Iron Chef... Appetizer Edition! (e6) II

[Amechra]

Yep, you get to do another one of these.

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 Tuesday, June 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:
Player Handbook's's Monk
We will have trophies ABSOLUTELY NO TROPHIES for 1st through 3rd places, as well as a special lack of a trophy for honorable mention. People, vote for honorable mention by PMing me.

Allez optimiser!

Judges


Contestants


The Builds


Past Competitions
Divine Mind (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=197000)

[Dumbledore lives]

You may want to change the cooking time, because time travel is rather difficult. If the date is June 7th I may be able to compete.

[dextercorvia]

I'll judge this one. I would like to warn contestants that there is quite a large body of monk optimization (what an ironic statment). I hope you can come up with something new.

My criteria:

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.

[Vulaas]

Well, I do have a very interesting trick that works great with a monk, I just worry if it's considered in poor taste (yay cooking puns!) to not even start out with a level of monk if I'm making an E6 monk build, even if it fits the flavor perfectly well.

[Zaq]

Wait, how can we have 6 levels of Monk? I only see 2 listed in my book. This is . . . worrisome. What, you thought I was joking? Well, you're right, but you shouldn't be. Go away.

I'll . . . think about joining this one. The hard part this time isn't going to be coming up with something halfway decent . . . it'll be coming up with something halfway original. Rather the opposite of the last one, I dare say. If an idea strikes me, I'll see what I can do. I do have half an idea, but nowhere to really go with it. We shall see.

[BobVosh]

I'll judge, posting criteria after work. (Yes I post at work, No I don't care if I get fired anymore)

[ShneekeyTheLost]

I have several ideas for monk optimization. Some of which even include actual monk levels!

But I am totally unfamiliar with 'E6'. Where might I find more information on the particulars?

[Volthawk]

I have several ideas for monk optimization. Some of which even include actual monk levels!

But I am totally unfamiliar with 'E6'. Where might I find more information on the particulars?

Here you go. (http://www.enworld.org/forum/d-d-legacy-discussion/200754-e6-game-inside-d-d-new-revision.html)

[Amphetryon]

Might submit something for this. No promises.

[gbprime]

I'll enter. I have an idea that avoids the usual suspects of optimization. :smallwink:

[Xodion]

Hmm, I've played a few Monks (I had barely heard of the Divine Mind) so I might give this a shot if I have time. One of them was pretty powerful too, I'll have to see if I can bring him back more optimised than ever! :smallamused:

[Zaq]

Are we using the "LA = reduced PB" rules suggested for E6, or does LA mean HD you're never getting back?

[Amechra]

I think LA=Reduced PB works fine.

Bring on the Phrenic Feral Monks!

[dextercorvia]

I should note that I treat LA roughly the same as flaws. :smallamused:

Nothing to see here.

[Zaq]

As do I when I'm judging, Mr. corvia, but since it's as official a part of the E6 rules as any other, it's worth throwing out there.

I . . . may have an idea. If I can make it humorous and push past the one big trick I've found for it, I may enter. No promises.

[dextercorvia]

As do I when I'm judging, Mr. corvia, but since it's as official a part of the E6 rules as any other, it's worth throwing out there.

I . . . may have an idea. If I can make it humorous and push past the one big trick I've found for it, I may enter. No promises.

I'll read into it further to make sure, but I consider it as a optional a rule in E6 as I do 3.5. Its been a while since I've read that part though, so I'll reread before judging. If anyone feels it is crucial to their build and wants to make a case before hand, I'd find that more refreshing than a challenge anyway.

[Zaq]

I'll read into it further to make sure, but I consider it as a optional a rule in E6 as I do 3.5. Its been a while since I've read that part though, so I'll reread before judging. If anyone feels it is crucial to their build and wants to make a case before hand, I'd find that more refreshing than a challenge anyway.

That's a weird road to go down. Me, I believe that no rules are optional . . . or, perhaps more accurately, that all rules are optional to the same degree. No rules are truly more or less optional than the other. There are just rules that you're accustomed to ignoring.

Now, in vanilla 3.5, treating LA as a reduced PB would definitely be a houserule . . . but in E6, my understanding is that it's more or less baked into the system, as it were. In a vanilla 3.5 game, if I were GMing, I'd ban 95% of all LA races and templates out of hand, because I really don't like dealing with them . . . but that's no less a houserule than if I banned Druids because I don't want to deal with them. I wouldn't personally chafe under either, and everything is subject to GM purview, but that doesn't mean that anything in particular is more or less optional than anything else, since anything can be tweaked or banned.

I'm not willing to belabor the point. It's highly unlikely that I'll need LA anyway. I just want to know if it's on the table.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

On the topic of LA, I believe it was directly answered:


Q: With only 6 levels, how do races with a level adjustment work?

If you use races with a level adjustment, the 6th level cap is a big issue. Use the point buy rules in the DMG as follows:
LA Point buy
+0 32
+1 25
+2 18
+3 10
+4 00

Thus, +LA races should start with zero LA, but use the point buy listed here. Keep in mind the difference between LA and racial hit dice (the two combine to give starting ECL).

It's an interesting game, one which a monk might do well in. I've got some ideas, anyways.

Too bad Wholeness of Body is 7th level...

Questions for judges:

How do you feel about the following options:

* Variant Class Features from UA/SRD
*ACF's from other splatbooks
* Using races from various MM or other splatbook sources, possibly obscure ones, even if they might be +0 LA, but have racial abilities which mesh with the conceptual design of the character
* Alignment changes mid-character build, to be able to take classes that prohibit Lawful alignments (i.e. 'I started out x alignment, then I had a Life Changing Event and moved to Y alignment' kind of thing)
* How strict are you on adhering to alignment restrictions on classes
* How strict are you on multiclassing penalties (and on the monk's specific restriction on not going back to monk once you leave it)
* How bad do you hit someone in Elegance or Use of Ingredient for one-level dips?
* TWF and Monk Unarmed Attack. Do they work together? Would you hit someone in Elegance for it? Would it be a minor hit (shady rules interpretation) or a major one (blatant rules violation)?

[dextercorvia]

You know, I honestly don't know what I was thinking earlier. The closest I can figure is that I was thinking buy-off, but just saying LA, but that doesn't quite fit either, since the reduced point buy isn't a buy off.

I'm going to scratch what I said before.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

What happens with RHD?

[dextercorvia]

What happens with RHD?

I'm almost positive those count against ECL.

[Xodion]

Questions for judges:

How do you feel about the following options:

* Variant Class Features from UA/SRD
*ACF's from other splatbooks
* Using races from various MM or other splatbook sources, possibly obscure ones, even if they might be +0 LA, but have racial abilities which mesh with the conceptual design of the character
* Alignment changes mid-character build, to be able to take classes that prohibit Lawful alignments (i.e. 'I started out x alignment, then I had a Life Changing Event and moved to Y alignment' kind of thing)
* How strict are you on adhering to alignment restrictions on classes
* How strict are you on multiclassing penalties (and on the monk's specific restriction on not going back to monk once you leave it)
* How bad do you hit someone in Elegance or Use of Ingredient for one-level dips?
* TWF and Monk Unarmed Attack. Do they work together? Would you hit someone in Elegance for it? Would it be a minor hit (shady rules interpretation) or a major one (blatant rules violation)?

I'm not a judge and can't really comment on the rest, but this Wizards article (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/rg/20070410a) says that you can use Monk unarmed strikes for TWF, but you can't use TWF and Flurry together. It's a pretty useful article for monks, I read through it for an idea for Incandescent Champion.

[dextercorvia]

On the topic of LA, I believe it was directly answered:



It's an interesting game, one which a monk might do well in. I've got some ideas, anyways.

Too bad Wholeness of Body is 7th level...

Questions for judges:

How do you feel about the following options:

* Variant Class Features from UA/SRD
*ACF's from other splatbooks
* Using races from various MM or other splatbook sources, possibly obscure ones, even if they might be +0 LA, but have racial abilities which mesh with the conceptual design of the character
* Alignment changes mid-character build, to be able to take classes that prohibit Lawful alignments (i.e. 'I started out x alignment, then I had a Life Changing Event and moved to Y alignment' kind of thing)
* How strict are you on adhering to alignment restrictions on classes
* How strict are you on multiclassing penalties (and on the monk's specific restriction on not going back to monk once you leave it)
* How bad do you hit someone in Elegance or Use of Ingredient for one-level dips?
* TWF and Monk Unarmed Attack. Do they work together? Would you hit someone in Elegance for it? Would it be a minor hit (shady rules interpretation) or a major one (blatant rules violation)?

Variant Classes, VCF's, and ACF's are fair game as far as I'm concerned. +0LA races are always welcome. If an alignment change can be justified in the backstory, and doesn't result in clashes (Monk going to Barbarian), I'll allow a drift. Pendulum swings are more inelegant. A build that would have multiclassing penalties would take a hit in elegance. Going back to Monk without a specific exception (Drunken Master comes to mind, but I can't recall for sure.) would be illegal. A one level dip can be as elegant as you make it. I'd give a small hit to UoSI, but that could be earned back if the dip enhanced the secret ingredient sufficiently. There was a Druid dip in the Divine Mind competition that I think exemplified this.

My view is that you may TWF and Flurry with unarmed strikes. I know it isn't perfectly RAW, but I think the RAW is flawed there. Being able to treat your UAS as not off-hand was supposed to be a buff not a penalty.

[OMG PONIES]

Just got back from vacation, so I won't have time to submit a proper build by Tuesday. Which can mean only one thing--I'll judge.

[Zonugal]

This being my first foray into E6, how many "extra" feats do we get beyond the typical 1st, 3rd & 6th level ones?

[Amechra]

Well, you get an unlimited amount (1 for every 5000xp you gain after 6th), but we're only looking for the 5 and 10 marks.

[Vulaas]

What if your build matures before getting any of those 'bonus' feats?

[dextercorvia]

Then show that you can stay strong by adding feats.

[gbprime]

Build submitted. Good luck all. :smallcool:

[Zaq]

I've got a solid idea. I just need to bring it home. I hope fervently to get it in under the deadline.

EDIT: Build submitted. Let's do this. Now everyone gets to see my not-exactly-awesome writing skills.

[Amechra]

I apologize with lateness, I had to work on my history paper (woo, 5-7 page review on the historic verity of Gone with the Wind!)

Everything will be up momentarily.

[Amechra]

Everybody was kung-fu fighting...


Ardere

Human – Lawful Neutral – Monk 4 / Wizard (Transmuter) 2

Image
http://i.imgur.com/Vdee2.jpg
Backstory
From earliest childhood, Marcus Ardere had a problem. When he got angry, he would… heat up. Usually he would just be uncomfortable to be around (those of you with small children know this already when they get angry), but every once in a while he would actually burst into flame. His parents shielded their son as best they could, and being from a well off family, his house was less flammable than others, but he managed to nearly burn it down when he was nine. (They never liked the solarium anyway… great place for a patio.)

The search for a tutor who could handle the child was on. He showed no particular aptitude for sorcery, but was possessed of a … well… burning intellect… so Marcus’ parents finally managed to apprentice him to Loremaster Jessim Aine, a scholarly Transmuter of some note. (A large undisclosed sum was reportedly also involved.) At first, Marcus was just as much a research subject as he was an assistant, but eventually Jessim was able to work out that the boy’s power stemmed from a repressed elemental bloodline and was therefore not all that valuable. So he got to work on taming Marcus’ volatile nature with a series of mental exercises and study. He could invoke his immolation power consciously now, but it still tended to go off when the boy became upset.

In a few short years, Marcus was a capable Transmuter in his own right. It was to his complete surprise then that Jessim introduced him to Brother Ignatus, his next teacher. He had mastered the art of wizardry, but not his own temper, and his master decided to turn him over to the keeping of the Phoenix Disciples of Kossuth. They schooled the youth both in harnessing and controlling his elemental gift. Fire, he learned, was not something to be controlled, but embraced. And once he felt the thrill of channeling and releasing his energies through his own ki, he would never be content to a scholarly life again.

By the end of his 19th year, Brother Marcus Ardere was released upon the world, master of his own inner fires.
The Build

{table=head]STR|DEX|CON|INT|WIS|CHA|-|Level Bonuses
14|14|14|17|8|9|-|+1 INT at 4th[/table]
{table=head]Level|Class|Base Attack|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Skills|Feats|Class Features

1st|Wizard 1|
+0|
+0|
+0|
+2| Concentration 4, Craft (Alchemy) 4, Kno (Arcane) 4, Kno (Religion) 4, Kno (The Planes) 4, Spellcraft 4|Precocious Apprentice, Fiery Burst, Scribe Scroll|Transmuter Specialist (No Ill/Ench), Sudden Shift ACF

2nd|Wizard 2|
+1|
+0|
+0|
+3| Concentration 5, Craft (Alchemy) 5, Kno (Arcane) 5, Kno (Religion) 5, Kno (The Planes) 5, Spellcraft 5|-|-

3rd|Monk 1|
+2|
+2|
+2|
+5| Concentration 6, Kno (Arcane) 6, Kno (Religion) 6, Tumble 5|Carmendine Monk|Flurry of Blows, Unarmed Strike, Phoenix Disciple Substitution (Purifying Flame)

4th|Monk 2|
+2|
+3|
+3|
+6| Balance 5, Concentration 7, Kno (Arcane) 7, Kno (Religion) 7, Tumble 6|-|Evasion
5th|Monk 3|
+3|
+3|
+3|
+6| Balance 8, Concentration 8, Craft (Alchemy) 6, Kno (Arcane) 8, Kno (Religion) 8, Tumble 8|-|Phoenix Disciple Substitution (Resist Fire 5)

6th|Monk 4|
+4|
+4|
+4|
+7| Balance 9, Concentration 9, Craft (Alchemy) 8, Kno (Arcane) 9, Kno (Religion) 9, Kno (The Planes) 6, Tumble 9|Improved Grapple|Ki strike (magic), slow fall 20’[/table]
{table=head]XP Total|Additional Feats
20,000|Scorpion’s Grasp
25,000|Improved Natural Attack
30,000|Fire Heritage
35,000|Martial Study – Burning Blade
40,000|Martial Study – Fire Riposte
45,000|Martial Study - Foehammer
50,000|Martial Stance – Martial Spirit
55,000|Sudden Recovery
60,000|Scorpion’s Resolve
65,000|Scorpion’s Sense [/table]
Spells per day and Spells Known
{table=head]Level|0|1|2|Wizard Spells in Spellbook

1st|4|3|*|All Cantrips (No Illusion or Enchantment), 1st (Comprehend Languages, Enlarge Person, Feather Fall, Mage Armor, Obscuring Mist, Ray of Enfeeblement)

2nd|5|4|*|1st (Fist of Stone, Karmic Aura) [/table]

* = Ardere receives the 2nd level spell Balor Nimbus from the Precocious Apprentice feat, and may cast it once per day with an 80% chance of success... but there are no restrictions in scribing scrolls thereof.
Level Highlights

NOTE –The concept is a monk that can project fire, both to enhance his attacks and as area effect damage. First level wizard spells (most notably Fist of Stone and Mage Armor) combined with the ability to use his INT for armor class instead of his wisdom provide a surprisingly capable fighter. I chose Balor Nimbus as his Precocious Apprentice spell as it is both Fire Based and Transmutation, which stays tight to the character concept. He lags in base attack bonus at first, but catches up to what a normal monk would be by 5th level. The build includes Tome of Battle maneuvers at higher levels without dipping into a class from that book, and gets more of it’s core content from the fire aspect of the build out of Sandstorm, Planar Handbook, and substitution levels from Champions of Valor (the only setting specific reference used). I resisted the urge to use an image of a firebender from the Avatar series, but the motif is definitely there.

