The Platinum Waltz and Harvest Festival

[Morithias]

Welcome one and all to the first ever Platinum Waltz and Harvest Festival! We have gathered the finest Princesses, Princes, and other Noble from around the globe to have this festival of grace, elegance and charm! Take us to the the rules Sill!

Sill: Well the contest is divided into 4 main events. The first event, is the public speaking and oratory speech competition! To win this contest boost your Perform (oratory) skill as high as you can! Take us to the second contest Kiku!

Kiku: The second contest is the contest of the worker. Workers must work long and hard to make our kingdom's economy run, so it's only right that our nobles know how to work too! This contest is won by boosting either a craft or profession skill as high as possible. To the third contest Magic!

Magic: The third contest is the contest of the mind, this contest is scored on how high your modifiers in knowledge (royalty) is! To the next contest Senhime!

Senhime: The dance contest is a test of how fast you are on your feet! To win this boost your Perform (dance) skill as high as you can!

Morithias: You are given points for how high your modifier is in a contest.
All contestants are considering to be taking 10.

Total your points and get your score, the Noble with the highest score wins.

Rules: No magical help. This is to test the character's skill by themselves. Due to a well written paper arguing that in the real world the best of the best are level 5. All builds will be built to level 5 maximum, your build also must also have the Noble Birth feat.

Anything like pun-pun or using Pazuzu for wishes or selling your soul will result in a ban. This is to test how well you can raise your Noble from level 1 to level 5 without outside help from magic rituals or spells.

You are allowed 2 flaws and 2 traits. Point buy is 28 points using the system outlined in the core 3.5 books. Anything class, feat, or prestige class is allowed so long as it's from a WOTC book.

Scoring Example:

Princess Sabrina has a total modifier of +2 in oratory, +2 in dance, +4 in her chosen craft skill of wordsmith, and a +1 in knowledge (nobility). Her score comes to +9.

Think you can beat Sabrina? Give it a shot and show us your Noble.

Okay seriously I basically improvised this contest partly as parody and partly cause I want to see what the geniuses of this forum come up with to max out skills when magical spells and items are banned. If you think you have a better system by all means post it. Cause I am 90% sure there's a blatantly obvious hole I've missed while writing this.



Notes: this entry assumes invocations/Meldshaping/truenaming are considered "magic. It also assumes "aid another" is not allowed in those tests.

Aid another is not allowed correct. Invocations are spell like abilities and hence magic. I don't know what meldshaping is sadly I will try to find it. Truenaming? I'm half-tempted to allow it just to see what insane idea you had for it, but seeing how it can warp the universe itself, I think we can all agree it's magic.

Edit: Noble Birth is located in Dragon 333. It grants you diplomacy and knowledge (nobility) as class skills and gives a +2 to your leadership score.

[metabolicjosh]

I shall Enter!

Ps. First

[Morithias]

I shall Enter!

Ps. First

You're kidding right? I was almost 100% sure this thread was going to get a ton of views no replies except someone telling me how stupid this idea was and then vanish to the death threads of the forum....wow.

Thank you very much.

[docnessuno]

Notes: this entry assumes invocations/Meldshaping/truenaming are considered "magic. It also assumes "aid another" is not allowed in those tests.

Also i was unable to locate the "Noble birth" feat. I took it (hoping it has no prerequisite i cannot meet) but din't factor any effect in the score.

