (other than a swashbuckler/ROGUE lead in)

That leaves Dragon Disciple, IMO.

[true_shinken]

OK. I've decided our next secret ingredient.
It's a class from the Completes that neither gets nor advances casting. It wasn't mentioned as a suggestion here. It's also a class that gains one of my favorite abilities ever at level 4.

[Amphetryon]

OK. I've decided our next secret ingredient.
It's a class from the Completes that neither gets nor advances casting. It wasn't mentioned as a suggestion here. It's also a class that gains one of my favorite abilities ever at level 4.

If I'm guessing right, it also gets an interesting capstone.

[gbprime]

OK. I've decided our next secret ingredient.
It's a class from the Completes that neither gets nor advances casting. It wasn't mentioned as a suggestion here. It's also a class that gains one of my favorite abilities ever at level 4.

Oooo.... hintz! That'll tide me over til more judges weigh in! :smallbiggrin:

[dextercorvia]

Nobody ever mentions Arcane Archer. :smallbiggrin:

[gbprime]

Nobody ever mentions Arcane Archer. :smallbiggrin:

Nor should they. :smallamused:

"Hey look, I can cast a spell on my arrow and have it go off where the arrow lands!"

"Cool! What kinds of spells can you pull off?"

"Uh... not much... I had to meet the class requirements, and the PrC doesn't advance casting... so, uh... Obscuring Mist ?"

"... Next!"

[Fearan]

Actually with Champions of Ruin, arcane archer 2 dip could be pretty cool. You know, arrowsplit and such. How about 1d4 Wings of Flurry, where the arrow lands, instead of centered on you?

[Dusk Eclipse]

Actually with Champions of Ruin, arcane archer 2 dip could be pretty cool. You know, arrowsplit and such. How about 1d4 Wings of Flurry, where the arrow lands, instead of centered on you?

The problem is, that for you to do that reliably, you would have to only dip AA for two levels, and that would be suicide in the IC competition

[dextercorvia]

Actually I think the real bummer is Elf or Half-Elf. I don't recall a PrC off the top of my head that works like Stoneblessed for elves, so you would be limited to one of the bajillion subraces of elf.

[gbprime]

The problem is, that for you to do that reliably, you would have to only dip AA for two levels, and that would be suicide in the IC competition

Yeah, bonus in the power category, penalties in elegance and use of special ingredient. Net loss. :smallfrown:

[Dusk Eclipse]

Yeah, bonus in the power category, penalties in elegance and use of special ingredient. Net loss. :smallfrown:

Might work for another "casty" IC that doesn't use AA as the secret ingredient, though.


Actually I think the real bummer is Elf or Half-Elf. I don't recall a PrC off the top of my head that works like Stoneblessed for elves, so you would be limited to one of the bajillion subraces of elf.

IIRC Ruathar let you count as an elf for some things I need to check.

Scratch that, it actually doesn't do that...

[Cieyrin]

IIRC Ruathar let you count as an elf for some things I need to check.

Scratch that, it actually doesn't do that...

It doesn't but it should. The elves love you, they want you to impregnate their women and know their secret techniques. :smalltongue:

[gbprime]

It doesn't but it should. The elves love you, they want you to impregnate their women and know their secret techniques. :smalltongue:

As if you needed another reason to love that little PrC. :smallcool:

[Talbot]

Expect my results Friday, or Sunday if I decide to use alcohol to delay my hangover.

[OMG PONIES]

Thanks for the update, Talbot. Any news, Grynning?

[Akal Saris]

OK. I've decided our next secret ingredient.
It's a class from the Completes that neither gets nor advances casting. It wasn't mentioned as a suggestion here. It's also a class that gains one of my favorite abilities ever at level 4.

DEATHLESS FREEEEENZY!

Yeah, I'm calling it now :smalltongue:

[Cieyrin]

DEATHLESS FREEEEENZY!

Yeah, I'm calling it now :smalltongue:

Pff, Blinding Spittle is what he's talking about, obviously. :smalltongue:

[Akal Saris]

Gruumsh approves!

[kestrel404]

I figured it was a toss up between Blinding Spittle and Sideslip, myself.

[Zaq]

It could be Extra Animal Companion.

[true_shinken]

Guyus, I got word from Grynning that he won't be able to cook up scores this time; RL takes precedence and all.
Is anyone up for judging?

[Tam_OConnor]

Well, I volunteered earlier, and I don't have any papers tomorrow: I'll get on it.

EDIT: Halfway done!

[Tam_OConnor]

Just to keep everyone informed, my judging criteria: Originality: Relying on one of the classes the prestige class description recommends will generally earn you a three. Using well-known combinations (Ex. Wiz 5/PrC 10/Archmage 5, Shock Trooper) will merit deductions, while new and original stuff will obviously earn more. At the same time, though, we're showcasing builds, not characters. If you get too Special Snowflake, then a deduction is possible.

Power: I judge on a relative scale, as per Zeal's PrC tier ranking. Building on a wizard chassis won't automatically earn you more points; it'll just raise into competition with other prestige classes for wizards (it might score you points on originality, though).

