Junkyard Wars IX: Earth Dreamer + Ordained Champion - Cleric

[WhamBamSam]

Welcome to Junkyard Stadium! It is in this hallowed pile of miscellaneous parts that we will hold a competition of Practical Optimization with three components. The catch? Competitors may not use the third item in their builds!

Goal: Create a build that showcases the selected ingredients while steering clear of the Forbidden Ingredient.[/SIZE]

This competition has two Necessary Components and one Forbidden Component. This round we're doing a combination of two PrCs which I actually think has some untapped synergy, though they may not seem to at first blush. However, the forbidden component is the base class which one of the classes lends itself to most (and indeed gives things to that it doesn't give to other classes). Fire up your rudisplorkers, this round's components are...


Necessary: From Races of Stone... The Earth Dreamer prestige class!
Necessary: From Complete Champion... The Ordained Champion prestige class!
Forbidden: From the Player's Handbook... The Cleric base class!

Contestants:

So you wanna give this thing a shot? Awesome! The rules are as follows:
Creation: 32 point-buy is the presumed creation method. 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. XP is assumed to be 190,000--just enough to hit 20th level. This is a departure from previous rounds that awarded "bonus XP" to use for crafting, LA buyoff, etc. No more!
Workshop: 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 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. If you use web material, link it. Dragon Magazine Compendium is allowed, as are Oriental Adventures and the Dragonlance Campaign Setting. Alternate rule systems from UA such as gestalt and fractional saves are not allowed, as they create a different playing field.
Speculation: Please don't post or speculate on possible builds until after the reveal in order to avoid spoiling the surprise if a particular competitor is producing a build along those lines.
Disputes: Any scoring disputes should be sent to the Chair via PM. Valid disputes include RAW misreadings, arithmetic errors, things missed that are present in the entry, and inconsistently applied criteria. Invalid disputes include disagreements on matters of opinion, a judge not catching something not explicitly presented in the entry, and the like. Invalid disputes will be responded to via PM by the Chair, but valid disputes will be posted in-thread for the judge to review. When disputing, please indicate the judge the dispute is intended for and provide a quote of the disputed comment or comments. Note: the Chair may edit or paraphrase any disputes in presenting them to the judges.
Leadership is banned: We're creating one things, not all of the things. If your entry includes a prestige class or ACF that grants Leadership or a Leadership-like ability as a bonus feat, the feat should be ignored and is not eligible to be traded away for another feat or ACF through any means.
Presentation: You will need to present a write-up of 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, as well as presenting a fully-fleshed out 20-level build in the table below. Please give a rundown of the build's abilities and playability throughout its life. 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. Also for this reason, PLEASE do not include any material that may or may not offend any potential viewers/judges/competitors OR break forum rules. Any builds which violate forum rules WILL be withheld from posting.


Due to concerns about standardizing entry format, I'd like everyone to try to use the following table for their entry.NAME OF ENTRY


Level
Class
Base Attack Bonus
Fort Save
Ref Save
Will Save
Skills
Feats
Class Features


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


20th
New Class Level
+x
+x
+x
+x
Skills
Feats
New Class Abilities



Code immediately below (spoiler).

Level
Class
Base Attack Bonus
Fort Save
Ref Save
Will Save
Skills
Feats
Class Features


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


20th
New Class Level
+x
+x
+x
+x
Skills
Feats
New Class Abilities



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
Spells per Day/Spells Known


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
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


Code immediately below (spoiler)Spells per Day/Spells Known
Spells per Day/Spells Known


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
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-



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

Judges:

Scoring: Each judge is required to provide the criteria by which they are judging the builds. By "criteria," we mean a simple explanation of what the judge is looking for in each of the below categories and what kind of scoring we can expect. If a judge deems a build to be illegal, they may provide a 0 in Elegance but may not refuse to judge any build presented by the Chairman.
The Categories: 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 Components.


Originality: Basically put, does the build stand out from the crowd? Some judges score entries for the quality of their concept & backstory as well, though not all do. Providing at least some backstory is heavily encouraged, as it helps the judges figure out who the entry is.
Power: 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: This category was formerly titled "Build Stability." Here, we're essentially measuring how skillfully you put your build together and how you balanced flavor with 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. Some judges have penalized dipping classes in this category. Rule adherence and legality of sources is scored under this category. Using too many sources may be an Elegance deduction at the judges' discretion, but a book's relative obscurity may not. Note: for this round, the use of Level Adjustment should not receive a deduction. LA Buyoff, however, may receive deductions at each individual judge's discretion.
Use of Components: Was the Forbidden Component avoided? Were the Necessary Components showcased, or simply used because they were necessary? Note: some judges deduct for things that still hold the feel of the Forbidden Ingredient, even if said ingredient itself is not used (ex: using savant levels when factotum is forbidden).

Disputes: Any scoring disputes will be posted by the Chairman in-thread after reviewing them privately. Valid disputes include RAW misreadings, arithmetic errors, things missed that are present in the entry, and inconsistently applied criteria. Invalid disputes include disagreements on matters of opinion, a judge not catching something not explicitly presented in the entry, and the like. Invalid disputes will be responded to via PM by the Chair, but valid disputes should be responded to by each individual judge. Judges are obligated to respond to disputes to ensure that everyone gets a fair shake. A judge's scores will only be recognized if they have recognized all disputes. In the absence of any other judges, the entries will be judged by the chairman.

Completion Time:

Contestants will have until [11:59 PM GMT on February 14th, 2014] to create their builds and PM them to the chairman, WhamBamSam.
Builds will then be posted simultaneously to avoid copying.
Judges will have until [11:59 PM GMT on February 28th, 2014] 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.
As the precedent has been set from Episode 2, should all prospective judges have posted their rulings in a neat, timely fashion and all disputes have been settled satisfactorily (to either judges, contestants, or the Chairperson), the judging period may end prematurely to give way to a new episode. No reason to keep working on a finished building and avoid moving onto the next one.

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! We will award 1st through 3rd places, as well as a shout-out for honorable mention. The honorable mention prize is given to the most daring or unexpected build that doesn't gain a medal. Contestants are invited to vote for honorable mention via PM. Everyone else can vote in-thread. Ready? Steady? Get to the junkyard and start building!

Previous Competitions:
Episode 1: Shadowdancer + Sneak Attack - Rogue (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?342896-Junkyard-Wars-in-the-Playground-II)
Episode 2: Healing Spells + Ruby Knight Vindicator - no Cleric (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?337864-Junkyard-Wars-in-the-Playground-I)
Episode 3: Dragon Type + Mystic Theurge - Kobold (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?347412-Junkyard-Wars-in-the-Playground-III-Dragons-Theurges-Kobolds)
Episode 4: Book of Exalted Deeds + Undead Type - Completes Books (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?355278-Junkyard-Wars-in-the-Playground-IV-BoED-Undead-Type-Completes)
Episode 5: Dread Witch + Reaping Mauler - Fighter (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?360271-Junkyard-Wars-in-the-Playground-V-Dread-Witch-Reaping-Mauler-Fighter)
Episode 6: Wonderworker + the Profession Skill - Factotum (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?369604-Junkyard-Wars-in-the-Playground-VI-Wonderworker-Profession-Skill-Factotum)
Episode 7: Metamagic Feats + Level Adjustment - Metamagic-Reducers! (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?374504-Junkyard-Wars-in-the-Playground-VII-Metamagic-Feats-LA-Metamagic-Reducers!)
Episode 8: Pounce + Small Size - Barbarian (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?388151-Junkyard-Wars-VIII-Pounce-Small-Size-Barbarian)

[WhamBamSam]

FAQ:
What's this even about? I'm glad you asked, actually... (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=15415117&postcount=1)

Is Dragon Compendium Allowed? Yes (as well as its Errata), but individual issues of Dragon Magazine are not.

What about 3.0 materials? 3.0 materials, whether online or in printed form, are allowed unless they've been officially updated to a 3.5 edition.

Are Dragonlance, Ravenloft, Planescape, Dark Sun, or Kingdoms of Kalamar allowable sources? The Dragonlance Campaign Setting is allowed, but the subsequent books for Dragonlance are considered 3rd party, and are therefore not eligible, despite the "WotC approved" status of those books. The same holds for Oriental Adventures (1st party) and the subsequent Rokugan books (3rd party). Materials from Ravenloft, Planescape, Dark Sun, and Kingdoms of Kalamar are considered 3rd party for purposes of this contest, and are therefore not allowed.

What about online sources in general? If the online source is a) published by WotC, and b) not replaced by an updated version at a later time, it is eligible. Use it, link it.

Where's the line drawn with "acceptable/unacceptable" for Unearthed Arcana? This will likely vary a bit from Chairman to Chairman. Item Familiars and Gestalt have always been verboten, since before IC migrated to GitP; don't expect that to change. Flaws have similarly always been noted as warranting a deduction; while I am Chairman, I'm extending that to Traits, though they warrant 1/2 the penalty in Elegance that a Flaw would because they're roughly 1/2 as useful. Alternate spell systems, alternate skill systems and alternate crafting rules all create an uneven playing field, and as such, will be disallowed for as long as I am Chairman. Bloodlines and the Retraining options presented in the PHB2 are ripe for abuse, and will be strongly discouraged as long as I am Chairman. Note that judges are allowed to look askance at any use of Unearthed Arcana not specifically mentioned above, at their discretion, and otherwise penalize Elegance according to their preference.

What, exactly, does the ban on Leadership mean? As folks have started to try to work around the edges of this one, I'm forced to spell it out more plainly. No Leadership, Draconic Cohort, or Feats that grant a similar ability are allowed EXCEPT Wild Cohort while WhamBamSam is chairman. Any PrC you choose with Leadership or a Leadership-analog has that ability entirely ignored for this contest, as it may neither be used nor traded away via any means whatsoever.

What's the minimum score in a category? Assuming an entry is legal, the minimum score in any category is 1. If a judge is convinced that an entry is mechanically illegal by the RAW, the judge may give the build a score of 0 in Elegance, and proceed to judge the entry as if the offending material was not included. Failing to meet a special requirements for a prestige class does not merit a 0, but may qualify for a penalty, at the judge's discretion. Because this contest focuses on Player Characters, an entry that is not technically allowed for a PC, but is viable as an NPC, counts as a legal entry, but may receive a minimum score at the judges' discretion.

Creatures and templates with no listed LA are playable, right? No. No listed LA is equivalent to LA: -. It is not suitable for PCs. If you use it, expect judges to look extremely disfavourably on it.

Is the adaption of Ordained Champion presented in Complete Champion kosher to use? Yes. Feel free to use any deity that grants the War domain for Ordained Champion.

[sakuuya]

Any particular relation between the components? I'm not complaining or anything; I'm just curious why you picked 'em.

[MilesTiden]

I can see it. Ordained Champion has a bit of 'you can enter through something that's not cleric... but we're gonna give a ton of bennies to those who did enter through it'. Earth Dreamer's just cool.

[WhamBamSam]

From the OP:


This competition has two Necessary Components and one Forbidden Component. This round we're doing a combination of two PrCs which I actually think has some untapped synergy, though they may not seem to at first blush. However, the forbidden component is the base class which one of the classes lends itself to most (and indeed gives things to that it doesn't give to other classes).I don't want to go into too much detail, because speculation, but yeah. I think there's some untapped potential here, even though they don't seem to have much relation other than both being casting PrCs at first glance.

EDIT: And yes, as MilesTiden said Earth Dreamer is just cool. I've just been enamored with it of late for some reason.

[Troacctid]

I wonder how the entries will tackle the fluff. Neither Heironeous nor Hextor has domain over Earth.

[WhamBamSam]

I wonder how the entries will tackle the fluff. Neither Heironeous nor Hextor has domain over Earth.We'll see I suppose. I don't think it's insurmountable. Also, I at least would be okay with the adaptation of Ordained Champion to other War deities outlined in Complete Champion. Not sure if I should make an official chairman's pronouncement on that, but it seems simple and well explained enough (more Unarmed Swordsage than Arcane Swordsage if you take my meaning).

[MilesTiden]

Amusingly, I don't think there's any deity with both Earth and War as domains. :smalltongue:

[WhamBamSam]

Amusingly, I don't think there's any deity with both Earth and War as domains. :smalltongue:I'd believe it. I remember trying to find a deity with War and Travel a while back with no success. Gods of war are irritating.

[Flickerdart]

Amusingly, I don't think there's any deity with both Earth and War as domains. :smalltongue:
Obviously, the solution are dvati who worship different deities.

Normally I like to enter Ordained Champion through Soldier of Light because my DMs don't care about deity prerequisites, but Elishar is not Heironeous or Hextor...and using your Divine Crusader domain on War is a hideous waste.

I don't intend to enter, but I do love me some Ordained Champion, so I'mma speculate away. :smalltongue:

[ranagrande]

If it is opened up to any War deity, it should be easy enough.

I know of at least four deities who offer both the Earth and War domains. (And three for War and Travel.)

[Troacctid]

As a DM, I'm certainly comfortable adapting Ordained Champion to any War deity. As a contestant, I'd definitely prefer having extra breathing room with my choice of patron deity. As a judge, in the absence of a proclamation from the chairman, I'd be inclined to consider Hextor/Heironeous builds slightly more elegant because they don't require adaptation, but it would be unlikely to affect my actual rating except maybe as a tiebreaker if I'm waffling between a 2 or a 3.

[Sian]

I know that previously (Zinc Duskblade iirc) I got mauled pretty badly by a judge denying that the adaptation to other settings than Greyhawk existed, hence that i got a massive penalty for mixing settings, so i would certainly like some kind of call on it.

That said, even if Earth Dreamer certainly have links to Earth (d'uh), it doesn't actually request you to have Earth Domain,, much less follow an earth deity, so the discussion there shouldn't be (all that) relevant.

[sideswipe]

Ummm.... errr... ummm.... i.... don't know.....

At first glance i just cannot see any sort of real connection. I had an amazing idea after reading earth dreamer. Then ordained champion sort of shot that down.

[madtinker]

Once again, I'll be watching with interest. I have a few ideas, but we'll see if I have time to put anything together.

[WhamBamSam]

Thinking about it some more, I think I will officially open up the "any War deity" adaptation. I'll edit the FAQ accordingly.

[Sian]

another thing that really annoys me with Ordained Champion, is that it explicitly states that only clerics get a couple of their things, not 'merely' classes that uses Domains (as i can mention at least 2 other classes of the top of my head that would otherwise be able to do it).

[madtinker]

Okay, I've upgraded my involvement from spectator to participant. I've just got to iron out a few kinks in my build and I'll hopefully have something worth submitting.

[dysprosium]

I'm glad to see this contest continuing. It is an interesting pair up for the Junkyard. Hopefully real life can allow me to participate one way or another.

[madtinker]

Rules clarification: Multiclass xp penalties apply as outlined in PHB, yes?

[WhamBamSam]

Rules clarification: Multiclass xp penalties apply as outlined in PHB, yes?It's down to the individual judge, but I usually give out a small elegance penalty for incurring them. They're a profoundly stupid rule that most DMs don't enforce, but they are a rule, and judges are entitled to penalize an entry that assumes it will get more exp than the others.

[madtinker]

Wow, that was fast. Thanks!

[Troacctid]

Rules clarification: Multiclass xp penalties apply as outlined in PHB, yes?

You are assumed to have enough xp for level 20 regardless of multiclass penalties. However, they will incur an elegance penalty. A build that requires houserules to function is less elegant than a build that can be brought to any table without modification.

[Sian]

I've looked long and hard at both classes and still can't see what you think is the synergy hidden within the two of them, so I'm considering if i should bother make something. probably will but it annoys me to no end that i'm unable to spot Waldo

[madtinker]

So...I have two competing builds. One is, I think, very original but not very elegant or powerful. The other is unoriginal but more powerful and far more elegant. Decisions, decisions...

[sideswipe]

So...I have two competing builds. One is, I think, very original but not very elegant or powerful. The other is unoriginal but more powerful and far more elegant. Decisions, decisions...


you can enter both.

[Curmudgeon]

You are assumed to have enough xp for level 20 regardless of multiclass penalties.
Well, that's clearly not in accord with the contest rules:

So you wanna give this thing a shot? Awesome! The rules are as follows:
Creation: 32 point-buy is the presumed creation method. 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. XP is assumed to be 190,000--just enough to hit 20th level. This is a departure from previous rounds that awarded "bonus XP" to use for crafting, LA buyoff, etc. No more! If you've got any muticlass XP penalties you'll have at most 19 levels in your build.

[madtinker]

you can enter both.

I thought about that, but I don't want to overburden the judges (they seem difficult enough to come by).

[sakuuya]

I wouldn't worry too much. The junkyard has historically not had enough entries to scare people off. The most we've ever had is...10, I think, back in the Mystic Theurge + Dragon round, and usually we have about 5.

[Troacctid]

Well, that's clearly not in accord with the contest rules:

If you've got any muticlass XP penalties you'll have at most 19 levels in your build.
I stand corrected. Avoid multiclass penalties, folks.

[MilesTiden]

Do the alignment restrictions still apply even if our chosen deity isn't LG or LE?

[WhamBamSam]

Do the alignment restrictions still apply even if our chosen deity isn't LG or LE?
Adaptation

Although the Ordained Champion is designed primarily as a follower of Hextor, it can easily be altered to fit into the church of any martial deity of any alignment. Simply adjust some of the flavor text and alignment requirements accordingly. In the FORGOTTEN REALMS campaign setting, the Red Knight, Tempus, and Tyr are appropriate deities for the class, while Dol Arah, Dol Dorn, and the Mockery serve the purpose well in the EBERRON campaign setting.So I'd say you're fine as long as you're within one step of your chosen deity.

[Sian]

makes it quite a bit easier ... still, how do worshipping several deities work for the purpose of the class (say, the groups of gods in Eberron or the Pantheons in Deity's and Demigods)?