Level 3 – SWEET SPOT - Brother Marcus Ardere has everything he needs to complete his character concept at this level, so it is the sweet spot for the build. He may be but a first level monk, but he can shoot 2d6 area blasts of flame at will, set his fists alight (once a day, but still…), he can fly briefly and run up walls, and use spells like Mage Armor and Fist of Stone to increase his melee power. Carmendine Monk is used to put his wizard stat to good use for AC, and grant bonus movement at this level. While he can set himself alight with a Balor Nimbus 80% of the time he tries, doing so eliminates his Fiery Burst ability for the day, so there is no real need to do so at this level. He has no real equipment needs at this level.

Level 6 – He continues to get better at what he does. Evasion, Fire Resistance, and more uses of Purifying Flame are useful, but it is Improved Grapple that makes other tactics available now. This makes Balor Nimbus a better spell to throw around, and by now he’s had time to scribe a few scrolls of it so he doesn’t have to take his Fiery Burst ability offline to use it. Carmendine Monk cannot get him a damage bonus at this level, so it is used for either more armor class or more movement, and still the lovely INT bonus to AC. Still no real equipment needs, but a Lesser Rod of Extend Spell or a stat boost item would be nice. He has multiple scrolls of all his combat spells now and might have acquired a few more spells known.

Five Feats – After five additional feats, Brother Marcus Adere has gotten more in touch with his elemental self. The inclusion of the Scorpion’s Grasp feat allows him to grapple after any normal hit and thus Balor Nimbus is much more useful; scrolls of that spell are something he keeps in ready supply. Improved Natural Attack and Fire Heritage increase his damage output, as does the Burning Blade maneuver from the Desert Wind school. He’s also picked up Fire Riposte so he can deal 4d6 fire damage to anyone who hits him as an immediate action. Items continue to be nice but not essential (boosting physical stats, INT, or natural attacks).

Ten Feats – He continues to increase his capabilities with the next batch of feats. A few lessons in the Devoted Spirit school provide him with Foehammer for a better knockout punch and the Martial Spirit stance so he has a ready auxiliary source of healing during fights. Sudden recovery allows him to repeat a maneuver, usually either Foehammer or Fire Riposte. And two more Scorpion feats from Sandstorm allow him to perceive foes nearby without actually seeing them (and ripe for a wand of glitterdust, a fiery burst, or some more mundane response). Equipment still not needed, wish list as previous.
Source Books
{table=head]Sourcebook|Class/Race|Feats
Champions of Valor|Phoenix Disciple Sub|Carmendine Monk
Complete Arcane|-|Precocious Apprentice
Complete Mage|-|Fiery Burst
Monster Manual|-|Improved Natural Attack
Planar Handbook|-|Fire Heritage
Player’s Handbook|Monk, Wizard|Improved Grapple, Scribe Scroll
Player’s Handbook 2|-|Immediate Magic (Sudden Shift)
Sandstorm|-|Scorpion’s Grasp, Scorpion’s Recovery, Scorpion’s Sense
Tome of Battle|-|Martial Stance, Martial Study, Sudden Recovery [/table]

[Amechra]

Those cats were fast as lightning...


“I appreciate your help in tossing out those rowdies. I take it you're a knight of some kind, Mr. . . .?”

The light-skinned mountain dwarf squinted through his helmet at the barkeep, who was already pouring him a drink in gratitude. “McStonefist. Kolte McStonefist. And I'm no knight. I'm a Fighter.”

“A fighter?” The barkeep, a calm and personable half-orc who was no stranger to adventurers, raised an eyebrow. “I've never seen a fighter summon rocks out of the ground like that. That mess on my floor IS going to go away, right?”

“Yeah, sure, sure. And I didn't say fighter, I said Fighter.” Kolte's plate mail clanked as he hoisted himself onto the bar stool, setting his spiked chain next to him. “Anyway, the rocks are a gift from Balinor. I did spend some time in the service of the temple of the Sovereign Host before I went back to militia training. They do favor me now and again. But no, when you get down to it, I'm just a Fighter, and I'll thank you not to imply otherwise.”

The barkeep peered over his spectacles and blinked. “I'd never impugn a dwarf's word, my good sir, but I clearly saw you—well, didn't see you—go invisible as that red-headed one took a swing at you.” Without being asked, the barkeep handed Kolte another mug—he'd been in the business long enough to be willing to give out a drink or two on the house if it kept an interesting adventurer talking and occupied. “Surely you're more than a simple fi—er, Fighter if you can do that?”

The Fighter's blond beard bristled. “Humph! Some well-traveled retired adventurer you are! You don't mean to tell me that you've never heard of the Tower Shield of Invisibility? Fighters can use tower shields. I'm a Fighter. It's the same thing.”

“I certainly didn't see you with any tower shield—”

“That's because it's invisible,” Kolte interrupted with an exasperated sigh.

The half-orc and the mountain dwarf sat in silence for a while. Kolte finished his drink and started fishing through a pouch he produced from somewhere in his massive armor. “I'd take another one of those,” he said, setting a small handful of round metallic objects on the counter.

The barkeep scooped up the coins, looked at them for a second, picked out two shuriken from the pile of metal, and set them down in front of his customer. “These are yours, I believe. They must have gotten mixed in with your money. I'd be worried about cutting myself on one, but with the skill with which you put one through that thug's chest, I image you're pretty familiar with them.”

“They're . . . foci,” the mountain dwarf said gruffly. “Everyone in the McStonefist clan can use 'em. We're all Fighters. We've got proficiencies to spare.” He set the shuriken next to his spiked chain.

“No need to get defensive, sir. I meant nothing by it. I was just complimenting your skills.” The barkeep handed Kolte his drink, a nice Sarlona pale ale the same color as the customer's hair. “So your clan's all Fighters, eh? I'd swear I've heard the name McStonefist before. You're in the tunneling industry, right?”

“Finest underground travel in Khorvaire,” Kolte replied. “We're all capable of pitching in to defend it, too. Gotta keep the tunnels safe somehow.”

The barkeep looked over Kolte's shoulder. “I believe your party is calling you, Mr. McStonefist. Thank you again for your help.” Kolte set his empty tankard down on the counter. As the barkeep took the mug and turned to set it aside to be cleaned, he heard a set of extremely rapid clanking footsteps. When he turned back, the mountain dwarf was gone.

Build:
Kolte McStonefist

LG mountain dwarf (MM 93)

Cleric of the Sovereign Host 1 / Monk 5
[Disclaimer: I cannot be held accountable for Mr. McStonefist if you refer to him as a monk, cleric, or anything other than a Fighter.]

STR: 15 (8 pts) + 1 (4th level) = 16 [+3]
DEX: 13 (5 pts) [+1]
CON: 12 (4 pts) + 2 (race) = 14 [+2]
INT: 13 (5 pts) [+1]
WIS: 14 (6 pts) [+2]
CHA: 12 (4 pts) – 2 (race) = 10 [0]

HP (taking averages): 42.5

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

1st|Cleric 1|
+0|
+2|
+0|
+2|Craft: Armorsmithing 4; Tumble 2 (cc), Balance 2 (cc)|Earth Devotion (bonus), Travel Devotion|Magic Domain, Earth Domain (traded for Earth Devotion), Turn Undead

2nd|Monk 1|
+0|
+4|
+2|
+4|Tumble +3 (5), Jump 1, Balance +1 (3)|Improved Unarmed Strike (bonus), Stunning Fist (bonus)|Improved Unarmed Strike, Stunning Fist, Decisive Strike [–2] (PHB2), Unarmed Damage 1d6

3rd|Monk 2|
+1|
+5|
+3|
+5|Tumble +1 (6), Jump +2 (3), Craft: Armorsmithing +1 (5), Balance +1 (4)|Combat Reflexes (bonus), Combat Expertise|Combat Reflexes, Invisible Fist (Exemplars of Evil)

4th|Monk 3|
+2|
+5|
+3|
+5|Tumble +1 (7), Jump +2 (5), Craft: Armorsmithing +1 (6), Balance +1 (5)||Still Mind

5th|Monk 4|
+3|
+6|
+4|
+6|Tumble +1 (8), Jump +2 (7), Craft: Armorsmithing +1 (7), Balance +1 (6)||Ki Strike (magic), Wall Walker (Dungeonscape), Unarmed Damage 1d8

6th|Monk 5|
+3|
+6|
+4|
+6|Tumble +1 (9), Jump +2 (9), Craft: Armorsmithing +1 (8), Balance +1 (7)|Improved Trip|Resistant Body: Fire (Planar Handbook), Decisive Strike [–1]
[/table]

Epic bonus feats:

1: EWP: Spiked Chain
2: Knock-Down (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/divine/divineAbilitiesFeats.htm#knockDown)
3: Extra Turning
4: Martial Study: Counter Charge
5: Martial Stance: Step of the Wind
6: Midnight Dodge
7: Karmic Strike
8: Shape Soulmeld: Mauling Gauntlets
9: Ability Focus: Stunning Fist
10: Open Least Chakra: Hands

Tactics:
Kolte is a heavily armored monk. The key to the build is the Decisive Strike ACF from PHB2, which lets you make one attack with an unarmed strike or special monk weapon as a full-round action. You take a small penalty (–2 initially, –1 later) on that attack roll, but not on any others. However, that attack and all the other attacks you make before the start of your next turn do double damage, and if you use a Stunning Fist with any of them, the DC increases by 2. Unlike Flurry of Blows, Decisive Strike has no restrictions about being unarmored. Furthermore, although the initial strike must use a special monk weapon, there is no such stipulation for the other strikes you make in the round. Thus, once he primes himself with a strike with a monk weapon (which includes shuriken, in case there's no foes within range of your unarmed strike; just take one hand off your weapon as a free action, draw the shuriken as ammunition [another free action], throw the shuriken to get into Decisive Strike mode, and put your hand back on your weapon as another free action), Kolte's AoOs hurt, and they hurt a lot.

Kolte is kind of a strange race. The mountain dwarf is found on page 93 of the Monster Manual. I know it's a bit of an obscure race, but I think it's worth it. A mountain dwarf, unlike most creatures, isn't slowed by wearing heavy armor. The Tumble skill says that you can't tumble if your movement speed is impeded by encumbrance or armor, but since a mountain dwarf isn't impeded by that sort of thing, Kolte can tumble in full plate. The mountain dwarf gets some other neat abilities as well, including darkvision, a bonus on saving throws against spells and spell-like abilities, and this neat ability called “stonecunning,” which lets them automatically notice abnormal or new stonework, gives them bonuses related to stone or metal, and has several other features.

Kolte starts out as a cleric, probably wielding a longspear and the heaviest armor he can afford. With Craft: Armorsmithing, that might be a pretty decent set of armor, depending on if the GM lets him spend time smithing before the game starts. Including his bonus from his WIS, he gets three orisons and three 1st-level spells per day, one of which must be Nystul's Magic Aura (which can be spontaneously swapped out for a CLW). Lesser Vigor is a good choice (it's guaranteed to heal you to full at level 1, and will do the same for nearly any party member), but anything will work. His devotion feats are pretty helpful now, but they'll get even more so later on. With three turning attempts per day, you can have two instances of each Devotion feat per day. (You could, if desired, have one Travel and four Earth, but I think you're more likely to want to keep them balanced.) The real fun starts once he starts taking levels in monk. As mentioned, Decisive Strike is an excellent feature, and its use really takes off once you get Combat Reflexes. The full-round action doesn't hurt nearly so much when Travel Devotion can get you where you need to go. Level 3 is an especially good level; Combat Reflexes, Combat Expertise, and Invisible Fist all come online at once. Decisive Strike gets better with each AoO you make, so Combat Reflexes is very handy to have, and Invisible Fist is a great deterrent for making enemies unwilling to attack you (and thus potentially walk away from you and eat a double-damage AoO). Remember that being invisible gives you a +2 to-hit against a target who can't see you, in addition to denying them their DEX bonus to AC. Invisibility is thus useful both offensively and defensively, and Kolte has it nearly at-will. Unlike Evasion, Invisible Fist doesn't care what kind of armor you're wearing, so Kolte doesn't really lose anything by giving up Evasion for it.

As the build starts accumulating feats, it really starts getting good at sending foes crashing to the floor. Improved Trip is the first of many abilities that makes Kolte rather good at tripping, adding to his role as AoO-monkey. Having a spiked chain, of course, adds another +4 (from using a two-handed weapon instead of your fists). Between a +4 from STR (+3 mod, times 1.5 for two-handing it) and a minimum die roll of 2, it's literally impossible not to qualify for Knock-Down on a Decisive Strike. Things get really interesting once Step of the Wind comes online; not only does it let you ignore difficult terrain, but you get a +2 bonus on attack rolls and a +4 bonus on trip attempts against opponents who happen to be standing on difficult terrain. Since Earth Devotion lets you create difficult terrain as an immediate action, this happens rather frequently. Obviously, since Improved Trip lets you make a second swing at an opponent you successfully trip, going Decisive Strike – Knock-Down – trip – Improved Trip gets you two double-damage attacks for the price of one, and then probably another one as your foe tries to stand up.

Between Counter Charge and Earth Devotion, it's rather hard for enemies to charge you, which can be delightfully frustrating for the GM. In addition, judicious use of Earth Devotion's immediate difficult terrain can make it very hard for enemies to tumble past you, making them more likely to provoke your nasty AoOs.

Karmic Strike is quite interesting, and ends up being one of my favorite combos that Kolte has to offer. While the combo is not very complex, it is effective; Kolte activates Karmic Strike and pulls off a Decisive Strike, leaving himself open to attack but perfectly primed to counterattack. If a foe attacks him, he can take an AoO first, and if the enemy is within one square, there's nothing preventing him from using a Stunning Fist on that AoO, and since you're making a Decisive Strike, the DC for that Stunning Fist is higher than normal. (If they're NOT within one square, you can just hit them with your spiked chain and trip them before they get to you.) Since an AoO happens before the action that triggers it, the foe may end up being too stunned to attack you. Even if the Stunning Fist fails, you'll probably trigger a Knock-Down (getting another smack in the process, thanks to Improved Trip), possibly giving your foe enough of an attack penalty that they'll miss you anyway. Karmic Strike or no Karmic Strike, though, Kolte should make liberal use of his five Stunning Fist attacks per day; with Decisive Strike active, the save DC is eventually a respectable 19 (10 + 3 from level + 2 from WIS + 2 form Ability Focus + 2 from Decisive Strike), which is equal to the DC imposed by an 18-INT wizard with Greater Spell Focus in E6 (and who therefore has 3rd-level spells). Not too shabby.

Midnight Dodge functions as more than just a prerequisite for Karmic Strike; it also gives you a point of essentia. Once you pick up the Mauling Gauntlets, that essentia will let you get a +4 to all STR checks, which, of course, includes tripping your foes. What's more, Open Least Chakra: Hands lets you apply that +4 bonus to your unarmed damage as well, making your fists truly competitive with your spiked chain for foes within range.

Kolte's ranks in Craft: Armorsmithing aren't just for flavor. While I try to make as few assumptions about magic items as possible, Kolte is fully capable of making himself a nice set of Dwarven Plate armor (DMG, pg. 220). It's totally nonmagical, so between his ranks in Craft and the racial bonus to Craft checks with metal that mountain dwarves get, Kolte's capable of making it himself for quite a reaosnable price. DR is very effective in E6, and getting DR 3/– is valuable indeed.

Although the build is designed to work just fine with only mundane items, being a cleric with access to the Magic domain gives Kolte the ability to use wands of cleric or wizard spells without rolling. That's right; Kolte can use partially charged wands . . . or fully-charged ones, but we all know that all the cool monks use partially charged wands. Obviously, you'll only rarely want to spend actions in combat buffing, but there are still plenty of good out-of-combat spells that should find a spot in your wand bag, should you have one.

