Iron Chef... Appetizer Edition! (e6)

[Amechra]

Welcome, contestants, judges, and guests to Iron Chef... EPIC 6. Here in Optimization Colosseum, contestants will endeavor to create an optimized and flavorful character using a specified D&D 3.5 prestige class as a "Secret Ingredient". D&D 3.5 BASE CLASS as the "secret ingredient"

Contestants: You will need to present your build at at least one of the following points: 3rd level, 6th level, after 5 feats, after 10 feats, 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.

Cooking Time: Contestants will have until 11:59pm CUT on Saturday, May 7th 2011 to create their builds and PM them to the Chairman, Amechra. 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, which must make up half the build, at least.


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. However, this is e6, so unless you want to be smacked, I advise a lack of characters with spells of levels higher than 3. Just saying.


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
[/table], along with a list of the first 10 bonus feats you are taking after you complete your 6th level.

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
[/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

1st|-|-|-|-

2nd|-|-|-|-

3rd|-|-|-|-

4th|-|-|-|-

5th|-|-|-|-

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

Code[SPOILER]Spells per day/Spells Known
{table=head]Level|0lvl|1st|2nd|3rd

1st|-|-|-|-

2nd|-|-|-|-

3rd|-|-|-|-

4th|-|-|-|-

5th|-|-|-|-

6th|-|-|-|-[/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:
Complete Psionic's's Divine Mind
We will have trophies for 1st through 3rd places, as well as a special trophy for honorable mention. The honorable mention prize is given to the most daring or unexpected build. Judges, contestants and guests alike are invited to vote for honorable mention via PM.

Allez optimiser!

Judges


Contestants


The Builds


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)
Iron Chef XVIII: Unseelie Dark Hunter (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=186097)
Iron Chef XIX: Dread Pirate (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=190607)

[Cog]

I have half a thought for how to approach this. I'll try entering this time around.

[Kuulvheysoon]

I may very well have to try this. I actually LIKE the Divine Mind, crappy as it is.

EDIT: In the sources, you never said anything about un-updated 3.0 - what's the verdict on that? Or is it the same as in regular ICO?

[flabort]

I like the Name.
I said I'd join a base class IC, but...
Unless I can find that class free online somewhere (highly unlikely, I think WotC only let a couple base classes out), I can't join. :smallannoyed:

Cool, though. If I could join, I most definitely would.

[Kuulvheysoon]

I like the Name.
I said I'd join a base class IC, but...
Unless I can find that class free online somewhere (highly unlikely, I think WotC only let a couple base classes out), I can't join. :smallannoyed:

Cool, though. If I could join, I most definitely would.

I'd say that you could probably reconstruct it just by looking around and asking about specifics... then I remembered the specific aura effects that are Divine Mind EXCLUSIVE (they're literally only printed in the class description). But they're very much psionic Paladins, up to and including Divine Grace.

[Zaq]

Good hell, you're actually doing this.

You know, I once played a Divine Mind as an NPC. He was part of a group of enemies who all had aura-style buffs (the idea is that they would work really well as a team, but if the PCs could splinter the group or sufficiently focus fire to make a couple of them drop, they'd be much easier to kill). He existed for a single encounter. I got bored with him before all was said and done, and no, I didn't get bored with the other NPCs in that group, even though few of them could do terribly much more than he could.

I can promise that I will be watching this with interest. I can promise nothing else.

[Cog]

The "after 10 feats" benchmark is effectively +2 levels and so has level 7 WBL to distribute, right? Or should we pretty much be ignoring gear?

[Amechra]

Un-updated 3.0 is allowed. And we tend to ignore gear.

[OMG PONIES]

In like Flynn...as a competitor for now. Are we doing it where you get UoSI points for taking all 6 levels in the SI, or just that you have to use 3 levels?

[Amechra]

I would say that 3 gets you about a midpoint score, with more or better use of the features giving more points; the 3 level minimum is to prevent going Divine Mind 1/Tier 1 class 5, or some such.

[rogueboy]

I'll put myself in as a competitor, at least for the time being. Biggest question is whether I'll have the time to put together a build or not, but I'll certainly try.

[Zaq]

Crap, guys. Crap. I thought of a build. It's a terrible build. I mean, a really terrible build. One might even go so far as to call it delightfully terrible, assuming that not too much changes between my current idea and the final product.

If (and that's a big if) I can bludgeon it into a readable format by the due date without impacting my judging duties in the main Iron Chef contest . . . I'll enter. We shall see if this actually happens.

Hmm. It looks like I have to dive into FR or perhaps Eberron to get a deity with the domains mantles I want. What's the best place to briefly read up on FR/Eberron deity fluff? I've never been able to make myself care about the Eight Hundred Myriad Gods on the High Plain of Heaven that FR seems to have. I know slightly more about Eberron, but I don't really want to spend too much time looking at deities when I could be working on the build.

[Kuulvheysoon]

Crap, guys. Crap. I thought of a build. It's a terrible build. I mean, a really terrible build. One might even go so far as to call it delightfully terrible, assuming that not too much changes between my current idea and the final product.

If (and that's a big if) I can bludgeon it into a readable format by the due date without impacting my judging duties in the main Iron Chef contest . . . I'll enter. We shall see if this actually happens.

Hmm. It looks like I have to dive into FR or perhaps Eberron to get a deity with the domains mantles I want. What's the best place to briefly read up on FR/Eberron deity fluff? I've never been able to make myself care about the Eight Hundred Myriad Gods on the High Plain of Heaven that FR seems to have. I know slightly more about Eberron, but I don't really want to spend too much time looking at deities when I could be working on the build.

Well, Wikipedia's not too bad for DnD deities. Also, need be, you can ask me - I've pretty much memorised Faiths of Eberron and Faiths and Pantheons (the major 'religious' books of FR and Eberron).

I'm kind of a sucker for divine fluff, what can I say?

EDIT: Also, my build? Craptastic. It's probably at least as bad as yours (we shall have to compare after, if your idea does not change). I have no idea how it'll score, but I'll be damned if I wouldn't want to play it. It actually looks fun.

[OMG PONIES]

So, do we have any judges?

[kestrel404]

Ooh, I just came up with a nice little build (of course, the build kind of has to be little...).

I hope someone decides to be a judge soon.

[dextercorvia]

I'll judge this.

[Zaq]

I'm in this one for sure. My build's about 75% done or so. I keep giggling while I'm writing it. That's probably both a bad sign and an awesome sign. Definitely not a good sign, though.

So, who's gonna judge this? You're not gonna let Mr. dextercorvia do this all by his lonesome, are you? Come on, it'll be easy!

[dextercorvia]

A little late, but here are my criteria, such as they are.

I should mention that I'm not a big fan of many of the E6 specific feats. Prestige feats especially, I find to be poorly balanced. Taking too many will result in a hit in elegance. Other than that, make sure it is legal, I hit illegal builds in elegance and power. UoSI is a double whammy, whatever you take has to enhance the SI, without making me wonder why you didn't take X instead of the SI.

[Amechra]

I'd judge, but I'm chairman, and I would probably get accusations of bias due to my knowledge of who made what build...

Know any good judges I could ask?

[Zaq]

Hmm. I've encountered a setback . . . not so much in the build itself, just in my writeup thereof. The deadline's Saturday evening, right? If so, it shouldn't be a problem. If it's earlier? Well, I'll try. I've come this far. I'll just have to find an extra hour in my schedule somewhere.

[Kesnit]

I'll judge. I've been taking a break from judging ICO since I haven't been familiar with some of the recent SI's, but I am familiar with this class.

I'll give my criteria this afternoon.

[kestrel404]

Build submitted. :smallbiggrin:

I look forward to seeing what everyone else came up with.

[OMG PONIES]

Ah, yes, my two favorite words:

Build. Submitted.

Yesterday, really, but I didn't get a chance to post. I'm working on my second submission now; we'll see if it's worth anything.

[true_shinken]

I'll be judging this, for great justice.

[OMG PONIES]

I'll be judging this, for great justice.

This makes me happy inside.

[Akal Saris]

I'd be glad to judge this as well, bringing the count to a quartet.

[Amechra]

Is there a rule against the chairman submitting a build? Potentially as a "this is what I was thinking of", which wouldn't be scored?

Because I feel like doing this, and don't want to be yelled at.

[dextercorvia]

I'm no veteran, but I wouldn't have a problem with it, so long as it isn't being judged. You might want to wait until the results are tallied, so that there is no possibility or appearance of it affecting the judging.

[Amechra]

Shall do. I won't post it if I see someones build that's like mine, though.

[kestrel404]

Actually, I don't really see a problem with the chairman submitting a build. The only time a conflict of interest could come up is when disputes are being resolved, and I can't see anyone being petty enough not to pass on valid concerns to the judges anonymously.

[Cog]

Submitted. No day like the last day, right?

[Zaq]

Amen to that, Cog. Submitted mine this morning. I was in a huge hurry, so I hope that no errors slipped through.

EDIT: Crap, some errors were still in there. Please be kind, judges!

[Amechra]

Sorry for the 14 hour delay; I was sleeping off a hefty fever.

[Amechra]

I take it he doesn't perform miracles?


Maxwell the Mad
Human NE Divine Mind 6

http://www.horseshoes-handgrenades.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/crazy-old-man.jpg

Backstory:
Magic don't belong to us.

Tricksters and thieves try to learn all sorts of incantations, invocations, and spells to deceive nature. Ha, I say. They're just deceiving themselves--playing with a fire that burns hotter than they can reckon. We knew it growing up in the Woods of Breland; all sorts of fancy folk would fly through on their way to Sharn, muttering and gesturing all the way to power their obscene magics. The druids almost had it, but they still weren't following nature's rules just so. The shifters? Well, even if they don't have it right, nobody's fool enough to try telling 'em. Me and my kin, though, we knew that magic wasn't for us. We followed the Host, prayed to Arawai for our crops, and she was kind to us. We didn't need no magic.

But then one day, on their way to Sharn, a group of four or five came tearing through our village. We asked 'em for help, politely, like we needed it. Just various things they could fetch for us. But they weren't having it. One of 'em, a wizard, starting lobbing fireballs for the fun of it. Another, quick fella, starting trying to break into all our homes. One of 'em tried stopping his friends at first, but then joined in, muttering something about it being "for the expy," whatever in tarnation that is. I thought the death and destruction would never end. Until the avalanche.

A mighty voice from the heavens: "ROCKS FALL. EVERYONE DIES." It wasn't the soft, female voice of Arawai, but a deep baritone. We knew right then that it was the Devourer. Some said otherwise, that it was some titan named Gee Em who lorded over the Sovereign Host, but I knew the destructive force of nature when I saw it. I meditated on it with passion--some say obsession. I learnt the tale of Fury, the Devourer's daughter. I follow her, and I know now what she knew then; magic don't belong to us. Never has, never will. If anyone tries using it willy-nilly again, I'll find 'em and give 'em what for. Others say I'm crazy to follow the Fury, but I know better. She talks to me, you know? Told me about you, she did...said you were trouble...

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

1st|Divine Mind 1|
+0|
+2|
+0|
+2|3+INT|Willing Deformity, Deformity (Madness), Wild Talent|Corruption and Madness Mantle, Psychic Aura 5 ft

2nd|Divine Mind 2|
+1|
+3|
+0|
+3|3+INT||

3rd|Divine Mind 3|
+2|
+3|
+1|
+3|3+INT|Reflexive Psychosis|Psychic Aura 10 ft

4th|Divine Mind 4|
+3|
+4|
+1|
+4|3+INT||Divine Grace

5th|Divine Mind 5|
+3|
+4|
+1|
+4|3+INT||Psychic Aura 15 ft

6th|Divine Mind 6|
+4|
+5|
+2|
+5|3+INT|Psionic Meditation|Deception Mantle
[/table]

Bonus feats beyond 6th level:
{table=head]XP|Feat
20,000|Insane Defiance
25,000|Dilate Aura
30,000|Mage Slayer
35,000|Deformity: Tall
40,000|Goad
45,000|Enhanced Benificence
50,000|Pierce Magical Protection
55,000|Blind Fight
60,000|Pierce Magical Concealment
65,000|Deformity: Tongue[/table]

{table=head]Attribute|Points|Base|Level|Other|Total|Modifier
STR|2|10|0|0|10|+0
DEX|2|10|0|0|9|+0
CON|5|13|0|0|13|+1
INT|0|8|0|0|8|-1
WIS|13|17|+1|-4|14|+2
CHA|10|16|0|0|16|+3[/table]

Powers Known
{table=head]Level|Power Points/Day*|1st|Power name(s)

1st|0|0|-

2nd|1|0|-

3rd|2|0|-

4th|3|0|-

5th|4|1|Daze, Psionic

6th|6|2|Charm, Psionic[/table]
*before bonus PP from Wild Talent and a high WIS.