Race:
Old Magic blooded Unseelie fey Illumian (VaulNaen) (-3 Str -1 Dex -5 Con +2 Int +0 Wis +6 Cha

Stats:
Str 10 (7)
Dex 8 (7)
Con 11 (6)
Int 16 (18)
Wis 8 (10)
Cha 17 (24)

Classes:
Factotum 4 / Marshal 1

Flaws:
Noncombatant
Inattentive

Traits:
Specialized (Craft - Calligraphy)
Absent Minded

Feats:
1: Skill focus (Knowledge - Nobility and Royality)
1F: Artist [FRCS] +2 to Perform and one Craft
1F: Noble Birth
3: Enhanced Power sigils

Items:
Academic dress (Perform - oratory Masterwork item)
Fancy dancing suit (Perform - dance Masterwork item)
Book of heraldry (Knowledge - nobility and royality Masterwork item)
Precious Inks (Craft - Calligraphy Masterwork item)

Skills:
Perform (Oratory) 8 ranks
Perform (Dance) 8 ranks
Knowledge (Nobility and royality) 8 ranks
Craft (Calligraphy) 8 ranks

Skill modifiers:
Perform (Oratory) 8 (ranks) +7 (Cha) +7 (Motivate charisma) +2 (Artist) +4 (cunning knowledge) +3 (Power sigil) +2 (Mastwerwork item) = +33
Perform (Dance) 8 ranks 8 (ranks) +7 (Cha) +7 (Motivate charisma) +2 (Artist) +4 (cunning knowledge) +3 (Power sigil) +2 (Mastwerwork item) = +33
Knowledge (Nobility and royality) 8 (ranks) +4 (Int) +7 (Motivate intelligence) +3 (Skill Focus) +4 (cunning knowledge) +3 (Power sigil) +2 (Mastwerwork item) +1 (Absent minded) = +32
Craft (Calligraphy) 8 (ranks) +4 (Int) +7 (Motivate intelligence) +2 (Artist) +4 (cunning knowledge) +3 (Power sigil) +2 (Mastwerwork item) +1 (Specialized) = +31

Total: 129

[Morithias]

Total: 129

This build does not have a name, so we'll call her "the old princess" for now. But we're off to a great start with 129. A fantastic showing.

Edit: Also I REALLY put Sabrina's stats too low. Seriously I made her stats that low thinking she'd be beaten easily, but not blown away. 9 versus 129? Wow

[docnessuno]

This build does not have a name, so we'll call her "the old princess" for now. But we're off to a great start with 129. A fantastic showing.

Edit: Also I REALLY put Sabrina's stats too low. Seriously I made her stats that low thinking she'd be beaten easily, but not blown away. 9 versus 129? Wow

Well, i think Sabrina should have at least a total bonus of 49
That's Human Aristocrat 5, with 8 ranks in each skill (4 in craft, being cross-class), and skill focus in three of them.

A more extreme version of "the old princess" (i'll call her "the venerable wheelchair queen") can be done with my previous chassis with the following changes:

Age:
venerable

Stats:
Str 8 (2)
Dex 8 (4)
Con 10 (2)
Int 16 (20)
Wis 8 (11)
Cha 18 (26)

Score:
As above, but +8 Cha modifier increases each perform test by +2, and the other tests by +1, while the +5 Int modifier further increases them by +1.

Total: 137

I still don't knw what the "Noble Birth" feat does or where it's located, so it still has to be factored in if appropriate.

Things i considered and discarded for my build:
Bard 3 (Inspire competence / Words of creation / Song of the heart) => Inspire competence doesn't work on yourself.
Harem trained => Only one regional feat can be taken.
Lesser Aasimar for base race => +2 Cha gives a total of +6 to the final score, Illumian sigils gives +8 (and access to improved sigils for anoter +4).
Nymph's kiss => Better than skill focus, but being an exhalted feat requires good alignment, unseelie feys are "always evil" and the +2 Cha from the template gives a better trade-off.

[Morithias]

I still don't knw what the "Noble Birth" feat does or where it's located, so it still has to be factored in if appropriate.


Noble Birth is located in Dragon 333. It grants you diplomacy and knowledge (nobility) as class skills and gives a +2 to your leadership score.

[ThiagoMartell]

Are supernatural abilities such as Inspire Competence allowed?

[Morithias]

Are supernatural abilities such as Inspire Competence allowed?

A bard can’t inspire competence in himself. I suppose we'll do two contests, one without magic period, one with supernatural class abilities but no magic items.