Iron Chef Optimization Challenge In The Playground XXVII [Archive]

Amphetryon

2011-11-27, 07:44 PM

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

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

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

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

Kitchen: Competitors will be free to use any official 3.5 rulebook in constructing their builds. Dragon magazine is disallowed, and Unearthed Arcana is allowed; but see Elegance below. Web-exclusive 3.0 or 3.5 materials by WotC are expressly allowed, but take care to verify that an updated version did not appear in print elsewhere, as this may cause an Elegance deduction at the judges' discretion. 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 Monday, December 12th, 2011 to create their builds and PM them to the Chairman, Amphetryon. Builds will then be posted simultaneously, to avoid copying. Judges will have until 11:59PM GMT on Friday, December 30th, 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. (Judges are getting a couple of extra days due to the holidays). If you do not have access to the current challenge's Secret Ingredient, please do not volunteer to judge this round.

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

Power level is up to you. Cheese is acceptable, but should be kept to a sane level unless you're showcasing a new TO build you've discovered. In the words of one of my predecessors, a little cheddar can be nice, but avoid the mature Gruyere unless you're making a cheese fondue.
Elegance could bear a little elaboration. It basically measures how skillfully you put your build together, and whether you sacrificed flavor for power. We're cooking here - if your dish doesn't taste good, it doesn't matter how well-presented it is. Use of flaws is an automatic loss of one point per flaw in this category. Other things that will cause lost points here are excessive multiclassing, and classes that don't fit the concept - using Cloistered Cleric in a front-line melee fighter, for example, will lose you points. Please note the following change: a legal source's relative obscurity should not be considered as penalizing Elegance, excepting the aforementioned issues with Unearthed Arcana. Using too many sources may be an Elegance deduction at the judges' discretion, but a book's relative obscurity may not.
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 Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Skills|Feats|Class Features

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

For other systems (Psionics, ToB, Incarnum, etc.) keep track of PP/maneuvers/essentia separately, preferably in a nice neat list.
Speculation: Please don't post or speculate on possible builds until the "reveal," in order to avoid spoiling the surprise if a particular competitor is producing a build along those lines.

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

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

This week's special ingredient is:
Complete Arcane's Mindbender!
We will have trophies for 1st through 3rd places, as well as a special trophy for honorable mention. The honorable mention prize is given to the most daring or unexpected build. Judges, contestants and guests alike are invited to vote for honorable mention via PM.

Allez optimiser!

Contestants
Fearan
Hunter_Killer
Dumbledore_lives
TheGeckoKing
Piggy_Knowles
Z3ro
Amechra
Venger
RedWarrior0
Wings_of_Peace
dextercorvia
DonutBoy12321
nedz
Zaq
Narsis
Gotterdammerung
Grey McBannert
Tyndmyr
Diefje
Tono
Sgt. Cookie
gbprime
TerrickTerran
OMG_PONIES

Judges

The Builds

Past Competitions

Iron Chef I: Entropomancer (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=142470)
Iron Chef II: Psibond Agent (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=146583)
Iron Chef III: Cancer Mage (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=148584)
Iron Chef IV: Stonelord (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=150595)
Iron Chef V: War Chanter (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=152543)
Iron Chef VI: Master of Masks (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=156876)
Iron Chef VII: Green Star Adept (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=158633)
Iron Chef VIII: Pyrokineticist (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=160266)
Iron Chef IX: Animal Lord (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=162702)
Iron Chef X: Mythic Exemplar (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=164381)
Iron Chef XI: Blade Bravo (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=166539)
Iron Chef XII: War Mind (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=9426386)
Iron Chef XIII: Vigilante (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=172233)
Iron Chef XIV: Seeker of the Song (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=174434)
Iron Chef XV: Drunken Master (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=176049)
Iron Chef XVI: Assassin (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=178202)
Iron Chef XVII: Ardent Dilettante (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=182492)
Iron Chef XVIII: Unseelie Dark Hunter (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=186097)
Iron Chef XIX: Dread Pirate (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=190607)
Iron Chef XX: Incandescent Champion (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=10976416)
Iron Chef XXI: Ghostwalker (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=198921)
Iron Chef XXII: Dervish (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=206576)
Iron Chef XXIII: Divine Crusader (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=210071)
Iron Chef XXIV: Tactical Soldier (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=214198)
Iron Chef XXV: Scion of Tem-Et-Nu (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=217441)
Iron Chef XXVI: Shadowdancer (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=220956)

Fearan

2011-11-27, 07:49 PM

Wow, the dip guy. Ok, put me up as a contestant.

Hunter Killer

2011-11-27, 07:49 PM

I'm in. Contestant again. I'm going to win this one this time. :smallbiggrin:

Dumbledore lives

2011-11-27, 07:51 PM

All right I'll try, but it's going to be kind of difficult with the thrall, I guess it would be best not to stat out one, but to outline what kind of thrall you want.

TheGeckoKing

2011-11-27, 07:51 PM

Oh good grief. A half-caster I can't throw Ur-Priest at :smalleek:. Well, I guess you can put me in as a contestant, even though I really have no idea.

Zipding

2011-11-27, 07:56 PM

This will definitely be interesting. Like I said in the previous Challenge, I won't participate, but I will take a stab at judging.

Amphetryon

2011-11-27, 07:59 PM

I highlighted a change in rules above, but it bears repeating:

While I'm chairing (at least), Obscurity is not to be considered a factor in Elegance.

Piggy Knowles

2011-11-27, 07:59 PM

Oh man, I already have a build in mind. Let's see if this can come together, but there's a lot of good stuff to eke out of Mindbender!

Z3ro

2011-11-27, 08:06 PM

Amphetryon

2011-11-27, 08:15 PM

I may compete with this one, but I was looking for a clarification:

We're not looking to stat out any thralls, right? Leadership is banned for good reason, and you could pull a lot of shenanigans with a thrall, so I'm assuming we're leaving it out for similar reasons, correct?
For our purposes, I'm perfectly fine with folks explaining the 'party role' that any "thralls" subjected to Eternal Charm fill, but ask that their character sheets be left blank, so to speak. If you're using Eternal Charm to get a trapmonkey, for example, say so, but don't go so far as Spellthief 1/Beguiler 6/Unseen Seer 5/XXX 8 or whatever.

The Gilded Duke

2011-11-27, 08:22 PM

Hmm... You know what?
I'll judge this time. Will post criteria in a bit.

Originality
Did you find any new use of the prestige class? Did you combine it with a base class / other prestige classes in an interesting way. Going with something strange, only to be strange will not give a bonus to originality.

Power
Can your build contribute to (or outshine) a group? Is your build effective against appropriate CR enemies? Is your build effective against higher CR enemies? Can you handle a variety of enemies (Undead, Oozes, Incorporeal Creatures etc) Do you have a variety of tools and tactics available? When in doubt, big numbers are good. Please explain tactics.

Elegance
To be honest, I hate this category. Dipping will not be penalized. Class Variants will not be penalized. Qualifying with items and spells will be. Not meeting qualifications will be. "Shopping Lists" will not be penalized, however remember wealth by level. Try not to mix setting material. Ways to gain points in this category? Using resources well together. (Class A complements Class B and works with Feat C)

Use of Secret Ingredient
Do you qualify for the secret ingredient? Do you take all the levels? Do you use all of the abilities? Do you use the abilities in new ways? Is the secret ingredient a good choice for your build?

Amechra

2011-11-27, 08:24 PM

I'm in.

And it shall be GLORIOUS!

Venger

2011-11-27, 08:28 PM

I'm in!

I've always wanted an excuse to use mindbender for more than a one level dip and now I'll have some.

RedWarrior0

2011-11-27, 08:28 PM

You know, I've kind of wanted to do one of these... Might do it.

DonutBoy12321

2011-11-27, 08:37 PM

Sweet! My suggestion was accepted!
I guess I'll be participating, then. This will be great fun.

Wings of Peace

2011-11-27, 08:39 PM

Count me in for this one.

dextercorvia

2011-11-27, 08:39 PM

I'll have to think about this one. I'm sure I can come up with something.

DonutBoy12321

2011-11-27, 08:55 PM

Stupid question... Is the "Adaption" section of PrCs okay to use for this challenge?

Venger

2011-11-27, 09:00 PM

Stupid question... Is the "Adaption" section of PrCs okay to use for this challenge?

I think that ought to be fine, it'll mean more variety amongst contestants. what's the chairman say? psionics are yes or no?

Amphetryon

2011-11-27, 09:16 PM

Stupid question... Is the "Adaption" section of PrCs okay to use for this challenge?

The Adaptation is fundamentally an entirely different class, so I'm going to say no, just the standard version, please. As it is, there are multiple ways to enter.

Z3ro

2011-11-27, 09:20 PM

Alright, I've got an idea. I'm in.

Venger

2011-11-27, 09:21 PM

The Adaptation is fundamentally an entirely different class, so I'm going to say no, just the standard version, please. As it is, there are multiple ways to enter.

okeydoke. thanks for the prompt response before I could get too far into my psionic build

DonutBoy12321

2011-11-27, 09:25 PM

The Adaptation is fundamentally an entirely different class, so I'm going to say no, just the standard version, please. As it is, there are multiple ways to enter.

Okay... Now to find a non-psionics build.

nedz

2011-11-27, 09:28 PM

I'm in, provided that I have time - which might be tricky since I'm about to move house.

Zipding

2011-11-27, 10:29 PM

I'll post my criteria for judging tomorrow, when the interest increases and we get more contestants.

Akto

2011-11-27, 10:39 PM

Quick Question about this class, as i am a bit confused (might be because i'm tired, it's 5 in the morning here in Denmark and havn't gotten to bed yet =P ) But does this class both give you the ability to permanently dominate 1 monster, aswell as charming 3 pr. day?

Venger

2011-11-27, 10:52 PM

DonutBoy12321

2011-11-27, 11:04 PM

To clarify: Dragon Compendium is or is not allowed?

Amphetryon

2011-11-27, 11:09 PM

To clarify: Dragon Compendium is or is not allowed?
Dragon Compendium is allowed.

Akto

2011-11-27, 11:12 PM

Yes. (styrofoam packing peanuts, crumpled up newspapers, commercials)

Thank you... =) and i have a feeling there is a joke hiden there, but my tired mind is in no way able to get the pun (pun) :smalltongue:

Zaq

2011-11-27, 11:14 PM

Dragon Compendium is allowed.

I'm . . . torn. This is a delightful Iron Chef class in principle (take this well-known dip class and use the other 9 levels! You did know that it had other levels, right?), but the whole "thrall" thing seems kinda squidgy.

If I can think of something, me entering is not out of the question. Assuming, of course, that I have time.

Venger

2011-11-27, 11:41 PM

Thank you... =) and i have a feeling there is a joke hiden there, but my tired mind is in no way able to get the pun (pun) :smalltongue:

oh, the joke is that those things are filler (in boxes of plates and tv shows) just like my putting the text in my post was to hit the 10 character cap, it too was filler. make sense?

Narsis

2011-11-28, 12:32 AM

been watching the last couple ones. think i might give it a whirl as a contestant. assuming of course i have time. :smallbiggrin:

Rhaegar14

2011-11-28, 12:36 AM

Thurbane

2011-11-28, 01:31 AM

I highlighted a change in rules above, but it bears repeating:

While I'm chairing (at least), Obscurity is not to be considered a factor in Elegance.
Sweet! :smallbiggrin:

Venger

2011-11-28, 01:43 AM

I highlighted a change in rules above, but it bears repeating:

While I'm chairing (at least), Obscurity is not to be considered a factor in Elegance.

that makes me very happy! I hope you keep up the chairmanship for a good long time, you did a great job with shadowdancer (18 entries, overworked judges, and dealing with all my PMs during thanksgiving) you're a champ.

this is of course coming from the guy who used the feign death ACF last time around, something so obscure, even OMG_Ponies hadn't heard of it before, so I think I might get up to some really weird stuff in this round.

TroubleBrewing

2011-11-28, 03:49 AM

I honestly can't decide whether to compete or judge.

On one hand, the SI is interesting... On the other, it's seemingly impossible to justify over straight Wizard, thereby making it unlikely that I'll succeed to any measurable degree in UoSI.

I'll tinker, then decide if I want to judge.

Akto

2011-11-28, 04:38 AM

oh, the joke is that those things are filler (in boxes of plates and tv shows) just like my putting the text in my post was to hit the 10 character cap, it too was filler. make sense?

Ah.. get it now, have also gotten a tiny bit of sleep now ^_^

Amphetryon

2011-11-28, 07:45 AM

that makes me very happy! I hope you keep up the chairmanship for a good long time, you did a great job with shadowdancer (18 entries, overworked judges, and dealing with all my PMs during thanksgiving) you're a champ.

this is of course coming from the guy who used the feign death ACF last time around, something so obscure, even OMG_Ponies hadn't heard of it before, so I think I might get up to some really weird stuff in this round.
So long as it's not a 3rd party source or Dragon Magazine - excepting the Compendium - that's great.

BobVosh

2011-11-28, 08:20 AM

How much I love the complete arcane to publish these 1/2 CL classes and then put in IotSFV with full caster levels.

Gotterdammerung

2011-11-28, 09:16 AM

Venger

2011-11-28, 09:20 AM

I would like to compete in this one.

I have a small question though.

Do we need to also stat out the charmed/dominated thralls?

Usually in these things leadership is not allowed so you don't have to worry about statting out extra guys. But this guy is a sort of backdoor leadership thingy. So I was just wonderin if we needed to stat out the thralls or just say what they are quickly and move on.

Also one more question. Since this is the first one of these I have competed in.
Do we need to put magic items? I have read a few of these and it seems sometimes people list a few items or magic items but other times people don't.
I just wanted to know if your supposed to. And how it effects your points if you do/don't add magic items.

For our purposes, I'm perfectly fine with folks explaining the 'party role' that any "thralls" subjected to Eternal Charm fill, but ask that their character sheets be left blank, so to speak. If you're using Eternal Charm to get a trapmonkey, for example, say so, but don't go so far as Spellthief 1/Beguiler 6/Unseen Seer 5/XXX 8 or whatever.

there's that, you don't need to stat out your thralls.

magic items are not strictly necessary. you can lose points if your guy is incomplete without an item, but people often throw in a few suggestions of specific gear that can help them (not general stuff like ring of protection, belt of battle, we know everyone's good with that) in the adaptation section

Amphetryon

2011-11-28, 09:37 AM

Judges are not instructed specifically in either way, but if your build requires a particular magic item in order to work, that's historically been grounds for a deduction in Elegance.

TheGeckoKing

2011-11-28, 10:44 AM

Edit; Hey kids! Speculating is BAAAAAAAAAAD!

dextercorvia

2011-11-28, 10:53 AM

That is speculation and spoiling your build.

TheGeckoKing

2011-11-28, 11:01 AM

That is speculation and spoiling your build.

Wasn't I vague enough? Whoops, my bad.

Venger

2011-11-28, 11:02 AM

That is speculation and spoiling your build.

unsure of which of us you were addressing, so i deleted my post to be on the safe side

dextercorvia

2011-11-28, 11:02 AM

Suppose you have the only entry with that particular problem...

dextercorvia

2011-11-28, 11:03 AM

unsure of which of us you were addressing, so i deleted my post to be on the safe side

TGK... I didn't want to quote it, since that would just spread it around. But if you were feeling guilty... :smallbiggrin:

TheGeckoKing

2011-11-28, 11:06 AM

And now i've turned my old post into something more informative, what with knowing being half the battle! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pele5vptVgc)

Amphetryon

2011-11-28, 11:20 AM

And now i've turned my old post into something more informative, what with knowing being half the battle! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pele5vptVgc)

You're a real American hero, TheGeckoKing. :smallcool:

Venger

2011-11-28, 11:26 AM

oh hey, congrats on honourable mention! good to see you're gonna be here for this one too

TheGeckoKing

2011-11-28, 11:29 AM

You're a real American hero, TheGeckoKing. :smallcool:

And ironically, i'm British :smalltongue:

Venger

2011-11-28, 11:32 AM

And ironically, i'm British :smalltongue:

I reread the damned drake's backstory with that in mind and it has a different feel to it now. the name should've given it away

The_Werebear

2011-11-28, 01:49 PM

Oh man, Amphetryon, first two builds you select are classic dip fodder. I'll see if I can come up with an idea. If I can't, I'll judge again. Though, with ToR coming out, that might eat my free time at the worst moment.

Ah well. I'll see how life unfolds.

OMG PONIES

2011-11-28, 02:48 PM

So, this seems like the best place to say this. I love unconventional characters, but also like to do my best not to sacrifice crunch. As a result, I've always taken great interest in these. But it'd be really great if older entries had a mention of who actually won in the first post after the contest has been resolved, because I can never tell. Unless I'm just derping all over the place.

I feel the need to make a shameless plug for my Excel spreadsheet now. Every round so far, with ranked scores and hyperlinks to the entries. Currently working on the ability to PivotTable all templates, races, and classes used in every round...gives me an excuse to learn PivotTables. PM me your e-mail address if you'd like a copy.

this is of course coming from the guy who used the feign death ACF last time around, something so obscure, even OMG_Ponies hadn't heard of it before, so I think I might get up to some really weird stuff in this round.

Hey, I'm no guide of what's truly obscure. This, however, is making me want to judge rather badly. Trying my hand at competing, if anything strikes me.

Venger

2011-11-28, 02:55 PM

I feel the need to make a shameless plug for my Excel spreadsheet now. Every round so far, with ranked scores and hyperlinks to the entries. Currently working on the ability to PivotTable all templates, races, and classes used in every round...gives me an excuse to learn PivotTables. PM me your e-mail address if you'd like a copy.

Hey, I'm no guide of what's truly obscure. This, however, is making me want to judge rather badly. Trying my hand at competing, if anything strikes me.

well that'd be super. I took over your duties of tablemaking last round (hope you didn't mind) so I'd love a copy, it would've made it a lot quicker (although I must admit I enjoyed the suspense of adding up numbers.

TroubleBrewing

2011-11-28, 03:05 PM

I might actually have something for this. I'm going to finish the build and then stare at it for a while, and if it still looks like crap after a day or so, I'll post my judging criteria.

Zipding

2011-11-28, 04:12 PM

My judging criteria:

Originality
Come at me sideways on this one. If you can avoid using the obvious entry classes, all the better. Using unexpected classes, abilities and feats will net you extra points in this category. If a lot of other build use a similar idea, you will probably lose points here.

Power
Simply put, how powerful is your character? In this case, how well can you manipulate other people to do what you want? If you can solo a standard 4 man party (Fighter, rogue, cleric, wizard), that will net you a lot of points.

Elegance
This is much more of a subjective category than the others. The main factor here is if I like the build. It works best if it flows naturally between classes. Dipping won't be penalized, however, too much dipping will be. Another big factor is your backstory, if it gives a good explaination of your build and adds a new, interesting element that wasn't there before, extra points will be added here.

Use of Secret Ingredient
How well do you use the SI? Do you make use of all or most of its abilities? You will get a good score if you can answer these questions with a "yes". If the build makes me think "why didn't you take X instead of this?" you will most likely lose points in this category.

Hope that makes my criteria clear, if anyone has any questions, I will gladly answer them and possibly repost this or edit it for clarification.

TroubleBrewing

2011-11-28, 04:22 PM

Originality
If you can avoid using the obvious entry classes, all the better.

What do you consider obvious entry classes?

Also, your Elegance criteria is practically identical to my own. Nifty!

Zipding

2011-11-28, 04:26 PM

What do you consider obvious entry classes?

The requirements are that you can either cast as a spell, spell-like ability or use the invocation of charm person, and with the skill requirements point heavily towards the base arcane classes. If they can avoid using these, all the better. I won't penalize using them, though, unless a lot of other people thought of using the same thing.

Tyndmyr

2011-11-28, 05:07 PM

I love this class...and have frequently used it in creative ways in the past. For this one though, Ive got an idea that I haven't posted on here yet. I'll definitely be competing, though this is my first Iron Chef.

TroubleBrewing

2011-11-28, 05:13 PM

I'm super excited now.

Diefje

2011-11-28, 07:39 PM

Jeesh, it's gonna be rough. These entry reqs are peeing all over my cereal.

Venger

2011-11-28, 08:29 PM

Jeesh, it's gonna be rough. These entry reqs are peeing all over my cereal.

never quite heard it put that way before, but they are rather stringent.

Zipding

2011-11-28, 09:27 PM

Woops, not too familiar with anything out of CA, just have a PDF of it, and I prefer not to work out of those.

TroubleBrewing

2011-11-28, 09:57 PM

Dude... speculation. You just gave a ton of people the idea to use that class. :smallannoyed:

PM the chairman with questions.

Tono

2011-11-28, 10:09 PM

I think Ill put my name in this time. I have an idea for a character.

Thurbane

2011-11-29, 02:11 AM

I had what I thought was a really "off the wall" type build for this, and then an unrelated web search turns up a very somewhat similar build at the Wizards website. :smallfrown:

...I might still submit it - it may be different enough to avoid comparisons, but I'm sure some judges will think I lifted the idea.

Sgt. Cookie

2011-11-29, 06:56 AM

I might throw my hat into this.

One question, though. Is there an LA allowance?

cd4

2011-11-29, 07:02 AM

You can use any LA you want. But judges will often penalise any LA above 0 in either power or elegance. However if the creature is surprising enough you might get a better boost in originality.

Feytalist

2011-11-29, 07:41 AM

Wow, I'm gone for a few days and not only is the previous challenge judged and finished, but a new one is already underway.

I'd love to compete, but nothing about Mindbender really jumps out at me. So I guess I'll just spectate this one for the time being, heh.

Dumbledore lives

2011-11-29, 07:56 AM

Just to make sure setting specific books are allowed?

Amphetryon

2011-11-29, 08:23 AM

Just to make sure setting specific books are allowed?

Yup. Jumping between settings might get a judge looking askance at your entry, though.

gbprime

2011-11-29, 09:57 AM

Count me in for this one. I haz idea. :smallbiggrin:

TerrickTerran

2011-11-29, 11:44 AM

Well I do have an idea so I might try this although I wouldn't be surprised if I don't get done in time.

flabort

2011-11-29, 01:02 PM

Alright, so I can't compete again. So, the blind judge at an art show makes his appearance :smallcool:.

Alright, so explain everything to me like you were forced to babysit your 6 year old nephew who's never heard of D&D, but you brought him to the session, and he wants to know everything. EVERYTHING.
ESPECIALLY explain how the class itself works. And your entry classes, even if their available through the SRD.

So, criteria. I'm starting at 0 this time, working up. Also, my judging will be pretty unofficial. Only consider my scores with the rest of the judges if you really want to.
Originality
I gather this is a casting SI. Maybe it's Psionic, but I'm pretty sure it's casting. So, any obvious tricks will... not get you penalized. However, they won't gain you points. Try to pick stuff that I haven't heard of. I've been around these forums a lot in the past few years, this being where I picked up everything I know about D&D. So It won't be as hard to surprise me as the other judges, but it will be difficult.

Power
I'll be scoring this last, alright? So I'll actually put power on the bottom of each entry, under UoSI. But, the more versatile the build, and the more each of it's tricks can do, the higher this will become. I'll only be scoring tricks you describe, so be sure to not leave stuff out that I might miss.

Elegance
Alright, so I can't penalize anyone for not qualifying for something this time. But, I can give people points for fluff, and the better the description, the better the score. As well, I'll be giving points for integration of fluff into the mechanical descriptions, without detracting or distracting from either.

UoSI
The more you use from the SI (I'll be looking at other builds, too, which might have more used, or different features made use of), the better. If you can make me understand what it's doing, and why you wouldn't use another class after point X, or even before point X, that can score you points, too. If you also describe other options, instead of this class, but still make it seem more attractive, that may score you the bonus points needed to reach a solid 5. I expect no-one will get past for, though...

Last time I was a tad inconsistent. Since I'll be judging them one category at a time, rather than one build at a time this time, perhaps I'll manage to catch inconsistencies before they happen.

You are free to not count my scores, if you want. They are, after all, just my opinion.

Amphetryon

2011-11-29, 01:08 PM

flabort, what does this mean in your Elegance criteria, exactly?

Alright, so I can't penalize anyone for not qualifying for something this time.

Venger

2011-11-29, 01:38 PM

judging criteria

what is your general level of understanding of the rules? what should we assume your baseline is for knowing about generally well-known things? by explain everything, do you mean a rules explanation of how mindbender's abilities work? (fortunately, there's nothing dodgy like flame lash or improvised weapons, so that should be straightforward enough) none of us want to lose points because we failed to elaborate on something we thought would be obvious to the judges. do you want us to explain our class abilities from all our classes or just mindbender?

I'm sure you were being hyperbolic with your example, I'd just like to know to what degree

any particular reason you're starting at 0 this time around?

originality:

amphetryon has specifically disallowed the psionic variant of mindbender, so it will not be advancing psionics for the purposes of this contest.

EDIT: (don't tell us what "obvious entries" are to you, it is speculating)

power:
again, if we'll effectively be penalised for not describing certain tricks, we need some sort of baseline for what level of description we need to provide. sort of the same with originality, what is something that's basic enough to not be explained and what's an example of somethiing that is something you might miss (obviously dont use examples of mindbender, lol)

UoSI: so are you saying that 10 lvls of mindbender won't necessarily nab a 5 if they could be used better? should we discuss nonmindbender options in adaptation? I'm a little confused

flabort, what does this mean in your Elegance criteria, exactly?

Alright, so I can't penalize anyone for not qualifying for something this time.

I think what he meant was that he feels that he'll probably miss if people don't qualify for certain feats/prcs/etc due to not having enough ranks in skills and things so he'll miss if someone doesn't have enough ranks in craft (basketweaving) to take the wicker witch of the west prestige class, not that he'll intentionally not deduct points from a build that has the nerve to enter wicker witch of the west without even having craft (basketweaving) as a class skill. penalising for not qualifying for feats/classes is sort of agreed-upon, but obviously you can't penalise for stuff you don't notice.

unless I'm wrong. flabort? what's up?

dextercorvia

2011-11-29, 01:42 PM

He also mentions starting at 0, so maybe he means that he can't go further down.

Amphetryon

2011-11-29, 01:45 PM

Venger

2011-11-29, 01:57 PM

For all who ask about "obvious entries":

Any answer given here could justifiably be called speculation on builds, which we consistently have to get after folks to stop. Read the PrC, note the most straightforward methods of entry without straying far from IC staples, and consider whether "straightforward" and "obvious" are fairly close to synonymous.

okay. sorry about that, I'll edit my earlier post so flabort doesn't accidentally speculate

flabort

2011-11-29, 02:10 PM

flabort, what does this mean in your Elegance criteria, exactly?

Alright, so I can't penalize anyone for not qualifying for something this time.

I'm starting at 0 and can't go down.

what is your general level of understanding of the rules? what should we assume your baseline is for knowing about generally well-known things? by explain everything, do you mean a rules explanation of how mindbender's abilities work? (fortunately, there's nothing dodgy like flame lash or improvised weapons, so that should be straightforward enough) none of us want to lose points because we failed to elaborate on something we thought would be obvious to the judges. do you want us to explain our class abilities from all our classes or just mindbender?

I'm sure you were being hyperbolic with your example, I'd just like to know to what degree

I know enough to play a game staying with the SRD. So, I know how the action economy works, about abilities and special abilities, how spell levels and other casting such works. But, wildshape (and transformation stuff in general) is still a mystery to me, and most special abilities of classes outside the SRD.
So, you can generalize in your description of the Base class, but make sure I know what it does, generally. But I do want more explanation from mindbender.

any particular reason you're starting at 0 this time around?

Hmm.... To try out different judging styles, find the one that works best for me? I know most judges start at 3 nowadays, but they used to start at 0, so I'm seeing how it works out.

originality:

amphetryon has specifically disallowed the psionic variant of mindbender, so it will not be advancing psionics for the purposes of this contest.

That's good. I wasn't actually sure. The word 'mind' had me confused for a moment.

what is an "obvious entry" to you for mindbender? with shadowdancer, most judges said "obvious" entries were rogue, monk, and swordsage. what are they to you for mindbender?

...........................:smallconfused:........ ..... OK, I don't know yet. But as Amphetryon said, that could count as speculation.

power:
again, if we'll effectively be penalised for not describing certain tricks, we need some sort of baseline for what level of description we need to provide. sort of the same with originality, what is something that's basic enough to not be explained and what's an example of somethiing that is something you might miss (obviously dont use examples of mindbender, lol)

something you wouldn't have to explain.... "I have +6 BaB by now, so I can make two attacks on a full attack. I also take TWF this level, so I have three attacks, because it allows me to make an extra attack with an offhand weapon without that dumb penalty."
It would still be a good idea to say "This level, TWF is taken, resulting in having three attacks". Just in brief.
Something I might miss, is using a feat to have second level spells in wizard 1, to qualify for Arcane "Arg!"-er Archer with UrPriest casting.

UoSI: so are you saying that 10 lvls of mindbender won't necessarily nab a 5 if they could be used better? should we discuss nonmindbender options in adaptation? I'm a little confused.

Yup, if those levels aren't used to their best by mindbender, and another class could do what it's doing better, it won't nab a 5.
Yes, I do mean discuss nonmindbender options in adaptation if you want that 5, but since that's fairly risky, I don't expect it. You might accidentally make another class sound more appealing, and make me not give points.

I don't actually expect anything to reach above 4, in any category, just because that's the way I intend to judge. If you take some huge risks, and succeed, gamble with your chances, yeah, you MIGHT get a 5. In one category. Two at most. At the cost of other categories, likely.

Venger

2011-11-29, 02:45 PM

I'm starting at 0 and can't go down.

I know enough to play a game staying with the SRD. So, I know how the action economy works, about abilities and special abilities, how spell levels and other casting such works. But, wildshape (and transformation stuff in general) is still a mystery to me, and most special abilities of classes outside the SRD.
So, you can generalize in your description of the Base class, but make sure I know what it does, generally. But I do want more explanation from mindbender.

sure thing.

something you wouldn't have to explain.... "I have +6 BaB by now, so I can make two attacks on a full attack. I also take TWF this level, so I have three attacks, because it allows me to make an extra attack with an offhand weapon without that dumb penalty."
It would still be a good idea to say "This level, TWF is taken, resulting in having three attacks". Just in brief.
Something I might miss, is using a feat to have second level spells in wizard 1, to qualify for Arcane "Arg!"-er Archer with UrPriest casting.
okay, great, that's exactly what I was looking for.

Yup, if those levels aren't used to their best by mindbender, and another class could do what it's doing better, it won't nab a 5.
Yes, I do mean discuss nonmindbender options in adaptation if you want that 5, but since that's fairly risky, I don't expect it. You might accidentally make another class sound more appealing, and make me not give points.

well, pointing out that other classes can mindbend better than the mindbender seems unwise, I get what you mean

I don't actually expect anything to reach above 4, in any category, just because that's the way I intend to judge. If you take some huge risks, and succeed, gamble with your chances, yeah, you MIGHT get a 5. In one category. Two at most. At the cost of other categories, likely.

challenge accepted (http://esporteye.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Challenge_accepted_RE_Red_pancake_s400x300_128675_ 580_RE_Longest_Post_on_Sharenator-s400x300-194794.jpg)

nedz

2011-11-29, 03:40 PM

TroubleBrewing

2011-11-29, 03:57 PM

Build submitted. And now, the waiting... :smallannoyed:

Amphetryon

2011-11-29, 04:36 PM

OMG PONIES

2011-11-29, 04:37 PM

Does it output in a Forum Friendly Format ?

Unfortunately, no. It's a total of 28 worksheets (one for each round, plus a master record) in tab delimited format. I do usually use a small section of each round's sheet for my standings; copy, paste, and replace tabs with |.

Zipding

2011-11-29, 05:15 PM

For all who ask about "obvious entries":

Any answer given here could justifiably be called speculation on builds, which we consistently have to get after folks to stop. Read the PrC, note the most straightforward methods of entry without straying far from IC staples, and consider whether "straightforward" and "obvious" are fairly close to synonymous.

Hence the reason why I never said what I said were the "obvious entries" in my judging criteria. And like I said in my criteria, if you can avoid these, all the better.

OMG PONIES

2011-11-29, 05:30 PM

Hmm, I just started to get a wonderful idea...to the drawing board!

Thurbane

2011-11-30, 05:12 AM

OK, got ideas for about 3 or 4 different builds now...I just need to get my butt into gear, hash out the details, and submit one (or more).

Gotterdammerung

2011-11-30, 08:28 AM

Venger

2011-11-30, 11:58 AM

Boy, this build is fighting back hard. Everytime I fix a problem, a new one pops up.

Quick question. I am completely awful with computers, and this class chart format thing turned into a bunch of code stuff. I have been trying to tinker with it and I keep messing it up. Is there an easy mode way of writing out a build for the computer illiterate?

I had the same problem with my first chart last time. take advantage of the forum's "preview post" function and look at the chart periodically as you add stuff. it'll help you understand where everything goes and you'll figure out where stuff belongs in no time.

gbprime

2011-11-30, 11:58 AM

I know enough to play a game staying with the SRD. So, I know how the action economy works, about abilities and special abilities, how spell levels and other casting such works. But, wildshape (and transformation stuff in general) is still a mystery to me, and most special abilities of classes outside the SRD.
So, you can generalize in your description of the Base class, but make sure I know what it does, generally. But I do want more explanation from mindbender.

This worries me too. While I can see the merit in judging something from the perspective of the Average Joe Gamer (if I can't figure out what you were trying to do, then it scores low), my concern is how deep you're able to judge. The devil, as they say, is in the details here, and if you're relying too much on an explanation from the player and not your own knowledge of the rules, then you might be fooled by a build that does something illegal or fails on a game mechanic.

Every build should list it's sources, so you can read up on the details, but only if you have a copy. Do you have access to all (or at least many of) the rulebooks that people will be using? (The Chairman did nix the idea of a penalty for "obscure source" this time, so I for one may be using quite obscure sources...)

flabort

2011-11-30, 02:42 PM

flabort, I have one question, in regards to your judging: Do you have access to the text for the Mindbender PrC? Without that, I'd be hesitant to count your judgments as official, and your commentary leaves room for doubt.

Quite frankly, I was surprised my judging was counted as official last time. Truly, I meant to judge only for fun, and expected my scores to be ignored.

Good for an opinion, but not for a real score. OK, I'm going to go back and edit my criteria just a little.

So, you can still try to score big from me, but, it will be up to everyone to decide whether or not you actually add my scores to the total for all judges. I'd recommend not, unless there are three or more other judges.

Diefje

2011-11-30, 03:00 PM

I'm giving up. There's too much fluff and not enough crunch for me to compete.

I ask the chairman to not pick minion heavy classes in the future, please?

gbprime

2011-11-30, 04:54 PM

So, you can still try to score big from me, but, it will be up to everyone to decide whether or not you actually add my scores to the total for all judges. I'd recommend not, unless there are three or more other judges.

Hey, if you're a judge, then you're a judge and it's official. We're often starved for judges around here as it is, we'd be crazy to turn people away. :smallwink:

If you want to turn in "I'm light on the rules, but here is my opinion on what I see" that's great, and even quite useful feedback since the majority of gamers are NOT rules lawyers. We just want to know that you have the ability to read up on the ingredients competitors use.

Piggy Knowles

2011-11-30, 05:56 PM

OK, build submitted. I don't usually submit them this early, but this one just clicked and came together. Regardless of where I place, I'm super happy with it - I haven't felt this good about a build in a very long time!

Zipding

2011-11-30, 08:11 PM

I am so glad I'm not competing this round and chose to judge. Real life came along and deemed it necessary to have 2 labs due and 4 tests over 3 days. However, after that, I have almost nothing.

Hunter Killer

2011-11-30, 08:18 PM

gbprime

2011-11-30, 08:47 PM

I afraid that everyone had the same idea I did, but maybe not... Given the entrance criteria and flavor of the Secret Ingredient, the build seems really really really obvious to me. I might have to do two this time.

That's the beauty of it. I thought that last time when I went with an undead shadow dancer, but out of 18 builds, mine was the only undead one.

Build what you build. I have yet to see two builds alike. They're like psychotic killer snowflakes that way. :smallbiggrin:

Zipding

2011-11-30, 09:08 PM

That's the beauty of it. I thought that last time when I went with an undead shadow dancer, but out of 18 builds, mine was the only undead one.

Build what you build. I have yet to see two builds alike. They're like psychotic killer snowflakes that way. :smallbiggrin:

Same here, I was worried that there would have been a lot of bards and scouts for the last round. Turns out I had the only bard, was one of 2 scouts and the only dervish.

Narsis

2011-11-30, 09:23 PM

I afraid that everyone had the same idea I did, but maybe not... Given the entrance criteria and flavor of the Secret Ingredient, the build seems really really really obvious to me. I might have to do two this time.

you aren't the only one with this problem. i keep trying to think of different ways to pull off my build that no one else could have thought of but am just coming up dry. it's a PrC that lends itself to one flavor and there isn't an easy way to get around that.

TroubleBrewing

2011-11-30, 09:25 PM

it's a PrC that lends itself to one flavor and there isn't an easy way to get around that.

I think you'll be pleasantly surprised once the builds are posted. Even a class as 1-dimensional as Shadowdancer got 18 unique, flavorful-in-different-ways builds.

gbprime

2011-11-30, 09:28 PM

it's a PrC that lends itself to one flavor and there isn't an easy way to get around that.

Well then i think you're going to be surprised.

Edit: Man... Swordsaged. Tough crowd. :smalltongue:

Narsis

2011-11-30, 09:59 PM

I think you'll be pleasantly surprised once the builds are posted. Even a class as 1-dimensional as Shadowdancer got 18 unique, flavorful-in-different-ways builds.

Well then i think you're going to be surprised.

Edit: Man... Swordsaged. Tough crowd. :smalltongue:

i really hope i am then. :smallbiggrin:

Amphetryon

2011-11-30, 10:11 PM

I will say that all three of the builds I have received so far have been surprising in at least a couple different aspects, and that none of the three used methods I would have initially picked, were I to compete with this ingredient.

Creativity abounds.

Zipding

2011-11-30, 10:18 PM

Narsis

2011-12-01, 12:28 AM

hmm...i actually have a new idea. i wonder how well i could pull it off...

Thurbane

2011-12-01, 12:52 AM

I think you'll be pleasantly surprised once the builds are posted. Even a class as 1-dimensional as Shadowdancer got 18 unique, flavorful-in-different-ways builds.
True, that. I'm constantly (and pleasantly) surprised by the unexpected direction people can take what seem to be very limited PrCs in the competitions. I hope the build I'm working on throws a little curveball into the direction of the Mindbender.

I've got the basics pretty much nailed down, just have to work out final feats and a few other details.

Hunter Killer

2011-12-01, 01:06 AM

I have another idea. This one is a little more kookie. Not sure which idea I like better at this point; I don't know if I'll have time to work on both.

Sgt. Cookie

2011-12-01, 08:32 AM

Crunch is virtualy done. Have a couple of feats and things to finish off, and then it's onto the fluff.

Amphetryon

2011-12-01, 09:42 AM

Quite frankly, I was surprised my judging was counted as official last time. Truly, I meant to judge only for fun, and expected my scores to be ignored.

Good for an opinion, but not for a real score. OK, I'm going to go back and edit my criteria just a little.