In a Nutshell:
I found that the auras and mantles were the truly unique features of the Divine Mind; as such, I wanted to use them to their fullest. I created this character to get in the faces of enemies and make their lives exceedingly difficult. Casting/manifesting/using PLAs or SLAs requires a Concentration check, spells absolutely cannot be cast defensively, and mind affecting abilities used against you can be bounced back. Physical foes don't have it any easier; they have to save to target anyone but you. Furthermore, when they DO target you, they're faced with either DR 5/- or a 50% nonmagical miss chance pretty much every round. You are first and foremost a debuffer, but you do not debuff enemies by imposing statuses on them--instead, you debuff by depriving them of options. In D&D, this can be far more valuable (and harder to resist). Furthermore, you serve as quite the tank. You have high saves, as well as either DR 5/- (in rounds where you stay psionically focused) or 50% miss chance (in rounds where you expend your focus).

Tactics and Highlights by Level:
1st level:At this level, you gain your first aura, and I've chosen Corruption & Madness. The fact that it was an offensive aura intrigued me, along with the fact that its power extended to psi-like & spell-like abilities. Because of this, it can shut down the powers of quite a few monsters that don't specifically have spellcasting, as well as those foes that do. Since it only works against enemies, your allies can still cast freely as you hamper the opposition. Furthermore, Deformity (Madness) has granted us complete immunity to mind-affecting effects, ensuring that we don't turn our aura on our friends.

While the -4 penalty to Wisdom from Deformity (Madness) hurts, it's not as bad as we'd think. Our powers aren't our primary schtick, so we're not too concerned about DCs (and we have a trick later to boost that), and while the DC for our aura does involve our WIS, it's only part of the pie. Our aura is still at a DC 12--while a caster with max ranks will be able to bypass that on an 8 or higher, anyone who has no ranks will be failing more than half the time.

You'll want to get in the thick of the enemies at this level, but you'll need either some armor (which Divine Mind grants you proficiency with) or a buff from your friendly neighborhood caster.

2nd level:Our first real point of BAB means we can finally begin wading into the thick of things and attacking with more ease, though our primary tactic remains relatively unchanged--get in the enemy's face and stay there.

Autohypnosis is one of my favorite skills of all time, and for good reason. Now that we have 5 ranks, we can succeed on the check to memorize something simply by taking 10. Try to talk to your DM to see if it can be assumed that you're taking 10 on this every round out of combat, meaning that you've memorized every plot-related detail thrown your way. You should still take notes, of course :smalltongue:.

3rd level:Our aura now extends to 10 feet, meaning that if an adjacent enemy thinks they can just take a 5 foot step to cast with ease, they've got another thing coming.

Reflexive Psychosis now joins our build, for our first all-day defensive buff. As an immediate action, you can gain DR 5/- for 1 round. Usually, DR 5/- is pretty decent, but in a game of E6 it can be downright awesome. Usually, the benefit of this feat is outweighed by the fact that you're confused until the end of your next turn. However, the Corruption & Madness mantle specifically states that, while psionically focused, you cannot be confused. Congratulations, you now have DR 5/- all day, at the cost of your immediate action each round. You're nearly invincible to the amount of damage done by most ranged weapons, and melee attacks don't slow you down as much, allowing you to stay in your enemy's face for longer.

4th level:Divine Grace joins the build, providing a much-needed +3 to all of our saves. Fortitude is middling, with a good progression and a medium stat, but Reflex benefits the most from this (given its poor progression and low stat). While Deformity (madness) has granted us immunity to mind-affecting attacks, we still need to make sure our Will save is high for those effects that aren't mind-affecting (a failure of many builds that obtain mind-affecting immunity). It's a good base save, based on one of our high stats, bolstered by Divine Grace. Who could ask for anything more?

Our bonus attribute point goes into WIS, which brings our aura DC, Will saves, and power DC (starting next level) all up by 1. Not a bad investment.

5th level:Another five feet on our aura means we can shut down the action economy of more foes, which is always a good thing. Our first power comes online at this point, and we're able to daze foes with a standard action. While our save DC is a little hampered by Deformity (madness), our first bonus feat after 6th level will take care of that problem (see below).

6th level:Our second mantle, a feat to go with it, and a power that can be drawn from either mantle? Oh good, this gives us quite a bit to play with. I chose the Deception mantle, but not for its aura. I'm keeping up my Corruption & Madness mantle all day. While the Deception aura may be useful for some sneak attackers, they should be able to maintain flanking positions and use full attacks to fight with two weapons; they don't need the move-action feint the Deception aura gives.

Instead, I chose the Deception Mantle for two reasons: its power selection and its mantle granted power. First of all, we snag Charm, Psionic for out-of-combat utility. Again, while the save DC seems a little low because of our WIS penalty from Deformity (Madness), we have a way to deal with that just after 6th level. The main reason I grabbed this mantle, however, is its granted power: expend your psionic focus to become displaced for 1 round, gaining a 50% miss chance. Since we also have Psionic Meditation coming online this level, we've just unlocked a potent all-day combo. Each round, we can take a move action if our foes are still within our aura to regain psionic focus, then discharge it as an immediate action to gain 50% miss chance.

It is important to evaluate this combo against our all-day DR 5/- combo that started at level 3. Each takes away your immediate action; one works best while focused, and the other requires you to expend focus. However, these two are not at odds; instead, they are simply various options to choose between. If you're being pelted with 100 arrows for 3 damage each, our free DR 5/- Reflexive Psychosis trick will help more than 50% miss chance. If you're fighting one ogre with obscene STR and Power Attack who hands out damage like candy, the 50% miss chance is a better option. Essentially, you have two different possible all-day buffs, and the ability to choose which one you want active in each round.

Selecting our feats beyond 6th level:

Insane Defiance: Another option for our immediate action, useful all day long as well. At its core, it functions as a limited version of spell turning. If someone is foolish enough to forget our immunity to mind-affecting abilities and targets us with one, we can burn 1 point of WIS to redirect the effect. Since we'll still have 13 WIS, we can still use Psionic Meditation. Our new target takes a -4 on their save, which gives us two interesting options. First, our allies can target their mind-affecting abilities on us for a redirect with a free +4 to the DC. Secondly, we can cast our own powers on ourself and redirect the power to a foe with a free +4 to the DC, more than making up for the -2 to the DC we faced from Deformity (Madness).
Dilate Aura: I expect to see this gem used frequently in this competition. With no prerequisite beside an aura ability, we can double our aura's radius 1/encounter for CHA rounds. 3 rounds of a 30 ft aura isn't bad for a feat. However, the feat itself doesn't stipulate what kind of action it is to activate; check with your DM to see if you can activate it in response to someone moving just outside your normal 15 ft aura. Dodge books, dice, etc...your 50% miss chance won't help here :smalltongue:.
Mage Slayer: You get in your enemy's face and make it difficult for them to cast spells. Unfortunately, if they can make the check to bypass your aura, they can make the check to cast defensively and get their spell off with ease. No more! Threatened enemies can't cast defensively, and they know it--if they still want to cast that spell, they WILL get an attack of opportunity in the face.
Deformity (Tall): More reach means that you've effectively doubled the range of your Mage Slayer feat. Grab a reach weapon if you want for even more extra range.
Enhanced Benificence: Another one I expect to see a lot in this round, especially combined with Dilate Aura. 5 more feet to your aura is always good, but along with Dilate Aura it's really 10 feet to your aura for 3 rounds/encounter. Now we're looking at a minimum aura of 20 feet, and a maximum of 40. That's nothing to sneeze at.
Goad: You WANT enemies to attack you. Goad takes away their other options. Usually, this feat isn't so hot because the foe can still cast spells, etc. On this build, they're going to have to work hard if they want to cast that spell, so attacking becomes a more standard choice. Goad ensures that they only attack you (with your 50% miss chance or DR 5/- :smallbiggrin:, thus staying in your aura for another round. The DC is based off of our highest stat, just to add icing on the cake.
Pierce Magical Protection: A mini-dispel magic effect, this is useful for not only hurting those foolish enough to cast in your presence, but also for making it easier for your allies to hurt them too. Say goodbye to your Mage armor, etc.
Blind Fight: Concealment is your friend, not theirs. Good not only against pesky casters, but those with other means of concealment as well...I'm looking at you, swordsages.
Pierce Magical Concealment: Oh yeah. That concealment other casters worked so hard to create? Rolling twice against it is great, Blind Fight, but ignoring it all together is so much more badass. Throw in for giggles that you can always tell WHICH mirror image is the right one, and you've got a way to deal with one of the most potent and confusing low-level defensive spells in the game. Since it doesn't work against non-magical concealment, Blind Fight still has its place as well.
Deformity (Tongue): This last feat is really a "season to taste" feat. I selected this one for 30ft blindsense so as to keep tabs on those within my aura. Simply casting invisibility won't be enough to foil my aura, friends. Alternatively, you can snag martial study for Stone Vise to immobilize your foes (albeit with a low STR-based save DC), Draconic Aura to add some support to allies in your aura, or anything else that aids in your particular campaign.

Sweet Spot:
This build's sweet spot falls on its fifth bonus feat after attaining 6th level (right around 40,000 XP). All of the feats that come after that simply serve to improve on talents that the character already has. While he's a force to be reckoned with from first level on up, his full array of abilities is completed with the addition of Goad to lock foes in futile combat with him. Since he can take two move actions in a round, he can even goad a foe, regain focus, and expend it for 50% miss chance all in one fell swoop.

Adaptation:

Fluff Adaptation: While Vecna is listed in Complete Psionic as providing the evil, corruption/madness, knowledge, and planes mantles it wouldn't be too much of a stretch for a DM to add Deception to his list in a core-only deities game. In the Forgotten Realms, Cyric provides both mantles that we're after. In Eberron, as listed above, The Fury also provides the two required mantles for this build.

Online material: Mind's Eye Expanded Classes, part IV listed two interesting variants for the Divine Mind. The first drops Wild Talent in favor of Hidden Talent, giving you a use for your power points as early as first level. However, your "ML=Divine Mind level -4" clause doesn't go away, so you'll need to drop Practiced Manifester in the mix, taking some ranks away from Autohypnosis to qualify. Luckily, you can qualify for this feat at 1st level (though you'd have to shuffle the other feats around a bit). You could consider an offensive power like Mind Thrust, but my money's on Expansion. What better way to optimize your aura than to make it take up even more squares? Let's take, for example, a 15-foot aura. Around a Medium Creature, that's 28 squares. Around a Large creature, it's up to 40 squares. If we find a way to start off Large (see below), we can expand to Huge size, and our aura will cover 52 squares! All of this is before Dilate Aura, meaning that optimizing size can optimize our class features.

In the same article, there's another ACF that swaps out Divine Grace for Turn Undead. I don't even need to tell you all of the silly things that you can use that for, now do I? :smallamused: One idea that springs to mind is to couple it with Animal Devotion for an easy way to grab flight. However, there was no clear answer from the Simple RAW thread whether a character with a CL of -6 can even activate unique spell-like abilities, so I left it out of this build.

Flaws:For this character, it really doesn't matter which flaws you take--you can pick any two that add depth to how you play the character. In exchange, you can pick up Bind Vestige and Improved Bind Vestige (each from Tome of Magic) to pick up Focalor's Aura of Sadness. It imposes a -2 penalty on saves, which amps up our powers (and possibly our allies' spells as well), but it also imposes a -2 penalty on skill checks, making our aura that much harder to resist. Of course, it only functions against adjacent foes. While some might argue that you can use it in conjunction with Dilate Aura, it seems that you can only dilate aura class features, not feats. However, your mileage may vary.

LA buyoff: +1 LA can be bought off at third level, which gives us some interesting possibilities. A Primordial Half-Giant can use Invisibility at-will, but we'd have to drop the Mage Slayer feat chain. Without it, our CL is 0 from RHD +1 from the Primordial template, so we can pop Invisible for a minute at a time. In place of our Mage Slaying feats, consider Improved Unarmed Strike, Improved Grapple, and Scorpion's Grasp. Grappling foes is a great way to keep them in your aura, after all. You may have to adjust your stats for this to work, but it's worth a look if you're playing high-magic E6.

Alternatively, if you can find a low-LA way to start as Large, we're looking at more square footage from your aura. Along with the Hidden Talent ACF above, you can expand to Huge size for truly beastly auras and grappling ability. The Savage Species Half-Ogre was large, but it was replaced with a +2 LA version in Races of Destiny. Half-Minotaur template from Dragon Magazine is large, but not considered in this competition due to its source. While it hurts to lose our sweet Deception Mantle trick, you can always go with a level in Goliath Barbarian. Take the Spiritual Bear Totem from Complete Champion for free Improved Grab :smalleek: and you should be able to keep enemies put. Races of Stone also gives us a sub level with Mountain Rage, which actually makes you Large-sized while raging. Granted, it would only be 1/day unless you have a way to rage more, but it's a good start.

All of the LA buyoff options lose a bonus feat from being human, but that's less of a hit in E6, where you're practically oozing bonus feats.