Elegance: How easy is it to follow the progression of your build? Generally, it's possible to recoup lost points by explaining the in-game logic behind your dips, or unfinished PrCs, or what have you. Rule mistakes will generally hit you here.

Use of Secret Ingredient: What do you do with the secret ingredient once you're in it? What new tricks do you find lurking in the crunch? I also tend to be unforgiving with later entry.
And the judging:
SkullfaceOriginality: 3.5; Well done on Darcy; it's a way of dealing with LA that we haven't seen before in these competitions (+0.5). Additionally, I certainly wasn't expecting a krenshar as a base (+0.5). However, ranger entry is expected (+0.0), and taint just begs to be abused (-0.5; "Hurt me, hurt me!" "No.").
Power: 3.5; Tainted cheese for high save DCs is powerful, that can hardly be denied (+1). But at the same time, Skullface's BAB is ruinous. In part, natural weapons make up for it, as does Weapon Finesse. Arcane strike will help, sure, but that's taking away from the tainted spells (-0.5).
Elegance: 1.5; Ordinarily, I'd complain about all the ranger variants. But you do make clear that they're not required, and it's not like you're getting anything from them. I agree with you on the Fangshield variant, but I'm prefacing that with 'any reasonable DM,' and that's sliding around the contest rules (-0.5). And then we come to tainted scholar. ...Scholar? Skullface the scholar[/]? It's a lovely gouda, but it doesn't fit fluff-wise (-1). The krenshar is listed as cohort only in the SRD, but I don't see any errata to that effect, so you're in the clear there. The image of Skullface learning to ride is amusing, though.
Use of Secret Ingredient: 2.5; Going off the absurdity of a pseudo-feline riding a horse, you're not making use of fast mount feature. It's a relatively minor point to be sure, but it's not like the class has some many features you can just not use a few. You use the spell list to fuel arcane strike, and breaks out some enchantments for tainted augmentation, but other than that? At the same time, though, I'm reluctant to judge too harshly. All the levels are there, and you're matching the intent well. Late entry (-0.5).
Notes: Total build?
Total Score: 11
The CreeperOriginality: 3.5; Don't see bamboo spirit too often. Likewise, fleshwarper was not something I expected (+0.5). Ranger, however, was.
Power: 2; So the Creeper chases you...and then? How does he motivate his prey to keep running, rather than take a stand? His BAB isn't [i]terrible, but he also doesn't have something like arcane strike and natural weapons to make up for it (-1).
Elegance: 2; Which Aberrant Blood feature did he take? For a more important question, what grafts do you recommend? Without even giving us an idea here, it feels incomplete (-1). I'm not really sure on Fleshwarper either; the Creeper feels more like he should have something similar to the Barghest Feed ability, something less artificial than class levels.
Use of Secret Ingredient: 3.5; Synergy between Starspawn and the Creeper's boosted base land speed is nice (+0.5). Again, you have all the levels, but nothing's seizing me by the neck and shouting 'I'm unique and awesome!'
Notes: Total build? Going to assume that 20th level, you meant 'Dark Hunter 10'.
Total Score: 11
PerpetuaOriginality: 3.5; The beauty of the psionic classes is that I always end up anticipating the wrong one. Or maybe I just like Lurks (+0.5).
Power: 2; I've never really grokked the over-channeling rules, and I've barely glanced at ardent, so I'll leave the legality of the metafaculty trick to others. Perpetua is facing the same problem as Creeper is, though. She can find her victims and catch up to them, but what does she do at that point (-1)?
Elegance: 2.5; Not really getting where Earth Sense and Earth Power come into the equation fluff-wise (-0.5). Queen of Air and Darkness, though I dimly recall Greyhawk fluff that she'd been trapped inside of a huge black diamond.
Use of Secret Ingredient: 3; Late entry (-0.5). Finally, someone who actually puts more than the required ranks in Ride! And mentions the synergy with phantom steed to boot (+0.5)
Notes: You know what would have been great for this? Jaunter from Expedition to the Demonweb Pits. If, you know, there was a psionic version of it. Full build? Suggested magic items? Thanks for the complete source list and adaptations.
Total Score: 11
ReekOriginality: 4; I know I've never seen Beast Heart Adept before, and Warlock is the base, even if Wilderness Rogue supplies the skill points (+1).
Power: 4; You're making use of Handle Animal and Use Magic Device. It's a fairly broad base, but you cover it well (+1).
Elegance: 2; Assumed LA buy-off (-0.5). Desert goblin? Ummm, where's the bit in the story where you convince me this wasn't just for the stat modifiers? The Beast Heart Adept dip isn't sitting well, either. (-0.5).
Use of Secret Ingredient: 2.5; Late entry (-0.5). See, this is where I'd expect Fleshwarper instead of Unseelie Dark Hunter. It would cut into Reek's wild empathy, so I can see why he didn't take it. And admittedly, Reek excells as master of beasts. You're actually making use of the mount speed bonus and Ride, though your monstrous mount is going to get really fragile really quickly.
Notes: Full build? Gets a little demanding with the equipment near the end.
Total Score: 12.5
TamalinOriginality: 3.5; Haven't ever seen Moonsea Sentinel actually used before (+0.5). On the other hand, killoren archer-ranger might have popped up once or twice before.