So, you can still try to score big from me, but, it will be up to everyone to decide whether or not you actually add my scores to the total for all judges. I'd recommend not, unless there are three or more other judges.

I'm still confused. I asked if you did, or did not, have access to the Mindbender PrC's text, and this is the only response I see. My question is, as far as I can tell, still pending.

flabort

2011-12-01, 10:42 AM

No.... :smallfrown: Just the SRD. (unless it's in an excerpt on Wizards? :smallsmile:)
Maybe I'll wait until the official judging is over to post my scores.

ForgottenCode

2011-12-01, 10:54 AM

Question on Leadership. I know it's banned in IC competitions, but if it's required for a PrC can it still be taken and just not gone into, or does the ruling effectively ban those PrCs?

Amphetryon

2011-12-01, 11:03 AM

Question on Leadership. I know it's banned in IC competitions, but if it's required for a PrC can it still be taken and just not gone into, or does the ruling effectively ban those PrCs?
A PrC that expressly requires [some form of] Leadership is banned, as you're not allowed to take it for the Iron Chef Optimization Challenges.

A PrC that grants [some form of] Leadership may be taken, but any use of or benefit from that Leadership ability is ignored. This may or may not make the PrC entirely undesirable for your purposes.

ForgottenCode

2011-12-01, 01:24 PM

Okay then, add me as a competitor (first time for me in one of these). Got what I hope is a pretty unique idea, just need to work on the fluff.

flabort

2011-12-01, 01:25 PM

No.... :smallfrown: Just the SRD. (unless it's in an excerpt on Wizards? :smallsmile:)
Maybe I'll wait until the official judging is over to post my scores.

Whoop, forget I said this.

:smallbiggrin: Thanks, Venger.

gbprime

2011-12-01, 02:06 PM

Whoop, forget I said this.

:smallbiggrin: Thanks, Venger.

Okay, so you have Complete Arcane covered now, cool. But what if I pull something out of a Forgotten Realms splatbook or Dragon Magazine Compendium? Can you check my math, so to speak?

Zaq

2011-12-01, 02:12 PM

Build what you build. I have yet to see two builds alike. They're like psychotic killer snowflakes that way. :smallbiggrin:

While this is entirely true, I still giggle when I think about the time we had two VoP prostitutes. Ardent Dilettante, I believe.

Venger

2011-12-01, 02:22 PM

While this is entirely true, I still giggle when I think about the time we had two VoP prostitutes. Ardent Dilettante, I believe.

you are correct, it was ardent dilettante. that was an awesome round, and those two builds were quite inventive. I liked the one who was the emancipated interviewed by the paladin, that was really funny. the judges' reactions to two VoP prostitutes were great.

Whoop, forget I said this.

:smallbiggrin: Thanks, Venger.
you are quite welcome.

Sgt. Cookie

2011-12-01, 03:02 PM

I hate multiclass skills.

Fixed em, but it was such a stupid mistake.

Venger

2011-12-01, 03:04 PM

I hate multiclass skills.

Fixed em, but it was such a stupid mistake.

yeah, mindbender's incredibly awkward in that way.

Sgt. Cookie

2011-12-01, 03:13 PM

It wasn't mindbender per sey, that was the easy part of my build. It was multiclass skills in general that I hate.

Venger

2011-12-01, 03:53 PM

It wasn't mindbender per sey, that was the easy part of my build. It was multiclass skills in general that I hate.

ah, okay, I feel ya. I just meant that the prereq skills for mindbender are sort of oddballs, it's hard to get them all as class skills without shooting yourself in the foot. multiclass skills tick me off too. I'm too spoiled from playing factoti:smallbiggrin:

BobVosh

2011-12-01, 05:23 PM

Okay, so you have Complete Arcane covered now, cool. But what if I pull something out of a Forgotten Realms splatbook or Dragon Magazine Compendium? Can you check my math, so to speak?

I've judged several of these without DMC. The secret is just to ask this forum or someone you know. Within 5 minutes you typically have all the info you need for it.

Diefje

2011-12-01, 05:33 PM

ah, okay, I feel ya. I just meant that the prereq skills for mindbender are sort of oddballs, it's hard to get them all as class skills without shooting yourself in the foot. multiclass skills tick me off too. I'm too spoiled from playing factoti:smallbiggrin:

Meh, as long as you get 4sp/level, anyone can enter by 5th level which is part of the "standard" entry prereqs anyway. 5th level arcane caster is (IMO) much harder for non-standard entries.

Venger

2011-12-01, 06:41 PM

Meh, as long as you get 4sp/level, anyone can enter by 5th level which is part of the "standard" entry prereqs anyway. 5th level arcane caster is (IMO) much harder for non-standard entries.

oh, getting the skills isn't the hard part, those skillpoints are easy enough to happen upon. it's the opportunity cost of not putting skillpoints in other stuff as a result that's really hurting you. yeah, it would be. you gotta get creative

gbprime

2011-12-01, 06:45 PM

oh, getting the skills isn't the hard part, those skillpoints are easy enough to happen upon. it's the opportunity cost of not putting skillpoints in other stuff as a result that's really hurting you. yeah, it would be. you gotta get creative

And heck, if you don't mind a late entry, you can cross class some or all of those skills at only 4 ranks. That might be an elegance hit, but your mileage may vary. :smallwink:

Venger

2011-12-01, 07:06 PM

And heck, if you don't mind a late entry, you can cross class some or all of those skills at only 4 ranks. That might be an elegance hit, but your mileage may vary. :smallwink:

yeah, depends on how much the judges care about you taking all the mindbender levels ASAP, everyone's different about that.

DemonRoach

2011-12-01, 08:45 PM

So...prepping to PM the build, noticed tons of editing errors, fixed them, hit send...and got a server too busy error :smallfurious:

These things are a lot more work than I thought, great credit to everyone who puts the time in :smallsmile:

gbprime

2011-12-01, 09:22 PM

yeah, depends on how much the judges care about you taking all the mindbender levels ASAP, everyone's different about that.

Well when I'm a judge, I care about whether the class abilities are taken at a level when they'll be useful or not. Getting the ability to cure 20 hp of damage a day is pretty good at 6th level, but much less so at 16th.

I can't say what our judges this time will decide, but the capstone ability (Thrall) mimics a 9th level spell, and getting it before 17th level is therefore a step ahead of the curve, whereas getting it at 20th is a touch behind.

Narsis

2011-12-01, 09:25 PM

Well when I'm a judge, I care about whether the class abilities are taken at a level when they'll be useful or not. Getting the ability to cure 20 hp of damage a day is pretty good at 6th level, but much less so at 16th.

I can't say what our judges this time will decide, but the capstone ability (Thrall) mimics a 9th level spell, and getting it before 17th level is therefore a step ahead of the curve, whereas getting it at 20th is a touch behind.

aye but 9th level casting has so many other goodies attached. so you are still behind the curve considering how many caster levels you are giving up.

gbprime

2011-12-01, 09:28 PM

aye but 9th level casting has so many other goodies attached. so you are still behind the curve considering how many caster levels you are giving up.

If the PrC had the ability to be out in front of said curve, or even vaguely close to it, it wouldn't be our special ingredient, now would it?:smallamused:

Narsis

2011-12-01, 09:33 PM

If the PrC had the ability to be out in front of said curve, or even vaguely close to it, it wouldn't be our special ingredient, now would it?:smallamused:

very true.

Cieyrin

2011-12-01, 09:44 PM

If the PrC had the ability to be out in front of said curve, or even vaguely close to it, it wouldn't be our special ingredient, now would it?:smallamused:

Not necessarily, we've had nice PrCs before. War Mind and Master of Masks are both decently powered.

BobVosh

2011-12-01, 11:04 PM

Not necessarily, we've had nice PrCs before. War Mind and Master of Masks are both decently powered.

I've never seen anyone really take more than one level of master of masks for the exotic weapons.

Also one of my favorite PrCs was done in IC, the dervish.

TroubleBrewing

2011-12-01, 11:13 PM

Not necessarily, we've had nice PrCs before. War Mind and Master of Masks are both decently powered.

Divine Crusader is also pretty solid, if only for the fact that it fast-tracks you to 9th level spells by 16th level.

Venger

2011-12-01, 11:42 PM

Divine Crusader is also pretty solid, if only for the fact that it fast-tracks you to 9th level spells by 16th level.

well, 9th level spell but your point is well made

Thurbane

2011-12-02, 01:01 AM

A PrC that expressly requires [some form of] Leadership is banned, as you're not allowed to take it for the Iron Chef Optimization Challenges.

A PrC that grants [some form of] Leadership may be taken, but any use of or benefit from that Leadership ability is ignored. This may or may not make the PrC entirely undesirable for your purposes.
Does the ban on the Leadership feat extend to similar/related feats, such as Dragon Cohort, Wild Cohort, Undead Leadership etc. ?

well, 9th level spell but your point is well made
There a few ways to expand from your 1 spell/level class list, using DC casting as the chassis, though.

Venger

2011-12-02, 02:02 AM

There a few ways to expand from your 1 spell/level class list, using DC casting as the chassis, though.

oh, I see, use DC's casting to fulfill "must be able to cast such and such level divine spells" by getting in early. that's cute, I never thought of that before. that would explain its popularity around here

Amphetryon

2011-12-02, 07:50 AM

Does the ban on the Leadership feat extend to similar/related feats, such as Dragon Cohort, Wild Cohort, Undead Leadership etc. ?
It has historically. I'm not going to be the one to break that particular dam.

Akto

2011-12-02, 08:30 AM

KNow that feeling that goes: "Man this is a sweet build, can't wait to enter my first IC and see what everybody thinks of my build... Hmm... better look that rule up one more time that i was a bit in doubt about... FECK! that makes the whole build illegal" =(

oh well... back to the drawing board =P

dextercorvia

2011-12-02, 09:09 AM

It has historically. I'm not going to be the one to break that particular dam.

I seem to remember Wild Cohort making an appearance before. It's not really on the level of the other ones, anyway.

Edit: Tamalin in IC XVIII at the least. I remember, because I judged that one.

Amphetryon

2011-12-02, 09:52 AM

I seem to remember Wild Cohort making an appearance before. It's not really on the level of the other ones, anyway.

Edit: Tamalin in IC XVIII at the least. I remember, because I judged that one.
Good catch. I hadn't had coffee yet. Wild Cohort is generally fine, though judges are free to quibble.

Gotterdammerung

2011-12-02, 10:50 AM

in the table there is a spot for BAB fort ref will and skills

I needed to know real quick, If we are supposed to list base and ranks or are we supposed to add it all together and list final bonus?

for example a lvl 1 rogue with a 17 dex, 12 con, 12 wisdom and weapon finesse

would his chart say rogue / +0 / +0 / +2/ +0 4ranks in tumble

or would it say rogue / +2/ +1/ +4/ +1 and +6 tumble modifier

?

Piggy Knowles

2011-12-02, 10:54 AM

gbprime

2011-12-02, 10:59 AM

Gotterdammerung

2011-12-02, 11:10 AM

Thanks so much for the quick answers. I can now proceed :smallredface:

(That was the answer I was secretly hoping for as well :smallwink:)

Diefje

2011-12-02, 03:18 PM

Good catch. I hadn't had coffee yet. Wild Cohort is generally fine, though judges are free to quibble.

Just remember the SI is supposed to be the star. "hey look at my completely unplayable dude, but he has a sweet pet!"

Gotterdammerung

2011-12-02, 03:18 PM

Sorry for all the questions but....

Do we need to wait til the entry is 100% finished before we send it in to you?

I have around 95% of my crunch done and my class chart is 100% complete. The info is all there but in 2 spots the info jumps into the wrong column.

I was wondering if I could send it in now to see if you can see what I am doing wrong, and then come back later to finish up the fluff and the level breakdowns after the technical difficulty is fixed?

TroubleBrewing

2011-12-02, 03:22 PM

For my first Iron Chef I submitted 3 versions of my build with various updates in the first 24 hours of the contest. :smalltongue:

Editing is fine. Amphetryon will only post your latest version when it comes time to post builds.

Diefje

2011-12-02, 03:22 PM

Ctrl+c, ctrl+v-able is obviously best. Presentation is being judged as well.

If you just need help editing, I suppose you could ask the chairman. I've withdrawn from entering and I'm not judging so I could see if I can help you too, if you want.

Gotterdammerung

2011-12-02, 03:29 PM

Yay, I fixed it!

I am going to send what I got anyway. I don't what anything to glitch out and erase everything I have done.

P.S. What is Control V C?

gbprime

2011-12-02, 03:42 PM

P.S. What is Control V C?

control-C is windows shortcut for COPY
control-V is windows shortcut for PASTE

OMG PONIES

2011-12-02, 03:53 PM

well, 9th level spell but your point is well made

My gold medal winner from Round XXIII would like to have a word with you. :smallbiggrin:

Zipding

2011-12-02, 04:57 PM

control-C is windows shortcut for COPY
control-V is windows shortcut for PASTE

And to make everything easier again:
control-A to select everything.

Venger

2011-12-02, 05:23 PM

And to make everything easier again:
control-A to select everything.

control -x to "cut" which means that it will remove the selected text so you can "paste" (control-v) it elsewhere, which is very helpful when you're trying to make a workable layout for your entry

My gold medal winner from Round XXIII would like to have a word with you. :smallbiggrin:

^mfw (http://www.the-games-blog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/I-see-what-you-did-there-Fry-300x225.jpg)

so this is the fabled truenamer in the iron chefs past. I was referring to divine crusader on its own, "out of the box" as it were, without domain shuffling. I can certainly see why Sortes won. very clean build and of course I'm agog that you not only took truenamer in an optimisation challenge, but took only truenamer and the SI in an optimisation challenge. cheers for the fluff as well, it was a lot of fun to read.

BobVosh

2011-12-02, 06:26 PM

I seem to remember Wild Cohort making an appearance before. It's not really on the level of the other ones, anyway.

Edit: Tamalin in IC XVIII at the least. I remember, because I judged that one.

Wasn't that the one where the pet became the main character?

Thurbane

2011-12-02, 07:25 PM

Wasn't that the one where the pet became the main character?
You mean the Krenshar?

Gotterdammerung

2011-12-02, 07:46 PM

One more question...

it is telling me i can't post it because it is 27k characters long and it needs to be 25k characters long.

How do i get around this?

yugi24862

2011-12-02, 07:49 PM

Double post, simple

Gotterdammerung

2011-12-02, 07:53 PM

so I just send him another message with the rest of it?

dextercorvia

2011-12-02, 08:20 PM

Wasn't that the one where the pet became the main character?

You mean the Krenshar?

Yeah .. although that was a different character.

Urpriest

2011-12-02, 09:01 PM

Yeah .. although that was a different character.

Yeah, my Krenshar wasn't anybody's Wild Cohort. He was his own beast. Such a lovable puppy. And a scholar!

dextercorvia

2011-12-02, 10:19 PM

And a scholar!

Of the most reputable variety.:smallwink:

Thurbane

2011-12-02, 10:20 PM

Yeah, my Krenshar wasn't anybody's Wild Cohort. He was his own beast. Such a lovable puppy. And a scholar!
I really liked that build. I cannot believe how many times I'd flipped through the MM and SRD and never even noticed that the Krenshar has an LA listed (I always just assumed it was cohort only). Nice. :smallbiggrin:

Amphetryon

2011-12-02, 11:28 PM

Repeated questions from multiple parties about this force me to spell this out again, and explicitly:

First-party 3.0 sources that have never been updated to 3.5 are allowed. 3.0 sources that were updated to 3.5 are not allowed, as you need to use the most up-to-date source. You may need to mention any fiddling with the material to make it fully compliant with 3.5 (like Wilderness Lore vs Survival).

If you have a question about this, please say so.

Feytalist

2011-12-03, 03:30 AM

You know that feeling when everything suddenly clicks together? Yeah. I had that feeling last night.

So I guess I have a build now? I now know why people compete in this challange. The buzz from building a character like this is great :smallbiggrin: It even managed to keep me awake past 1 AM for the first time in months. Hell, more than a year, even. Even then, I was so wired I could only think about the backstory, heh.

Oh yeah, so I'm competing. First timer, so go easy on a fella :smallbiggrin:

BobVosh

2011-12-03, 08:17 AM

Anonymous means NO MERCY! :D

Gah, I can't wait to see the builds here. I want to know what could be done with this class beyond optimizing a effectively free cohort.

Venger

2011-12-03, 11:20 AM

Anonymous means NO MERCY! :D

Gah, I can't wait to see the builds here. I want to know what could be done with this class beyond optimizing a effectively free cohort.

it's fortunate we're using the 3.5 version. back in 3.0, leadership was actually a prerequisite for mindbender, so by the time you were done, you'd have 4 charmed ppl, a thrall, a cohort, and however many followers you were entitled to

you don't have to give details about your cohort though like class levels, just a general sort of role of what s/he's gonna do, so that means less work for all of us

Zipding

2011-12-03, 11:24 AM

it's fortunate we're using the 3.5 version. back in 3.0, leadership was actually a prerequisite for mindbender, so by the time you were done, you'd have 4 charmed ppl, a thrall, a cohort, and however many followers you were entitled to

you don't have to give details about your cohort though like class levels, just a general sort of role of what s/he's gonna do, so that means less work for all of us

Like the Shadow Companion from last round, I avoided actually using it in combat due to the rediculous XP penalty if it died.

Venger

2011-12-03, 11:42 AM

Like the Shadow Companion from last round, I avoided actually using it in combat due to the rediculous XP penalty if it died.

me too, but I got dinged for it. oh well. mindbender for its problems is at least easier to use than shadowdancer

Gotterdammerung

2011-12-03, 11:50 AM

Venger

2011-12-03, 12:00 PM

Finarry finished. Huzzah!

Thanks everyone for putting up with all my questions.

I finally got it all working and the charts ended up being worth it. They are all neat and pretty.

Now I kinda can't wait to see what everyone else did. This waiting must be the addictive part of these contests. All this suspense, wondering how your gonna do or if anyone else had the same idea.

Anyway, thanks again and good luck to my fellow competitors.

oh totally, the suspense is the best part (after building of course) hopefully judging will be easier on the judges since there are probably not going to be as many entries this time around.

judging doesn't go till the 30th though so there's lots of time for us to be in suspense about our build.

good luck! can't wait to see what you build.

I'm pretty sure no one's going to do what I'm doing. my entries are definitely oddballs this time around as well

well, maybe not as odd as pumpkinhead, but then again, he is a hard act to follow on that front.

Sgt. Cookie

2011-12-03, 12:45 PM

mindbender for its problems

There's a problem with mindbender? :smallamused:

Gotterdammerung

2011-12-03, 01:42 PM

There's a problem with mindbender? :smallamused:

Beyond just a 1 lvl dip yes there is a fundamental problem with Mindbender.

Everything it gets either can be recreated by a full caster or is not important.

Most of it's abilities really play towards the permanent duration of the mind bent pets. But duration is not and never has been an issue for those types of spells. Dominate monster lasts daaaayyysss. And you can just recast it the day before the duration ends and refresh the duration. It takes a small investment to keep a thrall dominated through normal spellcasting indefinitely.

The only real benefit from this class is the bit about it's charms not being dispellable. And the game designers FORGOT to copy paste that very important segment over into the Dominate and Thrall capstone!

If it was a full casting progression there would be little to complain about, but yes... very flawed prestige class.

Having said that, THAT IS WHAT MAKES THIS CHALLENGE AWESOME!

Taking classes you normally wouldn't look twice at, and then trying to make them viable. It's like in nursery when I used to try to make the circle toy fit through the square toy's hole. Even though I knew it wasn't supposed to go, It was fun to try and make it fit!

P.S. For some reason... It's always fun to try to "make it fit."

Venger

2011-12-03, 02:36 PM

Beyond just a 1 lvl dip yes there is a fundamental problem with Mindbender.

Everything it gets either can be recreated by a full caster or is not important. yep, this is what I meant.

Most of it's abilities really play towards the permanent duration of the mind bent pets. But duration is not and never has been an issue for those types of spells. Dominate monster lasts daaaayyysss. And you can just recast it the day before the duration ends and refresh the duration. It takes a small investment to keep a thrall dominated through normal spellcasting indefinitely.
see, it is difficult for someone -5 caster levels to keep permanent dominates up, so its charm ability allows you to mitigate this, however, it is because of a problem mindbender itself caused, so it's a wash.

The only real benefit from this class is the bit about it's charms not being dispellable. And the game designers FORGOT to copy paste that very important segment over into the Dominate and Thrall capstone!
I asked amphetryon about this and he said that since the designers forgot the copypasta that it's a judgment call on whether dominate/thrall are similarly immune to dispel magic. I think that RAI they were supposed to be since they're "upgraded" versions of eternal charm. what do judges think?

If it was a full casting progression there would be little to complain about, but yes... very flawed prestige class.

Having said that, THAT IS WHAT MAKES THIS CHALLENGE AWESOME!

Taking classes you normally wouldn't look twice at, and then trying to make them viable. It's like in nursery when I used to try to make the circle toy fit through the square toy's hole. Even though I knew it wasn't supposed to go, It was fun to try and make it fit!

P.S. For some reason... It's always fun to try to "make it fit."
more or less my feelings. I like the challenge aspect of IC too

nedz

2011-12-03, 06:31 PM

OK - I've submitted my build.
I have ideas for another two, but I will not have the time - much to the judges relief perhaps :smallcool:

flabort

2011-12-03, 11:09 PM

dextercorvia

2011-12-03, 11:15 PM

Yikes, that's a difficult name to remember/type. I was considering shortening it to Ammy, Tryon, and maybe one or two other shortened names, but any I think of just seems like it would be degrading.

Thus spake flaborthustra. :smallwink:

flabort

2011-12-03, 11:31 PM

Thus spake flaborthustra. :smallwink:

:smalltongue: you have a good point. Although it's just "Abort" with "fl" tagged on.

Touche, my man.

BobVosh

2011-12-04, 06:02 AM

:smallcool: Indeed.

How many builds have you received so far, Amphetryon?

Yikes, that's a difficult name to remember/type. I was considering shortening it to Ammy, Tryon, and maybe one or two other shortened names, but any I think of just seems like it would be degrading.

Knock up the Amps, its time to get cookin' in the IRON CHEF!

I don't know where that came from, I'm going back to lurking

Amphetryon

2011-12-04, 07:53 AM

:smallcool: Indeed.

How many builds have you received so far, Amphetryon?

Yikes, that's a difficult name to remember/type. I was considering shortening it to Ammy, Tryon, and maybe one or two other shortened names, but any I think of just seems like it would be degrading.

Six so far. "Amphetryon" - sometimes spelled "Amphitryon" depending on translation - was Heracles' mortal father. You can use "Amph" if it's easier. Another board I used to frequent also had an "Ampherion", which got really confusing.

flabort

2011-12-04, 11:10 AM

Amphetryon

2011-12-04, 11:20 AM

Ah, so it's Greek. Interesting.

...Mortal adopted father, right? don't want to imagine what Zeus might have been into if that wasn't true...:smalleek: :smalltongue:

Sorry, I really should stop talking typing.

Yup. Back in HS I read an article in Dragon advocating choosing character names based on minor characters in literature, so they'd sound authentic and would avoid having your party be Frodo, Drit'z, Raistlin, and Berek Halfhand.

Piggy Knowles

2011-12-04, 11:56 AM

Yup. Back in HS I read an article in Dragon advocating choosing character names based on minor characters in literature, so they'd sound authentic and would avoid having your party be Frodo, Drit'z, Raistlin, and Berek Halfhand.

Huh. Never read this article, but this is pretty consistently how I come up with names.

dextercorvia

2011-12-04, 12:30 PM

I worked at a loan place for a while, and I kept a text file of all of the fantasy sounding person and place names that I found while viewing applications. It came in really handy when I was DM'ing -- I even based a dungeon off the office building I worked in, once the building manager gave me a map that they use for emergency preparedness.

I lost that file about 3 computers ago, so now when I'm hard up for a name, I choose names based on text book authors.

I've had a Wizard named Stegun, one named Royden, and even a Fighter named Abramowitz.

Zipding

2011-12-04, 12:50 PM

Yup. Back in HS I read an article in Dragon advocating choosing character names based on minor characters in literature, so they'd sound authentic and would avoid having your party be Frodo, Drit'z, Raistlin, and Berek Halfhand.

I tend to choose names by randomly smashing keys in MS Word and choosing a series of letters that looked cool. That's how I got Tiesa.

Diefje

2011-12-04, 01:36 PM

I tend to choose names by randomly smashing keys in MS Word and choosing a series of letters that looked cool. That's how I got Tiesa.

The glorious fistkey method.

I like to adapt more famous ones, or leave them if they aren't superfamous (as above). For instance, I might use Hagriman, Hargad, Hagreen, etc derived from Hagrid. I actually might use Rubeus, because most ppl just know his last name.

Zipding

2011-12-04, 02:48 PM

The glorious fistkey method.

I like to adapt more famous ones, or leave them if they aren't superfamous (as above). For instance, I might use Hagriman, Hargad, Hagreen, etc derived from Hagrid. I actually might use Rubeus, because most ppl just know his last name.

I've done that as well, except instead of Harry Potter, I used Dragonlance. I took Porthios and changed it into Althios and Palanthas into Palthanas.

Thurbane

2011-12-05, 01:41 AM

When I'm stuck for inspiration for a name, I usually go here (http://dicelog.com/yafnag). I've found it to be one of the better random generators. Fistkey is always an option! :smallbiggrin:

Feytalist

2011-12-05, 03:25 AM

Yup. Back in HS I read an article in Dragon advocating choosing character names based on minor characters in literature, so they'd sound authentic and would avoid having your party be Frodo, Drit'z, Raistlin, and Berek Halfhand.

Interesting that Raistlin is the one almost always used. I've seen Caramon only used once or twice.

I'm going to wait a bit to send in my entry. I'm an obsessive tweaker, heh.

nedz

2011-12-05, 06:18 AM

Well I'm offline now until the 12th.
I was going to tweak my build - or at least improve the formatting.
I may have time - who knows ?

Z3ro

2011-12-05, 10:35 AM

Stupid Skyrim, sucking up all my free time. I've got a good idea for a build, now I just have to sit down for an hour or two and put it together. The likelyhood of me doing this is directly proportional to my ability to tear myself away from the xbox.

Zipding

2011-12-05, 02:44 PM

Well, just over a week left for optimization. Good luck to all contestants.

Honeko

2011-12-06, 12:31 AM

Mindbender seems like it'd be an interesting class. Seeing as I'm wanting to learn more optimization, I think being a judge in this contest would be enlightening. Unless you no longer need judges... But I think I saw more than three in a few of the past contests. Criteria will follow the judge, judgement.

Garwain

2011-12-06, 04:52 AM

Build submitted. Well technically re-submitted as I had some adjustments to do. Turns out that playing chef is harder than I thought. And more time consuming. Anyway... As it is a first for me, I'm curious to have it judged and find out if I have any op-fu in me.

Feytalist

2011-12-06, 06:35 AM

Same here. I'm taking this as a trial run. Like a learning curve. See how it turns out.

OMG PONIES

2011-12-06, 07:00 AM

Aw crap. So, I just deleted all my PMs, including the e-mail addresses of those who wanted a copy of my spreadsheet. If you're still interested, please send me another PM and I promise I won't delete it.

TroubleBrewing

2011-12-07, 01:27 AM

Same here. I'm taking this as a trial run. Like a learning curve. See how it turns out.

That's how it starts.

Then, four competitions later, you wake up in an alley, covered in blood with no memory other than the perfect build for this competition, only to find that your mad-cap sprint back home was just seconds too late to submit it.

Iron Chef gets its claws in you real quick.

Thurbane

2011-12-07, 01:51 AM

I'm hoping to get an entry in this time...got a big 40th b'day bash coming up on the weekend, so I'll try to get it done before then. The crunch is 95% nailed down, and the fluff is all written in my head, so it's just a matter of formatting and typing it out.

OMG PONIES

2011-12-07, 07:03 AM

That's how it starts.

Then, four competitions later, you wake up in an alley, covered in blood with no memory other than the perfect build for this competition, only to find that your mad-cap sprint back home was just seconds too late to submit it.

Iron Chef gets its claws in you real quick.

Minus the blood, I've had this exact experience.

I'm hoping to get an entry in this time...got a big 40th b'day bash coming up on the weekend, so I'll try to get it done before then. The crunch is 95% nailed down, and the fluff is all written in my head, so it's just a matter of formatting and typing it out.

Happy 40th birthday!

Amphetryon

2011-12-07, 07:56 AM

flabort

2011-12-07, 11:38 AM

Same here. I'm taking this as a trial run. Like a learning curve. See how it turns out.

You betcha it's a learning curve. But it's SOOOOOOOO much fun... And when you do well, you jump around and giggle so much.
Did you check out last months? Vesper, my first entry (to my memory) was actually in 2nd for a while! Sure, in a three way tie for 2nd, but still. By the time the judging was over, I think I was down to 8th, right where I expected to be. But the experience and elation just won't leave. :smallwink:

Amechra

2011-12-07, 03:34 PM

I'm sad, to say the least; I was working on a build for the last 4 hours, and had around 9 pages of stuff to it, and then noticed that I didn't qualify for two of the feats that were required for the build to work. Ah well, back to the drawing board.

Feytalist

2011-12-09, 03:13 AM

Aaaaand.... submitted.

I might as well mention this now: I'm going to be offline from the 24th to the 2nd. Camping trip; no internet connection or smartphone reception even. So any queries/disputes during that time will have to pass me by (getting a bit ahead of myself, aren't I? heh). I'll check in afterwards to see who won.

I'm also generally offline during weekends, but that's by choice, and I'm sure I can make an exception for the competition.

Venger

2011-12-09, 03:33 AM

well, judging lasts till the 30th on account of other peoples' vacation too, so that shouldn't be too much of a problem. if your build inspires more than 28 days of debate well, then, none of us had a chance anyway. build's all done for me, I just won't let myself write the backstory until finals are done. that way lies only pain.

best of luck!

gbprime

2011-12-09, 10:18 AM

Yeah, I never submit my build until the last minute. It's designed way ahead of time and with plenty of thought, but 60 hour workweeks and being a father of 3 gets in the way of formatting. :smallamused:

Amphetryon

2011-12-10, 10:25 AM

Z3ro

2011-12-10, 10:50 AM

Amphetryon

2011-12-10, 11:03 AM

Weak...the combination of work, Skyrim, a hockey game and an orchestra performance will rob me of any ability to format my idea in time. Maybe I'll post my idea if no one else comes up with something similar, and judge if we need another one.

We ALWAYS need another judge. ALWAYS. The only criteria is access to Complete Arcane, with first-hand access to the other materials used being a big plus, but the chairman (that's me! *waves*) can provide a rundown on those if asked nicely.

Zipding

2011-12-10, 11:10 AM

Weak...the combination of work, Skyrim, a hockey game and an orchestra performance will rob me of any ability to format my idea in time. Maybe I'll post my idea if no one else comes up with something similar, and judge if we need another one.

I am kinda in the same boat here, I have 7 concerts this coming weekend starting on Thursday. I should have more time after that to get to judging.

Amphetryon

2011-12-11, 08:58 PM

+/- 22 hours to go.

The Gilded Duke

2011-12-11, 09:08 PM

Looking forward to judging. How many entries do we have so far?

Amphetryon

2011-12-11, 09:15 PM

Looking forward to judging. How many entries do we have so far?

Ten, assuming I can count.

Madara

2011-12-11, 09:37 PM

Well, I missed out on this one :smallsigh:
Mindbender is one of my favorite PrCs too.

I fit the Criteria to judge if you want me to, I'd just steal the other's criteria to make it easier on the contestants.

Amphetryon

2011-12-11, 09:40 PM

Madara

2011-12-11, 09:41 PM

Theory doesn't help during Finals week, so I will ask Mr.Chairman, may I be a judge?

Cieyrin

2011-12-11, 10:19 PM

Theory doesn't help during Finals week, so I will ask Mr.Chairman, may I be a judge?

We always need judges, so if you want to devote the time and effort into judging, feel free to. Just try to be fair across the board on how you judge things and you should be fine.

Madara

2011-12-11, 10:21 PM

Sounds like a plan. I hope the contestants have something fun in store :smallbiggrin:

Criteria:

Originality
Feel free to use something spicy, I have access to about 56 sources, so I can look stuff up. However, despite having these sources, there are many options I overlook because they aren't recommended for optimization. If you can use something that requires me to look it up, that's gonna be in the 3 range. If you can use something I know, but make me think twice about not using it for my next character, congratulations.

Power
I love to play casters, and know how powerful they are. However, with the Mindbender, you are most likely specializing, rather than being an all-around caster. If you stay above Tier 3, I won't penalize you for power. To go for the five, I'll be looking for someone who made something that was once weak, powerful. I'll be looking for use, not necessarily picking the usual optimization choices. As a hint, I love combos, and stuff that involves your teammates.

Elegance
Nothing new to really add for elegance, but try to sell me on your idea.

Use of Secret Ingredient.
Its my favorite prestige class, if you find a new way for me to put it in my next game without it being stereotypical, all the better. However, keep in mind(punny :smalltongue:) that as one of my favorites, I'm going to look for a lot. Keep Mindbender as the focus of your build.

Thurbane

2011-12-12, 02:14 AM

Once again the real world has intruded, and it looks like I'll miss the deadline. I might post the bare bones of my build after the reveal.

Zipding

2011-12-12, 08:00 AM

Well, today is the last day. I hope everyone that can still compete has submitted their builds or can submit their builds today before the deadline. I'm looking forward to seeing as to how this SI was used.

gbprime

2011-12-12, 02:11 PM

Deadlines are motivating. :smallwink:

Build submitted. Good luck to all!

flabort

2011-12-12, 02:22 PM

So that makes 11 builds now? :smallbiggrin: Going to annoy a lot of people, I guess, when I mess up again. :smalltongue:

Venger

2011-12-12, 02:44 PM

build submitted!

can't wait to see what other people come up with. good luck to everyone! :smallbiggrin:

So that makes 11 builds now? :smallbiggrin: Going to annoy a lot of people, I guess, when I mess up again. :smalltongue:

don't worry about it, everyone's got to judge for the first time eventually, there's no other way to become an experienced judge.

TravelLog

2011-12-12, 03:09 PM

I've got some time on my hands, so I'll throw in as a judge if there's still room. Here are my criteria:

Originality
Do you use classes that no one else does? Is there an interesting, well thought out story behind your build? Both of those are worth extra points in my book. I probably won't penalize for unusual sources like Dragon or Campaign settings, but if all of your sources are "out there" so to speak, I might dock you slightly for questionable usage. In general, if your build leaves me surprised and/or laughing then you'll probably get points.

Power
This is probably the simplest category. How well does your class do what it is supposed to? And can it do more than just one thing? Using typical "Tier 1" classes won't get you much of a boost though. If you use something I didn't think could be powerful into something incredible, major points.

Elegance
Another simple category. If your class progression is streamline, you don't make use of things like feat retraining or questionable rule interpretations then you'll do well in this category.

Use of Secret Ingredient.
In this category the goal is to use the mindbender fully and as the main focus as your build. Rather than make the mindbender a side dish, I want to see it as the main course. Bonus points for keeping the mindbender's fluff and using its abilities in new and exciting ways.

Venger

2011-12-12, 03:52 PM

I'm definitely not gonna have time to put together my second build. I'll give a breakdown after the reveal of how it would've gone. it's a shame, it would've gotten a lot of laughs even if it wasn't likely to win.

BobVosh

2011-12-12, 05:15 PM

Hunter Killer

2011-12-12, 05:52 PM

Too much work to complete on my build. I will post what I have after the reveal. This one was a really, really air-tight idea too... :smallfrown:

Amphetryon

2011-12-12, 07:05 PM

And now it's time for the reveal! Please refrain from responding to this thread until I give the all-clear. Thanks.