[Sian]

not sure i have time to finish my build... rest of the week look rather busy, and while i have writen my build down its still in shorthand in a .txt and at probably 2 hours from being tableized and organized, before fiddling around with skills, exact ability score allocation and backstory, which together would probably take another 2-3 hours (backstory being by length the most demanding for me)

[WeaselGuy]

So, up until about an hour ago, I was completely baffled as to what I would do for an entry. And suddenly, epiphany struck like a lightning bolt. So, now I have less than 48 hours to throw something together, but I'm feeling good about it. I worry a little that, since my solution is so simple, surely someone else has the same idea as me, but we shall see...

[madtinker]

So, up until about an hour ago, I was completely baffled as to what I would do for an entry. And suddenly, epiphany struck like a lightning bolt. So, now I have less than 48 hours to throw something together, but I'm feeling good about it. I worry a little that, since my solution is so simple, surely someone else has the same idea as me, but we shall see...

I have the same worry. Maybe they'll be twins, eh?

[dysprosium]

Beautiful earth dreamer-y ordained champion-y twins!

[riccaru]

I may want to try one of these out for once. I've always loved the idea of optimization challenges and the best way to get into it may well be just diving in.:smallcool:

[WhamBamSam]

I may want to try one of these out for once. I've always loved the idea of optimization challenges and the best way to get into it may well be just diving in.:smallcool:Well, as of now you'd be guaranteed a medal on your first go. I've only gotten one entry so far and the deadline is Saturday.

[dysprosium]

Real life keeps getting in the way of allowing me to fully enjoy my hobby.

[riccaru]

Well, as of now you'd be guaranteed a medal on your first go. I've only gotten one entry so far and the deadline is Saturday.

When does the next one get posted?

[WhamBamSam]

When does the next one get posted?Assuming things go more or less as planned with this competition, it'll be the 28th.

[WeaselGuy]

I'm almost done with my character's fluff, then I have to do a by-level breakdown and a spell chart. I should finish by tomorrow evening, a few hours before entry is closed. I hope, assuming my math is right. I'm at GMT+3 where I am, contest closes at GMT-5 23:59 14Feb2015, so I should have until GMT+3 02:59 15Feb2015 to finish. Does that look right? It's just after 10pm on the 13th where I am, for reference...

[Curmudgeon]

I'm almost done with my character's fluff, then I have to do a by-level breakdown and a spell chart. I should finish by tomorrow evening, a few hours before entry is closed. I hope, assuming my math is right. I'm at GMT+3 where I am, contest closes at GMT-5 23:59 14Feb2015, so I should have until GMT+3 02:59 15Feb2015 to finish. Does that look right? It's just after 10pm on the 13th where I am, for reference...
You seem to have introduced an assumption about time zones in there.
Contestants will have until [11:59 PM GMT on February 14th, 2014]

[WeaselGuy]

You seem to have introduced an assumption about time zones in there.

huh. indeed. so I have until 20:59 GMT+3 (9pm) tomorrow to finish it then. Still doable. Thanks for the heads up though!

edit: Screw it, I went ahead and finished it tonight, submitted, hope I didn't forget anything major...

[Sian]

As i've bailed out and it seems that it won't have that many contenders, I'd consider dipping my toes in the judges pool

[sakuuya]

I'm not particularly enthused with my build, but I'll get it done. Because what is Valentine's Day about if not this?

[WeaselGuy]

I'm not particularly enthused with my build, but I'll get it done. Because what is Valentine's Day about if not this?

lol... I'm stuck out in the sandbox 'til September, so I have nothing but time. Which is why this is the 4th entry I've done in the past month lol. I'm just waiting on judging for ICitP and the new Villainous Optimization challenge, which I have entries in this go round. I also wasn't super pleased with my tie for 3rd in JW VIII, but I'll accept it for a first attempt.

[MilesTiden]

I'm currently working out a build, but I have to say Channel Spell is really confusing. You can only channel a spell that 'has one creature or more as its target', but later on it says that 'Even if the spell normally affects an area or is a ray, it still affects only the target in this case', which is completely incompatible with Target: One (or more) Creature(s). Additionally, 'Doing so requires a move action and uses up a spell slot or prepared spell of casting time no greater than one standard action'. There is nothing connecting that to the spell that you channel: technically you could sacrifice any spell slot. The errata does literally nothing to clarify this, only adding fuel to the fire, really. So how does it work?

EDIT: Actually, it's just the errata that makes it completely non-functional. That's the literal opposite of what errata's supposed to do, people! :smallsigh:

[WhamBamSam]

I'm currently working out a build, but I have to say Channel Spell is really confusing. You can only channel a spell that 'has one creature or more as its target', but later on it says that 'Even if the spell normally affects an area or is a ray, it still affects only the target in this case', which is completely incompatible with Target: One (or more) Creature(s). Additionally, 'Doing so requires a move action and uses up a spell slot or prepared spell of casting time no greater than one standard action'. There is nothing connecting that to the spell that you channel: technically you could sacrifice any spell slot. The errata does literally nothing to clarify this, only adding fuel to the fire, really. So how does it work?

EDIT: Actually, it's just the errata that makes it completely non-functional. That's the literal opposite of what errata's supposed to do, people! :smallsigh:Some of that is probably copypasta residue from Spellsword, though I think there are actually a few odd ray spells which have a Target section (occasionally bad writing accidentally corrects for bad writing, 3.5 is weird that way). The standard action restriction was probably because someone realized that Spellswords could channel things like Geass to circumvent the casting time and wanted to correct that.

Unless someone has a compelling reason why it should work differently, I'd say you use a move action to channel a spell that meets the various criteria (has one or more creatures for a target, has a casting time of no greater than a standard action). When you make a successful attack with that weapon, the spell discharges into whoever you hit.

[MilesTiden]

So, would it work for a touch range spell, as the target is 'creature touched'? Sorry for the questions, I just want to make sure I have the right idea of how it works, before making assumptions in my build. :P

[WhamBamSam]

So, would it work for a touch range spell, as the target is 'creature touched'? Sorry for the questions, I just want to make sure I have the right idea of how it works, before making assumptions in my build. :PI'd say so. I'd even argue that something with "Target: You" or the like would be valid. As long as the spell has a "Target: X" line where X can somehow be parsed out to being one or more creatures, I'd say you're fine.

[sakuuya]

So, uh, I scrapped my build and am trying something else. I should still be able to get in by the deadline, though.

[MilesTiden]

Yeah, I ended up scrapping my first build today too. I would say what it was after the reveal, but my current build is very similar, so it would give it away. :smallbiggrin:

[sakuuya]

WHAT TIME IS IT?

http://laurenoutloud.com/main/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/2264066337_c697fd8958.jpg

Also, I submitted. How many have you got so far, WhamBamSam?

[WeaselGuy]

WHAT TIME IS IT?

http://laurenoutloud.com/main/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/2264066337_c697fd8958.jpg

Also, I submitted. How many have you got so far, WhamBamSam?

Ya know, I was pretty sure I had my math right on that earlier post, but now that I think about, I'm pretty sure I was wrong twice. There's still another 3 hours until the builds get posted, isn't there?

[sakuuya]

Ya know, I was pretty sure I had my math right on that earlier post, but now that I think about, I'm pretty sure I was wrong twice. There's still another 3 hours until the builds get posted, isn't there?

Yeah, it's like quarter to nine GMT right now.

[MilesTiden]

... I have significantly less time to finish my build than I thought. Oops. :smalleek:

[WhamBamSam]

Also, I submitted. How many have you got so far, WhamBamSam?Counting yours, I've currently got 3.


Ya know, I was pretty sure I had my math right on that earlier post, but now that I think about, I'm pretty sure I was wrong twice. There's still another 3 hours until the builds get posted, isn't there?Roughly 3 hours, yeah. You can always just google GMT if you need to. The first result page has a GMT clock on it.

[sakuuya]

... I have significantly less time to finish my build than I thought. Oops. :smalleek:

The only gold medal I ever got was for a build I submitted 16 minutes before the deadline. Which is to say, I believe in you!

[WeaselGuy]

Counting yours, I've currently got 3.

Roughly 3 hours, yeah. You can always just google GMT if you need to. The first result page has a GMT clock on it.

Yeah, I just did lol


The only gold medal I ever got was for a build I submitted 16 minutes before the deadline. Which is to say, I believe in you!

I tied for a bronze in the last JW, but there were only 5 entries and 1 judge, and it was my first competition. I threw this comp's build together last night in a matter of a few hours, we'll see how well it does, I have a feeling I bombed the fluff. I've got an entry each in Optimize my BBEG and ICitP, and I'm not doing so hot in either just yet :smallfrown:

[MilesTiden]

Gah, I ended up not being able to write a section I really wanted to write. Ah well. :smallsigh: And technically, I didn't even get it in before the deadline, I got it in one minute afterwards. :smalltongue:

[WhamBamSam]

Alright, time for the reveal. Please refrain from posting until I give the all clear.

[WhamBamSam]

http://fc02.deviantart.com/fs5/i/2005/131/8/6/Peruvian_Naga_by_kyoht.jpg

Terrato, The Abyssal Maw


"There are people on the Mountain.
They bring great machines,
and mar the Mountain's flesh,
in their lust for wealth.
They try to hide,
but their reek is too great.
I will find them,
and taste their flesh once again,
and visit upon them the torment
they bring the Mountain.
There are people on the Mountain."
The scholarly dwarf examines the walls of the damp cavern, translating the writing scrawled upon its surface. He nods to himself solemnly as he finishes the first passage. His assistant, already looking a bit queasy, suddenly speaks up. "T-that must've been the first wave of miners. I guess it was already aware of them, even at this point."

"Excellent observation, my dear assistant. Yes, it appears to have been aware of our presence, despite our best efforts to keep our operation... secure." The scholar peers into the inky blackness of the depths of the cave, before incantating, and summoning a small orb of light which hovers over his shoulder. "Well, we best move on. Hopefully we can shed a little more... light on the subject." He chuckles to himself, seemingly heedless of the danger.


"There are people on the Mountain.
The Mountain has awoken,
and spoken to me,
in my slumber.
She teaches me things,
about the atrocities of these vile people.
She teaches me to hate,
and hate,
and hate,
and hate.
There are people on the Mountain."

A sudden rumbling breaks the oppressing silence of the cavern, startling the young assistant. "W-w-what was that?!"

The elderly dwarf laughs heartily, and glances over at the boy. "That would be our newest prototype. There is no way this beast can break through it, and we'll finally reach the treasures of lore." He walks further down the hall, and begins transcribing the next passage.


"There are people on the Mountain.
The Mountain hungers,
she commands me to feed her,
and I obey.
She grants me access to her depths,
so that I may better rid her
of this menace.
These weak people run,
but they can never hide
I will find them.
There are no longer people on the Mountain."

The dwarf looks to see if there are any more passages, and starts to turn away, confident that his work is done. Gesturing at his assistant, he suddenly pauses. His assistant was gone. As was the rumbling. In fact, he could neither see, nor hear anything,

but glowing red eyes,
a glint of massive fangs,
and darkness.

CE Anthropomorphic Giant Constrictor Snake Shaman 8/Earth Dreamer 5/Ordained Champion of Beltar 3

Ability Scores:
Str 20 (14), Dex 18 (10), Con 14 (16), Int 12 (12), Wis 20 (16), Cha 4 (8)
Boost Strength at 5 and 9, boost Wisdom at 13 and 17



Level
Class
Base Attack Bonus
Fort Save
Ref Save
Will Save
Skills
Feats
Class Features


1st
LA 1
--
--
--
--
--
--
--


2nd
Anthropomorphic Giant Constrictor Snake 1
+1
+0
+2
+2
Knowledge (Nature) 4 (2), 8 unused
Multigrab



3rd
Anthropomorphic Giant Constrictor Snake 2
+2
+0
+3
+3
11 unused




4th
Anthropomorphic Giant Constrictor Snake 3
+3
+1
+3
+3
Knowledge (Nature) 2 (3), 12 unused
Greater Multigrab



5th
Shaman 1
+3
+1
+3
+5
Knowledge (Religion) 7 (4), Spellcraft 7 (7), 3 unused
Improved Unarmed StrikeB, Weapon Focus (Spiked Gauntlet)B
Domains (Hero, War), Animal Companion


6th
Shaman 2
+4
+1
+3
+6
Knowledge (Nature) 2 (4), Spellcraft 1 (8), 5 unused

Spirit Sight


7th
Shaman 3
+5
+2
+4
+6
Spellcraft 1 (9), 9 unused
Earth Sense
Rebuke Undead


8th
Ordained Champion of Beltar 1
+6/+1
+4
+4
+8
Concentration 9 (9), Knowledge (Nature) 2 (5), Spellcraft 1 (10)
DodgeB, MobilityB
Domain (Earth), Combat Feats, Modified Spontaneous Casting


9th
Earth Dreamer 1
+6/+1
+6
+4
+10
Concentration 2 (11), Knowledge (Nature) 1 (6)

Earth Friend


10th
Earth Dreamer 2
+7/+2
+7
+4
+11
Concentration 1 (12), Knowledge (Nature) 2 (8)
Spring Attack
Earth Dream


11th
Earth Dreamer 3
+7/+2
+7
+5
+11
Concentration 1 (13), Knowledge (Nature) 2 (10)

Lesser Tremorsense


12th
Earth Dreamer 4
+8/+3
+8
+5
+11
Concentration 1 (14), Knowledge (Nature) 2 (12)

Earth Sight


13th
Earth Dreamer 5
+8/+3
+8
+5
+11
Concentration 1 (15), Knowledge (Nature) 2 (14)
Holy Warrior
Earth Glide


14th
Ordained Champion of Beltar 2
+9/+4
+9
+5
+12
Concentration 1 (16), Knowledge (Religion) 2 (9)
DiehardB
Smite


15th
Ordained Champion of Beltar 3
+10/+5
+9
+6
+12
Concentration 1 (17), Knowledge (Religion) 2 (11)

Channel Spell, Divine Bulwark


16th
Shaman 4
+11/+6/+1
+9
+6
+12
Concentration 1 (18), Spellcraft 4 (14)
Minor Shapeshift, Improved Grapple B
Spirit's Favor


17th
Shaman 5
+11/+6/+1
+9
+6
+12
Concentration 1 (19), Spellcraft 4 (18)




18th
Shaman 6
+12/+7/+2
+10
+7
+13
Concentration 1 (20), Knowledge (Religion) 2 (13), Spellcraft 2 (20)




19th
Shaman 7
+13/+8/+3
+10
+7
+13
Concentration 1 (21), Knowledge (Religion) 3 (16), Spellcraft 1 (21)
Practiced Spellcaster (Shaman)



20th
Shaman 8
+14/+9/+4
+10
+7
+14
Concentration 1 (22), Knowledge (Religion) 2 (18), Spellcraft 1 (22)
Earth's Embrace B



Total Skill Ranks: Concentration 22, Knowledge (Religion) 18, Knowledge (Nature) 14, Spellcraft 22

Spells per Day


Level
0lvl
1st
2nd
3rd
4th
5th
6th
7th
8th
9th


1st
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


2nd
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


3rd
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


4th
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


5th
3
1+1
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


6th
4
2+1
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


7th
4
2+1
1+1
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


8th
4
2+1
1+1
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


9th
5
3+1
2+1
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


10th
5
3+1
2+1
1+1
-
-
-
-
-
-


11th
5
3+1
3+1
2+1
-
-
-
-
-
-


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


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


14th
6
4+1
4+1
3+1
2+1
1+1
-
-
-
-


15th
6
4+2
4+1
3+1
3+1
2+1
-
-
-
-


16th
6
4+2
4+1
4+1
3+1
2+1
1+1
-
-
-


17th
6
4+2
4+1
4+1
3+1
3+1
2+1
-
-
-


18th
6
4+2
4+2
4+1
4+1
3+1
2+1
1+1
-
-


19th
6
4+2
4+2
4+1
4+1
3+1
3+1
2+1
-
-


20th
6
4+2
4+2
4+2
4+1
4+1
3+1
2+1
1+1
-



The first level showcase is also probably Terrato's most challenging. His moderately low HP means that he needs to take advantage of his unconventional movement modes to isolate and defeat his enemies. His normal tactics include moving himself and his Medium Viper animal companion into a flanking position, biting his intended prey, and running off with them. He uses his climb and swim speeds to run off with his grappled enemy, and separate them from the rest of the party, before grappling them to death with his Constrict ability and a set of spiked armor. Due to the fact that he has already picked up Multigrab and Greater Multigrab, there is no reason for him to ever not make use of them, meaning he never has the disadvantages associated with grappling. His Large size and high strength are his greatest assets here.

Spells of note:
Obscuring Mist - This is a useful battlefield control spell for isolating prey and masking his presence. Fairly normal stuff.

Weapon Bless - If given the opportunity to use it, this is a potent tool for securing the first hit of the fight, the most important hit as well. Giving him a +5 bonus to attack and damage on the first hit against a specified target fits very well with his method of combat.

Having hit his first level of Ordained Champion of Beltar, and his second level of Earth Dreamer, Terrato picks up the second vital component of his strategy: Spring Attack. With the ability to trade domain special abilities for Combat feats, he can pick up Dodge and Mobility at his first Ordained Champion level, and Spring Attack as his 9th level feat. He also now has \his second attack, and much better spellcasting, improving his combat capabilities. He also has a better animal companion in the Constrictor Snake. Now, on to the components:

Ordained Champion:
Combat Feats - Used to great effect to pick up the requirements for Spring Attack.

Extra Domain - Actually makes use of the better part of it, seeing as he possesses the War domain. Uses it to pick up the thematically appropriate Earth domain.

Continued Advancement - Has a turning level, so this actually does a thing. Also makes his smites very potent.

Modified Spontaneous Casting - Doesn't do anything for Terrato, but on the other hand, doesn't do anything for anyone. Curse you non-inclusive wording! On the other hand, keeping spontaneous Inflict spells is probably better, as he can Channel them later.

Earth Dreamer:
Earth Friend - While a situational ability by nature, this does actually fill a purpose for Terrato: it makes up for getting rid of the Earth domain granted power.

Earth Dream - This is a very useful ability, due to the nature of Divinations. Terrato uses it to find out where his prey is, coordinates it with an Augury of his own, and hunts them down. Very potent.

