The Zinc Saucier

[motoko's ghost]

Hey fellow playgrounders. I was recently inspired by the Iron chef challenge to join the boards and I thought I'd make my own challenge.
Welcome to the zinc saucier, where challengers attempt to create a build that has the abilities, power and feel of a class, without actually using any levels in it.

Also it comes with double prize money. :smallwink:

Would anyone be interested in this?

[Wyntonian]

Oh, this should be cute. What was your plan for the first class? Monk and Soulborn sound like obvious choices.

[motoko's ghost]

Originally I was thinking of either monk or assassin, but druid might also be interesting, I want to see if people can make a build with power and abilities of druid 20 without any druid levels

[Weezer]

This certainly sounds interesting, I'd be up for participating (after finals of course)...

[Flickerdart]

Druid is easy because you just go Archivist and then get Shapechange and Leadership. Most of the T1s and T2s are pretty interchangeable with one another, so they're probably not good choices for something like this.

[motoko's ghost]

So probably either monk or assassin, possibly soulknife just to see how many ways there are to form a psychic blade:smalltongue:

[Edge of Dreams]

This is a great idea!

For Monk, I suggest you ban Tome of Battle for the challenge, or else it's just Swordsage 20, DONE.

Assassin is a good one, as is Druid.

Or Soulknife, with Psychic Warrior banned.

[motoko's ghost]

Yeah no ToB for monk, swordsage already gets too much love from optimisers:smallwink:

[Flickerdart]

I think bonus points would have to be awarded for being roundabout with your stuff. For instance, Psychic Warrior is an obvious Soulknife, but most people don't even know Shadowsmith is a thing, and they can make lots of different gear with their mind.

[motoko's ghost]

Yeah, that was a big part of this,coming up with bizarre and unusual combos

[sonofzeal]

This would be interesting, I'd be up for it. We'd have to define what exactly we're going for in each class, as I know "Rogue" means different things to different people.

[motoko's ghost]

Really? it might be interesting to see what people come up with when they think "monk"

[motoko's ghost]

If I were to make a sort of iron chef style contest out of this would anyone want to help judge? I've got a sister who could help make trophies.

[Heliomance]

Ooh, I already have an idea for how to do Soulknife

[lorddrake]

I think first of all you would have to create a set of judging categories. For, when you (or anyone else) starts judging they'll know what to look on the builds. And people who creates the builds will know what to make.

For exemple: if you put that you want to judge fluff, power level, originality and similarity to the original class. The judge may give some points to each category.

And I think it will be fun. I'm looking forward to it.

[motoko's ghost]

:smallbiggrin: great minds think alike, I had already hashed out some judging categories and they are almost identical to what you suggested;
-Fluff&how well the build "flows" (bonus points for good backstory)
-Originality (interesting race/class/concepts)
-Power (as compared to the base class)
-how well the build captures the feel of the base class and its abilities without actually using it.

For the actual crunch, 32 point buy system for attributes
Possibly allowing LA buyoff, as it would increase the combinations people could come up with, however I realise it might also create more work for the judges/be a disadvantage to those who go with a LA+0 race.

[Cieyrin]

:smallbiggrin: great minds think alike, I had already hashed out some judging categories and they are almost identical to what you suggested;
-Fluff&how well the build "flows" (bonus points for good backstory)
-Originality (interesting race/class/concepts)
-Power (as compared to the base class)
-how well the build captures the feel of the base class and its abilities without actually using it.

For the actual crunch, 32 point buy system for attributes
Possibly allowing LA buyoff, as it would increase the combinations people could come up with, however I realise it might also create more work for the judges/be a disadvantage to those who go with a LA+0 race.

I'd just steal the Iron Chef rubric and modify as needed, as its held tried and true for 30+ contests and 4-5 chairmen. Don't fix what ain't broken. :smallwink:

[Heliomance]

And almost 10 contests on BG before I ported it over here, IIRC.

[motoko's ghost]

Ok, So Iron chef rules apply, with the scores in each category from 1 to 5 for power,fluff,originality,elegance and how well it captures the feel and abilities of the base class.
32 point buy, no LA buyoff, no dragon magazine, but other than that all official sources for 3.5 are allowed.
People have 2 weeks to submit builds then the judges have 2 weeks to judge them, using the presentation style in the Iron chef challenge.

[Weezer]

Ok, So Iron chef rules apply, with the scores in each category from 1 to 5 for power,fluff,originality,elegance and how well it captures the feel and abilities of the base class.
32 point buy, no LA buyoff, no dragon magazine, but other than that all official sources for 3.5 are allowed.
People have 2 weeks to submit builds then the judges have 2 weeks to judge them, using the presentation style in the Iron chef challenge.

Sounds like you've got a great idea, a proven structure to place it within and sufficient interest to get it started. Next step is to start the first contest!

[motoko's ghost]

Yeah, I'll probably start a new thread for that, just so its a bit neater, it should be up later today.