It should be noted that, since clerics are proficient with all simple weapons, unlike most monks, Kolte is proficient with his unarmed strikes.

The other ACFs Kolte uses are simply an attempt to make little-used abilities more useful. Fire damage is more common than nonmagical disease tends to be, and while it's rarely useful to use Slow Fall, running over the heads of enemies who are blocking your path (especially, but not limited to, in a corridor) is something that I believe we can all get behind.

For what it's worth, Kolte's final trip modifier is 3 (STR) + 4 (two-handed weapon) + 4 (Improved Trip) + 4 (Mauling Gauntlets, 1 essentia) = +15, or +19 if his foe is on difficult terrain (like that which he creates with Earth Devotion). I dare say that's respectable.

Q & A:
Q: Isn't cleric doing most of the heavy lifting?
A: While your cleric level undeniably helps a lot, I feel that the end result is unquestionably more monk than cleric. Travel Devotion is used to get around the restrictions on the very monklike (and build-critical) Decisive Strike, and since taking the level in cleric makes you proficient with your unarmed strikes, you can actually use one of the monk's most iconic methods of attack. Once Step of the Wind hits the table, Earth Devotion makes you even better at tripping than you already are, which is a very monklike practice. After taking the armor proficiencies (which are concept-critical) and wand use (which all good monks employ, I've been told) into account, I think that the cleric level adds more to Kolte's core monk concept than it takes away. You'll notice that the cleric spells you get naturally, while surely useful, are in no way critical to the build.

Q: How does Karmic Strike work with Stunning Fist? If you prevent the attack, wouldn't Karmic Strike not trigger, dividing by zero and killing us all?
A: Plenty of reactive actions (immediates and AoOs) prevent or obviate the actions that trigger them. You'll also notice that Robilar's Gambit, a feat which acts very similarly to Karmic Strike, specifically mentions that the AoO it grants comes after the hit, while Karmic Strike has no such language preventing the standard rules (i.e., an AoO happens before its trigger) from taking effect. Even if you don't buy that argument, the ability to use Stunning Fist effectively with Decisive Strike should not be ignored, especially if that Stunning Fist happens to be on the AoO an enemy who's trying to stand up grants you.

Q: Mountain dwarf? Isn't that kind of an obscure and cheesy race?
A: Maybe a little bit, but this IS Iron Chef, after all. As I said, it's on page 93 of the Monster Manual. I feel that the mountain dwarf race fits perfectly with the concept I had in mind, and if you find the perfect tool for the job, why not use it?

Q: Full plate? On a monk? Really?
A: Why not? It's better AC (and, once you craft yourself some nice Dwarven Plate, DR as well) than you're likely to get while unarmored, and with careful ACF usage, the restrictions really don't hurt that badly. Besides, now you can tumble in full plate. In what way is that not worth exploring? If you don't understand why that's cool, then my friend, I'm not sure we have anything to discuss. Plenty of monk features (IUS, Wall-Walker, Decisive Strike, Invisible Fist, Still Mind, Resistant Body, Stunning Fist . . .) work just fine in full plate, so it's not like you gave up much.

Q: But don't you lose fast movement?
A: That's the one thing I really couldn't usefully trade away, so it's true, your fast movement class feature kind of lies fallow. However, since the monk's fast movement is an enhancement bonus, pretty much any other speed boost you get wouldn't have stacked with it anyway, so once you have access to some flavor of speed-boosting magic (be it a lucky item you happened to get, a buff from a friendly party member or one of the partially charged wands you might have, or whatever), you're exactly as well off as you would be without the armor restrictions. Overall, though, I genuinely think that the benefits to wearing full plate outweigh the disadvantages.

Q: How do you deal with flying foes?
A: No monk has too many options for dealing with flying enemies (shuriken just don't cut it as a truly threatening ranged option, even if Decisive Strike DOES make them do double damage), but if there's a wall nearby, you can use Wall Walker and a nice Jump check to attempt to reach (and perhaps trip or stun) your foe. Otherwise, readied actions might be your best bet; it's a weakness, but at least it's a weakness you share with most martial E6 characters. If you're lucky enough to have access to a wand of Fly, you're certainly capable of activating it, but I wouldn't presume that you have something like that.

Q; Why is Kolte so hung up on being a Fighter if he doesn't have any levels in fighter?
A: I feel that the answer to this question is self-evident.

Sauces and Pickles:
If you are given the choice of magic items, anything that grants additional turning attempts per day will fuel your two Devotions, which is nice. A selection of wands (however well-charged you like) will come in handy, being careful not to take many (or any) that will burn your actions in combat unless it's REALLY necessary. Stat boosts are always welcome, even though only the Gauntlets of Ogre Power (which eventually conflict with your Mauling Gauntlets once you open your Hands chakra, though you can still shape them to your Arms and choose not to bind them) are available under a strict CL 6 limit for items (ask your GM how hard the CL limits for items are). Boots of Striding and Springing (or any similar speed-boosting items) are quite valuable. The Bracers of Opportunity make you even better at AoOing. A Sparring Dummy of the Master is very expensive and probably out of reach, but taking a 10' step is very nice if you can swing it.

If you like, you can take Mage Slayer instead of something, perhaps ignoring Open Least Chakra. You'd lose your Cleric casting, but that's a small loss if you're into that sort of thing. Shuffle points out of Jump to meet the Spellcraft requirement.

This build honestly doesn't significantly improve with the addition of flaws. I suppose that you can always use another Extra Turning, and you might be able to squeeze Pharaoh's Fist, Pain Touch, or Rapid Stunning in there somewhere, but I don't think it's really that necessary.

Since Kolte's so good at tripping, you could take Mighty Throw instead of Counter Charge for your Martial Study, but that seemed like gilding the lily. Counter Charge gives you an option you didn't already have, rather than making an option you did have somewhat better.

If your GM allows it, Spectral Skirmisher (PHB2) is a really nasty feat to combine with Invisible Fist and Karmic Strike. Among other things, it lets you get an AoO against any enemy that attacks your square while you're invisible, so you can activate Karmic Strike and Decisive Strike, then turn invisible when they swing at you. You'll get an AoO from Spectral Skirmisher, and if they still hit you, you'll get ANOTHER AoO from Karmic Strike. Unfortunately, Spectral Skirmisher requires BAB +6, so by RAW, there's no way for a monk to get it in E6. The same is true for Snap Kick, since it combos beautifully with Decisive Strike.

If you have more stat points to spend, getting DEX to 15 and taking Deft Opportunist (CAdv) is almost surely worth it. You could do this by swapping DEX and STR (possibly squeezing in Weapon Finesse somewhere along the way), but since you can't add too much DEX to your AC and since you like to trip, it didn't seem worth it to me.


Sources:
PHB (Cleric, Monk, all feats not listed elsewhere)
SRD (Knock-Down)
Monster Manual (Mountain dwarf, Ability Focus)
Tome of Battle (Martial Study, Martial Stance)
Magic of Incarnum (Midnight Dodge, Shape Soulmeld, Open Least Chakra)
Complete Warrior (Karmic Strike)
Complete Champion (Travel Devotion, Earth Devotion)
Dungeonscape (Wall-Walker)
Planar Handbook (Resistant Body)
Exemplars of Evil (Invisible Fist)

[Amechra]

In fact it was a little bit frightenin'...


Name: Mordekai Chatterfang the Unwinning
Race: Frostblood Half-Orc
Attributes: Str 14, Dex 16 (4th/+1), Con 14, Int 10, Wis 8, Cha 14 (32 point buy)

Background

Mordekai's story starts out, as can be expected, as a sad one. His father, Brikshank Chatterfang, was orphaned at a young age when his village was overrun by Veykruk raiders. He was discovered half-frozen in a snowdrift by a wandering monk, Master Kybo, who took him to the Monastery of the Eternal Twilight. Despite his orcish heritage, he adapted easily to the rituals and disciplines of the northern monks, and rose quickly through their ranks. His mastery of the Northern Jade Owlpanda style earned him the respect and admiration of his peers, and under his guidance (and along with a suitable amount of ass-kicking), the monks were able to negotiate a treaty with the local orc tribes. Impressed by both his martial and diplomatic prowess, his peers voted him to replace their retiring leader as Grand Master of the Northern Fist of the Jade Owlpanda.

His tenure as Grand Master was shortened soon afterwards when Brikshanks fell for a traveling circus acrobat and sword-dancer, Thylissa Degris, who just happened to be the target of unrequited obsession of Ni Wang, the Grand Master of the Southern Fist of the Jade Owlpanda. When Mordekai was born, Brikshanks relinquished his Grand Master position at the monastery and joined Thylissa on the road, and they were happy for many years. However, long story short, the jealous Ni Wang tracked down the former Grand Master, and while Mordekai could only helplessly watch, Ni Wang killed Mordekai's father and raped his mother. The young Mordekai, barely a older than a toothling, swore vengeance against Ni Wang and all of the monks of the Fist of the Jade Owlpanda. Setting out by himself beyond the Tundrarift Forest to the north, Mordekai sought out the remnants of the Chatterfang tribe and find a teacher who could teach him the old ways of the Wolf Totem and the Spirit Lion. The Chatterfang tribe, not entirely sure what to do with the angry, determined youth, told him to go seek out the crazy old hermit that lived on top of the Iceraven glacier mostly to get rid of him. Little did they know that the crazy old hermit was in fact Master Kybo, who had rescued the orphaned Brikshanks so many years ago, and taught him the secrets of the Northern Jade Owlpanda style.

Under the demanding tutelage of Master Kybo, Mordekai worked tirelessly over the next few years to master not only the Jade Owlpanda style, but also the graceful battle dancing learned from his mother, and the unorthodox whirling savagery of his Chatterfang ancestors. On his 18th birthday, Master Kybo declared that training was over. The time had come for Mordekai to travel south to the Monastery of the Golden Waterfall, enter the Kishin Battle Arena, challenge the Fists of the Jade Owlpanda, and bring the brutal reign of Grand Master Ni Wang to an end.

Even Longer Background, Just In Case the Last Section Didn't Bore You To Tears

1st Battle
Master Kybo: "I see you have returned from the Battle Arena, young Mordekai. What have you learned?"

Mordekai: "Forgive me, Master, for I return defeated."

Master Kybo: "I did not ask if you were defeated. I asked, what did you learn?"

Mordekai: "The monks refused to let me fight. They called me names, and spat on me, and said I did not have enough honor to issue a challenge, and even if I could, none of them would even shame themselves to even touch me. But I refused to leave, and eventually they shoved a young initiate out who agreed to accept my challenge. He was barely a first circle belt, in a gi at least two sizes too large, too young to fight in the arena. After his first strike, I knew I could defeat him easily, but after a leg sweep, his gi was pulled aside, and I saw deep purple bruises along his back, in spots where the older students like to hit the weaker students so the masters don't notice them. After that, I avoided hitting his back and lowered my guard every so often. When he began to hit back even harder, and I could see him gaining confidence, I feigned and injury and let him win."

Master Kybo nodded: "Good. The greatest wisdom comes not from your victories, but from your defeats."

2nd Battle
Master Kybo: "You are very late returning from the Battle Arena, Mordekai. What happened this time?"

Mordekai: "The monks refused to allow me to fight in the arena again, so I picked the largest one, a brute named Mogu, and challenged him to a drinking match instead. He first refused to drink from my jug, until I took a good swig and challenged his courage. Then we traded drink for drink. Just as I could see the effects of the centipede poison and oil of taggit start to hit Mogu, I said my stomach was bothering me, and I conceded the match to Mogu. He was out cold by the time I got through the door. I hope you will forgive my lateness, Master, but once the potion of delay poison wore off, I was unconscious for some time."

3rd Battle
Master Kybo: "I see you returning from the Battle Arena yet again, Mordekai. Were you allowed to fight?"

Mordekai: "Yes, master, although I return without victory yet again. Mogu was quite upset over the drinking match, even though I pointed out that he had won. After one or two factually accurate but somewhat obscurely worded comments about his parentage, he angrily challenged me to fight him in the arena. Since I was being challenged, I was allowed to pick the terrain, and I chose to fight on the bamboo poles. Mogu has apparently never encountered the sweeping techniques of the Wolf Totem tribe, for whenever he got close, I knocked him off the poles and he was unable to counter. After falling several times, he demanded that I fight him on the ground. And so I did, but he was unable to counter my sweeps even on the ground, and spent so much time getting back on his feet that he could never land a solid strike. Eventually, Mogu refused to stand, so I announced to the arena that it would be dishonorable to strike an opponent who was unable to stand on his own feet, and forfeited the match, telling Mogu that I would greatly appreciate a rematch whenever he was feeling sturdier on his feet."

Master Kybo: "And what did you learn from this fight?"

Mordekai: "As you taught me, Master: he who loses his temper, has already lost the fight. But more importantly, after the rest of the monks saw me fight, they no longer dare to call me names or spit on me. As I was leaving the arena, Grand Master Ni Wang yelled out, perhaps I was not fit to fight Mogu, and that perhaps I should challenge someone closer to my abilities. And I asked him who that would be, and he called out Master Zeru. And so I challenged Master Zeru to a battle next week, and he accepted."

Master Kybo nodded: "One of Ni Wang's favorite assassins, and master of the Invisible Fist technique. Are you ready to face him?"

Mordekai: "Yes master, I believe so."

4th Battle
Master Kybo: "Mordekai, is your match against Master Zeru finished?"

Mordekai: "Yes, master. The Torch Bug Paste rendered his Invisible Fist technique useless. Once I entered the Whirling Frenzy, he could not keep up with my strikes. As I expected, he resorted to poisoned daggers and shuriken, but I had already drunk a potion of neutralize poison before the match. When he saw the poison had no effect, he poisoned himself, making it look like I had done so, and threw up. Ni Wang was furious, accused me of cheating, and disqualified me. I denied his accusations, and challenged him to a match to prove my innocence. But he refused, and stated that only a contestant who as earned the Fifth Circle can challenge the Grand Master. After seeing Master Zeru fail, and after being accused of cheating, none of the Fifth Circle monks will risk accepting my challenge. Not only may I win, but they would have to face Ni Wang's vengeance."

Master Kybo: "Patience, young one. Those who lie down with dogs, get up with fleas. And so it follows, if you need to know where to best bite a dog, then ask a flea."

5th Battle
Master Kybo: "Did my advice help, young one?"

Mordekai: "Yes, master. Ni Wang forbid all of the monks to speak to me, but when I spoke to the mules who carry the water into the monastery, I learned a great deal. For example, when I asked about the Fifth Circle monks, the mules told me that Master Lo Peng hates Ni Wang the most, and which wine Lo Peng loves the best. After presenting him with a suitable gift, Lo Peng enlightened me on some of the lesser known details in the rules of the Battle Arena, and we agreed to a match. According to the rules, a contestant can attain the Fifth Circle by defeating another Fifth Circle contestant, or by fighting him to a draw. So I met Lo Peng in the arena and challenged him to a game of naughts and crosses. We drew lines in the sand, and before Ni Wang realized what was happening and could stop the match, the game was a draw and Lo Peng shook my hand. Then I turned to Ni Wang, announced that due to the draw I had now attained the Fifth Circle, and challenged him to defend his title of Grand Master next week.

Master Kybo: "You have learned well, young one. May the luck of your ancestors continue to smile upon you."

6th battle
Master Kybo: "Mordekai! There you are! I hear a great deal of commotion, and the townsfolk are in a great uproar! What has happened?"

Mordekai: "I beat that worthless scrap of sniveling humanity calling himself Ni Wang into a bloody, quivering puddle of broken bones and pathetic weeping. When I was no longer satisfied with the sound of his bones breaking, I called out that this pathetic excuse for a monk could not possibly be Ni Wang, perhaps it was only Ti Ni Wang or No Wang, and that the real coward should show himself, and defend the title of Grand Master, for this lump of slime could not possibly represent the mightiest Fist of the Jade Owlpanda warriors. And then I walked out of the arena. The order has no Grand Master now, at least none that dare show their face in public."