Spells of note:
Augury - Can use it to back up Earth Dream.

Levitate - If he can't flee anywhere, grabbing someone and levitating up is an option.

SNA III - This is where the SNA spells get more useful. He uses it mostly for the Thoqqua and Lion summons.

Oh man, here we go. In this range, he picks up the two other major components of his strategy: Earth Glide, and Channel Spell. Considering how this build has been going, you can probably figure out the logical conclusion here. He uses Improved Grab, Earth Glide, Earth Sight, and Channeled debuffs to surface from the ground, bite and grab people, and drag them into the depths of the earth, where he lets them suffocate. Because of this, he is at almost no risk while he swims around, buffs up, and picks his enemies off one by one. His buffing potential has increased vastly since the last check in, gaining Divine Power and Righteous Might. With Holy Warrior, his damage is up to par as well.

Earth Dreamer:
Lesser Tremorsense - This adds another option for Terrato's sensory skills, complementing his existing Scent and Darkvision.

Earth Sight - Not much to say here. This facilitates his mole-like combat style, and because of his Darkvision he is able to make full use of it.

Earth Glide - This ability is... weird. Earth Glide in general is very detail-light, but regardless of how it's run Terrato can make use of it. If the 'like a fish through water' line is taken to mean that you treat it as swimming, Terrato has a swim speed, so that's no issue. If it's just normal 3D movement, his movement is not impeded by his grappling at all, so he's fine.

Ordained Champion:
Smite - Unfortunately, the Shaman's turning level is not as high as a straight cleric, but he still can make use of it. Just... don't expect to be getting any bonuses to attack. :smalltongue:

Channel Spell - This is a very nice addition to Terrato's arsenal, allowing him to more efficiently use his offensive spells. He can prebuff with this and Smite, as well as many other buff spells due to his nigh-undetectability, and use Spring Attack to deliver the spells.

Divine Bulwark - While not the most useful ability, Terrato can use this as a sort of panic button, sacrificing a utility spell to save his hide with a bit of DR.

Spells of note:
Divine Power - Buffing gold standard number one.

Righteous Might - Buffing gold standard number two. Vitally important to his style, getting him up to huge size.

Baleful Polymorph - Uses this to power Minor Shapeshift at 16, or to Channel.

Slay Living - Great Channel fodder.

Dream Walk - Excellent for scouting where there isn't earth to swim through.

SNA V - Dire Lion and Giant Constrictor, for maximum grappling.

At this level, we get to the reason we sacrificed those last two Ordained Champion levels (aside from being useless): Giant Size. And all those other 8th level spells too, but mostly Giant Size. Because he picks up Practiced Spellcaster, he hits CL 19, meaning Giant Size brings him up to Colossal. I mean, it doesn't last long, but he won't need it to. This gives him enough strength, grapple mod, and size to grapple ANY CREATURE IN THE GAME. He has a +56 without any other buffs or items, and can get significantly higher with them. Minor Shapeshift also means that he's getting 19 temporary HP every round.

Spells of note:
Giant Size - Colossal size. Enough said.

SNA VIII - He can summon a number of powerful monsters, including Rocs and Noble Salamanders.

Greater Spirit Ally - With this, you can call a Faerunian Naga, which is a 24 HD, Colossal sized, epic spellcasting, grappling monstrosity. This gives him the versatility to do almost anything, if he needs to, by finding an appropriate spirit.

Harm - Great for Channeling

(Mass) Heal - Great for, well, healing.

Antimagic Field - A giant snake in an antimagic field remains a giant snake.

Anthropomorphic Giant Constrictor Snake - Savage Species
Shaman, Hero Domain, Assorted Shaman Spells, Earth's Embrace - Oriental Adventures
Earth Sense, Earth Dreamer - Races of Stone
Holy Warrior, Beltar - Complete Divine
Minor Shapeshift - Complete Mage
Ordained Champion - Complete Champion

[WhamBamSam]

http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2011/199/a/b/barbarian_by_darkredrose-d40e5vb.jpg
Image by Stefania Aquaro (http://darkredrose.deviantart.com/art/Barbarian-242525495)

Vathoa Frostspeaker Kualavoaka
CN Goliath Barbarian 4/Fighter 1/Disciple of Thyrm 4/Ordained Champion 5/Earth Dreamer 5

Story
Of course they all laughed, the jotun, when Vathoanu Frostspeaker Kualavoaka came to them, claiming to hear the voice of Thrym. Why would their god speak to such a little woman, unable to stand more than chest-height to them even when enraged? But the jarl was canny, and though he called her his prisoner, he sent a scout to see the avalanche that she said killed the rest of her tribe, and the scout came back bearing two goliath bodies, all tumbled and blue. The jarl meant to horrify Vathoanu Frostspeaker Kualavoaka with them, to expose her lies, but her gaze on her dead tribesman was as cold as the avalanche.

It is the will of Thrym, she said, just as by his will I survived.

The jarl saw then that Thrym's magic was in her, though she was not of giantkind and thus below the notice even of ogres. She remained his prisoner, at least in word, but he accepted her council as a prophet of the glacial lord, and her connection to their shared patron grew like fingers of frost. From him she learned to throw boulders like a giant, and in the fullness of time she bore him a son, the jarl's only heir.

If the jotun had been wary of her before, now they were enraged that some half-bred goliath might ever rule them, but it is a grave and irrevocable violation of the ordning to attack the jarl, who had proved himself by right of arms, or his child heir. That left Vathoanu Frostspeaker Kualavoaka, who possessed not a drop of giant's blood, as the only outlet for their rage. But when they fell upon her, she called streams of holy fire from the sky.

Before the fimbulwinter, the world will burn, she said to them.

The jotun who survived were made to accept her as one chosen by the gods, though an outsider could never rule them. Her son, though, was a giant by right of blood.

Will my son become the jarl? she asked the mountains.

And the mountains said, not yet.

Ability Scores & Languages
Starting Ability Scores: Str 18, Dex 10, Con 16, Int 14, Wis 14, Cha 12
Increase Wis at levels 5, 9, 13, and 17.

Languages Known: Common, Dwarven, Giant, Gol-Kaa

Build Table


Level
Class
Base Attack Bonus
Fort Save
Ref Save
Will Save
Skills
Feats
Class Features


1st
Goliath LA
-
-
-
-
-
-
Powerful Build, Mountain Movement, Acclimated


2nd
Barbarian (Goliath Substitution Level)
+1
+2
+0
+0
Intimidate 4, Handle Animal 4, Know (Nature) 4, Listen 4, Sense Motive 2, Survival 4
Power Attack
Fast Movement, Mountain Rage 1/day, Illiteracy


3rd
Barbarian
+2
+3
+0
+0
Intimidate 5, Handle Animal 5, Know (Nature) 4.5, Listen 5, Sense Motive 2.5, Survival 5

Uncanny Dodge


4th
Barbarian
+3
+3
+1
+1
Intimidate 6, Know (Nature) 5, Listen 6, Ride 2, Survival 6
Cold Endurance
Trap Killer


5th
Barbarian
+4
+4
+1
+1
Intimidate 7, Listen 7, Ride 5, Survival 7

Mountain Rage 2/day


6th
Fighter
+5
+6
+1
+1
Intimidate 8, Survival 8
Weapon Focus (Greataxe) (Bonus)



7th
Disciple of Thrym
+6/+1
+6
+1
+3
Intimidate 8.5, Know (Religion) 2, Spellcraft 1
Earth Sense
Detect Fire, Protection of Winter


8th
Disciple of Thrym
+7/+2
+6
+1
+4
Intimidate 9, Know (Religion) 4, Spellcraft 2

Fire Resistance 5


9th
Disciple of Thrym
+8/+3
+7
+2
+4
Intimidate 9.5, Know (Religion) 6, Spellcraft 3

Powerful Grip


10th
Disciple of Thrym
+9/+4
+7
+2
+5
Intimidate 10, Know (Religion) 7, Spellcraft 5
Intimidating Rage
Frost Greataxe


11th
Ordained Champion
+10/+5
+9
+2
+7
Concentration 2, Intimidate 12, Spellcraft 6

War Domain, Turn Undead Advancement, Modified Spontaneous Casting


12th
Ordained Champion
+11/+6/+1
+10
+2
+8
Concentration 4, Intimidate 14, Spellcraft 7
Diehard (Bonus)
Smite


13th
Ordained Champion
+12/+7/+2
+10
+3
+8
Concentration 6, Intimidate 16, Spellcraft 8
Rock Hurling
Channel Spell, Divine Bulwark


14th
Ordained Champion
+13/+8/+3
+11
+3
+9
Concentration 8, Intimidate 17, Spellcraft 9

Fist of the Gods, Rapid Spontaneous Casting


15th
Ordained Champion
+14/+9/+4
+11
+3
+9
Concentration 10, Intimidate 18, Spellcraft 10

War Caster, Holy Warrior


16th
Earth Dreamer
+14/+9/+4
+13
+3
+11
Intimidate 19, Never Outnumbered (ST)
Reckless Rage
Earth Friend


17th
Earth Dreamer
+15/+10/+5
+14
+3
+12
Concentration 11, Intimidate 20, Listen 8

Earth Dream


18th
Earth Dreamer
+15/+10/+5
+14
+4
+12
Concentration 12, Intimidate 21, Listen 9

Lesser Tremorsense


19th
Earth Dreamer
+16/+11/+6/+1
+15
+4
+13
Concentration 13, Intimidate 22, Listen 10
Holy Warrior
Earth Sight


20th
Earth Dreamer
+16/+11/+6/+1
+15
+4
+13
Concentration 14, Intimidate 23, Listen 11

Earth Glide




Spell Table
Spells per Day


Level
1st
2nd
3rd
4th
5th


1st
-
-
-
-
-


2nd
-
-
-
-
-


3rd
-
-
-
-
-


4th
-
-
-
-
-


5th
-
-
-
-
-


6th
-
-
-
-
-


7th
1
-
-
-
-


8th
2
-
-
-
-


9th
2
1
-
-
-


10th
3
2
-
-
-


11th
3
2
-
-
-


12th
3
2
1
-
-


13th
3
3
2
-
-


14th
3
3
2
-
-


15th
4
3
2
1
-


16th
4
3
3
2
-


17th
4
4
3
2
1


18th
4
4
3
3
2


19th
4
4
3
3
2


20th
4
4
3
3
2




Highlights
Level 5: Vathoanu has to eat her racial LA, of course, so at 5th level, she's only a fourth-level barbarian, but that racial LA is probably worth it for mountain rage, which is superior to standard rage unless she needs to qualify as Medium for some reason. That substitution level also lets her get 4 ranks of Knowledge (Nature) at 1st level, to more easily qualify for Earth Dreamer. Feat-wise, Power Attack is standard 1st-level Barbarian stuff, and Cold Endurance is very situational, though she's intended for a Frostburn-y campaign.
Also, yeah, goliath names are gibberish. Just go with it.

Level 10: That Fighter dip is, unfortunately, necessary to get the feats required for Disciple of Thrym and get Power Attack right away. At least Weapon Focus is doing double-duty qualifying for Disciple of Thrym as well as Ordained Champion. Thrym is also one of the rare deities to have both War and Earth on his domain list, making him pretty perfect for this competition, not to mention sponsoring a full BAB spellcasting class that can be entered by a Barbarian/Fighter like Vathoanu. The fire abilities she gets from Disciple of Thrym are meh, but the extra weapon damage from Powerful Grip and Frost Greataxe are nice. Intimidating Rage is useful because her spell DCs aren't terribly high, so every extra -2 helps.

Level 15: As a non-Cleric Ordained Champion who also cannot turn or rebuke undead, Vathoanu misses out on a lot of the features of this PrC. The stuff she can't use is crossed out on her build table. She does, however, get Channel Spell, plus a small selection of cold-based spells (including Shivering Touch!) to use it with. Additionally, since Channel Spell is a Su ability that expends a spell without officially "casting" it, she can use it while raging. This is strictly better than Fist of the Gods, except in cases where she's fighting someone immune to cold and ability damage. She grabs Rock Hurling mostly for flavor, as she’s supposed to be buddy-buddy with giants by now.

Level 20: Earth Dreamer is pretty rough on the combat capabilities of what's otherwise a full-BAB build, but Vathoanu still squeaks up to four iterative attacks. She also casts as a 12th-level Disciple of Thrym, which means that she has the spells of a 10th-level DoT but a caster level of 12. She also picks up Flame Strike, the only channelable War spell she has access to, but it's a nasty surprise for a cold-based character to have in her back pocket. As for Earth Dreamer's class features, seeing through walls is cool, as is burrowing (and tremorsense and earth sight help with the burrowing), and Earth Friend is very situational. Earth Dream is the real coup, since Vathoanu (a) is in and around mountains 24/7, and (b) has a very limited spell list with no access to divination spells. The two feats she gets here are to shore up her various capabilities: Reckless Rage mimics improved rage abilities she missed by multiclassing, and Holy Warrior gives her a +5 bonus to damage as long as she has a Flame Strike prepared. In addition, she grabs the skill trick Never Outnumbered, so she can spread those Intimidating Rage penalties to everybody.


Ordained Champion Adaptation
Adapting Ordained Champion from a worshiper of Hextor/Heironeous to Thrym requires only a couple changes.

Requirements: Alignment CN, CE, or NE; must worship Thrym

Divine Bulwark: Gain DR X/Lawful instead of X/Chaotic.

Sources
Complete Champion: Ordained Champion, Holy Warrior
Complete Warrior: Intimidating Rage
Frostburn: Disciple of Thrym, Cold Endurance, Hurl Rocks
Player's Handbook: Barbarian, Fighter, Power Attack, Weapon Focus, Diehard
Races of Stone: Goliath, Goliath Barbarian sub level, Earth Dreamer, Earth Sense, Reckless Rage

[WhamBamSam]

Car-Innul-Vulkan-Volk Penathan-Koldune-Zemlya
Lawful Neutral Dream Dwarf, worshiper of Joramy

Car-Innul, like his parents before him, lived under the slopes of Mount Krakatow, a dormant volcano. When the mountain awakened and spewed forth fire and smoke, the young Car-Innul awoke to the truth; The earth's most powerful manifestation was in the volcano. Feeling betrayed by the earth and turning to worship Joramy, the goddess of valcanoes he added Vulkan to his name. Wandering the desolate land in the aftermath of the eruption he took up the mantle of a druid, and the name Koldun to reflect his newfound abilities as a spellcaster.
When he gained the ability to shape shift, he took the name Volk to reflect his preferred alternate form of wolf.
Another eruption reminded him of the power of the earth, prompting a return to the teachings of his youth and renewing his connection to the earth. He added Zemlya to his name as he took up the earth dreamer's path.
He found peace in a dwarven city, where he could ponder the serenity of the earth and enjoy the company of other dwarves. He married, and was full of joy. It was during this time that he was visited by Joramy, and forewarned of a great war to follow. He was granted the ability to cast spells no druid had yet cast; but it came at a price.
Not a week later, the prophesy came true. The city was attacked by mind flayers; thousands were slaughtered and taken as slaves. Even with his newfound powers, Cal was unable to halt the onslaught. He hid in the mines, abandoning his friends and family to their fates.
The next few years were spent in hiding. Finally, Cal grew less and less mentally stable, until he finally declared himself a heavenly avenger, taking up his staff to hunt down the creatures that destroyed his life.



Physical Stats at Point Buy: 14, 12, 12, 12, 16, 12
After Racial Mods: 14, 10, 14, 12, 16, 12
Increase Wisdom at levels 4, 8, 12, 16, 20 to to 21.



5th level
At this point, Cal is mostly still an ordinary druid, casting Hieghtened spells such as Entangle to immobilize his opponents and picking them off one at a time.

10th level
Druid 8/ Earth Dreamer 2, but casts spells a 10th level druid. He maintains a special connection to the earth, and can wildshape into a variety of forms. He prefers to take the shape of wolves or burrowing animals. By burrowing under trails and camps, he can take his enemies by surprise, using hit-and-run tactics when outnumbered.

15th level
Casting spells as a 14th level druid, and being able to take on the form of stone itself, as well as moving through solid earth and rock, this is the high point of Car's career. While his power increases in future level, he won't gain many useful abilities, and his spellcasting falls behind further. What I like here is not necessarily the power, but the image of an enraged druid popping out of solid rock and using spells such as divine power and power word blind.

20th level
Cal would not reach this level unless XP penalties are ignored. If they are, he is a 20th level character casting as an 18th level druid. He can channel his spells through his weapon, or even sacrifice spell slots for extra damage. However, his main tactic is still to pop out of solid rock or stone, hit the opponents with a few choice spells, and fade back into the earth from whence he came.