Power: 2.5; Magic Disruption is what, a DC 18 or 19 Concentration check? It's an immediate action, and it still might not be worth the time. Similarly, Tamalin's dire badger companion? What's the point of aerial speed and mobility if he's going to tie yourself to a ground-pounder (-0.5)?
Elegance: 2.5; Not really meshing the CE Queen of Air and Darkness with a mostly CG knightly order, much less NG/LN Mystaran rangers. Additionally, how is Tamalin's CL for dimensional anchor boosted? The Order of the Shooting Star bonus benefits ranger casting only (-0.5).
Use of Secret Ingredient: 2.5; Tamalin wants to be an aerial combatant. But he's relying on a fragile mount instead of boosting his own flight (with say, Aerial Avenger from the Dragon Compendium). And while the Dark Hunter spells or movement increases aren't objectionable, they just don't seem to mesh. The picture you've painted really just doesn't feel like a member of the Wild Hunt (-0.5)
Notes: Full build? Text says +18 BAB, table says +17.
Total Score: 11
FaltinoOriginality: 3.5; Still haven't really looked at the Tome of Magic, so stuff from there is always a bit of a surprise (+0.5).
Power: 3; Again with the presentation of a melee fighter with a BAB of +13. Sure, charging helps, but still... am I missing something here? Did BAB +16 stop being worthwhile and I missed it (-0.5)? Aside from that, lion's charge is a neat, powerful spell (+0.5).
Elegance: 2.0; Ummm, for someone who's a mounted charger, did you perhaps consider putting more than five ranks in Ride (-0.5)? The Chameleon dip is obviously vital; in fact, it can hardly be called a dip, which is why I'm not docking you for it. What I'm really leery on is your using non-permanent means to qualify for Dark Hunter (-0.5).
Use of Secret Ingredient: 3; Like you said, there really isn't all that much to synergize with. However, you do your best to explain why, lay out what synergies you have, and I'm giving you points on sheer chutzpah (+1). At the same time, though, it's Chameleon and lion's charge that's doing all the work (-0.5). Late entry (-0.5).
Notes: Full build?
Total Score: 11.5
OgarOriginality: 4.5; I quote: "a stack of bears" and I turn a bewildered gaze upon you. And then I give you lots of points (+2). And take some of them away for illumian aeshkrau stuff (-0.5).
Power: 4; Charging, fear-stacking, self-buffing, arcane-striking unbearable double terror (+1).
Elegance: 2.5; Ranger dip (-0.5). The separation between Obtain Familiar and Improved Familiar is a little painful, but there's not really a way to fix that. Not if you want to share the spells, which is a nice trick. You justify your variant classes, so no complaints there.
Use of Secret Ingredient: 2.5; Bear Warrior and Mounted Fury are doing most of the heavy lifting here (-0.5), but it's not like Dark Hunter is really hindering you (besides the minor BAB hit).
Notes: Full build? Didn't feel like a Beardfist at all, for which I commend you.
Total Score: 13.5
TamlaineOriginality: 3.5; Hardly ever see Knights, which is a pity, because they get some nice stuff (+0.5). Silverwood Arcanist is completely new to me (+0.5). But the reach weapon battlefield control is an old hat (-0.5).
Power: 3; Capable semi-gish; nothing ridiculous, but solid.
Elegance: 2; By taking Silverwood Arcanist, you're wasting the spell progression of the last five levels of Dark Hunter, which is a shame (-0.5). Ranger dip (-0.5).
Use of Secret Ingredient: 3; You're using everything it offers, and you've got the flavor down (I'll leave out the differences between Seelie and Unseelie, and the distinction between an elven knight and an elven hunter, but I'm picky). But you're not doing anything more with it.
Notes: You can't ride a tiger, their spines aren't rigid enough. Full build? Equipment wish list? Damnit! Janet! I love you.. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBjVBbeqf7E). Nerd cred points gained for riffing on my second favorite Child ballad.
Total Score: 11.5
The Loyal ServantOriginality: 3.5; Ninja, considering the Wis-based casting, wasn't completely unexpected. Totemist was, but it's not the focus of the build. Crinti Shadow Marauder is nice to see, especially when Teflammar Shadowlord gets all the press (+0.5). Dragonborn anthropomorphic owl... and we've crossed the line of 'too far.' I'm a substitute judge, though, and you didn't have my 'too special is too much' clause, so I'll let it slide.
Power: 4; The breath weapon/blink shirt/shadow pounce combination is very nice, especially with entangling exhalation (+1). But the low BAB makes me cry a little bit (not as much as others, though, because you're not intended as a front-liner).
Elegance: 2; See, the problem with Dragonborn is it says to me 'I only took this race for the stat bonuses' (-0.5). Again with the flying creatures riding flying mounts, which still confuses me. You're not from Dambrath, and I'm not seeing the required ranks in Knowledge (Dambrath local) (-0.5).
Use of Secret Ingredient: 3.5; Unfortunately for one of your points, ninjas keep their Wis to AC even when flat-footed, so uncanny dodge is less useful to them. You do make some observations about the Dark Hunter class features that no one else pointed out (+1). Late entry (-0.5).
Notes: Full build?
Total Score: 13
Conclusions and overall comments So there you have it, the quick and dirty judging. Just a reminder to everyone that I haven't actually played unmodded 3.5 in a long time, so don't hesitate to point out things I might have missed.