Master Kybo nodded: "Soon, the monks will come here, and beg you to take the title of Grand Master. What will be your answer?"

Mordekai: "I will refuse, for I cannot say that I sought the title for any reason other than vengeance. If I cannot accept with a pure heart, then I might soon find myself as ruled by tyranny as the last Grand Master."

Master Kybo: "While you claim your heart is not pure, you speak with such a deep wisdom that the mantle of leadership may find a way beyond such refusals. But that is for another day. Perhaps, if the monks are willing, they may accept an old leader in place of a new one."


The Build

http://www.famousquotesabout.com/quoteImage/306752/Completely-missing-the-point.jpg
(Note: Yes, I'm aware I'm going to lose a big chunk of points, if not outright disqualification, for not using any levels of monk. To which I say: I think this is still a better monk build than anything you can put together with monk levels. So I'll take my lumps.)

Bonus feats beyond 6th level
{table=head]XP|Feat
20,000|Improved Dragon Wings
25,000|Bonus Essentia
30,000|Planar Touchstone (Oxyrhynchus)
35,000|Shape Soulmeld (Dragon Claws)
40,000|Multiattack
[/table]


Design and Tactics

I wanted to design a full BAB "non-monk" unarmed fighter that could beat the living snot out of any other monk build while still retaining most of the flavor and concept of a monk. The "sweet spot" is supposed to be around ECL 6, but there were a few things that I couldn't quite fit into the first 6 levels (such as Oxyrhynchus or more soulmelds/natural attacks). I could have put in evasion with Impulse Boots bound to the feet chakra, but I decided to go with Thunderstep Boots instead. I figured 10 straight rounds of pouncing charge + whirling frenzy + sonic damage + save vs. stun was a lot scarrier than "I made my Ref save, no damage". I ripped out all of the Barbarian/Ranger class features I could find with ACFs or bonus feats, with the idea that they were so much infinitely better than Still Mind, Slow Fall, and Purity of Body. The one exception was Favored Enemy, which I switched to Rival Organization for story reasons. Favored Enemy for Arcane Hunter (Complete Mage) would probably be a much better swap. I went with Planar Ranger (Unearthed Arcana) because I love grabbing unusual abilities with the Planar Touchstone feat, and that seemed like the easiest way to get Knowlege: the Planes as a class skill.

General tactics:
1st) Ok, no flurry so you only get one unarmed strike per round... but you've got +1 BAB and no penalty on your attack, so you're probably going to hit more often than that poor bastard monk anyway.
2nd) Whirling Frenzy kicks in, along with Pounce, but that only works when Whirling Frenzy is active... maybe 5 rounds a day. But those will be an extremely painful 5 rounds.
3rd) Improved Trip is now available, 3 levels before monks get it, and this should be your bread-and-butter standard tactic until TWF+Pounce kicks in later.
4th) Track... meh... don't worry, we'll get rid of this later. For now, keep tripping. As I mentioned earlier, swapping Favored Enemy for Arcane Hunter is lots of fun, and you can swap the stupid "this animal is angry" Wild Empathy for speak with animals/plants 3/day, which can be a goldmine of useful information.
5th) TWF = you've got flurry now, and enough BAB that you're not whiffing every round. You've also got 10 rounds of Travel Devotion + Pounce, throw a little Whirling Frenzy on top of that, and you're a perpetual full attack machine.
6th) Two iterative attacks + TWF + Snap Kick = 4 attacks when Pouncing, possibly 5 when Whirling Frenzy is active. Snap Kick also gives you a mini-flurry on just a move + standard action when Travel Devotion runs out. Thunderstep Boots bound to your feet chakra means you get something similar to Stunning Fist whenever you charge, all day, no limit, plus some extra sonic damage.

I also discovered a couple quirks to Dragonborn of Bahumat I hadn't noticed before. One of the biggest drawbacks is it doesn't work well with humans/azurin/strongheart halflings because they lose their free bonus feat. You can sometimes add Frostblood orcs/half-orcs to that list because while Endurance is usually regarded as almost worthless, they can get a free bonus feat if a class (such as Ranger 3) grants Endurance later. Again, Dragonborn isn't such a great idea because they lose that bonus feat, right? Well, I may get into some rules headaches here, but by RAW, a Frostblood that takes Dragonborn after he takes Ranger 3 and picks up a free bonus feat loses Endurance (which they'll probably never miss anyway) and keeps the bonus feat. And then I reread the last paragraph in RotD p. 10: You can replace one of your existing feats for a "1st-level-only" dragonblood-subtype feat. Again, perfect for Rangers, who get saddled with Track at 1st level and then have to pretend it's useful. Granted, there are only three "1st-level-only" dragonblood-subtype feats, one of which is kobold-only, but still, a tail attack or free featherfall is better than Track, Endurance, Mounted Combat, etc. For Kobolds, it's an interesting way to pick up Dragonwrought *after* 1st level, so you could legally get two 1st-level-only feats, but there are some other drawbacks, like losing your three natural attacks. Still, swapping one of your useless feats for Dragon Wings lets you get a breath weapon *and* pick up flight later for only one additional feat.

Races I had some trouble with, since I wanted to add Frostblood and Desert Half-Orc or Water Orc(Unearthed Arcana) together, but I figured rule-wise getting both Endurance and Run as bonus feats at 1st level would be a little too much...

The biggest weakness in the build is probably the gawdawful Will save, although that can be mitigated later by picking up feats like Iron Will, Cumbrous Will, or a few soulmelds.


Equipment

I designed the build to dish out the most whoopass without any particular equipment in mind, but Gloves of the Balanced Hand (8000 GP, MIC p. 105) with at least a +2 Dex enhancement (+4000 GP) strikes me as awfully "handy".

The short duration of Whirling Frenzy (which doesn't get a Con bonus, so only lasts current Con bonus + 3 rounds) means fatigue could be an issue, so some way to get rid of fatigue will be necessary. Icewild Lichen Paste (50 GP, Secrets of Sarlona p. 138) or potions of lesser restoration should work at low levels, then maybe a Sphere of Awakening (1800 GP, MIC p. 186) or Talisman of Undying Fortitude (8000 GP, MIC p. 188) as funds become available.

A good chunk of WBL should probably be spent on improving that horrible Will save, such as: Cloak/Vest of Resistance, Bracers of Armor with the Mindarmor (+3000 GP, MIC p. 13) enhancement and a Lesser Crystal of Mind Cloaking (4000 GP, MIC p. 25).


Sources

Dragon Magic: Frostblood Half-Orc, Dragon Claws soulmeld

Dragon Compendium: Battle Dancer base class

Unearthed Arcana: Wolf Totem Barbarian, Whirling Frenzy, Urban Ranger variant, Plucky Trait

Complete Champion: Travel Devotion, Spirit Lion Totem ACF, Spiritual Connection ACF

Cityscape Web Enhancement (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20070228a): Rival Organization, Skilled City-Dweller ACF

Magic of Incarnum: Shape Soulmeld, Open Least Chakra, Thunderstep Boots soulmeld, Bonus Essentia

Tome of Battle: Snap Kick

Races of the Dragon: Dragonborn of Bahumat, Dragon Wings, Improved Dragon Wings

Planar Handbook: Planar Touchstone, Oxyrhynchus

[Amechra]

But they fought with expert timing!


Krugar, the Fist of Reason![/I][/B][/SIZE]

Back-story
Atop a high and forgotten mountain Krugar, the Fist of Reason! found acceptance as an abandoned baby left to the monks of the Pheonix Feather. Out of desperation or cowardice the monks could not know, all they could was they had a right to raise this child to be their own. Growing quickly under the tutelage of the monks, Krugar began to inherit their appetite for knowledge and intellectual strength. Scouring the monastery night and day Krugar let his mind aflame with the literature found inside. Truly he was shaping up to become the monk's greatest treasure, a peer of their own.

But while Krugar developed mentally, his spirit grew angry within. Angry for not knowing the one piece of information that mattered the most; who he was? Reading forbidden records and journals he correlated his arrival with the local history of the region to discover he was delivered amidst the Diamond War. The glory-driven barbarians of the highlands had raged a tireless campaign for the diamonds found within the halls of the Dwarven lords who laid beneath the home Krugar had known for so long. Leaving under a crescent moon, Krugar tracked down the barbarians hungry for the only thing that mattered, knowledge.

Greeted with hostility and sharp axes, Krugar fought his way through the highlands until he stood above a broken and battered lord. He requested what he desired and the lord spoke a humble truth, "You are my lost son. Hidden away by your mother. You are one of us." Krugar shook with sadness, drowned in the wrath that swallowed him up. He murdered them all.

Finding his way back to the monastery of the Phoenix Feathers he met somber faces. They told him they knew of his past and now knew of the blood on his hands. They had hoped, through their education of the heart and mind, he would understand such repercussions of chasing down dark knowledge. Banished forever Krugar said nothing as he left down the mountain pass.

Still possessing a deep hunger for information though Krugar brandished himself a new identity. He would offer himself up as a specialized bodyguard to any establishment in need and good wealth. His payment? An honest days wager and a stack of new books by his door come every sunset. So Krugar, the Fist of Reason! now ventures the land breaking bones and knocking out knees in his quest of self-enlightenment as found in the ink of poets and scribes.

Attributes
Krugar, the Fist of Reason! is a Male Goliath and thus with the +1 LA was built using 25 points instead of 32.

Attribute Lay-Out
Strength: 18 (+1 at 4th level)
Dexterity: 12
Constitution: 16
Intelligence: 14
Wisdom: 10
Charisma: 8

The Build
Krugar, the Fist of Reason!
{table=head]Level|Class|Base Attack Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Skills|New Feats|Class Features

1st|Monk 1|
+0|
+2|
+2|
+2|Balance 4, Diplomacy 4, Jump 4, Knowledge (Local) 4, Listen 4, Sense Motive 4, Spot 4 and Tumble 4|Improved Unarmed Strike, Power Attack and Apprentice (Philosopher)|Decisive Strike (-2)

2nd|Monk 2|
+1|
+3|
+3|
+3|Balance 5, Diplomacy 5, Jump 5, Knowledge (Local) 5, Listen 5, Sense Motive 5, Spot 5 and Tumble 5|Improved Bullrush|Evasion

3rd|Monk 3|
+2|
+3|
+3|
+3|Balance 5, Craft (Wordsmithing) 1, Diplomacy 6, Jump 6, Knowledge (Local) 6, Listen 6, Sense Motive 6, Spot 6 and Tumble 6|Carmendine Monk |Still Mind

4th|Monk 4|
+3|
+4|
+4|
+4|Balance 5, Craft (Wordsmithing) 2, Diplomacy 7, Jump 7, Knowledge (Local) 7, Listen 7, Sense Motive 7, Spot 7 and Tumble 7||Ki Strike (Magic) and Wall Walker (20ft.)

5th|Fighter 1|
+4|
+6|
+4|
+4|Balance 5, Craft (Wordsmithing) 3, Diplomacy 7, Jump 8, Knowledge (Local) 8, Listen 7, Sense Motive 8, Spot 7 and Tumble 7; Collector of Stories|Knockback|

6th|Fighter 2|
+5|
+7|
+4|
+4|Balance 5, Craft (Wordsmithing) 5, Diplomacy 7, Jump 8, Knowledge (Local) 9, Listen 7, Sense Motive 9, Spot 7 and Tumble 9; Collector of Stories|Knowledge Devotion|Dungeon Crasher
[/table]

Extra Feats
In order: Martial Study (Mighty Throw), Martial Stance (Step of the Wind), Cleave, Great Cleave, Combat Expertise, Improved Trip, Knock-Down, Leap Attack, Flying Kick and Martial Study (Death Mark).

Sources
Goliath, Knockback, Craft (Wordsmithing): Races of Stone
Apprentice (Philosopher): Dungeon Master's Guide 2
Decisive Strike ACF: Player's Handbook 2
Carmendine Monk: Champions of Valor
Wall Walker and Dungeoncrasher ACF: Dungeonscape
Knowledge Devotion: Complete Champion
Martial Study (Mighty Throw & Death Mark), Martial Stance (Step of the Wind): Tome of Battle
Knock-Down: Divine Handbook
Leap Attack, Flying Kick: Complete Warrior

Tactics and Services
When approaching the talents and abilities of Krugar, the Fist of Reason! we should first establish a categorical approach.

Combat
Regarding Krugar's role within combat he presents himself as a wrecking ball on the battlefield. With dungeoncrasher and decisive strike he'll be providing ample damage to anyone who gets in his way. Even within the first six levels, before he begins attaining his bonus feats, he will be able to go toe to toe with most medium sized foes he encounters. And as he attains more & more bonus feats his skills not only become greater but begin to provide tactical utility in their application.

Krugar's ideal combat area is that of a bar. While he can offer mayhem on any conventional battlefield the atmosphere of a bar is not only one that he'll call home but also provides obstacles & difficult terrain which he may use for proper gain against anyone who decides to get rowdy.

Looking at his feats, abilities and everything else Krugar carries with himself a wide collection of phenomenal martial arts techniques:

Standard Strike
Krugar's traditional blow utilizes a keen aptitude in the mastery of unarmed strikes. With the first blow the feat Knock-Down will be activated and Krugar's foe will find themselves prone on the floor.
Attack: +10/+22; +5 BaB +4 Strength +3 Knowledge Devotion -2 Decisive Strike/ +5 BaB +4 Strength +4 Powerful Build +4 Improved Trip +4 Step of the Wind +3 Knowledge Devotion -2 Decisive Strike [Knock-Down]
Average Damage: 24/24 (48); 1d8 (5) +4 Strength +3 Knowledge Devotion x2 (Decisive Strike)/1d8 (5) +4 Strength +3 Knowledge Devotion x2 (Decisive Strike) [Knock-Down]

Standard Strike with a Large Quarterstaff
The same as the initial Standard Strike but with a slight bump in damage as well as granting Krugar a healthy improvement of reach.
Attack: +12/+22; +5 BaB +6 Strength +3 Knowledge Devotion -2 Decisive Strike/+5 BaB +4 Strength +4 Powerful Build +4 Improved Trip +4 Step of the Wind +3 Knowledge Devotion -2 Decisive Strike [Knock-Down]
Average Damage: 28/28 (56); 1d8 (5) +6 Strength +3 Knowledge Devotion x2 (Decisive Strike)/1d8 (5) +6 Strength +3 Knowledge Devotion x2 (Decisive Strike) [Knock-Down]

Falcon's Nest
Named for fierceness, the Falcon's Nest is Krugar's go to power strike as he unleashes a whole can of bull-rushes across a room. With a bull-rush strength score of +12 (+4 Strength +4 Improved Bullrush +4 Powerful Build) he'll be punching people at least fifteen feet backwards, easily into any nearby walls to activate more damage from dungeon-crasher. When used in conjunction with Great Cleave he'll be carving a path through any crowd of warriors.
Attack: +9/+17; +5 BaB +4 Strength +3 Knowledge Devotion -2 Decisive Strike -1 Power Attack/+5 BaB +4 Strength +3 Knowledge Devotion +4 Step of the Wind +4 Powerful Build -2 Decisive Strike -1 Power Attack
Average Damage: 26/74 (100); 1d8 (5) +4 Strength +3 Knowledge Devotion +1 Power Attack x2 (Decisive Strike)/1d8 (5) +4 Strength +3 Knowledge Devotion +1 Power Attack +4d6 (16) dungeon-crasher +8 Strength x2 (Decisive Strike)