Level
Class
Base Attack Bonus
Fort Save
Ref Save
Will Save
Skills
Feats
Class Features


1st
Druid 1
+0
+2
+0
+2
Concentration 4 ranks, Handle animal 4 ranks, Knowledge (nature) 4 ranks, Spellcraft 4 ranks, Survival 4 ranks
Heighten Spell
Animal Companion, nature sense, wild empathy


2nd
Druid 2
+1
+3
+0
+3
Concentration 5 ranks, Handle animal 5 ranks, Knowledge (nature) 5 ranks, Spellcraft 5 ranks, Survival 5 ranks
-
Woodland Stride


3rd
Druid 3
+2
+3
+1
+3
Concentration 6 ranks, Handle animal 5 ranks, Knowledge (nature) 6 ranks, Spellcraft 6 ranks, Survival 6 ranks, Knowledge (religion) 1 ranks
Knowledge Devotion (add Knowledge (Religion))
Trackless Step


4th
Druid 4
+3
+4
+1
+4
Concentration 7 ranks, Handle animal 5 ranks, Knowledge (nature) 6 ranks, Spellcraft 7 ranks, Survival 6 ranks, Knowledge (religion) 4 ranks
-
Resist Nature's Lure


5th
Druid 5
+3
+4
+1
+4
Concentration 8 ranks, Handle animal 5 ranks, Knowledge (nature) 6 ranks, Spellcraft 7 ranks, Survival 6 ranks, Knowledge (religion) 8 ranks
-
Wild Shape (1/day)


6th
Druid 6
+4
+5
+2
+5
Concentration 9 ranks, Handle animal 5 ranks, Knowledge (nature) 7 ranks, Spellcraft 9 ranks, Survival 6 ranks, Knowledge (religion) 9 ranks
Earth Sense
Wild Shape (2/day)


7th
Druid 7
+5
+5
+2
+5
Concentration 10 ranks, Handle animal 6 ranks, Knowledge (nature) 10 ranks, Spellcraft 10 ranks, Survival 6 ranks, Knowledge (religion) 10 ranks
-
Wild Shape (3/day)


8th
Druid 8
+6/+1
+6
+2
+6
Concentration 11 ranks, Handle animal 7 ranks, Knowledge (nature) 11 ranks, Spellcraft 11 ranks, Survival 6 ranks, Knowledge (religion) 11 ranks
-
Wild Shape (Large)


9th
Earth Dreamer 1
+6/+1
+8
+2
+8
Concentration 12 ranks, Handle animal 7 ranks, Knowledge (nature) 11 ranks, Spellcraft 12 ranks, Survival 6 ranks, Knowledge (religion) 12 ranks
Natural Spell
Earth Friend, +1 level of Druid Spellcasting


10th
Earth Dreamer 2
+7/+2
+9
+2
+9
Concentration 13 ranks, Handle animal 7 ranks, Knowledge (nature) 11 ranks, Spellcraft 13 ranks, Survival 6 ranks, Knowledge (religion) 13 ranks
-
Earth Dream, +1 level of Druid Spellcasting


11th
Contemplative 1
+7/+2
+9
+2
+11
Concentration 14 ranks, Handle animal 7 ranks, Knowledge (nature) 11 ranks, Spellcraft 14 ranks, Survival 6 ranks, Knowledge (religion) 14 ranks
-
Bonus Domain (war), divine health, +1 level of Druid Spellcasting


12th
Earth Dreamer 3
+7/+2
+9
+3
+11
Concentration 15 ranks, Handle animal 7 ranks, Knowledge (nature) 12 ranks, Spellcraft 15 ranks, Survival 6 ranks, Knowledge (religion) 14 ranks
Weapon Focus
Lesser tremorsense, +1 level of Druid Spellcasting


13th
Earth Dreamer 4
+8/+3
+10
+3
+12
Concentration 16 ranks, Handle animal 7 ranks, Knowledge (nature) 13 ranks, Spellcraft 16 ranks, Survival 6 ranks, Knowledge (religion) 14 ranks
-
Earth Sight, +1 level of Druid Spellcasting


14th
Earth Dreamer 5
+8/+3
+10
+3
+12
Concentration 17 ranks, Handle animal 7 ranks, Knowledge (nature) 14 ranks, Spellcraft 17 ranks, Survival 6 ranks, Knowledge (religion) 14 ranks
-
Earth Glide, +1 level of Druid Spellcasting


15th
Ordained Champion 1
+9/+4
+12
+3
+14
Concentration 18 ranks, Handle animal 7 ranks, Knowledge (nature) 14 ranks, Spellcraft 17 ranks, Survival 6 ranks, Knowledge (religion) 14 ranks, Knowledge (arcana) 1 rank, Knowledge (the planes) 1 rank
-
Stone Form


16th
Ordained Champion 2
+10/+5
+13
+3
+15
Concentration 18 ranks, Handle animal 7 ranks, Knowledge (nature) 14 ranks, Spellcraft 18 ranks, Survival 6 ranks, Knowledge (religion) 14 ranks, Knowledge (arcana) 2 ranks, Knowledge (the planes) 2 ranks
Diehard (bonus feat)
+1 level of Druid Spellcasting


17th
Ordained Champion 3
+11/+6/+1
+13
+4
+15
Concentration 19 ranks, Handle animal 7 ranks, Knowledge (nature) 14 ranks, Spellcraft 18 ranks, Survival 6 ranks, Knowledge (religion) 14 ranks, Knowledge (arcana) 3 ranks, Knowledge (the planes) 3 ranks
-
Channel Spell, Divine Bulwark, +1 level of Druid Spellcasting


18th
Ordained Champion 4
+12/+7/+2
+14
+4
+16
Concentration 19 ranks, Handle animal 7 ranks, Knowledge (nature) 14 ranks, Spellcraft 19 ranks, Survival 6 ranks, Knowledge (religion) 14 ranks, Knowledge (arcana) 4 ranks, Knowledge (the planes) 4 ranks
Earth Spell
Fist of the Gods


19th
Ordained Champion 5
+13/+8/+3
+14
+4
+16
Concentration 20 ranks, Handle animal 7 ranks, Knowledge (nature) 14 ranks, Spellcraft 19 ranks, Survival 6 ranks, Knowledge (religion) 14 ranks, Knowledge (arcana) 5 ranks, Knowledge (the planes) 5 ranks
-
War Caster


20th
Druid 9
+13/+8/+3
+14
+5
+16
Concentration 20 ranks, Handle animal 7 ranks, Knowledge (nature) 18 ranks, Spellcraft 20 ranks, Survival 6 ranks, Knowledge (religion) 14 ranks, Knowledge (arcana) 5 ranks, Knowledge (the planes) 5 ranks
-
Venom Immunity




This build uses Contemplative (Complete Divine), Earth Dwarf (Races of Stone), Knowledge Devotion (Complete Champion), Earth Sense (Races of Stone), Stone Form (Races of stone), Earth Spell (Races of Stone), Ordained Champion (Complete Champion)

[WhamBamSam]

Garag "Sunsword" Ragnarsund
Wasteland Dragoon, Champion of Re-Horakhty
http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20111006230610/vicsthegodthatwas/images/7/78/Dwarf_fighter.jpg

LG Dwarf Paladin 5/Ordained Champion of Re-Horakhty 5/Earth Dreamer 5/Ashworm Dragoon 5


As a young Dwarf just growing into his beard, Garag grew up in the mountains on the edge of the Burning Waste. Devoted to Re-Horakhty with a near zealous fervor, but with a strength of arm and build more suggestive of a fighter, Garag took up the khopesh in Re-Horakhty's name, and swore himself to the brotherhood of Paladins serving the kingdom. After serving as a squire and shield Dwarf for a few decades, Garag finally earned his spurs and became a notable member of the brotherhood, able to summon his own warmount and bring Re-Horakhty's favor into being with a small number of spells.

He even earned the notice of his order's Ordained Champions, Dwarves dedicated wholeheartedly to Re-Horakhty and to bringing war to any that would threaten Dwarvenkind. Usually a caste of warrior-priests, any with a spark of divine spellcasting is able to dedicate themselves to the cause, so long as they can prove their worth with Re-Horakhty's favored weapon, the khopesh. And Garag was able to do that better than many. He took to the life of sword-swinging and foe-smiting with a near reckless abandon, but unfortunately for him, this abandon nearly brought about his downfall.

While fighting in a cave deep underground against his homeland's most hated foes, the Dark Elves, Garag took a deep cut to his shoulder, nearly severing the artery running under his clavicle, and rendering his shield arm useless for the immediate future. While lying on the cavern floor, bleeding out from his near fatal wound, Garag found solace with the earth soaking up his life force. He took peace in the steady dreams that threatened to overwhelm him, and that was when he realized he could be more than just a sword swinging lout, that he could help guide his fellows with his new-found connection to the rock and earth that he had spent his entire life treading upon.

It was at that moment that Garag decided there was more to being a Dwarf than simply driving the blade into his foes. Being a Dwarf is about being one with the earth, embracing their stolid nature and unmoving stature, emulating the immovable mountain and the winding tunnels. Being a Dwarf was about being as solid as a rock, but as shifting as the sand. With this realization, Garag decided to leave his mountain home, and to travel across the great Waste, and to meet people other than his fellow Dwarves and the dignitaries that came to trade with his clan. It was time to see more of the earth.

In his adventures across the Waste, Garag met Nomadic Humans, fierce Orcs, crafty Kobolds, and Wandering Elves. Some he fought with, some he fought against. All he learned from. When his trusty warsteed couldn't keep it's footing in the shifting sands, arrangements were made to procure other mounts. This was when Garag first rode an Ashworm. From then on, his fate was sealed. He would become one of the great Defenders of the Waste. He would become an Ashworm Dragoon.

Trading in his khopesh (figuratively) for the lance, and undergoing the Consecration of the Shifting Sand ritual, Garag joined the ranks of Dragoons as one of their Paladin members, enjoying a few benefits at the expense of his Ashworm's poison sting. He now rides across the Burning Waste with his Dragoon brothers, combating the evils that arise within, and harassing those that threaten from without.




Attribute
Base
Racial
From Level
Total


Strength
16
0
5
21


Dexterity
12
0
0
12


Constitution
12
+2
0
14


Intelligence
12
0
0
12


Wisdom
14
0
0
14


Charisma
12
-2
0
10


All increases from level go into Strength.




Level
Class
Base Attack Bonus
Fort Save
Ref Save
Will Save
Skills
Feats
Class Features


1st
Paladin
+1
+2
+0
+0
Knowledge (Nature) 2, Knowledge (Religion) 4, Spellcraft 2
Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Khopesh)
Aura of Good, Detect Evil, Smite Evil 1/day


2nd
Paladin
+2
+3
+0
+0
Knowledge (Nature) 2.5, Knowledge (Religion) 5, Spellcraft 2.5
-
Divine Grace, Lay on Hands


3rd
Paladin
+3
+3
+1
+1
Knowledge (Nature) 3, Knowledge (Religion) 6, Spellcraft 3
Weapon Focus (Khopesh)
Aura of Courage, Divine Health


4th
Paladin
+4
+4
+1
+1
Knowledge (Nature) 3.5, Knowledge (Religion) 7, Spellcraft 3.5
-
Turn Undead


5th
Paladin
+5
+4
+1
+1
Knowledge (Nature) 4, Ride 1, Spellcraft 4
-
Smite Evil 2/day, Special Mount


6th
Ordained Champion
+6/+1
+6
+1
+3
Knowledge (Nature) 4.5, Spellcraft 6
Mounted Combat
Bonus Domain (War), Combat Feats (None), Continued Advancement (Turn Undead), Modified Spontaneous Casting
Diehard, Smite[/td]
[/tr]

8th
Ordained Champion
+8/+3
+7
+2
+4
Ride 2, Spellcraft 10
-
Channel Spell, Divine Bulwark


9th
Ordained Champion
+9/+4
+8
+2
+5
Handle Animal 1, Ride 4
Earth Sense
Fist of the Gods, Rapid Spontaneous Casting


10th
Ordained Champion
+10/+5
+8
+2
+5
Handle Animal 2, Ride 6
-
Holy Warrior, War Caster


11th
Earth Dreamer
+10/+5
+10
+2
+7
Handle Animal 2.5, Ride 7
-
Earth Friend


12th
Earth Dreamer
+11/+6/+1
+11
+2
+8
Handle Animal 3, Ride 8
Ride-by Attack
Earth Dream


13th
Earth Dreamer
+11/+6/+1
+11
+3
+8
Handle Animal 4, Listen 1
-
Lesser Tremorsense


14th
Earth Dreamer
+12/+7/+2
+12
+3
+9
Listen 4
-
Earth Sight


15th
Earth Dreamer
+12/+7/+2
+12
+3
+9
Listen 7
Spirited Charge
Earth Glide


16th
Ashworm Dragoon
+13/+8/+3
+14
+3
+9
Handle Animal 6, Ride 9
-
Ashworm Mount, Saddle Bonus


17th
Ashworm Dragoon
+14/+9/+4
+15
+3
+9
Handle Animal 8, Ride 10
Trample
Bonus Feat


18th
Ashworm Dragoon
+15/+10/+5
+15
+4
+10
Handle Animal 10, Ride 11
Tremondous Charge
Heightened Sting


19th
Ashworm Dragoon
+16/+11/+6/+1
+16
+4
+10
Ride 14
-
Relentless Shield


20th
Ashworm Dragoon
+17/+12/+7/+2
+16
+4
+10
Ride 17
-
Stamp into the Sand



Spells per Day


Level
1st
2nd
3rd


1st
-
-
-


2nd
-
-
-


3rd
-
-
-


4th
1
-
-


5th
1
-
-


6th
1
-
-


7th
2
-
-


8th
2
-
-


9th
2
-
-


10th
2
1
-


11th
2
1
-


12th
2
2
-


13th
2
2
0


14th
2
2
1


15th
2
2
1


16th
2
2
1


17th
2
2
1


18th
2
2
1


19th
2
2
1


20th
2
2
1






Levels 1-5: Starting early, Garag plays as a standard sword & board Paladin. Even without the Improved Trip feat, he can still use the unique shape of his khopesh to make trip attempts, helping out his allies with a little battlefield control. He doesn't really gain much from his Divine Grace ability, without the use of a + Charisma item at least, but he still manages to dish out the melee damage, while keeping a healthy dose of AC and HP on hand. He should upgrade his starting Scale Mail with some Fullplate at his earliest convenience, and later have a suit made out of Mithral in order to take advantage of any + Dexterity items he should find himself acquiring, although it is hardly necessary. By level 5, he should be able to cast Magic Weapon, giving him access to Ordained Champion at level 6.
Levels 6-10: During this time, he is progressing through the levels of Ordained Champion, still focusing mostly on melee combat, since he doesn't really have that many spells, only 2 first level spells and 1 second level spell by level 10. Spiritual Weapon becomes a relatively useful spell from the War Domain for him to cast, putting another blade on the field to help even out the odds. He has Mounted Combat at this point, and his Paladin Special Mount, so riding in and swinging his sword isn't a bad tactic, and Heavy Warhorses have a hoof attack as well. If terrain favors, he can also charge with a lance to deal some extra damage.
Levels 11-15: By this point, his Earth Dreamer abilities start coming online. He gains a few nifty abilities, including the ability to divine the answer to some specific questions, but notably is the Earth Dreamer capstone, Earth Glide, giving him a unique mode of movement, and the ability to make some rather interesting ambush attacks.
Levels 16-20: Focusing on mounted combat more now than ever before, Garag also stalls out on his casting abilities. He caps out with 3rd level Paladin and War Domain spells, but cranks his physical damage up a few notches while riding his Ashworm. With Spirited Charge, a pair of Riding Boots, and the Valorous enchantment on his lance, Garag is looking at a x5 modifier to damage with a bonus +2d6 when charging. The best part is, he can trample foes underneath his Ashworm. This gets better at level 20, at which point Stamp into the Sand makes a trampled foe take a full round action to stand back up, taking them out of the fight for a round at a time. Even though the ritual he undertook sacrificed the poison sting abilities of his Ashworm, it is now his Paladin Special Mount.



Like any adventurer, some gear is needed, unless you are playing a VoP character. And Garag is definitely not a VoP character. They say a character should not be dependent upon items to be effective, but unless you make a Wizard or a Sorcerer, you'll never really hit that mark. However, Garag can make do with a minimal number of items. All he really needs is a special saddle (70g) to ride his Ashworm, a khopesh (16g), full-plate armor (1500g), and a heavy steel shield (20g) for melee combat, a lance (10g) for mounted combat, and maybe a light crossbow (35g) or a composite longbow (400g for a +3 Stregth rating) for ranged combat.

Now, does he get better with magic items? Of course he does! Riding Boots and a Battle Bridle top the list of items he should buy, as does getting his lance enchanted with Valorous. I would recommend something like Ghost Touch or Brilliant Energy for his khopesh, but that's just me. Soulfire (BoED) is always popular for armor enchantments, negating death effects. Strength and Constitution tomes are usually good investments, and the Belt of Magnificence (MHB) is hard to beat, if you want bonuses to all your stats (will boost attack bonus and damage from Str, AC, Reflex saves, Ride checks, and Initiative from Dex, HP, Fortitude saves, and Earth Glide duration from Con, Will saves and bonus spells from Wis, and all saves plus more turn checks from Cha. Standard defensive items also help out, along with a mode of flight (just in case).


Player's Handbook - Dwarf, Paladin, feats, weapons/armor
Complete Divine - Ordained Champion
Races of Stone - Earth Dreamer, Earth Sense
Sandstorm - Ashworm Dragoon, Khopesh, Re-Horakhty (LG Deity, has War Domain)
Forgotten Realms: Unapproachable East - Valorous Weapon Enchantment
Miniatures Handbook - Belt of Magnificence
Magic Item Compendium - Riding Boots, Battle Bridle
Book of Exalted Deeds - Soulfire Armor enchantment
Dungeon Master's Guide - Assorted other magical goodies
DragonLance Campaign Setting - Tremendous Charge
Image - Google Search for Dwarf Fighter, chose this one (http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20111006230610/vicsthegodthatwas/images/7/78/Dwarf_fighter.jpg), all credit goes to Kodiakcarl, or to whoever he pulled it from. I'm not good at tracing image sources.

[WhamBamSam]

level 5: Here, Pyotr can cast a small assortment of spells, but with power attack, knowledge devotion, and weapon focus, he can hold his own against many, but not all, foes.

level 10: More spells, more spell slots, and heightening spells in combination with Earth Spell make Pyotr a force to be reckoned with.

level 15: Pyotr uses extended spells for buffing before combat, reserving a high spell slot to power the extra attack and damage for the holy warrior feat.

level 20: At this point, very little can pose a barrier to Pyotr. Not only can he pass through solid rock, but he can cast heightened, extended spells as standard actions, with swift action war domain spells. Piling on knowledge devotion, extended divine power, fist of the gods, and war domain spells as swift actions, he can lay down full melee attacks while throwing around war-domain spells.

The sweet spot is probably level 17, when Pyotr gets rapid spontaneous casting. Since all of his spells are spontaneous, it helps his entire repertiore.

Notes: Favored Soul works well for this build because it gives Weapon Focus as a bonus feat; not having Know (Religion) or (Nature) is only a minor inconvenience, remedied in part by using Knowedge Devotion. The Chairman hinted at synergy between Earth Dreamer and Ordained Champion. I think that synergy is found in the rapid spontaneous casting of the OC and the Earth Sense prerequisite of the ED. Earth Sense is a prerequisite for Earth Spell, which can combine with RSC to raise spell levels. For a caster with a limited spell list, this lets his spell selection be more versatile.