Anyone remember this line? "You will need to present your build at at least one of the following points: 5th level, 10th level, 15th, 20th, and a "sweet spot" that you feel is the high point of the build." Anyone? Buhler? Am I the only one who reads this as 'have a complete stat block somewhere?'

A delight to judge, and congratulations on solid builds and accompanying fiction, everyone.

[BobVosh]

Was this the fastest judging ever, or what by Tam? 9 hours.

[Thurbane]

Agreed - Tam, great job. You really stepped into the breach - well done. :smallsmile:

[Zaq]

I concur, and not just because I like what you said about my build. Well done, sir!

[kestrel404]

Yay! More judging! One more and we can kill this turkey. Who's left that's still working?

Edit - Wow! Nine hours? That's awesome! I'm impressed, even more considering how even handed you were on the scores.

[OMG PONIES]

Dang, Tam. That is some impressive speed.

Tallies after two judges (before disputes)
{table=head]ENTRY|PLACE|TOTALS|AVERAGE
The Loyal Servant|GOLD|28|3.5
Reek|SILVER|27|3.375
Skullface|BRONZE|22.5|2.8125
Tamlaine|BRONZE|22.5|2.8125
Faltino|Fifth|22|2.75
Ogar|Fifth|22|2.75
Perpetua|Seventh|21.5|2.6875
The Creeper|Eighth|19|2.375
Tamalin|Ninth|18.5|2.3125[/table]

[Thurbane]

13+ days from the reveal and counting...is this the record?

[Talbot]

Tonight or Sunday for me, depending on how awake I'm able to stay.

[Amechra]

I hope today...

The suspense is killing me.

[gbprime]

13+ days from the reveal and counting...is this the record?

Not yet. Iron Chef 17 was 21 days from submission deadline to reveal.

[BobVosh]

Ya but there was a TON of submissions for that. (It was the assassin one right?)

Nope, dilettante. No clue why then lol.

[Talbot]

Yeah, it's not gonna happen tonight. But tomorrow actually has a puncher's chance as I'm getting sick and therefore will be home instead of out having fun tomorrow.

[T.G. Oskar]

Ya but there was a TON of submissions for that. (It was the assassin one right?)

Nope, dilettante. No clue why then lol.

Complexity. Assassin was pretty simple to judge; it was a pretty solid class, with solid spellcasting, good skill points, nice set of skills and sneak attack, so it wasn't so hard to work with. Compare with Ardent Dilettante, where the class had quite a bit of stuff to work with that barely synergized with each other, and you might figure why that happened. Compared to, say, Drunken Master (the only other IC I judged), it took me quite a lot of time, and it had actually few entries (compared to Assassin which had about 16 entries or so).

So yeah; Dark Hunter IS pretty difficult to deal with, mostly because of what it offers, so expect having tough judging. That goes without mentioning that the bar for judging has been raised quite a bit, and most people are trying judging for the first or second time so they might take some time.

[kestrel404]

OK, I know that there are only 2 judges in so far, but the scores here are...really low. The 1st and second placers are averaging between 3.5 and 3.3? And 3rd place is averaging UNDER 3!

I mean, yes, the secret ingredient was tough, but I really didn't think it was THAT tough.

[Amphetryon]

OK, I know that there are only 2 judges in so far, but the scores here are...really low. The 1st and second placers are averaging between 3.5 and 3.3? And 3rd place is averaging UNDER 3!

I mean, yes, the secret ingredient was tough, but I really didn't think it was THAT tough.

I won the Vigilante IC with a composite score of less than 4 per category. Some contests - and some judging groups - simply set a different standard.

[true_shinken]

I won the Vigilante IC with a composite score of less than 4 per category. Some contests - and some judging groups - simply set a different standard.

I think no contestant got a composite score above 3 on Use of Secret Ingredient in the GSA contest. Tough one, that.

[Nerdanel]

The low scores make me think access to special mounts and such was supposed to be a class feature of Unseelie Dark Hunter, but wasn't included because of a bad writeup.

The things I could have done with a nightmare... "You didn't kill my mount, you killed my mount's astral projection." "I so can take my mount down the steep stairs into the cramped dungeon." "I'll gallop in stealthily." "Good luck getting into melee range without some form of teleport." Among other things.

[Urpriest]

The low scores make me think access to special mounts and such was supposed to be a class feature of Unseelie Dark Hunter, but wasn't included because of a bad writeup.

The things I could have done with a nightmare... "You didn't kill my mount, you killed my mount's astral projection." "I so can take my mount down the steep stairs into the cramped dungeon." "I'll gallop in stealthily." "Good luck getting into melee range without some form of teleport." Among other things.

It's a class intended for NPCs. I believe it even says so in the writeup. NPCs can get powerful mounts and pets simply by raising the encounter level. For example, Spider Eaters are described as a common bandit mount, but nobody (well maybe the Beast Heart Adept, haven't looked at them) has a class feature that gives control of them. They're an NPC mount.