Sources Used:
{table=head]Source|Items
Complete Adventurer|Goad
Complete Arcane|Mage Slayer, Pierce Magical Concealment, Pierce Magical Protection
Complete Psionic|Divine Mind, Mantles, Enhanced Benificence
Elder Evils|Deformity (Madness), Insane Defiance, Reflexive Psychosis
Expanded Psionics Handbook|Wild Talent, Psionic Meditation
Fiendish Codex II|Dilate Aura
Heroes of Horror|Willing Deformity, Deformity (Tongue), Deformity (Tall)
PHB|Blind Fight[/table]

[Amechra]

Teenage Mutant Divine Mind Turtle!


The Tale of Leonardo Atuin

Fluff:
There once was a blue clockwork man
Who fought dragons from inside a can
___His armor's color matched his mood
___Until Bahamut said to him 'Dude,
don't be so emo, I've got a plan!'

http://www.blu-raystats.com/NewsLog/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/tmnt.jpg

Ninja Kobolds. Leonardo hated ninja kobolds. They were almost as bad as that wierd elf in the spiked armor who calls himself the cheese grater or something. But it was Bahamut's will that he destroy this hidden village of ninja kobolds, and thus it was his duty as a true servant of the creator of dragons. Not that he needed to use simple methods to do it...

BOOM! And another one of his little friends explodes violently as it destabilizes. Right between the odd trio of kobolds (one with weird red eyes, another who was wearing orange of all colors, and a third in a pink wig - truly the world was better of with these kobolds removed from it). A moment of concentration brought up another of his little friends. He briefly wondered how his other companions were doing - he always worried about them when they weren't nearby - before getting back into things.

It was not for him to wonder why, merely to follow the will of the great Bahamut. BOOM!


Build:
Name: Leonardo Atuin
Race: Dragonborn Warforged
Attributes: Str 14, Dex 12, Con 16, Int 10, Wis 13, Cha 12
Leonardo
{table=head]Level|Class|BAB|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Skills|Feats|Class Features
1st|Divine Mind 1|
+0|
+2|
+0|
+2|Concentration 4, Psicraft 4|Adamantine Body|Mantle (Creation), Psychic aura 5', Wild Talent, Ectopic Form (Amber Tunneler) from creation mantle
2nd|Divine Mind 2|
+1|
+3|
+0|
+3|Concentration 5, Psicraft 5||
3rd|Ardent 1|
+1|
+3|
+0|
+5|Concentration 6, Autohypnosis 1|Practiced Manifester (Ardent)|Assume psionic mantles (Creation, Guardian), Ectopic Form (Anathemic Carapace) from creation mantle
4th|Divine Mind 3|
+2|
+3|
+1|
+5|Concentration 7, Craft(Sculpt) 1||Psychic Aura 10', +1 Wis
5th|Divine Mind 4|
+3|
+4|
+1|
+6|Know(Psi) 1, Craft(Sculpt) 2||Divine Grace
6th|Divine Mind 5|
+3|
+4|
+1|
+6|Ride 1, Craft(Sculpt) 3|Skin of the Construct|Psychic Aura
[/table]

Powers:
{table=head]Level|Breath Weapon|Power Points|Powers Gained
1st|1d8|2|
2nd|1d8|3|
3rd|2d8|5|Astral Construct, Thicken Skin
4th|2d8|7|
5th|2d8|8|
6th|3d8|9|Psionic Minor Creation
6+1|3d8|13*|
6+4|3d8|13*|Bestow Power
6+7|3d8|13*|Vigor
6+9|3d8|13*|Share Pain[/table]
* Depends on a favorable interpretation of Practiced Manifester granting additional PP based on manifester level. Otherwise 9.

Before 6 tactics:
Levels 1-2: You are a tank. You've got a 21 AC and DR 2/- (because anything that counts as having adamantine weapons is way above your current 'run-away' threshold). You can also regen slowly (1HP/hour), get +1 attack & damage (probably the default setting unless there's a bard), +1 AC or +2 initiative. That's some pretty nice versatility right there (at least for a 1st level character). Thanks to your race, you've got both construct traits and a breath weapon - which deals any of the 5 basic energy types in damage, including sonic (sonic ignores hardness, so you can double as a very loud rogue)! The Ectopic Form feat you get off the mantle isn't very useful right now, but we'll take Amber Tunneler for later use.
Levels 3-5: Oh look, something to spend those PP you've got on! While Astral constructs that only last 3 rounds or +1 AC for 30 minutes may be kind of not useful right now (they'll get better later), at least you've got some powers (and a level earlier than a straight divine mind would. You are also technically capable of manifesting level 2 powers since your manifester level is 3 (and will go up to 5 as you increase your Divine Mind levels) and Ardent's ability to manifest higher level power is not capped based on what level you've got (which is why Ardent is the best psionic class for multiclassing). This is quite important, because by the time you can take another feat, you can choose the Expanded Knowledge feat for any power up to 2nd level (since you'll be capable of using 3rd level powers). And with the Guardian mantle power, you've got a good reason to keep psionic focus up - this lets you play the role of party tank/leader nicely, preventing the enemies from just treating you like an obstacle to bypass before going after your squishier companions. Also, because you've taken the creation mantle a second time you get the Ectopic Form feat again...which means you can take a second-tier ectopic form! Anathemic Carapace means that your constructs are never useless, because 1pp for a 2d6 grappling grenade golem is totally worth it.
Levels 6+: With 5 levels of divine mind, pretty much all of your auras double or more in power. You get a 6-fold increase in your regeneration (1 HP every 10 minutes instead of every hour), you're now definitely better than a bard's inspire courage at this level (they won't get +2 until level 8, so basically never), or if you've got a bard who knows what they're doing (actually, with magic items/spells/feats, they can get inspire courage up to +10 by level 3), you can at least give a +2 AC bonus or +3 initiative/spot bonus. In addition, Skin of the Construct means getting your choice of any of the most common fighter feats OR FLIGHT for a minute for 1 PP, as well as 1d8 temp HP (which probably won't last for an hour thanks to Guardian). Congratulations, you've achieved mini-dragon status. Your breath weapon is a reasonable combat option for taking out multiple opponents, or you can do pretty darn well in a stand-up fight with your martial weapons and still-decent AC. Also important is the fact that if you're in the middle of the party like a good leader should be, everybody in the fight should be inside your aura. Also, if you think you're in for a really nasty battle, being a construct allows you to use poisons without fear of self poisoning, and through Psionic Minor Creation you've got access to all the nastiest poisons in the game for 1pp.


After 6 feats & tactics:
Midnight Augmentation - This is going to be a very important feat later for several combos.
Psycarnum Infusion - This combos quite well with midnight augmentation - we can now expend psionic focus to reduce our next power use by 2 PP. Given how few PP we've got, that's really sweet.
Expanded Knowledge (Bestow Power) - And the 3rd part of the recharge combo. By expending psionic focus through Psycarnum Infusion into Midnight Augmentation, we can use bestow power (which grants 2 PP to the target, in most cases self) for a PP cost of 1. This nets us 1 PP ever 2 rounds (with a move action left over). Useless during combat, but now we aren't going to be draining ourselves of PP for the day with just 2-3 uses of our powers. If we had the ability to go nova like a psion, this would be a broken combo, but the closest we can get is a level 4 astral construct (7pp -2pp if we use Psycarnum Infusion/Midnight Aug) which lasts for 5 rounds, and we can only do that once per combat, and drains half our PP.
Shape Soulmeld (Lifebond Vestments) - Since we don't need the essentia from Midnight Augmentation to actually be used by that feat, here's a good place for it. And since our aura lets us regenerate HP (slowly), this soulmeld allows us to play secondary healer, and makes us very paladin-like indeed.
Psionic Meditation - Oh, the things this lets us do! Most importantly, the recharge combo can now be accomplished in a single round (get psionic focus, use psionic focus, use bestow power, repeat). This doesn't particularly matter in most cases, but is good regardless. More importantly, we can now use Midnight Augmentation more than once per combat, which means that Astral Construct is now our favorite offensive tool (because 2hd medium sized constructs every round for 1pp is better than a 3d8 breath weapon). The Guardian Mantle special power is also now much more handy, since we go into combat with psionic focus and therefore can have it at the end of the combat round even after using it (expend focus, use power, gain focus).
Expanded Knowledge (Vigor) - And because the Guardian Mantle power is getting more use, now we need more HP. Lots more HP. And 15 extra sounds just about right. Especially since we can refresh it as a full round action for 1 PP (and for free as a 2 round action).
Entangling Exhalation - This will cement you into the role of battlefield control that you really should be in. Also, since you're basically a turret launching exploding constructs at people's heads or absorbing damage directed towards adjacent allies, now you've got an even better breath weapon for when you've got to recover psionic focus after using guardian.
Psicrystal Affinity - Hey look, it's your little buddy! This little guy also happens to be a construct, and so regenerates slowly while basking in your magnificent glow! This is important because you're planning on having him...
Expanded Knowledge (Share Pain) - Soak damage for you! And since you've got 15 HP of vigor up all the time anyway (which duplicates itself onto your psicrystal thanks to share power), you just got quite a nice HP boost. Hmm, perhaps it's time to use Guardian more often?
Psicrystal Containment - Yup! Guardian twice in a round if you have to! Or just keep going with those 2hd constructs after using it.


Equipment:
There's not a lot of equipment that's really vital. A warhammer, a halberd and a heavy shield will cover armor & weapons. You'll want to get the shield enchanted as a Manifester's shield (which will get you 5 emergency PP that you can spend to restart your charge cycle if you really need to spend all your PP during a battle). There's also a cheap trick for getting a 50-pack of ammunition enchanted as a manifester's weapon (and thus getting either 250 PP/day or 5 PP/day really cheap) but that probably won't be necessary. For stat-boosting, unless you can get +4 to your wisdom, it's not worth it, but every +2 to charisma adds +1 to all your saves, so a +2 cha, +n saves cloak is totally worth the price. Other than that, you can use a dorje for any psionic power on the creation or guardian mantle.
Also you'll want a mount of some form because you're often stuck meditating while you travel. A clockwork mount of some form would be best if one is available (because of possible poison use and regenerative aura), otherwise a normal warhorse should do fine (as long as you can find one you won't break in half).


Sources:
Races of the Dragon - Dragonborn, Entangling Exhalation
Eberron Campaign Setting - Warforged, Adamantine Body
D20srd & Complete Psionic - everything else

[Amechra]

I will bring about the Singularity!


This is my first ever entry ... so if I'm missing anything, let me know. I think I covered the basics though.

Homogeneous Sapience:

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

1st|Divine Mind|
+0|
+2|
+0|
+2|Concentration 4, Survival 2|Wild Talent, Able Learner, Speed of Thought|Mantle: Knowledge, Psychic Aura 5ft

2nd| Druid[ic Avenger]|
+1|
+4|
+0|
+4|Concentration 5, Survival 5|Track|Bonus to Armor Class when unarmored (as monk, including Wisdom bonus to AC), fast movement (as barbarian), Rage (as barbarian), favored enemy: Construct (as ranger)

3rd|Divine Mind|
+2|
+5|
+0|
+5|Concentration 6, Survival 6|Power Attack|-

4th|Divine Mind|
+3|
+5|
+1|
+5|Concentration 7, Survival 7|-|Psychic Aura 10ft

5th|Divine Mind|
+3|
+6|
+1|
+6|Concentration 8, Survival 8|-|Divine Grace

6th|Divine Mind|
+4|
+6|
+1|
+6|Concentration 9, Survival 9|Psionic Meditation|Psychic Aura 15ft
[/table]

Next 10 feats (in no particular order): psionic dodge, mobility, spring attack, up the walls, narrow mind, psionic body, psionic charge, psionic weapon, extra rage, combat reflexes

General Overview:
Let me start by saying E6 is hard! I wanted to be able to qualify for the extra favored enemy feat by the end of this, but it just wasn't feasible to get to that +5 BAB and still retain a distinctly Divine Mind build :/

If this was not E6 I would have made gratuitous use of the aforementioned feat after hitting the required BAB. I've also chosen Boccop as the diety here as his mantles are actually listed in Complete Psionic, but I'd probably ask my DM to let me use Delleb instead and go Knowledge > Law > Communication as my mantles, none of which seem particularly powerful at the time I'd be getting them. I may also petition my Dm to transform 2 or 3 extra favored evemy feats (on top of the original FE I get from class level) on getting favored enemy [mindless] rather than having to take favored enemy contruct, ooze, undead, outsider [evil], etc. to cover all my bases. As is, I'd just choose not to take the bonuses against sapient undead or outsiders as the character really has no qualms with them, because ...

The major theme at play here is that this character is a crusader for sapience and to a lesser extent sentience. I invision a lawful neutral alignment due to the singular focus and the unyielding devotion to putting things the "right" way or in the "right" order with none of the care for trivialities like "good" or "evil". If one is making an informed and well thought out decision, then it is the "right" decision on that basis alone (at least to our little crusader here).

The one hiccup to straight Divine Mind adds quite a bit. A level of Simple Druidic Avenger is powerful on its own, regardless of build, but I just found the mechanical synergy between the two classes astounding. After completely disregarding the Druid casting (I didn't even bother to list it because I would ignore it entirely--as an aside I think it'd be only fair to do so anyway as most of the features I did give up would never see play in a one level Druid dip anyway) the mechanics that are left (rage, fast movement, favoured enemy, WIS to AC, Track) tacked onto the Divine Mind foundation just scream [s]genocidal zealot devoted crusader.