Pyotr Bloodfist was abandoned as a child in the woods and raised by a passing tribe of orcs.

As he grew, he realized that he could never compete physically with his larger, fiercer brethren. But when his divine powers manifested he gradually garnered the respect of the tribe for his prowess, albiet unconventional, in combat.

Pyotr soon realized the injustice thrust upon the orcs by the cruel humans, and when the tribe bowed to his wisdom and accepted him as leader, he promised to bring the orcs out of obscurity to become one of the ruling races.

This decision would guide the rest of his life. He became a champion of Gruumsh, and thereafter became a nearly unstoppable force for the rise of the orcs.

During one foray against the dwarves, Pyotr was trapped in a caved-in mine. He remained there a week with little to do but contemplate his fate. Then a vision from Gruumsh told him the rocks to displace that would lead the way out without causing another cave in.

Respecting the power of the earth, Pyotr emerged from his rocky tomb to incorporate his powers over the earth in battle, defeating the dwarves and gnomes, driving them from their lands in bloody victory.




Race:
Human
Neutral Evil
Worships Gruumsh (Born in wilderness, adopted by orc tribe - becomes leader by dint of will and wiles).
Wields a spear.

Ability Scores:
Str: 14
Dex: 14
Con: 14
Int: 12
Wis: 16
Cha: 14 (increase at 4, 8, 12, 16, 20) to 19



Level
Class
Base Attack Bonus
Fort Save
Ref Save
Will Save
Skills
Feats
Class Features


1st
Favored Soul 1
+0
+2
+2
+2
Concentration(4), Spellcraft(4), Know (Arcana)(4), Know (nature)(2)
Power Attack, Heighten Spell
-


2nd
Favored Soul 2
+1
+3
+3
+3
Concentration(5), Spellcraft(5), Know (Arcana)(5), Know (nature)(2.5)
-
-


3rd
Favored Soul 3
+2
+3
+3
+3
Concentration(6), Spellcraft(6), Know (Arcana)(6), Know (nature)(3)
Knowledge Devotion (Knowledge (Religion) becomes class skill)(Complete Champion)
Deity's Weapon Focus (Spear)


4th
Favored Soul 4
+3
+4
+4
+4
Concentration(7), Spellcraft(7), Know (Arcana)(6), Know (nature)(3.5) Know (Religion)(1)
Feats
New Class Abilities


5th
Favored Soul 5
+3
+4
+4
+4
Concentration(8), Spellcraft(8), Know (Arcana)(6), Know (nature)(4) Know (Religion)(2)
Feats
Energy Resistance (Fire)


6th
Favored Soul 6
+4
+5
+5
+5
Concentration(9), Spellcraft(9), Know (Arcana)(6), Know (nature)(4.5) Know (Religion)(3)
Earth Sense (Races of Stone)
-


7th
Favored Soul 7
+5
+5
+5
+5
Concentration(10), Spellcraft(10), Know (Arcana)(6), Know (nature)(5) Know (Religion)(4)
-
-


8th
Favored Soul 8
+6/+1
+6
+6
+6
Concentration(11), Spellcraft(11), Know (Arcana)(6), Know (nature)(5) Know (Religion)(6)
-
-


9th
Favored Soul 9
+6/+1
+6
+6
+6
Concentration(12), Spellcraft(12), Know (Arcana)(7), Know (nature)(5) Know (Religion)(7)
Earth Spell (Races of Stone)
-


10th
Favored Soul 10
+7/+2
+7
+7
+7
Concentration(13), Spellcraft(13), Know (Arcana)(8), Know (nature)(5) Know (Religion)(8)
-
Energy Resistance (Cold)


11th
Ordained Champion 1
+8/+3
+9
+7
+9
Concentration(14), Spellcraft(14), Know (Arcana)(8), Know (nature)(5) Know (Religion)(8) Know (the planes)(2)
-
Access to war domain


12th
Ordained Champion 2
+9/+4
+10
+7
+10
Concentration(15), Spellcraft(15), Know (Arcana)(8), Know (nature)(5) Know (Religion)(8) Know (the planes)(4)
Diehard (bonus), Holy Warrior (Complete Champion)
+1 level FS spellcasting


13th
Earth Dreamer 1
+9/+4
+12
+7
+12
Concentration(16), Spellcraft(16), Know (Arcana)(8), Know (nature)(5), Know (Religion)(8), Know (the planes)(4), Know (dungeoneering)(2)
-
Earth Friend, +1 level FS spellcasting


14th
Earth Dreamer 2
+10/+5
+13
+7
+13
Concentration(17), Spellcraft(17), Know (Arcana)(8), Know (nature)(5), Know (Religion)(8), Know (the planes)(4), Know (dungeoneering)(4)
-
Earth Dream, +1 level FS spellcasting


15th
Ordained Champion 3
+11/+6/+1
+14
+7
+14
Concentration(18), Spellcraft(18), Know (Arcana)(8), Know (nature)(5), Know (Religion)(8), Know (the planes)(6), Know (dungeoneering)(4)
Extend Spell
Channel Spell, Divine Bulwark, +1 level FS spellcasting


16th
Earth Dreamer 3
+11/+6/+1
+14
+8
+14
Concentration(19), Spellcraft(19), Know (Arcana)(8), Know (nature)(5), Know (Religion)(8), Know (the planes)(6), Know (dungeoneering)(6)
-
Lesser Tremorsense, +1 level FS spellcasting


17th
Ordained Champion 4
+12/+7/+2
+15
+8
+15
Concentration(20), Spellcraft(20), Know (Arcana)(8), Know (nature)(5), Know (Religion)(8), Know (the planes)(8), Know (dungeoneering)(6)
-
Fist of the Gods, rapid spontaneous casting


18th
Earth Dreamer 4
+13/+8/+3
+16
+8
+16
Concentration(21), Spellcraft(21), Know (Arcana)(8), Know (nature)(7), Know (Religion)(8), Know (the planes)(8), Know (dungeoneering)(6)
Persistent Spell
Earth Sight, +1 level FS spellcasting


19th
Ordained Champion 5
+14/+9/+4
+16
+8
+16
Concentration(22), Spellcraft(22), Know (Arcana)(9), Know (nature)(7), Know (Religion)(8), Know (the planes)(9), Know (dungeoneering)(6)
-
War caster, +1 level FS spellcasting


20th
Earth Dreamer 5
+14/+9/+4
+16
+8
+16
Concentration(23), Spellcraft(23), Know (Arcana)(9), Know (nature)(7), Know (Religion)(8), Know (the planes)(9), Know (dungeoneering)(8)
-
Earth Glide, +1 level FS spellcasting;



Spells per Day/Spells Known
Spells per Day/Spells Known


Level
0lvl
1st
2nd
3rd
4th
5th
6th
7th
8th
9th


1st
5/4
4/3
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


2nd
6/5
5/3
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


3rd
6/5
6/4
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


4th
6/6
7/4
4/3
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


5th
6/6
7/5
5/3
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


6th
6/7
7/6
6/4
3/3
-
-
-
-
-
-


7th
6/7
7/6
7/4
4/3
-
-
-
-
-
-


8th
6/8
7/6
7/5
6/4
3/3
-
-
-
-
-


9th
6/8
7/6
7/5
7/4
4/3
-
-
-
-
-


10th
6/9
7/6
7/6
7/5
5/4
3/3
-
-
-
-


11th
6/9
7/6
7/6
7/5
5/4
3/3
-
-
-
-


12th
6/9
7/6
7/6
7/5
6/4
4/3
-
-
-
-


13th
6/9
7/6
7/6
7/6
6/5
5/4
3/3
-
-
-


14th
6/9
7/6
7/6
7/6
6/5
6/4
4/3
-
-
-


15th
6/9
7/6
7/6
7/6
6/6
6/5
5/4
3/3
-
-


16th
6/9
7/6
7/6
7/6
7/6
6/5
6/4
4/3
-
-


17th
6/9
7/6
7/6
7/6
7/6
6/5
6/4
4/3
-
-


18th
6/9
7/6
7/6
7/6
7/6
6/6
6/5
5/4
3/3
-


19th
6/9
7/6
7/6
7/6
7/6
6/6
6/5
6/4
4/3
-


20th
6/9
7/6
7/6
7/6
7/6
6/6
6/6
6/5
5/4
3/3

[WhamBamSam]

Alright, I think that's the lot of them. Have at it, judges.

[MilesTiden]

Yaaaaaay, someone used Disciple of Thrym! I really wanted to use it, but ran into issues with another part of my build, so I had to completely change it. I'm glad to see it put to good use, and it's better than my attempt as well. :smallwink:

[Curmudgeon]

I'll judge this round.

Illegal Build Elements
If your build has illegal parts (feats or prestige classes for which the character doesn't qualify, for example) I'll proceed to judge the entry as if the offending material were not included, as specified in the contest FAQ post. (I'm not going to fix your build and then judge my own work.) If your build ends up with only 8 legal levels, that 8 level build will be compared to the 20 level builds of your competitors. Obviously a broken build is going to hurt your score in every category, so check your entry before submitting to avoid embarrassment.

Originality
Half your score here will be determined by how you stand out from the crowd, so dropping hints that would lead to similar builds is a very bad idea. The other half of your score will be subjective: you need to surprise me. Your character's story should concentrate on how the necessary components combine in your build. Excess story means your components don't combine naturally, and Originality will be downgraded based on the degree to which you're over-compensating. Adaptation of Ordained Champion to other deities is allowed, but picking one of those alternate deities won't by itself boost your Originality score; all contest-legal deities are considered equal.

Power
Power should be in line with what's required for the necessary components. Power either significantly below or above this level will result in a lower score.

Elegance
Use as many (legal) sources as you like. Dips that work organically with the build are fine; those that don't fit will be penalized. Level adjustments and LA buyoff are perfectly fine as long as you follow the rules. Follow the presentation rules. Make the skill costs and skill totals clear. Cite your sources, with page numbers; if a source is available on the web, link it. List any necessary equipment. Use of Bloodlines or feat swaps (Psychic Reformation, Dark Chaos Shuffle) will result in a minimum score.

Use of Components
The better you use the required components, the higher the score. The more your build feels like the forbidden component, the lower the score.

[sakuuya]

Thanks, Curmudgeon! I'm glad we won't have a repeat of last round's...judging difficulties, let's say.

And I'm impressed that nobody doubled up on gods--or classes beyond the SI, for that matter. Or, heck, alignments! Here's a quick list:

Terrato, The Abyssal Maw (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=18822323&postcount=64): CE Anthropomorphic Giant Constrictor Snake Shaman 8/Earth Dreamer 5/Ordained Champion of Beltar 3
Vathoa Frostspeaker Kualavoaka (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=18822334&postcount=65): CN Goliath Barbarian 4/Fighter 1/Disciple of Thrym 4/Ordained Champion of Thrym 5/Earth Dreamer 5
Car-Innul-Vulkan-Volk Penathan-Koldune-Zemlya (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=18822338&postcount=66): LN Dream Dwarf Druid 9/Earth Dreamer 5/Contemplative 1/Ordained Champion of Joramy 5
Garag "Sunsword" Ragnarsund (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=18822344&postcount=67): LG Paladin 5/Ordained Champion of Re-Horakhty 5/Earth Dreamer 5/Ashworm Dragoon 5
Pyotr Bloodfist (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=18822352&postcount=68): NE Human Favored Soul 10/Ordained Champion of Gruumsh 5/Earth Dreamer 5

[MilesTiden]

Heck, nobody doubled up on class (aside from the required components) or race either. Well, Dwarf and Dream Dwarf I suppose, but it's still a very diverse set of contestants.

[Sian]

What 'ya know... Thraincaxhe (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=18186416&postcount=48)'s Mirrored Twin is around.

The stub i had in mind were a Azurin Shaman 5 / Human Paragon 3 / Earth Dreamer 5 / Ordained Champion 5 / Mystic Wanderer 1 / Spelldancer 1, depending on Shaped Soulmeld (Strongheart Shirt) (and the racial essensia) for ignoring the ability damage from spelldancing, but beyond not quite having the time, i kept feeling that it would be rather bland.

Also considered playing around with a Fire (or Earth) Shugenja, focusing on selfbuffs and channeled damage spells, but couldn't get around figuring out a good build

[madtinker]

...surface from the ground, bite and grab people, and drag them into the depths of the earth, where he lets them suffocate. Because of this, he is at almost no risk while he swims around, buffs up, and picks his enemies off one by one.

This is terrifying.

I might have nightmares about this.

[WhamBamSam]

I received a PM from Garag about a formatting error in his ability scores table. As the table information can still be interpreted despite the error, and it seems unlikely to influence scores one way or the other, I figure I'll save a few seconds for our esteemed judges on the entry and make the edit, unless people have serious issues with me doing so and a good case for why I shouldn't.

Please preview your entries before you send them off in the future though kids. It's just general good practice and I'd like to avoid having to make judgment calls on what is or is not an appropriate edit to allow in the future.

[Curmudgeon]

I received a PM from Garag about a formatting error in his ability scores table. As the table information can still be interpreted despite the error, and it seems unlikely to influence scores one way or the other, I figure I'll save a few seconds for our esteemed judges on the entry and make the edit, unless people have serious issues with me doing so and a good case for why I shouldn't.
Not a problem. I noted the error under Elegance, but it wasn't significant enough by itself to merit a deduction.

[The_Rippy_One]

Crap. Son of a

I missed the deadline.

I'm not going to beg to be included, that would just embarrass me, but after the winner is decided, can I post mine to get a critique? It's kind of similar to Wham's (she starts as a Spirit Shaman, but she has to hop through similar hoops to qualify for Ordained Champion (of Odin, in this case)), but she ends up a lot more tricky (literally, "uncanny trickster" is in the build-mix). I'm sort of proud of her, and I'd like people to see her, even if she can't take a prize.

[WhamBamSam]

Crap. Son of a

I missed the deadline.

I'm not going to beg to be included, that would just embarrass me, but after the winner is decided, can I post mine to get a critique? It's kind of similar to Wham's (she starts as a Spirit Shaman, but she has to hop through similar hoops to qualify for Ordained Champion (of Odin, in this case)), but she ends up a lot more tricky (literally, "uncanny trickster" is in the build-mix). I'm sort of proud of her, and I'd like people to see her, even if she can't take a prize.Just to be clear, none of those builds are mine. I just post what the contestants send in to me to preserve anonymity.

Feel free to post your build if you'd like. It happens from time to time in Iron Chef that someone will post an unsubmitted idea after the reveal, just for people to look at and comment on. If you feel more comfortable waiting until after the final reveal, that's fine too.

[dysprosium]

As I suspected I was not going to get to enter my idea. It was a dwarven Paladin of Moradin/Earth Dreamer/Ordained Champion/Hammer of Moradin.

It did not really get past the planning stages though.

[The_Rippy_One]

Just to be clear, none of those builds are mine. I just post what the contestants send in to me to preserve anonymity.

Feel free to post your build if you'd like. It happens from time to time in Iron Chef that someone will post an unsubmitted idea after the reveal, just for people to look at and comment on. If you feel more comfortable waiting until after the final reveal, that's fine too.

Oh. um, right. that makes sense. I meant the entry that starts as a Druid-> Know Devotion to get know(religion)->Contemplative (bonus domain War) to get the weapon focus and Magic Weapon requirements for Ordained Champion. Spirit Shaman, which runs similar skills and spells to Druid, more or less has to do the same to meet the pre-reqs. But I took her in a different direction, and I thought the results were kinda cute.

[Curmudgeon]

General Notes

It seems this round's required components were hard to synergize. Most entries didn't get much more out of those components than their "+1 level of existing divine spellcasting class", and made up stories to compensate for their lack of rational integration. (A story should explain how the necessary components combine in the build, not craft a fable that attempts to paper over the build's missing cohesion.) Using Knowledge Devotion as a way to pick up Knowledge (religion), and then failing to leverage that feat's primary benefit, seemed to be a theme. I had hoped to see more deities with both Earth and War in their portfolios (Beltar in regular Greyhawk, Moradin in the Living Greyhawk set, Laduguer in Forgotten Realms, the Sovereign Host in Eberron, maybe even Taiia with a way to integrate her Destroyer and Creator aspects). It states plainly in the contest rules to include the "sweet spot" in the Presentation, and nobody included a separate "sweet spot" Presentation, while everybody included snapshots at all of levels 5, 10, 15, and 20 (even the two builds without a level 20) where only one of those is required. A section explicitly presenting how your character achieved this Junkyard Wars round's objectives might have benefitted your scores, where vague allusions in the character's story did nothing to help you. Most of the characters failed to include at least one of the required components due to failures to follow the rules. Overall, pretty slapdash work, folks.



Car-Innul-Vulkan-Volk Penathan-Koldune-Zemlya

This build looks like it was thrown together without sufficient time to check it and correct mistakes and omissions. The spells per day table is missing. The story is as confusing as the ridiculous name. What game mechanism had him "visited by Joramy" (the Special entry requirement for Contemplative)? Some attempt at rationalizing that would have been helpful. No gear is specified. It looks like you didn't even have time to look up what Joramy's favored weapon was (see Complete Divine on page 121), and just left that as TBD. ("He can channel his spells through his weapon".) Without filling in the necessary "Weapon Focus with deity’s favored weapon" entry requirement for Ordained Champion those levels are not included, and you end up with a build of at most 15 levels.

Originality 2
Dream Dwarf is the expected race for entry into Earth Dreamer, according to Races of Stone (page 88), and you're not the only Dwarf this round. Dream Dwarves tend to Neutral Good alignment. Joramy is a Greyhawk deity, and her followers tend to be Neutral or Neutral Good, according to the Living Greyhawk deities document available here (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=lg/welcome), so Neutral Good is the expected alignment for your character on two counts. Lawful Neutral alignment is different here, but I can't see any reason for it, nor do you include any explanation. (Your character story reads much more as Chaotic than anything else.) Knowledge Devotion just to pick up Knowledge (religion) as a class skill was a waste; you could have done so much more with that feat. Contemplative was an interesting way to pick up Magic Weapon, though it was necessarily very late in the build for this Ordained Champion requirement.