Amphetryon

2011-12-12, 07:07 PM

Lilly Bleak[/SIZE]
http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs39/f/2008/342/9/6/96b9e70f779ea3383de2478c0cd8870f.jpg

CE Sylph (MMII)/Sorcerer 2/Mindbender 10

The Build

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

1st|Sylph RHD|
+1|
+2|
+2|
+2|Skills|Song of the Dead|Racial Spellcasting (HD+4 Lv Sorc), Improved Invisibility, Outsider Traits, Summon Elemental

2nd|Sylph RHD|
+2|
+3|
+3|
+x|Bluff 2 ranks, Diplomacy 2 ranks, Hide 2 Ranks, Intimidate 2 ranks, Sense Motive 2 ranks||

3rd|Sylph RHD|
+3|
+3|
+3|
+3|Bluff 2 ½ ranks, Concentration 4 Ranks, Diplomacy 2 ½ ranks, Hide 4 ranks, Intimidate 2 ½ ranks, Sense Motive 2 ½ ranks.|Versatile Spellcaster|

4th|Sylph LA|
+3|
+3|
+3|
+3|Bluff 2 ½ ranks, Concentration 4 Ranks, Diplomacy 2 ½ ranks, Hide 4 ranks, Intimidate 2 ½ ranks, Sense Motive 2 ½ ranks.||

5th|Sylph LA|
+3|
+3|
+3|
+3|Bluff 2 ½ ranks, Concentration 4 Ranks, Diplomacy 2 ½ ranks, Hide 4 ranks, Intimidate 2 ½ ranks, Sense Motive 2 ½ ranks.||New Class Abilities

6th|Sylph LA|
+3|
+3|
+3|
+3|Bluff 2 ½ ranks, Concentration 4 Ranks, Diplomacy 2 ½ ranks, Hide 4 ranks, Intimidate 2 ½ ranks, Sense Motive 2 ½ ranks.||

7th|Sylph LA|
+3|
+3|
+3|
+3|Bluff 2 ½ ranks, Concentration 4 Ranks, Diplomacy 2 ½ ranks, Hide 4 ranks, Intimidate 2 ½ ranks, Sense Motive 2 ½ ranks.||New Class Abilities

8th|Sylph LA|
+3|
+3|
+3|
+3|Bluff 2 ½ ranks, Concentration 4 Ranks, Diplomacy 2 ½ ranks, Hide 4 ranks, Intimidate 2 ½ ranks, Sense Motive 2 ½ ranks.||

9th|Sorcerer 1|
+3|
+3|
+3|
+5|Concentration 4 Ranks, Diplomacy 3 ½ ranks, Hide 7 ranks, Escape Artist 4 ranks, Intimidate 3 ½ ranks, Sense Motive 3 ½ ranks||Metamagic Specialist (ACF)

10th|Sorcerer 2|
+4|
+3|
+3|
+6|Concentration 5 Ranks, Diplomacy 4 ranks, Hide 8 ranks, Escape Artist 4 ranks, Intimidate 4 ranks, Sense Motive 4 ranks.||

11th|Mindbender 1|
+4|
+3|
+5|
+8|Concentration 5 Ranks, Diplomacy 5 ranks, Hide 9 ranks, Escape Artist 4 ranks, Intimidate 5 ranks, Knowledge (Arcana) 5 Ranks, Sense Motive 5 ranks.|Open Minded|Telepathy

12th|Mindbender 2|
+5|
+3|
+6|
+9|Concentration 5 Ranks, Diplomacy 6 ranks, Escape Artist 4 ranks, Hide 10 ranks, Intimidate 6 ranks, Knowledge (Arcana) 5 Ranks, Sense Motive 6 ranks.||Push the Weak Mind /1day, Skill Boost

13th|Mindbender 3|
+5|
+4|
+6|
+9|Bluff 7 ranks, Concentration 5 Ranks, Diplomacy 7 ranks, Escape Artist 4 ranks, Hide 11 ranks, Intimidate 7 ranks, Knowledge (Arcana) 5 Ranks, Sense Motive 7 ranks.||Mindread 2/day

14th|Mindbender 4|
+6|
+4|
+7|
+10|Concentration 5 Ranks, Diplomacy 8 ranks, Escape Artist 4 ranks, Hide 12 ranks, Intimidate 8 ranks, Knowledge (Arcana) 5 Ranks, Sense Motive 8 ranks.|Obtain Familiar (Familiar)|Eternal Charm (1)

15th|Mindbender 5|
+6|
+4|
+7|
+10|Concentration 5 Ranks, Diplomacy 9 ranks, Escape Artist 4 ranks, Hide 13 ranks, Intimidate 9 ranks, Knowledge (Arcana) 5 Ranks, Sense Motive 9 ranks.||Push the Weak Mind 2/day

16th|Mindbender 6|
+7|
+5|
+8|
+11|Concentration 5 Ranks, Diplomacy 10 ranks, Escape Artist 4 ranks, Hide 14 ranks, Intimidate 10 ranks, Knowledge (Arcana) 5 Ranks, Sense Motive 10 ranks.||Enchantment Spell Power +2, Eternal Charm (2)

17th|Mindbender 7|
+7|
+5|
+8|
+11|Concentration 5 Ranks, Diplomacy 11 ranks, Escape Artist 4 ranks, Hide 15 ranks, Intimidate 11 ranks, Knowledge (Arcana) 5 Ranks, Sense Motive 11 ranks.|Improved Familiar (Quasity)|Dominate, Mindread 4/day

18th|Mindbender 8|
+8|
+5|
+9|
+12|Concentration 5 Ranks, Diplomacy 12 ranks, Escape Artist 4 ranks, Hide 16 ranks, Intimidate 12 ranks, Knowledge (Arcana) 5 Ranks, Sense Motive 12 ranks.||Eternal Charm (3), Push the Weak Mind 3/day

19th|Mindbender 9|
+8|
+6|
+9|
+12|Concentration 5 Ranks, Diplomacy 13 ranks, Escape Artist 4 ranks, Hide 17 ranks, Intimidate 13 ranks, Knowledge (Arcana) 5 Ranks, Sense Motive 13 ranks.||

20th|Mindbender 10|
+9|
+6|
+10|
+13|Concentration 10 Ranks, Diplomacy 14 ranks, Escape Artist 4 ranks, Hide 18 ranks, Intimidate 14 ranks, Knowledge (Arcana) 5 Ranks, Sense Motive 14 ranks.|Open Minded|Enchantment Spell Power +4, Eternal Charm (4), Thrall
[/table]

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

9th|6|6|6|6|4|-|-|-|-|-

10th|6|6|6|6|6|4|-|-|-|-

11th|6|6|6|6|6|6|4|-|-|-

12th|6|6|6|6|6|6|5|3|-|-

13th|6|6|6|6|6|6|6|6|4|-

14th|6|6|6|6|6|6|6|6|6|4

15th-20th|6|6|6|6|6|6|6|6|6|6[/table]

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

9th|8|5|4|3|2|-|-|-|-|-

10th|9|5|5|4|3|2|-|-|-|-

11th|9|5|5|4|4|3|2|-|-|-

12th|9|5|5|4|4|3|2|1|-|-

13th|9|5|5|4|4|4|3|2|1|-

14th|9|5|5|4|4|4|3|3|2|-

15th|9|5|5|4|4|4|3|3|3|2

16th-20th|9|5|5|4|4|4|3|3|3|3[/table]

Example Spell List
Spells Known
Level Spells

0 - Presdigidation, Mage Hand, Mending, Ghost Sound, Daze, Arcane Mark, Detect Magic, Read Magic
1st - Charm Person, Hypnotism, Sleep,Grease, Disguise Self
2nd - Alter Self, Touch of Idiocy,Glitterdust, Wings of Cover, Lesser Celerity
3rd - Haste,Ray of Dizziness, Ray of Exhaustion, Stinking Cloud
4th - Charm Monster, Dimension Door, Shadow Conjuration, Wings of Flurry
5th - Draconic Polymorph, Dominate Person, Mirage Arcana, Hold Monster
6th - Acid Fog, Programmed Image, Mass Suggestion
7th - Greater Shadow Conjuration, Insanity, Limited Wish
8th - Irresistible Dance, Mass Charm Monster, Polymorph Any Object
9th - Shades, Time Stop, Wish

Backstory
Lilly Scorn was always an oddity. She wasn’t timid and carefree like her fellow sylphs - she was the center of attention and always forceful. She was a better sorcerer than her fellows and became a master of enchantments, forever charming her fellow sylphs and turning therm against each other. After a while, Lilly’s personality and cruel tricks grated on the other sylphs, and so they sent her away from their mountain grove to live in the swamp below.
In the swamp, Lilly found a tribe of savage humanoids who soon started to worship the sylph as their god on earth. First, Lilly was polite and tried to leave, but soon the power she wielded as a “god” got to her. She turned the tribe warlord into her thrall, and soon turned the entire trive into a horde of fanatics. Now she sits on a throne of bones, with her bodyguard by her side, and a tribe of charmed, dominated and terrified servants.

Tactics
Lilly Bleak never fights fair. She normally directs her thrall and any enchanted servants to rip, tear and flay her enemies, throwing spells at anyone who either attacks her directly or is clearly a spellcaster. She especially enjoys turning her enemies into her toys with her Charm and Dominate spells, and turning battles into a slip-and-slide with a Grease spell.

The Thrall
The thrall would be armed muscle, preferably a Barbarian or Warblade, intended to be the answer when “Can you hit this?” is the question. Once Lilly gets a hold of Draconic Polymorph and Polymorph any Object, the thrall is whatever takes Lilly’s fancy. Preferable forms would include War Trolls, Dragons and Hydras, because those forms are cool.

Equipment
Lilly would like things that accentuate her rather large Cha score, and so Cloaks of Charisma and Tomes of Leadership are nice. A Vest of the Archmagi would be delightful in the higher levels and a Robe of the Archmagi in the lower levels, as would be the standard sorcerer stuff like Rings of Arcane Power and Belts of Battle and pretty Ioun Stones.

Sources:

SRD
MMII
PHB II
Dragon Compendium
Races of the Dragon
Draconomicon

Amphetryon

2011-12-12, 07:08 PM

Frater Omnia Vincam
The Voice that Changed the World

http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/hprofile-ak-snc4/50354_49652110275_3613823_n.jpg

No history of the Middle Continent would be complete without mentioning the religious movement known as the Shining Brethren, which swept the continent with a surprising fervor in the early part of the third century, and nearly destroyed the previous two hundred years of rebuilding... ...the origin of the Shining Brethren can be directly traced to a single man, known only as Frater Omnia Vincam.

~A Complete History of the Middle Continent, Volume II, by Aerodotus the Scholar (Published in 654 A.R.)

There is no man alive during the great reformations at the turn of the century who could possibly forget the hope that the Shining Brethren brought to the Middle Continent. It had been a hard generation, one of crop failures, natural disasters, and failing industries... ....But the sudden arrival of Frater Omnia Vincam and his declaration of a spiritual renaissance seemed to enliven the people. His message was one of peace, but it carried with it a bold rhetoric that nearly toppled several kingdoms. Those who joined his order, who he called his Shining Brethren, were considered to be subject to a higher law, one which superseded any law of Man. The poorest peasant, once a member of the Shining Brethren, was taught never to bow his head to the King... ...The Shining Brethren believed they were worshipping Argenti, a new and benevolent goddess, the daughter of Pelor. Imagine their shock when, following the death of Frater Omnia Vincam, they discovered that Argenti was merely a fabrication, and that Frater Omnia was secretly a worshipper of Vecna, the Dark Lord of Secrets!

~The Emperor's New Religion, by Tristen Rosencraw (Published in 370 A.R.)

The Light, the Glory, the Build

Very little is known about the man who called himself Frater Omnia Vincam... ...The most popular theory suggests that he was, in fact, Achad Joannes, a lieutenant who fought for the King during the Fourth War, and disappeared during a routine skirmish... ...More than twenty years later, Frater Omnia first began recruiting men to his Shining Brethren. Frater Omnia was not a soldier, and in fact refused to lift a weapon even if threatened. However, he bore a striking resemblance to the missing Achad, and like Achad, he turned out to be a great leader of men.

~A Complete History of the Middle Continent, Volume II, by Aerodotus the Scholar (Published in 654 A.R.)

NE Old Human, Bardic Sage 3/Marshal 2/Mindbender 10/Evangelist 5

Alternate Class Features:
Bardic Sage
Inspire Awe (replaces Inspire Courage)

Starting Stats (includes bonuses/penalties for age):
Str 5/Dex 10/Con 10/Int 14/Wis 12/Cha 20
(Original stats, before aging: Str 8/Dex 13/Con 13/Int 12/Wis 10/Cha 18)

All stat bumps go into Charisma.

Character Sheet

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

1st|Bardic Sage 1|
+0|
+0|
+0|
+2|Bluff 4 ranks, Perform (oratory) 4 ranks, Diplomacy 4 ranks, Sense Motive 4 ranks, Know (religion) 4 ranks, Use Magic Device 4 ranks, Spellcraft 4 ranks, Gather Information 4 ranks, Intimidate 4 ranks|Extra Music, Persuasive|Bardic music, bardic knowledge, countersong, fascinate, inspire awe

2nd|Bardic Sage 2|
+1|
+0|
+0|
+3|Bluff 5 ranks, Perform (oratory) 5 ranks, Diplomacy 5 ranks, Sense Motive 5 ranks, Know (religion) 5 ranks, Use Magic Device 5 ranks, Spellcraft 5 ranks, Gather Information 5 ranks, Intimidate 5 ranks||

3rd|Marshal 1|
+1|
+2|
+0|
+5|Bluff 6 ranks, Perform (oratory) 6 ranks, Diplomacy 6 ranks, Sense Motive 6 ranks, Know (religion) 6 ranks, Intimidate 6 ranks, Speak Language 1 rank|Skill Focus (Diplomacy), Practiced Spellcaster|Minor aura (motivate charisma)

4th|Marshal 2|
+2|
+3|
+0|
+6|Bluff 7 ranks, Perform (oratory) 7 ranks, Diplomacy 7 ranks, Sense Motive 7 ranks, Know (religion) 7 ranks, Intimidate 7 ranks, Speak Language 1 rank||Major aura +1 (resilient troops)

5th|Bardic Sage 3|
+3|
+4|
+1|
+6|Bluff 8 ranks, Perform (oratory) 8 ranks, Diplomacy 8 ranks, Sense Motive 8 ranks, Know (religion) 8 ranks, Intimidate 8 ranks, Use Magic Device 8 ranks||Inspire competence

6th|Mindbender 1|
+3|
+6|
+1|
+8|Bluff 9 ranks, Perform (oratory) 8.5 ranks, Diplomacy 9 ranks, Intimidate 9 ranks, Know (religion) 9 ranks|Mindsight|Telepathy

7th|Mindbender 2|
+4|
+7|
+1|
+9|Bluff 10 ranks, Perform (oratory) 9 ranks, Diplomacy 10 ranks, Intimidate 10 ranks, Sense Motive 9 ranks||Push the weak mind 1/day, skill boost

8th|Evangelist 1|
+4|
+7|
+1|
+11|Bluff 11 ranks, Perform (oratory) 11 ranks, Diplomacy 11 ranks, Intimidate 11 ranks, Sense Motive 11 ranks, Know (religion) 11 ranks||Great orator (inspire dread)

9th|Evangelist 2|
+5|
+7|
+1|
+12|Bluff 12 ranks, Perform (oratory) 12 ranks, Diplomacy 12 ranks, Intimidate 12 ranks, Sense Motive 12 ranks, Know (religion) 12 ranks, Know (nobility & royalty) 3 ranks|Doomspeak|Fast talk

10th|Mindbender 3|
+5|
+7|
+2|
+12|Bluff 13 ranks, Perform (oratory) 12.5 ranks, Diplomacy 13 ranks, Intimidate 13 ranks, Sense Motive 13 ranks||Mindread 2/day

11th|Mindbender 4|
+6/+1|
+8|
+2|
+13|Bluff 14 ranks, Perform (oratory) 13 ranks, Diplomacy 14 ranks, Intimidate 14 ranks, Know (nobility & royalty) 4 ranks||Eternal charm (1)

12th|Mindbender 5|
+6/+1|
+8|
+2|
+13|Bluff 15 ranks, Perform (oratory) 13.5 ranks, Diplomacy 15 ranks, Intimidate 15 ranks, Know (nobility & royalty) 5 ranks|Wanderer’s Diplomacy|Push the weak mind 2/day

13th|Mindbender 6|
+7/+2|
+9|
+3|
+14|BBluff 16 ranks, Perform (oratory) 14 ranks, Diplomacy 16 ranks, Intimidate 16 ranks, Know (religion) 13 ranks||Enchantment spell power +2, eternal charm (2)

14th|Mindbender 7|
+7/+2|
+9|
+3|
+14|Bluff 17 ranks, Diplomacy 17 ranks, Intimidate 17 ranks, Know (religion) 15 ranks||Dominate, mindread 4/day

15th|Evangelist 3|
+8/+3|
+10|
+4|
+14|Bluff 18 ranks, Diplomacy 18 ranks, Intimidate 18 ranks, Perform (oratory) 18 ranks, Know (religion) 17 ranks|Imperious Command|Great orator (inflame the righteous)

16th|Evangelist 4|
+9/+4|
+10|
+4|
+15|Bluff 19 ranks, Diplomacy 19 ranks, Intimidate 19 ranks, Perform (oratory) 19 ranks, Know (religion) 19 ranks, Sense Motive 16 ranks||Skill mastery (Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate)

17th|Mindbender 8|
+10/+5|
+11|
+4|
+16|Bluff 20 ranks, Diplomacy 20 ranks, Intimidate 20 ranks, Perform (oratory) 19.5 ranks, Know (religion) 20 ranks||Eternal charm (3), push the weak mind 3/day

18th|Mindbender 9|
+10/+5|
+11|
+5|
+16|Bluff 21 ranks, Diplomacy 21 ranks, Intimidate 21 ranks, Perform (oratory) 20 ranks, Know (religion) 21 ranks|Make Your Own Luck|

19th|Mindbender 10|
+11/+6/+1|
+12|
+5|
+17|Bluff 22 ranks, Diplomacy 22 ranks, Intimidate 22 ranks, Sense Motive 17 ranks, Know (religion) 22 ranks||Enchantment spell power +4, eternal charm (4), thrall

20th|Evangelist 5|
+11/+6/+1|
+12|
+5|
+17|Bluff 23 ranks, Diplomacy 23 ranks, Intimidate 23 ranks, Know (religion) 23 ranks, Sense Motive 22 ranks||Great orator (convert the unfaithful)[/table]

Spells

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

1st|2 / 4+1|-|-|-|-|-|-

2nd|3 / 5+1|0 / 2+1|-|-|-|-|-

3rd|3 / 5+1|0 / 2+1|-|-|-|-|-

4th|3 / 5+1|0 / 2+1|-|-|-|-|-

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

6th|3 / 6+1|2 / 3+1|0 / 2+1|-|-|-|-

7th|3 / 6+1|2 / 3+1|0 / 2+1|-|-|-|-

8th|3 / 6+1|2 / 3+1|0 / 2+1|-|-|-|-

9th|3 / 6+1|2 / 3+1|0 / 2+1|-|-|-|-

10th|3 / 6+1|3 / 4+1|1 / 3+1|-|-|-|-

11th|3 / 6+1|3 / 4+1|1 / 3+1|-|-|-|-

12th|3 / 6+1|3 / 4+1|2 / 3+1|-|-|-|-

13th|3 / 6+1|3 / 4+1|2 / 3+1|-|-|-|-

14th|3 / 6+1|3 / 4+1|2 / 4+1|0 / 2+1|-|-|-

15th|3 / 6+1|3 / 4+1|2 / 4+1|0 / 2+1|-|-|-

16th|3 / 6+1|3 / 4+1|2 / 4+1|0 / 2+1|-|-|-

17th|3 / 6+1|3 / 4+1|2 / 4+1|0 / 2+1|-|-|-

18th|3 / 6+1|3 / 4+1|3 / 4+1|1 / 3+1|-|-|-

19th|3 / 6+1|3 / 4+1|3 / 4+1|1 / 3+1|-|-|-

20th|3 / 6+1|3 / 4+1|3 / 4+1|1 / 3+1|-|-|-[/table]

Spells Known (Bonus Bardic Sage spells are in italics)

0- Detect Magic, Message, Prestidigitation, Lullaby, Songbird, Light, Daze
1- Ancient Knowledge, Charm Person, Improvisation, Silent Image, Swift Invisibility
2- Tongues, Alter Self, Silence, Mesmerizing Glare, Shatter
3- Scrying, Glibness, Alter Fortune, Good Hope

From Achad Joannes to Frater Omnia Vincam
(An explanation of how one old soldier changed the world)

In the year 309, the Kingdom decided the Shining Brethren had gone too far, and sent the guard to arrest Frater Omnia Vincam. Upon arriving, several members of the guard refused to take him in, and even took up arms against their own comrades to defend the preacher. However, in the end, he was arrested... ...was set up for the greatest jailbreak in history. Alone in the deep underground, stripped of his clothes and gear and sealed by many magics, Frater Omnia managed to simply walk out, completely unharmed, flanked by the very jailers tasked to keep him there. As he left, he personally passed each of his captors and forgave them, one by one... ...his followers were not so forgiving. The fanatics that formed the inner circle of the Shining Brethren bore their wrath upon the dungeon itself, and when they were done, not a stone remained.

~The Emperor's New Religion, by Tristen Rosencraw (Published in 370 A.R.)

Even when he was just a poor soldier, before his Awakening, Achad Joannes still knew the power of secrets. He felt the pull of Vecna long before he abandoned his old life and became Frater Omnia Vincam. But it was only in the haze of injury that he realized he was going about his life wrong. Military might was not the key to power - forcing people to do your bidding out of fear or greed was at best a temporary solution. But if you could find that secret within their hearts, find a way to bring it out, then with a few well-placed words you could change the world.

Simply being an enchanter was not enough. You could compel people to listen to you, but only to a point. A charmed enemy was almost as tenuous of an ally as someone who was only following out of fear. But what if you combined an enchanter with a speaker of mythic proportions? What if you could turn those from men merely charmed, waiting for the moment to break free of their mental bonds, to fanatics willing to lay their lives down for you? That would be true power!

All he needed was a cause, something to rally people behind. And so, Frater Omnia Vincam, who above all else was a storyteller, dug deep into religious history and created the greatest story of his life, the story of Argenti, wayward daughter of Pelor...

How does his build work? His brief stint as a military commander has taught him how to use words to manipulate others (and himself) into performing far beyond their normal capabilities. As a bardic sage, while he has given up some combat abilities and musical flexibility of a standard bard, he has gained a greater understanding of history, and has expanded his spells known considerably. Instead of using his music to aid in fighting, he uses it to instill awe in his enemies and followers alike.

In any case, the key to understanding this build’s strength lies in the epic uses of skills. Frater Omnia Vincam is able to hit some of the epic DCs associated with the Bluff and Diplomacy skills, allowing him to convert enemies into fanatics, mask his alignment, and place mental suggestions in people’s heads.

His tactics are as follows: when confronted in battle, he attempts to stop all fighting. He uses diplomacy to convince people to talk, and lacking that, he uses spells like Mesmerizing Glare or stacks fear effects until his opponents are cowering. He refuses to raise a weapon against anyone, for the moment he devolves into that level of fighting, he knows he has lost. His evangelist levels aid in letting him use diplomacy as a full-round action rather than taking a full minute.

Once his enemies are no longer fighting, he either talks them into becoming his ally, or enchants them. Particularly valuable opponents are targets of his eternal charm. If necessary, he can debuff his enemies heavily before charming them, giving as much as a -16 penalty to their saves (Inspire Awe/demoralize, Inspire Dread, and Doomspeak). Then, when they are charmed to the point of friendliness, he uses epic diplomacy to convert them into fanatics, described aptly in the Epic Level Handbook:

Means: Will give life to serve you. Examples: Fight to the death against overwhelming odds, throw self in front of onrushing dragon.

The Shining Brethren, those that follow the false goddess Argenti, are set up into circles. The outermost circles are true believers, that he has convinced by his sermons and demonstrations. The Inner Circle is where he keeps his true fanatics, who will do anything and everything to serve Frater Omnia and keep the Shining Brethren strong.

And secretly, behind all of this, Frater Omnia Vincam continues to build his worship of the Whispered One, Vecna, from whom all of his power is born.....

Thy Will is the Whole of the Law
(Days in the life of Frater Omnia Vincam)

No, no, I truly believe that Frater Omnia Vincam is a pacifist. I only wish we could say the same about his followers...

~Excerpt from an interview with Father Goran Arkadia, of the Third Church of Pelor (Taken in 308 A.R.)

Level 5

As will be the case throughout his career, Frater Omnia’s strength in many ways relies on his skills. Without items, Frater Omnia already has a Diplomacy check of +25, Bluff +20, and Intimidate +22. He also has a Use Magic Device check of +18 (or +20 with scrolls), again without items, meaning that he can activate a wand on a 2, as well as most scrolls. Again, these are completely unadjusted scores - they can be boosted with Songbird or Improvisation when necessary, and if he has access to level-appropriate magic items, a Circlet of Persuasion or Cloak of Charisma would go a long way.

He has seven bardic music uses per day, which he can use for his Inspire Awe effect to debuff enemies (with a Will save versus his Perform (oratory) check, which is at a +18 bonus, it should succeed against anything level appropriate that is not immune to fear), and then start using demoralize attempts to stack fear effects. He also uses these tactics to debuff opposing saves before charming his enemies.

Level 10

By level 10, Frater Omnia’s mindbender and evangelist levels begin to turn him from a good diplomat to a Voice of the Gods. In particular, the mindbender has provided Frater Omnia with telepathy, allowing him to communicate with all manner of creatures without even speaking, as well as skill boosts to all his most important skills and the ability to read minds.

When forced into combat, Frater Omnia refuses to fight. As a full-round action, he will talk his enemies down. As a full-round action, Frater Omnia is still guaranteed to succeed on a Diplomacy check to go from Hostile to Indifferent without the use of a single spell or magic item, and on a roll of 7 or higher converts his opponents to Friendly. Once they are no longer attacking, Frater Omnia can heavily debuff their Will save via Inspire Awe/demoralizing, Doomspeak, and the evangelist’s Inspire Dread ability. If he uses all three of these, his opponent will end up with a -16 on their Will save, making them perfect bait for Charm Person or Push the weak mind.

Against mindless opponents, Frater Omnia will rely on his allies to protect him, or else use Silent Image or Swift Invisibility to escape. Though he claims to be a pacifist in his teachings, Frater Omnia is actually quite ruthless and has no problem sacrificing his allies.

Level 15

By level 15, Frater Omnia is nearly unstoppable. His tactics remain more or less the same, but he has a few new tools in his arsenal.

First of all, by level 15, Frater Omnia can begin reliably hitting the epic usages of Bluff and Diplomacy. Bluff in particular is extraordinarily powerful, especially thanks to Glibness. Frater Omnia attempts to keep Glibness active at all times (using items to supplement additional castings if necessary), which gives him a Bluff bonus in the 70s-80s. This lets him reliably display a false alignment (each check lasts 24 hours, so he can activate Glibness, make the check, and continue on his merry way). Also, he can use his outrageous bluff skill to instill suggestions in other people as an Extraordinary ability. And if he has Glibness active, Wanderer’s Diplomacy allows him to use that ridiculous bluff score in place of his standard Diplomacy check. It is not a permanent solution, but it can get him out of many binds.

Mindbender also gives him far more flexibility with his offensive enchantments, allowing him to charm, suggest or dominate his opponents. But his true power comes from his eternal charm.

Ordinarily eternal charm would be nice, but not great. Turning opponents friendly is useful, but a friendly opponent won’t do your bidding unfailingly, and certainly won’t throw his life away for you. Frater Omnia, however, can use the magic of his voice to turn those eternally charmed into fanatics, via a DC 60 Diplomacy check.

In general, Frater Omnia researches good targets to enter into his “Inner Circle.” Once he finds them, he heavily debuffs their Will save (again, he can give up to a -16 if necessary), and uses his eternal charm. If they somehow manage to succeed on this save, he forces a re-roll via Alter Fortune. Once they have become friendly, he buffs himself with Improvisation and converts them from Friendly to Fanatic.

Level 20

The good keeps on getting better. Not only do Frater Omnia’s skills improve (both from ranks and from the mindbender’s skill boost), but he also gains the ability to take 10 on his important social skills, meaning that he can auto-succeed on converting his charmed into fanatics without the use of a single item. On the rare instances he does need to roll, he can always re-roll via Make Your Own Luck. His “Inner Circle” expands to four fanatics plus a thrall, and he even gains the ability to convert people to his false religion with his voice.

Sweet Spot

Level 16

Bardic Sage 3/Marshal 2/Mindbender 7/Evangelist 4

By level 16, Frater Omnia can sense and read minds, communicate telepathically, apply terrific Will save debuffs, eternally charm multiple opponents, automatically succeed on converting his charmed to fanatics, buff his allies with divine fire, stack fear effects and force enemies to cower via Imperious Command, mask his own alignment, and even give (Ex) suggestions with no saving throw.

Unus In Omnibus
(How Frater Omnia Vincam learned to bend hearts and minds)

The evidence was so compelling that even though the Church’s official position was that Argenti, daughter of Pelor, did not exist, many of the Pelorian clergy began incorporating her into their teachings... ...In retrospect, the worship of Argenti caught on so well because so many people wanted to believe in her, a deity with all the grace of Pelor but without the hierarchy and feudalism that went along with the Third Church. Yes, Frater Omnia Vincam invented her out of whole cloth, to further his own agenda and abuse the vile secrets of Vecna. But the idea behind Argenti was still so great, so powerful...

~The Emperor's New Religion, by Tristen Rosencraw (Published in 370 A.R.)

Not only does Frater Vincam make use of every single ability found in the mindbender class, he simply would not be able to do what he does without it. No other class has the liberal eternal charm ability. No other class gives such a significant boost to all of his social skills, rather than one or two. No other class lets him communicate so seamlessly with his thralls and believers.

What follows is a breakdown of the Secret Ingredient abilities, and how he uses them:

Casting progression - Though Frater Omnia is in no way a dedicated caster, the ability to cast certain key spells such as Glibness and Alter Fortune is paramount to the build.

Telepathy - Without the ability to communicate, Frater Omnia quite simply cannot function. This allows him to do so seamlessly, issue commands to his believers, and even sense minds.

Push the weak mind - An improved version of suggestion, and another way to disable opponents without actually fighting. Combines well with his many Will save debuffs.

Skill boost - This is huge. A scaling bonus to all of his key skills, which drive his entire build? Yes, please! +5 to every major skill makes a huge difference - for example, between this and the evangelist’s “fast talk” feature, he can always make diplomacy checks as full round actions instead of taking one minute.

Mindread - By seeing into the hearts of his believers, he can discover what drives them and how to manipulate them.

Eternal charm - The other key part of his build. Again, the driving engine behind Frater Omnia is his ability to eternally charm key figures, then use a DC 60 Diplomacy check to convert them from friends into fanatics.

Enchantment spell power - Despite only having three levels of Bardic Sage, and the fact that 12 of his levels don’t progress casting at all, Frater Omnia Vincam manages to maintain a CL of 16 with enchantment spells. This significantly improves the duration of his bardic enchantments, and allows him to effect up to 16 creatures with his Mesmerizing Glare.

Dominate - A 9th-level spell as a spell-like ability with significantly improved range - it would be hard to find a build that DOESN’T want this. That said, it also fits in well with Frater Omnia’s modus operandi, and he can make the most of it by heavily debuffing his opponent’s will save before using it.

Thrall - An excellent capstone ability. This is for those REALLY special opponents, that you want to turn into your permanent cohort...

The Whispered One Hides Behind the Golden Voice
(The Keys to Frater Omnia Vincam's Success)

SOURCES

Unearthed Arcana/SRD (Bardic Sage)
Complete Arcane (Mindbender, Extra Music, Practiced Spellcaster)
Complete Divine (Evangelist)
Miniature’s Handbook (Marshal)
Champions of Ruin (Doomspeak)
Drow of the Underdark (Imperious Command)
Lords of Madness (Mindsight)
Player’s Handbook II (Wanderer’s Diplomacy)
Dragon Magic (Inspire Awe)
Complete Scoundrel (Make Your Own Luck)

All spells can be found in the PHB/SRD or the Spell Compendium, with the exception of the following:

Songbird (Bard 0) - Masters of Faerun
Alter Fortune (Bard 3) - Player’s Handbook II

The epic skill usages can be found in the Epic Level Handbook, or the SRD.

Amphetryon

2011-12-12, 07:11 PM

Jongler, the Vile Trickster
Build: Jaebrun Warlock 6/Mindbender 10/ Marshall 3

The Story

In the ancient and despoiled forest, there was a small clearing with a circle of ancient, blood caked obsidian stones. Quite where the clearing was, none could say, it did seem to possess a will of its own, and it was whispered that the innocent that did stumble into the forest at night did find the circle and were not seen again, while the depraved did see and return with no trace of sanity.
The villages around the forest had a legend, a quant tale of the Fair folk, a story for the children, a warning to behave “Lest the light fingered ones did steal them away”. But even when grown, the story chilled the adults, for though they did not speak of them lest they draw their attention, many a fearful glance was turned to the forest and many a fearful thought paid to the beings that dwelled within.
Creatures did indeed exist focused on the stone circle, and they did indeed torment those that entered and take great joy in luring in strangers and maddening their minds with tricks and pranks, but they weren’t malevolent, simply of such a different mind that to notice the true of the troubles and angst they cause would only confuse them.
Until Jongler that is.
Ever the dancing, cavorting and fickle of creatures, the fey weren’t truly sure how many of themselves there were, many did wander or disappear down the ages, and many more did appear or spawn amongst them, and all of them were akin to each other.
Except Jongler that is.
From the first he opened his eyes, his brethren did see that something was..off...but being a worldly concern, they did merely pause a moment before fleeing the scene to taunt the oxen a weary farmer struggled to force to obey his will.
Jongler did dance and cavort with his brethren for a time, but he knew he was different. He was special. A true mind gleamed in his eyes, and he saw great amusement not in the frustrated dance and impotent rage of the human prey, but in their tears and wails of despair.
The village bored the malicious one swiftly. It was small, and the suffering and hurt that could be inflicted was limited by the peasant’s simple lives and minds.
And so errant Fey went out to inflict himself on the world, leaving his forest home. He embraced the evil powers of his blood, and sought adventure.
Embracing the darker side of his heritage, it was found he could strike those who opposed him (As well as his favourite targets, the weak and the helpless) and developed various other powers he could use at whim.
His favourite was the discovery that he could control those around him, he loved forcing them to do what they least willed to. But it became swiftly apparent that the very emotional tortures he wished to inflict were usually the most resisted by the victims, and the inability to cause them to suicide themselves in front of their loved ones was particularly infuriating.
Unfortunately for the world, easy and frequent boredom had caused the loathsome Fey to become somewhat tenacious in the pursuit of his goals. While he might grow bored swiftly with mentally torturing a being, he never tired in the pursuit of new means to pursue his interests, and thus the foul wanderer began to specialise in the domination of the minds of lesser creatures.
Lesser creatures being everyone else.
Now able to read the thoughts of those nearby, for a time the foul trickster was content to rifle through people’s heads, their primitive thoughts, always worrying about the future or trivial concerns, amused him.
And thus he found The Cult.
He noticed them because their minds jarred, akin to when he thought his ears would bleed from the squealing of that halfling that starved to death rather than eat his dead family.
His curiosity peaked, he did use his charm, both with his serpent tongue and his Fae blood granted powers, to find what this grand thing he had stumbled upon was.
And so it at last came to past that Jongler recognised a master. The Cult seemed blessed with great powers of Evil, and such a boon he did deeply craved. His nature did not let him serve in the ranks, being of anarchy that he was, but several tasks were performed until they did decide to present him to their overlord, the dread one know as Leviathan.
In the deeply roiling mind of the being he did see the greatest, most tainted force of Evil he would ever see aside from himself. He did gladly swear to the monstrosity that, to his eye, was beautiful in its malice.
To the world Jongler did venture forth to once more, words of such evil on his twisted tongue that the weak would flee than hear, the craven beg and the brave strike.
Empowered so, great anarchy was unleashed, and the Trickster truest delight was found. Heroes of great might, will and cunning did march forth to seek him and his new kind, The Cult, to destroy them, and they became his favourite Prey, the best to destroy and demoralise, for to make them fall and suffer was a great victory for his Cruel mind.
Having survived the forces of the good and holy, with his Mind Control Powers at their height, Jongler looked upon himself and found, to his amusement, that at his zenith he did inspire those he enslaved in his service, those who served willingly of the Cult, those he had convinced with mere lies and trickery, and most pleasurably, those whose minds he had crushed...
Now to doom the world...

The Explanation

Level 1 – 5

Jaebrun +1LA/Warlock 4

Invocations: Baleful Utterance, Beguiling Influence, Summon Swarm
Hampered by LA and the simple fact that Eldritch Blast is swiftly outmatch, Jonglers primary tactic is to use his great social skills. Even with Diplomacy being Cross Class, a combination of Charisma Focus and Beguiling Influence make him a quite competent Diplomancer if needed and a superb liar.
When pushed comes to shove, Swarms are summoned enmasse, lasting long enough to confound Spell casters and holding up the melee whilst Baleful Utterance destroys equipment at will.
At the end of this level range he gets his best warlock schtick, take 10 on UMD. Combined with his ranks and high Charisma, he can start abusing his abilities appropriately, and has a familiar to do it as well.

Level 6 – 10

Jaebrun +1LA/Warlock 6/Mindbender 3
Invocations:
Lesser: Baleful Utterance, Beguiling Influence, Entropic Warding
Least: Charm, Voracious Dispelling
Now starting his refreshing swim in the lake that is Mindbending.
The Telepathy + Mindsight feat combo is so awesome it might as well be feat tax.
As a Complete Arcane PrC, Jongler is constrained to keep his Charm Invocation for the rest of his life, but that’s OK, Charming is what he does! Now able to use the early Charming powers and his Warlock invocation, Voracious Dispelling is picked as an essential debuff to get rid of those pesky Will Save boosts, as well as other protective measures. Swarms being somewhat outdated at this moment, for now nabs Entropic Warding, always handing to be untrackable and have a miss chance.
With Imperious Command, an excellent intimidate and debuffing, Jongler can cause foes to whimper, cry and be helpless. Rather than Coup De Grace, this is an excellent chance for his racial bite attack to come in, allowing him to hit his foes despite a mediocre to hit roll. The damage is pitiful, but the Jaebrun inflicts a Will penalty, enabling the various Mind Control powers to come into effect.
This is the point when his racial immunity to Enchantment can help out, as Jongler can use his ridiculous Social skill rolls to find likely enchanters until he can himself surprise them and his own control powers.
People controlled:
Anyone and everyone ;-)
The joyous thing of the Mindbender abilities are that they function on both Monsters and People, allowing flexibility. At this point the key selections are to go for those with low will saves, an appearance/reputation that makes them a priority target over the little fey thing and an inclination to do what you want to order them anyway.
To that end, the primary targets are the big thuggish monsters, who’ll have no problem storming towns and such while Jongler works out who are the priority targets amongst the heroes, who as a rule are more useful, being heroes and all.

Level 11 – 15

Jaebrun +1LA/Warlock 6/Mindbender 8
Invocations:
Lesser: Baleful Utterance, Beguiling Influence, Summon Swarm
Least: Charm, Flee the Scene, Humanoid Shape
This is the point where the Vile feats pop out, allowing Jongler in conjunction with his returned Summon Swarm Invocation to create vast Hive Mind Swarms of doom if he has the inclination using Dark Speech. He uses such to lay waste to cities as desired (Swarms are Summoned, before they expire Dark Speech grants them a Hive Mind Sorcerer levels, which are used to summon more of the Swarm type, it grows exponentially and obeys a singular command given by Jongler until it dissolves).
Humanoid Shape allows the Polymorph shenanigans to emerge, allowing the trickster to shape change to suit any particular foe/situation as needed (ie. Needing Fly speed, Natural Armour, Burrowing, etc.). It also replaces the usual Warlock need for Fell flight, as that can easily be gained through a form.
The Mindbender abilities don’t have a vast number of uses per day, so Flee the Scene allows Jongler to escape easily when he runs out or simply need to get away, and combined with Alter Self ought to allow him to escape with ease.
People Controlled:
Now the Dominate ability is the centre piece of interest. The key is that Mindbender allows it to last several days, so creatures controlled can easily be tasked to create distractions, scout, spy with a much vaster range, especially if swifter movement speeds are involved.

Sweet Spot: Level 13

This is the best time to be Jongler. His foulest tricks, the Hive Mind Swarm and Humanoid Shape, coincide with sufficient control and escape powers for him to be a true irritance to nations, let alone adventuring parties.

Level 16 – 20

Jaebrun +1LA/Warlock 6/Mindbender 10/Marshall 3
Invocations:
Lesser: Baleful Utterance, Beguiling Influence, Summon Swarm
Least: Charm, Flee the Scene, Humanoid Shape
Greater: Chilling Tentacles
Jongler rounds out his career with Marshal Aura’s, choosing to be able to either boost his Charisma checks even further with the additional aid of the Mindbender’s boost to the Bluff and Diplomacy skills.
Chilling tentacles allows some battlefield control, not that Jongler is too concerned about it.
The best bit is the thrall benefit. The primary targets here are weaker wizards and artificers, not yet high enough level to trouble him, their will saves suitably weakened by the arsenal of UMD devices at Jonglers behest as well as his Intimidate and heightened DC methods available to him. Once thralled, a prospective wizard is addicted to various will sapping drugs until he is addicted. Suitably broken, he is turned into a literal item creating slave, with xp carefully fed by controlled battles with suggested minions. If he gets to broken or is killed, then he is replaced.

Suggested Equipment

A glorious Charisma enhancing item should definitely be had.
Scarf of Allure and similar helps the Save DC’s out.
Magic armour with the Fearsome enhancement, allowing him to Intimidate as a Move Action (Best bought quite early).
Hat of Disguise for lies upon lies.
Lots of wands and other UMD stuff, things such as Glibness, Grease, Dispel, See Invisibility, Stone Shape, Cursing, etc.