[dextercorvia]

I guess I never gave criteria. So I might as well now. I started at 3 and added for impressive things and deducted for less impressive things. I was very harsh on Ranger or Ranger dips (-1 to -1.5 in originality depending on what else it was paired with). There were a number of mistakes in qualification and application, which hurt elegance. for sure, and power if I thought that the key tactics would be delayed or prevented because of that.

I judged power based on how effective a build was at its primary tactic compared to common PO builds and whether it improved as a result of the SI.

UoSI was judged based on how well the build took advantage of all the class features -- so poor spell selection, and not mentioning class features was penalized here.

[Talbot]

I'm working now. It's likely to take me a while as I haven't done it before and also have a whore of a headache. But it's happening. Sorry about the tardiness.

[true_shinken]

I'm working now. It's likely to take me a while as I haven't done it before and also have a whore of a headache. But it's happening. Sorry about the tardiness.

Nevermind, dude. Keep it going!

[Talbot]

I feel like an *expletive deleted*, but it's just not gonna get done tonight. I'm making (slow) progress, but *excuses excuses excuses*. If somebody else wants to jump in I don't mind, otherwise I'll keep trying to finish but until I get over this *debilitating illness* it's gonna be slow going. This was not my plan, sorry.

[kestrel404]

Just so this doesn't get lost while the judging continues.

[dextercorvia]

Hey Shink, I know you usually wait until after the judging, but if you wanted to post my challenges, I could handle them while we wait for Talbot.

[true_shinken]

Hey Shink, I know you usually wait until after the judging, but if you wanted to post my challenges, I could handle them while we wait for Talbot.

I was thinking about doing just that. Yeah, I will.

Disputes

Tamalin vs dextercorvia

Dire Boar was a typo left over from from an earlier version where Wild Cohort is obtained earlier. It's a Dire Badger.

Tamalin's damage comes from Favored Enemy, from the number of extra actions gained from having both a Mount and a Wild Cohort (with Multiattack and Haste), and from using spells to make enemies more vulnerable to him while being less able to hit him. He's not the main damage dealer in the party, and this is stated in the writeup. He's a scout, a controller and a harrier, who has a good enough BAB to remain relevant as an attacker and a good enough set of HP and saves to stand up to some punishment. Deducting points from him for not being a heavy hitter is akin to deducting points from a Necromancer for not blasting well.

Ogar vs dextercorvia


Hey there. I feel like dextercorvia has made a few errors in judging Ogar, so I'd like the chance to respond to him.

dextercorvia:

I disagree with some of your assessments about Ogar and her build. First, you claim that "Krau Sigil does not work that way," but I don't see what you mean. The Krau sigil raises your caster level. The Improved Familiar feat checks your caster level. I honestly don't see any other way to read this.

As for being a bear riding a bear, please allow me to direct you to p.80 of the PHB:


If you attempt to ride a
creature that is ill suited as a mount (such as most bipedal creatures),
you take a –5 penalty on your Ride checks.

You do suffer a penalty for riding something the same size as you, but Ogar's Ride check is high enough that the penalty is hardly an issue.

You are also mistaken in saying that Ogar's new STR score does not give her additional spell slots. There is not, in fact, a general rule stating that temporary ability score boosts do not give extra spell slots. If you look at PHB p.7-8:


The ability that governs bonus spells (see Chapter 3:
Classes) depends on what type of spellcaster your
character is: Intelligence for wizards; Wisdom for clerics,
druids, paladins, and rangers; or Charisma for sorcerers and
bards. In addition to having a high ability score, a spellcaster
must be of high enough class level to be able to cast spells of
a given spell level. (See the class descriptions in Chapter 3
for details.) For instance, the wizard Mialee has an Intelligence score of 15, so she’s smart enough to get one bonus 1st-
level spell and one bonus 2nd-level spell. (She will not actually get
the 2nd-level spell until she is 3rd level wizard, since that’s the min-
imum level a wizard must be to cast 2nd-level spells.)
If your character’s ability score is 9 or lower, you can’t cast spells
tied to that ability. For example, if Mialee’s Intelligence score
dropped to 9 because of a poison that reduces intellect, she would
not be able to cast even her simplest spells until cured.

No mention of temporary stat boosts there. On p.10, we see:


When an ability score changes, all attributes associated with that score change accordingly.

On p.179, dealing with spontaneous spells, we can see:


A sorcerer’s or bard’s class
level limits the number of spells he can cast (see these class
descriptions in Chapter 3: Classes). His high Charisma score (see
Table 1–1: Ability Modifiers and Bonus Spells, page 8) might allow
him to cast a few extra spells.

In the Rules Compendium, p.139 deals with spontaneous spellcasting. It says:


Some characters can cast spells, but they don’t need
spellbooks, nor do they prepare their spells. They can cast
any spell they know using a daily allotment of spell slots.
These characters are called spontaneous spellcasters. Such
a spellcaster’s class level limits the number of spells he can
cast. A high ability score might allow such spellcasters to
cast a few extra spells, and the class defi nes the ability score
that governs spellcasting. A spellcaster must have a score of
at least 10 + a spell’s level in the ability score that governs
spellcasting to cast that spell.