Power 2
Earth Dreamer requires only 1st level spellcasting. Ordained Champion requires but a single 1st-level spell. You've got 8 levels of full Tier 1 spellcasting, with a bonus to 4th level spells, before you start with either of the required components. You have raw power well above what's in line with these prestige classes, but nothing of the power specific to either component until halfway through your build. The only thing that brings the character's power closer to what's appropriate to those components is the build having only 15 legal levels, and that was by error/insufficient time.

Elegance 1 (minimum score)
Is the name Car, Cal, or what? It keeps changing. Is it Koldun or Koldune?
Ability scores aren't declared by name.
Skill points spent per round aren't clear (only totals listed).
The sweet spot isn't clearly identified, unless that's what you mean by "high point" @ 15.
Lots of typos ("Hieghtened") and formatting problems.
Required Spells per Day table is missing.
No specification of animal companion, so that's not included in the build.
@12 Weapon Focus is meaningless without a weapon specification. If you'd listed weapons in your character's equipment, including a quarterstaff, I'd give this to you. However, you didn't list any gear at all, so the build fails to meet the "Weapon Focus with deity’s favored weapon" entry requirement for Ordained Champion.
@15 there's a formatting error whereby no feat is listed; Stone Form appears as a class feature, but no actual class features show up.
@20 "Cal would not reach this level unless XP penalties are ignored." What are you referring to? You've got only a single base class, so there's no chance of multiclassing XP penalties.

Use of Components 1 (minimum score)
As detailed above, you fail to meet the entry criteria for Ordained Champion, so that required component is not included.

The story mentions using burrowing Animal forms to take enemies by surprise @ level 10, with no further details. Now maybe that's what you're using Earth Sense (required for Earth Dreamer) for, but it doesn't seem likely since the feat gives no help in pinpointing and you don't detail a scheme like burrowing at half speed and using a move action to sense what's within 20' of you to see if any creatures have popped up or dropped off your Earth Sense net. Failing that, you're just burrowing around without a clue. I don't see any other specification of use for this required feat, nor for lesser tremorsense, or pretty much any class ability other than wild shape.

You had a perfect opportunity to develop some synergy between Druid wild empathy and Earth Dreamer earth friend, but you didn't ever improve your Charisma score for wild empathy, or even mention how these class abilities could dovetail.

With Ordained Champion not included, and Earth Dreamer just plugged in as required, you get a minimum score here.



Garag "Sunsword" Ragnarsund

This was a mostly solid build; it at least qualified for the required components, and you thereby favorably distinguished yourself from some of your competitors. It was also a build that focused on everything but those required components: the character is a Paladin/Ashworm Dragoon with some other stuff as filler.

Originality 3
You're one of two Dwarf characters. Dwarf was also my guess as to the most likely race, so no originality points there. I was expecting Paladin as a way to gain access to both Magic Weapon as a divine spell and undead turning. Your feat choices are very run of the mill. Because no other contestant had Paladin levels, and Ashworm Dragoon is a definite surprise, I'm going to be generous here and boost your score up to the next point.

Power 2
"By level 5, he should be able to cast Magic Weapon, giving him access to Ordained Champion at level 6." You could have entered Ordained Champion at level 5, which would have favorably improved your presentation at that level (and your Power score). Paladin 4 and Paladin 5 have identical Spells per Day; your starting Wisdom of 14 grants the necessary bonus spell to give you a 1st-level spell; and Magic Weapon is a 1st-level spell for a Paladin. I don't see any advantage to waiting until after Paladin 5. You pick up your special mount then, but with only 1 rank in Ride it's nothing to shout about.

Your spellcasting is very much sub-par. Being able to cast nothing greater than 3rd-level spells, despite +8 levels of spellcasting from the required components, is underwhelming. You missed an opportunity to make your Paladin spells compatible with your mounted charge attacks by neglecting Battle Blessing (Complete Champion, page 55) for swift action casting. That feat would have helped compensate for Ordained Champion Rapid Spontaneous Casting not being beneficial to the character.

You make some use of Listen as an Earth Dreamer class skill but fail to pick up a single rank of Spot despite having it as an Ashworm Dragoon class skill, so your character is the next thing to blind.

Your Strength ends up (before gear) at 21, while your Ashworm mount starts at Strength 21 and ends up at Strength 23 due to your Dragoon levels. That's only a +1 improvement even if you never boosted your Strength, so Tremendous Charge is a low-value feat choice. Since you would boost your Strength, it's just a bad feat for the character.

Elegance 2
You've listed all your necessary gear, which is a definite plus. You've got all the presentation points, though I didn't see any indication of the required build sweet spot. There were quite a few build table problems. Noticeably, you list levels as "Paladin, Paladin, Paladin", not "Paladin 1, Paladin 2, Paladin 3". Perhaps if you had listed the numbers you'd have noticed that Ordained Champion 2 isn't there: the table omits 7th level entirely. Your skill points spent per round aren't clearly identified (only totals are listed). Several listed abilities don't apply to you:
Modified Spontaneous Casting due to no levels in the forbidden component
Rapid Spontaneous Casting due to no ability to spontaneously cast War domain spells
Heightened Sting due to Consecration of the Sifting Sand
Stamp into the Sand because the Ashworm Mount only makes sting attacks instead of normal Trample hoof attacks, and due to Consecration of the Sifting Sand it has no sting
Use of Components 1 (minimum score)
By building up Strength over Wisdom you've made your Ordained Champion Holy Warrior class ability useless.

You obtain access to the War domain spells with Ordained Champion. Each domain includes 9 spells, but you only get to take advantage of 2 of them. (You already have Magic Weapon as a Paladin, and only progress to 3rd-level spells.) Being limited to low-level spells weakens most of your Ordained Champion abilities.

You don't get to use Ordained Champion Rapid Spontaneous Casting because you didn't obtain any ability to spontaneously cast War domain spells. You could have taken Domain Spontaneity (Complete Divine, page 80) to make use of this component feature, for instance.

Your build similarly fails to leverage Earth Dreamer capabilities. The required Earth Sense entry feat can't be used while mounted, and your build emphasizes riding. Earth Dream is only useful for information about mountains, yet as an Ashworm Dragoon you ride across the wastes and avoid the mountains. With Earth Glide you can move through the earth, but your Ashworm Mount never tries to submerge in open sand.



Pyotr Bloodfist

This build seemed designed to feel as much like the forbidden component as possible, with the required components padding out the last levels seemingly as an afterthought. It distinguished itself from the competition by a "stealth" (undeclared) higher point buy than specified in the contest rules.

Originality 2
You picked the most obvious choice for racial power, and the most obvious choice for class power that wasn't the forbidden component. Your "abandoned in the woods, only to become a great leader" story is an obvious knockoff of Romulus, with feral Orcs replacing feral Wolves. Even delaying the required components until late in your build wasn't original in this Junkyard Wars round. I guess using 38 point buy instead of the standard 32 specified for the competion, and failing to make your case for its necessity in your entry, was original, but definitely not in a good way. The only thing keeping you from a minimum score is your competitors not matching either your race or base class.

Power 1 (minimum score)
Earth Dreamer requires only 1st level spellcasting. Ordained Champion requires but a single 1st-level spell. You're fully halfway through the 20 level build, casting 5th level spells, before you start even the first required component. You have raw power well above what's in line with these prestige classes, but nothing of the power specific to either component until very late in your build. To balance out this great spellcasting power you're essentially deaf, blind, and clueless: not a single rank in Listen, Spot, or Sense Motive despite two of those three skills being class skills for you at some point. You're also using a higher point buy than standard for the competition, which you apparently felt was necessary to crank up both Favored Soul spellcasting stats (Wisdom and Charisma).

Elegance 1 (minimum score)
Your build table was hard to read. Skill points spent per round aren't clear (totals are listed redundantly every single level, even when you don't add any ranks to those skills). Also, it bugs me that you spelled out Concentration (13 letters) and Spellcraft (10 letters) but for some reason felt compelled to truncate Knowledge (9 letters). Also, why did you put the rank totals in parentheses, and separate some (but not all) skills by commas? You did list the level number of each class for clarity, which I appreciate. The build table shows "Access to war domain", but that's inaccurate; you only gain access to War domain spells, not the domain granted power — and really, only those domain spells at levels 7-9. Lastly, what's with the multiple "Feats" and "New Class Abilities" placeholders in your build table? Didn't you bother to read it before submitting?

Sources are inadequately specified. Now, I know that Favored Soul is in Complete Divine on pages 6-10, Ordained Champion is in Complete Champion on pages 90-94, Earth Dreamer is in Races of Stone on pages 110-112, Power Attack (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/feats.htm#powerAttack) is in Player's Handbook on page 98 and also linkable (as I did), ... but you failed to document any of these things for other folks looking at your build.

You're not required to write up a presentation at all four points, and considering you have absolutely nothing of the required components at the first two, you would have been better off skipping those.

Using 38 point buy, and trying to sneak it by without making your case for its necessity in your entry as required by the Creation rules, drops you down to the minimum score for an otherwise legal build.

Use of Components 2
There's little in your build that ties anything else to the required components; the Earth Spell feat and a spontaneous casting base class for Rapid Spontaneous Casting (which you don't get until level 17, but that shouldn't cause a penalty in this category) are the only exceptions I could see, so you don't merit much on the positive side. On the negative side, half your build uses a class which feels very much like the forbidden component, and that causes a serious reduction. (Edit: +1 to this score.)


Terrato, The Abyssal Maw

The build falls apart at the very first class level, leaving (at best) Monstrous Humanoid 3/Shaman 8. There's an illegal number of skill points @ Shaman 1 (14 used out of only 5 available); this appears to rely on a house rule whereby "unused" skill points accumulate for later use. Because there aren't enough (legal) skill points to obtain the skill ranks requirement for Ordained Champion, no Ordained Champion levels are included. Because Ordained Champion levels are where the skill ranks required for Earth Dreamer are ostensibly (illegally again, for what it's worth) obtained, the Earth Dreamer levels are also not included in the build.

Oriental Adventures is a 3.0 source. The 3.5 update (in Dragon # 318) is disallowed for this competition, but even that long article doesn't include a full revision to comply with all 3.5 rules changes. Ultimately, your individual DM would have to make some adjustments before this 3.0 content could be used in their 3.5 game. Regrettably, I have to judge your build without those DM-specific adjustments.

The bonus feat from the Shaman War domain granted power ([I]Weapon Focus (spiked gauntlet)][I]) is an illegal choice. "Weapon Focus with a Small or Medium-size simple or martial melee weapon of your choice" refers to the 3.0 weapon size system. Under that system, a spiked gauntlet is Tiny, not Small or Medium (see 3.0 Player's Handbook, page 98). It's also an illegal choice even using the 3.5 weapon size system, because a Small or Medium spiked gauntlet will not be usable by Terrato, a Large creature. (A spiked gauntlet of appropriate size for a creature is a Light weapon. Starting from the basis of a Light weapon suitable to this Large creature, one size reduction to Medium drops the weapon category outside of the {light, one-handed, two-handed} allowable weapon categories.)

The Shaman animal companion class feature is dependent on use of the Animal Friendship spell, which does not exist in D&D 3.5.

I'm not sure from the Junkyard FAQ post whether an illegal character merits a 0 in multiple categories or just in Elegance, but a build of 8 class levels is probably worth some score. I stopped looking for errors in the build when any category except Elegance dropped down to the minimum score of 1.

Originality 2
The build's reliance on a house rule to save up unused skill points was certainly original, but in a way that hurt your score enormously. Failing to qualify for either of the required components because of that illegal skill usage was equally original, alas. Your racial choice was cheesy but novel. You also choose a deity offering both Earth and War domains, which was a nice touch. If not for the negatives you might have had a notable score here.

Power 1 1 (minimum score)
The Power is that of a build of at most 11 HD (except various skills, feats, and class features removed for illegality), with only 2 attacks per full attack.

Elegance 0 (illegal build)
There are other Elegance problems, but it would just be salt in the wound to mention them.

Use of Components 1 (minimum score)
The required components are not included. Even if you'd constructed the build legally you'd be short on the Ordained Champion required component.


Vathoa Frostspeaker Kualavoaka

Your race is Goliath, a Monstrous Humanoid. The 1 racial HD exchange rule for the first class level appears in three places in Monster Manual:
Humanoids and Class Levels in Improving Monsters (page 290)
Humanoid section in Making Monsters (page 295)
Humanoid Type definition in Glossary (page 310)
Monstrous Humanoids do not qualify under this rule, and I stick to the actual rules rather than examples. Consequently your first level must be 1 hit die of Monstrous Humanoid, and the x4 skill points multiplier applies to Monstrous Humanoid skills (2 + INT mod), not Barbarian skills (4 + INT mod). This makes your starting skill ranks illegal and thus not included. Because of this exclusion you do not legally obtain the Knowledge (nature) ranks requirement for entry to Earth Dreamer, and those levels are not included.

Originality 4

Goliath was an unexpected race. Thrym, a deity offering both Earth and War domains, was a pleasant surprise. Disciple of Thrym, though you only used 4 levels of that 10-level PrC, was quite novel. Your feats were rather less exciting, and of course you failed to pick up Holy Warrior. Still, an excellent showing here.

Power 3

Your Power score suffers by having only 14 legal class levels (15 HD; ECL 16) in the build. You miss out on the feats, skill points, saves, and BAB improvement you would have normally gotten from those class levels. You get a little bit from the 1 HD of Monstrous Humanoid you should have included, but still fall short of the maximum full attack with +15 BAB. Your biggest detriment from the non-included Earth Dreamer levels is that your spellcasting, which starts fairly late, also ends early with 5 fewer levels than you had specified. You get 4th level casting rather than the 5th level casting which would have been a more harmonious match with the required components; still, you're not too far off the mark.

Being able to use Channel Spell while raging boosts your score here.

Elegance 2

You've included racial adjustments in your starting ability scores rather than making the 32 point buy numbers distinct. It's legal, just unclear.

Level adjustment is never a first level; it's always added on top (and removed from the top, not bottom, with LA buyoff). This formatting problem makes your feats appear to come in at levels 2, 4, 7, ... which of course is not by the rules. Skill points spent per round aren't clear (only totals are listed). The build table has Barbarian, Barbarian, Barbarian; not Barbarian 1, Barbarian 2, Barbarian 3. Coupled with your "off by one" presentation problem and the skill ranks issue, you've made this somewhat tedious to read and judge. By contrast, striking out class features which don't apply to the character (Modified Spontaneous Casting, for instance) significantly improved those items from the standpoint of clarity.

With Barbarian as the Goliath favored class, one extra base class doesn't cause multiclassing issues. The Fighter dip was in keeping with a desire for more martial proficiency (lacking class features, Fighter is basically "flavorless" and doesn't conflict with much) so it doesn't hurt your Elegance score.

I didn't see any rationale for the character being Chaotic Neutral rather than Chaotic Evil to match Thrym's alignment.

Your build's sweet spot was not identified as required in the Presentation rules.

Sources were incomplete. You don't specify any page numbers or link to web-available content. You fail to list the Trapkiller ACF (Dungeonscape, page 8) and Never Outnumbered skill trick (Complete Scoundrel, page 87) sources, for examples.

"Additionally, since Channel Spell is a Su ability that expends a spell without officially "casting" it, she can use it while raging." You get credit for cleverness and reading the errata, which is enough of a boost to keep you above a minimum score in this category despite the many Elegance issues.

Use of Components 2

Even if you had qualified for both required components, you've neglected them entirely for the first half of your build.

Doubling up on the Weapon Focus benefit for both Disciple of Thrym and Ordained Champion exhibits good synergy between the required components and the rest of your build. Figuring out you could make Ordained Champion Channel Spell work with your Barbarian base class's rage shows a creative combination of disparate rules.

You do not qualify for Earth Dreamer entry, so that required component is not included. Even if you had managed the entry reuirement, because your build would have had 18 legal class levels (rather than the 19 you indicate) you would have only had 4/5 of the required component. Your choice of Thrym, a deity with both Earth and War domains, would have benefitted you here if you had included both required components, but in the end does not.

[Wacky89]

Curmudgeon, about Vathoa.

Where in Races of Stone does it say Goliath has a RHD? Have you even looked at the book at page 56?
It very clearly says it only has a LA of +1, no RHD.

[Curmudgeon]

Curmudgeon, about Vathoa.

Where in Races of Stone does it say Goliath has a RHD? Have you even looked at the book at page 56?
It very clearly says it only has a LA of +1, no RHD.
Of course I've looked at the Goliath racial description. It declares the level adjustment, but makes no mention of special treatment regarding racial hit dice. Thus we're left with the default rule for any non-Humanoid race.

[Wacky89]

Of course I've looked at the Goliath racial description. It declares the level adjustment, but makes no mention of special treatment regarding racial hit dice. Thus we're left with the default rule for any non-Humanoid race.

I guess that's one interpretation of the rules ANY non-humanoid race has a built in RHD of 1.
Good thing I never have to experience you as a GM.

[ExLibrisMortis]

You are wrong about Goliaths and RHD, Curmudgeon. The text of the rule on page 290 is:
"Humanoids and Class Levels: Creatures with 1 or less HD replace their monster levels with their character levels. For example, a goblin sorcerer loses its humanoid attack bonus, saving throw bonuses, skills, and feats, and gains the attack bonus, save bonuses, skills, feats, and other class abilities of a 1st-level sorcerer"

Emphasis mine. That the rules otherwise don't mention non-humanoids is irrelevant. In addition, the example goliath, for example in the prestige class section, in Races of Stone, do not have any racial hit dice.

Edit: Incidentally, Savage Species has the following in the section on antropomorphic animals:
"Small anthropomorphic animal has 1 Hit Die. A Medium-size one has 2 Hit Dice, and a Large one has 3 Hit Dice. Anthropomorphic animals use d8s for Hit Dice. Only Small anthropomorphic animals lose their monster Hit Dice when they take class levels."
As it happens, antropomorhpic animals are all monstrous humanoids.