The Build

Stats
{table=head]32 Point|Racial|ECL 5|ECL 9|ECL 13|ECL 17

Str|8|6|6|6|6|6|
Dex|14|14|14|14|14|14|
Con|14|14|14|14|14|14|
Int|16|16|16|16|16|16|
Wis|8|8|8|8|8|8|
Cha|16|18|19|20|21|22|[/table]

Jongler, the Vile Trickster
{table=head]Level|Class|Base Attack Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Skills|Feats|Class Features

1st|Jaebrun LA+1|
N/a|
N/a|
N/a|
N/a|+2 Diplomacy, +2 Bluff,+2 Perform and +4 Spellcraft|N/a|Immunity to Enchantment, +1 Luck Bonus to AC

2nd|Warlock|
+0|
+0|
+0|
+2|4 Bluff, 4 Concentration, 4 Diplomacy, 4 Intimidate, 4 Sense Motive, 4 UMD|Boost Spell-Like Ability|Eldritch Blast 1D6

3rd|Warlock|
+1|
+0|
+0|
+3|1 Bluff, 1 Diplomacy, 1 Intimidate, 2 Know (Arcana), 1 UMD|N/a|Detect Magic

4th|Warlock|
+2|
+1|
+1|
+3|1 Bluff, 1 Diplomacy, 1 Intimidate, 2 Know (Arcana), 1 UMD|Obtain Familiar|DR 1/Cold Iron, Eldritch Blast 2D6

5th|Warlock|
+3|
+1|
+1|
+4|1 Bluff, 2 Concentration, 1 Diplomacy, 1 Intimidate, 1 UMD|N/a|Decieve Item

6th|Warlock|
+3|
+1|
+1|
+4| 1 Bluff, 2 Concentration, 1 Diplomacy, 1 Intimidate, 1 UMD|N/a|Eldritch Blast 3D6

7th|Warlock|
+4|
+2|
+2|
+5| 1 Bluff, 1 Concentration, 1 Intimidate, 1 UMD, Skill Trick (Never Outnumbered) |Imperious Command|

8th|Mindbender|
+4|
+4|
+2|
+7| 1 Bluff, 1 Concentration, 1 Diplomacy, 1 Intimidate, 2 Spellcraft |N/a|Eldritch Blast 4D6, Telepathy

9th|Mindbender|
+5|
+5|
+2|
+8| 1 Bluff, 1 Concentration, 1 Diplomacy, 1 Intimidate, 2 Spellcraft |N/a|Push the Weak Mind 1/Day, Skill Boost

10th|Mindbender|
+5|
+5|
+3|
+8| 1 Bluff, 1 Concentration, 1 Diplomacy, 1 Intimidate, 2 Spellcraft |Mindsight|Mindread 2/Day

11th|Mindbender|
+6|
+6|
+3|
+9| 1 Bluff, 1 Diplomacy, 1 Intimidate, 1 Spellcraft, Skill Trick (Social Recovery)|N/a|Eernal Charm 1/Day

12th|Mindbender|
+6|
+6|
+3|
+9|1 Bluff, 1 Concentration, 1 Diplomacy, 1 Know (Arcana), 1 Spellcraft|Dark Speech, Violate Spell-Like Ability, Willing Deformity|Eldritch Blast 5D6, Push the Weak Mind 2/Day

13th|Mindbender|
+7|
+7|
+4|
+10| 1 Bluff, 1 Concentration, 1 Diplomacy, 1 Know (Arcana), 1 Spellcraft |Quicken Spell-Like Ability|Eternal Charm 2/Day

14th|Mindbender|
+7|
+7|
+4|
+10| 1 Bluff, 1 Concentration, 1 Diplomacy, 1 Know (Arcana), 1 Spellcraft |N/a|Dominate, Mindread 4/Day

15th|Mindbender|
+8|
+8|
+4|
+11| 1 Bluff, 1 Concentration, 1 Diplomacy, 1 Know (Arcana), 1 Spellcraft |N/a|Eternal Charm 3/Day, Push the Weak Mind 3/Day

16th|Mindbender|
+8|
+8|
+4|
+11| 1 Bluff, 1 Concentration, 1 Diplomacy, 1 Know (Arcana), 1 Spellcraft |Heighten Spell-Like Ability, Deformity (Skin)|Eldritch Blast 6D6

17th|Mindbender|
+9|
+9|
+4|
+11| 1 Bluff, 1 Concentration, 1 Diplomacy, 1 Know (Arcana), 1 Spellcraft |N/a|Eternal Charm 4/day, Thrall

18th|Marshall|
+9|
+11|
+4|
+13| 1 Bluff, 1 Concentration, 2 Diplomacy, 2 Know (Arcana), 1 Spellcraft |Skill Focus: Diplamacy|1 Minor Aura

19th|Marshall|
+10|
+12|
+5|
+14| 1 Bluff, 1 Concentration, 1 Diplomacy, 3 Know (Arcana), 1 Spellcraft |N/a|1 Major Aura

20th|Marshall|
+11|
+12|
+6|
+14| 1 Bluff, 1 Concentration, 1 Diplomacy, 3 Know (Arcana), 1 Spellcraft |N/a|2 Minor Aura’s[/table]

Invocations Known
{table=head]Level|least|Lesser|Greater|Dark

1st|-|-|-|-

2nd|1|-|-|-

3rd|2|-|-|-

4th|2|-|-|-

5th|3|-|-|-

6th|3|-|-|-

7th|3|1|-|-

8th|3|1|-|-

9th|3|1|-|-

10th|3|2|-|-

11th|3|2|-|-

12th|3|2|-|-

13th|3|2|-|-

14th|3|3|-|-

15th|3|3|-|-

16th|3|3|1|-

17th|3|3|1|-

18th|3|3|1|-

19th|3|3|1|-

20th|3|3|1|- [/table]

Sources Used

MM3
Complete Arcane
Lords of Madness
Book of Vile Darkness
Players Handbook
Miniature’s Handbook
Dragon Magic
Drow of the Underdark
Magic Item Compendium

Amphetryon

2011-12-12, 07:13 PM

Name: Shelob Ephel Duath

Classes: Dragonfire Adept 6/Mindbender10/Dragonfire Adept4

Setting: Eberron
Race: Human
Sex: Female
Eyes: Green and Hazel
Hair: Black
Skin: Fine black scales

Str 10
Dex 10
Con 16
Int 12
Wis 12
Cha 16

Level 4,8,12,16,20 stat increases in charisma

The Story
Shelob was born on the continent of Khorvaire, in the city of Korth, the Capitol of the country of Karnath. She was the daughter of a horse merchant in good standing with the Dragonmarked Houses. And that is why she would not meet her father for a very long time. When her mother held her for the first time, the archaic green mark surrounded by a reddened rash on her daughters arm pulsed in mockery. She snatched her hand out and locked the midwife's forearm in a vice grip. And with every ounce of humanity, she pleaded, "Please! Help me hide my baby. My husband is away on business. When he returns, I will tell him our child was stillborn. When I have recovered, I will go to my child and never return. Please, help me arrange it."

The midwife could not say no, So between the two they managed to arrange for her infant daughter to be smuggled North to the Karrnwood and there be cared for until she had recovered from the pregnancy and could run away to join her.

And so began the most normal part of Shelob's life. Her mother raised her near a small village with the help of a local woodsman and life was good.

Her mother kept the legacy of the mark on her daughters arm a secret, even from Shelob. She would warn Shelob to keep it hidden, only because people do not like strange things. But this secrecy did not stop Shelob's mark from awakening power within her. She began to find around puberty, that she could influence the minds of men and women. She also had a strange fascination with insects her whole life, but lately they seemed fascinated with her. And even wierder still, she sometimes thought she could communicate with the vermin of the world.

On Shelob's 16th birthday, a combination of the rumors caused by her abilities, and a large sum of money invested in finding his wife, Shelob's father arrived. The bitterness of a stillborn child, the pain of a abandoning wife, the betrayal of finding out there child was alive, and the fear of how such a cursed child could ruin his life; The thoughts were all dancing violently in his head. With a mix of sorrow and revenge he gave the command to his crew of mercenaries to "slay everyone." In the panic that ensued, Shelob's mother was run through. Shelob's heart broke and she would have died that day, if it were not for the woodsman. He fought valiantly to clear the soldiers attacking Shelob, and then led her away from the chaos, deeper into the woods.

Over the next 10 years, Shelob learned how to survive in the deep woods, studied the connection of her power and dragons, learned the details of her past and the history of aberrant marks, met and allied with the Children of Winter and learned many of there ways, including their way with vermin, was contacted and allied with the House Tarkanan.

Main Motivation:
To build an army out of her beloved vermin and destroy the True Dragonmarked Houses.

Some History and Information about Aberrant Dragonmarks
http://eberronunlimited.wikidot.com/aberrant-dragonmark

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

1st|Dragonfire Adept|
+0|
+2|
+0|
+2|Handle Animal 2; Ride 2; Intimidate 4; Use Magic Device 4; Bluff 1; sense Motive 1; Diplomacy 2; Spellcraft 1; Knowledge Nature 1; Knowledge Arcana 1; Knowledge Religion 1|Aberrant Dragonmark (charm person CL 1/2 character lvl), Mark of Vermin, Dragon Touched*| Breath Weapon 1d6

2nd|Dragonfire Adept|
+1|
+3|
+0|
+3|Handle Animal 2.5; Ride 2.5; UMD 5; Bluff 2; Sense Motive 2; Spellcraft 2|-|Scales +2 (Natural Armor)

3rd|Dragonfire Adept|
+1|
+3|
+1|
+3|Handle Animal 3; Ride 3; UMD 6; Bluff 3; Sense Motive 3; Diplomacy 3|Shape Soulmeld (Riding Bracers- +4 handle animal and +4 ride insight bonus)|Breath Weapon 2d6

4th|Dragonfire Adept|
+2|
+4|
+1|
+4|Handle Animal 3.5; UMD 7; Bluff 4; Sense Motive 4; Diplomacy 4; Spellcraft 3|-|Dragon Kin (+4 Diplomacy vs Dragonblooded; Treated as a Dragon when interacting with Frightful Prescense)

5th|Dragonfire Adept|
+2|
+4|
+1|
+4|Handle Animal 4; UMD 8; Spellcraft 4; Knowledge Nature 2; Knowledge Religion 2; Knowledge Arcana 2|-|Breath Weapon 3d6

6th|Dragonfire Adept|
+3|
+5|
+2|
+5|Handle Animal 4.5; UMD 9; Knowledge Nature 4; Knowledge Religion 3; Knowledge Arcana 3|Lesser Aberrant Dragonmark (Summon Swarm 2/day, Charm Person 2/day CL 3+1/2 character lvl)|DR 2/Magic

7th|Mindbender|
+3|
+7|
+2|
+7|Handle Animal 5; Knowledge Religion 4; Knowledge Arcana 4; Diplomacy 5|-|Telepathy; Breath Weapon 4d6

8th|Mindbender|
+4|
+8|
+2|
+8|Handle Animal 5.5; Bluff 5; Sense Motive 5; Spellcraft 5|-|Push the weak Mind 1/day; Skill Boost

9th|Mindbender|
+4|
+8|
+3|
+8|Handle Animal 6; Knowledge Nature 5; Knowledge Arcana 5; Knowledge Religion 5|Mindsight|Mind Read 2/day

10th|Mindbender|
+5|
+9|
+3|
+9|Handle Animal 6.5; Diplomacy 6; Bluff 6; Spellcraft 6|-| Eternal Charm (1)

11th|Mindbender|
+5|
+9|
+3|
+9|Handle Animal 7; Sense Motive 6; Knowledge Nature 6; Knowledge Arcana 6|-|Push the weak mind 2/day; Breath Weapon 5d6

12th|Mindbender|
+6|
+10|
+4|
+10|Diplomacy 7; Bluff 7; Sense Motive 7; Spellcraft 7|Quicken Breath|Enchantment Spell Power +2, Eternal Charm (2)

13th|Mindbender|
+6|
+10|
+4|
+10|Knowledge Nature 7; Knowledge Arcana 7; Diplomacy 8; Bluff 8|-| Dominate; Mind Read 4/day

14th|Mindbender|
+7|
+11|
+4|
+11|Spellcraft 8; Sense Motive 8; Knowledge Nature 8; Knowledge Arcana 8|-|Eternal Charm (3); Push the weak mind 3/day

15th|Mindbender|
+7|
+11|
+5|
+11|Diplomacy 9; Bluff 9; Spellcraft 9; Sense Motive 9|Greater Aberrant Dragonmark (Insect Plague 1/day, Charm person 3/day, Summon Swarm 3/day CL5+1/2 Character lvl)|Breath Weapon 6d6

16th|Mindbender|
+8|
+12|
+5|
+12|Knowledge Nature 9; Knowledge Arcana 9; Diplomacy 10; Bluff 10|-|Enchantment Spell Power 4; Eternal Charm (4), Thrall

17th|Dragonfire Adept|
+8|
+12|
+5|
+12|UMD 10; Sense Motive 10; Spellcraft 10; Knowledge Nature 10; Knowledge Arcana 10; Diplomacy 11|-|-

18th|Dragonfire Adept|
+9|
+13|
+5|
+13|UMD 13; Diplomacy 14|Extra Invocation (Draconic Flight)| Scales +3 (Natural Armor)

19th|Dragonfire Adept|
+9|
+13|
+6|
+13|UMD 16; Diplomacy 17|-|Breath Weapon 7d6

20th|Dragonfire Adept|
+10|
+14|
+6|
+14|UMD 19; Diplomacy 20|-|Breath Weapon Range Doubles[/table]
*Bonus feat

Invocations Known
{table=head]Level|Least|Lesser|Greater

1st|Endure Exposure|-|-

3rd|Endure Exposure, Beguiling Influence|-|-

6th|Endure Exposure, Beguiling Influence|Enthralling Voice|-

9th|Endure Exposure, Beguiling Influence|Walk Unseen, Voracious Dispelling|-

15th|Endure Exposure, Beguiling Influence|Walk Unseen, Humanoid Shape|Devour Magic

18th|Endure Exposure, Beguiling Influence|Walk Unseen, Humanoid Shape, Draconic Flight*|Devour Magic, Chilling Fog

[/table]

*invocation gained from feat

Breath Options
{table=head]Level|DC|Range|Recharge|Options

1st|10+con|15 foot cone or 30 foot line|1d4|Normal

2nd|11+con|-|-|-

3rd|11+con|-|-|Normal or Sickening Breath

4th|12+con|-|-|-

5th|12+con|-|-|Normal, Sickening Breath or Slow Breath

6th|13+con|-|-|-

7th|13+con|-|-|-

8th|13+con|-|-|-

9th|14+con|-|-|-

10th|14+con|-|-|-

11th|14+con|-|-|-

12th|14+con|-|1d4 (+4 if quickened)|Option to quicken Normal, Sickening or Slow Breath

13th|15+con|-|1d4 (+4 if quickened)|-

14th|15+con|-|1d4 (+4 if quickened)|-

15th|15+con|-|1d4 (+4 if quickened)|-

16th|15+con|-|1d4 (+4 if quickened)|-

17th|16+con|-|1d4 (+4 if quickened)|-

18th|16+con|-|1d4 (+4 if quickened)|-

19th|17+con|-|1d4 (+4 if quickened)|-

20th|17+con|30 foot cone or 60 foot line or 20 foot radius spread centered on Shelob|1d4 (+4 if quickened)|Option to quicken Normal, Sickening or Slow Breath; Option to change Normal, Sickening or Slow Breath to spread via Cloud Breath[/table]

Normal Breath
Breath Weapon (Su): At 1st level, Shelob gains a breath weapon that she can use at will as a standard action. Each time she uses her breath weapon, she can choose whether it takes the form of a 15-foot cone or a 30-foot line. This breath weapon deals 1d6 points of fire damage; a successful Reflex save (DC 10 + 1/2 her dragonfire Adept class level + her Con modifier) halves the damage. As she gain levels, her breath weapon's damage increases, as shown on the Class Table above.

Shelob is immune to the effect of her own breath weapon (but not to other breath weapons that produce similar effects, even those of other dragonfire adepts).

At 20th level, Shelob's cone-shaped breath weapon's range doubles to 30 feet, and her line-shaped breath weapon's range doubles to 60 feet.

Sickening Breath:
Rather than dealing damage, your breath weapon sickens all creatures in its area for 2 rounds. A successful Fortitude save reduces the duration to 1 round.

You can apply this breath effect only to a cone-shaped breath weapon.

Slow Breath
Rather than dealing damage, your breath weapon slows all creatures in its area for 2 rounds. A successful Fortitude save reduces the duration to 1 round. A slowed creature can take a single move action or standard action each turn, but not both (nor can it take full-round actions). Additionally, it takes a -1 penalty to its Armor Class and on its attack rolls and Reflex saves. A slowed creature moves at half its normal speed (round down to the next 5-foot increment), which affects the creature's jumping distance as normal for decreased speed.

Multiple uses of this breath effect on the same creature don't stack; use only the longer duration. Slow Breath suppresses any haste effect on creatures in its area for the duration of the slow effect.

You can apply this breath effect only to a cone-shaped breath weapon.

Cloud Breath:
Your breath weapon takes the form of a 20-foot-radius spread, centered on you. You can choose to apply any one other breath effect that you know to the same breath weapon, as long as it can be applied to a cone-shaped breath weapon. For example, you could create a cloud of cold (with Frost Breath) or sleep (with Sleep Breath), but not a cloud of lightning or force.

Quicken Breath

Feat-
Benefit: Using your breath weapon is a swift action. When you use this feat, add +4 to the number of rounds you must wait before using your breath weapon again.

Special: You cannot use this feat and the Maximize Breath feat on the same weapon at the same time.

How it works:

I am using an aberrant dragon mark to gain the charm person prerequisite for mindbender.
The twist of the build is the feat Mark of Vermin. Mark of vermin requires that you have an aberrant dragonmark. This feat does 4 wonderful things.
#1 all druid and ranger spells that normally target animals, you can cast on vermin too.
#2 When dealing with you, mindless vermin have an intelligence score of 2. This ability has many ramifications. The main use I will be using is handle animal. Because vermin are treated as creatures with an int of 2 when dealing with me, I can train them using handle animal as per the handle animal rules. The DC's are raised by 5 though.
#3 You can now charm vermin. Calm Vermin. Use wild empathy or similar abilities on vermin. This benefit provides wonderful synergy with mindbender. Vermin have horridly low will saves. This allows you to use eternal charm on some VERY high hit dice vermin, VERY early on.
#4 You can use speak with vermin 1/day (as speak with animals but only vermin and vermin swarms) Caster lvl 1.

Level Breakdown
I am going to display lvls 6 11 16 and 20. Similar to a sorcerer, this build hits synergy points 1 lvl later. It is by no means weak at 5, 10, and 15. I just feel that the even levels will represent the synergy of tricks more appropriately.

6th lvl:
Shelob rides into combat on a mundanely trained 15 hit dice Giant Wasp. This is a nice flying tank with good offense and a decent poison for this lvl. She has more than enough of a ride check to ride this saddled bug with no problems.With her connection to the children of winter and her ability to speak to vermin finding pets to train is very easy. And her invocation, enthralling voice, combined with the low will saves of insects makes for very safe training sessions. Her Handle animal check at this point is 11 without any magic items. So even with bad luck on rolls, it will only take a month or 2 to train the mount.

Because of enduring exposure, her mount is immune to her breath weapon.

Her breath does 3d6 fire dmg at this lvl. Or it can sicken or slow enemies hit by it for 2 rounds. If they pass their save they are still affected for 1 round.

She is very charismatic and will continue to be throughout the build.

She can charm person 2 times per day and summon swarm 2 times per day.

11th lvl:

At this lvl she has lost enthralling voice, but its function was largely replaced by push the weak mind.

Her invocations now allow her to go invisible, make her pets immune to her breath weapon, and use a form of dispel magic.

She has mindsight now which bolsters her much needed lack of perception.

Her breath weapon options are still the same but her damage is now 5d6 and the DCs are higher.

Her UMD is now around +15 which allows her to bring some wands or scrolls into play if needed.

And lastly, she finally has her first thrall. And boy is it a doozy.
A monstrous colossal scorpion (page 288 of the monster manual)At this point her eternal charm DC is 18 without magic items. This 40 hit dice melee monstrosity only has a +12 will save. We can easily add in some stat boosting items to raise that DC by this lvl, but the best part is we don't need too. The big guy has a 25% chance of failure and since we can fly out of his reach on our wasp mount, we can just try once a day until he succumbs to our will.

16th lvl:
By this lvl, our power has definitely soared.
Let's start by listing our pets (keep in mind, she is free to train more pets mundanely but I thought I did not want to be excessive and list out a million trained bugs)

Mount- 15 hit dice giant wasp
Eternal charm 1- Awakened colossal monstrous scorpion
Eternal charm 2- Awakened colossal monstrous spider (web user)
Eternal charm 3- Changeling Spy (not used for combat, but keeps Shelob informed of her enemies movements.)
Eternal Charm 4- Awakened Greater Sea Crab Colossal

Thrall- Belsaba, also afflicted with an aberrant dragonmark and possessing the mark of vermin. Belsaba was a rival of Shelob before Shelob permanently broke her mind. Belsaba is a 17th lvl druid with the empower and maximize metamagic feats. She comes with her own gargantuan monstrous scorpion animal companion. Shelob often commands Belsaba to cast maximized empowered awakens on her vermin subjects. In combat, Belsaba usually plays support to the vermin, providing them with buffs and supporting them with spells.

Shelob can now use her invocation Humanoid Shape and her high roleplay skills to personally infiltrate groups. And has a stronger dispel.

Her breath weapon options are the same except she now has the option to quicken her breath. The dmg is now 6d6 and the DC is much higher.

Her dragon mark now provides her with Insect Plague 1/day, Charm person 3/day, Summon Swarm 3/day CL5+1/2 Character lvl.

She can dominate once per day.

At this point in her career, Shelob has amassed a decent sized group of awakened vermin. A small society, if you will. She is like a queen to these vermin but they are not magically compelled to follow her, like her thrall and eternal charmed subjects are. She also has strong allies in the children of winter and the House Tarkanan.

Lvl 20:
The difference from 16 to 20 is slight but significant.

Breath does 7d6 now. Her breath now has twice the former range and Can be used as a spread.

Invocations now allow flight and a damaging solid fog.
This solid fog can be used in conjunction with a slow breath for stalling anything that doesn't have Freedom of movement.

Shelob's awakened eternal charm pets now have class lvls, making them more threatening.

Shelob's thrall is now higher lvl as well.

Shelob's UMD is now considerably higher, opening up many options through scrolls and wands.

Magic Items
No specific magic items are "needed" for this build.
Items that enhance roleplay skills (circlet of persuasion, choker of eloquence, ect) fit with the theme.
Charisma and Con stat boost items and books obviously add to the power of the character.

Scrolls and Wands of various kinds will not be wasted.

Defensive items and transportation based items can be helpful here.

Lastly, left over items could be put on pets.

Sources:
Eberron Campaign Setting
Dragonmarked
Dragon Magic
Draconomicon
Complete Arcane
Player's Handbook
Lord's of Madness
Magic of Incarnum
Monster Manual
Monster Manual III
This Web Article http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20040705a
This research material on the history and nature of aberrant dragonmarkshttp://eberronunlimited.wikidot.com/aberrant-dragonmark

Amphetryon

2011-12-12, 07:15 PM

Maccles the Cheshire cat

'Twas bacon, and the slimy toads
Did curl and sizzle in the grate;
All flimsy were the staffy cakes,
And then creamy bowls of milk.

Party Role

Because of RHD and LA you cannot play Maccles below 6th. Maccles makes for an excellent scout and party face. In combat he is mediocre, though he can provide backup by means of his Charms.
He is quite acrobatic and is very stealthy. His invisibility and DR will keep him out of more than a few scrapes. Mid levels are probably the sweat spot: before opponents become routinely immune to mind effecting spells, though this is going to be a problem for any Mindbender. The trick is to scout the enemy well and find their weak spots, most likely minions who can be turned. In combat he should be able to sack a few casters but his work should be done before this point.
I've tried to keep the spell selections close to those suggested by the source; i.e. Illusions and Enchantments, whilst avoiding necromantics. Being a Sorcerer means that he has to choose spells which can be spammed, at least for the first spell available at each new spell level. He does suffer from lower level spells than CR equivalent opponents, but the special abilities should fill that hole to an extent. Grapple will always be a problem for him.

Build notes

Race: Cheshire Cat Small Fey Speed: 30 ft.
from http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/fools/20030401c

The quoted stats assume standard array
Str 3, Dex 17, Con 10, Int 10, Wis 12, Cha 15

Which implies (includes small size + fey)
Str -8, Dex +6, Con -, Int -, Wis +2, Cha +4

Str 11, Dex 14, Con 12, Int 14 , Wis 8, Cha 17 32 point buy

Str 3, Dex 20, Con 12, Int 14 , Wis 10, Cha 21 After racials

Base skill ranks - inc racial bonus +4* +8** racial bonus on Balance checks and uses its Dexterity modifier for Climb*** and Jump*** checks

Balance 0*, Climb +6*, Diplomacy +5, Handle Humanoid +5, Hide +4*, Jump 0*, Listen +6, Move Silently +6*, Spot +6

Class skills are not noted.

Skills at 3rd Balance 0*, Climb +6*, Diplomacy +6, Handle Humanoid +6, Hide +6*, Jump 0*, Listen +6, Move Silently +6*, Spot +6, Search +3(cc), Balance +3(cc)
I'm going to have to assume that Balance is cc, though that seems quite wrong for a fey-cat.

The source is 3.0 so we have Weapon Finesse Twice - guess we lose a bonus feat then.

+4 racial bonus on Climb, Hide, Jump, and Move Silently checks. *In areas of tall grass or heavy undergrowth, its Hide bonus rises to +8.
For running jumps, its Jump bonus is +8. Like a normal cat, it also receives a +8 racial bonus on Balance checks and uses its Dexterity modifier for Climb and Jump checks.

Maccles starts at 6th level, by which time he will have one, or a couple, of trained humans of the domestic sort.
Initial spells are Charm Person, Silent Image and Corrosive Grasp [SpC]
We are not very effective in combat, though Corrosive Grasp will bump our damage and DR 5 [cold iron] will help a little. Adding touch range spells to our natural attacks is an obvious tactic, though Maccles should probably avoid the front line wherever possible. Far better to Charm others to fight in our place.
We start with Nymph's kiss which gives us an extra skill point, +2 on Charisma skills, and +1 on saves against spells and SLAs
We then take 2 levels of rogue, for more stealth and the skill points we are missing. This fits the character well, and with Practised Spellcaster we qualify for Mindbender.
I did consider SpellThief for this using Master SpellThief to qualify for the SI, but the entry would be 1 level later and it would mess up the feat progression.
At 9th we enter the SI, and take Master Manipulator. The Trap of Words option seems entirely in character for a cheshire cat. The Captivating Speech option can be used for those moments when your stealth is about to go wrong, and we can now do this telepathically whilst invisible. We certainly have the Diplomacy to power this option.
We also get our first 2nd level spell. Touch of Idiocy is a good choice if we want to reduce enemy casters to our level, though Eagles Splendor and Mirror Image would also be good.
At 10th we get Push the Weak Mind and a boost to our face Skills. This gives us suggestion, which given our charisma, will have a reasonable save DC.
At 11th we can read minds, which gives us another scouting or negotiation option.
At 12th we take Darkstalker to ensure we are actually stealthy. We can also keep one creature eternally charmed. If they are humanoid, then we can also train them to perform menial chores using our Handle Humanoid skill. Its entirely situational as to our choice of target for this ability, but we can spam charm person to acquire temporary meat shields or trap disablers.
At 13th we qualify for 3rd level spells. Hold Person is a good one to spam, though Displacement and Major Image are also solid.
Further levels of Mindbender simply expand upon what we can already do.
At 15th we take Frightful Presence to debuff any opponents, ideally when we sack the mage with Touch of Idiocy
I did consider Arcane Strike but our melee damage is too meagre to worry about. The same goes for Craven though this is also out of character. We have a few spells available now so we should be focussing on those. Besides we should have won our combats before they begin.
At 17th we qualify for 4th level spells. There are a number of reasonable options. Shadow Well [SpC] is a good one to spam, especially since it is not mid effecting.
At 18th we take Heighten spell to pump the DCs of our lower level spells. It doesn't add all that much, but our DCs are fairly high.
In terms of the capstone ability: Thrall; we should choose someone who add to the parties capability - but that's hard to know. No particular type springs to mind, though humanoids should be preferred since they are trainable. Actually a Jabberwocky would be ideal, far better than an annoying Bandersnatch, however I can't find the stats for either of those.
All though our stealth skills have atrophied over the last 10 levels, our racial and size modifiers offset this a little. We have managed to scrape together enough skills to enter Unseen Seer, provided we have chosen to know 2 divinations (which we will). This class is full casting, and allows us to regain some stealth. If LA buyout were available, then we could have another level or two of this. Silent Spell is good, but level 20 is quite late for this to matter.

Sources

The source for much of this is
from http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/fools/20030401c
Skill: Handle Humanoid and of course, the Cheshire Cat

Lords of Madness Darkstalker
BoED Nymph's kiss
CDiv Practised Spellcaster
PH2 Master Manipulator
Draconomicon Frightful Presence
CArc Unseen Seer

Build

Maccles
{table=head]Level|Class|Base Attack<br>Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Skills|Feats|Class Features
1st|Cheshire Cat RHD 1|
+1|
+1|
+3|
+3|Climb +4* Diplomacy +4 Handle Humanoid +4 Hide +4* Jump 0* Listen +4 Move Silently +4* Spot +4 Search +2(cc) Balance +2(cc)|Nymph’s Kiss|Eschew Materials (B) Weapon Finesse (B)
2nd|Cheshire Cat RHD 2|
+1||||Climb +1* Diplomacy +1 Handle Humanoid +1 Hide +1* Jump 0* Listen +1 Move Silently +1* Spot +1 Search +1/2(cc) Balance +1/2(cc)||Controlled invisibility DR 5/cold iron low-light vision
3rd|Cheshire Cat RHD 3|
+1||||Climb +1* Diplomacy +1 Handle Humanoid +1 Hide +1* Jump 0* Listen +1 Move Silently +1* Spot +1 Search +1/2(cc) Balance +1/2(cc)|Practiced Spellcaster|
4th|Cheshire Cat LA +1|
+1||||||
5th|Cheshire Cat LA +2|
+1||||||
6th|Cheshire Cat LA +3|
+1||||||
7th|Rogue 1|
+1|
+1|
+5|
+3|Bluff +2 Intimidate +2 Sense Motive +2 Hide+1 Spot +1 Search +2 Move Silently +1||Sneak +1d6 Trapfinding Cha +1
8th|Rogue 2|
+2|
+1|
+6|
+3|Bluff +2 Intimidate +2 Sense Motive +2 Hide+1 Spot +1 Search +2 Move Silently +1||Evasion
9th|Mindbender 1|
+2|
+3|
+6|
+5|Diplomacy +3 Sense motive +1 Search +1/2(cc)|Master Manipulator|Telepathy
10th|Mindbender 2|
+3|
+4|
+6|
+6|Bluff +1 Intimidate +1 Diplomacy +1 Sense motive +1 Search +1/2(cc)||Push the Weak Mind 1/day Skill boost
11th|Mindbender 3|
+3|
+4|
+7|
+6|Bluff +1 Intimidate +1 Diplomacy +1 Sense motive +1 Spellcraft +1/2(cc)||Mindread 2/day Cha +1
12th|Mindbender 4|
+4|
+5|
+7|
+7|Bluff +1 Intimidate +1 Diplomacy +1 Sense motive +1 Spellcraft +1/2(cc)|Darkstalker |Eternal Charm (1)
13th|Mindbender 5|
+4|
+5|
+7|
+7|Bluff +1 Intimidate +1 Diplomacy +1 Sense motive +1 Spellcraft +1/2(cc)||Push the Weak Mind 2/day
14th|Mindbender 6|
+5|
+6|
+8|
+8|Bluff +1 Intimidate +1 Diplomacy +1 Sense motive +1 Spellcraft +1/2(cc)||Enchantment Spell Power +2 Eternal Charm (1) Cha +1
15th|Mindbender 7|
+5|
+6|
+8|
+8|Bluff +1 Intimidate +1 Diplomacy +1 Sense motive +1 Spellcraft +1/2(cc)|Frightful Presence|Dominate Mindread 4/day
16th|Mindbender 8|
+6|
+7|
+8|
+9|Bluff +1 Intimidate +1 Diplomacy +1 Sense motive +1 Spellcraft +1/2(cc)||Eternal Charm (3) Push the Weak Mind 3/day
17th|Mindbender 9|
+6|
+7|
+9|
+9|Bluff +1 Intimidate +1 Diplomacy +1 Sense motive +1 Spellcraft +1/2(cc)||
18th|Mindbender 10|
+7|
+8|
+9|
+10|Bluff +1 Intimidate +1 Diplomacy +1 Sense motive +1 Spellcraft +1/2(cc)|Heighten Spell|Enchantment Spell Power +4 Eternal Charm (4) Thrall
19th|Unseen Seer 1|
+7|
+8|
+9|
+12|Bluff +1 Intimidate +1 Diplomacy +1 Sense motive +1 Hide +3 Move Silently +2|+1d6 Sneak| Cha +1
20th|Unseen Seer 1|
+8|
+8|
+9|
+13|Bluff +1 Intimidate +1 Diplomacy +1 Sense motive +1 Hide +3 Move Silently +2|Advanced Learning| Silent Spell|
[/table]
Spells per day/Spells Known
{table=head]Level|0lvl|1st|2nd|3rd|4th|5th|6th|7th|8th|9th
1st|5+0/4|3+2/2|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-
2nd|6+0/5|4+2/2|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-
3rd|6+0/5|5+2/3|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-
4th|6+0/5|5+2/3|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-
5th|6+0/5|5+2/3|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-
6th|6+0/5|5+2/3|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-
7th|6+0/5|5+2/3|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-
8th|6+0/5|5+2/3|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-
9th|6+0/5|6+2/3|3+2/1|-|-|-|-|-|-|-
10th|6+0/5|6+2/3|3+2/1|-|-|-|-|-|-|-
11th|6+0/5|6+2/4|4+2/2|-|-|-|-|-|-|-
12th|6+0/5|6+2/4|4+2/2|-|-|-|-|-|-|-
13th|6+0/5|6+2/4|5+2/2|3+1/1|-|-|-|-|-|-
14th|6+0/5|6+2/4|5+2/2|3+2/1|-|-|-|-|-|-
15th|6+0/5|6+2/5|6+2/3|4+2/2|-|-|-|-|-|-
16th|6+0/5|6+2/5|6+2/3|4+2/2|-|-|-|-|-|-
17th|6+0/5|6+2/5|6+2/3|5+2/2|3+1/1|-|-|-|-|-
18th|6+0/5|6+2/5|6+2/3|5+2/2|3+1/1|-|-|-|-|-
19th|6+0/5|6+2/5|6+2/4|6+2/3|4+1/2|-|-|-|-|-
20th|6+0/5|6+2/5|6+2/4|6+2/3|5+1/2|3+1/1|-|-|-|-[/table]

Sweat spot 12th

Small Fey Initiative: +5
HD 5d6+4d4+9 = 32
Speed: 30 ft.
Armor Class: 16 (+1 size, +5 Dex), touch 16, flat-footed 11
Base Attack/Grapple: +3/-5
Attack: Claw +7 melee (1d2-4)
Full Attack: 2 claws +7 melee (1d2-4) and bite +2 melee (1d3-4)
Face/Reach: 5 ft. by 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Spells
Special Qualities: Controlled invisibility, DR 5/cold iron, low-light vision
Saves: Fort +4, Ref +11, Will +5
Abilities: Str 3, Dex 20, Con 12, Int 14 , Wis 10, Cha 23
Feats: Eschew Materials (B), Weapon Finesse (B), Nymph’s Kiss, Practised Spellcaster, Master Manipulator, Darkstalker
Class Features Sneak +1d6, Trapfinding, Evasion, Telepathy, Push the Weak Mind 1/day DC 19, Mindread 2/day DC 17, Eternal Charm (1) DC 20

Spells 0th 6 per day: Detect Magic, Detect Poison, Ghost Sound, Prestidigitation, Silent Portal; 1st 8 per day: Charm Person, Silent Image, Expeditious Retreat and Corrosive Grasp; 2nd 6 per day: Touch of Idiocy, Mirror Image

Equipment:
Not much is very useful because its difficult to wear. A +4 Cloak of Charisma would be excellent, as would a collar of dexterity. I haven't factored these into the skills and DCs.
Weapons are pointless since he uses natural weapons, and even an amulet of mighty fists would be a waste.

Skills at 12th ECL
{table=head]Skill|Ranks|Stat|Other|Total
Balance|3|5|Racial +8|16
Bluff|7|6|Nymph’s Kiss +2 Skill Boost +2|17
Climb|6|5|Racial +4|15
Diplomacy|12|6|Nymph’s Kiss +2 Bluff +2 Sense Motive +2 Skill Boost +2|26
Handle Humanoid|6|6|Nymph’s Kiss +2|14
Hide |8|5|Racial +4 (+8) Size +4|21 (25)
Intimidate|7|6|Nymph’s Kiss +2 Bluff +2 Skill Boost +2|19
Jump|6|5|Racial +4 (+8)|15 (19)
Listen |6|||6
Move Silently|8|5|Racial +4|17
Sense Motive|8|0| Skill Boost +2|10
Search|8|2||10
Spellcraft|1|2||3
Spot|8||-|8
Tumble||5|Jump +2|7
[/table]

Amphetryon

2011-12-12, 07:16 PM

The Ethereal Enslaver of Evil
Kaorti 2RD + 2 LA/Beguiler 1/Fiend of Possession 5/Mindbender 10
‘’Once she was Chaotic Good. Now no one’s really sure...’’
The Story

In the beginning...
Even Death can be a mercy.
She didn’t know her name anymore. She now knew only hate. Hate for the vile creatures that had transformed her, hate for the cruel and torturous acts she had had to perform to survive, hate that ultimately stemmed from the self knowledge that she was as bad as the monsters she now hunted.
It wasn’t always so. She had been an excitable youth once, one with a name. Her formative years were too far gone, now they were only a fog, but she remembered her great joy and happiness at finally passing the adventuring licensing program (Instituted when a Wizard Statician calculated that 90% of potential heroes of the realm were killed in their first level. I mean year. First year. Yeah).
Beguilers the common folk called her sort, warrior mages both skilful and charming. It was the beginning of her dream, the grand adventure that would see her with a mighty territory of her own, ruled by benevolence and wisdom learnt from years of slaying the enemies of mankind and saving many a commoner.
Her first trek out, it had gone wrong. So very terribly wrong. On the outer edge of the kingdom, a small group of villages feared the predations of bandits in the forest, villagers who had entered had not returned. A group of her fellow new adventurers around her, they did bravely set forth under the old oaks to seek the foe.
They never stood a chance.
Humanoid figures, wrapped in resin bandages almost like perverse alien mummies, confronted the brave heroes. It was a slaughter. Eldritch energies blew strong, simple Garth into shreds, Ernest had a single chance to gape at his ruin as his fragile body was sliced into a dozen times by impossibly sharp knives tied to ribbons and whatever happened to irritable Blain of the church she never knew.
Strange that she could remember their names and fates, but her own was closed, like an evil spectre of childhood forced into a corner of the mind one did not venture into lest the terror be felt again.
There is a special kind of horror to look down and realize you are now a monster, that some foul process melted and twisted your organs and flesh into the very stuff of nightmares.
Amazingly, sanity was retained, as was as the abilities she had as a hero, insufficient though they were. For a time, out of necessity, she was forced to live with the Kaorti, the name of the foul creatures she had forcefully joined. It seemed they were all once different beings, but unlike her their original memories and personality was overwhelmed by the change and they acted as the demons they now resembled.
The Path of Vengeance
Hate begets hate.
Individuals react differently to different situations. Where some would rather die, or lose themselves, the Enslaver at first just wanted to fade away. Uncomfortable in her new fleshy prison for her soul, she only desired to fade away.
Until eventually she did.
After a battle with some competing Orcs, as she gazed into the distance practicing not hearing the screams of the captured, she found that she was ethereal. She could float, invisible, intangible and safe, re-appearing at whim. One of the older Kaorti had heard of such, and was pleased at the possibilities. Able to scout at whim, the once hero was able to pinpoint any and all enemies and prey.
And thus she was able to lead them into a trap, when the Kaorti’s thought themselves the ambushers. As her “allies” dies with alien screams, she turned Ethereal and went off into the distance, leaving them to their fate.
However, trapped as she was in demon form, she still could not return to her race, who would kill her on sight. Truth be told, she had no desire to return, not when the means of vengeance was finally in her grasp.
With lies and deceit, she mastered her new found abilities, discovering how to possess objects and people, to curse and betray, to lie and trick the evil creatures of the world.
As time went on, she developed found it wasn’t enough to kill and destroy. The beings around her needed to suffer so much more than that. Returning to her faded Arcane roots, she began to ruthlessly develop the ability first to read minds, then to overthrow them.
She developed a title amongst her prey, the enslaver, an evil spirit that stole upon your soul and took your mind. This pleased the fallen hero immensely. Great havoc she has wrecked amongst evil, but at what cost to her soul?