Nowhere does it say anything about temporary boosts. Where does this conception come from? I submit that it most likely comes from the spells Eagle's Splendor, Owl's Wisdom, and Fox's Cunning. For example:


Owl’s Wisdom
Transmutation
Level: Clr 2, Drd 2, Pal 2, Rgr 2, Sor/Wiz 2
Components: V, S, M/DF
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Touch
Target: Creature touched
Duration: 1 min./level
Saving Throw: Will negates (harmless)
Spell Resistance: Yes

The transmuted creature becomes wiser. The spell grants a +4 enhancement bonus to Wisdom, adding the usual benefit to Wisdom-related skills. Clerics, druids, paladins, and rangers (and other Wisdom-based spellcasters) who receive owl’s wisdom do not gain any additional bonus spells for the increased Wisdom, but the save DCs for their spells increase.
Arcane Material Component

A few feathers, or a pinch of droppings, from an owl.

It's true that if someone cast Owl's Wisdom on Ogar, she would not get extra spells. However, this is because the spell Owl's Wisdom itself says so, not because of any general rule to that effect. (Notably, Bull's Strength lacks any such restriction.)

Finally, Arcane Strike works just as well with natural weapons as it does with manufactured weapons. From Complete Warrior, p.96:


When you activate this feat (a free action that does not provoke an attack of opportunity), you channel arcane energy into a melee weapon, your unarmed strike, or natural weapons.)

Please reconsider some of your comments and scores in light of this new information. Thank you.


Skullface vs dextercorvia

A dispute regarding dextercorvia's judging of Skullface:

While Krenshar gives full BAB, this is because it is a Magical Beast. Unseelie Fey turns the character into a Fey (and does not bestow the Augmented subtype which would indicate that BAB would remain the same), reducing him to half BAB for racial hit dice.

Also, a dispute on behalf of at least one other build, but potentially for Skullface as well: Arcane Strike explicitly adds damage either to a single weapon, an unarmed strike, or natural weapons plural, so it will apply to all attacks for natural weapon based builds.


Perpetua vs dextercorvia


While metafaculty comes late in the game and runs a risk of failure against [/i]mind blank[/i] (et al), I would argue that Perpetua is the only submission in this round that doesn’t suffer a 100% chance of failure against mind blank. I chose to take this power at level 20 because it is a fitting “double capstone,” if you will. The ability is thematically similar to discern location, but much more powerful. Discern location is for daily use, while metafaculty is for the rare cases when your daily Discern Location is thwarted by mind blank. I chose this power because it seemed to provide a boost not only to Power, but to Use of the Secret Ingredient as well.
I’m not sure if you accounted for Perpetua’s chaotic surge when calculating her average damage per round. If I did my math right (and I’m no good with statistics), that class feature brings her average to 80.875 for Energy Ray as a ranged touch attack. Another thing worth noting, though, is that Energy Bolt can dish out the pain to multiple targets in a round. I hope that this may provide a slight boost to Power.

Perpetua vs Tam O_Connor

Once Perpetua finds and catches up to her victims, she has two main tactics. The first is to use charm to make them friendly, encourage them to take her hand (or use suggestion if necessary), and immediately teleport or plane shift back to the Queen. The second, if they prove hostile, is to blast them into oblivion with chaotic surged energy rays and energy bolts, then return to the Queen with their corpse.
Sorry for not mentioning the fluff for Earth Sense; I thought I had it in Perpetua’s backstory. Essentially, she viewed it as the pinnacle of her sense training as part of the Hunt. First, she gained low-light vision, then darkvision, then scent, and rounded it off with Earth Sense (a limited blindsense).

[vikingofdoom]

Point of defence for dextercorvia against Ogar: You need to rest for 1 hour to ready all your spell slots, or a proportional amount of time for less than full slots (minimum 15 minutes). With your CL 10 Bull's Strength (lasts 10 minutes), your spell would wear off before you have your new spells readied. While you may be correct that you do have additional spell slots, they're unusable until readied, which you can't do. As such, that trick doesn't work to give you more spells to use.

[Tam_OConnor]

Perpetua vs Tam O_Connor
Power: So what do you do against creatures with strong will saves and a bunch of resistances, like say, most outsiders? It's nice that you're not locked into any one energy type, but there are likely going to be a few panicked rounds as you try to figure out what works. Having ranks in Knowledge (the planes) helps, but you don't exactly keep it up. It's worthy of a boost, but not for the full point. Revised Score: 2.5

Elegance: Ah, I see the progression now. Thank you, that clarifies things wonderfully. Probably a bit unfair of me to hit quite so hard on what is essentially fluff. Revised score: 3

Revised Total Score: 12

[Thurbane]

PerpetuaSkullface vs Tam O_Connor:

"Unseelie fey" is a template that can be added to any living creature type (referred to hereafter as the "base creature"). The creature's type becomes "fey." It uses all the base creature's statistics and special abilities except as noted here.
I would read that that to include things such as BAB, saves etc. for RHD.