As for Terrato's weapon focus, you are either wrong, or deliberately trying to sabotage a build you don't like. The War domain was updated to 3.5, and it allows you to pick up weapon focus with your deity's favoured weapon. Beltar's favoured weapon is, in fact, a spiked gauntlet. That it's not called a 'shaman domain' is something no reasonable DM would care about.

[Curmudgeon]

You are wrong about Goliaths and RHD, Curmudgeon. The text of the rule on page 290 is:
"Humanoids and Class Levels: Creatures with 1 or less HD replace their monster levels with their character levels. For example, a goblin sorcerer loses its humanoid attack bonus, saving throw bonuses, skills, and feats, and gains the attack bonus, save bonuses, skills, feats, and other class abilities of a 1st-level sorcerer"

Emphasis mine. That the rules otherwise don't mention non-humanoids is irrelevant. In addition, the example goliath, for example in the prestige class section, in Races of Stone, do not have any racial hit dice.
I added some extra emphasis to your quote. The header sets the context for what follows: Humanoid creatures. As I noted in the judging, this 1 HD exchange rule appears in three places, and every one of them refers to Humanoids. This is the only one of the three where there's even the possibility of reading the rule any other way. And, obviously, I don't.

I've explained the rules clearly, and I'm done arguing this point here. If you want to volunteer to judge all the entries, and do so in a consistent fashion using different criteria than mine, go ahead.

[madtinker]

Thanks for judging Curmudgeon!

I'm a little disappointed in how my build stacked up, but you've explained clearly why, and I'll take your comments into consideration in my next entry.

[Troacctid]

Sorry, wait, where does it say Goliaths have racial hit dice? Goliaths don't have racial hit dice.

[Wacky89]

Sorry, wait, where does it say Goliaths have racial hit dice? Goliaths don't have racial hit dice.

It's because Curmudgeon interpretation of the rules is that if it doesn't say it has RHD, they have 1RHD because they aren't humanoid.
Since their first RHD normally would get changed out with a class level, but apparently it is only for humanoids :)

[Troacctid]

That would only apply to races that actually have racial HD. Goliaths don't. There's no text saying they do.

There aren't even any sample NPCs that have a racial hit die.

[Wacky89]

That would only apply to races that actually have racial HD. Goliaths don't. There's no text saying they do.

There aren't even any sample NPCs that have a racial hit die.

Yeah but he's assuming they have 1 RHD, you're totally right that there is no text saying they have.

[Troacctid]

Furthermore, the general rule specifically forbids beginning play with 1 RHD and no class levels. It's only legal to begin with no class levels if you have a minimum of 2 RHD. By Curmudgeon's interpretation, any non-humanoid races with fewer than 2 hit dice are illegal choices, period, and would result in the whole build not being scored. Which is not very fair. Imagine submitting a build that happened to be a Tibbit and having the whole thing thrown out.

[Curmudgeon]

That would only apply to races that actually have racial HD. Goliaths don't.
So Goliaths simply don't exist? Every creature in D&D has racial HD. Without hit dice it's not a creature.

[Wacky89]

So Goliaths simply don't exist? Every creature in D&D has racial HD. Without hit dice it's not a creature.

The same can be said about humans elves and every other race in PHB. Don't they exist either?

[Curmudgeon]

The same can be said about humans elves and every other race in PHB. Don't they exist either?
They certainly exist, and they have racial HD by which to do so.

[Wacky89]

They certainly exist, and they have racial HD by which to do so.

They're not listed anywhere with a RHD. So they must not exist

[Troacctid]

So Goliaths simply don't exist? Every creature in D&D has racial HD. Without hit dice it's not a creature.

Source?

Goliaths have hit dice determined by their class levels. There's no entry anywhere that lists them as having racial HD. And even if there were, a Goliath Monstrous Humanoid 1 would not be a legal PC as it has no class levels, and a monster must have 2 or more RHD in order to be playable without class levels.


If a monster has 1 Hit Die or less, or if it is a template creature, it must start the game with one or more class levels, like a regular character. If a monster has 2 or more Hit Dice, it can start with no class levels (though it can gain them later).

[Wacky89]

The passage from p. 290 of MM only says humanoids because all of the examples are humanoids.

You can for a example look at the planetouched Aasimar. In the example for that race they ONLY have a class level in warrior, nothing else!

[Curmudgeon]

Source?
The Glossary (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/glossary&term=Glossary_dnd_HitDie&alpha=H):
Hit Die

In the singular form, a die rolled to generate hit points. In the plural form, a measure of relative power that is synonymous with character level for the sake of spells, magic items, and magical effects that affect a certain number of Hit Dice (HD) of creatures.



You can for a example look at the planetouched Aasimar. In the example for that race they ONLY have a class level in warrior, nothing else!
Examples are often wrong. Here's what Monster Manual III Errata says on this point:
When the text within a product contradicts itself, our general policy is that the primary source (actual rules text) is correct and any secondary reference (such as in a monster’s statistics block) is incorrect. I follow the actual rules, not the examples, just as WotC requires.

[weckar]

To be fair; with no way of knowing (I don't recall a listing anywhere) we have no way of knowing that - by this logic - Goliaths don't have MORE than 1 RHD :smallconfused:

[Wacky89]

It was already discussed here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?327285-3-5-On-the-RAW-basis-for-dropping-the-first-and-only-RHD-of-non-humanoids) and the conclusion was that even non-humanoids with a 1hd or less will get it switched out for a class level. But tbh guys, I dont think its worth discussing with this guy.
He has obviously always played with that house rule of his, so I dont think we can change his mind.

[sakuuya]

It was already discussed here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?327285-3-5-On-the-RAW-basis-for-dropping-the-first-and-only-RHD-of-non-humanoids) and the conclusion was that even non-humanoids with a 1hd or less will get it switched out for a class level. But tbh guys, I dont think its worth discussing with this guy.
He has obviously always played with that house rule of his, so I dont think we can change his mind.

Also, it's not like it matters for the competition. The only build affected is already in first place, so unless Garag manages to squeeze four more points out of Curmudgeon, it won't affect the rankings.

[Troacctid]

The Glossary (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/glossary&term=Glossary_dnd_HitDie&alpha=H):
That defines what a hit die is. I don't see how it implies that all races have racial hit dice?


The passage from p. 290 of MM only says humanoids because all of the examples are humanoids.

You can for a example look at the planetouched Aasimar. In the example for that race they ONLY have a class level in warrior, nothing else!

Oh, I actually agree that replacing the first hit die with a class level is, by RAW, a feature of the humanoid type. The reference crops up again in other places too. If you are a monstrous humanoid with +1 LA and 1 RHD, your first class level puts you at ECL 3 rather than replacing your first hit die. There's even an example to that effect on page 173 of the DMG, and several playable nonhumanoid races (e.g. pixies (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/sprite.htm#pixie)) have a specific exception written into their entry to allow them to trade their 1 HD for a class level. The thing is, races designed for PCs tend not to have racial hit dice at all, even just a single one, and goliaths are such a race. There's no hit die that needs to be traded the way there might be with some other race.

[Curmudgeon]

That defines what a hit die is. I don't see how it implies that all races have racial hit dice?
If it's a creature, it has hit dice. If it's a creature and it has not (yet) acquired any class levels, it must necessarily have racial hit dice rather than class hit dice.

[Deadline]

It was already discussed here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?327285-3-5-On-the-RAW-basis-for-dropping-the-first-and-only-RHD-of-non-humanoids) and the conclusion was that even non-humanoids with a 1hd or less will get it switched out for a class level. But tbh guys, I dont think its worth discussing with this guy.
He has obviously always played with that house rule of his, so I dont think we can change his mind.

Curmudgeon is the person on these forums that we usually go to in order to get the RAW answer, mainly because he's very rarely wrong about it.

I'm not saying his interpretations make things playable (pure RAW doesn't work properly in my opinion), but I don't think he's wrong in this case. And arguing the point to this degree seems to be both ridiculous (it's a silly internet competition), and unhelpful (it doesn't change the rankings and only serves to alienate current and potential judges, which is not a commodity we are exactly swimming in).

For what it's worth, I sure as heck wouldn't rule it that way, and it seems blatantly clear to me what the RAI is. But each judge uses their own criteria, and as long as they apply it consistently, it is at least reasonably fair.

And thanks for taking the time to judge Curmudgeon.

[MilesTiden]

It's such a shame this match is going to go unjudged. How sad. :smallfrown: Ah well, maybe we'll get a judge next time.

[Deadline]

It's such a shame this match is going to go unjudged. How sad. :smallfrown: Ah well, maybe we'll get a judge next time.

Curmudgeon delivered a judging here: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=18844179&postcount=82

[MilesTiden]

Curmudgeon delivered a judging here: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=18844179&postcount=82

Sorry, mistyped.

It's such a shame this match is going to go unjudged. How sad. :smallfrown: Ah well, maybe we'll get a judge next time.

[Curmudgeon]

And thanks for taking the time to judge Curmudgeon.
You're welcome.

I'm wondering how long other people take to judge these things. I've got a pretty good comprehension of the D&D sources (large book collection; superior recall; and way too much time spent reading, bookmarking, and summarizing this stuff) and I haven't been able to get my time per build down under about 4 hours (3½ hours for study and ½ an hour for the writeup). Any less than that just wouldn't be adequately thorough, I feel.

[Deadline]

You're welcome.

I'm wondering how long other people take to judge these things. I've got a pretty good comprehension of the D&D sources (large book collection; superior recall; and way too much time spent reading, bookmarking, and summarizing this stuff) and I haven't been able to get my time per build down under about 4 hours (3½ hours for study and ½ an hour for the writeup). Any less than that just wouldn't be adequately thorough, I feel.

I'm in a similar range for time spent on judging. It gets particularly rough in rounds with 20+ builds. :smalltongue:

[riccaru]

Curmudgeon is the person on these forums that we usually go to in order to get the RAW answer, mainly because he's very rarely wrong about it.

I'm not saying his interpretations make things playable (pure RAW doesn't work properly in my opinion), but I don't think he's wrong in this case. And arguing the point to this degree seems to be both ridiculous (it's a silly internet competition), and unhelpful (it doesn't change the rankings and only serves to alienate current and potential judges, which is not a commodity we are exactly swimming in).

For what it's worth, I sure as heck wouldn't rule it that way, and it seems blatantly clear to me what the RAI is. But each judge uses their own criteria, and as long as they apply it consistently, it is at least reasonably fair.

And thanks for taking the time to judge Curmudgeon.

If you went with RAW all the time then only females are allowed to use any class abilities at all, as each write up in the books says things like "At second level, a Paladin gains a bonus equal to her charisma bonus [if any] on all saving throws" So changelings, dopplegangers with class levels, and all males ar unable to use most of their class abilities.

Also, Goliaths specifically have no RHD listed as opposed to the general rule of monstrous humanoids and their RHD.

[Curmudgeon]

Also, Goliaths specifically have no RHD listed as opposed to the general rule of monstrous humanoids and their RHD.
What rule says they have no racial HD? Note that examples (creature statistic blocks) are not rules. Here's what WotC wrote in Monster Manual III Errata:
When the text within a product contradicts itself, our general policy is that the primary source (actual rules text) is correct and any secondary reference (such as in a monster’s statistics block) is incorrect. Exceptions to the rule will be called out specifically. So if you can point out a rule which says Goliaths have an exception to the Monstrous Humanoid type specification, please do so.

[Troacctid]

How about this:

Creatures with Hit Dice of 1 or less have normal, class-based Hit Dice and features. They get a feat for their first class level and multiply the skill points for their first class level by four (even if they have a level adjustment).
Let's grant your interpretation that gives the character a single racial hit die. The resulting build would have quadruple skill points for the monstrous humanoid level and, per the DMG (the primary source for monsters as PCs), still have quadruple skill points for the first class level, resulting in more skill points overall.

[WhamBamSam]

I'm off the forums for a day while travelling and this happens while I'm gone. Let's try and dial things back and not get too far off-topic.

It might be best to move this discussion to another thread, since it doesn't seem likely to affect scores, and even if it did, wouldn't change the placing.

Remember, you can always judge yourself or PM me an Honorable Mention vote if you feel inclined to cause some adjustment to the scores. As Curmudgeon seems to be applying his standards evenly, responding to objections (outside the dispute process, though that's largely my fault for not getting round to posting a - since then retracted - dispute on the point), and has a clear logic behind his arguments (whether or not I agree with it), I'm not about to overrule his judging.

[dysprosium]

I apologize if I am stepping on your toes WhamBamSam. Your post is spot on. I just felt a need to chime in.


Curmudgeon is the person on these forums that we usually go to in order to get the RAW answer, mainly because he's very rarely wrong about it.

I'm not saying his interpretations make things playable (pure RAW doesn't work properly in my opinion), but I don't think he's wrong in this case. And arguing the point to this degree seems to be both ridiculous (it's a silly internet competition), and unhelpful (it doesn't change the rankings and only serves to alienate current and potential judges, which is not a commodity we are exactly swimming in).

For what it's worth, I sure as heck wouldn't rule it that way, and it seems blatantly clear to me what the RAI is. But each judge uses their own criteria, and as long as they apply it consistently, it is at least reasonably fair.

And thanks for taking the time to judge Curmudgeon.

I wholeheartedly agree with Deadline on this one. Curmudgeon has earned his reputation around here. You want a RAW answer, he is one of the ones to ask.

Judging these kinds of contests is often a thankless job. He took time out to give his opinions on the builds. There are plenty of cases where the judge and contestant are not going to agree. That's just life. It is a reason why multiple judges are requested for these things. Different people see different things differently.

I will admit to skimming the judging to see what the scores were all about. They seemed a little low (considering that Curmudgeon has judged for some Zinc Saucier rounds before). It is often said that those new to these kinds of competitions should look back at past rounds to get a feel for what has earned high marks before. I would say that there are unwritten expectations that judges may have. Looking at the past rounds (as well as experiencing them) help get that what those expectations are.


Sorry, mistyped.

It's such a shame this match is going to go unjudged. How sad. :smallfrown: Ah well, maybe we'll get a judge next time.

You guys don't know what really bad judging is. (Some of you may know exactly what I am talking about here . . .) What Curmudgeon gave you was consistently applied critical judging. I've been judged critically before and taken that criticism and worked on a better product for the future.

I have learned that one needs a thick skin with these kinds of things. Sometimes I need reminding of this tidbit. Remember this is supposed to be fun.

[WeaselGuy]

Lemme say this I'm in the Army. I get enough "beating around the bush" b.s. at work. So, while I thought my score build was alright, I also know that I rushed it (did the whole thing in about 4 hours), and I obviously missed a few things, and could have done much better. With that being said, Curmudgeon gave an honest, far and critical judging (some might say brutally so), but it is no less than I would expect from someone of his caliber.

So, thank you Curmugeon, and thank you to any of the other Judges that may step up. Thank you WBS for hosting this competition, and thank you to the other competitors. It takes all of us to pull these things off.

[madtinker]

I want to add that curmudgeon's comments felt amazingly similar to comments I have received about peer-reviewed academic journal articles. He put far more work into this than I expected, and while his feedback isn't sugar coated, it will help me in the future do better work. That's the whole point of peer review and criticism.

[riccaru]

What rule says they have no racial HD? Note that examples (creature statistic blocks) are not rules. Here's what WotC wrote in Monster Manual III Errata: So if you can point out a rule which says Goliaths have an exception to the Monstrous Humanoid type specification, please do so.

On page 84 of Races of Stone it says "Goliath characters follow all rules for characters described in the Players Handbook" Any RHD added to a goliath is beyond any rule in its' entry or elsewhere. You're adding features that aren't in the rules at all. Unless there's a rule that says all monstrous humanoids have at least 1 RHD.

This opens up a very slippery slope of RAW as well because there are contradictory rulings on this even within the SRD.


Monstrous Humanoid Type
Monstrous humanoids are similar to humanoids, but with monstrous or animalistic features. They often have magical abilities as well.

Features
A monstrous humanoid has the following features.

8-sided Hit Dice.
Base attack bonus equal to total Hit Dice (as fighter).
Good Reflex and Will saves.
Skill points equal to (2 + Int modifier, minimum 1) per Hit Die, with quadruple skill points for the first Hit Die.
Traits
A monstrous humanoid possesses the following traits (unless otherwise noted in a creature’s entry).

Darkvision out to 60 feet.
Proficient with all simple weapons and any weapons mentioned in its entry.
Proficient with whatever type of armor (light, medium, or heavy) it is described as wearing, as well as all lighter types. Monstrous humanoids not indicated as wearing armor are not proficient with armor. Monstrous humanoids are proficient with shields if they are proficient with any form of armor.
Monstrous humanoids eat, sleep, and breathe.


Oh look, a monstrous humanoid wizard has full base attack bonus and a d8 hit die. How neat.

[WeaselGuy]

I want to add that curmudgeon's comments felt amazingly similar to comments I have received about peer-reviewed academic journal articles. He put far more work into this than I expected, and while his feedback isn't sugar coated, it will help me in the future do better work. That's the whole point of peer review and criticism.

Indeed, my sentiments exactly. I've only just started building characters for these type of competitions (this is my 4th one), and already I can look at my 1st one, compared to my latest 3, and see where I've applied critiques and spent more time both developing the character and writing their post.

Every experience is an opportunity to be a learning experience.

[WhamBamSam]

A dispute for you, Curmudgeon.


First, let me say thanks to Curmudgeon for judging. This was my first entry in this kind of competition, so I appreciate the critical feedback.

General comments:
I omitted the spells per day because I thought it was only necessary for spontaneous casters. I should have paid more attention to other details (I chose Joramy as a deity because druids are already proficient with quarterstaffs, but failed to include that in the description). I gave him the long name because I though it would fit in with a dream dwarf character that adds to their name to describe important events in their life. Apologies for any confusion. Also, you alluded to entries not highlighting their sweet spot. I intended the sweet spot to be level 15, as denoted by "this is the high point of Car's career." In the future, I will try to be more explicit.