The Build

Stats
{table=head]|32 Point|Racial|ECL 6|ECL 10|ECL 14|ECL 18

Str|8|4|4|4|4|4|
Dex|8|12|12|12|12|12|
Con|8|8|8|8|8|8|
Int|18|24|25|26|27|28|
Wis|8|8|8|8|8|8|
Cha|18|26|26|26|26|26|[/table]
Spells per day/Spells Known
{table=head]Level|0lvl|1st|2nd|3rd

1st|-|-|-|-

2nd|-|-|-|-

3rd|6|4|-|-

4th|6|4|-|-

5th|6|4|-|-

6th|6|4|-|-

7th|6|4|-|-

8th|6|4|-|-

9th|6|4|-|-

10th|6|4|-|-

11th|7|5|-|-

12th|7|5|-|-

13th|7|6|-|-

14th|7|6|-|-

15th|7|7|4|-

16th|7|7|4|-

17th|7|7|5|-

18th|7|7|5|-

19th|7|7|6|4

20th|7|7|6|4 [/table]

The Ethereal Enslaver of Evil
{table=head]Level|Class|Base Attack Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Skills|Feats|Class Features

1st|Racial Hit Die|
+2|
+3|
+3|
+3|Everything (See Note Below)|Martial Study (Shadow Hand)|Racial Bonus: +8 to Heal cheacks, + 2 Spellcraft/UMD Scrolls, Poison Immunity, Dark Vision, Spell Like Abilities 1/ Day (Colour Spray, Disguise Self, Featherfall, Reduce, Spider Climb), Vile Transformation, Material Vulnerability

2nd|Racial Hit Die|
+2|
+3|
+3|
+3|As above|N/a|N/a

3rd|Beguiler|
+2|
+3|
+3|
+5|+4 Bluff, +1 Concentration, +5 Diplomacy, +1 Hide, +1 Spellcraft|Practiced Spellcaster|Armoured Mage, Trapfinding

4th|Fiend of Possession|
+2|
+5|
+5|
+7|+3 Bluff, +1 Hide, +4 Sense Motive|N/a|Ethereal Form, Hide Presence, Possess Object

5th|Fiend of Possesion|
+3|
+6|
+6|
+8|+1 Bluff, +3 Diplomacy, +1 Hide, +2 Spellcraft, +1 Spot|N/a|Curse, Magic Item

6th|Fiend of Possesion|
+3|
+6|
+6|
+8| +1 Bluff, +1 Diplomacy, +1 Hide, +1 Spellcraft, +4 Spot |Skill Focus: Hide|Control Object

7th|Fiend of Possession|
+4|
+7|
+7|
+9| +1 Bluff, +1 Diplomacy, +1 Hide, +1 Spellcraft, +4 |N/a|Animate Object, Possess Creature
8th|Fiend of Possession|
+4|
+7|
+7|
+9| +1 Bluff, +1 Diplomacy, +1 Hide, +3 Sense Motive, +1 Spellcraft, +2 |N/a|Ally or Enemy, possess non-continuous Object

9th|Mindbender|
+4|
+9|
+7|
+11|+1 Bluff, +6 Concentration, +1 Hide, +1 Spellcraft|Mindsight|Telepathy

10th|Mindbender|
+5|
+10|
+7|
+12| +1 Bluff, +1 Concentration, +2 Diplomacy, +1 Hide, +3 Sense Motive, +1 Spellcraft |N/a|Push the Weak Mind 1/Day, Skill Boost

11th|Mindbender|
+5|
+10|
+8|
+12| +1 Bluff, +1 Concentration, +1 Diplomacy, +1 Hide, +4 Sense Motive, +1 Spellcraft |N/a|Mindread 2/Day

12th|Mindbender|
+6|
+11|
+8|
+13| +1 Bluff, +1 Concentration, +1 Diplomacy, +1 Hide,+3 Knowledge (The Planes), +1 Sense Motive, +1 Spellcraft | Boost Spell-Like Ability |Eternal Charm (1)
13th|Mindbender|
+6|
+11|
+8|
+13| +1 Bluff, +1 Concentration, +1 Diplomacy, +1 Hide,+3 Knowledge (The Planes), +1 Sense Motive, +1 Spellcraft |N/a|Push The Weak Mind 2/Day

14th|Mindbender|
+7|
+12|
+9|
+14| +1 Bluff, +1 Concentration, +1 Diplomacy, +1 Hide,+3 Knowledge (The Planes), +1 Sense Motive, +1 Spellcraft |N/a|Enchantment Spell Power +2, Eternal Charm (2)

15th|Mindbender|
+7|
+12|
+9|
+14| +1 Bluff, +1 Concentration, +1 Diplomacy, +1 Hide,+3 Knowledge (The Planes), +1 Sense Motive, +1 Spellcraft |Boost Spell-Like Ability|Dominate, Mindread 4/Day

16th|Mindbender|
+8|
+13|
+9|
+15| +1 Bluff, +1 Concentration, +1 Diplomacy, +1 Hide,+2 Intimidate, +2 Knowledge (The Planes), +1 Sense Motive, +1 Spellcraft |N/a|Eternal Charm (3), Push the Weak Mind 3/Day

17th|Mindbender|
+8|
+13|
+9|
+15| +1 Bluff, +1 Concentration, +1 Diplomacy, +1 Hide,+3 Intimidate, +1 Knowledge (The Planes), +1 Sense Motive, +1 Spellcraft |N/a| N/a

18th|Mindbender|
+9|
+14|
+9|
+16| +1 Bluff, +1 Concentration, +1 Diplomacy, +1 Hide,+3 Intimidate, +1 Knowledge (The Planes), +1 Sense Motive, +1 Spellcraft |Boost Spell-Like Ability|Enchantment Spell Power +4, Eternal Charm (4), Thrall
[/table]
Racial Hit Die Skills: It’s a sad fact that due to maximising Intelligence and having a racial boost, all skills available to the RhD list are maxed. You end up with your choice of 5 Crafts (Woo?). This includes Hide, which you get from the Martial Study Feat.
For the sake of completeness, those skills are: Concentration, Heal, Hide, Intimidate, Knowledge (Arcana), Knowledge (The Planes), Spellcraft, Survival, UMD.

The Explanation

ECL 1 – 5

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

1st|Racial Hit Die|
+2|
+3|
+3|
+3|Everything (See Note Below)|Martial Study (Shadowhand)|Racial Bonus: +8 to Heal cheacks, + 2 Spellcraft/UMD Scrolls, Poison Immunity, Dark Vision, Spell Like Abilities 1/ Day (Colour Spray, Disguise Self, Featherfall, Reduce, Spider Climb), Vile Transformation, Material Vulnerability

2nd|Racial Hit Die|
+2|
+3|
+3|
+3|As above|N/a|N/a

3rd|Beguiler|
+2|
+3|
+3|
+5|+4 Bluff, +1 Concentration, +5 Diplomacy, +1 Hide, +1 Spellcraft|Practiced Spellcaster|Armoured Mage, Trapfinding

[/Table]
Well, this is about impossible to sugarcoat.
Early on this build is terrible, and it will be a struggle to survive. Level Adjustment, Racial levels, 1 level of casting at ECL 5? Egads.
There are only a few saving graces, that being insane levels of Charisma and Intelligence, decent skill ranks and, thanks to martial stance, a once a day escape power via the Shadow Hand Manoeuvre.
At this level clever play is the saving grace. Using the Beguiler spells to boost Diplomacy and Bluff, the future Enslaver has to hang around with a group and, in the event of a close run fight, have a shadow within 50 feet that is in an escapable position, such as the top of a cliff, across a raging river, etc.

ECL 6 – 10

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

4th|Fiend of Possession|
+2|
+5|
+5|
+7|+3 Bluff, +1 Hide, +4 Sense Motive|N/a|Ethereal Form, Hide Presence, Possess Object

5th|Fiend of Possesion|
+3|
+6|
+6|
+8|+1 Bluff, +3 Diplomacy, +1 Hide, +2 Spellcraft, +1 Spot|N/a|Curse, Magic Item

6th|Fiend of Possesion|
+3|
+6|
+6|
+8| +1 Bluff, +1 Diplomacy, +1 Hide, +1 Spellcraft, +4 Spot |Skill Focus: Hide|Control Object

7th|Fiend of Possession|
+4|
+7|
+7|
+9| +1 Bluff, +1 Diplomacy, +1 Hide, +1 Spellcraft, +4 |N/a|Animate Object, Possess Creature
8th|Fiend of Possession|
+4|
+7|
+7|
+9| +1 Bluff, +1 Diplomacy, +1 Hide, +3 Sense Motive, +1 Spellcraft, +2 |N/a|Ally or Enemy, possess non-continuous Object
[/Table]
At this point near invulnerability is gained. At the very first level of this bracket, our enterprising Kaorti is restricted to scouting for the most part, which to be fair it can do immensely well, taking as long as needed to get the appropriate layout and find any obvious monsters and traps.
After that, things get remarkably easier. The very next level grants the ability to possess and object and make it pass along a curse. This forms the primary combat function of the build. Rather than using the basic penalties in the SRD, we utilize the expanded list of examples presented in the Book of Vile Darkness, which includes a number of things that can easily be sued to cause great swathes of trouble and mayhem, not just to an adventuring style group, but if used intelligently on a much broader basis. Ideas that occur (Recall that Curse, unless removed, is of permanent duration):
• The very first alternate is making a target sterile. The implication, especially for groups written to be tribal formations under a chief, or the low level monarchies, this can be devastating in the long term. Sure, you’re not going to wildly slay them in a few combat rounds, but there has to be an evil cackle for inciting civil war as no member of the blood royal is capable of getting an heir.
• You can strike a target blind and deaf. Do that to any caster at the start of a fight and things will get messy for them.
• There are a couple that cause targets in combat to have a 25% chance to hit the closest person rather than who they want. In a scenario of a party versing a single powerful monster, the sight of a wizard turning and blasting his own meatshield is just funny.
• Creatures of a specific sort are invisible to the target. Especially hilarious if the target is in a group of the same race :P
• And so on, there a trillion ideas just waiting, many vastly better than what I’ve put above.
After that you end up being able to possess objects and people and eventually mess them around if you want. If lacking a particular physical presence is especially annoying, you could easily animate a statue of some form and walk it around if you want.

ECL 11 – 15

{table=head]Level|Class|Base Attack Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Skills|Feats|Class Features
9th|Mindbender|
+4|
+9|
+7|
+11|+1 Bluff, +6 Concentration, +1 Hide, +1 Spellcraft|Mindsight|Telepathy

10th|Mindbender|
+5|
+10|
+7|
+12| +1 Bluff, +1 Concentration, +2 Diplomacy, +1 Hide, +3 Sense Motive, +1 Spellcraft |N/a|Push the Weak Mind 1/Day, Skill Boost

11th|Mindbender|
+5|
+10|
+8|
+12| +1 Bluff, +1 Concentration, +1 Diplomacy, +1 Hide, +4 Sense Motive, +1 Spellcraft |N/a|Mindread 2/Day

12th|Mindbender|
+6|
+11|
+8|
+13| +1 Bluff, +1 Concentration, +1 Diplomacy, +1 Hide,+3 Knowledge (The Planes), +1 Sense Motive, +1 Spellcraft | Boost Spell-Like Ability |Eternal Charm (1)
13th|Mindbender|
+6|
+11|
+8|
+13| +1 Bluff, +1 Concentration, +1 Diplomacy, +1 Hide,+3 Knowledge (The Planes), +1 Sense Motive, +1 Spellcraft |N/a|Push The Weak Mind 2/Day
[/Table]
Now there is a 6th level of Fiend of Possession, but we’re not worried about. The 6th level allows eventual control over a creature, requires a fair number of rolls and means you’re not roaming around cursing things!
The advancement of Beguiler casting is nice, but hardly something to write home about, the spells are never going to get to a very high level. It’s the mindreading and the obligatory Mindsight that are the real dividends, making up for that complete lack of Spot and Listen, and meaning needed information can be fished from the appropriate heads as desired.

ECL 16 – 20 (Sweetspot!)

{table=head]Level|Class|Base Attack Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Skills|Feats|Class Features
14th|Mindbender|
+7|
+12|
+9|
+14| +1 Bluff, +1 Concentration, +1 Diplomacy, +1 Hide,+3 Knowledge (The Planes), +1 Sense Motive, +1 Spellcraft |N/a|Enchantment Spell Power +2, Eternal Charm (2)

15th|Mindbender|
+7|
+12|
+9|
+14| +1 Bluff, +1 Concentration, +1 Diplomacy, +1 Hide,+3 Knowledge (The Planes), +1 Sense Motive, +1 Spellcraft |Boost Spell-Like Ability|Dominate, Mindread 4/Day

16th|Mindbender|
+8|
+13|
+9|
+15| +1 Bluff, +1 Concentration, +1 Diplomacy, +1 Hide,+2 Intimidate, +2 Knowledge (The Planes), +1 Sense Motive, +1 Spellcraft |N/a|Eternal Charm (3), Push the Weak Mind 3/Day

17th|Mindbender|
+8|
+13|
+9|
+15| +1 Bluff, +1 Concentration, +1 Diplomacy, +1 Hide,+3 Intimidate, +1 Knowledge (The Planes), +1 Sense Motive, +1 Spellcraft |N/a| N/a

18th|Mindbender|
+9|
+14|
+9|
+16| +1 Bluff, +1 Concentration, +1 Diplomacy, +1 Hide,+3 Intimidate, +1 Knowledge (The Planes), +1 Sense Motive, +1 Spellcraft |Boost Spell-Like Ability|Enchantment Spell Power +4, Eternal Charm (4), Thrall
[/table]

At last, the Enslaver acquires its proper name. No longer restricted to pesting its enemies to death, it can now combine its ability to get absolutely anywhere to maximum effect.
We now cease the alternate Curses and go back to the base version. As even the most treasure laden king or what have you will interact with many mundane items, we can flit from one to the other, crushing their will save one -6 at a time until we use our Thrall or Dominate ability with all the Boost Spell-Like Ability feats at hand and seizing control of not just them, but whatever they command.
Naturally, there are spell casters. Pesky, pesky spell casters, with their foul protections and buffs! If they are present, which is quite likely, they are still susceptible to our evil tricks. They merely become the first target, after all even the most advanced wizard can’t cast if his casting stat has been reduced to 1, which basic cursing allows.
And should the use of the powers be resisted for a time, the foul Ethereal Kaorti can simply keep going, he’ll never stop being able to curse until the next day he tries the thrall power again.
Once the process is underway, it’s really a question of what the overall goals are. In the case of the Enslaver, it’s to have the Dominated kings declare war against hostile states and territories, to bleed entire nations dry through intentional military and political insanity.
But you just as easily rule as you wish, have the treasure vaults eptied, what have you.
The world is your oyster.
That also makes the highest levels the best points to play from ;-)

Suggested Equipment

Early on, a Resin Suit is a must, so that the Kaorti’s fatal weakness to reality doesn’t kill you before you get started.
In the long term, a lot of money is thankfully saved, as you don’t need to buy fancy armour or weapons, being ethereal sorts that out.
Booster items for both Charisma and Intelligence would be useful.
If you can swing competence bonus’ for Hide, that would be quite useful in evading any able to look for you in your weird state of existence.
Spellblade and later the Rod of Embassy are fantastic for stopping those pesky Banishment spells.

Build Sources

SRD
Fiend Folio
Book of Vile Darkness
Complete Arcane
Tome of Battle
Players Handbook 2
Arms and Equipment Guide

Amphetryon

2011-12-12, 07:18 PM

The Charred Charmer

http://img440.imageshack.us/img440/927/garry.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/440/garry.jpg/)
The Charred Charmer
Don't worry, I just want to talk. Now listen to my words carefully...

The Build...
Human Enchanter 3/master specialist 4/fatespinner 3/ mindbender 10
with Social Proficiency (ex) Enchanter variant from UA

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

1st|Enchanter|
+0|
+0|
+0|
+2|Bluff +4(4), Concentration +4(4), Diplomacy +4(4), Intimidate +4(4), K:Arcana +4(4), Sense Motive +4(4), Spellcraft +4(4)|Fey Heritage, Spell Focus (Enchantment)|Scribe Scroll, Summon Familiar

2nd|Enchanter|
+1|
+0|
+0|
+3|Bluff +1(5), Concentration +1(5), Diplomacy +1(5), Intimidate +1(5), K:Arcana +1(5), Sense Motive +1(5), Spellcraft +1(5)|-|-

3rd|Enchanter|
+1|
+1|
+1|
+3|Bluff +1(6), Concentration +1(6), Diplomacy +1(6), Intimidate +1(6), K:Arcana +1(6), Sense Motive +1(6), Spellcraft +1(6)|Fey Power|-

4th|Master Specialist|
+1|
+1|
+1|
+5|Bluff +0(6), Concentration +1(7), Diplomacy +0(6), K:Arcana +1(7), Prof: Gambler +4(4), Sense Motive +0(6), Spellcraft +1(7)|Skill Focus (Spellcraft)|-

5th|Master Specialist|
+2|
+1|
+1|
+6|Bluff +0(6), Concentration +1(8), Diplomacy +0(6), K:Planes +3(3),K:Arcana +1(8), Prof: Gambler +1(5), Sense Motive +0(6), Spellcraft +1(8)|-|Expanded Spellbook

6th|Master Specialist|
+2|
+2|
+2|
+6|Bluff +0(6), Concentration +1(9), Diplomacy +0(6), K:Planes +4(7), K:Arcana +1(9), Sense Motive +0(6), Spellcraft +1(9)|Greater Spell Focus (Enchantment), Spell Penetration|-

7th|Master Specialist|
+3|
+2|
+2|
+7|Bluff +1(6), Concentration +1(10), Diplomacy +0(6), K:Planes +3(10), K:Arcana +1(10), Sense Motive +0(6), Spellcraft +1(10)|-|Minor School Esoterica

8th|Fatespinner|
+3|
+2|
+2|
+9|Bluff +1(7), Concentration +1(11), Diplomacy +2(7), K:Planes +2(11), K:Arcana +1(11), Sense Motive +0(6), Spellcraft +1(11)|-|Spin Fate

9th|Fatespinner|
+4|
+2|
+2|
+10|Bluff +1(7), Concentration +1(12), Diplomacy +2(8), K:Planes +2(12), K:Arcana +1(12), Sense Motive +0(6), Spellcraft +1(12)|Greater Spell Penetration|Fickle Finger of Fate

10th|Fatespinner|
+4|
+3|
+3|
+10|Bluff +1(8), Concentration +1(13), Diplomacy +2(8), K:Planes +2(13), K:Arcana +1(13), Sense Motive +0(6), Spellcraft +1(13)|-|Spin destiny

11th|Mindbender|
+4|
+5|
+3|
+12|Bluff +1(9), Concentration +1(14), Diplomacy +1(10), K:Planes +1(14), K:Arcana +1(14), Sense Motive +2(8), Spellcraft +1(14)|-|Telepathy

12th|Mindbender|
+5|
+6|
+3|
+13|Bluff +1(10), Concentration +1(15), Diplomacy +1(11), K:Planes +1(15), K:Arcana +1(15), Sense Motive +2(10), Spellcraft +1(15)|Practiced Spellcaster|Push the weak mind 1/day, Skill Boost

13th|Mindbender|
+5|
+6|
+4|
+13|Bluff +1(11), Concentration +1(16), Diplomacy +1(12), K:Planes +1(16), K:Arcana +1(16), Sense Motive +2(12), Spellcraft +1(16)|-|Mindread 2/day

14th|Mindbender|
+6/+1|
+7|
+4|
+14|Bluff +1(12), Concentration +1(17), Diplomacy +2(14), K:Planes +0(16), K:Arcana +1(17), Sense Motive +2(14), Spellcraft +1(17)|-|Eternal Charm (1)

15th|Mindbender|
+6/+1|
+7|
+4|
+14|Bluff +1(13), Concentration +1(18), Diplomacy +2(16), K:Planes +0(16), K:Arcana +1(18), Sense Motive +2(16), Spellcraft +1(18)|Arcane Mastery|Push the weak mind 2/day

16th|Mindbender|
+7/+2|
+8|
+5|
+15|Bluff +1(14), Concentration +1(19), Diplomacy +2(18), K:Planes +1(17), K:Arcana +1(19), Sense Motive +2(18), Spellcraft +1(19)|-|Enchantment spell power +2, Eternal charm (2)

17th|Mindbender|
+7/+2|
+8|
+5|
+15|Bluff +1(15), Concentration +1(20), Diplomacy +2(20), K:Planes +1(18), K:Arcana +1(20), Sense Motive +2(20), Spellcraft +1(20)|-|Dominate, mindread 4/day

18th|Mindbender|
+8/+3|
+9|
+5|
+16|Bluff +2(17), Concentration +1(21), Diplomacy +1(21), K:Planes +2(20), K:Arcana +1(21), Sense Motive +1(21), Spellcraft +1(21)|Ability Focus (Domination)|New Class Abilities

19th|Mindbender|
+8/+3|
+9|
+6|
+16|Bluff +3(20), Concentration +1(22), Diplomacy +1(22), K:Planes +1(21), K:Arcana +1(22), Sense Motive +1(22), Spellcraft +1(22)|-|-

20th|Mindbender|
+9/+4|
+10|
+6|
+17|Bluff +3(23), Concentration +1(23), Diplomacy +1(23), K:Planes +1(22), K:Arcana +1(23), Sense Motive +1(23), Spellcraft +1(23)|-|Enchantment spell power +4, Eternal charm (4), thrall[/table]
+4 synergy bonus to diplomacy from bluff and sense motive
+5 competence bonus to diplomacy, bluff, intimidate and sense motive from Skill Boost

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

1st|3|1|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

2nd|4|2|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

3rd|4|2|1|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

4th|4|3|2|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

5th|4|3|2|1|-|-|-|-|-|-

6th|4|3|3|2|-|-|-|-|-|-

7th|4|4|3|2|1|-|-|-|-|-

8th|4|4|3|3|2|-|-|-|-|-

9th|4|4|4|3|2|1|-|-|-|-

10th|4|4|4|3|3|2|-|-|-|-

11th|4|4|4|4|3|2|1|-|-|-

12th|4|4|4|4|3|2|1|-|-|-

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

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

15th|4|4|4|4|4|3|2|1|-|-

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

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

18th|4|4|4|4|4|3|3|2|-|-

19th|4|4|4|4|4|4|3|2|1|-

20th|4|4|4|4|4|4|3|2|1|-[/table]
Level Breakdown...
Level 1-7

Fluff
'And now, get out!' A firm kick to the butt later, and Charred is kicked out of wizard school. He always abused his natural talent for enchantments, a talent he describes to his fey heritage. But it was unwise to influence his teacher by more than mundane means. On his own now, he focuses more and more on his favoured school, only to come back one day and make them change their views. Through shear spell power preferably. He ventures out to test his knowledge, and frequently manages to suggest his preferred course of action. He trains himself to perfect the art of overcomming the creature's willpower and resistance to his spells. He starts to gamble, but uses his magic when he starts to loose. Quite rapidly his name is known and is rejected from any gambling game. Another social refusal...

Crunch
Improvement of enchantment spell DC and skills prereqs. Master Specialist capstone to deny a bonus to targets from enchantments when threatened.

Level 8-10

Fluff
This new setback triggers his anger. He returns to his former school, demanding to regain his honnor. A brief battle of minds ensues, and although he feels that his enchantments were definitly powerfull enough, his teacher got away through sheer luck. This made him realize, that all his enchanting powers were not sufficient to beat luck. He diverts his attention to this aspect, and learns how to alter the flow of the universe, altering the destiny of his foes, forcing them to take their chances once more.

Crunch
Improvement of enchantment spell DC, overcome spell resistance and force reroll from target. Continue to max out social skills. Fatespinner capstone allows +3DC/day and reroll 1/day of enemy roll, probably a succesful Will save.

Level 10-20

Fluff
With all his bases covered, he greatly enjoys to instill thoughts and suggestions, he even manages to communicate telepathicly. But that's not enough. Real power is to own another creature's mind. Powerfull creatures preferably. His former teacher poses no longer a challenge, but those beings from other planes might. And all along, he increases his enchantment skill so that he can charm morevictims. It all goes so easy.... He forsakes his advancement as magician to concentrate more on permanently enchant. At his pinnacle, his manages to overcome the will and spellresistance of the might Pit Fiend, one of the most powerfull creatures he can call from another plane. Without effort, he permanently dominates this creature, and with it, goes back to school one last time...

Crunch
Mindbender improves enchantments even further. Capstone is permanent Dominate wich can be reliably applied (see notes below). Even the Pit Fiend or Solar Angel can only save from Dominate by rolling 20 on Will save. Fatespinner can force a reroll, making it 1/400 that it can escape a permanent Dominate.
Also Diplomacy is maxed (+32 without items) to persuade on a mundane way and also Sense Motive has +23 bonus to make the 25DC check to sense enchantments. After all, it would be silly if you couldn't.
Power wise, well, pay up the scroll of Greater Planar Binding, but instead of engaging in a CHA battle, just permanently Dominate your calling. Your caster level doesn't get to lvl 9 spell, but there are monsters to do that for you. Don't forget the 4 permanently charmed monsters at your disposal as well.
Chef's notes

The Enchanter variant is a perfect match for Mindbender entry. I realise that this might be obvious, and thus hope that anyone else avoids this option.
The build suffers from loss of caster levels, and I try to remedy with a reliable domination. With DC 41 for Dominate and no problem to overcome 32 spellresistance, this should be enough to permanently dominate some 20 caster level monsters who will do the casting for you. I wanted to complete the fatespinner PrC because the -10 on saves would be great, but alas...

DC Dominate
- Fey Power (CM): +1 DC for enchantment spells
- Ability Focus (MM3) (Dominate): +2 DC
- Spell Focus (Enchantment): +1 DC
- Greater Spell Focus (Enchantment): +2 DC
- Fatespinner (CA): +3 DC (1/day)
- Enchantment Spell Power: +4DC
- Headband of Intellect: 36000gp, +6 INT
Total: 19 + 9(INT) + 13 = 41

DC Charm: 14+9(INT)+ 11 = 34

to overcome 32 spellresistance:
- Caster level 15
- Practiced Spellcaster: +4 CL
- spell penetration: +2
- greater spell penetration: +2
- Arcane Mastery (CA): take 10
Total result = 33

Ingredients

Complete Mage: Fey Heritage, Fey Power, Master Specialist
Complete Arcana: Fatespinner, Mindbender, Practiced Spellcaster
Monster Manual 3: Ability Focus
Unearthed Arcana: Social Proficiency ACF

Amphetryon

2011-12-12, 07:20 PM

Sir Daenmoor Dreslyth, the Domineering Draconic Dabbler of Despair- LE Human Marshal 1/Paladin of Tyranny 3/Dragonfire Adept 6/Mindbender 10
http://download.xbox.com/content/images/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d802415487d9/1033/screenlg3.jpg

You don't have to be afraid anymore. Just crawl back into your happy place, and let me into your head...

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

1st|Marshal 1|
+0|
+2|
+0|
+2|Bluff 4, Diplomacy 4, Intimidate 4, Sense Motive 4, Spot 4, Listen 4|Skill Focus: Diplomacy, Bind Vestige, Dilate Aura|Minor Aura: Determined Caster

2nd|Paladin of Tyranny 1|
+1|
+4|
+0|
+2|Bluff 4, Concentration 1, Diplomacy 5, Intimidate 4, Knowledge: Religion 1, Listen 4, Sense Motive 5, Spot 4|-|Aura of Evil, Smite Good 1/day, Detect Good

3rd|Paladin of Tyranny 2|
+2|
+5|
+0|
+2|Bluff 4, Concentration 2, Diplomacy 6, Intimidate 4, Knowledge: Religion 2, Listen 4, Sense Motive 6, Spot 4|Improved Bind Vestige|Divine Grace, Deadly Touch

4th|Paladin of Tyranny 3|
+3|
+5|
+1|
+3|Bluff 4, Concentration 3, Diplomacy 7, Intimidate 4, Knowledge: Religion 3, Listen 4, Sense Motive 7, Spot 4|-|Aura of Despair, Divine Health

5th|Dragonfire Adept 1|
+3|
+7|
+1|
+5|Bluff 5, Concentration 4, Diplomacy 8, Intimidate 5, Knowledge: Religion 4, Listen 4, Sense Motive 8, Spot 4|Dragontouched|Least Invocations, Breath Weapon 1d6

6th|Dragonfire Adept 2|
+4|
+8|
+1|
+6|Bluff 6, Concentration 5, Diplomacy 9, Intimidate 6, Knowledge: Religion 5, Listen 4, Sense Motive 9, Spot 4|Entangling Exhalation|Breath Effect, Scales +2

7th|Dragonfire Adept 3|
+4|
+8|
+2|
+6|Bluff 7, Concentration 6, Diplomacy 10, Intimidate 7, Knowledge: Religion 5, Listen 5, Sense Motive 10, Spot 4|-|Breath Weapon 2d6

8th|Dragonfire Adept 4|
+5|
+9|
+2|
+7|Bluff 8, Concentration 7, Diplomacy 11, Intimidate 8, Knowledge: Religion 5, Listen 6, Sense Motive 10, Spot 5|-|Dragonkin

9th|Dragonfire Adept 5|
+5|
+9|
+2|
+7|Bluff 9, Concentration 8, Diplomacy 12, Intimidate 9, Knowledge: Religion 5, Listen 7, Sense Motive 10, Spot 6|Draconic Aura- Power|Breath Weapon 3d6, Breath Effect

10th|Dragonfire Adept 6|
+6/+1|
+10|
+3|
+8|Bluff 10, Concentration 9, Diplomacy 13, Intimidate 10, Knowledge: Religion 5, Listen 8, Sense Motive 10, Spot 7|-|Damage Reduction 2/Magic, Lesser Invocations

11th|Mindbender 1|
+6/+1|
+12|
+3|
+10|Bluff 11, Concentration 10, Diplomacy 14, Intimidate 11, Knowledge: Religion 5, Listen 8, Sense Motive 10, Spot 7|-|Telepathy

12th|Mindbender 2|
+7/+2|
+13|
+3|
+11|Bluff 12, Concentration 11, Diplomacy 15, Intimidate 12, Knowledge: Religion 5, Listen 8, Sense Motive 10, Spot 7|Mindsight|Push the Weak Mind 1/day, skill boost

13th|Mindbender 3|
+7/+2|
+13|
+4|
+11|Bluff 13, Concentration 12, Diplomacy 16, Intimidate 13, Knowledge: Religion 5, Listen 8, Sense Motive 10, Spot 7|-|Mindread 2/day

14th|Mindbender 4|
+8/+3|
+14|
+4|
+12|Bluff 14, Concentration 13, Diplomacy 17, Intimidate 14, Knowledge: Religion 5, Listen 8, Sense Motive 10, Spot 7|-|Eternal Charm (1)

15th|Mindbender 5|
+8/+3|
+14|
+4|
+12|Bluff 15, Concentration 14, Diplomacy 18, Intimidate 15, Knowledge: Religion 5, Listen 8, Sense Motive 10, Spot 7|Flyby Attack|Push the Weak Mind 2/day

16th|Mindbender 6|
+9/+4|
+15|
+5|
+13|Bluff 16, Concentration 15, Diplomacy 19, Intimidate 16, Knowledge: Religion 5, Listen 8, Sense Motive 10, Spot 7|-|Enchantment spell power +2, Eternal Charm (2)

17th|Mindbender 7|
+9/+4|
+15|
+5|
+13|Bluff 17, Concentration 16, Diplomacy 20, Intimidate 17, Knowledge: Religion 5, Listen 8, Sense Motive 10, Spot 7|-|Dominate, Mindread 4/day

18th|Mindbender 8|
+10/+5|
+16|
+5|
+14|Bluff 18, Concentration 17, Diplomacy 21, Intimidate 18, Knowledge: Religion 5, Listen 8, Sense Motive 10, Spot 7|Ability Focus: Dominate|Eternal Charm (3), Push the Weak Mind 3/day

19th|Mindbender 9|
+10/+5|
+16|
+6|
+14|Bluff 19, Concentration 18, Diplomacy 22, Intimidate 19, Knowledge: Religion 5, Listen 8, Sense Motive 10, Spot 7|-|-

20th|Mindbender 10|
+11/+6/+1|
+17|
+6|
+15|Bluff 20, Concentration 19, Diplomacy 23, Intimidate 20, Knowledge: Religion 5, Listen 8, Sense Motive 10, Spot 7|-|Enchantment spell power +4, Eternal Charm (4), thrall[/table]

The Story So Far
The Weeping Knight is a cruel, cruel man.

His sad eyes drip tears; stories say he weeps one tear for each victim his campaign of fear and despair has claimed.

Daenmoor Dreslyth, the Weeping Knight. He leads a band of murderers and thieves. His armor is blue and black and gold. He marches towards the villages; he will be here soon.

The Whisperer in Darkness is a sly, sly man.

His honeyed words drip into the ears of the mighty, and bring them under his heel.

Sir Daenmoor Dreslyth, the Whisperer in Darkness. He has the ear of the Duke, they say. He tells such incredible lies and they become the truth.

The Wrathful General is a fierce, fierce man.

His hellish flames burn from his mouth and scorch the skin of those who would oppose him.

Duke Daenmoor Dreslyth, the Wrathful General. He flies above the battlefield, breathing his rage and his pain out over the enemy. His helm is a dragon's skull, but the fire is his own.

The Watchful Advisor is a powerful, powerful man.

His mind is not only his mind; it is the king's mind. It is his wife's mind. It is their subject's minds. It is my mind.

It is your mind, too.

Ability Scores
Str 8
Dex 8
Con 16
Int 12
Wis 10
Cha 18 (23 ending)

All bonuses gained from leveling go into Cha.

With higher point-buy, add a few points to Dex. It'll increase Daenmoor's AC and his initiative score.

Invocations and Breath Effects
------------------
LEAST INVOCATIONS
------------------
Beguiling Influence
Deafening Roar
------------------
LESSER INVOCATIONS
------------------
Charm
Draconic Flight
------------------
GREATER INVOCATION
------------------
Baleful Geas
------------------
BREATH EFFECTS
------------------
Lightning Breath
Weakening Breath

Concept and Execution
The general idea behind Daenmoor is very similar to the role of Grima Wormtongue, out of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Daenmoor has incredible charisma and social skills, allowing him to place himself literally at the right hand of a king, emperor, sultan, general, prime minister, or even all five simultaneously. Once he has installed himself as advisor, he proceeds to either push the weak mind and get them to do what he wants, or he'll just outright eternal charm/dominate them. Should he ever be discovered, Daenmoor is more than capable of surviving combat and relying on his enthralled slaves to do the fighting for him, while he aids them by flying above and blasting the area with an entangling breath weapon.

Basics and Tactics
Miscellaneous abilities: Minor Aura: Determined Caster, Draconic Aura: Presence, Bound Vestige: Focalor

The purpose behind this rather eclectic (And almost 100% SAD) build is to provide a player with a wide variety of options that synergize nicely. These abilities include loads of social skills, auras, Vestiges, spell-like abilities, and even a breath weapon! Daenmoor begins with one level of Marshal, which grants a minor aura. For this build, I opted for Determined Caster, which provides a bonus on checks to defeat Spell Resistance equal to Daenmoor's Cha modifier, helping Daenmoor affect foes with his Mindbender abilities that might normally shrug them off. Which aura a player would select for this build depends largely on what their party makeup is. Next, Daenmoor moves into Paladin of Tyranny. This gives Cha to saves, but perhaps more importantly, it grants Daenmoor the Aura of Despair ability. Whenever enemies are within 10ft of him, they take a -2 on all saves, which makes them more vulnerable to his Mindbender abilities, as well as being more susceptible to his breath weapon. Aura of Despair stacks with the Aura of Sadness granted by binding Focalor, resulting in a -4 penalty to saves for each enemy adjacent to him, but only a -2 to each enemy within 10 ft. However, with the Dilate Aura feat, Daenmoor can double the range of any of his auras.

After he has what he wants from Paladin of Tyranny, he moves into the meaty part of the build: Dragonfire Adept! Thanks to Entangling Exhalation, Daenmoor can be a very effective battlefield control expert, as well as the party face because of his high Cha and max or near-max ranks in the 4 big social skills: Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate, and Sense Motive. While still pursuing Dragonfire Adept levels, Daenmoor picks up a fourth aura; this time, a Draconic Aura. For this build, I chose Presence, which gives us a further bonus on social rolls. Thanks to the Dragontouched feat that Daenmoor gets from his first level of Dragonfire Adept, this Aura will scale in power as he levels. The same thing applies to this aura as to the minor Marshal Aura: A player might choose a different aura for this build depending on party makeup. I recommend the Senses draconic aura in conjunction with the Marshal's "Motivate Wisdom" aura for a scout-like build. Once Daenmoor moves into Mindbender levels, he focuses on using his social skills to get close (literally and figuratively) to people in power, then enthralling them to do his will.

Getting into Mindbender is the easiest thing in the world. He grabs the Charm invocation at 6th level, and has all of the skills necessary by 1st level. Dragonfire Adept really is a perfect class to get into this secret ingredient. Mindbender advances casting every other level. Though Daenmoor has no casting ability, he still benefits from this feature; his caster level for all of his invocations will increase, as will his breath weapon damage and his number of invocations. At 20th level, his invocation caster level is 11, his breath weapon damage is 6d6, and he has 5 invocations known.