I ended up going with FE: Construct above because they seem to be the most universally mindless, though if this saw play I'd choose the mindless atrocity that makes sense for the specific game/campaign.

For the one power I'd definitely go with Detect Psionics ... and with the number of PP you have to spend on it over the course of the day it may as well be at-will; it just doesn't feel right to have a "Paladin" that can't oppress other people's cultures like an ethnocentric--well you get the idea.

As far as the next 5-10 feats go ... the beauty here is that they are entirely up to personal preference. Want a sneaky tracker? You have plenty of time to take Open Minded + Darkstalker. Want some melee combat options? Take the standard tripper tricks. Prefer ranged? Head for zen archery + the ranged feats. As for myself? I'd probably go the spring attack route, maybe throw in a bunch of [psionic] feats that provide minor bonuses if you stay psionically focused (which we have no reason not to be) and that one that adds 2hp per feat; between our +con from rage and the hp bonus from those feats we just became a respectable tank (for an E6 game anyway). We're already playing a Divine Mind ... it's pretty clear we're not in an optimized tier 1 game here, may as well have some fun with it.

In sum, you're not great, but you've found your niche and your happy with it. At the end of the day we can still rage + power attack to deal respectable damage in comparison to our fellow low-tier partymates and since we never have to expend our psionic focus and we have no armor we've got a rather quick land speed [50ft], perfect for a spring attack - up the walls - open mind:tumble combo (no iteratives anyway, right?).

Race/Ability Scores:
Race isn't really that important here ... it's about the class progression itself. I like to think any race could take the above template and make it its own. I went Human above for a myriad of reasons, including the ability to use the extra feat and skills on able learner + survival to keep track worthwhile on the character and because Humans are the most basic/neutral race which, once again, de-emphasizes the importance of race ... But the real reason I used human was to serve as fodder for the [not-so]clever pun in the title :D

Ability Scores are another thing that aren't necessarily integral to the concept ... I usually play with the elite array, so I'd likely do something like this myself:

STR: 14 (+2)
DEX: 13 (+1)
CON: 12 (+1)
INT: 08 (-1)
WIS: 16 (+3) [+1 level]
CHA: 10 (+0)

Most of this is obvious ... The Dex is there for feats if we want to go the spring attack route, or you could put that into Charisma instead. I put the 8 into Intelligence for the irony; I just couldn't pass up the opportunity for such a great charcter flaw.

Thanks to the judges for taking the time to read my inane babble, and to Amechra for hosting :)

[Amechra]

Moradin, stop mollycoddling the girl!


Once upon a time, some dwarven priests at the temple of Moradin awoke to the sound of a crying baby left abandoned on their doorstep. No one knew where the little halfling girl had come from (no halflings had been seen in the dwarven halls for months), but the priests took her in and raised her in the way of the dwarves. Dusk Glitter (as she came to be called because of her relatively dark and shimmering skin) was a faithful follower of Moradin, spending all her time in the temple studying the ways of words, crafts, and traditions. One day, because he was concerned for her social well-being and feared that she was more isolationist than even the dwarves, Moradin appeared to her in a dream and commanded her to go forth into the world to learn how to socialize and make friends. This is a part of her story.

Big Adventure (Tons of Fun!)
Dear Lord Moradin,

Thank you again for deciding to send me out into the world. I admit that I'm scared to leave the dwarven halls, but I know that you only want what's best for me. You didn't abandon me when I was a helpless baby at the entrance to your temple, and I know you won't abandon me now.

It's scary out here all alone, but I know that I'm not quite as alone as I seem sometimes. Some goblin bullies came and gave me a hard time, but when I prayed to you, I saw that you had sent someone to protect me! I can't remember ever being so thankful to see anyone else. I think I'm starting to understand what you mean when you say that sometimes we have to rely on our friends.

Your faithful student, Dusk Glitter
No one's terribly much to look at at level 1, but at least Dusk has some friends to help her. She doesn't have an aura yet, but she can summon an Ectopic Ally (read: Astral Construct) 1/day, and she can also call upon an Elemental Steward four times per day, thanks to Hidden Talent and Wild Talent. Since she's not at all brawny, she prefers ranged combat and usually uses a longbow (or a shortbow if gp is tight). She's more accurate with a sling, but her damage suffers. It's not the strongest start, but five summons a day isn't terrible, even if they don't last very long. The elemental stewards at least last long enough to fire off a quick PLA (a 2d6 Energy Ray doesn't suck at level 1, even though you have to wait a round for it, and their other PLAs aren't bad either), so Dusk has some versatility in that regard. If she can afford medium or heavy armor, it's useful for staying alive, though it's probably also worth it to invest in a pony or other mount, since a halfling with a speed penalty is a sad sight.

Dear Lord Moradin,

Every day, I feel your power flow through me a little more. You'll be happy to hear that I've been getting better at making friends (in both senses of the word!). The magical friendship that you've seen fit to grace me with comes more easily to me now, and I've even met some real friends as well! I've kept up with my studies of the ancient language, and it seems like I'm getting better at it. What's more, though, I feel like my very presence is inspiring to my friends. They told me that they felt better just having me around! I can't tell you how satisfying it felt to see my very presence make my friends better at what they do, but since you sent me off to learn this, you probably know it anyway. Still, feeling needed by and useful to my friends is one of the greatest things I've ever experienced. I've learned that it's always important to help your friends out in any way that you can, because you always have to rely on each other.

Your faithful student, Dusk Glitter
By 3rd level, Dusk has an aura. She also has the ability to use Universal Aptitude, which works equally well on her and on any partymates she might team up with. Her Truespeak check isn't supercharged, but the DCs aren't that high by this point, so she can usually succeed within a few tries. Since it mostly comes up out of combat, this isn't so bad. Her tendency towards ranged combat makes her small aura a bit awkward, but she can be a boon to any backline partymates she might have, or at least a friendly initiative booster if all else fails. She has the ability to use Elemental Steward quite a few times per day, and since they stick around for a few rounds, it's not a bad idea to make as many friends as you can. If you manage to get multiple Tempestans out at once, they can do very nasty things by stacking their Control Air abilities.

Dear Lord Moradin,

I've learned so much since you sent me out into the world. While I am always happy for the friends that you send me, I'm also happy to have learned that those very friends are within me as well. I feel like my mind has been opened so much. I'll never give up my studies, but my friends are now just as much a part of my studies as the old words are. I never feel like I'm alone, and I always feel like I have something to contribute. I can't help all my friends in the same way at the same time, but I've learned that you can't always please everyone. It's nice to help your friends when they rely on you, but sometimes you have to rely on them as well. Really, though, all that matters is that you're there for each other.

Your faithful student, Dusk Glitter
At 6th level, Dusk's psionic abilities have reached their peak. Practiced Manifester means that her ML is just as high as that of any Psion, even if her PP pool and number of powers known are much smaller. Astral Construct can benefit from Ectopic Form: Emerald Gyre; tripping isn't a bad trick, especially in E6. She also has Ectopic Ally 3/day. It's ambiguous whether her Ectopic Allies can also be Emerald Gyres, but they don't necessarily have to be. One interesting thing about Ectopic Ally is that it's a psi-like ability, and psi-like abilities are automatically fully augmented. However, the text of Ectopic Ally also says that you can augment it by one level by giving up an extra daily use. Since its PLA status augments it to ML 6, burning an extra daily use will get it up to a 7-PP Construct, which hits the 4th level breakpoint and Menu B abilities. Whether it's better to have one big EA and one small EA per day instead of three small EAs per day is situational, but the option is there. Dusk's aura is also reasonably large by this point. Unfortunately, any of Dusk's auras that grant a morale bonus are no good on her constructs, but they'll work just fine on most partymates and on any Elemental Stewards she summons. The Guardian aura is probably the best; I play in an E6 game, and DR 2/— is seriously nontrivial. Stygian Path gives her the ability to turn undead, but that'll mostly be useful later. Psionic Minor Creation can be used to make baskets (or other objects) nearly instantly; if you're not creative enough to solve your problems with a freshly-woven wicker basket, you need more wicker baskets.

Dear Lord Moradin,

I'd say that I don't know how I ever came this far, but that's not quite true; I got here with the help of my friends. They say that they feel freer or faster just at the sound of my voice. I always knew that the ancient language had power, but it's still amazing to see it in action! I'm so glad to know how much my friends care about me, especially Point. Point's a special kind of friend; even though I just met him recently, I feel a real connection with him, like he's been part of me all my life. I don't worry so much about big scary enemies anymore. I've learned that with your friends to help you, you don't have much to be afraid of . . . and with you around to help your friends, they don't necessarily have much to be afraid of, either!

Your faithful student, Dusk Glitter
Epic play treats Dusk well. Her Truespeak finally starts to come into its own; her attacks have never been that powerful, so using Temporal Twist to give an ally an extra swing is often a good trade. Universal Aptitude is amazingly useful; it makes the party Rogue more likely to pick that nasty lock, it makes the party Wizard almost guaranteed to succeed on that Knowledge check, and it makes Dusk herself much more likely to succeed on her other Truespeak checks. Also, it makes Psionic Minor Creation much easier to pull off; if you run into one of those rare problems that can't be solved by pulling baskets out of thin air, the combination of Universal Aptitude and your nontrivial INT give you a respectable +8 on whatever Craft skill you need. Inertia Surge is simply handy to have around. Her non-partymate allies (specifically her summons and Point, her Geodite envoy) have low CRs, so they're easy to affect with Truespeak. Speaking of Point, he's quite useful. DR 5/— is very hard to deal with in E6, so he's pretty resilient, and the ability to burrow (and therefore scout) should not be underestimated. The fact that he grants Dusk Alertness while nearby isn't a major boost, but it shouldn't be forgotten.

Dear Lord Moradin,

The more I embrace your teachings, the richer my life becomes. My life has become full of so many different friends since I left home. I've learned many ways to share your love and protection with my friends. Sometimes I think about what my life was like before I left your temple; even though I was happy then, that was nothing compared to how happy I am now. I love to be able to go around with my friends and meet new people. Sometimes I get to introduce my friends to them, and sometimes my friends introduce me instead. They sometimes tease me about my height, but I know it's all in good fun when they tell someone to “say hello to my little friend!” (That's me, of course!) My friend Winona can't talk, of course, but we get to say hello for her. Naturally, I've kept up my studies of the ancient language, but even more importantly, I've found out how to use your powers to get even closer to my friends. I finally figured out what to do with your holy power that I've felt inside me for so long. We were all pretty battered and beaten, but when I prayed to you and released your energy, we all felt capable of fighting on. I know I prayed to you then, but thank you again for saving our lives! It really emphasized to me that while power is one thing when it's kept inside, it's when you share it with your friends that it really affects you.

Your faithful student, Dusk Glitter

Sacred Healing is the first of several abilities that put Stygian Path to good use. When even a frontline class isn't likely to have more than 50 or 60 HP at the most, healing 12 HP per creature 6 times per day for the entire party really isn't trivial. You have to expend your focus to use it, so be careful, but it's still an efficient form of party-wide healing. It doesn't affect your constructs, but it does affect any Elemental Stewards you have swarming around, including Point. Since it's likely to heal your enemies as well, it's more of an out-of-combat utility ability, but that makes the need to expend your focus much easier to swallow. Protection Devotion is even better, since in E6, AC is still very relevant, and a +3 sacred bonus to AC for the entire group (living and constructs alike) is entirely relevant. Healing Devotion shares a similar niche with Sacred Healing, but it heals slightly more for one person (20 HP instead of 12 HP), is easier to use on yourself, and may or may not require spending your focus to use it (since you just “expend” a TU use, rather than “spend” it . . . it's debatable, and up to your GM. If not, it doesn't make the power significantly worse), so that's nice. Also, while it's slightly less efficient, it's more easily used in combat, since it's an immediate (not a full-round) if you heal yourself, and if you heal your friend with it, there's no chance of healing the enemy as well). Winona, your riding dog friend gained with Wild Cohort, is a solid friend as well. You've probably had other mounts in the past just to make up for your movement speed (heavily-armored halfling, after all), but Winona is much less likely to die and is much stronger overall. Skill Focus: Truespeak comes a bit late, but since CRs don't scale as fast in E6 (and since you're often buffing low-CR summons and cohorts anyway), it's not quite as necessary as it might be otherwise. All in all, Dusk is a solid summoner and buffer, useful both in and out of combat.