Falcon's Nest with a Large Quarterstaff
Working just as effective as the unarmed variety Krugar brings some extra reach along with him, making this attack in conjunction with Great Cleave even stronger.
Attack:+11/+19; +5 BaB +6 Strength +3 Knowledge Devotion -2 Decisive Strike -1 Power Attack/+5 BaB +6 Strength +3 Knowledge Devotion +4 Step of the Wind +4 Powerful Build -2 Decisive Strike -1 Power Attack
Average Damage: 32/80 (112); 1d8 (5) +6 Strength +3 Knowledge Devotion +2 Power Attack x2 (Decisive Strike)/1d8 (5) +6 Strength +3 Knowledge Devotion +2 Power Attack +4d6 (16) dungeon-crasher +8 Strength x2 (Decisive Strike)

Raven's Flight
A rather unorthodox maneuver of the martial arts school, Krugar relies on such a technique as the Raven's Flight when he needs to land a blow or position a foe exactly where he needs. Sending an opponent flying ten feet, having such tactical precision is always rewarded in combat.
Attack: +26; +5 BaB +4 Strength +4 Powerful Build +4 Improved Trip +4 Step of the Wind +4 Mighty Throw +3 Knowledge Devotion -2 Decisive Strike
Average Damage: 24; 1d8 (5) +4 Strength +3 Knowledge Devotion x2 (Decisive Strike)

Soaring Eagle Smash
Designed to really make an impact on someone's day, Krugar utilizes the Soaring Eagle Smash when an powerful entrance is needed. Charging into a foe with a kick that will fling them fifteen feet away, not much else is really needed.
Attack: +11; +5 BaB +4 Strength +3 Knowledge Devotion -2 Decisive Strike -1 Power Attack +2 Charge
Average Damage: 90; 1d8 (5) +4 Strength +3 Knowledge Devotion +2 Power Attack +4d6 (16) dungeon-crasher +8 Strength +1d12 (7) flying kick x2 (Decisive Strike)

Soaring Eagle Smash with a Large Quarterstaff
With increased reach and damage, this upgraded method of the terrifying technique is a much welcomed one.
Attack: +11; +5 BaB +6 Strength +3 Knowledge Devotion -2 Decisive Strike -1 Power Attack +2 Charge
Average Damage: 98; 1d8 (5) +6 Strength +3 Knowledge Devotion +4 Power Attack +4d6 (16) dungeon-crasher +8 Strength +1d12 (7) flying kick x2 (Decisive Strike)

Phoenix Eruption
Krugar's ultra move, his magnus opus. Spending many years in deep contemplation he finally unlocked this martial arts technique that is certain to set the mood of a room. Smashing an opponent he'll not only send them flying fifteen feet but upon their collision with any obstacle they detonate up to ten feet wide in a fiery explosion.
Attack: +9/+17; +5 BaB +4 Strength +3 Knowledge Devotion -2 Decisive Strike -1 Power Attack/+5 BaB +4 Strength +3 Knowledge Devotion +4 Step of the Wind +4 Powerful Build -2 Decisive Strike -1 Power Attack
Average Damage: 74/74 (148); 1d8 (5) +4 Strength +3 Knowledge Devotion +1 Power Attack +6d6 (24) death mark x2 (Decisive Strike)/1d8 (5) +4 Strength +3 Knowledge Devotion +1 Power Attack +4d6 (16) dungeon-crasher +8 strength x2 (Decisive Strike)

Skills
Krugar, the Fist of Reason! in addition to packing a whole lot of punch isn't one without some talent in the skills department. Doing a simple breakdown of capabilities we see Krugar able to accomplish:

Able to balance on a narrow surface from 2 to 6 inches wide.
Not being counted flat-footed while balancing.
Move through a medium forest via branches.
Can balance on a ship during a light surf with high winds and a wet deck.
Can easily write a novel and if he really dedicated himself pump out a reference book or epic.
Can reasonably succeed on turning any initially, unfriendly individual indifferent and any initially, indifferent individually friendly towards himself & companions.
Jump twenty feet horizontally (30 if in a non-combat zone) without a running start as well as upwards of eight feet vertically without a running start.
Can answer any difficult question pertaining to legends, personalities, inhabitants, laws, customs, traditions, ect...
Can know three useful pieces of information about any humanoid encountered.
Hear an unarmed person quietly walking fifteen feet per round.
Hear an whispered conversation 20 ft. beyond a closed door.
Successfully, at half-speed, avoid any attacks of opportunity by tumbling through a square an opponent currently threatens.
Put on a great performance (3d10 sp per day) of tumbling.
Reasonably treat any fall as ten feet shorter.


As evident Krugar is not stranger to provides utility to any situation. But by utilizing ancient martial arts techniques Krugar brings his fist of reason! to a whole new field of adventuring. When encountering obstacles Krugar can make quick work of them, using these two sample damage arrays as example models:

Standard Damage: 28; 1d8(5) +4 Strength +5 Power Attack x2 (Decisive Strike)

We can examine that Krugar may break through:
Utilizing a standard strike

Two inches of solid wood.
An inch of solid stone.
Any simple, good or strong wooden door.
Any masonry wall (one inch thick) in 36 seconds.
Any iron door (two inches thick) in 15 seconds.
Any hewn stone obstacle (three feet think) in two minutes and 42 seconds.



Design Thoughts
Krugar, the Fist of Reason! was built with the concept of actualizing the one-inch punch as made famous by Bruce Lee. Seeing the dynamic combo that could be had between the impressive bull-rushing of a dungeon-crashing fighter and the decisive strike of a monk, that concept was given legs. I wanted to design a monk who would blast opponents throughout a battlefield, as opposed to the traditional nimble & quick monk who stings a little damage here and there. And thus Krugar had his combat elements down, he would be a heavy force that could send lesser men flying left & right.

But combat isn't the only factor and as I contemplated where next to take Krugar I once again became inspired by Patrick Swazye's character in the 1989 action flick Road House. I already had a guy who could stop any fight that ever broke out in a bar, all that was left was adding the tranquility & philosophy that made James Dalton into a legendary "cooler." Picking up Apprentice (Philosopher) and investing some skill points into Craft (Writing) & Diplomacy, in addition to the 'free' skill points allocated into Knowledge (Local) and Sense Motive, gives Krugar an element of non-combat utility as he may act as a partial face for any adventuring group as well as provide an activity (writing philosophical texts) during his downtime. I have always been of an adamant mind set that a character should be something greater than their mere combat or role-specific abilities, they should breath with all the eccentricities of a real person.

[Amechra]

Screw it, Second Verse!

They were funky China men from funky Chinatown
They were chopping them up and they were chopping them down
It's an ancient Chineese art and everybody knew their part
From a feint into a slip, and kicking from the hip


http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/CuteBruiser-tan_4370.png

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

1st|Halfling (Passive Way) Monk Substitution Level|
+0|
+2|
+2|
+2|Tumble 4 ranks, Knowledge (Local (Shaar Plains)) 2, 20 others.|Kung Fu Genius, Combat Reflexes, Lion Tribe Warrior|Skirmish 1d6, Unarmed Strike, AC Bonus, +2 Bluff|1d4

2nd|Halfling Way Monk|
+1|
+3|
+3|
+3|Tumble +1, 6|Weapon Finesse|Invisible Fist|1d4

3rd|Rogue|
+1|
+3|
+5|
+3|Tumble +1, 10|Martial Study (Shadow Blade Technique)|Sneak Attack 1d6, Poison Use|1d4

4th|Passive Way Monk|
+2|
+3|
+5|
+3|Tumble +1, 6||Still Mind, +10' to move speed|1d4

5th|Passive Way Monk|
+3|
+4|
+6|
+4|Tumble +1, 6||Wall Walker (20')|1d6

6th|Passive Way Monk|
+3|
+4|
+6|
+4|Tumble +1, 6|Martial Stance (Child of Shadows)|Purity of Body, Skirmish 2d6/+1 AC|1d6
[/table]
Feats:
1. Shadow Blade
2. Favored (Strongarm Arena; Tumble)
3. Primary Contact (Tom Strongarm; Tumble 10 ranks)
4. Underfoot Combat
5.Confound the Big Folk
6.Craven
7. Two Weapon Fighting
8. Lightning Fists
9. Swift Ambusher
10.Precise Strike

LN Strongheart Halfling Monk 5/Rogue 1

32 PB:
Int: 16 (+3)
Dex: 18 (+4) (+2 racial)
Str: 6 (-2) (-2 racial)
Con: 12 (+1)
Cha: 15 (+2) (+1 from levels)
Wis: 10 (+0)

Backstory:
Picture a small girl of 6 or 7 facing against a man of ogre-like proportions on the dusty floor of the arena.

Picture that girl springing forward, slipping under his clumsy attempts to strike her, and smacking him right square in the knees with her fists. Onlookers would have sworn that they saw shadows of her hands striking him a split second before she knocked him, painfully, to the ground.

This is what eye-witness accounts tell us of Jill the Quick, better known these days as Jillian the Quick-Handed, an apprentice to Reshar, and one of those who tore the Temple of Nine Swords asunder.
-Alan Ginta, Historian Tome of Battle: The Book of Nine Swords

Strategy:

1: At first level, Jill can skirmish. This is good. She's also based off of Int, not Wis, so she has better synergy with her skills (mmm, skills). Unlike your normal monk-type person, she has Combat Reflexes (all the better to abuse her decently high dexterity with.) All in all, she makes an effective mobile combatant, due in part to the fact that, due to using her fists, which count as light weapons, she only applies half of her Str penalty to damage, which is very good. Only problem so far is that she needs her Str to hit, but that'll be remedied soon.

3: Alright, now Jill has a bit of Sneak Attack, a single rather decent maneuver (mmm, extra damage), the ability to turn invisible for a round as an immediate action 1/3 rounds, and good ol' Weapon Finesse letting her fight with her superior dexterity. All this adds up to make a scary little skirmishing fighter (invisibility->Run up to the opponent-> Use Shadow Blade Technique, and stack SA and Skirmish damage on top of that.) Additionally, she can use poisons, which, due to the wording of Poison Use, she can smear herself all over with poison, including of the contact variety, letting her add a little debuffing. However, due to the expense of poisons, this is more of a back-up strategy.

6: Yay, Skirmish bonus to AC! Combine with the 20% miss chance on this girly, and you have someone who is flipping hard to touch, at least while moving. She can also move at the same speed as everyone else (party can't leave you behind now!) and she can run up walls of up to 40', which means that she can obviate some easier climb checks. She's still very much a skirmishing fighter, though her damage has dropped off a bit... oh well, the party Wizard can spare a Haste at this level, can't they?

5 feats: Hah, damage has gone up! Thank you, Shadow Blade! Primary Contact nets her the ranks for Underfoot Combat and Confound the Big Folk. We now have what basically amounts to the Killer Gnome build, in adorable little girl form! This is about where the build gets into its own; Tom Strongarm is a 5th level Cleric, who, once every 4 months can cast a helpful combat spell, such as Haste or Cat's Grace, in case you were curious.

10 feats: Thanks to Swift Ambusher, Jill now has the Skirmish dice of a Halfling Monk 5/Scout 1, which means she gets 2d6/+1, which is quite nice. Lightning Fists+Two Weapon Fighting= 4 attacks in a round, at -5 to hit each. Boost that with Precise Strike (-1d6 SA, +2 to hit), the fact that she can Pounce (+2 to each attack, from charging), the fact that the opponent is Flat-Footed (thank you, Invisible Fist!), and you have 4 attacks dealing 3d6+10 damage. Lovely, I know. But wait, it gets better; you can start in someone's space, trip them using Confound the Big Folk, and then leave their square, and charge them next round when they are prone.

Sources:
Core: Monk, Rogue, a bunch of the feats.
ToB: Shadow Blade, Martial Study, Martial Stance.
Shining South: Lion Tribe Warrior.
FRCS: Strongheart Halfling.
Complete Adventurer: Swift Ambusher.
Exemplars of Evil: Invisible Fist.
Dragon Compendium: Kung Fu Genius, Precise Strike.
Races of the Wild: Halfling Monk Substitution levels.
Unearthed Arcana: Passive Way Monk Variant.
Races of Stone: Underfoot Combat, Confound the Big Folk.
Cityscape: Favored, Primary Contact
Heroes of Ruin: Craven
Dungeonscape: Wall Walker.

[Amechra]

Damn it, I love that song.

Anyway, that's everyone. Looks like more people mixed and matched this time around (no builds with 6 levels in monk.)

Mordekai (or the person who built him), doesn't qualify at all, due to completely defying the entire POINT of the competition. Sorry.

[gbprime]

What, no Pandas? :smallamused:

[Amphetryon]

Darn, now I wish I'd had the motivation to get my "pure" Monk submission together, beyond the rough sketch.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

I was contemplating a build, but I couldn't figure out how to fit Pounce in a monk build without a dip in Barbarian that would have surely been points off for alignment shenanigans.

[Amechra]

Looking at the builds, it seems Jill managed to get Pounce through a feat.

[Darrin]

I was contemplating a build, but I couldn't figure out how to fit Pounce in a monk build without a dip in Barbarian that would have surely been points off for alignment shenanigans.

Shape Soulmeld (Sphynx Claws) + Open Least Chakra (hands) = pounce with natural weapons.

Travel Devotion is also very pounce-like: swift action to move up to your speed, then full attack. Only lasts 10 rounds per day, though, unless you can activate it again with Turn Undead or taking Travel Devotion multiple times.

[OMG PONIES]

What, no Pandas? :smallamused:

I really, REALLY hoped for this. Judging underway.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Eh, my other idea was to have an older female monk with a Sonic attack... but I really didn't think that they would approve of a half war dragon for a sonic breath weapon, and couldn't figure out any other way to pull off the Lion's Roar technique.

[Zaq]

I adore the fact that no one dared (or bothered?) to take 6 levels of Monk. It just wasn't worth it. I do also like that we had no racial overlap, and I don't think any two builds had the exact same mix of ACFs, did they? Fun times.

Also, everyone, remember to vote for honorable mention! No one did last time (I'm not innocent of this either), and that's terrible.

Good luck to all who entered!

[BobVosh]

I signed up to judge, but I don't see anyone marked as judge on the first post...So I'm going to start on it.

[dextercorvia]

Did Mordekai include a build, and I'm just missing it?

[OMG PONIES]

Did Mordekai include a build, and I'm just missing it?

Yes, but it seems Amechra edited in an image in its place. FWIW, I would like Mordekai's build re-inserted. I want a chance to judge it, with all of its merits and flaws. Naturally, it won't receive a high score in Use of Secret Ingredient, but I think Mordekai's creator saw that coming.

[dextercorvia]

Seconded. There is actually no rule that the Secret Ingredient must be used.

[gbprime]

Seconded. There is actually no rule that the Secret Ingredient must be used.

Well it is in the premise of the whole thing...


contestants will endeavor to create an optimized and flavorful character using a specified ... D&D 3.5 BASE CLASS as the "secret ingredient"

I suppose we could discuss the use of the word "endeavor" in that sentence, but the gist of it is... use the special ingredient.

I can see wanting to exclude the build information, because a non-monk build could skew the Power scores of the other entrants. but at the same time, we need to trust our judges to take such things into account.

Speaking as a contestant, I would be in favor of putting the build back in, but it is solely the Chairman's decision.

[Lapak]

In the opinion of someone who is just an observer rather than a participant in these: that entry didn't just ignore the Secret Ingredient, it was kind of spiteful towards the basic premise of the contest. "I'm going to build a non-monk build that does Monk stuff better than a Monk does" runs against the very concept of the IC competition - taking a possibly sub-optimal choice and turning into something useful and interesting. Deliberately leaving out the SI because it's not the best overall option and emphasizing that the build concept can be made 'better' with another class runs counter to the point of the game, and leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

[Amechra]

Plus, I explicitly say you need 3 levels of the base class. Sorry, Mordekai.