Daenmoor is surprisingly unsquishy for a casty-type. Marshal and Dragonfire Adept both have D8 hit die, and Paladin of Tyranny gives d10 HD. Assuming averge results on hit die, Daenmoor has 136 HP before even using any items that boost his Con score. Also, nothing Daenmoor does incurs spell failure chance. Therefore, thanks to his Paladin levels, he can wear heavy armor if he should so choose. His saves are crazy high as well, due in part to good Fort and Will for 17 of his 20 levels. Divine Grace only stacks this even higher.

This entire build is focused around the idea that you should be able to defeat enemies without killing them yourself. You've got tons of ally-boosting abilities, Entangling Exhalation, Suggestion as a spell-like ability, social skills out the wazoo, and the ability to permanently bind a stronger creature to your will. If all else fails, have whatever gigantic smashy-killy death machine you've got enthralled kill your enemies. If he needs help, breathe entangling radioactive fire at the enemies. As I've said, this build doesn't mess around in giving you options.

The target of your Dominate ability isn't really that important. Take whoever you need to do whatever job you need to do. With an easily-obtained Charisma score of 37 (18 + 5 levels + 3 age + 6 item + 5 tome) by level 20, your Dominate DC is 34 (19 + 2 [ability focus] + 13 [Cha mod]), meaning that (assuming Daenmoor was foolish enough to stand next to one) a Balor would have to roll a 19 to save, and Daenmoor pierces its SR without having to roll.

Use of Secret Ingredient
Mindbender has a feat tax associated with it's first granted ability: Mindsight. 100ft telepathy is cool and all, but detecting anything with an Int score inside of that range? Incredible. This build is not at all a front-line fighter, and as such requires the unique addition of Mindbender.

Telepathy is useful for communicating with whatever strongman-type you have enthralled, and Mindsight is just crazy useful all-around. Push the weak mind allows Daenmoor to influence the actions of big scary things that might otherwise get a bit hostile, and thereby further avoid straight-up fights.

Perhaps the most interesting ability a Mindbender possesses is Eternal Charm. While it does not allow you full control over a creatures actions, it's the only instance of a permanent Charm effect that I know of. Considering that the capstone ability for this class allows you to have four charmed creatures and one Dominated one permanently, you effectively net an entire party, assuming you have the social skills necessary to influence the eternally charmed individuals (which, not unintentionally, Daenmoor has).

Useful Items
Daenmoor needs Charisma to the exclusion of everything but Constitution. Get him a +4 Con item, and he'll be fine. Belt of Battle is useful, as it allows him to use his breath weapon twice in one turn. Initiative boosters are also helpful, seeing as his Dex score is abysmal.

Adaptation
If Dragon Magazine material is available, use the Magic-Blooded template for additional Cha. If you want to focus less on auras and more on save depletion, swap out the first level of Marshal for Hexblade (CW) instead! Although illegal for this contest, Leadership is so perfect for Daenmoor it isn't even funny. He already gets a party of five, and Leadership turns it up to eleven.

Sources
Complete Arcane- Mindbender, pg 55
Dragon Magic- Dragonfire Adept, pg 25; Draconic Aura, pg 16
Races of the Dragon- Entangling Exhalation, pg 101
Miniatures Handbook- Marshal, pg 12
Tome of Magic- Bind Vestige/Improved Bind Vestige, pg 73; Focalor (Vestige), pg 31
Unearthed Arcana- Paladin of Tyranny, pg 54
Lords of Madness- Mindsight, pg 126
Fiendish Codex II: Tyrants of the Nine Hells- Dilate Aura, pg 83
Monster Manual 1- Flyby Attack/Ability Focus, pg 303

Amphetryon

2011-12-12, 07:25 PM

Part 1 of 2:

Lydia deVrey, Voice of terror, voice of charm

CN Female half-elf Bard 5/Mindbender 10/Nightmare Spinner 5

Build

Ability Scores, 32 point buy
{table=head]Ability|Base|Levels|Total|Mod

Strength|8|0|8|-1|

Dexterity|13|0|13|+1|

Constitution|14|0|14|+2|

Intelligence|14|0|14|+2|

Wisdom|10|0|10|+0|

Charisma|17|5|22|+6| [/table]

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

1st|Half-elf bard substitution 1|
+0|
+0|
+2|
+2|Bluff 4, Diplomacy 4, Gather Information 4, Intimidate 2(CC), Knowledge (arcana) 2, Perform (chanting) 4, Sense Motive 4, Spellcraft 2, Use Magic Device 4|Sociable Personality|Bardic music, bardic knowledge, soothing voice, fascinate, inspire courage +1

2nd|Bard 2|
+1|
+0|
+3|
+3|Bluff 5, Diplomacy 5, Gather Information 5, Intimidate 2(CC), Knowledge (arcana) 3, Perform (chanting) 5, Sense Motive 5, Spellcraft 3, Use Magic Device 5|-|-

3rd|Bard 3|
+2|
+1|
+3|
+3|Bluff 6, Diplomacy 6, Gather Information 6, Intimidate 3(CC), Knowledge (arcana) 2, Perform (chanting) 6, Sense Motive 6, Spellcraft 4, Use Magic Device 6|Melodic Casting|Inspire competence

4th|Bard 4|
+3|
+1|
+4|
+4|Bluff 7, Diplomacy 7, Gather Information 7, Intimidate 3(CC), Knowledge (arcana) 4, Perform (chanting) 7, Sense Motive 7, Spellcraft 4, Use Magic Device 7|-|-

5th|Bard 5|
+3|
+1|
+4|
+4|Bluff 8, Diplomacy 8, Gather Information 8, Intimidate 4(CC), Knowledge (arcana) 4, Perform (chanting) 8, Sense Motive 8, Spellcraft 4, Use Magic Device 8|-|-

6th|Mindbender 1|
+3|
+3|
+4|
+6|Bluff 9, Diplomacy 9, Gather Information 8, Intimidate 4, Knowledge (arcana) 5, Perform (chanting) 8, Sense Motive 9, Spellcraft 4, Use Magic Device 8|Captivating Melody|Telepathy

7th|Mindbender 2|
+4|
+4|
+4|
+7|Bluff 10, Diplomacy 10, Gather Information 8, Intimidate 4, Knowledge (arcana) 5, Perform (chanting) 9(CC), Sense Motive 9, Spellcraft 4, Use Magic Device 8|-|Push the weak mind 1/day, skill boost

8th|Mindbender 3|
+4|
+4|
+5|
+7|Bluff 11, Diplomacy 11, Gather Information 8, Intimidate 4, Knowledge (arcana) 5, Perform (chanting) 9(CC), Sense Motive 11, Spellcraft 4, Use Magic Device 8|-|Mindread 2/day

9th|Mindbender 4|
+5|
+5|
+5|
+8|Bluff 12, Diplomacy 12, Gather Information 8, Intimidate 4, Knowledge (arcana) 5, Perform (chanting) 10(CC), Sense Motive 11, Spellcraft 4, Use Magic Device 8|Extra Music|Eternal charm (1)

10th|Nightmare Spinner 1|
+5|
+5|
+5|
+10|Bluff 13, Diplomacy 13, Gather Information 8, Intimidate 4, Knowledge (arcana) 6, Perform (chanting) 10(CC), Sense Motive 13, Spellcraft 5, Use Magic Device 8|-|Bonus spells, immunity to fear, inspire fear

11th|Nightmare Spinner 2|
+6|
+5|
+5|
+11|Bluff 14, Diplomacy 14, Gather Information 8, Intimidate 4, Knowledge (arcana) 6, Perform (chanting) 11(CC), Sense Motive 14, Spellcraft 6, Use Magic Device 8|-|Nightmare phantasm

12th|Mindbender 5|
+6|
+5|
+5|
+11|Bluff 15, Diplomacy 15, Gather Information 8, Intimidate 4, Knowledge (arcana) 6, Perform (chanting) 11(CC), Sense Motive 15, Spellcraft 7, Use Magic Device 8|Practised Spellcaster|Push the weak mind 2/day

13th|Mindbender 6|
+7|
+6|
+6|
+12|Bluff 16, Diplomacy 16, Gather Information 8, Intimidate 4, Knowledge (arcana) 6, Perform (chanting) 12(CC), Sense Motive 15, Spellcraft 7, Use Magic Device 8|-|Enchantment spell power +2, eternal charm (2)

14th|Mindbender 7|
+7|
+6|
+6|
+12|Bluff 17, Diplomacy 17, Gather Information 8, Intimidate 4, Knowledge (arcana) 6, Perform (chanting) 12(CC), Sense Motive 17, Spellcraft 7, Use Magic Device 8|-|Dominate, mindread 4/day

15th|Mindbender 8|
+8|
+7|
+6|
+13|Bluff 18, Diplomacy 18, Gather Information 8, Intimidate 4, Knowledge (arcana) 6, Perform (chanting) 13(CC), Sense Motive 17, Spellcraft 7, Use Magic Device 8|Lyric Spell|Eternal charm (3), push the weak mind 3/day

16th|Mindbender 9|
+8|
+7|
+7|
+13|Bluff 19, Diplomacy 19, Gather Information 8, Intimidate 4, Knowledge (arcana) 6, Perform (chanting) 13(CC), Sense Motive 19, Spellcraft 7, Use Magic Device 8|-|-

17th|Mindbender 10|
+9|
+8|
+7|
+14|Bluff 20, Diplomacy 20, Gather Information 8, Intimidate 4, Knowledge (arcana) 6, Perform (chanting) 14(CC), Sense Motive 19, Spellcraft 7, Use Magic Device 8|-|Enchantment spell power +4, eternal charm (4), thrall

18th|Nightmare Spinner 3|
+9|
+9|
+8|
+14|Bluff 21, Diplomacy 21, Gather Information 8, Intimidate 4, Knowledge (arcana) 6, Perform (chanting) 14(CC), Sense Motive 21, Spellcraft 9, Use Magic Device 8|Extra Music (2)|Spirit chill

19th|Nightmare Spinner 4|
+10|
+9|
+8|
+15|Bluff 22, Diplomacy 22, Gather Information 8, Intimidate 4, Knowledge (arcana) 9, Perform (chanting) 14(CC), Sense Motive 22, Spellcraft 9, Use Magic Device 8|-|-

20th|Nightmare Spinner 5|
+10|
+9|
+8|
+15|Bluff 23, Diplomacy 23, Gather Information 8, Intimidate 4, Knowledge (arcana) 11, Perform (chanting) 14(CC), Sense Motive 22, Spellcraft 11, Use Magic Device 8|-|Deadly nightmare[/table]

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

1st|2/4|-|-|-|-|-|-|

2nd|3/5|0/2|-|-|-|-|-|

3rd|3/6|1/3|-|-|-|-|-|

4th|3/6|2/3|0/2|-|-|-|-|

5th|3/6|3/4|1/3|-|-|-|-|

6th|3/6|3/4|2/3|-|-|-|-|

7th|3/6|3/4|2/3|-|-|-|-|

8th|3/6|3/4|2/4|0/2|-|-|-|

9th|3/6|3/4|2/4|0/2|-|-|-|

10th|3+1/6|3+1/4|2+1/4|0+1/2|-|-|-|

11th|3+1/6|3+1/4|3+1/4|1+1/3|-|-|-|

12th|3+1/6|3+1/4|3+1/4|2+1/3|-|-|-|

13th|3+1/6|3+1/4|3+1/4|2+1/3|-|-|-|

14th|3+1/6|3+1/4|3+1/4|2+1/4|0+1/2|-|-|

15th|3+1/6|3+1/4|3+1/4|2+1/4|0+1/2|-|-|

16th|3+1/6|3+1/4|3+1/4|3+1/4|1+1/3|-|-|

17th|3+1/6|3+1/4|3+1/4|3+1/4|1+1/3|-|-|

18th|3+1/6|3+1/4|3+1/4|3+1/4|2+1/3|-|-|

19th|3+1/6|3+1/4|3+1/4|3+1/4|3+1/4|0+1/2|-|

20th|4+1/6|3+1/4|3+1/4|3+1/4|3+1/4|1+1/3|-|[/table]
*The +1 at each level after 9th is from Nightmare Spinner's bonus illusion spell each spell level.
*Bonus spells from high Charisma not included.

Spells known:
In order of acquisition:
0: Daze, detect magic, prestidigitation, read magic, flare, lullaby
1: charm person, grease, cause fear, silent image
2: mask of the ideal, scare, hold person, suggestion (to be swapped with tongues at level 16)
3: fear, major image, haste, charm monster
4: modify memory, greater invisibility, dominate person, hold monster
5: mind fog, persistent image, song of discord

Debut – Level 1

NEW SINGER AMAZES
The Baldur’s Gate Conservatorium has a new soloist, Lydia deVrey, and she does not disappoint. The young debutante has a truly remarkable voice, a far lower pitch than one expects from such a petite frame, and she uses it to full extent. Her music ranges from calming, to fascinating, to downright inspiring at times. It appears she has already ingratiated herself with the patrons of the arts, but one does not begrudge her that privilege. She is truly set to become a star.
--Excerpt from Baldur’s Gate Herald, Arts & Entertainment page

New girl keeps bothering me with questions about our sponsors. Very distracting. Tell her to keep her nose to herself.
--Scribbled note from Mistress Janice Tersicore, Manager of Baldur’s Gate Conservatorium, to Bertram Halloway, conductor of same

Level 1 bard. Not much to say here. Will be doing typical bardy things. Primarily a support character, weapons not a strong focus. Perhaps crossbow for occasional use. Half elf race, substitution level, Perform usage (chanting [can be swapped for oration without any problems]) and feat (Sociable Personality) mainly picked for flavour. Soothing voice, which mimics a calm emotions spell on a Diplomacy check, will be used only slightly more often than countersong, but should stay relevant during her whole career. Sociable Personality, which allows a reroll on every Diplomacy and Gather Information check, will see situational use. Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate, Perform, Sense Motive and UMD maxed. Should act at a respectable face of the party from level one, especially in conjunction with Sociable Personality. Concentration not important at low levels, will not be necessary in conjunction with next feat picked.

Departure – Level 5

STAR SOLOIST RETIRES
It is with heavy hearts that we report that the star performer of the Baldur’s Gate Conservatorium, Miss Lydia deVrey, has decided to retire from the entertainment circuit. When asked about her decision, she replied that she “is considering going into commerce”, and that she “already ha(d) a few ideas of how to start”.
As regular readers would know, her voice and talent has been a big attraction these past few years. She frequently held private performances for the city’s leading persons, regardless of rumours floating around about her activities. She will be sorely missed at the Conservatorium, and we wish her best of luck in her future endeavours.
--Excerpt from Baldur’s Gate Herald, Arts & Entertainment page

To all members and business partners,
Allow me to welcome our new agent to the consortium. Some of you may recognise Mme. deVrey from her performances at the music hall, where she had been feeding us information for quite some time now. She will be joining us in a more direct capacity from this time forward. She will act as information broker and informant liaison for some of our business associates, and will report directly to me.
--Confidential memo to senior members of the Knights of the Shield, from Baldur’s Gate chapter head Lord Mortimer Imbraevar

Still full bard. Still in support mode, and still respectable face. Focusing on Bluff/Diplomacy. Melodic Casting feat allows spell concentration checks made with Perform instead, which allows for more Charisma SADness. Perform check of +12 (without items) versus DC 17 to concentrate on highest level spell casting. Not great, but getting there. Spell selection focuses more on enemy debuffing than party buffing. Will be exiting bard from here on and never looking back.

Advancement – Level 10

ATTENTION
All inhabitants of Woodrow, Tanner Street, Slough and Shade Street boroughs:
Please be advised there have been some disappearances and strange sightings at night recently. The Watch is currently investigating the incidents. The victims appear to have been tradesmen and unaffiliated merchants. Residents are advised to stay in their homes at night, and non-guildsmen are asked to be especially careful.
--Notice posted by the Athkatla City Watch

TRADING CONSORTIUM GROWS RAPIDLY
The Fairwinds Trading Consortium, having only opened its doors a few months ago here in Woodrow trading district in Athkatla, has been growing at an alarming rate. Even a few local independent traders have opted to attach themselves to the Fairwinds name, in many cases seemingly at a greatly reduced profit return. When asked to comment, guildmistress Lydia deVrey said, “the consortium offers a better option for many small businessmen. Those that are smart enough to see that are welcome to join.” Interviews with these businessmen all include a mention of the guildmistress’ friendliness and charm as a major reason for joining.
--Article from Athkatla Chronicle, business page

“...like she smiles and says these nice things, but it does sommat to ya, inside, right? She makes you do things. Like that poor green bastard she’s got fawning over her.”
“They say she knows what’s in yer head, what yer thinking. It ain’t right.”
“Gives me the shivers, she does. Just being near...”
--Overheard conversation between two Knights of the Shield thugs, of the Fairwinds front

Mindbender taken for 4 levels and switched to Nightmare Spinner momentarily. The two have very similar requirements and will see a minor bit of synergy. Feats taken at this point allows bardic music to fuel spells. Captivating Melody allows a Perform check at +14 (again without Cha boosting items) against DC (15 + spell level) to use a charge of bardic music to boost DCs of enchantment/illusion spells by 2. Extra music grants 4 more uses of bardic music. At this point, an average of 2 bardic music checks per encounter is possible. As for spells, debuffing is still the order of the day. Caster level has unfortunately taken a knock at this point (CL7). Figment spells are mostly situational at this point. Suggestion/charm should see some use out of combat.Mask of the ideal is great for social interactions. Skills focus on Diplomacy, Bluff, Sense Motive and Gather Information. Mindbender’s skill boost, which gives a bonus of +2 (at this point) to Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate (not used) and Sense Motive, allows slightly better chance of successful use of these skills. UMD has unfortunately been left in the dust, as Mindbender allows for very few skill points and Perform is cross-class from level 5 on. As for class features; Lydia at this point has 100ft telepathy which, if the DM agrees, can be used for Perform checks (where the focus on chanting/oratory comes in), somewhat negating silence effects. She is also immune to fear, which is very useful. She gains an extra illusion spell slot per spell level, which will come in useful later. Once per day she can use a similar effect to suggestion against DC 17. Twice per day she can read surface thoughts, against DC 16. She is also able to put a single creature under a permanent charm, against DC 18. She can also emulate a shaken effect for one round 7 times per day at DC 15, which stacks with any fear spells, and lowers saves against other class features. (Again, all DCs are ignoring bonuses from items) This is where the minor synergy comes in. She uses her (admittedly minor, at this point) fear effects in order to charm better. She charms by fear, in effect. This is also where her focus on Diplomacy and Bluff comes in. She takes great care to sway her charmed subjects to her side, so that they will serve her loyally no matter what she asks. If this is successful, they may even stay loyal after the charm wears off. In effect, she gains a sort of a cohort at this point. Melee-focused characters are most useful for now.

Sweet Spot – level 12

The sweet spot is probably at level 12. At this point, two levels of Nightmare Spinner has been picked up before returning to Mindbender, and the feat at this level, Practised Spellcaster, bumps caster level to maximum again. Bluff and Diplomacy stays maxed, and Perform, unfortunately cross-class, is boosted enough to stay relevant. Charisma is boosted one point to 20, which boosts all Cha-based abilities by one point. Nightmare phantasm allows a stacking fear effect for every figment or glamer spell cast which the enemy attempts a save against, without save, 8 times per day, which is where the extra illusion spell slots come in handy. This stacks with inspire fear, which now lasts for 2 rounds. Thanks to mind read, the Mindbender can, to paraphrase the Nightmare Spinner fluff, “find out the subject’s deepest fears and show it to him” which, if DM allows, translate into a very minor boost to the fear DC, which in turn allows charm and suggestion effects to take hold easier.

Growth – Level 15

“Another point of interest is the guildmistress herself. She seems to have a much more direct hand in the runnings of the business than is normal for one of her position. Potential clients and even rivals are brought before her regularly. What is discussed there I have not yet been able to ascertain, but most if not all swear allegiance to her soon afterwards. Rumours of her going missing for nights on end I have also not been able to verify. I have also heard whisperings that she might be connected to the Knights of the Shield, a secretive organisation dedicated to controlling all trade in Amn, by any means necessary. This bears investigating.
An interesting bit of gossip I have been able to extract from those few guildmembers willing to talk is the nature of her talents. It is said she is able to see a person’s deepest fears, and then show it to him. Fearmongering is very much the method of business, it seems. Even stranger, for some reason this translates into an almost fanatical level of devotion to her. She has surrounded herself with a bevy of advisors, or possibly thugs for protection, I am never sure. She is frequently seen with a great brute of a man, who seems to obey her every whim slavishly. Something seems off about it. I will try to insinuate...”
--Unfinished, unforwarded report by Jerald Marleeuw, private investigator in the employ of Lord Erwin Thaver of Athkatla

My Lord,
The meddling investigator has been dealt with. He will bother us no more. My agents are very thorough. I have visited the inquisitive lord myself, and he has been... placated. Suffice to say we have a new ally in our venture.
The business goes well. Soon we will have the major share of trading businesses in Athkatla, and the rest will have no choice but to obey. The strength of the Knights grows daily in Amn. My spies and informants tell me our rapid growth in this country has mostly gone unnoticed, and has been attributed to my business sense. If they only knew.
Your servant, Lydia deVrey.
--Encoded missive from Lydia deVrey to Lord Mortimer Imbraevar

Levels in Mindbender are now taken again. The biggest changes at this level is the addition of enchantment spell power which, in addition to Captivating Melody’s DC boost, makes enchantment spells such as charm, dominate and hold person much harder to resist, especially in conjunction with fear effects. 24-hour dominate also makes an appearance, at DC 24. This translates in effect into permanent dominate, as dominated subjects can, subject to DM fiat, be ordered to fail subsequent will saves. Again, melee capability is preferred, but if it can be arranged somehow, a dominated arcane caster would make a powerful ally. At this point, three permanent charms are possible, giving the Mindbender four potential allies, which can be asked to do anything with liberal applications of Diplomacy/Bluff, which hovers at a bonus of +29/+27 without any bonuses from magic or items.
Fear debuffing in combat makes use of fear spells, nightmare phantasm (no save) and inspire fear (DC 17). Haste is also used to buff allies. The feat taken at this level, Lyric Spell, allows uses of bardic music to be burnt to fuel spells. Unfortunately only 9 uses of bardic music are available, so it is more of an emergency back-up at this point.

Part 2 of 2:

Reveal – Level 20

SHOCK! NOTABLE NOBLE FOUND MURDERED
Lord Mortiber Imbraevar, a prominent leading figure here in Baldur’s Gate, was found dead in his townhouse last night, apparently of a heart attack. Lord Imbraevar headed up a large merchant’s conglomerate spanning many cities. It is assumed control of this group will fall to his protégé, lady Lydia deVrey. Reports of the Fire Knives being involved remain unconfirmed. The Watch have declined to comment.
--Front page of the Baldur’s Gate Enquirer

“Master, it is done. I have followed all your orders as you commanded all these years. I am now part of the inner circle of the Knights. No-one suspects a thing. Soon, your will shall be done. Soon, this group shall be burnt to ash, and soon everyone shall know the dread name of Cyric! The world shall fall into chaos, just as you demanded. All hail the great Cyric!”
--Prayer of Lydia deVrey, devotee of Cyric

Mindbender is finished out, and then Nightmare spinner. At level 17, a permanently dominated thrall can be acquired. Thanks to the relatively high dominate DC of 25+magic enhancements, the Mindbender can go out and dominate the biggest, meanest bodyguard she can find. And if I read the thrall wording right, she can still dominate another creature once every 24 hours, effectively giving her two thralls. Four eternal charms are now possible, kept in line with use of Diplomacy and Bluff, and periodic uses of Sense Motive and mind read. She is now in effect a relatively successful diplomancer/minionmancer. From Nightmare Spinner she gets spirit chill that causes nonlethal damage for every fear effect, which is admittedly sub-par at level 18, but every bit helps, especially from stacking fear effects. Deadly nightmare which kills on a failed will save against DC 21 three times per day at level 20 is an acceptable capstone, especially against a low will creature already targeted by fear effects. Spells like mind fog and song of discord, boosted with Captivating Melody, allows for debuffing in combat in conjunction with fear effects. Modify memory was also chosen to work in conjunction with charm effects, in order to make permanent allies after the charm effects wear off. This allows for a much larger network of (out of combat) allies than Mindbender allows for. The feat taken at level 18, Extra Music, boosts bardic music to 13 times per day and simply allows for more uses of Lyric Spell and Captivating Melody.

Some ending figures:
End Diplomacy: +23 +5 (skill boost) +6 (Cha bonus) +2 (half-elf) +4 (synergy) = +40 base. Sociable Personality allows reroll
End Bluff: +23 +5 (skill boost) +6 Cha bonus = +34 base
Melodic Casting: Perform check +20 instead of Concentration for casting, against a maximum DC of 20 for a level 5 spell. Automatic success.
Captivating Melody: Perform check +20 against a maximum DC of 20 for a level 5 spell for +2 DC to enchantment/illusion spells. Automatic success.
Push the weak mind: DC 19 will save or suggestion
Mindread: DC 18 will save or read surface thoughts
Eternal charm: DC 20 will save or charmed permanently
Inspire fear: DC 21 will save or shaken for 5 rounds.
Nightmare phantasm: shaken for 1 round on casting of figment/glamer spell which triggers a save, no save
Dominate: DC 25 will save or dominated for 24 hours
Thrall: one permanent dominate
Spirit chill: nonlethal damage based on level of fear
Deadly Nightmare: DC 21 will save or death or panicked on save.

Useful equipment:
Above statistics does not include any magic items or boosts. Obviously charisma boosting items would be very welcome. A cloak of charisma +6 and even a tome of charisma +4 (depending on DM fiat and availability) would be well within WBL guidelines. A circlet of persuasion would also be very handy. Due to the action-heavy nature of the character’s features, a lesser metamagic wand of quicken, and later a moderate metamagic wand of quicken, to be used to cast spells fuelled by nightmare phantasm, would be a great help. Thanks to bard casting, a mithral breastplate for protection would be useful, as well as other protection items such as an amulet of natural armour and ring of protection, but not vital.

Notes:
This character stays in the support role its whole career, but is relatively versatile thanks to its minions, which can be swapped relatively easily if certain roles need to be filled. Released charm subjects would likely stay friendly thanks to use of Bluff, Diplomany and the modify memory spell. She would unfortunately suffer greatly against anything immune to mind-effecting spells and abilities or to fear; as would any Mindbender, but luckily her minions should be able back her up in that case. With no minions, should that happen, she would be forced to rely on her fear effects and other debuffs. She is also slightly vulnerable to silence effects, but the telepathy feature of Mindbender and the absence of instrument usage for Perform checks circumvent that vulnerability somewhat.

Bardic knowledge is not utilised in this build, at least not from level 6 on. As I did not want to use more resources, I did not swap to bardic knack, which admittedly would also not see much use. I also mostly stayed within PHB parameters with my spell selections, with the exception of mask of the ideal, which is a useful spell for this character for use on charmed subjects. The Spell Compendium has many more useful spells, but I am content with my selection.

I did not include a mention of the Dark Dreamers, the organisation behind the Nightmare Spinners according to Complete Mage, in my framing story. I believe a Mindbender's mind reading tricks is enough justification to delve into the study of nightmares. However, the character's backstory could be altered to include them fairly easily.

Resources:

Complete Mage: Melodic Casting, Captivating Melody, Nightmare spinner PrC, mask of the ideal spell
Races of Destiny: Half-elf bard substitution level, Sociable Personality
Complete Adventurer: Extra Music, Lyric Spell
Complete Arcane: Practised Spellcaster, Mindbender PrC
Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting and Lords of Darkness: details of framing story. No concrete material used.

Amphetryon

2011-12-12, 07:27 PM

Boone carefully unwrapped his spyglass. He would need it on the journey ahead. Ever since finding it, everything had started going right for once.

The spyglass was smart. It had seen Boone’s talent, seen his ambition. Boone was just a navigator - an excellent navigator, the best navigator in all the land - but he had the potential to be so much more. After finding it, he just knew that his luck had changed, and that he would be captain within a week. He couldn’t tell anyone how he knew it, but he knew it.

Three days later, after that poor first officer went mad and tossed the captain and second officer overboard, Boone found himself finally in charge of a ship. Although he wore black to show he was in mourning, he was privately elated - this had been his lifelong dream, finally realized! And he knew that it was his lucky spyglass that had made this happen.

Now it was time for another journey, across the deadly Dragonstooth Sea. The crew was anxious and pleaded with him to change his mind, but Boone knew that this was what he had to do. It was his spyglass who suggested it, and his spyglass was never wrong.

Yes, his spyglass had started speaking to him lately, in a voice only he could hear. It spoke softly, and said its name was Anjelica. Anjelica! What a name for the blessed spyglass that had changed his life. She even began appearing before him at night. The spyglass told Boone that he was to travel across the Dragonstooth Sea and find the general of the White Kingdom’s army. Boone didn’t know why he was going, but he knew to trust Anjelica, even if it meant losing the ship. He would always trust her. She was his friend...

Anjelica, Unholy Scion

Unholy Scion (LA +5) Human, Dread Necromancer 1/Spellthief 2/Fiend of Possession 2/Mindbender 10

STARTING STATS: Str 8/Dex 12/Con 14/Int 10/Wis 12/Cha 18
STATS AFTER UNHOLY SCION TEMPLATE: Str 8/Dex 14/Con 14/Int 16/Wis 14/Cha 22

The Build:

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

1st|Dread Necromancer 1|
+0|
+0|
+0|
+2|Bluff 4 ranks, Hide 4 ranks, Intimidate 4 ranks, Know (arcana) 4 ranks, Diplomacy 2 ranks, Sense Motive 2 ranks|Trickery Devotion, Improved Initiative|Charnel touch, rebuke undead, charm person 3/day

2nd|Spellthief 1|
+0|
+0|
+0|
+4|Bluff 5 ranks, Intimidate 5 ranks, Hide 5 ranks, Know (arcana) 5 ranks, Diplomacy 2.5 ranks, Sense Motive 2.5 ranks, Spellcraft 4 ranks||Sneak attack +1d6, steal spell, trapfinding

3rd|Spellthief 2|
+1|
+0|
+0|
+5|Bluff 6 ranks, Intimidate 6 ranks, Hide 6 ranks, Know (arcana) 6 ranks, Diplomacy 3 ranks, Sense Motive 3 ranks, Spellcraft 5 ranks, Speak Language 3 ranks|Practiced Spellcaster (Dread Necromancer)|Detect magic, spellgrace +1, steal spell effect, desecrate 1/day

4th|Fiend of Possession 1|
+1|
+2|
+2|
+7|Bluff 7 ranks, Intimidate 7 ranks, Hide 7 ranks, Sense Motive 4 ranks, Diplomacy 5 ranks||Ethereal form, possess object, hide presence

5th|Fiend of Possession 2|
+2|
+3|
+3|
+8|Bluff 8 ranks, Intimidate 8 ranks, Hide 8 ranks, Sense Motive 6 ranks, Diplomacy 6 ranks||Curse, magic item, enervation 1/day, protection from good 3/day

6th|Mindbender 1|
+2|
+5|
+3|
+10|Bluff 9 ranks, Intimidate 9 ranks, Hide 9 ranks, Diplomacy 8 ranks|Mindsight|Telepathy

7th|Mindbender 2|
+3|
+6|
+3|
+11|Bluff 10 ranks, Intimidate 10 ranks, Hide 10 ranks, Diplomacy 10 ranks||Push the weak mind 1/day, skill boost, major image 3/day, poison 3/day

8th|Mindbender 3|
+3|
+6|
+4|
+11|Bluff 11 ranks, Intimidate 11 ranks, Hide 11 ranks, Know (arcana) 6 ranks, Diplomacy 11 ranks||Mindread 2/day

9th|Mindbender 4|
+4|
+7|
+4|
+12|Bluff 12 ranks, Intimidate 12 ranks, Hide 12 ranks, Know (arcana) 7 ranks, Diplomacy 12 ranks|Dark Speech|Eternal charm (1), dominate person 1/day, baleful polymorph 1/day

10th|Mindbender 5|
+4|
+7|
+4|
+12|Bluff 13 ranks, Intimidate 13 ranks, Hide 13 ranks, Know (arcana) 8 ranks, Diplomacy 13 ranks||Push the weak mind 2/day

11th|Mindbender 6|
+5|
+8|
+5|
+13|Bluff 14 ranks, Intimidate 14 ranks, Hide 14 ranks, Know (arcana) 9 ranks, Diplomacy 14 ranks||Enchantment spell power +2, eternal charm (2), animate dead 1/day, true seeing 3/day

12th|Mindbender 7|
+5|
+8|
+5|
+13|Bluff 15 ranks, Intimidate 15 ranks, Hide 15 ranks, Know (arcana) 10 ranks, Diplomacy 15 ranks|Master Spellthief|Dominate, mindread 4/day

13th|Mindbender 8|
+6/+1|
+9|
+5|
+14|Bluff 16 ranks, Intimidate 16 ranks, Hide 16 ranks, Know (arcana) 11 ranks, Diplomacy 16 ranks||Eternal charm (3), push the weak mind 3/day, unholy aura 3/day, unhallow 1/day

14th|Mindbender 9|
+6/+1|
+9|
+6|
+14|Bluff 17 ranks, Intimidate 17 ranks, Hide 17 ranks, Know (arcana) 12 ranks, Diplomacy 17 ranks||

15th|Mindbender 10|
+7/+2|
+10|
+6|
+15|Bluff 18 ranks, Intimidate 18 ranks, Hide 18 ranks, Know (arcana) 13 ranks, Diplomacy 18 ranks|Boost Spell-Like Ability|Enchantment spell power +4, eternal charm (4), thrall, harm 1/day[/table]

Spellcasting:

Dread Necromancer Spells per day
{table=head]Level|1st|2nd|3rd|4th|5th|6th|7th|8th|9th

1st|3|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

2nd|3|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

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

4th|3|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

5th|3|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

6th|4|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

7th|4|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

8th|5|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

9th|5|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

10th|6|3|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

11th|6|3|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

12th|6|4|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

13th|6|4|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

14th|6|5|3|-|-|-|-|-|-

15th|6|5|3|-|-|-|-|-|-[/table]

The Background

Many thieves begin their scandalous careers early in life, but none as early as Anjelica. Her ignominious start began in the womb, when she stole her mother’s heart - and her sanity.

Those were dark and evil days, but Anjelica’s parents, Kyla and Minno, were a rare beam of light and hope. Their love and goodness was incorruptible, much to the chagrin of the fell demon Lilitu. When unable to turn either soul, Lilitu decided to go for easier game, and possessed the small and fragile spirit not yet born, growing in Kyla’s belly.

Her presence warped and changed the unborn Anjelica, who grew a terrible hunger and greed alongside her preternatural intelligence. She spoke to her mother from the womb, convincing her she was blessed by angels. Her mother refused to listen to the priests who attempted to exorcise the cruel demon, and eventually escaped to give birth alone.

Once born, Anjelica developed quickly. She was a small thing, seemingly fragile, but she had hidden the strength and resilience of a demon. She could be sweet, even caring, but that hunger, that desire to possess everything around her, could not be quenched.

Anjelica was not interested in hoarding money or shiny baubles. Her desire was to steal away minds, and love, and magic, and even wrest life itself away from the hands of the gods. She abhorred being around people she did not control, so she built her own friends, taking corpses and animating them with stolen breath. She filled people’s minds with lies and enchantments, and surrounded herself with friends. She coveted magic, which she would hide away for her own purposes.

Greedier than any dragon, Anjelica hoarded her lost and wayward souls. She had no desire to be seen or touched. She had no desire to be recognized. She only wanted to own you, to control you, to push you to your limits. She would hide away, masking her presence in some trinket, and see how far she could push her toys before they broke.

Continue on your merry way. Perhaps you are a free man, thinking your own thoughts. But perhaps Anjelica has stolen your mind, too....

Build Explanation

Anjelica has quite a lot of tools in her arsenal, and would make an extraordinarily effective NPC, or PC in higher-powered games.

In general, she takes advantage of the fact that while possessing objects, she is very difficult to find or attack, but still can perform any solely mental action - including using telepathy and spell-like abilities.

She avoids directly attacking people whenever possible, preferring to use her minions - animated corpses and those that she has charmed. She is a competent necromancer, primarily using her daily Animate Dead SLA to create mindless bodyguards alongside Desecrate and Unhallow. She can control 4x her HD of these through the ability alone, and can expand on that number considerably via Command Undead. She also has access to unlimited healing on undead via Charnel Touch.

That said, her main tactic is to possess an object, and carefully convert minions. Her Mindbender-granted telepathy, alongside the mindsight feat, take away two of the biggest downsides to possessing an object. With these, she can sense and telepathically communicate with any creatures around her. Mindread also gives her the ability to find out more about those in contact with her possessed item.

Once she finds a target, she uses “push the weak mind” to implant suggestions that make him think that the item she is possessing is lucky or valuable. With this, she gradually encourages them to become dependent upon this item, and convinces them to either serve her in some way or, in very special cases, to become a permanent part of her - in other words, someone valuable enough to be eternally charmed or dominated.

When she needs to show a physical form, rather than leaving the object she is possessing, she uses trickery devotion to create a false double. If she wants to soften up particularly valuable enemies, she will turn herself into a cursed item that penalizes their Will save or hit them with an enervation.

She particularly likes to control spellcasters, and steals their spells and spell effects to greatly increase her own versatility.

That said, she is by no means a one trick pony. In addition to the necromancy and mindbending, she has quite a lot also going for her:

She’s incredibly hard to kill - spell resistance, damage reduction, Charisma to AC, fast healing, and the ability to go Ethereal at will, as well as being able to use the Hide skill (which she keeps maxed despite it being cross-class for Mindbender) to avoid some alignment-based attacks.
She can turn items magical or curse items.
She is trained in Dark Speech, which she primarily uses to destroy objects, but also gives her a number of other powerful abilities, including being able to form a hivemind out of vermin or animals.
She has spectacular social skills, between a sky-high Charisma and the Mindbender’s skill boost.
She can steal both spells and spell effects, which she primarily uses on her thralls and minions to expand her casting and defenses.
She can double as an excellent scout, with etherealness, mindsight, a maxed out Hide skill, the ability to hide in objects, and the ability to create distractions.
She has several non-mind effecting ways of attacking (beyond just having her undead or charmed minions attack for her), including baleful polymorph, enervation and harm.

The Secret Ingredient: Mindbender

In general, the reason people tend to dislike Mindbender as a class is because of the question, “What does Mindbender do that those five lost caster levels couldn’t do better?”

Anjelica finally has an answer to that question. The Fiend of Possession has several very potent abilities, but one significant drawback - when possessing an object or creature, it is restricted from taking anything but purely mental actions. This means that any spellcasting with a verbal, somatic or material component is out completely, and even simple things like communication turn challenging.

Mindbender offers a clean solution to that, which augments and expands Anjelica’s abilities considerably. Right off the bat, the long-range telepathy that Mindbender provides is absolutely huge, and also opens the door for the mindsight feat (which takes care of another of FoP’s drawbacks). Mindbender also provides several key abilities as SLAs; without the ability to implant suggestions or read minds while possessing an object, this build’s main tactics would not work. The dominate ability that mindbender provides is actually far superior to the one she gets from being an unholy scion, as it effects far more creatures and has a significantly better range. And the eternal charm ability simply cannot be duplicated elsewhere.