A Beautiful Heart, Faithful and Strong [Build]
Dusk Glitter
LG Glimmerskin Halfling

Divine Mind of Moradin 6

First mantle: Creation
Second mantle: Guardian

STR 8 (0 pts) – 2 (racial) = 6 [–2]
DEX 10 (2 pts) + 2 (racial) = 12 [+1]
CON 14 (6 pts) [+2]
INT 16 (10 pts) [+3]
WIS 14 (6 pts) [+2]
CHA 15 (8 pts) + 1 (4th) = 16 [+3]

Languages known: Common, Halfling, Dwarven, Gnome, Goblin

Racial traits:
Small, 20' move speed
+2 DEX, –2 STR
+1 racial bonus on all saving throws
Touch of Luck: 1/day as immediate action, grant self or ally +2 luck bonus on saving throw
Heal as class skill
Dragonblood subtype
+2 racial bonus on Climb, Listen, and Jump
+2 morale bonus on saves against fear
+1 racial bonus on attacks with thrown weapons and slings

HP: 10 + 5d10 + 12, average 44
Table does not take stats or items into account for saving throws
Dusk Glitter
{table=head]Level|Class|Base Attack<br>Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Skills|Feats|Class Features

1st|Divine Mind 1|
+0|
+2|
+0|
+2|Truespeak 2 (cc), Heal 4, Psicraft 4, Concentration 4, K: Planes 1 (cc), C: Basketweaving 2|Hidden Talent: Elemental Steward, Wild Talent (b), Ectopic Form: Emerald Gyre (b)|Mantle (Creation), Hidden Talent, Ectopic Ally 1/day*

2nd|Divine Mind 2|
+1|
+3|
+0|
+3|Truespeak +0.5 (cc) (2.5), Heal +1 (5), Concentration +1 (5), Ride 1, C: Basketweaving +1 (3) ||

3rd|Divine Mind 3|
+2|
+3|
+1|
+3|Truespeak +1** (6), Heal +1 (6), Concentration +1 (6), Ride +1 (2), C: Basketweaving +1 (4)|Truename Training|Psychic Aura (5'), Ectopic Ally 2/day*

4th|Divine Mind 4|
+3|
+4|
+1|
+4|Truespeak +1 (7), Heal +1 (7), Concentration +1 (7), Ride +1 (3), C: Basketweaving +1 (5)||Stygian Path (Turn Undead)

5th|Divine Mind 5|
+3|
+4|
+1|
+4|Truespeak +1 (8), Heal +1 (8), Concentration +1 (8), Ride +1 (4), C: Basketweaving +1 (6)||Psychic Aura (10'), Ectopic Ally 3/day*

6th|Divine Mind 6|
+4|
+5|
+2|
+6|Truespeak +1 (9), Ride +2 (6), Concentration +1 (9), C: Basketweaving +1 (7)|Practiced Manifester (Divine Mind)|Guardian Mantle
[/table]

Epic feats:
1) Minor Utterance of the Evolving Mind: Universal Aptitude
2) Minor Utterance of the Evolving Mind: Inertia Surge
3) Utterance of the Evolving Mind: Temporal Twist
4) Psicrystal Affinity
5) Elemental Envoy (Geodite)
6) Sacred Healing (CDiv)
7) Protection Devotion
8) Healing Devotion
9) Wild Cohort: Riding dog
10) Skill Focus: Truespeak

*Note: It is ambiguous exactly when you get additional uses of Ectopic Ally. The ACF is gained at 1st level, and the text says “You can manifest the astral construct power as a psi-like ability once per day for every two levels.” I interpret this to mean that the uses come at 1st, 3rd, and 5th, but it is also possible that they come at 1st, 4th, and 6th. It is even possible that they come at 2nd, 4th, and 6th, but since the ACF is granted at level 1, this is unlikely.

**Note: Since Dusk gains Truename Training at level 3, her previous cross-class ranks in Truespeak suddenly become full ranks, which is why her skill jumps so oddly.

Sharing Kindness (It's an Easy Feat) [Friends]
Dusk Glitter has several friends throughout her career. Her Elemental Steward power is useful from day 1, Ectopic Ally and normal Astral Construct are both very useful, and she has Point and Winona as permanent companions. Elemental Stewards have very nice PLAs (it's great fun to have multiple Tempestans all use Control Air at once, and Energy Ray always has a use) and decent (if not great) fighting stats. Dusk's Astral Constructs can, if she chooses, make use of Ectopic Form: Emerald Gyre, but they don't have to. Ask your GM if the Ectopic Ally ones can also benefit form Ectopic Form, or if that only applies to normal ones. Also ask your GM if you can have one normal Astral Construct and one Ectopic Ally at once, since they're not quite the same thing.

Point, her Geodite Elemental Envoy, is useful and resilient. He's slightly better than a normal steward as a result of being an Envoy.

Point
Small elemental (earth, extraplanar, psionic)
Init –1; Darkvision 60 ft.; Listen +0, Spot +0
Common, Terran
AC 19, touch 10, flat-footed 19
HP 16 (3 HD), DR 5/—
F +4 R +0 W +1
Speed 30', burrow 10'
Slam +6 (1d4 + 4)
Space/reach 5'/5'
BAB +2, grapple +1
PLA (ML 3rd): 2/day each: Energy Ray (sonic, +2 ranged touch, 3d6 – 3), Create Sound, Stomp (DC 13)
STR 16, DEX 8, CON 13, INT 12, WIS 11, CHA 14
Elemental Traits
Combat Manifestation, Improved Natural Attack, Power Attack
Alertness, Improved Evasion, Share Powers, Telepathic Link, Deliver Touch Powers
Conc. +7, C: Stonemasonry +7, Listen +0, Psicraft +7, Spot +0

Winona, Dusk's riding dog, is also slightly better than a normal riding dog as a result of being a Wild Cohort.

Winona
Medium Animal
HD: 5d8 + 10 (32)
Init +2
Speed 40'
AC 19, touch 12, FF 17
Base Attack / Grapple: +3/+6
Attack: +6 (1d6 + 3)
Space/Reach: 5'/5'
Low-Light Vision, Scent, Evasion
F +6, R +7, W +2
STR 16, DEX 16, CON 15, INT 2, WIS 12, CHA 6
Alertness, Track (bonus)

Magic Makes It All Complete [Magic and Abilities]
[b]PP per Day/Powers Known
{table=head]Level|PP|ML|1st-level Powers Known

1st|4|-*|1 (Elemental Steward)

2nd|5|-*|1

3rd|6|-*|1

4th|7|-*|1|

5th|9|1|2 (Astral Construct)|

6th|16|6|3 (Psionic Minor Creation)|[/table]
PP calculation:
1st: 2 (Wild Talent) + 2 (Hidden Talent)
2nd: 2 (WT) + 2 (HT) + 1 (class)
3rd: 2 (WT) + 2 (HT) + 2 (class)
4th: 2 (WT) + 2 (HT) + 3 (class)
5th: 2 (WT) + 2 (HT) + 4 (class) + 1 (14 WIS, ML 1)
6th: 2 (WT) + 2 (HT) + 6 (class) + 6 (14 WIS, ML 6 after Practiced Manifester)

*Dusk's ML for Hidden Talent is 1.

Utterances Known:
Universal Aptitude
Inertia Surge
Temporal Twist

Stygian Path et al.:
Turn Undead, 6/day at 4th and up (must expend focus to use), effective cleric level DM level – 3
Sacred Healing, 1 TU per use
Protection Devotion, 1/day free, 3 TU per use thereafter
Healing Devotion, 1/day free, 1 TU per use thereafter

Ectopic Ally:
Use Astral Construct as PLA 3/day (at 6th), can expend extra daily use to augment by 1 level

Comments and Variants:
Why Divine Mind? Well, I feel like I made good use of every part of Divine Mind. Ectopic Ally is a solid and free summon that can, if desired, be a level 4 Construct . . . difficult to get in E6, especially without danger to the user. The Psychic Aura is a solid buff to any allies nearby; every + counts in E6, and DR 2/— is just plain nasty. It's lackluster in a normal game, but in E6, it really matters. Divine Mind is the only class who gets both a psicrystal (or in this case, an Envoy) and Turn Undead, so I made sure to make good use of those. Point is a solid ally (especially, but not only, when buffed with auras and/or Truespeak). Sacred Healing and the Devotion feats give me useful ways to use Turn Undead to help my allies. Both mantles come in handy; the Creation mantle provides good powers and Ectopic Form, and the Guardian mantle is useful for the aura it enables. Its granted power is useful in a dire situation, but since you don't have Psionic Meditation, it's not an automatic choice in every fight. With all of Divine Mind accounted for, I looked for feats that would both help me be a good support character and make sure that I would have allies to support. The low CR of creatures in E6 makes Truenaming easier, but the low CR of your allies and cohorts helps even more . . . and certain Utterances can be very useful when applied at just the right time. I originally had Strike of Might as my 2nd-level LEM Utterance, but I realized that it wouldn't work on my Constructs, Stewards, or dog, since it specifies weapon damage, so I went with Temporal Twist instead.

If you can swing Strongheart Halfling while keeping Glimmerskin (thus netting an extra feat), take Truename Training at first level, then take your first Minor Utterance (Universal Aptitude) at 3rd, bumping everything else down accordingly. With your extra feat, you can take Craft Universal Item (see below), another Utterance, another Devotion feat, or (if your GM allows it) Natural Bond to turn Winona into a Fleshraker. This also applies if you have access to Flaws.

If your GM allows you to take the Hidden Talent ACF from the Mind's Eye article AND a normal Hidden Talent, you lose nothing by doing so, so take one of your two Creation powers earlier, then snag a power from your Guardian mantle at 6th. It seemed cheesy to me, so I didn't expect to take both.

For items, if you can swing an Amulet of the Silver Tongue, do so, but that's no guarantee . . . nor is it entirely necessary. If you want to take Craft Psionic Item, well, even assuming transparency, you still can't get the ML necessary to craft a by-the-book one, but you might be able to make a normal skill-boosting item. It's dicey, which is why I didn't include it in the main build. Other items are just anything standard: stat boosters, defensive items, and the like. Dusk is meant to be relatively item-independent, or at least magical-item-independent.

If you want to really focus on Truenaming, there's always the Paragnostic Assembly from Complete Champion, but 1) that relies on your GM allowing it and 2) doesn't perfectly mesh with the Moradin fluff. I have to mention it somewhere, though.

Sources:
Wild Cohort (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20031118a)
The Mind's Eye (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20070629a): Ectopic Ally, Stygian Path
Complete Psionic: Divine Mind, mantles, Elemental Envoy, Elemental Steward, Ectopic Form
Expanded Psionics Handbook/SRD: Hidden Talent, Astral Construct, Psionic Minor Creation, Psicrystal Affinity
Complete Divine: Sacred Healing
Complete Champion: Protection Devotion, Healing Devotion
Tome of Magic: Everything Truename-related

[Amechra]

First Star Trek reference I've seen so far...



Vy'ger

The crunchy stuff:
Warforged Divine Mind of The Traveler
{table=head]Level|Class|BAB|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Skills|Feats|Class Features

1st|Divine Mind 1|
+0|
+2|
+0|
+2|Climb +4, Craft (poison) +4, Craft (sculpture) +4|Adamantine Body, Flaw: Vulnerable, Psiforged Body|Creation Mantle (Ectopic Form: Amber Tunneler), Psychic Aura 5', Wild Talent|2

2nd|Divine Mind 2|
+1|
+3|
+0|
+3|Climb +5, Craft (poison) +5, Craft (sculpture) +5|||3

3rd|Divine Mind 3|
+2|
+3|
+1|
+3|Climb +6, Craft (poison) +6, Craft (sculpture) +6|Linked Power|Psychic Aura 10'|4

4th|Divine Mind 4|
+3|
+4|
+1|
+4|Climb +7, Craft (poison) +7, Craft (sculpture) +7||Divine Grace|5

5th|Divine Mind 5|
+3|
+4|
+1|
+4|Climb +7, Craft (poison) +8, Craft (sculpture) +7, Psicraft +2||Psychic Aura 15'|6

6th|Divine Mind 6|
+4|
+5|
+2|
+5|Climb +7, Craft (poison) +8, Craft (sculpture) +8, Psicraft +4|Skin of the Construct|Freedom Mantle|9
[/table]

Psychic Powers
{table=head]Level|PP|PP Stored|Powers Known
1st|3|1|
2nd|4|2|
3rd|5|2|
4th|6|3|
5th|7|3|Astral Construct
6th|10|4|Dimension Hop
6th+|12|4|(With Practiced Manifester)
[/table]

Attributes: Str 17 (18 at 4th), Dex 10, Con 16, Int 13, Wis 12, Cha 6

Additional Feats: Metapower (Dimension Hop is Linked to Astral Construct), Practiced Manifester, Second Slam, Combat Expertise, Improved Trip, Knockdown, Power Attack, Brute Fighting, Jaws of Death, Multiattack


The metagame:
From levels 1-5, Vy'ger is a straightforward melee fighter. It doesn't have any particular tactical capabilities, but thanks to its heavy build, good Con, DR, and usual Warforged immunities, it's good at taking a beating. On top of that, it keeps its Creation Mantle aura up at most times; 1 hit point per hour isn't much, but if a team of Warforged fighters are operating without much spellcaster backup it can get them into good shape again. Without many bonuses, Vy'ger's own poisoncraft doesn't do much good, but it crafts or buys what it can, and its racial immunity means it can use poison freely on others.