Here's the build:

{table=head]Level|Class|BAB|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Skills|Feats|Class Features

1st|Battle Dancer 1|
+1|
+1|
+4|
+0|Balance 4, Escape Artist 4, Perform (Dance) 4, Tumble 4|Travel Devotion, Improved Unarmed Strike|AC Bonus (Cha), Trait: Plucky

2nd|Wolf Totem Barbarian 1 |
+2|
+3|
+4|
+0|Balance 5, Jump 1, Tumble 5||Spirit Lion Totem ACF, Rage -> Whirling Frenzy, Skilled City-dweller ACF (Tumble)

3rd|Wolf Totem Barbarian 2|
+3|
+4|
+4|
+0|Jump 5|Shape Soulmeld (Thunderstep Boots), Improved Trip (Wolf Totem)|

4th|Planar Ranger 1 |
+4|
+6|
+6|
+0|Knowledge: the Planes 4, Tumble 7|Track|Spiritual Connection ACF (replaces Wild Empathy), Rival Organization (Fist of the Jade Owlpanda), Skilled City-dweller ACF (Tumble)

5th|Planar Ranger 2|
+5|
+7|
+7|
+0|Knowledge: the Planes 8, Spot 1, Tumble 8|Combat Style: TWF|

6th|Planar Ranger 3|
+6|
+7|
+7|
+1|Spot 6, Tumble 9|Open Least Chakra (Feet), Endurance->Snap Kick (Dragonborn), Track->Dragon Wings (Dragonborn)|
[/table]

[dextercorvia]

Technically you say Use of Secret Ingredient must make up half of the build. That is a very confusing statement, open to interpretation. The 10 E6 feats aren't part of UoSI necessarily, for example.

[Amechra]

I'll fix that for the next time around.

This competition is an adventure in learning!

[TerrickTerran]

My favorite class. I look forward to the judging.

[Cieyrin]

Oh bother, if I'd had actual bandwidth available the last week, I could have entered this with a pure Monk build and abusing the hell out of Martial Art Masteries. Alas...:smallsigh:

[Zaq]

Eh, my other idea was to have an older female monk with a Sonic attack... but I really didn't think that they would approve of a half war dragon for a sonic breath weapon, and couldn't figure out any other way to pull off the Lion's Roar technique.

It's a little late, but Vril have a sonic attack. So do Maenads, if you're into that sort of thing.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

It's a little late, but Vril have a sonic attack. So do Maenads, if you're into that sort of thing.

Perhaps, but they can't wear curlers :smallbiggrin:

[BobVosh]

I want to say I will be done tomorrow, but I know how this works now a days. Monday it is. Secretly I still believe Sunday

[Vulaas]

Seeing the submissions, I almost wish I had finished my Conjurer 1/Monk 5 build for this competition. Decisive Strike + Flash Steps Abrupt Jaunt, and Carmedine Monk to help out all around. Unfortunately, I felt that I'd be using my 0 level spells too much as a way of saving my butt against flying, so I thought that it was too much heavy lifting for a 1 level dip.

[dextercorvia]

I am just beginning my judging. It'll likely be done by Wednesday at the latest.

[dextercorvia]

Two down. I should be able to finish the rest tomorrow. I'm waiting on a RAW reading from a fellow forum member, regarding the legality of one of the builds. If I don't get it, I'll take my best stab.

[OMG PONIES]

Judging underway--a recent promotion at work means I'll only be posting from home in the mornings, so it's been slow going. Expect results by the end of next week. Sorry for the delay.

[Amechra]

Congrats, Ponies!

[OMG PONIES]

:smallbiggrin: Aw, shucks, thanks! The good news is that my schedule now starts way later in the day, buying me almost another 2 hours in the morning that I can waste on the Internet. Hooray!

[dextercorvia]

A couple of notes. I took off 1 for each level dip in UoSI. You could earn back 0.5 there, if I thought it complemented monk rather than replacing it. You lost 0.25 in elegance for each setting used. I mentioned it in each of my comments, but one of the key things I checked for was the ability to handle fliers. If there are any challenges, please PM the chair.


Marcus Ardere 12.75

This is a nice tight build. Everything follows a theme, is mechanically strong, and fun to read. I'm going to have to dock you .25 in elegance for the setting specific ACF. You did what you could to keep the Wizard dip from becoming overpowering, but two levels is going to cost you. Originality points for not using the Abrupt Jaunt ACF. I thought the maneuvers were especially well chosen. You can even deal with flying enemies, if the range isn't too great. Fire Heritage is a little weak for a feat, but the rest are fine.

Originality -- 3.5 (Human Torch, but I like the Sudden Shift ACF, and the Pheonix sub levels)
Power -- 4 (You really have your bases covered, except for Fire Resistance/Immunity)
Elegance -- 3.75 (Flows fairly well. Setting Specific)
UoSI -- 1.5 (2 off for the dip, +.5 for accenting the Monk that you used.

Kolte McStonefist 12.5

There are some problems with your tactics. First, Decisive Strike only gives the Stunning Fist bonus on the initial strike. I do like the part about priming it with a Monk weapon and then following up without. Second, Karmic Strike happens at the same moment that you are struck. The attack only happens if you are successfully struck and therefore the damage is inevitable. You explain what you believe the build can do very clearly. Setting specific pantheon. You'll pay for the cleric dip, but only in UoSI. It could be a good one, but you've left the casting hanging. Do not neglect 1st level spells at 6th level. They are still very relevant. Can't handle fliers.

Originality -- 4 (Mountain Dwarf is unusual, and monk pretending to be a fighter Fighter asserting his fighterness)
Power -- 3 (Like Decisive Strike+Karmic Strike, but you have to be hit for it to work.)
Elegance -- 3.5 (I like the build, but you lose a little for setting specific, and for the minor discrepancies in abilities.)
UoSI -- 2 (cleric dip, this just refuses to be a monk build)

Krugar 5

A two level dip is going to cost you. Especially since the one thing you are really getting from Monk (Aside from prereq's) Decisive Strike, doesn't work with the many of your tactics. You fail to mention that you are taking a variant (Overwhelming Attack) even in your source list. You can't handle flying enemies. Your tactics section is not very readable. While refluffing your attacks for a game could be good RP, I find it to be a confusing way of presenting your options. I may have missed some, but in my efforts to decipher your tactics, I have found several errors. Knowledge checks are trained only, and you only have ranks in Local. Knowledge Devotion will only grant you a bonus against humanoids. Your proposed bonus of +3 is an overstatement as you would need to roll a 10 or better to get there. It is almost as likely that you will get a +2. A large quarterstaff doesn't grant reach. You can't combine Standard Action strikes (Death Mark, and Mighty Throw) with the Full-round Action Decisive Strike. You also can't combine it (Decisive Strike) with the Charge action, making Flying Kick and Leap Attack incompatible. You also seem to be assuming that your opponents are always in difficult terrain. Are you causing that somehow? The attack bonus from Step of the Wind is +2 rather than +4. I'm not positive if you can double the Dungeon Crasher damage with Decisive Strik or not. It seems to me to be a separate instance of damage, but I'll leave that one to someone else to decide. Your feat order is strange. Why do you wait so long to take Death Mark?

Originality -- 2 (Goliath Dungeoncrasher with Monk Dressing)
Power -- 1 (Illegalities will be penalized in Power. If you end up with any bang when it's done, it'll likely come from Dungeoncrasher)
Elegance -- 1 (Illegalities will be penalized in Elegance, also the Flow is off.)
UoSI -- 1 (2 level dip, -2. You are using monk to qualify for things that can't be used in combination with the one monk feature you showcase.)

Jill 11.5

One level dip, but it plays nicely with Halfling Monk. Swift Ambusher ties it all together. You really have the mobility part of Monk down. Unfortunately, you are a Halfling with a Human regional feat. This isn't one that can be gotten around with two skill points either. That means I have to ignore Lion Tribe Warrior, and therefore your ability to pounce, to judge the rest of the build. Lightning Fists with TWF (which I said I would allow for UAS) puts you at a -7 to attack. That means you will need to face opponents with worse than an 11 in AC to benefit from the extra damage. A quick scan through the SRD let me find 1 creature out of 23 that is CR6 and has Flatfooted AC of less than 11. It's a shame that it is a Skeletal Megaraptor, and your skirmish/sneak attack won't help. (While misc. bonuses could help, most creatures at that CR had at least a 16) Between Invisible fist and Confound the Big Folk, you will be getting Sneak Attack fairly often, but unfortunately without pounce, your skirmish is somewhat lackluster. Again, nothing to handle flying enemies. Also, your halfling is setting specific, and no source on Lightning Fists. Primary Contact to get your little folk feats was a nice touch.

Originality -- 3 (Not terribly original, but you taught me a couple of tricks)
Power -- 2.5 (Without pounce you suffer from the Monk's dilemma. Fortunately it is only two feats away.)
Elegance -- 2 (-1.5 Lion Tribe, Lightning Fists, missing source, setting specific; +1 Halfling sub/rogue/swift ambusher)
UoSI -- 4 (Took off for the dip, but you used it well, so not too much. Great use of sub levels and ACF's. It always feels like a Monk.)

[Zaq]

So . . . who else is judging?

Also, everyone needs to vote for honorable mention. For reals.

[dextercorvia]

I PM'd my vote for Honorable Mention.

[BobVosh]

I had to go to the hospital. Just got out on Saturday. I can try to judge if ya'll want, but it may be very loopy due to some excellent painkillers.

[dextercorvia]

I think we are waiting until the end of the week for OMGPonies, we could still use you if you've got it in you.

[Zaq]

I had to go to the hospital. Just got out on Saturday. I can try to judge if ya'll want, but it may be very loopy due to some excellent painkillers.

While judging is always appreciated, don't push yourself too hard. Anything hospital-related that results in beefy painkillers can't be fun, so I hope that everything works out well for you.

[gbprime]

I can try to judge if ya'll want, but it may be very loopy due to some excellent painkillers.

That would certainly make for some interesting judging criteria. :smalltongue:

First priority... rest and recover.

[BobVosh]

While judging is always appreciated, don't push yourself too hard. Anything hospital-related that results in beefy painkillers can't be fun, so I hope that everything works out well for you.

My appendix decided to explode. I decided it was most unenjoyable.

[Zaq]

So . . . bump?

[Amechra]

I have to ask... BobVosh, are you OK?

If he's not, can someone take over his judging?

[KoboldCleric]

I'll give it a go if you want; would be my first time judging ... so not sure how my scores will stack up with the other judges, but they'd be internally consistent at least. Better give me a couple days just in case, but I may well be able to get it done tomorrow afternoon.

EDIT: Almost Done. Hoping To Finish This Evening.

[OMG PONIES]

Sorry, sorry, I totally forgot about this. Expect judging done by the end of the week. And again, sorry. :smallredface:

[Zaq]

Up we go. Any news?

[BobVosh]

Should I be doing this, or did the kobold cleric take my place? For the record I'm very sorry to the creators of Ardere, Stonefist, Mordekai, Krugar, and Jill. Off the record please don't hurt me

[Zaq]

Should I be doing this, or did the kobold cleric take my place? For the record I'm very sorry to the creators of Ardere, Stonefist, Mordekai, Krugar, and Jill.

If you can do it, we're not going to turn you away. We don't have a limit on the number of judges, after all.

If you can't do it . . . no one's going to hold it against you. Hospitalization is a pretty good excuse for not participating in a forum game on the Internet.

[BobVosh]

I'm feeling spry and fine, and haven't seen the bill for the hospital yet. Until then I'm great. :D

[Zaq]

I'm feeling spry and fine, and haven't seen the bill for the hospital yet. Until then I'm great. :D

Well, in that case . . . I say go for it, but I'm a little bit biased.

[Zaq]

A single perfect tear runs down [CHARACTER REDACTED]'s Monktastic face as they realize that they may end up less loved than the Divine Mind.

(Anything, judges? It's getting lonely over here.)

[dextercorvia]

OMGPonies has updated his sig to say that he will be unavailable till the 11th.

[Zaq]

OMGPonies has updated his sig to say that he will be unavailable till the 11th.

So he has. BobVosh, were you still in? Kobold Cleric, any word?

Sorry to be so insistent about this, but . . . well, it's been about a month, and we've had one judge.

[BobVosh]

I wasn't planning on it since someone said they were taking it, but I agree that is past the point it should be done. Monday and I will be done. By 9 pm central, in fact. I will be done by Funday Monday by day 9.

[OMG PONIES]

Just got back from my trip. I'll try to get scores posted by Wednesday at the latest.

[BobVosh]

Does this mean I don't have to finish til Wednesday *dodges various thrown objects*
Ok, I'm working on it. I may be 2 hours late...but probably not. I hope to be early, but my parents totally guilted me into a dinner with them.

Am...Am I suppose to judge Mordekai btw? It seems like the chairman is saying no, but I want this explicitly said.

Also can I get text for: Exemplars of Evil - Invisible Fist.
and: Champions of Valor - Carmendine Monk

[dextercorvia]

Does this mean I don't have to finish til Wednesday *dodges various thrown objects*
Ok, I'm working on it. I may be 2 hours late...but probably not. I hope to be early, but my parents totally guilted me into a dinner with them.

Am...Am I suppose to judge Mordekai btw? It seems like the chairman is saying no, but I want this explicitly said.

Also can I get text for: Exemplars of Evil - Invisible Fist.
and: Champions of Valor - Carmendine Monk

Don't judge Mordekai.

[Darrin]

Don't judge Mordekai.

I'm confused about whether or not Mordekai has been officially disqualified.

OMG_Ponies asked the build to be included, so he could judge it, you seconded and said "there is actually no rule that the secret ingredient must be included", gbprime mostly agreed but left it up to the chairman.

Amechra pointed out the "3 levels of the base class" was in the original post, but posted the build. Technically, the 3-level requirement was listed in the judging criteria, not as a "general rule", but that's mostly splitting hairs. I can understand that the chairman would certainly have discretion to disqualify any entry, but I'm not sure if "Sorry, Mordekai" means "I'm sorry you can't follow some fairly clear directions and I'm still peeved about it" or "Here's the build, but it's still disqualified."

I suspect the latter, but I'd like to see it explicitly stated as well.

[Zaq]

Does this mean I don't have to finish til Wednesday *dodges various thrown objects*
Ok, I'm working on it. I may be 2 hours late...but probably not. I hope to be early, but my parents totally guilted me into a dinner with them.

Am...Am I suppose to judge Mordekai btw? It seems like the chairman is saying no, but I want this explicitly said.

Also can I get text for: Exemplars of Evil - Invisible Fist.
and: Champions of Valor - Carmendine Monk

Invisible Fist:INVISIBLE FIST
Monks who follow the Path of the Invisible Fist learn to
harness their ki to conceal themselves from detection. With
further training, these monks learn to blink between the Mate-
rial Plane and the Ethereal Plane. To gain this versatility, they
sacrifi ce their ability to escape unscathed from area effects.
Class: Monk.
Level: 2nd.
Replaces: If you select this class feature, you do not gain
the evasion ability, nor do you gain improved evasion at
9th level.
Benefit: As an immediate action, you can become invisible for 1 round. You must wait 3 rounds before you can use this ability again.
At 9th level, as an immediate action, you can use blink,
as the spell, for a number of rounds equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum 1 round). You must wait 3 rounds before you can use this ability again.
Invisible fist is a supernatural ability.

Carmendine Monk: Carmendine Monk
You have learned that study is just as important as insight to finding enlightenment.
Prerequisites: Int 13, member of Zealots of the Written Word monk order (see page 105).
Benefit: You can use your Intelligence bonus instead of your Wisdom bonus for determining your monk AC bonus and for determining the save DC against your stunning fist and quivering palm attacks.
You can study your thesis notes for 1 hour to treat your monk level as two higher for determining one of the following monk abilities: unarmed damage, AC bonus, or unarmored speed bonus. This benefit lasts for 24 hours, at which point you can study your notes again to gain the same or a different effect. You can't study your notes more than once in any 24-hour period.