As for the other abilities, they all have a place in the build. The half-casting progression gives her access to Command Undead, which helps her break her cap on animating the dead, and also improves her Master Spellthief abilities. The skill boosts more than make up for having fewer skill ranks. The enchantment spell power boosting is incredible if it applies to her SLAs, but even if it does not, she has access to every 4th-level and below enchantment spell on the sorcerer/wizard list via spell trigger items thanks to her Spellthief levels, as well as a few spells on the Dread Necromancy list (such as Crushing Despair).

Level by Level Breakdown

ECL 6 - Human Unholy Scion, Dread Necromancer 1

This is when Anjelica is at her most fragile, thanks to her low hit die. However, her damage reduction, Charisma to AC, fast healing and spell resistance go a long way toward keeping her alive. Anjelica avoids direct combat, hiding and using trickery devotion to draw away attacks until she can successfully charm her opponents.

ECL 10 - Human Unholy Scion, Dread Necromancer 1/Spellthief 2/Fiend of Possession 2

By ECL 10, Anjelica is already impossibly hard to kill. Whenever she is threatened, she goes ethereal and drops underground until she is healed completely via fast healing (and uses mindsight to stay aware of enemies even when she does not have line of sight to them). She buffs herself with Protection from Good, and if she is forced into combat, she distracts with trickery devotion, manifests, and attacks with Charnel Touch plus sneak attack, stealing spells if possible. However, she far prefers to stay hidden in objects, use trickery devotion to make them think she is somewhere else, and silently charm or enervate her opponents from afar.

ECL 15 - Human Unholy Scion, Dread Necromancer 1/Spellthief 2/Fiend of Possession 2/Mindbender 5

At these high levels, Anjelica rarely ever manifests physically unless she is attempting to steal a spell/spell effect or needs to use Dark Speech. She has a permanent thrall via eternal charm, plus attempts to keep others controlled via dominate person, charm person, and the push the weak mind abilities. She has additional offensive potential for those who cannot be controlled mentally, thanks to effects such as baleful polymorph and enervation. She can transfer her senses to the double she creates with trickery devotion while remaining safely ensconced in an object.

ECL 20 - Human Unholy Scion, Dread Necromancer 1/Spellthief 2/Fiend of Possession 2/Mindbender 10

By ECL 20, Anjelica has four eternally charmed, a thrall, plus two other dominate effects, giving her seven long-term companions. She creates undead with no material cost and can control 45 HD of them, plus what she can master via Command Undead. She adds some new defensive spells such as Death Ward to her retinue, and her maxed out Hide skill lets her avoid most of the few negative effects that can actually target her when possessing things. She is extraordinarily persuasive and impossibly hard to kill, contain, or control.

Sources

TEMPLATES / CLASSES / PRESTIGE CLASSES
Unholy Scion - Heroes of Horror p155
Dread Necromancer - Heroes of Horror p84
Spellthief - Complete Adventurer p13
Fiend of Possession - Fiend Folio p204
Mindbender - Complete Arcana p54

FEATS
Trickery Devotion - Complete Champion p63
Practiced Spellcaster - Complete Arcane p82
Mindsight - Lords of Madness p126
Dark Speech - Book of Vile Darkness p48
Master Spellthief - Complete Scoundrel p79
Boost Spell-like Ability - Book of Vile Darkness p47

Adaptations

If LA Buyoff from Unearthed Arcana is allowed, it should absolutely be taken advantage of. If that is the case, Anjelica should continue her levels in Fiend of Possession, giving her the ability to animate objects and possess creatures.

Also, both Mindbender and Spellthief list having psionic variations. If this is the case, revamping this as a psionic build would add even more potency. If this is allowed, it might be worth looking into replacing Dread Necromancer with Wilder, and using Psionic Spellthief and Psionic Mindbender. Taking away the Dread Necro spell list would mean that her necromancy would be significantly delayed, as she could not supplement her animate dead SLA with scrolls, but would still be a very viable option.

Amphetryon

2011-12-12, 07:29 PM

Illustrious Senator Alden Graildark

Lesser Aasimar – Lawful Neutral – Marshal 6 / Fatemaker 4 / Mindbender 10

Image
http://i40.tinypic.com/n3ojsi.jpg
Backstory
”Ah, Senator Haladrath, please come in, and make yourself comfortable,” smiled Senator Graildark.

The gruff visitor gave him one of those smiles that could just as easily have been a scowl, and glanced past his host to the atrium beyond. Warm sunlight illuminated a sculpted garden complete with fountains and caged exotic birds, and attended by several uncommonly attractive servants. He took a seat at the small table of fresh fruit on the patio while his two bodyguards stood behind him, and he declined the drink offered to him by the servant girl.

“I’m not here for honeyed words or drinks, Graildark,” the senator barked. “So no distractions and no staging anything, just tell me what this “compromise” of yours entails.”

“I must confess,” said Senator Graildark, sliding into the chair opposite his colleague, “it is a BIT staged, but nothing out of the ordinary. A peaceful setting to free the min from distractions, and a few of our hard working young citizens to remind us who it is we’re really doing this for.”

“Pegasus puckey,” spat Senator Haladrath. “You have your business interests and I have mine. Now how am I going to profit from your offer?”

The distaste at his guest’s concern barely registered in the corner of Alden’s smile. A quick mental command to one of the exotic birds near Senator Haladrath resulted in a loud and sudden series of mating calls. His guests and bodyguards momentarily distracted, the briefest of gestures by the mindbender went unnoticed, and Senator Haladrath’s eyes glazed over just slightly.

“Serena, be a dear and feed the birds now, will you? I think the scent of the snacks you laid out have them a bit riled.”

As the servant girl tended to the birds, Senator Graildark continued.

“Now perhaps you can tell me more about your business interests and what… interests them, then we can figure out how to work that into my modest proposal,” he smiled knowingly.

…

For eight generations, the Aasimar of the Graildark family had been stalwart champions of the Republic, fighting in it’s wars, serving in high office, and generally upholding the valor of the nation. But many said that the fire had gone out of their family, that its celestial blood had thinned, and that they were naught but bluebloods anymore. Certainly nothing more was expected of the “lesser” aasimar that passed for Graildarks in recent years.

It was to this climate of lowered expectations that Alden Graildark was born. He grew up hearing tales of the family’s honor and greatness, underscored with the knowledge that everyone said those days were long past. He became determined, driven, to prove his worth, and that of his family, and his actions, while not evil, had a tinge of desperation and ruthlessness about them. So his family did what any aristocrats do with a troubled child… they sent him away to military school.

Once there, he learned unit tactics, and the value of teamwork. Secretly, to him they were all just resources to be used for the benefit of all. Still, he excelled at it and showed great aptitude for leadership, and he was from a noble family, so a junior officer commission was his for the taking.

He returned from foreign wars well respected by many and rich in rightfully earned plunder and bonuses, but it was the arcane lore of the mind that was his true treasure. By careful manipulation, he got himself added as a military advisor to an aged senator in good standing with the Republic, then bided his time as he worked his way up in the man’s confidence, as well as making many sidewalk speeches and personally handing great gifts and donations to the citizenry. By the time the old senator decided he was too infirm to complete his term of office, it was a small matter to convince his mentor’s inner circle that Alden Graildark would serve as an acceptable steward of the office until a successor could be elected in the next cycle.

That left the junior senator two years to make his mark upon the people and the senate at large. He championed causes popular and sensible, all in the name of his now-departed mentor. Those who disagreed with him would be invited to semi-private gatherings where they could discuss their positions without the need to grandstand to an audience. And one by one, his critics would change their minds, often reversing course and supporting Alden’s legislation instead, all to the accolades of the grateful populace that had been cultivated these past years.

By the time he was elected to his sixth term in office, Alden Graildark was bestowed the unique honorarium of Illustrious Senator, which essentially meant he would continue to serve until someone voted him OUT of office instead of into it. For the rest of his years, Senator Graildark continued to be praised for being so accessible to ANYONE with a grievance or strong objection to the policies of His Republic. And always he would work out an acceptable compromise, if not outright sway them to his way of thinking.

He was the Republic, and the Republic was He. All praise the Illustrious Senator, greatest hero of the House of Graildark, long may he guide our nation.
The Build

{table=head]Level|STR|DEX|CON|INT|WIS|CHA
lvl 1|12|12|12|12|10|20 – 32 point buy
lvl 4|12|12|12|12|10|21
lvl 7|12|12|12|12|10|22
lvl 8|12|12|12|12|10|23
lvl 12|12|12|12|12|10|24
lvl 16|12|12|12|12|10|25
lvl 20|12|12|12|12|10|26 [/table]
{table=head]Level|Class|BAB|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Skills|Feats|Class Features

1st| Marshal 1|
+0|
+2|
+0|
+2| Bluff 4, Diplomacy 4, Intimidate 4, Knowledge (Nobility) 4, Sense Motive 4| Combat Expertise| Skill Focus (Diplomacy), Minor Aura (Master of Tactics)

2nd| Marshal 2|
+1|
+3|
+0|
+3| Bluff 5, Diplomacy 5, Intimidate 5, Knowledge (Nobility) 5, Sense Motive 5|-| Major Aura +1 (Motivate Care)

3rd| Marshal 3|
+2|
+3|
+1|
+3| Bluff 6, Diplomacy 6, Intimidate 6, Knowledge (Local) 1, Knowledge (Nobility) 5, Sense Motive 6|Allied Defense| Minor Aura (Motivate Charisma)
4th| Marshal 4|
+3|
+4|
+1|
+4| Bluff 7, Diplomacy 7, Intimidate 7, Knowledge (Local) 2, Knowledge (Nobility) 5, Sense Motive 7|-| Grant Move Action (1/day)

5th| Marshal 5|
+3|
+4|
+1|
+4| Bluff 8, Diplomacy 8, Intimidate 8, Knowledge (Local) 3, Knowledge (Nobility) 5, Sense Motive 8|-| Minor Aura (Determined Caster), Major Aura +1 (Resilient Troops)

6th| Marshal 6|
+4|
+5|
+2|
+5| Bluff 9, Diplomacy 9, Intimidate 8, Knowledge (Local) 5, Knowledge (Nobility) 5, Sense Motive 9| Negotiator | -
7th| Fatemaker 1|
+4|
+5|
+4|
+7| Bluff 10, Diplomacy 10, Intimidate 8, Knowledge (Local) 7, Knowledge (Nobility) 5, Sense Motive 10, skill trick (social recovery)|-| Take Charge Appeal

8th| Fatemaker 2|
+5|
+5|
+5|
+8| Bluff 11, Diplomacy 11, Intimidate 8, Knowledge (Local) 9, Knowledge (Nobility) 5, Sense Motive 11, spellcraft 2, skill trick (social recovery)|-| Condfidence of the Fated (1/day)
9th| Fatemaker 3|
+6|
+6|
+5|
+8| Bluff 12, Diplomacy 12, Intimidate 8, Knowledge (Local) 10, Knowledge (Nobility) 6, Sense Motive 12, spellcraft 4, skill trick (social recovery)|Practiced Spellcaster| Sneak Attack +1d6

10th| Mindbender 1|
+6|
+8|
+5|
+10| Bluff 13, Diplomacy 13, Intimidate 8, Knowledge (Local) 10, Knowledge (Nobility) 6, Sense Motive 13, spellcraft 4, skill trick (social recovery)|-| Telepathy

11th| Mindbender 2|
+7|
+9|
+5|
+11| Bluff 14, Diplomacy 14, Intimidate 8, Knowledge (Local) 10, Knowledge (Nobility) 6, Sense Motive 14, spellcraft 4, skill trick (social recovery)|-| Push the Weak Mind (1/day), Skill Boost

12th| Mindbender 3|
+7|
+9|
+6|
+11| Bluff 15, Diplomacy 15, Intimidate 8, Knowledge (Local) 10, Knowledge (Nobility) 6, Sense Motive 15, spellcraft 4, skill trick (social recovery) |Charming| Mindread (2/day)

13th| Mindbender 4|
+8|
+10|
+6|
+12| Bluff 16, Diplomacy 16, Intimidate 8, Knowledge (Local) 10, Knowledge (Nobility) 6, Sense Motive 16, spellcraft 4, skill trick (social recovery)|-| Eternal Charm (1)

14th| Mindbender 5|
+8|
+10|
+6|
+12| Bluff 17, Diplomacy 17, Intimidate 8, Knowledge (Local) 10, Knowledge (Nobility) 6, Sense Motive 17, spellcraft 4, skill trick (social recovery)|-| Push the Weak Mind (2/day)

15th| Mindbender 6|
+9|
+11|
+7|
+13| Bluff 18, Diplomacy 18, Intimidate 8, Knowledge (Local) 10, Knowledge (Nobility) 6, Sense Motive 18, spellcraft 4, skill trick (social recovery)|Combat Charm|Enchantment Spell Power +2, Eternal Charm (2)

16th| Mindbender 7|
+9|
+11|
+7|
+13| Bluff 19, Diplomacy 19, Intimidate 8, Knowledge (Local) 10, Knowledge (Nobility) 6, Sense Motive 19, spellcraft 4, skill trick (social recovery)|-| Dominate, Mindread (4/day)

17th| Mindbender 8|
+10|
+12|
+7|
+14| Bluff 20, Diplomacy 20, Intimidate 8, Knowledge (Local) 10, Knowledge (Nobility) 6, Sense Motive 20, spellcraft 4, skill trick (social recovery)|-| Eternal Charm (3), Push the Weak Mind (3/day)

18th| Mindbender 9|
+10|
+12|
+8|
+14| Bluff 21, Diplomacy 21, Intimidate 8, Knowledge (Local) 10, Knowledge (Nobility) 6, Sense Motive 21, spellcraft 4, skill trick (social recovery) |Master Manipulator| -

19th| Mindbender 10|
+11|
+13|
+8|
+15| Bluff 22, Diplomacy 22, Intimidate 8, Knowledge (Local) 10, Knowledge (Nobility) 6, Sense Motive 22, spellcraft 4, skill trick (social recovery)|-| Enchantment Spell Power +4, Eternal Charm (4), Thrall

20th| Fatemaker 4|
+12|
+13|
+9|
+16| Bluff 23, Diplomacy 23, Intimidate 8, Knowledge (Local) 10, Knowledge (Nobility) 10, Sense Motive 23, spellcraft 4, skill trick (social recovery)|-| Aura of Confidence (+1) [/table]
Spells
{table=head]Level|-|1st|2nd|3rd|4th|Spells Known|CL
7|-|0|-|-|-|1(Charm Person, Sanctuary)|1
8|-|1|-|-|-|1(Disguise Self)|2
9|-|2|0|-|-|2(Daze Monster, Invisibility)|7
10|-|3|1|-|-|1(Expeditious Retreat), 2(Resist Energy)|8
11|-|3|1|-|-|.|8
12|-|3|2|0|-|3(Haste, Nondetection)|9
13|-|3|2|0|-|.|9
14|-|3|3|1|-|2(Owl’s Wisdom), 3(Tongues)|10
15|-|3|3|1|-|.|10(12)
16|-|3|3|2|0|4(Charm Monster, Stoneskin)|11(13)
17|-|3|3|2|0|.|11(13)
18|-|3|3|3|1|3(Suggestion), 4(Remove Curse)|12(14)
19|-|3|3|3|1|.|12(16)
20|-|3|3|3|2|.|13(17)
|-| [/table]
Level Highlights
Level 5– At this stage in life, Alden Graildark is a lieutenant in the army, commanding a unit of some size. His troops hit HARD (+6 to damage when flanking) and are hard to hit (+1 to +6 Armor Class) and he is a popular leader, partly for his ability to resolve disputes (total plus to Diplomacy is +31, total plus to Bluff is +25, plus 3 more once a day for either), and partly for his willingness to step back and provide real support to the REAL soldiers while they do their work… a welcome trait in a nobleman who was given an officer commission by daddy!

Level 10 – Alden has returned home to the capital from his years in the military. He’s capable and confident with his levels in Fatemaker, and he understands people. But more importantly, his path as a Mindbender indicates that he’s prepared to ignore the word “no” and make his own rules. He’s working on getting appointed to the Senate now, and he thinks that the people’s needs will be best served by having someone competent like him making policy. Getting to the bottom of his motives is difficult as well, as he can oppose rolls like nobody’s business, has a good will save, and has a true neutral alignment that virtually defies “Detect Bad Guy” spells. His total plus to Diplomacy +42, bluff +36, (plus 3 more once daily for either one) assuming no buff spells or excessive equipment (see below).

Level 15 – Sweet Spot – Alden has achieved the title of Illustrious Senator now, effectively Senator for life. He’s not in charge, but nobody around him acts without his advice due to long exposure to charms and diplomacy. His total plus to Diplomacy is +56, bluff is +48, and can add 3 once a day to either. With the Charming and Combat Charm feats under his belt, not only does he have a bonus to pushing people into doing things they wouldn’t want to do, but they don’t get a saving throw bonus for it either. When charming someone, he’ll use his Determined Caster Aura, effectively boosting his caster level to 22 for purposes of beating spell resistance.

But since appearance is everything, and the sense motive roll to see that someone is charmed is very low, Senator Graildark has a system. He will charm someone privately, converse at length with copious amounts of bluff and diplomacy, and when they are properly conditioned, he will recast his Mindbender charms on any number of exotic birds in his residence, effectively letting the victim go and relying on his skill ranks to carry the desired result forward.

Level 20 – Illustrious Senator Alden Graildark is for all intents and purposes an Emperor now. What is good for the republic is good for him, and vice versa. Those who do defy his authority will often quietly march themselves off to the dungeons of their own accord. If they are of no use to the Republic they rot there until the end of their days, but those with vital roles to fill (or documents to write) will be brought before the Senator to see the error of their ways and eventually pardoned. (Total plus to Diplomacy +69, bluff +61, plus 4 once a day, possibly much higher… see below.) He’s even better at battering through spell resistance now, with his Determined Caster Aura upping even his Dominate ability to an effective 29 to penetrate resistance, and a save against his Charms is 26, while a Dominate commands a 31.
Equipment Needs
Alden Graildark needs only two pieces of magical equipment… a Circlet of Persuasion and a Cloak of Charisma. We assume he has both by level 5 (the cloak starting at a +2 bonus), and assume he upgrades over his career to finally have an Admiral’s Bicorn and a +8 Cloak by 20th level.

Note that I do NOT assume he is taking all the possible stacking magic items that could increase his Diplomacy/Bluff skills. Just the two items. Could we squeeze more plusses out of it with skill bonus items or Potions of Glibness? Absolutely. We could stretch his Diplomacy to +80 and his Bluff to +100 by 20th level if we wanted to, but it does nothing for the character concept, it’s just [epic] icing on the cake. Likewise, other magical items are awesome to have (including rings of Wizardry, CON boosting items, all manner of defensive and evasive items, etc, etc), but they don’t make him a better mindbender, just more survivable. Let’s assume he has some of these and leave it at that.
Comments and Options
Why Marshal? – The choice to use Marshal as the base is simple. (1) It has all the required skills as class skills, (2) Mindbender provides synergy to those skills and stacks with the Marshal’s Motivate Charisma Aura, and (3) Mindbender makes for a lousy primary caster class but great for a 10 level alt-progression caster .

So that explains Fatemaker – Yup. Fatemaker is that alt casting class that fulfills the Charm Person requirement for Mindbender, and has the same skill prerequisites and requires the bonus feat that comes free with Marshal! So that’s two PrCs in the build that require no feat slots to be spent on them!

From Soldier to Skillbot Gish – this sums up the build fairly well. Early levels he’s adding significant performance to a group of companions, and while flanking damage continues to accrue (this build can actually do +12+1d6 when flanking at later levels), it’s largely abandoned in favor of Charm and Suggestion with high save DCs, high Spell Resistance penetration, and epic levels of Bluff and Diplomacy.

How Epic are we talking? – Well the build has max 23 ranks in each Bluff, Diplomacy, and Sense Motive by 20th level. And without going overboard, we’re looking at Bluff and Diplomacy near +70 by level 20. And that’s assuming no use of skill bonus trinkets and Potions to crank up the skill rolls. With those, +100 is possible.
Use of Special Ingredient
This section details how exactly this build advances each of the Mindbender’s special abilities, rather than just having them on the c-sheet.

Any Bluff/Diplomacy build by definition enjoys having Telepathy to get even the most stubborn conversationalist talking, and the Skill Boost stacks (competence) right in there with his Marshal Aura (circumstance), Confidence of the Fated (morale), and various untyped bonuses. Likewise, Push the Weak Mind is awesome for a Bluff/Diplomacy build and supercharges it, as does Mindread.

Eternal Charm is another tool for the diplomat build, and I’ve buffed up it’s performance (as well as the use of the Charm Person and Charm Monster spells he knows) by adding the Charming and Combat Charm feats. Likewise, the Enchantment Spell Power results in a caster level of 17 by the end of the build for his Charm and Suggestion spells, and combines with another Marshal Aura (Determined Caster) to really blow through Spell Resistance by the end of the build. (The Determined Caster trick also works on the Charm and Dominate spell like abilities too.)

Finally, Dominate and Thrall are not the bread and butter of a Bluff/Diplomacy character, but they make an excellent fallback strategy, and are further enhanced by the Determined Caster trick and high casting stat, making it unlikely that even something with high spell resistance can avoid it.
Source Books
{table=head]Sourcebook|Class/Race|Feats
Complete Arcane|Mindbender|-
Complete Divine|-|Practiced Spellcaster
Dragon Magazine Compendium|-|Charming, Combat Charm
Miniatures Handbook|Marshal|-
Planar Handbook|Aasimar, Fatemaker|-
Player’s Guide to Faerun|Lesser Planetouched Option|-
Players Handbook|-|Combat Expertise, Negotiator, Skill Focus
Players Handbook 2|-|Master Manipulator
Shining South|-|Allied Defense [/table]

Amphetryon

2011-12-12, 07:38 PM

Part 1 of 2

Monty Took

The Hand he's been Dealt
hexblade 5/ fatemaker1/ mindbender7/ luckstealer1/ mindbender10/ fatemaker2/ fatespinner2
Cutting the Deck
Before racial adjustments from strongheart halfling:
32 point buy
Str 8
Dex 10
Con 12
Int 12
Wis 14
Cha 18 (all stat boosts go here)

after adjustments

Str 6
Dex 12
Con 12
Int 12
Wis 14
Cha 18 (all stat boosts go here)

The (Not so) Tall Tale

Buying InFrom the day he was born, Monty Took had very bad luck. This would be bad for any up and coming young man, but it was far worse for an up and coming young halfling. People around Monty found that bad things tended to happen around him. When they invited him to a dance, the punch bowl cracked. When the boys brought him along hunting, their bowstrings would snap.

As the years wore on, the other children in his small town invited him out less and less, attracting the chastisement of their parents. After all, halflings were supposed to stick together, no matter how unlucky they might be.

While Monty was unlucky, he wasn't stupid. He could tell that being brought to parties was more of an obligation than an invitation and gradually, he began to politely decine more and more often, becoming something of a hermit as his luck grew steadily worse. With every passing day, he used his voice less and less until he could hardly remember what it sounded like.

When the time came for him to leave the nest, so to speak, there was a token ceremony showing he would be missed, but he could tell it was more out of simple politeness than genuine emotion. His parents gave him what money they could for him to go out into the world and make something of himself. Monty said he would do his best to make up for years past even though he knew it to be a lie. Fortunately for him, in the first instance of good luck he could remember, his mother believed him and sent him off with a hug.

A dark cloud that had loomed over the town that day followed Monty on his journey. He thought little of it and was prepared at this point in his life to carry an umbrella with him wherever he went. As he unfurled it, he made the decision to try to reinvent himself, to go somewhere no one knew him and he would be able to start fresh.

The capital city was somewhat far off, but it wasn't as though Monty had anywhere else to go. His journey took somewhat longer than he had anticipated. The shelters he fashioned for himself fell apart with alarming frequency, the beasts of the forest sniffed him out much more often than he would have liked, and he had a few unfortunate detours due to the sun being obscured by a bank of storm clouds, but he found his bearings eventually.

His pockets were heavy with the silver his mother had given him, the metal rubbing against his thigh through his thin trousers. Monty swallowed as he thought of his hometown, they were probably much better off without him, his mother included. He knew the gift he carried with him was freely given, but he couldn't overcome the feeling that it was more like a payment to him in exchange for leaving his hometown. He wanted to get rid of it and serendipity gave him just the way.

He was showed in past the gates of the city after being assessed not to be a threat and saw an enormous building festooned with brightly colored ribbons and banners, inviting him to "try his luck." He smirked a little. They should be more careful about what they asked for.

After explaining to the men by the door that he was indeed old enough to enter and not just a human child trying to get into the casino, he was permitted to enter. While he had been cautioned away from games of chance as a boy, it would be a lie if he said he was completely unfamiliar with the rules of dice or card games.

The temple of Olidammara had regular games of bingo for the grandparents of the community and he had traveled there on occasion with his Auntie Penny, but she never seemed to win when he was around. He had never done very well with large groups of people and felt a little claustrophobic as the seas of big folk milled around him, their purses thumping him in the face as they swung from careless hips.

He was able to get a seat at a table after convincing the croupier to procure a stool for him by showing he did indeed have money and thus great losing potential. He lay his money down and cupped the large knucklebones in both of his tiny hands. He threw them into the pit of the table and was shocked when they came up five and four. "Nina from the Marina" was what the dealer said, but Monty knew that nine was the number of Olidammara. He took his now slightly larger stack of coins and bit back a chuckle as the tallfellow by his side crapped out.

Unfortunately (a word Monty was all too used to by now) he didn't do as good a job at suppressing his laughter as he had hoped. As he was shoveling his money back into his purse, deciding he might keep it after all, the halfling's hand was on his shoulder asking him what he thought was so funny. Monty wasn't sure how to respond and found himself speechless still when the halfling drew a knife from his pocket and flicked out the blade with the click of a button.

Monty ducked under the tallfellow's too-high arm as he hopped off his stool. He was almost to the door when he tripped over the edge of his cloak. He always knew his luck would do him in one day. Monty looked at the tallfellow and swallowed, squeezing his eyes shut as he saw him throw the knife at him.

He was not prepared for what happened next. He heard a collective gasp from the people in the casino and thought it was because they were surprised at the funny little strongheart that got skewered next to the blackjack table, but he felt no white-hot pain of being stabbed. He'd had enough mishaps with the odd knife back when he was trying to help the family butcher animals to know the difference between being stuck and not being stuck. At the moment, he was most assuredly not stuck.

Monty hesitantly opened his eyes and stared out at a sea of shocked big folk filtered through a bright, rainbow colored tint. They were shying away from him as though they were afraid of him. While Monty wasn't the most studious arcane disciple, he recognized the rainbow bubble as something he had seen clerics of Olidammara wreathed in before. He murmured a quick thanks to him as he made the god's sign.

The tallfellow slowly approached, his hands trembling as he extended one to Monty. Monty winced and then understood he was trying to help him up, not finish him off. He took it gratefully and stood up. He asked the tallfellow not to kill him, his voice thick with disuse, sounding distorted by the energy field around him.

The tallfellow's expression changed almost immediately, and he put an arm around Monty's shoulder, guiding him towards the bar. He apologized and said he didn't know what had come over him, offering to buy Monty a drink. He was more than a little surprised, but nodded in agreement, not wanting to cause any more trouble.

As the pair talked, Monty learned that his new friend had come to be called Snake Eyes, because his earlier poor roll was not by any means an isolated occurrence. He told Monty that sometimes, one had to make their own luck. While the idea sounded vaguely blasphemous to him, knowing that Olidammara pre-rolled all the significant occurrences in a halfling's life and ordered the results in the most logical way, it would be a lie if he said he had never thought about it.

Monty of course asked to hear more, drawing a predatory grin from Snake Eyes. He said that he would need a small initial investment from Monty in order to buy some magical supplies that were very technical and likely beyond Monty's understanding. Monty's eyebrows nearly jumped off his head when he heard all of it would cost a hundred gold pieces. That was more money than he had ever seen in his life, and he told Snake Eyes so. He dismissed Monty's concern with the wave of a hand and said if Monty could gamble like he did today, then their financial worries would be a thing of the past in short order. He extended a hand for Monty to shake and not wanting to get stabbed, Monty complied.

Over the next few weeks, the two of them were able to amass enough wealth through games of chance to make enough money for whatever materials Snake Eyes had in mind. Monty was surprised by how friendly everyone in the city was. It seemed like he made a new friend every day, and as time wore on, his skill at the card table improved.

The day came and Snake Eyes informed him that they wouldn't be going out gambling today, that Monty had to stay in and take the next day to cast a ritual that Snake Eyes gave him a dog eared pamphlet explaining. Monty was hesitant, especially since Snake Eyes began casually cleaning under his fingernails with his knife as he talked, so quickly agreed.

The day was long, and Monty was ready to drop over from exhaustion when the final syllable had been uttered. He poured the wine into the ivory bowl that lay in front of him and rolled the solid gold six sided die into it with a gentle tip of his hand. He felt suddenly reinvigorated, albeit with fear, as the wine slithered out of the bowl and bent itself into the shape of a faceless black cat. Monty gave a squeak and the creature turned to him soundlessly and hopped onto his shoulder. He didn't feel an ounce of weight put upon himself and swallowed as he felt the heat from his skin leaching up into the thing's paws.

He slipped out of his room. He was such a lucrative regular at the casino that they had offered him indefinite lodgings with them on an informal basis with the unspoken understanding that he would continue to patronize them. He had seen no reason to turn it down. Snake Eyes's door was shut, but Monty knocked on it anyway. After a moment, Snake Eyes came to the door, a broad grin lighting up his face when he saw the thing on his shoulder. All he would tell Monty was that it would help improve their profit margin and told him to rest up for work tomorrow.

Monty went back to his room and had a hard time sleeping. Superstition had become something of a way of life for him and he didn't want to go to sleep in the same room as that shadowy beast. He was worried it would steal his breath. He took a deep breath and felt the hairs on his arms stand up as the familiar rainbow colored glow surrounded his body. To his satisfaction, the cat skittered into a corner like a cockroach, away from the light. Monty snapped a blindfold over his eyes and was able to get some shut eye before tomorrow's games.

Level 5 Up until this point, Monty's a straight hexblade. His unbelievably bad luck is him accidentally targeting himself and others with his hexblade's curse. The first thing that one learns about poker and games of chance is how to bluff, and this is reflected in his skill selection. His ranks in intimidate, rather than being a conscious effort, are a representation of the fear that he inspires in those around him because of the bad things that happen around him.

While nothing devastating has happened to him as a result of his luck, his luck feats are largely dormant for the time being. Unbelievable (which can be used in either a positive or negative way as far as adjectives go) Luck is a passive ability that protects his relatively weak reflex save and gives him 2 more luck rerolls which for the time being can only be used on Lucky Start to reroll initiative checks, which he was able to do to slip away from Snake Eyes.

Monty's selection of Entropic Shield as one of his hexblade spells is twofold. First, it affords him a greater degree of protection against ranged weapons at the low levels when they are still used with some frequency and it also gets him aware of the role of Olidammara in his life. While Arcane Disciple does give him the same spell later, it's only usable 1/day there, whereas due to his high charisma, he can use entropic shield an additional time per day as a hexblade and more times/day as his charisma gets higher.

Since he has only 5 levels of hexblade, it makes more sense for him to pick a defensive spell than an offensive one since its usefulness will not level off as he levels up.

Charm person is highly useful at low levels and will continue to be so at higher ones since all Monty needs is charisma, so the save will climb ever higher, and due to hexblade's spontaneous casting, Monty can split the difference between offensive and defensive as he sees fit. He is influencing people unconsciously with his words, his voice having fermented due to its disuse and growing more powerful, like fortified wine.

The dark companion gets around the risk of a familiar being killed and leading to lost experience. While I am a huge fan of familiars, Monty doesn't have any touch spells for a familiar to deliver and is not a particularly martial character overall due to his emphasis on mindbender despite his levels in hexblade. He also is not much of a skillmonkey (with the exception of bluff and diplomacy) so the familiar wouldn't help a ton in that regard either. The cat kind of sucks as a familiar and none of the others are very appropriate flavourwise, so it's the dark companion. Since Monty is a halfling and not a human, instead of being a panther, it is scaled down in size to being a black cat, a perennial symbol of bad luck.

Spell focus (enchantment) is more of a choice for later in game since just about every spell Monty gets that requires a save from the enemy is enchantment, so this is something of a no-brainer.

Arcane resistance makes Monty much more difficult to nail down and kill than the chart suggests. Whenever he makes a save against any spell, he applies his cha (which is maxed always) mod to the save like divine grace, even at level 1, it's +4 to all saves, which makes them much better than any normal character, and due to his almost complete single ability dependence, his cha will only get better. On top of that, his coveted mettle ability will negate additional effects on a successful fort/will save, like evasion.

Doubling Down
[spoiler]
Monty slept fitfully and awoke, as he had feared, with that horrible creature on his chest. He moved as though to push it away with his hand, but it seemed to sense his wishes and moved to perch with unnatural grace on the post of his bed.

There was a knock at the door, and Monty knew it to be Snake Eyes. Monty opened the door and saw he carried a small satchel with him, just about the right size to stuff that cat into. After a cursory inspection to make sure Monty was, in fact, in working order, Snake Eyes offered the satchel to Monty, asking him to put the beast inside. While Monty expressed his hesitation quite freely, Snake Eyes buoyed his spirits by letting him know that the thing obeyed only his commands. Monty tried it and thought how much he wanted the thing out of sight. Sure enough, it slithered into the sack and closed the lid after itself with a flick of its shadowy tail.

It was time to go to work.

Monty took his usual place at the craps table and Snake Eyes set the satchel down as inconspicuously as he could under the stool that the pit bosses knew by now to keep empty for Monty. He may have been small in stature, but as far as the casino was concerned, he was a whale, and one they didn't mind harpooning as often as possible.

The pit boss grinned at him when Monty's turn came up and he rolled the dice. A hard eight looked back at him as he stared at the felt. The rest of the table crapped out after him and despite his reputation at the casino, he could feel the rest of the players' dagger-like glares. He said he needed to take a breather. The dealer was kind enough to hand his winnings over and Snake Eyes said he would see him back at the room. He offered to carry the load of coins since by his reckoning, Monty didn't look to be in the best shape. Monty was inclined to agree and pinched at his throat. Snake Eyes suggested a Double Double at the bar, and Monty said that being laid out was just what he needed about now.

As he turned to leave the room, he could have sworn he heard Snake Eyes say that he surely wouldn't be disappointed, but when he turned to meet his gaze, Snake Eyes said and did nothing. It must have been his mind playing tricks on him. He shrugged and said that he would be back later.

Monty went to the bar to have a drink and couldn't manage to shake his nerves. He swallowed the last drops of whiskey and hoped the cat wouldn't be any trouble. He picked up the satchel and hefted it over his shoulder. To his relief, it wasn't too heavy. To his distress, it was disturbingly light. The tingling on the back of his neck told him that the cat still lurked within. His head was swimming, so he went back to the room and heard Snake Eyes packing a bag from outside the door. He closed his eyes and massaged away the blossom of a headache between his eyes, trying to find his footing, a hand against the wooden door of his room. The hallway spun around him, his knees wobbling.

He heard Snake Eyes's voice clearly, but not through the wooden door it was far too crisp for that, he heard it in his mind in a way that he could not explain, but he knew the voice well enough by now for its identity not to be suspect.

It made what he heard next all the harder. It was the sort of hushed, rushed tone that Monty murmured to himself inside his head when he was nervous and he had to reassure himself that everything was going to be all right even when he knew it wasn't. Snake Eyes was talking to himself in his head without knowing who was listening about how the poison would've run its course by now, and that by this time tomorrow he'd be out of town with as much gold as he could carry. He kept trying to convince himself he'd accounted for everything and though Snake Eyes didn't know how to put it to words, Monty felt the little cold nub of fear and worry at the base of his skull, that itching, burning feeling beneath his skin just as Snake Eyes did.

Monty felt a familiar thickness in his throat. The syrupy buildup of words that had been left to ferment far too long and had gone rotten with sickly sweetness. He ground his teeth together, his eyes clouded with tears of betrayal and slid the key into the lock as quietly as he was able, keeping his mind open to Snake Eyes's thoughts, as painful as they were to hear, about how Monty had always been just a mark to him so he could ensure that he didn't hear what Monty was doing.

The tumblers of the door's lock scraped together as they turned out of place and Monty held his breath, ensuring that he had escaped Snake Eyes's detection. After a few more thoughts Monty wished he hadn't heard, he was satisfied that he had. He pushed the door open and shut it behind him.

Snake Eyes turned around casually, smooth as ever. If Monty hadn't been inside his head the moment before, he never would have known anything was amiss. It was hard to pretend to pay attention to the song Snake Eyes was playing him when his thoughts hummed a very different tune. Monty played along and told him he wasn't feeling well, allowing himself to be laid down in bed.

Upon Monty's prompting, Snake Eyes sat on the side of the bed. Monty thought of the cat, a single word: come. It crept silently out of the satchel and slithered under the bed, just under Snake Eyes.

He told Snake Eyes, his voice tremulous with false weakness, that he knew what he had done to him and that he knew why. Snake Eyes played dumb, a jovial, familiar smile that Monty realized had been fake every time before this as well while his thoughts screamed to fight or flee, the primal noise of rushing blood reverberating in Monty's mind before Snake Eyes could form the feelings into words.

Before Snake Eyes could hiss out another lie, Monty drew himself up to his full height on the bed, standing on the mattress and putting him at roughly eye level with Snake Eyes. Before he could reach for the dagger that had started it all in a well hidden (albeit not from Monty) sheath strapped to the small of his back, Monty leapt forwards and clamped his tiny hands onto the side of Snake Eyes's head, his thumbs resting in his temples just as they had caressed the grooves of the knucklebones the two had used to roll together.

Monty kicked the knife from Snake Eyes's fingers and it clattered to the ground. Monty's concentration was broken and he lost Snake Eyes's train of thought. Not that he particularly cared at this point. By now it was just the sounds of breath and blood, pure anger before it had the chance to be committed to words, something that Monty could understand perfectly at the moment.

The cat pounced up through the mattress and alit on Monty's shoulder. He didn't have to read minds to know that Monty understood that the cat knew he had switched sides and that he would be the next target of its black magic. Monty flailed at Snake Eyes, but he was never instructed in the art of combat. Snake Eyes grabbed him by the throat and he began to see stars. Monty's too-short life began flickering before his eyes, a familiar rainbow pattern surrounding him, more by reflex than conscious effort. He remembered how he had met Snake Eyes first and tried to croak out a command, his words slipping through Snake Eyes's fingers.

Monty closed his mouth and opened his mind. He told Snake Eyes in his head to stop, and he did, his fingers loosening from Monty's throat and falling slack on the bed. Gasping for air, Monty desperately reached into Snake Eyes's mind and changed it.

At once, the murderous gleam was gone from his eye and he cradled Monty's head in the crook of his elbow, saying he didn't know what had come over him. When he begged Monty for his forgiveness, Monty neither accepted nor denied his apology, just asked for an antidote. Snake Eyes bowed his head in shame and he said he would be off to fetch some. Monty took a peek into his mind and, once he saw was telling the truth, gave him permission to leave.