At level 6, The Traveler's touch begins to show more directly. Vy'ger's lack of ranks in Concentration meant it couldn't easily manifest Astral Construct while in combat range, but at this level it gains access to Dimension Hop and can use swift-action teleports to get into place for full attacks or to boost an Adamantine-slowed base speed. With Skin of the Construct, it can now buff itself with extra abilities chosen on the fly, and Linked Power lets it key that boost to D. Hop so that it no longer needs to worry about Concentration checks. Now that Vy'ger is a manifester with the Creation mantle, it can make free use of relatively cheap power stones of Psionic Minor Creation, often favoring deadlier contact poisons that can be slathered over its and its comrades' slams, making those low-chance secondary attacks effective on even a glancing blow.

Two feats past 6th is Vy'ger's sweet spot. It benefits from both Practiced Manifester and Metapower now; the hop-and-buff maneuver costs only a single power point, and the buff lasts for a full six rounds. Metapower reduces the cost of a Linked Astral Construct by two points, while adding a single point for D.Hop: that lets it effectively augment the construct by 6 points in a pinch, giving access to Menu B abilities.

At 6th plus 10 feats, the tactical abilities opened up by Skin of the Construct have paid off even more. Tripping feats combined with slams can potentially give Vy'ger two trip attempts per hit and a followup hit if either succeeds, Brute Fighting gives benefits on to-hit or damage, and Multiattack keeps its array of natural weapons relevant. Assuming the crystals in its body are fully charged, Vy'ger has 16 PP available; in big combats it can hop around the battlefield freely, positioning itself where its tripping can do best, and swapping or renewing its Skin buff for free each time.


The softer side:
Vy'ger isn't so much an experiment gone wrong as it is an experiment neglected. It's an early model, one of the first to use adamantine in its construction, and House Cannith wasn't particularly concerned with the morals of the testing that the new lines were put through. Vy'ger, though it had no more name than a serial number at this point, was selected for part of a sensory deprivation test to determine possible emotional responses. Rather than fuss with creating sturdy tanks to contain them, the Cannith magewrights simply had the warforged themselves assist with tunneling deep into the bedrock behind the laboratories. The warforged entered their chambers, rock was filled in behind them, and they were left.

And left, and left. The Last War was on by this point; the lines of had battle suddenly shifted, and the Cannith laboratory, while not serving any one side, looked like it might be caught in the crossfire. Rather than risk staying, the magewrights evacuated, and while they took much of their gear, the tunnels were abandoned and the buried warforged simply left behind.

Their isolation didn't endure. A branch of Khyber's underground passages came near the surface here, and a hive of crysmals were following veins of ore upward. The overpowering scent of refined minerals and metals from the warforged drew them closer, and one by one the others were devoured by the swarm, used to replicate more, each isolated, dying unknown, unaware of the others. The swarm eventually reached Vy'ger, but it proved too tough for them, its adamantine hide too resistant to be easily worked and too rich to be easily processed. Little by little they eroded it, and its plating is still faulty to this day, ruptured and worn thin. The crysmals born of that rich adamantine never developed properly, never hatched, and their crystaline larvae are scattered through its body, psychically resonant, their latent power opening up Vy'ger's own. (The Vulnerable flaw's penalty to AC is literally the price it's paid for its psionic powers, the malformed crysmals so imbedded that to repair the plating would require tearing them all out.) Vy'ger realized then that it had been abandoned, and begin to dig its way out, little by little.

What had taken weeks to accomplish before now took a solid year, unpausing, to undo. Each handful of stone had to be worked down past Vy'ger's body lest it simply imobilize itself with rubble. That year gave it plenty of time to think, to reflect on the failings of fleshly creatures, to realize how only its constructed body was saving it now. Over that year it found itself increasingly disgusted by humans and their ilk - their quivering, vulnerable meat; their frail, easily shattered internal structure; the very blood that ran through them, so prone to corruption, and it decided that the same corruptability must apply to their minds as well. Destroying these obviously inferior creatures was the only goal Vy'ger could think of by the time it saw daylight again.

Fortunately for it, there was plenty of killing still to be done in the war. Vy'ger fell in with a company of other warforged, taking the name Sawblade. While not the strongest combatant itself, the benefits its auras provided to those nearby were quickly recognized, and kept its skills in demand, often leaving it on the second lines as suited to its backup specialty. It is in this time that it became aware of The Traveler. Sawblade's thoughts toward that deity can't really be called worship, but there is respect there, for the one who stands apart, for the member of the Dark Six who doesn't believe in cruelty for cruelty's sake but is not beholden to the humanoids' views of right and wrong either.

By the end of the war, Sawblade had not yet discovered the depths of the power of its psionic talent. Suiting its second-rank status, it had tried its hand at crafting in the downtime between battles, and while it'd had some luck with poisons, its weaponcraft was shoddy. Its emotions would pour out as it worked, and the weapons would become twisted, savage things, looking more like chthonic beasts than tools of war. Poisons were different; these were things to harm humanoids, not constructs, and the chill of its cold rage kept its focus when working toward such a goal in ways it could not sustain in the forge. There were those who appreciated the stark nature of Sawblade's metalwork, and once the war was over it found a small market for such sculpture. Most of its clients were humanoids, though, and such dealings began to wear on it; it couldn't stand to linger in one place long, and often roamed the countryside to relocate.

Sawblade acquired its new name on one such journey. A ship was carrying it to Breland, crowded with passengers, and a few of Sharn's more famous residents were aboard, frequently partying. The eternal personal contact grew more aggravating with each passing day, until finally it was too much for Sawblade to take and it simply stepped overboard to walk along the sea's bottom the rest of the way. Jokes were made about the Lone Voyager, and the wind-sped ship reached harbor before the warforged did, so that it arrived to find a new name waiting for it, corrupted by the sailors' drawl to simply Vy'ger. It was yet another fleshly indignity to take, but Vy'ger did so, letting the name remind it of the truth.

Though it kept the name, Vy'ger didn't keep the location. Sharn let him make contacts within the warforged community of Breland, giving it a new market for its sculptures - and its poisons. As it traveled through the country with freedom and resources, Vy'ger began to delve into the powers locked within its crystals and now within its mind as well. It discovered the ability to manifest thoughts in ectoplasmic forms, small constructs that it could shape with its will, and with time it learned to shape those constructs directly into itself, many of those benefits fleeting, some staying with it permanently. Its fear of being trapped again was resolved through this psychic shaping as well, flight and speed finally culminating in the ability to simply think itself into a nearby place with a moment's thought. It didn't take Vy'ger long to realize how these new benefits could help it with the goal it's had since the very first time it saw sunlight after its burial; it leads its own team of warforged now, part of a greater group that roams Khorvaire's countryside, taking revenge on those who have mistreated - or at times have merely been accused of mistreating - fellow warforged.

[Amechra]

I have to say, that's a lot of Warforged...

[true_shinken]

Wow, it's been a while since I judged an IC contest.

Let's do it, folks.
I'm not following a particular criteria here. I'm going with my gut feeling, but I'll try to explain if something sounds too odd.
Maxwell the Mad
Originality: 4.
This is mostly because of your backstory. I like the references to the popular memes of 'rocks fall, everyone dies' and 'armed violent hobos'. It's an approach I believe I never saw here in Iron Chef. Corruption & Madness Mantle plus Deformity (Madness) is a good trick.
Power: 3.5
You're a good tank and debuffer, as you mentioned. But that's basically all you do and you come online quite late. Other tanks and debuffers can contribute better, with utility or damage. Still better than I expected from a Divine Mind, though.
Elegance: 4.5
You have a simple build and you make thematic choices (that also happen to be mechanically strong, but they are thematic). My only beef here is taking the Mage Slayer chain while you have powers. You never mentioned the common argument that manifester level =/= caster level, but that's the kind of things some DMs wouldn't enjoy.
Use of Secret Ingredient: 4
You use the core of the class very well, but you pay very little attention to the powers gained from Divine Mind.

Leonardo Atuin
Originality: 4
Now, understand I'm rating this as originality in your case. It's sheer audacity. And I like that. Just a slight reduction for using well known tricks a bit too much.
Power: 4
While you get good staying power and Ardent powers, you don't get that many Ardent powers, so you're basically a second-stringer Ardent.
Elegance: 2
Dragonborn Warforged is quite weird and the kind of thing that usually reminds me of a DM saying 'no'. You take the same mantle twice and I don't think you can do this, even from different classes, to stack the benefit. Also, you're not an actual ninja turtle and that greatly disappoints me.
Use of Secret Ingredient: 1
You tried, but in e6 that single Ardent dip plus Practiced Manifester means you are more of an Ardent than anything else. You didn't even take Serenity to try and get some use out of Divine Grace!

Homogeneous Sapience/Sentience
Can't decide which one is correct, so you'll be HS from now on.
Originality: 5
I really enjoyed your concept and a cheesed up Druid dip lined up very well.
Power: 1
First rule of Iron Chef contest - let the judges know what you can do. All I see are mantles chosen for flavor, no mention of aura usage and a few vanilla feats. Your concept is awesome, but I don't see what you bring to the table mechanically.
You speak a bit about what you would do after level 6, but they are mostly tricks anyone can do in e6 anyway.
Elegance: 4
Even the dip fits in nicely. I just don't see why you didn't start with Druid for the extra skill points.
Use of Secret Ingredient: 3.5
The Druid dip adds a bit of spice but that's about it.

Dusk Glitter
Originality: 4
A glimmerskin halfling that gets truenaming from feats and Craft (basketweaking)?! Talk about unexpected. I wanted to give you a 5, but with astral constructs that would be silly.
Power: 2
Again, tell me what you can do. Truenaming was really original, but here it just feels as a waste of feats. You could have done a lot better by explaining this. I'm just keeping it a 2 because astral constructs can get real nasty.
Elegance: 3
You rely a lot on web-only material and variants, but everything lines up well. So no deductions.
Use of Secret Ingredient: 4
That was good work. You squeezed everything you could out of that class. I'd give you a five... if you had actually explained it.

Vy'ger
Originality: 2
Warforged again, Ectopic Form again... and no redeeming audacity this time.
Mentioning poisons combined with your hop and buff move saved you from a one.
Power: 4
You make good use of your powers and immunities. Quite nice.
Elegance: 2
Flaws cost you here. Otherwise, no problems but nothing spetacular.
Use of Secret Ingredient: 3
We don't hear much about the auras, but you did the best you could with the powers.

That's the last of'em. Yay!

[Amechra]

Scores so far!

{table=head]Name of Entry|Aggregate Score|Average Score|Current Place

Maxwell the Mad|
16|
4|
1st

Leonardo Atuin|
11|
2.75|

Homogenous Sapience|
13.5|
3.375|
2nd

Dusk Glitter|
13|
3.25|
3rd

Vy'ger|
11|
2.75|
[/table]

[kestrel404]

Blink. That was fast.

Woohoo! Juding already! Well, I guess with E6 that's to be expected...

[Amechra]

I wasn't expecting judging to only take ~1h 40m, anyway...

[Kuulvheysoon]

Stupid internet... Since I live in the middle of nowhere, my internet is literally a 30 ft tall tower. Guess what happened over last weekend - it stormed hard here, so it got bent over like a pipe cleaner.

I even had a fun build - NE Human Ninja 2/Divine Mind (Shar) 4. Using a combination of eggshell grenades (OA), Hide, and Control Light (via the Hidden Talent ACF + Practiced Manifester), I could effectively get SS pretty much every round.

If you need another judge, I'm free, but looks like you've got enough.

[Akal Saris]

It will take me a bit longer to do my judging, since my week became unexpectedly busy all of a sudden :smallfrown:

[dextercorvia]

Mine is almost finished. It'll likely be 18-24 hours before I can post the scores.

[true_shinken]

I'm the fastest judge alive!

[Draz74]

Elegance: 2
You take the same mantle twice and I don't think you can do this, even from different classes, to stack the benefit.

You got a citation handy, Shink? I always assumed doubling a mantle like this would be allowed, just like a multiclass Wiz/Sorc can learn the same spell twice. But then, I don't actually own CPsi, so it could easily be explicitly spelled out for all I know.

[true_shinken]

You got a citation handy, Shink? I always assumed doubling a mantle like this would be allowed, just like a multiclass Wiz/Sorc can learn the same spell twice. But then, I don't actually own CPsi, so it could easily be explicitly spelled out for all I know.

Like I said, I just don't think it can be done, specially in a case where stacking is involved. I have no citations on this.

[dextercorvia]

Just my gut, but I tend to agree with Shinken on this. I don't think a divine caster could get the Undeath domain twice either. I feel out of my element, making an RAI argument though, so I don't think I'm going to count it off in my judging.

[dextercorvia]

Maxwell the Mad 17

Right out of the box, you set the bar incredibly high. Robbing people of choices is just what battlefield control should be about. You crank the most out of your Aura ability, and have carefully chosen each feat to enhance Divine Mind. The only exception is Deformity (Madness). I like it, but I wonder if the trade-off is worth it. There is overlap with Insane Defiance, in that both can take care of mind-affecting problems, but ID only uses up your wisdom on an as-needed basis, keeping your DC's higher.