[dextercorvia]

Tamalin vs dextercorvia

I suppose it was the following quote that stuck out in my mind, when I asked the question, what does he want this build to do.


he is essentially the mobile artillery platform at this point

I agree that Tamalin makes a fine scout, and has some modest buff/control abilities. But, as a harrier, or an artillery platform, he just doesn't cut it. I didn't expect charger damage from an archer, but I do expect something other than, "Yeah he can pick up a bow and pling pling after casting Haste on the party."

I was a bit overly harsh on his power score, so I'll award +0.5 in that category.


Ogar vs dextercorvia


First, you claim that "Krau Sigil does not work that way," but I don't see what you mean. The Krau sigil raises your caster level. The Improved Familiar feat checks your caster level. I honestly don't see any other way to read this.

Improved Familiar checks your Arcane Spellcaster Level, which is the sum of your levels in a given arcane spellcasting class with those levels of Prestige Classes which have advanced that class' spellcasting. A character's caster level is usually equal to Arcane Spellcaster level, but changes to CL do not affect Arcane Spellcaster level.


As for being a bear riding a bear, please allow me to direct you to p.80 of the PHB:



If you attempt to ride a
creature that is ill suited as a mount (such as most bipedal creatures),
you take a –5 penalty on your Ride checks.
You do suffer a penalty for riding something the same size as you, but Ogar's Ride check is high enough that the penalty is hardly an issue.

A bear is well suited as a mount (as far as D&D is concerned), so I fail to see how this clause allows you to violate the usual rule. Otherwise, a Titan could ride a pony with only a -5 to his Ride Check.


You are also mistaken in saying that Ogar's new STR score does not give her additional spell slots. There is not, in fact, a general rule stating that temporary ability score boosts do not give extra spell slots. If you look at PHB p.7-8:

It was not just that the bonus was temporary, it was how temporary the bonus was. Ogar gets unreadied spell slots when Raging, or under the effects of Bull's Strength. They can't be used for anything until he readies them, which takes 8 hours and 15 minutes. Hence, my comment that a AeshKrau Druid might have a pretty good argument.


Daily Readying of Spells

Each day, sorcerers and bards must focus their minds on the task of casting their spells. A sorcerer or bard needs 8 hours of rest (just like a wizard), after which he spends 15 minutes concentrating. (A bard must sing, recite, or play an instrument of some kind while concentrating.) During this period, the sorcerer or bard readies his mind to cast his daily allotment of spells. Without such a period to refresh himself, the character does not regain the spell slots he used up the day before.


Finally, Arcane Strike works just as well with natural weapons as it does with manufactured weapons. From Complete Warrior, p.96:

I did miss the pluralization on natural weapons. However I hadn't docked you for it, since as I saw it, Ogar still had full use of Arcane Strike when he wasn't raging

No Change


Skullface vs dextercorvia



While Krenshar gives full BAB, this is because it is a Magical Beast. Unseelie Fey turns the character into a Fey (and does not bestow the Augmented subtype which would indicate that BAB would remain the same), reducing him to half BAB for racial hit dice.

Thanks for clearing that up. Of course I didn't take away points for (what I believed to be) underestimating the BAB.


Also, a dispute on behalf of at least one other build, but potentially for Skullface as well: Arcane Strike explicitly adds damage either to a single weapon, an unarmed strike, or natural weapons plural, so it will apply to all attacks for natural weapon based builds.

That would help, except that with Tainted Scholar online, I assumed that this was a backup plane against Mind-Effecting immune foes. Coupled with the bonus slots that TS provides, even with my mistake, I figured you had enough slots to spread the love to all of Skullface's natural attacks.

No Change


Perpetua vs dextercorvia



While metafaculty comes late in the game and runs a risk of failure against mind blank (et al), I would argue that Perpetua is the only submission in this round that doesn’t suffer a 100% chance of failure against mind blank. I chose to take this power at level 20 because it is a fitting “double capstone,” if you will. The ability is thematically similar to discern location, but much more powerful. Discern location is for daily use, while metafaculty is for the rare cases when your daily Discern Location is thwarted by mind blank. I chose this power because it seemed to provide a boost not only to Power, but to Use of the Secret Ingredient as well.

I’m not sure if you accounted for Perpetua’s chaotic surge when calculating her average damage per round. If I did my math right (and I’m no good with statistics), that class feature brings her average to 80.875 for Energy Ray as a ranged touch attack. Another thing worth noting, though, is that Energy Bolt can dish out the pain to multiple targets in a round. I hope that this may provide a slight boost to Power.

Perpetua's damage I calculated (the lazy way -- I multiplied the result instead of the dice and didn't account for different energy types) as

17*3.5*[0.5+1+1.5+2]/4

As I understand it, Chaotic Surge has her manifesting at 50% damage, full damage, 150% damage, or 200% damage each 25% of the time.

Taking her mobility into account, Perpetua can line up two or more foes if they exist. I'll relax a little on Metafaculty and I was a bit overly harsh on UoSI, there.