[BobVosh]

Thank you Zaq.

Once I get the word on mordie I will post, or not if I have to quickly judge once again.

[dextercorvia]

Thank you Zaq.

Once I get the word on mordie I will post, or not if I have to quickly judge once again.

Amechra hasn't posted since 7/2. I refrained from judging Mordekai as a build, although I did vote for him to take Honorable Mention, so it would be difficult for him to place. Unless you and Ponies have a strong feeling about judging that build, I say we should take it as disqualified.

[BobVosh]

Name: Ardere
16
Wow. I actually feel monk adds to the build rather than subtracts and isn't even replaceable by unarmed fighters, much less swordsage etc. That is amazing as I am one amongst many who hate the monk class.
Originality: Nothing strikes me as amazing here, these two classes have combined a lot over the years. I do like the theme and phoenix sub levels. 3.5

Power: Here you really shine, able to take out most things…except fire immune or higher DR creatures. A fire elemental can really take you down a notch or 4. However you can handle most threats without a concern. 4.5

Elegance: Everything combines together extremely well. Your spells all make sense, good mix of utility and buff, and I can’t see a way to tighten the build while doing the same thing. You made it less MAD, but can’t fix it completely (due to monk being…well monk) 4

Use of SI: You use the levels you have extremely well, thematically and mechanically. (+2) You don’t take monk all the way. (-1) 4


Name: Kolte
15

A monk with craft armorsmith, how queer. Yet awesome.
Originality: Actually quite a bit I haven’t heard of coupled with a monk pretending not to be a monk. I have seen it the other way around, and I rarely have seen full armored monk. I love invisible fist, I don’t have the book for it but it is amazing 4

Power: You won’t have the impressive buffs of the last build, but you definitely have some going for you. There are also several strong feat combinations for great damage or shenanigans. Immediate action invisibility for a 3rd of his life is also incredibly powerful in this format. 4

Elegance: Several class powers are left by the wayside for being in armor. Slowest monk ever. However this is only 2 features that aren’t exactly the most important powers ever. 3.5

Use of SI: Not full monk. (-.5) Mechanically very strong for the monk levels. (+1.5) Thematically not a monk…at all. Eventually you will do decent unarmed, but still mostly ignored for preference of weapons, full armor, etc. (-.5) 3.5


Name: Krugar
7


Originality: Fighter with dungeoncrasher? How droll. Nothing terrible unique with the build, although I still like decisive strike and carmendine monk. 2.5

Power: Knowledge devotion will give you some nice benefits..vs humanoids. Decisive strike as always is good, but I’m not sure it interacts with your feats the way you think it does. You can’t really use it and dungeoncrasher, and etc. You do a decent amount of damage still though. 2

Elegance: The level order and feat order is hardly ideal. Several feats don’t synergize well, and you waste one of the best feats by not having enough knowledge skills to fuel it. 1.5

Use of SI: You have monk levels, but not enough (-1). The only thing I see monk adding is decisive strike and evasion. This is better as almost any other martial class than monk. (-1) 1


Name: Jill
13.5

Originality: I like lion tribe warrior, as I haven’t seen it before. This unfortunately won’t get you points as you don’t qualify for it, for being a shorty. Passive way monk gets you some points though. 3.5

Power: Unfortunately you don’t have pseudo pounce from LTW. You lack the standard action double damage of the other builds as well, so you have the fun problem all monks suffer of move or full attack. First level is going to be the level that you just watch the rest of the party do stuff. Second level you can help contribute, but not impressively. 3rd and on you become a useful and destructive member of the murdering group of hobos you hang out with. Can’t handle undead, elementals, or other members of the unable to sneak attack + DR group. I think if you spent a few feats for precise shot type stuff she would be more impressive with a bow to help out. 3

Elegance: Heh, not counting off for this but you have Halfling way monk for your second level. Just noticed. Well paced and decently ordered levels. I probably would have taken rogue first for the skills, but I recognize the fact I like skills far more than I should. Illegal build element, which is important as you use it to overcome a big monk weakness. Craven would be move up in my build, as I do love +6 damage at practically no loss. 2.5

Use of SI: By far the most monkish monk in the group. Well, craven isn’t very monkish, but close enough. Not full levels of monk (-.5). Thematically and mechanically it relies on monk more than anything else. (2) 4.5


That wraps this up. Loved all the builds, even if I was harsh on one. E6 is weird, very weird, but I really want to try it sometime now.
As usual I judged the power to each other, which frankly is necessary as I don't fully understand E6 and can't tell you what is standard damage or what have you by the end of it.

[OMG PONIES]

MARCUS ARDERE: 12.5
ORIGINALITY: 4
-I like the combination of monk and fire abilities. It's nice and flavorful.
-While I despise Precocious Apprentice for early entry shenanigans, I had never thought about using it to power a reserve feat before.
POWER: 2.5
-While it was a flavorful fit, the Phoenix Disciple was very weak from a crunch perspective. Instead of Purifying Flame (which only gives you +1d6 4 times per day), you could have kept your monk bonus feat for, say, Improved Grapple at 3rd level. This would have freed up your 6th level feat for Practiced Spellcaster, Scorpion's Grasp (instead of waiting), or anything else your heart desired.
ELEGANCE: 2
-I'm not sure if you CAN use Precocious Apprentice to power a reserve feat, since you need to succeed on a CL check (DC 8) to cast the spell. I would assume you must succeed on the same check to trigger Fiery Burst. Your rate of success is decent, but definitely not foolproof. If you had found a way to wedge in Practiced Spellcaster, you would have succeeded on all but a roll of 1--not to mention improved your Balor Nimbus for those times you actually use it.
-As a Lawful Neutral character, you cannot be a Phoenix Disciple (as you must be Lawful Good).
-There's no mention of what bonus feat you take at your 2nd monk level. You're still entitled to either Combat Reflexes or Deflect Arrows as default choices, though you could have picked up a fighting style (from Unearthed Arcana) for other options.
UoSI: 4
-Four levels taken
-Besides Scorpion's Grasp and Improved Natural Attack, your additional feats don't serve to strengthen your monk abilities. With that being said, Scorpion's Grasp is one of my favorite feats in the game for monks.
-What really DOES strengthen your monk abilities is your base class selection. Flaming grappling wizard/monk actually seems to fit. I don't know if it's actual synergy or just presentation, but darn if I don't like its mystic martial arts feel.


KOLTE MCSTONEFIST: 11.5
ORIGINALITY: 3
-The difference between mountain dwarves and hill dwarves seems to be in fluff alone. Not encumbered by armor or a medium load? Darkvision? Save bonus? Stonecunning? A dwarf by any other name…why do you think people might consider it obscure and cheesy?
-The concept of a character who refuses to be thought of as anything but a fighter was quite hilarious, however.
POWER: 4
-Good synergy between Travel Devotion and Decisive Strike.
-Good synergy between Earth Devotion and step of the wind
-Good combo of Knockdown, Improved Trip, and Decisive Strike…it feels like a fighting game.
-while Kolte's AoOs hurt, he doesn't get that many of them. Combat Reflexes grants you one additional AoO, for a grand total of two per round. While it's good, even one more point of DEX would have gotten you a third, and I'm convinced you could have squeezed a 4th out of this build.
ELEGANCE: 2
-MAD as a hatter
-While you CAN tumble in full plate, you're making life difficult for yourself, what with that -6 Armor Check Penalty.
-Travel and Earth Devotions are both vying for your swift/immediate actions against Invisible Fist.
UOSI: 2.5
-5 levels used
-Fire Resistance 5 doesn't seem like a good trade vs. immunity to disease
-While full plate gives you a greater bonus than your monk AC bonus, it's still a wasted class feature.

MORDEKAI: 9
ORIGINALITY: 3
-Spirit Lion Totem for pounce is all-too familiar by now.
-Swapping out Track for a dragonblood feat was a nice move, and I can't find a problem with the Frostblood orc keeping the bonus feat from Ranger 3 upon losing Endurance while becoming a dragonborn. Thanks for teaching me a new trick!
POWER: 3.5
-Your second iterative attack is great to see.
-In an E6 game, meldshaping is severely limited, as there is a cap on the essentia you can invest.
-You said it yourself: your main tactic has a short duration, and then it's done till tomorrow. If you had found a source of extra Whirling Frenzy or turn undead to keep powering Travel Devotion, this would have been a bonus instead of a deduction.
-Your number of attacks and Fort Save vs Stunning is impressive, but you lack a consistent source of bonus damage to make it a truly lethal threat as well as a high enough to-hit to make the stunning consistently dangerous for lockdown purposes.
-You're the only character that finds a way to fly in this competition.
-Oxyrhynchus is a great way to pick up additional attacks.
ELEGANCE: 2.5
-While having a totem and a [different] spiritual totem are allowed by RAW, they are a cheesy combination that I wouldn't allow at my table.
UOSI: 0
-0 levels used.
-Improved Trip is available before level 6 to monks--let's not build a straw man.

KRUGAR: 8.5
ORIGINALITY: 3.5
-Another Dungeoncrashing Goliath? To be fair, it's not a frequent choice for monk builds, so no deduction. Heck, why not, bonus! You went for it.
POWER: 1.5
-Knowledge Devotion is useless to Krugar for all but humanoids. Even 1 rank in other Knowledge skills would allow you to utilize this feat (and multiply the bonus damage via Decisive Strike)
-Death Mark, Dungeon Crasher and Flying Kick bonus damage dice are not multiplied by Decisive Strike
-Cleave and Great Cleave don't come online until too late in the game
ELEGANCE: 1.5
-How are you getting Power Attack and Apprentice (philosopher) at first level? Are you using an Unearthed Arcana Fighting style?
-Know Devotion does not apply to your bull rush/trip checks
-I don't know how you're getting two attacks per round. If it is from fighting with a double weapon, you take heavy penalties for which you have not accounted.
-How does your attack with a quarterstaff get a +2 bonus?
UOSI: 2
-I don't see what being a monk lends to this Dungeon Crasher build.
-4 levels used

JILL THE QUICK: 11 12.5
ORIGINALITY: 4
-I actually like the use of Primary Contact in E6. You're high on feats but low on ranks, and Primary Contact opens up a whole new list of options.
-I've never seen the halfling monk sub level used before...so much so that I forgot it even existed.
POWER: 3
-Weapon Finesse via racial sub level ensures your ability to hit without costing too much.
-Underfoot Combat and Confound the Big Folk only work on large or larger creatures; the power of the killer gnome is its tiny size, meaning that it works on medium creatures as well.
-Two Weapon Fighting comes online too late in the game.
-With that being said, Skirmish, Sneak attack, poison use, Shadow Blade, and Craven all serve to make your damage output impressive.
ELEGANCE: 1.5
-You do not qualify for Lion Tribe Warrior, as you are not human.
-You didn't provide full skill ranks, which doesn't show us what your character can do.
-While you qualify for Swift Ambusher, it doesn't actually do anything for you, since you have no levels of scout. In reading the racial sub levels, I didn't see anywhere that monk levels counted as scout levels, etc. Because of this, Swift Ambusher is wasted.
UOSI: 4
-Lightning Fists and Precise Strike is a good combination, especially with your bonus damage. While it was nice to see poison use, I was waiting for a way to apply it as a free or swift action, allowing you to poison opponents every round.
-5 levels used

Sorry for the delay.

[dextercorvia]

We have judgings!




-Where are you getting Skirmish from?
-I still don't know how you get Skirmish, so you don't qualify for Swift Ambusher.


Halfling Monk1 Sub level in RotW gives Skirmish in place of Flurry.

[Zaq]

Whee, judges!

I find it most amusing that EVERY SINGLE JUDGE scored in the order Ardere > Kolte > Jill > Krugar.

Anyway, um, since Amechra's been MIA for over a week now, should we just reveal ourselves, given how, well, obvious the ranking is? Or am I just jumping the gun? Basically, I want to respond to the judges (not contesting the scores, just responding), and I'm eager to do so.

[BobVosh]

Oh ya I wanted to mention this as well:
While you CAN tumble in full plate, you're making life difficult for yourself, what with that -6 Armor Check Penalty.
Also I didn't check since it wasn't vital to the build, but I'm pretty sure DMP makes even dwarves encumbered or something along those lines.

I'm up for revealing and discussing, or I guess we can nominate a third party to do it. However I don't think it is vital to do as all judges have gotten in.

[OMG PONIES]

Halfling Monk1 Sub level in RotW gives Skirmish in place of Flurry.

Egg on my face. Even worse, it was listed in Jill's sources all along. Scoring has been updated. The inclusion of Skirmish damage also affected other areas, so Jill's score might look quite different now.


Whee, judges!

I find it most amusing that EVERY SINGLE JUDGE scored in the order Ardere > Kolte > Jill > Krugar.

Anyway, um, since Amechra's been MIA for over a week now, should we just reveal ourselves, given how, well, obvious the ranking is? Or am I just jumping the gun? Basically, I want to respond to the judges (not contesting the scores, just responding), and I'm eager to do so.

After my error was recognized, I scored Marcus and Jill the same. I think the self-reveal is fine.


Oh ya I wanted to mention this as well:
Also I didn't check since it wasn't vital to the build, but I'm pretty sure DMP makes even dwarves encumbered or something along those lines.

Hmm, didn't think to check that. Still, my point stands: just because you can do it doesn't mean you'll be good at it.

HOW ABOUT SOME TALLIES?
{table=head]Entry|Place|Total|Average*
Marcus|Gold|41.25|3.44
Kolte|Silver|39|3.25
Jill|Bronze|37.5|3.13
Krugar|Fourth|20.5|1.71
Mordekai|Fifth|9|2.25[/table]

*rounded to two decimal places.

[dextercorvia]

I'm up for revealing and discussing, or I guess we can nominate a third party to do it. However I don't think it is vital to do as all judges have gotten in.


I think the self-reveal is fine.


Agreed. Lets lay this puppy to rest.

[Zaq]

That's good enough for me! Kolte McStonefist was mine. Time for comments!



Kolte McStonefist 12.5

There are some problems with your tactics. First, Decisive Strike only gives the Stunning Fist bonus on the initial strike. I do like the part about priming it with a Monk weapon and then following up without. Second, Karmic Strike happens at the same moment that you are struck. The attack only happens if you are successfully struck and therefore the damage is inevitable. You explain what you believe the build can do very clearly. Setting specific pantheon. You'll pay for the cleric dip, but only in UoSI. It could be a good one, but you've left the casting hanging. Do not neglect 1st level spells at 6th level. They are still very relevant. Can't handle fliers.

Originality -- 4 (Mountain Dwarf is unusual, and monk pretending to be a fighter Fighter asserting his fighterness)
Power -- 3 (Like Decisive Strike+Karmic Strike, but you have to be hit for it to work.)
Elegance -- 3.5 (I like the build, but you lose a little for setting specific, and for the minor discrepancies in abilities.)
UoSI -- 2 (cleric dip, this just refuses to be a monk build)

Fair point on Decisive Strike (I disagree, but it's ambiguous enough that I won't contest it). The Sovereign Host isn't really necessary to the build . . . I just thought that worshiping a printed god/pantheon would lose me fewer style points than being a Cleric of the ideals of Magic, Earth, and Travel. I love that you counted me up for mountain dwarf. You do realize they're exactly the same as normal dwarves, right? I was giggling the entire time I was going on about how special and rare they are. I hope you had fun with that, too.