Orignality: 5 (Awesome take on BFC, a trick I had never seen before)
Power: 4 (DC's could be higher, especially for your Aura, but other than that, awesome)
Elegance: 4 (Just my quibble about having two forms of protection against mind-affecting kept this from being a 5.)
Use of Secret Ingredient: 4 (Deformity Madness hurts your Aura ability.)
Total: 17

Leonardo 5

Unfortunately there are several things about your build that are illegal. The first is that according the the Q&A by RAW thread, Dragonborn must be Humanoids to start with. I asked myself, since I was interested in Dragonborn Warforged myself a while back. Secondly, while an Ardent with Practiced Manifester can spend 5pp (eventually) on a power, with only one level you only know 1st level powers. Therefore you never gain the ability to manifest 2nd or 3rd level powers as written. This disqualifies you from taking Midnight Augmentation, and the 3 instances of Expanded Knowledge you have chosen. Using Psycarnum Infusion to get around the 1/day of Midnight Augmentation is well known and dodgy, but I like it. However it requires you to expend your focus, as does manifesting a power with Midnight Augmentation. You just don't have enough foci until much later to make this viable. Also, Midnight Augmentation can't reduce the cost of augmentation below 1. This means that you can't use it on Bestow Power unless you are augmenting it, which unfortunately means that you have to pay 4pp and 2 foci, to receive 4pp.

Your source list is incomplete. Three of your feats come from MoI. There is also another Warforged with Flesh of the Construct.

Orignality: 1 (Repeated Race, Obvious Cheese, Well-known Combos)
Power: 2 (Illegal builds are punished in power, since they don't do as advertised)
Elegance: 1 (Illegalities, Obvious Cheese, Ardent Dip)
Use of Secret Ingredient: 1 (Dirty Tricks on a Divine Mind chassis solely because it is the SI)
Total: 5


Homogenous Sapience 9

I really like the Simple Druidic Avenger dip. That really seems like the only part of the build that was thought out. The mantles are chosen with no regard to the benefit they provide, and the one power is chosen based on fluff? You hang a lampshade on the fact that you are ignoring the druids spells. Bad Idea! 1st level spells are still very viable contributions in E6. This is especially true when combined with a passivish class like Divine Mind. I have no idea why you chose those feats or what you plan to do with them -- they really feel like afterthoughts, or maybe you were just running out of time.

Orignality: 4(I wasn't expecting the Druid dip and it adds a lot. Also love the concept.)
Power: 2 (This could have easily been a 4 if you had explained your tactics.)
Elegance: 2 (You lost points here for your lack of explanation of feats, etc.)
Use of Secret Ingredient: 1 (You didn't actually use the secret ingredient.)
Total: 9


Dusk Glitter 16

The fluff mentions Universal Aptitude at 3rd level, but the table shows it coming at 6+5k. I'm leary of Wild Talent and Hidden Talent in the same build. The sidebar explaining Hiddent Talent calls it an expanded version of Wild Talent. I'm not sure if it is legal to take both or not, but you could have achieved the same or nearly using the Mind's Eye ACF for Hidden Talent, and then picking up Talented for the extra PP, so I won't dock you for it. Dusk is a reasonably powerful minionmancer. This definitely feels like good use of Divine Mind to me. Wild Cohort and SF:Truenaming both come later than I'd like, but everything else seems to flow well. I do worry about your ability to hit those Truespeach DC's in combat before you get Skill Focus.

Orignality: 4(Truespeach in a playable way, Sparkly Halfling raised by dwarves, unfortunately there was a lot of Astral Construct this round)
Power: 4 (Minions+Buffing)
Elegance: 3 (Halfling for the bennies, Moradin for the mantles, text vs. table, Feat flow)
Use of Secret Ingredient: 5 (Good pick of ACFs, complementary feats.)
Total: 16

Vy'ger 9

A flaw is going to hurt you here. Two Warforged with Skin of the Construct this round. I like the Astral Construct linked to Dimension Hop. Second Slam plays well with the Trip ability. I'd like to see some reach in there with as much battlefield control as you are almost capable of. Brute Fighting doesn't play well with your slam attacks (except with a very generous DM). Multiattack comes late. Several of your feats duplicate Menu A choices, which ironically limits the options of your schtick. Except for the minor healing aura, what does this offer different than an Ardent?

Originality: 2 (Common race this round, Astral Construct again, Essentially the Warforged Totemist build with Astral Construct instead of Soulmelds)
Power: 3.5 (This could have been a 4 or higher with a little tightening up.)
Elegance: 2 (Flaw, Feat flow/choice)
Use of Secret Ingredient: 1.5 (Healing Aura is it)
Total: 9

[OMG PONIES]

Tallies after Two Judges

{table=head]ENTRY|PLACE|TOTALS|AVERAGE
Maxwell|GOLD|33|4.125
Dusk Glitter|SILVER|29|3.625
Homogenous Sapience|BRONZE|22.5|2.8125
Vy'ger|Fourth|20|2.5
Leonardo Atuin|Fifth|16|2[/table]

Edit: I AM the ninja. :smallamused:

[Amechra]

Scores so far, after 2 judges!

{table=head]Name of Entry|Aggregate Score|Average Score|Current Place

Maxwell the Mad|
33|
4.125|
1st

Leonardo Atuin|
16|
2|

Homogenous Sapience|
22.5|
2.8125|
3rd

Dusk Glitter|
29|
3.625|
2nd

Vy'ger|
20|
2.5|
[/table]

Edit: I'll leave these to Pnies from now on, 'k?

[Kuulvheysoon]

Leonardo 5

Unfortunately there are several things about your build that are illegal. The first is that according the the Q&A by RAW thread, Dragonborn must be Humanoids to start with. I asked myself, since I was interested in Dragonborn Warforged myself a while back. Secondly, while an Ardent with Practiced Manifester can spend 5pp (eventually) on a power, with only one level you only know 1st level powers. Therefore you never gain the ability to manifest 2nd or 3rd level powers as written. This disqualifies you from taking Midnight Augmentation, and the 3 instances of Expanded Knowledge you have chosen. Using Psycarnum Infusion to get around the 1/day of Midnight Augmentation is well known and dodgy, but I like it. However it requires you to expend your focus, as does manifesting a power with Midnight Augmentation. You just don't have enough foci until much later to make this viable. Also, Midnight Augmentation can't reduce the cost of augmentation below 1. This means that you can't use it on Bestow Power unless you are augmenting it, which unfortunately means that you have to pay 4pp and 2 foci, to receive 4pp.

Your source list is incomplete. Three of your feats come from MoI. There is also another Warforged with Flesh of the Construct.

Orignality: 1 (Repeated Race, Obvious Cheese, Well-known Combos)
Power: 2 (Illegal builds are punished in power, since they don't do as advertised)
Elegance: 1 (Illegalities, Obvious Cheese, Ardent Dip)
Use of Secret Ingredient: 1 (Dirty Tricks on a Divine Mind chassis solely because it is the SI)
Total: 5




Just one thing - Although dodgy, the 3rd level powers on the Ardent is technically legal. That's one of the reasons that Ardents make amazing psionic multi-classes. On the Ardent table in CPsi, there is no Maximum Power level known. Therefore, theoretically, they may manifest any power that they can spend enough PP on.

Not my build here - I'm just defendin' the Ardent, mainly because I love the hell out of them.

[dextercorvia]

Just one thing - Although dodgy, the 3rd level powers on the Ardent is technically legal. That's one of the reasons that Ardents make amazing psionic multi-classes. On the Ardent table in CPsi, there is no Maximum Power level known. Therefore, theoretically, they may manifest any power that they can spend enough PP on.

Not my build here - I'm just defendin' the Ardent, mainly because I love the hell out of them.

They can, but he doesn't know any 3rd level powers to manifest. In order to get this to work, he needs to take a second level of Ardent when or after he hits 5th ML. Just spending 5pp on a power does not make it a 3rd level power. I love the Ardent, and I fully supported Mr. Ponies in his use of it in the Unseelie Dark Hunter contest to knab 9th level powers with only 10 manifesting levels.

[true_shinken]

They can, but he doesn't know any 3rd level powers to manifest. In order to get this to work, he needs to take a second level of Ardent when or after he hits 5th ML. Just spending 5pp on a power does not make it a 3rd level power. I love the Ardent, and I fully supported Mr. Ponies in his use of it in the Unseelie Dark Hunter contest to knab 9th level powers with only 10 manifesting levels.

Psychic Reformation could get him those 3rd level powers, no?

[dextercorvia]

Psychic Reformation could get him those 3rd level powers, no?

The new choices need to be have been valid at the time of the original choices, and a 1st level Ardent may only select 1st level powers.

[OMG PONIES]

They can, but he doesn't know any 3rd level powers to manifest. In order to get this to work, he needs to take a second level of Ardent when or after he hits 5th ML. Just spending 5pp on a power does not make it a 3rd level power. I love the Ardent, and I fully supported Mr. Ponies in his use of it in the Unseelie Dark Hunter contest to knab 9th level powers with only 10 manifesting levels.

Mr Ponies fully supports your support of him. I really thought Perpetua would score higher for that, or at least generate some debate.

[Draz74]

Mr Ponies fully supports your support of him. I really thought Perpetua would score higher for that, or at least generate some debate.

Judges were mean in the Unseelie Dark Hunter competition. :smallannoyed:

[Fable Wright]

Psychic Reformation could get him those 3rd level powers, no?

Would cause points loss, given that it's only included at DM discretion, as it's a 4th level power.

[dextercorvia]

Judges were mean in the Unseelie Dark Hunter competition. :smallannoyed:

It was my first time.

[Akal Saris]

Heyas everyone! Just as a heads-up, I haven't had a chance to check the builds yet. I'm graduating from my MA program this week, so I don't expect to have an opportunity to look them over until Sunday or Monday. Curse you true_shinken for making me look bad!

[true_shinken]

Curse you true_shinken for making me look bad!
Akal, I couldn't make you look bad if I tried. :smallamused:

[Cieyrin]

This seems to be going reasonably well, so I thought a 2nd e6 IC would be neat, this time focused on something everyone can play with. What would people thinks of IC e6 Second Helping: Fighter? :smallwink:

[KoboldCleric]

The problem with using fighter as a secret ingredient is that it gets no actual class features to build around. As one of the judges pointed out in this incarnation, just throwing together feat chains that are (in e6) available to everyone isn't really the point of the iron chef competitions ... with a fighter (barring the handful of acf options) that's all you have.

[Cieyrin]

The problem with using fighter as a secret ingredient is that it gets no actual class features to build around. As one of the judges pointed out in this incarnation, just throwing together feat chains that are (in e6) available to everyone isn't really the point of the iron chef competitions ... with a fighter (barring the handful of acf options) that's all you have.

Mmm, yes, there is that. Feats aren't really a feature, especially in e6, where the only benefit of being a straight Fighter is the capstone feat to get access to be treated as having BAB +8 and the feats that are opened up with that.

I guess I was thinking more along the lines of fluffing it up to be a fighter's fighter, which isn't really mechanically supported. The Pathfinder Fighter isn't much better, either, so perhaps my thought process was a bit skewed on how awesome I thought this would be to how not it actually is...

[KoboldCleric]

The concept is an interesting one ... it's just not really supported by the actual fighter class unfortunately. I'm afb at the moment or I'd flip through some to see if there's a good candidate that actually fits the theme and would have the class feature support to make a number of different directions viable, though I'm sure there are better judges of those sorts of criteria than me; I typically just watch

[dextercorvia]

I would be totally into a second Appetizer Edition. Divine Mind was about perfect for this. We would need to find something similarly overlooked. I have a couple of ideas, but was waiting to see if Amechra wanted to chair another one before volunteering.

[Kuulvheysoon]

For a new E6, I've got a few suggestions....

Ninja, CAdv
Shadowcaster (ToM)
Knight (PHB2)

[Fable Wright]

Maybe Knight or Soulknife?

[Amechra]

I'll be glad to run another, after everyone posts their judging.

Glad to see you guys liked this idea.

[Kesnit]

I will get to judging over the weekend. Sorry I haven't done it yet - it's finals week and I've been a little busy.

[Zaq]

The next secret ingredient needs to be Soulborn.

. . . OK, fine, if you don't like incarnum, I guess Soulknife would work.

Of course, the obvious choice is Samurai, but with only 6 levels to work with, I don't see many ways to make unique entries that actually build on whatever strengths a Samurai is supposed to have.

[dextercorvia]

Soulborn or Shadowcaster were my thoughts.

[dextercorvia]

Any word from the remaining judges?

[Cieyrin]

Soulborn or Shadowcaster were my thoughts.

I'd be all over Shadowcaster like it was going out of fashion. :3

[dextercorvia]

There are a couple of classes in the Mini Handbook that are much maligned as well.

[Cieyrin]

There are a couple of classes in the Mini Handbook that are much maligned as well.