Power +0.25
UoSI +0.5

The Scores Updated

Scores
{table=head]\|Skullface|The Creeper|Perpetua|Reek|Tamalin|Faltino|Ogar|Tamlain e|Servant
Originality |4 |2 |3 |4 |2 |3 |1.5|2.5|4

Power |3 |1 |3.25 |3 |2|2 |2 |2 |4

Elegance |1.5|2 |2.5|2.5|1 |2.5|1.5|3.5|3.5

Use of Secret Ingredient|3 |3 |2.5 |5 |3 |3 |3.5|3 |3.5

Total |11.5|8 |11.25|14.5|8|10.5|8.5|11|15
[/table]

[Talbot]

Turns out I have pink eye. I can barely read the entries at this point. I'm really sorry, but I'm going to have to withdraw as a judge. Did not plan it this way.

[Tam_OConnor]

Perpetua vs Tam O_Connor:

I would read that that to include things such as BAB, saves etc. for RHD.

Wait, what? I don't recall any comments about the Unseelie Fey template (besides my internal rambling that it's stupid, but I assume the boards can't read my mind).

[dextercorvia]

Wait, what? I don't recall any comments about the Unseelie Fey template (besides my internal rambling that it's stupid, but I assume the boards can't read my mind).

I think he is referring to a comment Skullface made to me.

[Thurbane]

Yes indeed, sorry. Was meant to read Skullface, not Perpetua. :smallredface:

[true_shinken]

I missed a dispute.
Faltino vs dextercorvia

Bolded for emphasis:

Faltino

One of my two thoughts for Unseelie Dark Hunter involved a totemist, so it wasn't completely unexpected, but at least it isn't more ranger. So you have a charger/light magic gish. 13 BAB is low for a Gish. The totemist entry, while awesome for this Secret Ingredient, is hard on BAB. Normally, the Totemist gets around this by using Natural Weapons, but you are relying on a lance for your Sprited Charge. Also, without Pounce, you aren't taking advantage of your iteratives either. You would likely have been better to Bind Girallon Claws and Sphinx Claws for 4 attacks at x2 damage rather than one at X3.

Anyspell will not help you since you do not have a domain slot in which to prepare your Sorcerer/Wizard spell. Also, it is only of marginal benefit since you have had the ability as a Chameleon to prepare any arcane spell you would have used for Anyspell since level 6.

Chameleon, by the way, has some steep RP prereq's, which you seemed to have missed in your backstory. I get the dual 'allegiance' thing, but no mention of your training.

Dexter seems to have missed the parts of Faltino's entry that talk about how he gains Pounce through repeated use of the Lion's Charge spell, and how he can't use the Arcane Focus of Chameleon because he always uses the Divine Focus of Chameleon (for Lion's Charge and for Wisdom synergy).

[dextercorvia]

Faltino


Dexter seems to have missed the parts of Faltino's entry that talk about how he gains Pounce through repeated use of the Lion's Charge spell, and how he can't use the Arcane Focus of Chameleon because he always uses the Divine Focus of Chameleon (for Lion's Charge and for Wisdom synergy).

Yes, indeed I missed that part.


At Level 6, Faltino has amassed the necessary spying skills to become a Chameleon. He can pick Wild Focus just to thematically continue his Wild Empathy; or he can pick Arcane Focus to collect various useful low-level arcane spells into his spellbook; but really on any normal day he will pick Divine Focus for some useful spellcasting and a healthy boost to his Will Save (and his already-good Fortitude save). His tactic is still mostly double-damage charging with a lance from horseback, but I'm sure there's some good divine buffs to supplement this tactic, such as Knight's Move.

You still may not benefit from Anyspell since you don't have a 3rd level domain slot. You do get to use Lion's Charge up to 3/day (I'm not counting items, since I didn't for any other build.) That is better than nothing, but not really reliable pounce. I'll add 0.25 to your Power score.

Edit: Updated my score table.

The Scores Updated

Scores
{table=head]\|Skullface|The Creeper|Perpetua|Reek|Tamalin|Faltino|Ogar|Tamlain e|Servant
Originality |4 |2 |3 |4 |2 |3 |1.5|2.5|4

Power |3 |1 |3.25 |3 |2|2.25 |2 |2 |4

Elegance |1.5|2 |2.5|2.5|1 |2.5|1.5|3.5|3.5

Use of Secret Ingredient|3 |3 |2.5 |5 |3 |3 |3.5|3 |3.5

Total |11.5|8 |11.25|14.5|8|10.75|8.5|11|15
[/table]

[OMG PONIES]

Tallies after Two Judges (including disputes)

{table=head]ENTRY|PLACE|TOTALS|AVERAGE
The Loyal Servant|GOLD|28|3.5
Reek|SILVER|27|3.375
Perpetua|BRONZE|23.25|2.90625
Skullface|Fourth|22.5|2.8125
Tamlaine|Fourth|22.5|2.8125
Faltino|Sixth|22.25|2.78125
Ogar|Seventh|22|2.75
The Creeper|Eighth|19|2.375
Tamalin|Eighth|19|2.375[/table]

[true_shinken]

OK, guys. So we are out of judges. If no one else steps up for this, I'll have to close the contest as is.
Also, sorry about the trophies, but we're having problems with Jumilk's flash. If anyone knows of a freeware alternative for flash/fireworks that could run on a netbook, I'd be very grateful.