Level 10
[spoiler]Mindbender Monty has now entered the secret ingredient, and it is good. While he does technically qualify at level 5, there is a very good reason for waiting until level 6 to enter.[/QUOTE]

Amphetryon

2011-12-12, 07:41 PM

Part 2:

Hexblade as a class has a number of strengths, but its casting is not one of them. 5 levels of hexblade casting on top of the 5 levels that Monty would lose from Mindbender mean that at level 15, he would have 1 1st level spell and 1 2nd level spell per day. whoop de freakin' do. Instead, by entering fatemaker, Monty gets an additional point of Charisma (his primary stat, meaning that when he gives it a bump at level 6, it hits 20, giving his saves a +5 across the board against spells and making all his fancy mindbender tricks harder to resist) and it gives its own unique spell progression which can be advanced by mindbender. The advantage of this is, hexblade doesn't get all its spells until very late since it's a 20 level class. fatemaker, on the other hand, is only 10 levels long, so despite the fact that mindbender "loses" 5 caster levels, (normally putting a 20 lvl caster class at 15/20) it puts a 10 level caster class at 5/10. that's mindbender alone. with 2 levels of fatemaker (which obviously advances its own spell progression) and 2 levels of fatespinner (which will be keyed to advance fatemaker) monty is casting fatemaker spells at a cool 9/10, only missing out on knowing "neutralize poison" which is something of an acceptable loss considering what he gets in return for it.

Survivor's luck comes online this round and in addition to more rerolls (which are always nice) it lets Monty reroll a save after he fails it. Yep, so a spell has to:
1) punch through arcane resistance
2) punch through mettle (if you don't make it)
3) punch through 2 save attempts from you

phew! good luck!

this isn't even the best trick he can do defensively, that comes later.

His mindbender things come online now and maximizing ranks in bluff and diplomacy helps him get a lot more out of those skills with his mindbender skill boost equal to 1/2 his class lvl to bluff/diplo/intimidate/sense motive.

intimidation isn't really especially viable unless one builds around it (imperious command, never outnumbered, blood-soaked intimidation, etc.) and Monty has better things to do with his feats as the next levels will demonstrate.

Mindsight is a no-brainer for a character with telepathy, and mindbender1 (as we all know by now) is one of the easiest ways to get it. this can help sniff out enemies that are hiding or invisible. it tells you what square the enemy is in, their int score, and their type, which can be a big leg-up against an opponent who was hoping to catch you off-guard. [/spoiler]

Stacking the Deck
From that day on, Snake Eyes was much more agreeable. Monty glanced into his mind less and less until he was sure that there wasn't a single seed of betrayal left in the fiendish and fertile imagination that had almost proved to be Monty's undoing.

That said, Monty did catch the odd peek of something here and there that he knew Snake Eyes didn't fully understand, just as he hadn't fully understood the cat that Monty had summoned from the nether world. When asked about it, the creature that Monty knew haunted his dreams, with its skeletal face and huge rolls of flesh, Snake Eyes would sometimes get quite flustered and have to be talked down in the honeyed, oiled voice that was becoming almost second nature to Monty.

Monty was able to sniff out what Snake Eyes was hiding from him this time with relatively little difficulty. Snake Eyes was able to procure the necessary ingredients for the ritual to summon the creature. While Monty didn't know any more than Snake Eyes did, he was reasonably certain that whatever it was that the two of them conjured, he would be able to sweet talk. His confidence in his ability had grown over time. Once he had been intimidated by Snake Eyes, but now the roles were quite definitively reversed. If he could cow this terrifying specimen of the criminal underworld, whatever unspoken terror was kicking away in his mind couldn't have been much worse.

Snake Eyes returned with the scrolls, the dice, the silver powder wrapped up in wax paper and tied with brown string like a package of toffees. He begged Monty to reconsider, but Monty changed his mind with a thought slipped into it like an ace up his sleeve. Snake Eyes traced the silver out on the floor and set to murmuring the magic words, conning the laws of space and time to pick a certain special something out of its pocket.

As Snake Eyes read the final syllables, the ink wafted from the scroll in his hands and drifted into the circle, wrapping around an invisible wireframe and forming into legs tipped with lions' feet, the spidery script crawling up to form a waist and a great, distended belly with roll upon roll of soft, saggy flesh stacking atop it like a tower of poker chips on a particularly good day. A skeletal face with a pair of tusks jutting from the sides of its jaws coalesced atop its sloping shoulders, a pair of burning red eyes swelled in their sockets like ripe cherries and the creature looked into Monty's mind.

Its jaws remained locked up tight. Snake Eyes cowered in the corner where Monty's cat lurked. A mental nod pulled the cat's shadowy paws into motion and it took its place behind the flabby creature that stood locked in the circle, deliberately crossing his path. Monty smirked at the bad luck that was about to befall it.

Despite its mouth most definitely not moving, Monty heard a presence that was not his own in his head asking for what purpose the creature had been summoned and what had taken Monty so long to figure out its angle.

Monty's telepathy had become as much a part of him as his hands or eyes, but he'd never been on the receiving end of a telepathic contact. He was slightly taken aback but answered that he was unsure as to its meaning and that he had summoned him to answer precisely what its angle was and what concern it had with Monty's fate.

It identified itself as a corruptor of fate, and said that from the day he was born, Monty had had the potential to inspire great swaths of bad luck wherever he went and that this particular corruptor by the name of Salt was tasked by his superiors to guide Monty to fulfill his full potential.

All of the events of the last few years, Monty leaving his home, his subsequent encounter with Snake Eyes, his long stint in the casino, it had all been orchestrated to get him to play into Salt's hands. A cruel smirk threatened to traverse Monty's lips, but he had enough practice by now to keep a poker face no opponent could read, demon or mortal. It was time for the tables to turn. Salt was mistaken as to whose house he was in and which of the two was the player.

The cat's tail flicked back and forth behind Salt in time with Monty's frantic thoughts. Greed bubbled through his blood like champagne. If he played his cards right, he could be more powerful than he had ever hoped before. He just had to keep Salt distracted for long enough to work his mojo on him.

What better way for the two to settle their differences than with a friendly game of poker? Monty had had Snake Eyes set up a card table and chair inside the circle so Salt could make himself comfortable, even if he was still Monty's prisoner for the time being. He may have been prepared to offer Salt a sporting chance, or at least the illusion of one, but he was no fool. He knew better than to break the circle Snake Eyes had gone through such pains setting up.

Monty took a seat at a chair he had had made for someone of his stature and cut the deck. With his mouth he said they were playing a friendly game over information, the loser would tell the winner whatever he wanted to know. Salt said he would be delighted. In their minds, a different conversation took place. Monty said that if Salt won, he could have Snake Eyes as his own and could go back to wherever he came from. If Monty won, Salt had to tell him what the plans for his future were.

While Monty expertly distracted Salt by forcing him to carry two conversations simultaneously, he figured now would be the ideal time to peek into the back of his mind, the backstage area to whatever show Salt was putting on in the forefront, what he wanted Monty to hear versus what he didn't. He found, of course, that Salt had no intention of keeping his promise, so Monty felt little pity for what he had in mind.

Hands were played, bets were met and raised back and forth, and Salt's luck began to change as Monty surreptitiously found where Salt kept his luck. Just as he could peek into his mind and see what others didn't, Monty knew where a person hid his luck. Once he could find that source,just as he could pilfer someone's thoughts, he could relieve them of their luck and slip it up his own sleeve. Monty cleared his throat and focused that little pocket of bad luck he kept in reserve for emergencies and leveled it at Salt in the form of a steely gaze. His cat nodded over Salt's shoulder letting him know that he was doing his job.

The game was over and Salt had lost. Monty broke into a grin and asked what was on Salt's agenda for today after he released him from the circle. Salt spoke freely and lied almost effortlessly to Monty's face that he was going to recommend to his superiors that Monty's luck be changed to reflect his expert handling of a bad situation. Salt's thoughts, however, let Monty know that he was going to beg for Monty's immediate termination as soon as he got the chance for the indignity of being summoned by a puny halfling to answer his insignificant little questions.

Monty swallowed and asked him if he wouldn't prefer to stay, just for a little while. He slipped this suggestion into Salt's mind so as not to spook Snake Eyes. Monty felt butterflies tickle his stomach as he waited for the response and surprisingly received one in the affirmative. A peek inside Salt's backstage let Monty know he had another bodyguard on permanent retainer. He told Snake Eyes to do away with the silver, that they wouldn't need it any longer.

Salt began to gather up the deck after a polite telepathic request from Monty. There was a lot to be said for knowing when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em.

Level 15 (sweet spot)
This is the point that the build was culminating to. All of the luck feats he has been taking give him a rather sizable luck pool. By level 15, he has 5 rerolls per day which can be used to reroll initiative (lucky start) reroll failed saves (survivor's luck) (after they have been declared failures too! which is exceptionally rare) and skill checks (make your own luck) unbelievable luck will also give you a bonus to your lowest save (ref after you start with your mindbender levels, which is nice)

while 5 rerolls per day is a lot, it's still a limitation, and Monty's all about breaking rules. On page 73 of Complete Scoundrel, there is an addendum about how the luckstealer's curse of the fatespurned ability works with luck feats. Every time you curse someone with it, you gain 2 luck points for your luckstealer pool (to a max of your cha mod, which for Monty will be a a naked +6 at this point thanks to fatemaker's take-charge appeal) they last for 1 minute

p73 says that for every 3 of these luck points you spend, you can use one of your luck rerolls from your luck feats without paying for it. yep. find enough marks to curse, suck up their luck and reroll your saves until the cows come home. between arcane resistance, mettle, survivor's luck and not having to actually count every roll of survivor's luck, if an effect has a save, you should be able to more or less laugh it off.

the 6th level of mindbender gives you your second eternal charm buddy and I picked a corruptor of fate (MMIV p 190) because thematically it fits with the whole luck motif and its abilities are really quite kickass. It's got its own telepathy, so it can communicate with you to coordinate attacks and such. it's got bestow curse at will on everything that it touches, touches it, or touches its weapons with the "50% chance of doing nothing" option. its corrupting gaze is okay, but really just gravy to make your enemies suck more. Monty's hexblade curse, curse of the fatespurned plus Salt's bestow curse and corrupting gaze will give your enemies a royally bad day. Unluck means enemies must roll atk/dmg twice against him and use the lower value. his yugoloth traits (Immunity to acid, energy drain, necromantic effects, negative energy effects, and poison, Resistance to cold 10, electricity 10, and fire 10) are also pretty awesome

Since all games are different, it's obviously not a given you'll be able to access x, y, or z specific monster, and a corruptor of fate is by no means essential to Monty's functionality. In a more general sense, Monty would do well to find a big, meaty creature that's got lots of health to protect him and enough muscle to back him up in case he has to deal with something that's immune to mind-affecting (constructs/undead/plant/etc) one with telepathy would be super because it'd give Monty the strategic advantage of not having to call his attacks like some kind of abyssal pokemon trainer (or if you're feeling really sneaky, call out one thing and do another) to confuse your enemy.

many fiends (demons, devils, and oddballs like t'anari and yugoloths, like the corruptor or fate) have telepathy as part of their SQs. most of them also have a ton of HD and really good will saves, making them difficult to summon/control, two things which aren't true of the corruptor of fate (7HD and will of +5) so he's likely to fail the save against being eternally charmed, especially if he's debuffed with curse of the fatespurned, hexblade's curse, and dark companion beforehand. his abilities are really cool too.

your push the weak mind is getting crazy now, so if there's ever anything your eternal charms are hesitant about, you can win them over, or use this on NPCs at your discretion. your DCs are getting pretty meaty at this point and your 3rd level spells come online at level 13, so you can start lobbing telepathic suggestions around. if you succeed, you just made a new friend, if you fail, no one will ever have to know.

The House Always Wins
Once he had Salt in his pocket, it was a relatively simple manner to arrange a meeting with the head of the casino and broach the issue of buying the old place out. By this time in his life, Monty had heard the old adage that the only way to succeed in the long term at games of chance was not to play, and the only way for him to do that was to become the house instead of the player.

Many of the games in the casino were slanted in favor of the house. Even with Monty's unique talents, he still couldn't say he won at blackjack more than half the time. combining the house's innate unfair advantage with his own though would make him practically unstoppable, and he was sure the owner, a greying human by the name of Dominic Ino (who was known to Monty by this point as Dom due to his many years of loyal custom) knew it, which was why when Monty had set up the meeting, he'd brought Salt along, hooded and cloaked, for a little insurance. A man of Monty's stature (in both senses of the word) needed a big, meaty bodyguard, so Dom hadn't really given Salt a second look as he waddled into the doorway and shut it after himself, standing with his sausage link arms crossed across his barrel chest.

Monty set his little satchel down in front of Dom's desk at his feet, the cat squirming and writhing within. He gave it a small kick to make sure it was close enough to work its black magic. Monty cracked open Dom's mind and leafed through it until he found what he was thinking about the deal. He found that, as usual, he wasn't being taken seriously. Dom had no intention of selling to him, but was instead wondering how to dismiss him as expeditiously as possible while keeping up the veneer of politeness that he had to when dealing with a whale of Monty's size. He couldn't afford to lose an asset like that.

Monty sighed. He was annoyed, but not surprised. Being able to look into people's minds and see what they thought of him was at once its own reward and its own punishment. No one ever said what was on their mind, and to be honest (a rarity these days) Monty seldom listened to what came out of peoples' mouths in favor of what he could glean from their minds.

He reached into his breast pocket and laid a contract down on the table, offering a not-insignicicant amount of his winnings in years past in exchange for the deed to the Double Deuce. He proffered a pen to Dom and feigned surprise when Dom held up his hand as though Monty were a waiter with unneeded bread rolls, telling him while the offer was generous, it wasn't a good time to sell.

With a telepathic equivalent of a come-hither gesture of the fingers, Monty beckoned Salt over to the desk. Salt drew back his hood and Monty could feel the joy that Salt felt seeing Dom's eyes widen in terror and could feel Salt's black heart race as Dom squeaked. Monty gave a nod and Salt grasped Dom's frail wrist in his fat, meaty palm.

Monty grinned as he sponged up the terror that the now-paralyzed Dom was feeling. His face and his muscles weren't responding to the delightful soup of fear that sloshed around in his mind.

Monty put the pen between Dom's fingers and curled his hand around the grip. He told him in his mind that if Dom wanted to be able to move around again, he would strongly suggest that he signed the deed. All he needed was for him to think yes or no.

Once Dom had capitulated, Monty tapped his fingers and told him to get to signing, which he was all too glad to do. The terms of the contract kept Dom on as chief of security since he knew all the ins and outs and in Dom's vulnerable state, he was all too receptive to being molded to Monty's design, thanking him profusely for not letting that terrible beast devour him. Salt surged with pride and Monty couldn't help but laugh.

He told Dom to get out of his office and told Salt to escort him back upstairs and delineate his new duties. Monty laid out the lucky gold die and murmured a quick thanks to Olidammara. Making his own luck had gotten him by, but it never hurt to have a whale bigger than himself in his corner, and he could think of no one better for the job than the laughing rogue himself. While Monty couldn't boast primary contact, he could still say for certain that he felt Olidammara's presence during negotiations stacking the deck in his favor.

Monty put his feet up and began ruminating on what it would be like to run the Double Deuce. Regardless of what challenges he was sure to face, he knew he liked his odds.

Level 20
By now, you've figured out the luck and fate theme that runs central to the conceit of this build. More than just an indulgence, it's a steady stacking of similar effects (namely rerolls) so that while one is not really overwhelming, 5 from his pool per day (which can, conditions permitting, be pulled off for free) in addition to his confidence of the fated ability (add his fatemaker level on an attack,damage,save, or skill roll 1/day) spin fate (add his fatespinner level onto the DC of a spell split up as he likes it 1/day) and fickle finger of fate (which allows him to make an ally or enemy reroll any roll they've just made 1/day) is quite formidable

He gets his last two eternal charms, and obviously Dom isn't any specific build or class, just the general idea of getting someone who is independently wealthy and powerful under your control so you can add their contact network to your bag of tricks. Monty has the basics essentially covered for his mini party. Snake Eyes is there as a skill monkey. Anything that has UMD as a class skill with plenty of others to spread around (so they can back you up in combat/healing with wands and help you out with scrolls) will do fine, rogue or halfling aren't required. Salt is the big meat shield that ruins everyone's day with SLAs and has decent atk/dmg. Unlimited bestow curses are nothing to be taken lightly, and cursing someone followed by dangling a remove curse (which comes online at lvl 18) can be a very useful interrogation tool.

As mentioned earlier, by having a 10 level PrC as the casting base before entering mindbender allows Monty to come much closer to full casting than would be otherwise possible. 2 levels of fatemaker give 2, 10 of mindbender give 5, and 2 of fatespinner give 2 for a total of 9 with enchantment spells (all the spells you have that actually have saves) have their CL boosted by 4 at the time you're done to cast them at a lucky 13.

Rules of the Game

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

1st|Hexblade 1|
+1|
+0|
+0|
+2|Bluff +4, Diplomacy +4, Intimidate +4|Skill Focus (Bluff), Lucky Start (+1 Luck Rerolls:1)|Hexblade's Curse 1/day

2nd|Hexblade 2|
+2|
+0|
+0|
+3|Bluff +1 (5), Diplomacy +1 (5), Intimidate +1 (5)||Arcane Resistance

3rd|Hexblade 3|
+3|
+1|
+1|
+3|Bluff +1 (6), Spellcraft 2|Unbelievable Luck (+2 Luck Rerolls: 3, +2 Luck bonus to Ref saves)|Mettle

4th|Hexblade 4|
+4|
+1|
+1|
+4|Bluff +1 (7), Spellcraft +2 (4)||Dark Companion

5th|Hexblade 5|
+5|
+1|
+1|
+4|Bluff +1 (8), Profession (Gambler) +2||Spell Focus: Enchantment (Bonus Feat) Hexblade's Cuse 2/day

6th|Fatemaker 1|
+5|
+1|
+3|
+6|Bluff +1(9), Profession (Gambler) +2 (4), Sense Motive 4|Survivor's Luck (+1 Luck Reroll: 4)|Take-charge Appeal (+1 CHA)

7th|Mindbender 1|
+5|
+3|
+3|
+8|Knowledge (Religion) 3||Telepathy

8th|Mindbender 2|
+6|
+4|
+3|
+9|Bluff +2 (11), Knowledge (Religion)+1 (4)||Push the weak mind 1/day, skill boost (Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate, Sense Motive +1)

9th|Mindbender 3|
+6|
+4|
+4|
+9|Bluff+1 (12), Profession (gambler) +2 (6) |Mindsight|Mindread 2/day

10th|Mindbender 4|
+7|
+5|
+4|
+10|Bluff +1 (13), Profession (gambler) +2 (8)||Eternal Charm (1), skill boost (+2)

11th|Mindbender 5|
+7|
+5|
+4|
+10|Bluff +1 (14), Diplomacy +1 (6), Profession (gambler) +1 (9)||Push the weak mind 2/day

12th|Mindbender 6|
+8|
+6|
+5|
+11|Bluff +1 (15), Diplomacy +2 (8)|Dallah Thaun's Luck|Enchantment spell power +2, eternal charm (2), skill boost (+3)

13th|Mindbender 7|
+8|
+6|
+5|
+11|Bluff +1 (16) Diplomacy +2 (10)||Dominate, mindread 4/day

14th|Luckstealer 1|
+8|
+6|
+5|
+13|Bluff +1 (17), Diplomacy +2 (12), Knowledge (arcana) 3, Profession (Gambler)+1 (5)||Curse of the Fatespurned, Subtle Magic

15th|Mindbender 8|
+9|
+7|
+5|
+14|Bluff +1 (18), Knowledge (arcana) +1 (4), Sense Motive +1 (5)|Make Your Own Luck (+1 Luck Reroll: 5)|Eternal charm (3), push the weak mind 3/day, skill boost (+4)

16th|Mindbender 9|
+9|
+7|
+6|
+14|Bluff +1 (19), Diplomacy +2 (14)||

17th|Mindbender 10|
+10|
+8|
+6|
+15|Bluff +1 (20), Diplomacy +1 (15), Knowledge (arcana) +1 (5)||Enchantment spell power 4, eternal charm (4), thrall, skill boost (+5)

18th|Fatemaker 2|
+11|
+8|
+7|
+16|Bluff +1 (21), Diplomacy +1 (16), Knowledge (arcana) +5 (10)|Arcane Disciple: Luck Domain (Olidammara)|Confidence of the fated 1/day

19th|Fatespinner 1|
+11|
+8|
+7|
+18|Bluff +1 (22), Diplomacy +1 (17), Disguise +1 (6)||Spin Fate

20th|Fatespinner 2|
+12|
+8|
+7|
+19|Bluff +1 (23), Diplomacy +1 (18), Disguise +1 (7)||Fickle Finger of Fate[/table]

Tricks of the Trade
Hexblade Spells per day/Spells Known
{table=head]Level|1st

1st|-|

2nd|-|

3rd|-|

4th|0/2|

5th|0/2|[/table]

Cards up your Sleeve
Lvl 1: Entropic Shield, Charm Person

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

6th|0/2|-|-|-|-|

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

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

9th|2/3|0/2|-|-|-|

10th|2/3|0/2|-|-|-|

11th|3/4|1/3|-|-|-|

12th|3/4|1/3|-|-|-|

13th|3/4|2/3|0/2|-|-|

14th|3/4|2/3|0/2|-|-|

15th|3/4|2/3|0/2|-|-|

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

17th|3/4|3/4|1/3|-|-|

18th|3/4|3/4|2/3|0/2|-|

19th|3/4|3/4|3/4|1/3|-|

20th|3/4|3/4|3/4|2/3|-|[/table]
Cards you should keep up your sleeve
(Note, these are in the order I would suggest picking them for each spell level)
Lvl 1:
Palm:
Charm Person (Mindbender Prereq)- great utility spell, your bread and butter as a flimflam artist

Disguise Self-nothing like it for those rare cases when a job goes so wrong even your deific bluff, diplomacy, mind whammy, and luck rerolls aren't enough to save the day.

Sanctuary-because if your enemy gets to attack you, very few things are as much fun as saying "No." Feels especially appropriate for a mindbender. Even after overcoming your charms, they still can't lay a finger on you

Expeditious Retreat-a getaway artist is a con artist who lives to con another day. an extra 30 feet on your movement is all that stands between you and the law some days. Especially useful since the big folks can normally outrun you. Won't they be surprised to see you leaving them in the dust?

Pass:

Jump- Yuck. You're so short and weak in the first place that the utility this spell would give you would be minimal at best. Expeditious retreat does its part to partially boost your jumping ability, while jump does nothing to improve your actual round-by-round movement speed. Which would you rather have?

True strike- attack rolls? what are those?

Lvl 2:

Palm:
Invisibility-great potential for hilarity here in slipping in where you're not supposed to be, going invisible, and communicating with your mark du jour and impersonating the divine (or demonic, depending on what floats their boat) deity or being of your choice via telepathy. Your bluff check is so high thanks to your ungodly charisma, skill focus:bluff (thanks, awkward fatemaker prerequisites!) cha boost from take-charge appeal, and your mindbender skill boost to bluff that you can tell people pretty much whatever line you want and they'll buy it hook, line, and sinker. Softening up a target like this can provide them with a much more agreeable "initial" attitude upon meeting you for the "first" time, even if they're not sure entirely why.

eagle's splendour- you cast off of Cha, your mindbender's special powers have their saves keyed off of Cha, your most used skills (bluff, diplomacy, bluff, disguise, and oh yeah, bluff) are all keyed off of Cha as well. a spell to boost it for those moments when you really need it can be great (especially if for whatever reason you are unable to access a cloak of charisma) if you have one of those, don't bother with this spell. if you can't get one, it's a nice addition

Spider climb- combine with the invisibility trick and your enemies will never know who hit 'em

resist energy- if you're aware of what kind of energy attacks your enemy's packing (which as a mindbender you should be) this can really throw a wrench into his plans.

darkvision-situational (especially since halflings already have low-light vision) but useful, especially if you can't get any charmed or dominated minions with the ability

pass:

bear's endurance/bull's strength/cat's grace/fox's cunning/owl's wisdom-you don't care about these stats. pass

daze monster-HD cap is awfully low. You get 2nd lvl spells at lvl 9 here, so it won't be useful on anything you fight since it only affects monsters with 6 or less HD.

lvl 3:
Palm:

tongues: a very flavourful spell that comes in quite handy to you. while fatemaker gives speak language as a class skill, you don't have the points to do it with this build. that extra skill point's one thing the big folks have going for 'em. between not having any int and not having many skill points for most of your levels, you'll be a little low on languages (not much of an issue in most games since everyone speaks common anyway, but some DMs do emphasize languages)

in any event, you have to take this spell to fulfill the prereq for fatespinner (1 divination spell of lvl 1 or higher) so it's either this or true strike, and you don't roll to hit people. that's for characters who aren't mindbenders. this provides fun roleplay if nothing else. you could spread lies about all the interesting places you've traveled. with a bluff like yours, everyone'll just eat it up

suggestion-between having this on your list, and push the weak mind, no one should be able to say no to you long

Haste-one of the best spells in the game. while you might not care much about making another attack with a full attack, your charmed friends certainly will appreciate the boost. if you have people left over, make sure and zap yourself with it too. remember, it boosts movement speed as well, so can be useful in beating a hasty retreat.

nondetection-an absolute must for a character like you. sometimes people want to keep an eye on you and you don't want them to see what you're up to. especially useful when used in tandem with your disguise skill

pass:protection from energy: same as resist energy. find out the enemy's preferred element, become highly resistant, profit. you'll be getting this from arcane disciple, so there's no need for you to have it on your list of spells known twice unless you're facing a lot of enemies that deal energy damage and need to cast this spell more than once a day an a frequent basis. not better than the other choices, especially when you've already got resist energy

lvl 4
palm:
charm monster-oh hell yes. add this and never look back
stoneskin-useful for your charmed allies and yourself if you're feeling paranoid and really hate diamond dust
restoration-always good to have, especially since you've got to take care of your enchanted friends
remove curse-great utility spell

pass:
neutralize poison-ew. honestly, who's ever used this in a game?

Upping the Ante
While no equipment's really strictly necessary for Monty to be effective, he would, of course, enjoy a cloak of charisma since that's the only stat he really cares about and it'd make his arcane resistance harder to punch through, his spell saves higher, and his mindbender abilities harder to resist in addition to making his social skills better. A circlet of persuasion for a bonus to all cha-based checks is similarly useful to him since there's nothing he especially needs on his head slot.

The item that really just screams Monty though are the seldom-used Bands of Fortune from p115 of Complete Scoundrel which allow you to spend a luck reroll to get a +2 luck bonus on atk/dmg, AC, or saving throws for 1 round. while these aren't used much since for normal characters, the per diem limit on luck feats actually means something, this becomes more attractive when you have functionally infinite luck rerolls/day. the fact that it's only 2k doesn''t hurt either. [/QUOTE]

Amphetryon

2011-12-12, 07:47 PM

I received two other builds, but they are incomplete from a presentation standpoint. Ready, steady, judge!

Incidentally, blame me and the forum errors for any oddities of formatting.

Diefje

2011-12-12, 07:52 PM

*applauds* Very nice builds!

Will you post the incompletes, or will you hold off so the judges don't get confuddled?

Cieyrin

2011-12-12, 07:52 PM

Could we get a spoiler on Sir Daenmoor Dreslyth's picture, for it stretches the window. Thanks! :smallsmile:

Madara

2011-12-12, 07:59 PM

Two down. I think I'll be able to finish judging the first 3-4 tonight.

Amphetryon

2011-12-12, 08:02 PM

Could we get a spoiler on Sir Daenmoor Dreslyth's picture, for it stretches the window. Thanks! :smallsmile:

Done and done. You should have seen the original image. :smalltongue:

Will you post the incompletes, or will you hold off so the judges don't get confuddled? I'll post the incompletes. If folks want to see them before the judges begin posting scores, I'd like to hear from those judging on their preferences.

Hunter Killer

2011-12-12, 08:03 PM

Frater Omnia Vincam was the exact same idea I had, but with much better fluff. My dude was even going to worship Vecna! Here's what I had:

THIS IS NOT A VALID CONTEST BUILD.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v56/Xeven/SciFi_Fantasy_Death_Jester_deathjester_jpg_rZd_931 85.jpg
Iocus Suasoriae, Priest of Vecna
You can change your world by changing your words...
Remember, death and life are in the power of the tongue.

The Build...

Truthful words are not beautiful; beautiful words are not truthful.
Good words are not persuasive; persuasive words are not good.

Neutral Evil Human Male -- 10, 15, 11, 14, 8, 17 (32 Point Buy)
(4th Level Stat to Cha [18], 8th to Dex [16], 12th to Con [12], 16th to Cha [19], 20th to Cha [20])

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

1st|Bard|
+0|
+0|
+2|
+2|Use Magic Device 4, Bluff 4, Diplomacy 4, Sense Motive 4, Perform (Oratory) 4, Knowledge (Religion) 4, Gather Information 4, Spellcraft 4, Intimidate 2|Melodic Casting, Versatile Spellcaster|Bardic Music, Bardic Knowledge, Countersong, Fascinate, Inspire Awe

2nd|Bard|
+1|
+0|
+3|
+3|Use Magic Device 5, Bluff 5, Diplomacy 5, Sense Motive 5, Perform (Oratory) 5, Knowledge (Religion) 5, Gather Information 5, Spellcraft 5, Intimidate 2.5||

3rd|Bard|
+2|
+1|
+3|
+3|Use Magic Device 6, Bluff 6, Diplomacy 6, Sense Motive 6, Perform (Oratory) 6, Knowledge (Religion) 6, Gather Information 6, Knowledge (Nobility) 1, Intimidate 3|Persuasive|Inspire Competence

4th|Bard|
+3|
+1|
+4|
+4|Use Magic Device 7, Bluff 7, Diplomacy 7, Sense Motive 7, Perform (Oratory) 7, Knowledge (Religion) 7, Gather Information 7, Knowledge (Nobility) 2, Intimidate 3.5||

5th|Bard|
+3|
+1|
+4|
+4|Use Magic Device 8, Bluff 8, Diplomacy 8, Sense Motive 8, Perform (Oratory) 8, Knowledge (Religion) 8, Gather Information 8, Knowledge (Nobility) 3, Intimidate 4||

6th|Mindbender|
+3|
+3|
+4|
+6|Use Magic 8.5 Bluff 8, Diplomacy 8, Intimidate 8|Imperious Command|Telepathy

7th|Evangelist|
+3|
+3|
+4|
+8|Use Magic Device 9, Bluff 10, Diplomacy 10, Intimidate 8, Perform (Oratory) 10, Knowledge (Nobility) 6, Skill Trick -- Never Outnumbered||Great Orator (Inspire Dread)

8th|Mindbender|
+4|
+4|
+4|
+9|Use Magic Device 9.5 Bluff 11, Diplomacy 11, Perform (Oratory) 11||Push the Weak Mind 1/Day, Skill Boost

9th|Mindbender|
+4|
+4|
+5|
+9|Use Magic Device 10, Bluff 12, Diplomacy 12, Perform (Oratory) 12|Doompspeak|Mindread 2/Day

10th|Evangelist|
+5|
+4|
+5|
+10|Use Magic Device 10.5, Bluff 13, Diplomacy 13, Intimidate 13, Perform (Oratory) 13 ||Fast Talk

11th|Mindbender|
+6|
+5|
+5|
+11|Use Magic Device 11, Bluff 14, Diplomacy 14, Perform (Oratory) 14||Eternal Charm (1)

12th|Mindbender|
+6|
+5|
+5|
+11|Use Magic Device 11.5, Bluff 15, Diplomacy 15, Perform (Oratory) 15|Wanderer's Diplomacy|Push the Weak Mind 2/Day

13th|Evangelist|
+7|
+6|
+6|
+12|Use Magic Device 13, Bluff 16, Diplomacy 16, Intimidate 16, Perform (Oratory) 16||Great Orator (Inflame the Righteous)

14th|Mindbender|
+8|
+7|
+7|
+13|Use Magic Device 13.5, Bluff 17, Diplomacy 17, Perform (Oratory) 17||Enchantment Spell Power +2, Eternal Charm (2)

15th|Mindbender|
+8|
+7|
+7|
+13|Use Magic Device 14, Bluff 18, Diplomacy 18, Perform (Oratory) 18|Master Manipulator|Dominate, Mindread 4/Day

16th|Evangelist|
+9|
+7|
+7|
+13|Use Magic Device 15.5, Bluff 19, Diplomacy 19, Intimidate 19, Perform (Oratory) 19||Skill Mastery (Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate)

17th|Mindbender|
+10|
+8|
+7|
+14|Use Magic Device 16, Bluff 20, Diplomacy 20, Perform (Oratory) 20||Eternal Charm (3), Push the Weak Mind 3/Day

18th|Mendbender|
+10|
+8|
+8|
+14|Use Magic Device 16.5, Bluff 21, Diplomacy 21, Perform (Oratory) 21|Dark Speech|

19th|Evangelist|
+10|
+8|
+8|
+14|Use Magic Device 18, Bluff 22, Diplomacy 22, Intimidate 22, Perform (Oratory) 22||Great Orator (Convert the Unfaithful)

20th|Mindbender|
+11|
+9|
+8|
+15|Bluff 23, Diplomacy 23, Intimidate 23||Enchantment Spell Power +4, Eternal Charm (4), Thrall[/table]

Spells Per Day
{table=head]Level|0th|1st|2nd|3rd|4th
I|nc|om|pl|et|e
[/table]

The Explanation...

Whatever words we utter should be chosen with care for people will hear them
and be influenced by them for good or ill.

First a foremost, it is important to understand that this character is neither a combat beast or a spellcasting monster. So, if he was to hit a table that was pure hack-n-slash then he would be useless. That, however, does not mean that this character is not powerful.

The idea here was to optimize a few aspects of the game that normally don't get optimized: Controlling social interactions. Directing conversations. Turning characters against each other. Politics.

This also means that his enemies are likely to be standard races; Not monsters that are immune to the Mindbender's bread and butter (Mind-Affecting Abilities).

I understand that there have been Diplomancy and Jumplomancy characters that have done this with some stupid powerful Exemplar tricks and other forms of ridiculousness, but this was supposed to be sans the feta. Is there some cheese here? Sure. But nothing that would get things banned at normal tables, and nothing that brings up super shady rules interactions.

Overall
This build is meant to represent at skillful liar who has chosen and unconventional path to follow his patron deity: Vecna.

Iocus is the perfect person to be the unknown power behind the throne: A lowborn and low station (He's a jester!) man who is close enough to nobility and royalty to whisper in the ear of barons and kings. To look on him you would not expect a mastermind, and that is the whole point...

1st-5th
At this point we're not doing a whole lot with the build that doesn't fall under pretty standard Bard fare. Pretty much we're going to play it as a standard support caster and skill monkey.

The one original twist we take, Inspire Awe, is actually going to hurt us because it forces us to drop Inspire Courage (Which is, bar none, the best Bard song). We're doing this for flavor and because it has synergies with some other abilities down the line. Worth the trade? Probably not, but it's neat.

Of the other Bardic abilities, Bardic Knowledge and Fascinate will come in useful (Especially if your DM rules that Sense Motive checks to suss out a Bluff are effected by Fascinate). Ignore the others because we'll have too few uses of Bardic Music to use them very often...

Melodic Casting is, of course, the Bard's version of Natural Spell. This will allow us to cast while maintaining or starting Bardic Music. Also, it allows us to dump Concentration entirely and instead use Perform for spellcasting.

Versatile Spellcaster, again, is bog standard. For the uninitiated: This lets us trade two spells of a lower slot for one spell a level higher. You're sacrificing endurance for power with this one every time you use it (The brightest flames burn the quickest and all that).

Persuasive is a required feat for the build, and it dumps some helpful boni on the skills we're going to use the most later on. Feat Tax? Definitely. But it's not a useless one.

Other than that, the idea is just really to play up the social skills and role play interactions. Diplomacy, Bluff, Intimidate, etc... They are all our wonderful, wonderful tools for this.

Oh... Wait... Spells... This is what we want as of 5th level. No; You don't get a level by level selection. Too time consuming to type and you'll get the idea:
{Incomplete}

6th-10th
This is where things get interesting.

We hit Mindbender right away and the first goody we get is Telepathy. Theoretically, we should be able to use this baby to influence social situations without other characters knowing. Politics in the mind as we outwardly tell jokes... Fun, no? Pretty much the idea is Diplomacy the crap out of someone until they see things your way, then Suggestion or Charm to get them to act how you want.

Imperious Command moseys in with Mindbender. This guy gives us mileage out of Intimidate because it effectively extents the effect. The enemy Cowers Round 1 and is Shaken Round 2. We can use Inspire Awe to extend the Shaken effect and, since they'd already be Shaken when we used it, it will be more likely to land.

Evangelist is up next... We get Great Orator, which stacks onto our Bardic Music to get us more delicious uses and some delicious new abilities. The first one we get (And the only one in these levels) is Inspire Dread. If this monster lands, our target takes a -4 on saves. Stacked with Fear effects, this can get nasty...

Speaking of Fear effects, we need to get Fearsome armor as soon as possible so that we can do Intimidate as a Move Action.

Even nastier still is that we're going to get Doomspeak. Will Saves? What Will Saves? You don't have no stinkin' Will Saves!

A typical interaction where we want to be totally certain they will fail against one of our low DC spells is truly gross. Let's look at something like Charm Person:

Round 1 - Intimidate (Cower; Next Round Shaken. -2) + Inspire Dread (Lingers for 3 Rounds. -4)
Round 2 - Doomspeak (-10), Charm Person (DC 15; Effectively DC 31 because they have a -16)

Push the Weak Mind works in well with that because Suggestion effects and Charm Person are wonderful together.

Mindread will allow us to suss out a particular enemy and see just how far he or she needs to be pushed to see things our way.

The last ability I want to mention, Skill Boost, is a useful set of boni on our social skills and will help us a lot when attempting to change attitudes or Intimidate. Wonderful stuff... Speaking of skills, we take the Never Outnumbered Skill Trick at 7th so that we don't have to be in melee combat to strike fear in the hearts of our enemies (It has a 10' radius)...

Spells by 10th should be:
{Incomplete}

11th-15th
Scroll up and read the trick I posted about getting Charm or Suggestion to land on an opponent, then come back here.

A creature can voluntarily forego a saving throw and willingly accept a spell’s result. Even a character with a special resistance to magic can suppress this quality. -- SRD

Now consider the implications of the above. Do I even have to explain how this would work with Eternal Charm or Dominate?

Yeah. That's the craziness of these levels. Wanderer's Diplomacy and Master Manipulator are just flavor for the most part. They give us additional uses for our Diplomacy, Bluff, and Intimidate.

The next Great Orator ability isn't great. I probably wouldn't use it. Enchantment Spell Power is wonderful because it makes up for some lost Caster Levels.

Spells by 15th are going to be:
{Incomplete}

16th-20th

{Incomplete}

Sweet Spot at 11th
Not every great aspect of the build is online at this point, but we do have some lovely Eternal Charm action just starting to bud.

With the combo I laid out, it should be able to land on just about anyone we want that is susceptible to such spells and tactics.

The Story...

In the course of my life, I have often had to eat my words,
and I must confess that I have always found it a wholesome diet.

Monarchs are nothing more than puppets for those who hold real power. As a humble court jester you wouldn't think I'd be one of the wielders of such power, now would you?

{Incomplete Story}