Name: Kolte
15

A monk with craft armorsmith, how queer. Yet awesome.
Originality: Actually quite a bit I haven’t heard of coupled with a monk pretending not to be a monk. I have seen it the other way around, and I rarely have seen full armored monk. I love invisible fist, I don’t have the book for it but it is amazing 4

Power: You won’t have the impressive buffs of the last build, but you definitely have some going for you. There are also several strong feat combinations for great damage or shenanigans. Immediate action invisibility for a 3rd of his life is also incredibly powerful in this format. 4

Elegance: Several class powers are left by the wayside for being in armor. Slowest monk ever. However this is only 2 features that aren’t exactly the most important powers ever. 3.5

Use of SI: Not full monk. (-.5) Mechanically very strong for the monk levels. (+1.5) Thematically not a monk…at all. Eventually you will do decent unarmed, but still mostly ignored for preference of weapons, full armor, etc. (-.5) 3.5


A fair assessment. That's pretty much exactly what I expected the judges to look at. I was a bit sad to be knocked down for my Fighterness, but that's the gamble I took when I added that little twist.


Oh ya I wanted to mention this as well:
Also I didn't check since it wasn't vital to the build, but I'm pretty sure DMP makes even dwarves encumbered or something along those lines.

Dwarven Plate (DMG pg. 220) and Mountain Plate (Races of Stone pg. 157) are different. The latter slows dwarves, which is why Kolte doesn't use it. The former does not. Kolte aims to craft himself a suit of Dwarven Plate.



KOLTE MCSTONEFIST: 11.5
ORIGINALITY: 3
-The difference between mountain dwarves and hill dwarves seems to be in fluff alone. Not encumbered by armor or a medium load? Darkvision? Save bonus? Stonecunning? A dwarf by any other name…why do you think people might consider it obscure and cheesy?
-The concept of a character who refuses to be thought of as anything but a fighter was quite hilarious, however.
POWER: 4
-Good synergy between Travel Devotion and Decisive Strike.
-Good synergy between Earth Devotion and step of the wind
-Good combo of Knockdown, Improved Trip, and Decisive Strike…it feels like a fighting game.
-while Kolte's AoOs hurt, he doesn't get that many of them. Combat Reflexes grants you one additional AoO, for a grand total of two per round. While it's good, even one more point of DEX would have gotten you a third, and I'm convinced you could have squeezed a 4th out of this build.
ELEGANCE: 2
-MAD as a hatter
-While you CAN tumble in full plate, you're making life difficult for yourself, what with that -6 Armor Check Penalty.
-Travel and Earth Devotions are both vying for your swift/immediate actions against Invisible Fist.
UOSI: 2.5
-5 levels used
-Fire Resistance 5 doesn't seem like a good trade vs. immunity to disease
-While full plate gives you a greater bonus than your monk AC bonus, it's still a wasted class feature.


I'm not sure if you completely got or completely missed the whole point about being a mountain dwarf. It's totally tongue-in-cheek. I've always thought it was hilarious that the MM bothered to list them at all, given that they're just like hill dwarves in every way except pigmentation and demeanor. Regardless, that was the joke. I thought it was funny. Hopefully, you did too. Other than that, my only disagreement with you is with the issue of fire resistance vs. disease immunity. In my (anecdotal, yes) experience, there are a hell of a lot more monsters who have fire damage than there are monsters who have nonmagical diseases. Fire damage comes up almost constantly, in my experience, while disease hardly comes up at all. Pretty much anything you can trade out that class feature for is worthwhile. (Besides, I thought it was funny to take pretty much every ACF I could get my hands on.)

Overall, fun times all around. I certainly don't feel like anyone shortchanged me or missed the point of my build, which is a nice change. So, hearty thanks to the judges, and thumbs up to my fellow contestants! This was fun.

[dextercorvia]

You do realize they're exactly the same as normal dwarves, right? I was giggling the entire time I was going on about how special and rare they are. I hope you had fun with that, too.

Indeed. But, I believe you are the first Mountain Dwarf in IC history.

[gbprime]

Marcus Ardere was my submission. It started, and pretty much ended, with that pic of a fiery monk I borrowed from the Dungeons and Dreamboats thread. Even his NAME is fire. I took a look and thought I could do that in 3 levels, and E6 gave me twice that many to work with.

Precocious Apprentice powering a Reserve Feat is one of my favorite low level tricks. (Doesn't say you have to be good at casting that spell, only that you have it unspent!) Normally in a campaign using retraining rules, you swap the two feats out at level 6 for PrC prerequisites, but for E6 they're good for your entire career!

And I love chaining Monk movement with the Sudden Shift ACF, as it's basically free uses of Swift Fly. I don't get to do it very often, but it's quite effective. (Or as effective as one can get given that you're using monk. :smalltongue: )

I have one facepalm moment, though. I can't believe I overlooked Practiced Spellcaster as one of the +10 feats. Ah well. :smallfrown:

[BobVosh]

Dwarven Plate (DMG pg. 220) and Mountain Plate (Races of Stone pg. 157) are different. The latter slows dwarves, which is why Kolte doesn't use it. The former does not. Kolte aims to craft himself a suit of Dwarven Plate.

Bleh, Like I said I didn't check it. Also didn't count it against or for, as the big thing is wear armor + smack people.

Also I looked like 5 times for mountain dwarf, then kept seeing it was the same. CURSE YOU! :P

Lol, also I hope our Jill and Krugar haven't given up.

[Darrin]

I was the idiot who submitted Mordekai. Actually, I was intending to submit two entries. Mordekai and his father, who would have been a somewhat straight Monk 6. But I was running out of time and had to pull an all-nighter to finish Mordekai by the deadline (and still wound up missing it by several hours).

I... somewhat foolishly concluded that what I was attempting was within the spirit of the competition: a build that could do everything a monk could do, but had full BAB (without any homebrew fixes) and Snap Kick. I felt having these two features were absolutely necessary to fix most of the complaints about monks.

All the other design decisions essentially flowed from that and the concept of "what abilities/features/ACFs can replicate a monk's abilities or are just better": hence glide instead of slow fall, thunderstep boots instead of stunning fist, speaking to *bleeping* TREES instead of still mind or wholeness of body.

So let me formally apologize to the chairman and any of the judges who thought I was just wasting their time by ignoring the rules or spirit of the competition. My intention was to follow the spirit of the rules (build the absolute best barehanded beatstick I could) while breaking the rules... which made a lot more sense at 3:00 am in the morning than it did once the sun came up. Many, many heartfelt thanks to those of you who asked to see the build, to Amechra for posting it despite being what I suspect was completely annoyed with me, and many more thanks to OMG Ponies (who scored Mordekai high enough that I can pretend if I'd been more... diplomatic... I was within striking distance of the bronze).



MORDEKAI: 9
-Swapping out Track for a dragonblood feat was a nice move, and I can't find a problem with the Frostblood orc keeping the bonus feat from Ranger 3 upon losing Endurance while becoming a dragonborn. Thanks for teaching me a new trick!


These two tricks surprised me as well (the endurance swap and the dragonblood swap), so even though I was disqualified I think the all-nighter wasn't a complete loss. Of course, now whenever a put together a melee build, I'm obsessed with frost-blood orcs with 3-4 levels of ranger... although with all the ACFs available to rangers, it's kind of a swiss-army-knife for melee optimization.



POWER: 3.5
-Your second iterative attack is great to see.
-In an E6 game, meldshaping is severely limited, as there is a cap on the essentia you can invest.


I wasn't all that concerned with essentia, mostly what I was interested in is there are a whole bunch of least-chakra soulmelds available at ECL 6 with some great abilities: pounce with Sphynx Claws, evasion (and uncanny dodge) with Impulse Boots, stunning with Thunderstep Boots, immunity to enchantment/mind control with Planar Ward (suck it, still mind!), immunity to disease (suck it, whole-- ok, you get the idea). Ideally, from an optimization/effectiveness standpoint I think I should have gone with evasion rather than Thunderstep Boots. But Thunderstep Boots did two things: replicated Stunning Fist but without any ludicrous "x per day" limitations, and +2.5 bonus damage on all pounce attacks. Even though there's a cap on essentia, taking Bonus Essentia at 25000 XP, boosts my unarmed damage by +7.5, which for an unarmed strike build is nothing to sneeze at.



-You said it yourself: your main tactic has a short duration, and then it's done till tomorrow. If you had found a source of extra Whirling Frenzy or turn undead to keep powering Travel Devotion, this would have been a bonus instead of a deduction.


Whirling Frenzy is in there mostly because I absolutely *loathe* the standard rules for Rage. Temporarily increasing your Con does *not* give you bonus HP, mostly it just kills you if the idiot healbot can't get to you before your rage ends. With BAB +6, TWF, Snap Kick, and Oxyrhynchus in the build, I thought I had plenty of attacks. Getting more Whirling Frenzy didn't seem all that important, more like a little extra frosting on the cake.



-Your number of attacks and Fort Save vs Stunning is impressive, but you lack a consistent source of bonus damage to make it a truly lethal threat as well as a high enough to-hit to make the stunning consistently dangerous for lockdown purposes.


I did recognize that I didn't have much by the way of bonus damage, but I thought the BAB +6 (hitting more often than Monk 6's BAB +4) and all of the extra attacks would make up for the lower per-hit damage output. And I think +7.5 sonic damage (Thunderstep Boots + Bonus Essentia) is pretty decent for E6.



-You're the only character that finds a way to fly in this competition.


Flight and a breath weapon. Only I completely failed to mention which Dragonborn aspect I was taking.



-Oxyrhynchus is a great way to pick up additional attacks.


Even better, pair it up with the Invisible Fist ACF.



ELEGANCE: 2.5
-While having a totem and a [different] spiritual totem are allowed by RAW, they are a cheesy combination that I wouldn't allow at my table.


How many totem poles have you seen with only one animal? Or are you demanding that what we often mistakenly categorize as "primitive" cultures must adhere to our preconceived notions of the superiority of pseudo-Christian monotheism?
[/faux snootiness]

Seriously, I admit it I did it purely for optimization reasons and not for fluff... and I originally added it only reluctantly, because nothing else in the build was designed around tripping. But it also brought in the Monk 6 bonus feat, which was another example of "I can do everything a Monk can do, only better... 3-4 levels earlier, in fact". To my mind it didn't really fit with the rest of the build, and while Uncanny Dodge seemed kinda lackluster, the second Barbarian level prevented any gripes about multiclass penalties and trip is a solid debuffing tactic for melee. Taking Reckless Charge (Half-Orc Barb 2 sub level, RoD p. 159) might have fit better with the rest of the build.



-Improved Trip is available before level 6 to monks--let's not build a straw man.


When I was writing the fluff, I envisioned each battle after Mordekai had leveled up against a monk at a similar ECL. But after the first two battles, I was running out of ideas on how to say "Mordekai completely humiliated the other guy, but still lost". So the whole point about his opponent not being able to counter trip attacks wasn't so much as a strawman argument against monks but just a literary device to cover up the fact that I was running out of ideas for interesting matches.

Also... I was the only contestant that mentioned Pandas. Is that not worth a point somewhere?

And finally, here's the build I *should* have posted: Brikshank Chatterfang, Mordekai's father:


Name: Brikshank Chatterfang
Race: Frostblood Orc
Attributes: Str 18, Dex 14 , Con 14, Int 10, Wis 14 (4th/+1), Cha 8 (32 point buy)

{table=head]Level|Class|BAB|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Skills|Feats|Class Features

1st|Monk 1|
+0|
+4|
+4|
+3|Balance 4, Jump 4, Escape Artist 4, Tumble 4|Improved Unarmed Strike, Toughness (Undying Way variant), Travel Devotion|Flurry, AC Bonus (Wis)

2nd|Monk 2|
+1|
+5|
+5|
+4|Balance 5, Jump 5, Escape Artist 5, Tumble 5|Endurance (Undying Way variant) swap for Shape Soulmeld (Claws of the Wyrm)|Evasion

3rd|Monk 3|
+2|
+5|
+5|
+4|Knowledge: the Planes 1.5, Tumble 6|Shape Soulmeld (Sphynx Claws), Toughness swap for Dragon Wings (Dragonborn)|Dragonborn of Bahumat Heart Aspect, Fast Movment -> Standing Jump ACF (Dungeonscape), Still Mind -> Prayerful Meditation (CChamp)

4th|Monk 4|
+3|
+6|
+6|
+6|Knowledge: the Planes 3, Tumble 7||Slow Fall -> Wall Walker ACF (Dungeonscape)

5th|Planar Monk 5|
+3|
+6|
+6|
+6|Knowledge: the Planes 7, Tumble 8||Wholeness of Body -> Resistant Body Planar Sub level

6th|Monk 6|
+4|
+7|
+7|
+7|Knowledge: the Planes 8, Tumble 9|Improved Trip (abandoning Undying Way), Open Least Chakra (Hands)|Fast Movement +10'
[/table]

Bonus feats beyond 6th level
{table=head]XP|Feat
20,000|Improved Dragon Wings
25,000|Multiattack
30,000|Improved Multiattack
35,000|Improved Natural Attack
40,000|Superior Unarmed Strike
[/table]

[dextercorvia]

As I said earlier, I nominated Mordekai for Honorable mention. I didn't feel you were wasting my time, but chose not to judge him since I believed the chair said he was disqualified. It was an interesting character.

[BobVosh]

I... somewhat foolishly concluded that what I was attempting was within the spirit of the competition: a build that could do everything a monk could do, but had full BAB (without any homebrew fixes) and Snap Kick. I felt having these two features were absolutely necessary to fix most of the complaints about monks.

So let me formally apologize to the chairman and any of the judges who thought I was just wasting their time by ignoring the rules or spirit of the competition. My intention was to follow the spirit of the rules (build the absolute best barehanded beatstick I could) while breaking the rules... which made a lot more sense at 3:00 am in the morning than it did once the sun came up. Many, many heartfelt thanks to those of you who asked to see the build, to Amechra for posting it despite being what I suspect was completely annoyed with me, and many more thanks to OMG Ponies (who scored Mordekai high enough that I can pretend if I'd been more... diplomatic... I was within striking distance of the bronze).

I wasn't annoyed by it. However, if this hasn't been beaten into the ground, the spirit of the competition is do the absolute best you can with (usually) terrible classes. GSA from Comp arcane I feel was one of the best examples, even if that competition had some issues if I recall correctly.

So I did wait to see if I should judge yours as I kind of wanted to do, but as I usually compare the builds to each other I didn't want to in balance my judging by reading heavily into yours.

That said I definitely understand the passion that comes from hating monks.

[Zaq]

I would just like to say how disappointed I am that (1) I was the only contestant to make a partially charged wand joke and (2) no one commented on it.

[Amechra]

And I was Jill.

Yeah, sorry about vanishing, but I have a job that leaves me without real Internet for a week or so, so I'm going to delay starting up the next one until July 25th, when my job finishes.

[BobVosh]

I would just like to say how disappointed I am that (1) I was the only contestant to make a partially charged wand joke and (2) no one commented on it.

I was scared the thread would be locked if I did :P
My first write up (As in pre explosion of internal bits) did mention it.


And I was Jill.

Yeah, sorry about vanishing, but I have a job that leaves me without real Internet for a week or so, so I'm going to delay starting up the next one until July 25th, when my job finishes.

Wait, I thought the chairman can't put in entries.

[Darrin]

Wait, I thought the chairman can't put in entries.

Yeah, well, the chairman makes the rules... so... yeah.

[dextercorvia]

From the Divine Mind competition:

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.


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.

In this case, I will have to withdraw my judging of Amechra's character. Jill should have been an exhibition -- not a contestant.

[OMG PONIES]

Yeah, I have to agree. Sorry, Amechra--Jill was good, but it should have been disclosed that you were the creator.

[Amechra]

Alright- Retroactively, Jill was an exhibition; I just wanted to see what you guys would give the build, scorewise.