That means Healer or Marshall, as Favored Soul isn't that bad and Warmage has its hacks, though they're not exactly available till levels outside E6.

[dextercorvia]

Those are the ones I was thinking. I think we have enough fodder for a few more of these, if folks are interested.

[Amechra]

I'll wait until after the last 2 judges put in their say.

No pressure (if you can't do it, just PM me.)

[Akal Saris]

I'll start judging them later tonight. My apologies for the delay!

Edit: Got through the first two - I hope to finish the other 3 by tomorrow.

Edit 2: 4/5 done.

[Amechra]

It's OK. Laziness/life is something we all deal with (if it is one of those two.)

[Akal Saris]

To all the participants, I apologize for my slow judging, and would like to thank you all for your participation. This is the second contest I have judged, and the participants definitely impressed me with their usage of the divine mind. In doing so, they also forced me to actually sit down and read the divine mind, which I had never done before :P

Something that occurred to me while judging is the diversity in party roles that contestants focused towards. Imagine, if you can stand the horror, a team of all 5 contestants as a party. You would have Maxwell as a pure tank, Leonardo as a mixed tank/damage dealer, HS as a bizarre ranger fill-in, Dusk Glitter as a buffer/summoner, and Vg'ger as a pure damage dealer/tripper. Quite an impressive range overall!

Now, on to the judging!

Name: Maxwell the Mad

Originality: 4 - I like the strong use of [vile] feats, as well as the concept of making Maxwell an unorthodox option-denial character. It reminds me a lot of many of the characters designed for Iron Chef I.

Power: 2 - Maxwell runs into the same problem as the paladin, where you really need too many attributes to do your job well. Psionic Daze can only affect up to 4HD humanoids (5HD with another power point), which means it won't affect most opponents that Maxwell will face. I also seriously doubt many foes at level 5-6 will fail a DC 13 save, or DC 16 after Insane Defiance. With a strength of 10, the character has no damage at any level, which means that he is safe for non-caster foes to ignore until he gets Goad at 40,000 experience, at which point he is relying on a DC 16 check that will only impair melee combatants. I think the build needs to find a reliable source to lock down opponents, whether that source is tripping, stand-still, demoralization, or making himself into a credible threat. By level 6 a caster with maximum ranks in Concentration and a 14 Con will succeed his check on a 4 or higher, which is far too likely for my taste. As nice as preventing defensive casting is, even if a caster provokes an AOO, Maxwell is unlikely to either hit with the AOO or deal enough damage to force an opponent to fail his spell.

Maxwell does have some strengths, however. DR 5/- goes a long way to make up for a 13 Con against most foes, and 50% miss chance on demand is a terrific defensive mechanism. Maxwell's saves are also quite high, which is important for any tank, and later on his blindsense and counters to common arcane defenses will be useful in many fights. Maxwell also pairs quite well with a high-damage melee ally or one that is able to lock down opponents.

Elegance: 5 - There is excellent synergy between mantles, feats choices, and auras. Human and six levels of the class are as simple as can be. I could see this character being provided to a first-time D&D player and being very simple to pick up.

Use of Divine Mind: 5 - You make strong usage of the divine mind's mantles, divine grace, and auras, all of which are essential to the build, and your feat choices compliment rather than overshadow those abilities. Nicely done.

Total: 16


Name: Leonardo

Originality: 3 - Using astral constructs is one of the more well-known tricks for divine mind (and one that 2 other builds incorporate), the incarnum material recharge trick is also well-known, and Share Pain+Vigor+Psicrystal is another familiar trick. With that said, you combine about a half-dozen useful combos into a single level 6 character - I see this character as a great way to showcase many of the cool low-level combinations that psionic characters have available to them.

Power: 4.5 - You've got a durable tank with a little battlefield control, a little party buffing, some versatility or ability damage from minor creation, and some mobility from flight and summons. I think Leonardo will be able to contribute something to every encounter, which is quite an accomplishment for a divine mind. Given that Comp Psi nerfs Astral Construct to only 1 construct at a time, I don't think having a single 2 or 3HD robot ally will be as useful as you anticipate. I'm not sure on the legality of several of the specific tricks, but I'll leave that to judges with more experience with incarnum and psionics. Overall this is one of the strongest entries in the contest.

Elegance: 1 - I'm not a fan of mixing dragonborn and warforged, especially since dragonborn removes the warforged's +2 armor bonus, which in turn leaves nothing for adamantine body to improve. The single level in ardent also sticks out and will lead to an experience penalty if those rules are used. The build's combos are also fairly arbitrary and don't lend themselves to any particular theme or character design besides "psionic character with several tricks." In other words, I'm not sure what a fire-breathing psychic robot has to do with a mutant turtle.

Use of Divine Mind: 2 - You get some use out of divine mind, but a lot more out of that single level in ardent, and to be honest, I don't see a clear reason why the character wouldn't be all-around better built as an Ardent 6.

Total: 10.5


Name: Homogeneous Sapience

Hey, welcome to Iron Chef! I agree that E6 is more difficult than it appears, especially since you often have to choose between a single PrC level or getting the full-class feats.

Originality: 3.5 - Raging Druid/Divine Mind certainly isn't the first multi-class combination that would occur to me, nor would I have thought to use the combination as a bizarre champion of sentience who tracks down and kills oozes, constructs, and plants. Interesting choices.

Power: 3 - I'd say this is about where I expect an optimized Divine Mind to fit in. You've got a surprising amount of mobility, some decent defenses, and decent damage when raging and using power attack. I would probably move extra rage up to the front of the bonus feat line, and maybe consider taking leap attack as well.

Elegance: 3.5 - I'm not a fan of single-level dips, but I agree that it really helps to define the character, and I like that with the exception of able learner and extra rage, the only sources used are Comp. Psi and the (psionic) core rules. I also like that the build isn't dependent on a specific race or setting.

Use of Divine Mind: 2 - I'd like to see a little more justification behind the choices of mantles and auras, and how divine mind is as important to the build as druidic avenger.

Total: 12


Name: Dusk Glitter

Originality: 5 - I didn't expect a divine mind to make a credible support/summoner character, but Dusk Glitter definitely impressed me in that regard. You get bonus points for taking advantage of E6's low CRs to put truenaming mechanics to good use, and for finding a method to break the low HD cap for astral constructs. I also enjoyed the backstory for the character, which was refreshingly simple and light-hearted.

Power: 3.5 - It's always difficult to pinpoint the power of a support character, especially when you have a mixed bag of abilities. I'll err on the generous side, however, since we're dealing with a single-class divine mind with a decent amount of out-of-combat flexibility as well.

Elegance: 3 - I approve of the single-class divine mind, and using glimmerskin halfling was an elegant solution to the need for ranks in Heal. With that said, the build uses the most sources of all the contestants in the challenge, and the inclusion of truenaming, while awesome, still feels awkward alongside the other feats, as does Wild Cohort.

Use of Divine Mind: 5 - You provide a convincing argument for your mantle/aura choices and the importance of divine mind's combination of turn undead and psicrystal to the build. I'm very impressed at how effectively you used the divine mind's abilities.

Total: 16.5


Name: Vy'Ger

Originality: 3 - Vy'ger is not the only warforged, and it's not the only character to rely on astral construct. It does so in a very elegant way, however, and is the only entry to build primarily towards the damage-dealer role in the party. Vy'ger is a good example of IDIC ;)

Power: 4.5 - I'm very impressed by how you use skin of the construct and warforged-specific feats to turn divine mind into a mobile natural attack-based damage-dealer, with improved trip and knockdown as control options. Using metapower to combine your only two powers is also very intuitive, and provides some needed mobility for the build, though it's a pity that you couldn't metapower hustle instead of dimension hop. You and Leonardo both get bonus points from me for using poisons as well :)

Elegance: 3.5 - Between the excellent backstory that both explains and justifies feat and power choices, being a single-class divine mind, Vy'ger's reliance on only C Psi, core, and Eberron material, and the natural flow of feats, I consider this a very elegant build. One point is subtracted for the use of a flaw, but I do think that psiforged body was a terrific pick.

Use of Divine Mind: 4 - Very strong choice of mantles and powers, with good use of feats to back them up, and all levels of the secret ingredient taken. Vy'ger doesn't get much benefit from its auras, which is too bad, and dumping charisma means no benefits from divine grace. Overall, however, nice usage of the class!

Total: 15

[Zaq]

Woo! This is a close race at the top, I gotta say.

I do love the thought of the five of us in a party. When you think of what classes you can shove 5 of in a party and have them not trip on each others' toes too badly, you usually think of Cleric, Druid, Bard, maybe Artificer, perhaps Wizard if you're of a high enough level, possibly Incarnate or Binder . . . but not Divine Mind. So yeah, I'm proud of us!

[dextercorvia]

It looks like we are still waiting on Kesnit. Any word?

[Amechra]

Kesnit PM'd me, and he can't judge this time around, so if anyone has anything they want to contend the judges with, just PM me.

[Zaq]

So . . . anything? I don't have anything I'd be willing to raise a fuss over, at least . . .

[Amechra]

The only complaint:


Not sure if this is worth a complaint, so feel free to disregard it... in dextercorvia's rating, he commented on Vy'ger taking multiple feats that are duplicates of Menu A abilities, when there's actually only one (Power Attack, and even that's just a prereq for another feat). The trip ability stacks with the feat instead of overlapping it; they have different triggers.

[TerrickTerran]

I've enjoyed this competition a lot. Can't wait to see the final winner.

Oh and another vote for Soulborn.

[dextercorvia]

The only complaint:

I'll accept that. I was thinking that the trip ability and Knockdown overlapped. I'll award +0.5 in elegance.

[Amechra]

Places, Everyone, Places!

{table=head]ENTRY|PLACE|TOTALS|AVERAGE
Maxwell, by OMGPonies|GOLD|49|4.083
Dusk Glitter, by Zaq|SILVER|45.5|3.792
Vy'ger, by Cog|Third|35.5|2.958
Homogenous Sapience, by KoboldCleric|Fourth|34.5|2.875
Leonardo Atuin, by kestrel404|Fifth|26.5|2.208[/table]

Great jobs, everyone.

Now, I accidentally copypasta'd the promise for a trophy from the usual contest. I just noticed this now. This leaves me with three options:
-We can ignore it like the horrible, horrible mistake it was.
-I can find an artist to make the trophies (if any are willing), OR
-??? Profit?

I'll go set up the next thread now (still steeped in shame for being a horrible organizer.)

[Amechra]

A link to our next glorious competition! (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=11119604#post11119604)

[Zaq]

I got second! Awesome! I surprised myself with how elegant Dusk turned out to be. I mean, I combined the Divine Mind with friggin' Truenaming, for Pun-Pun's sake! I bet Craft: Basketweaving helped, though.

I'm a little disappointed that if anyone noticed Dusk's rather heavy My Little Pony theme, they didn't admit it. :smalltongue: I was proud of that. It started when I realized that the theme song count very easily be stretched to fit the semi-standard format for submitting an Iron Chef build. From there, I realized that the Divine Mind makes a decent support character and minion master, so I went with the "OMG friendship is magic" theme, playing it as over-the-top as I reasonably could without getting absurd (silly, sure, but not absurd). I'll be honest, though, I was looking for an excuse to bring the "dude, cohorts and pets have low CRs, so Truenaming works on them even without crazy investment!" thing into Iron Chef for quite a while, and E6 (with its low CRs and its preponderance of feats) just seemed like the absolutely perfect opportunity. I'd imagine that more than a few people guessed which entry was mine, but hey, I was obviously angling for Originality points, and I daresay I succeeded.

Congrats to everyone, though, and especially Mr. PONIES. Maxwell was a hell of a build. Good show all around!

Oh, and did enough folks vote for honorable mention to make it worth, well, mentioning? Or did that just not really materialize?

[Amechra]

No one voted for honorable mention. At all.

Please do so for the next contest, people.

[Akal Saris]

Oh, I assumed that was the chairman's choice. Vy'ger likely would have had my honorable mention then.

Congrats to everyone, especially the 1st time contestants! :smallsmile:

[dextercorvia]

I'm sorry to do this so late. I just realized that I made a mistake about the dragonborn warforged thing. This would have given Leonardo an extra 0.5 in elegance, at least. I know it doesn't change any of the rankings, but I wanted to set the record straight.

[kestrel404]

I didn't particularly feel like challenging you on that because most of the tricks Leo used required a favorable GM interpretation of the rules. Although I'm a bit sad that a single level of Ardent and 1 feat is more powerful than 5 class levels of Divine mind - while they DO outshine the Divine Mind portion, I was using them to allow the divine mind to actually act as a REAL psionic character in e6, instead of a two-trick pony who can never pick up new powers via feats.

[dextercorvia]

FWIW, I really liked the idea. Psycarnum Infusion is one of my favorite trick builders.

Re: Dragonborn Warforged. I had asked on the Q&A by RAW and got a no. I must have been so upset about it that I didn't see that Mr. Ponies and Curmudgeon came back to set the record straight.

[OMG PONIES]

We do what we can. :smallbiggrin: