Iron Chef Cultural Archetype I

[Zonugal]

Welcome, contestants, judges, and guests to Iron Chef Cultural Archetype Edition I! Here in Optimization Colosseum, contestants will endeavor to create an optimized and flavorful character using a specified pop culture archetype seen in books, films and beyond.

Contestants: You will need to present your build at 6th level. If you feel you can achieve a flavorful & powerful construction of the cultural archetype at an earlier level than that you are welcomed to submit it. Please give a rundown of the build's abilities and playability throughout the character's career as well as how it meshes with the cultural archetype. The rules are as follows:

Menu: For most challenges, the "special ingredient" will be a cultural archetype drawn from popular culture. Most will be both vague in nature & widely known to most D&D players. There will, from time to time, be special challenges that showcase rigid archetypes or exact historical models from periods in history.


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

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

Cooking Time: Contestants will have until 11:59PM GMT on Saturday, July 23rd, 2011 to create their builds and PM them to the Chairman, Zonugal. Builds will then be posted simultaneously, to avoid copying. Judges will have until 11:59PM GMT on Saturday, August 6th, 2011 to judge the builds and submit their scores. If no judges have scored by that point, only the scores of the first judge to submit will be counted.

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 Cultural Archetype.


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


Elegance could bear a little elaboration. It basically measures how skillfully you put your build together, and whether you sacrificed flavor for power. We're cooking here - if your dish doesn't taste good, it doesn't matter how well-presented it is.

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]

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|4th|5th|6th|7th|8th|9th

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

This week's cultural archetype is: The American Cowboy!

We will (hopefully) have trophies for 1st through 3rd places, as well as a special trophy for honorable mention. The honorable mention prize is given to the most daring or unexpected build. Judges, contestants and guests alike are invited to vote for honorable mention via PM.

Allez optimiser!

Judges

Contestants

The Builds

[BillyBobJoe]

Ummm, okay. That was unexpected. I've... wow. Okay, I guess I'll judge... I guess.

[BobVosh]

This is pretty cool, but I think another great way is to show off the lowest level you can do a character rather than set it at level 6. Either way I'm going to be humored to watch this one :D

[Zonugal]

This is pretty cool, but I think another great way is to show off the lowest level you can do a character rather than set it at level 6. Either way I'm going to be humored to watch this one :D

I'd love to see really low-level builds but wanted to limit it, for simplicity & my own reasons (I favor the low-levels of D&D), to level 6 (which also allows people to adopt such builds for E6 games.

[dextercorvia]

Is this a straight up level 6 character, or are we getting any E6 feats?

[Amphetryon]

What the heck; this could be quick and fun. I'll toss in an entry.

[aquaticrna]

i like this, i'll be throwing my hat in to the ring for this one!

[Zonugal]

Is this a straight up level 6 character, or are we getting any E6 feats?

Just a straight-up level 6 build. Because of my own preference I left it up to judges to decide if they don't like flaws or multi-classing.

[dextercorvia]

I think I'll throw in for this one.

[The Gilded Duke]

Huh, I dunno, I think a setup like this would work better as an open competition then the closed competition of the usual Iron Chef. So many different interpretations of the Cowboy itself.

[BobVosh]

I'd love to see really low-level builds but wanted to limit it, for simplicity & my own reasons (I favor the low-levels of D&D), to level 6 (which also allows people to adopt such builds for E6 games.

I meant adding another category or having elegance reflect in how little levels it takes. However I guess that would lead to 1 level builds that wouldn't be as interesting.

[Zonugal]

I meant adding another category or having elegance reflect in how little levels it takes. However I guess that would lead to 1 level builds that wouldn't be as interesting.

True and I don't want to restrict the judges in how they approach the builds (as this competition is more flavor-based than crunch-based to a degree).

[The Gilded Duke]

Whatever happened to this?
Didn't finish what I was thinking of in time.
If the contest is canceled, would it be alright to post ideas?

[Zonugal]

Well I have received no entries, at all.

So with that go ahead and post ideas/thoughts.

[dextercorvia]

My thought had been a Wizard using Double Wand Wielder, Quickdraw, and some Wand Chambers. I didn't really want to use Wizard, but free Craft Wands at 5 was the only way I could see squeezing in DWW by 6. That left the problem of not being able to trade Scribe Scroll for TWF, and it just felt inefficient. Then I got distracted by something shiny and never came back to the build.

[DeAnno]

I think the problem with this challenge was that combining a vague objective with a low level restriction tends to make things a little unexciting. There isn't too much room for mechanical creativity with only six levels, so it can be hard to develop an idea. Compounding that, the lack of a specific "Secret Ingredient" means people don't really have a starting point, so it can be difficult to come up with an idea in the first place.

The e6 Iron Chef seemed to work pretty well, but there the specific mechanical challenge of optimizing a base class tends to give people starting directions of optimizing specific features the class might have as best they can in a short amount of levels.

When I looked at this thread a couple weeks ago some high noon duelist type ideas flew through my head (a double crossbow rogue, a micro-mailman), but without any limiting context except "cowboy" the builds seemed to just be vanilla stuff I'd already done before (not enough reason to use something mechanically unusual, not enough levels for something more mechanically normal to develop in interesting ways).

[Cieyrin]

Now that I think about it, what would have been perfect would be a Paladin of Murlynd with Secret of the Firebrands, as the quasideity Murlynd had time traveled to the future, the American West to be specific, and came back with a 10 gallon hat and a pair of revolvers and taught his paladin order of them. Unfortunately, that's Dragon material that, unlike the Serenity feat, which was in the same article but made the leap to Dragon Conpendium. Ah well...

[BobVosh]

I kept thinking about Iron Kingdoms, which is odd as I never read anything but reviews for it. I think they have guns in it, which may be why I thought about it O.o

I think I agree it was too vague.

[Groverfield]

If I was around when this was up, I would've cooked up something to the effect of an Asherati Hellfire Warlock // Sandshaper, capitalizing on desert survival feats, such as endurance. Probably use one of those eldritch blast rods in conjunction with quick draw. Profession (Gambler) is a must, giving Fateweaver as a few level dips might be on key.

[Amphetryon]

Ranger/Horse Lord was my idea.

[The Gilded Duke]

I was thinking of making a Human Marshal / Ranger, with skill focus in diplomacy, handle animal and intimidate, as well as an impressive wild empathy check. He was going to use the Crowd manipulation rules found in DMG II and Cityscape to move and calm multiple "mobs of horses" or "mobs of cows".

I was also going to see if Iajitsu Focus could be used with ranged weapons.

Lastly, I was considering just submitting a Scoundrel using the Star Wars Saga system. Because you know.. perfect.

[Draz74]

I was thinking of a Factotum crossbow archer or somesuch ...

[Zonugal]

So how do we address the issue of vagueness? I would still enjoy keeping the theme without stepping on the toes of the other Iron Chefs.

[The Gilded Duke]

I'm not sure, maybe a more specific goal? Even though the American Cowboy seems very general, it still resulted in a wide variety of entries. Also, I think the 6th level limit is a bit too low, maybe allow contestants to make an entry between 6th and 10th level? That should allow for a little bit more build flexibility.

(And would have made my Thrallherd Cattlethief Work)