Originality:
Yes, dream dwarf was unoriginal, but I felt druid was a highly original choice for a base class. I did pick up as many knowledge skills as I could, and the intent was to use those skills with KD to gain bonuses in combat, but again, did not say so explicitly.

Power:
Thank you for your comments; in the future I will do better.

Elegance:
I agree that this build in not elegant, and with the presentation problems, this score is appropriate. I will note that I used an online point buy calculator that apparently doesn't agree with the rules. In the future I will be more careful.

Use of Components:
Thank you for your comments; I'll do better in the future.

EDIT: And another


Thanks to Curmudgeon for judging! I wanted to clarify a few points of my build.

General:
The higher point buy was a mistake, not an intentional violation of the rules. Still, as you say, it does merit a deduction.

Originality:
I didn't mean to emulate Romulus, but now that you say it it does have some parallels. It's still a good story though.

Power:
Thank you for the feedback.

Elegance:
Sorry about the problems in my formatting; I was right up against the submission deadline and didn't take time for a proofread.

That, with the point buy problems, convinces me that I deserve the minimum score. Did I have any redeeming qualities (even if they weren't enough to overcome the other problems)?

Use of Components:
Penalizing me here for using favored soul, when you already penalized me in Originality, is double jeopardy.

I tried to synergize war caster with earth spell, and I thought that was good use of components. Was this unclear?

[MilesTiden]

You guys don't know what really bad judging is. (Some of you may know exactly what I am talking about here . . .) What Curmudgeon gave you was consistently applied critical judging. I've been judged critically before and taken that criticism and worked on a better product for the future.

I have learned that one needs a thick skin with these kinds of things. Sometimes I need reminding of this tidbit. Remember this is supposed to be fun.

Oh no, I never said it was bad, I just don't like being talked down to and insulted for my inferred lack of knowledge about these rules. This is supposed to be fun, yes, and I guess I just don't have a thick enough skin to deal with 'Oh, you don't have the absurd encyclopedic knowledge and specific interpretation of the rules that I do? Minimum score, you clearly didn't put any effort into this.' I'm not even gonna bother disputing, despite the fact that one of his points is just straight up incorrect, because Curmudgeon will never, ever admit that he's wrong. He never once has, in the entirety of the time that I've been here, even when conclusively proven wrong.

This has pretty much killed all desire to compete in an event like this. The score isn't my problem, the rudeness and lack of respect is. So congrats. I do need a thicker skin, apparently. I came here to have fun and put my ideas forth, not to worsen my anxiety.

EDIT: The reason for my post was because of the complete incompatibility of 'Curmudgeon RAW' and 'How the game is actually played'. It's like if someone gave a build a terrible score for not conforming to 4e rules in a 3.5 thread, it has no actual relation to what the build was built on. Now, I fully acknowledge the issues for my build, but they weren't even brought up at all. Curmudgeon just saw the rules errors, said the rest of the build was trash, and went on his way.

[zergling.exe]

I'm not even gonna bother disputing, despite the fact that one of his points is just straight up incorrect, because Curmudgeon will never, ever admit that he's wrong. He never once has, in the entirety of the time that I've been here, even when conclusively proven wrong.

Curmudgeon just admitted a mistake (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=18852434&postcount=113), so go for it, might get somewhere.

[riccaru]

Last note is that while the SRD does say


Humanoids and Class Levels
Creatures with 1 or less HD replace their monster levels with their character levels. The monster loses the attack bonus, saving throw bonuses, skills, and feats granted by its 1 monster HD and gains the attack bonus, save bonuses, skills, feats, and other class abilities of a 1st-level character of the appropriate class.

Characters with more than 1 Hit Die because of their race do not get a feat for their first class level as members of the common races do, and they do not multiply the skill points for their first class level by four. Instead, they have already received a feat for their first Hit Die because of race, and they have already multiplied their racial skill points for their first Hit Die by four.

Which says humanoid, but on the same page it reiterates the point under another heading



Other Statistics for Monsters
Creatures with Hit Dice of 1 or less have normal, class-based Hit Dice and features. They get skills and feats appropriate to a 1st-level character (even if they have a level adjustment).

Those with 2 or more Hit Dice have statistics based on these Hit Dice plus Hit Dice for class levels (if any).


Which has no mention of creature type. So even if Goliaths had RHD they would very much use "class-based" Hit Dice and features as shown on the SRD twice under two different headings.

[sakuuya]

Please let it rest, riccaru. If you (and anybody else) would like to keep debating this, y'all can start a new thread, like the chairman said.

[Curmudgeon]

Originality:
Yes, dream dwarf was unoriginal, but I felt druid was a highly original choice for a base class. I did pick up as many knowledge skills as I could, and the intent was to use those skills with KD to gain bonuses in combat, but again, did not say so explicitly.
Druid was indeed a unique choice for base class. I had thought that went without saying (by me), especially with sakuuya providing a summary of the entrants (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=18823215&postcount=72) and MilesTiden making an explicit statement about the classes this round (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=18823281&postcount=73). It wasn't a choice which surprised me, though. While your character had similar (from the standpoint of Originality) class elements to the other Dwarf entrant, Garag Ragnarsund surprised me more with Ashworm Dragoon and just eked out elevation to the next score point. I decided to keep things simple and not do fractional points in this judging. In Originality, these two were actually fairly close.


Use of Components:
Penalizing me here for using favored soul, when you already penalized me in Originality, is double jeopardy.

I tried to synergize war caster with earth spell, and I thought that was good use of components. Was this unclear? No, that's really not doubling up the penalty; Favored Soul created different problems for you in the two different categories. However, I think I was unduly harsh on you in this category, doubling up the penalty in a different way. You do eventually pull together some synergy. The fact that the synergy comes very late in the build is already accounted for as part of your Power score, so it shouldn't be penalized here as well. +1 Use of Components

[The_Rippy_One]

Okay, now that judgement has been safely passed, Have at my little Selina. (From the way judging went, I probably wouldn't have done too well anyway, so no real loss :smallsmile: ) The formating seems to have gone - it's still mostly there, but the table got blown out. I'd fix it if this were actually a contest entry, but in this context, I'm throwing my hat in.

Selina Kar, Guardian Assault of the Twisted Wood

Dream Dwarf 6 Spirit Shaman/2 Holt Warden/5 Earth Dreamer/1 Contemplative/3 Ordained Champion of Odin/3 Uncanny Trickster (2 levels mimic Ordained Champion) Initial Stat block 8 Str, 8 Dex, 13 Con, 12 Int, 17 Wis, 16 Cha. Final Stat Block 8 Str, 8 Dex, 14 Con, 12 Int, 19 Wis, 18 Cha

Selina is from Glanaedrak, though most know it as one of the Three Towns at Wood’s Edge (if someone has heard of it at all. As the name implies, Glanaedrak is located at the edge of a wood, about 50 acres square, along with Dalgaeroean and Saenaeran, to the north and west, respectively, making a ring around forest, and binding that which is at the heart of the Twisted Woods – a permanent and unstable portal that mainly focuses on a demi-plane ruled by the unseelie court, but giving occasional access to every imaginable outsider at one time or another (and spawned additional, less stable, portals on a fairly regular basis). Glanaedrak is mainly home to Dream Dwarves, though it hosts a fair amount of mixed heritages, mostly seelie fey, though metal and crystal dragon, and the occasional aberration, heritage isn’t entirely unusual. In addition, 20% of its defenders number among the eidoloncer and the eidolons – a unique circumstance made possible by the Dream Dwarf affinity for the Ethereal Plane.
In this respect, Selina is not unusual for her village (or any of the Three Towns, really), but has had an unusual family and community as far as the rest of the world is concerned. Her Grandmama is Half-fey (Satyr, specifically), and her husband has a bit of Dragon Heritage, and is an Eidoloncer, with a specialty in ectoplasmic use. *cough*
Her mom is pretty normal, though it’s pretty clear that the gene-mix just skipped a generation, since Selina’s brothers are showing Fey and Dragon heritage all over the place. Selina is satisfied with knowing her grandmother loves her dearly, and that her grandfather makes some of the best pancakes in town. Dad’s perfectly normal as far as Dream Dwarves go, though he is a Divine Seer of some note.

OOC: Other than justifying her Nymph-Kissed, I wanted to set up her home area as being both small and contained, but also rife with potential adventure. Unlike a lot of campaigns, conflict gets delivered to Selina on a potentially daily basis, and allows her to interact on a community basis, as opposed to a party basis (which saved me from having to discuss how she fits into a party; not so big a deal, with her spell flexibility, but it was a worry for me). If we weren't on quite so tight on an XP basis, I would have had her do some levels as an Eidoloncer - it fits the flavor of Dream Dwarves and Spirit Shamans too well to ignore - especially with the low cost of res'ing with a Spirit Shaman handy. But 500 XP still keeps her from hitting level 20 in this contest, so, no ghost adventures XD

Also, because I knew she was going to be an Ordained Champion, I wanted a deity that fit her style - Odin may be a NG god, but He's also a really nasty customer, with trickery, knowledge, and deviousness as big a part of His mythos as War ever was, Lord of the Berserk though He may be. Once it became clear that Selina was going to need to depend on her smarts to make up for her low To Hit scores, I decided He fit the character too well to ignore.



1st Spirit Shaman 1 +0 +2 +0 +2 21 Earth Sense; Nymph’s Kiss Spirit Guide, Wild Empathy
2nd Spirit Shaman 2 +1 +3 +0 +3 6 Skill trick Collector of Stories Chastise Spirits
3rd Spirit Shaman 3 +2 +3 +1 +3 6 Knowledge Devotion (Religon) Detect Spirits
4th Spirit Shaman 4 +3 +4 +1 +4 6 +1 WIS (18) Blessing of the Spirits
5th Spirit Shaman 5 +3 +4 +1 +1 6 Alertness Follow The Guide

Skills
1st - Earth Sense, Nymph’s Kiss, 4 Know (nature), 4 Concentration, 4 Spot, 1 SpellCraft, 4 Knowledge (local), 1 Handle animals, 2 Diplomacy, 1 Survival
2nd – Collector of Stories, 4->5 knowledge (nature), 4->5 Spot, 4->5 Concentration, 2->3 Diplomacy
3rd – 2nd lvl spells, Knowledge devotion (religion as class), 5 Knowledge (religion), 3->4 Diplomacy
4th - 5->7 Knowledge (religion), 5->7 Spot, 4->5 Knowledge (local), 5->6 Knowledge (nature)
5th – 3rd lvl spells, 7->8 Knowledge (religion), 5->8 Concentration, 7->8 Spot, 4->5 Diplomacy

Spells
per day
1 2 3 4 5
0 3 4 5 6 6
1 2 3 4 5 6
2 - - 2 3 4
3 - - - - 2

OOC: after Selina picks up her sixth spell per day, she never gets any more - for the sake of brevity, I will not reprint spell levels in future sections that hit 6 in the previous ones. Also note, Holt Warden does grants a domain spell slot (I'll note when that kicks in), and she receives bonus spells based on her wisdom, per the normal rules (in this case, on spell levels 1-4)-Just remember their there, please

per day known
1 2 3 4 5
0 3 3 3 3 3
1 1 2 2 3 3
2 - - 1 1 1
3 - - - - 1

OOC: after Selina picks up her third spell known per day, she never gets any more - for the sake of brevity, I will not reprint spell levels in future sections that hit 3 in the previous ones. Also note, Holt Warden does grants a domain spell slot. I don't think Extra spells per stat apply to spells per day know. If I'm wrong...Selina is one happy Dwarf

PLOT:
When Selina was ten, and ready to apprentice, many of her community received a vision suggesting she go to Old Val’Therbin, a local Spirit Shaman of some repute, even though he already had 2 students, and had trained 4 before – enough to secure the town quite thoroughly against even an insistent Fey-incursion. But the dream was clear – she would need his training, and thus he took her on.

For 3 years, Val’therbin drove her as remorselessly as the winter storms of his patron deity – Old One-Eye, Odin (religions tended to also pass through portals, as did deific, or demonic, messengers, with fair regularity). With careful force, he drove her to accept nature for what it is, neither good nor evil, lawful nor chaotic, but balanced. He emphasized cleverness beyond brute force, and respect to all things. At age thirteen, he declared her ready for her Walk-about, the journey of a village’s youths to meet the defenders of the other two villages, and to forge bonds of friendship to sustain the mission of the Three Towns – to keep the rest of the world safe from the Portal and its horrors. Unlike most dream dwarves, Selina (like all of Val’Therbin’s students) was notably more serious in her approach, and she took her leave somberly.

With her went a shortspear, to honor the god she chose to follow, just as her teacher did, a short bow crafted by her Grandpa, the spirit turtle Fra’gath, a chain shirt from her father, and the triple blessing of her mother’s line, kissed upon her brow (great-grandpa had stopped in the week before, and mama had decided to keep him handy for the blessing through the expedience of making him too drunk to walk away until then. Like most Satyrs, great-grandpa didn’t really object to this sort of thing). She had a great deal of trouble initially, being not particularly good with weapons, and limited in her casting ability, but she soon learned to compensate by relying on the lore she’d memorized to find the weaknesses of the many creatures in the woods, and the fey that were the most common portal invader. Cat’s Grace and Bear’s Heart were becoming something of a favorite spell selection as she advances on her journey, though she often tries to include at least one offensive spell and two more utility spells, based on what she planned to do the next day.
Besides buying some basic necessities, Selina upgraded her shortspear and bow with the Parrying quality, mostly to counter the dent her low Dex put in her AC and reflex save. (I know they don't stack together - it's mainly so she has the benefit regardless of how she's fighting).



6th Spirit Shaman 6 +4 +5 +2 +5 6 Zen Archery Ghost Warrior
7th Holt Warden 1 +5 +7 +2 +7 6 Nature Sense, Plant Affinity [[grants Domain bonus spell slots, Plant Domain (plant turning, 6 times per day)]
8th Holt Warden 2 +6/+1 +8 +2 +8 6 +1 CON Rebuke Plants, Woodland Stride
+1 spellcaster level (Spirit Shaman)
9th Earth Dreamer 1 +6/+1 +10 +2 +10 6 Touch of Healing Earth Friend
+1 spellcaster level (Spirit Shaman)
10th Earth Dreamer 2 +7/+2 +11 +2 +11 4 Earth Dreamer
+1 spellcaster level (Spirit Shaman)

6th – Zen Archery, 8->9 know Religion, 8->9 Concentration, 8->9 Spot, 1->3 Survival, 6->7 know (nat)
7th – 1st Holt Warden, 4th lvl spells, 9->10 know (religion), 9->10 Concentration, 9->10 Spot, 7->8 Know (nature), 3->4 Survival
8th – 2nd Holt Warden, +1 CON (14), 10->12 Know (religion), 10->12 Concentrate, Spot 10-12
9th – 3rd Holt Warden, Touch of Healing, Know 0->4 (dungeoneer)
10th – 1st Earth Dreamer, 5th lvl spells, 4->5 Know (Dungeoneer), 0->3 Listen

Spells
per day
6 7 8 9 10
2 5 6* 6* 6* 6*
3 3 4* 5* 6* 6*
4 - 2* 3* 4* 5*
5 - - - 2* 3*

OOC: after Selina picks up her sixth spell per day, she never gets any more - for the sake of brevity, I will not reprint spell levels in future sections that hit 6 in the previous ones. Also note, Holt Warden does grants a domain spell slot (denoted by a *), and she receives bonus spells based on her wisdom, per the normal rules (in this case, on spell levels 1-4)-Just remember their there, please

per day known
6 7 8 9 10
2 2 2* 2* 3* 3*
3 1 1* 2* 2* 2*
4 - 1* 1* 1* 2*
5 - - - 1* 1*

OOC: after Selina picks up her third spell known per day, she never gets any more - for the sake of brevity, I will not reprint spell levels in future sections that hit 3 in the previous ones. Also note, Holt Warden does grants a domain spell slot (denoted by a *). I don't think Extra spells per stat apply to spells per day know. If I'm wrong...Selina is one happy Dwarf.


As she spent the next 2 years traveling between Dalgaeroean and Saenaeran, she had many adventures among the Chaos Gnomes and their aberrant kin, and the Elves and their positive plane not-dead, including saving the life of a young Holt Warden from possession by a poltergeist of some power. This led to her acceptance as a Holt Warden herself, and while there was some skepticism as to whether a non-elf should be admitted, she put those fears to rest by the end of her yearlong training through her tough-mindedness and resolute demeanor.

Returning home, she found that, as much as the plants were a friendly presence to her, that the earth called more keenly, and she took up the very traditional Earth Dreamer calling (the land under the Twisted Wood containing many caverns, both natural and portal hollowed; the need to seek them out without risking a cave-in meant Earth Gliding and Earth Sight were skills in high demand, and the capacity to ask the earth itself about new incursions an invaluable boon). While not a traditional dungeon delve, many pocket caves were modified by a displaced planar denizen, with 50% looking to leave and thankful for the rescue, and 50% up to evil and unfortunate things.

While her feats of arms were still somewhat lack luster, her capacity to know just where to hit to make each shot of her bow (and, more often now, chucked 500 pound rock) count, was proving more than a match for her own physical limits. Combined with her lore knowledge, she is only slightly behind a more dedicated fighters in her aim. Besides Hurtling Rock, Selina favors Arc of Lightning for her offensive spells, and kept most of her other spell choices utilitarian or buff/debuff-oriented. Her latest Feat makes healing a significantly less worrisome issue as long as she kept one healing spell in her 5th level slot, though only being able to use it if someone was at less than half health has been a little dangerous.
She added a red Dragonwork light shield to her equipment. She only uses it half the time, but the 5 points of fire-reduction is pretty handy when she does. Her bow is now +1 and Precise, and her spear is now +1. She also picked up a cloak of Improved Agility - her reflex save really needed the help.

OOC: Last 5, her abysmal bab and low spells per day were noteworthy headaches early on. This round, her bab is actually looking halfway decent most of the time, thanks to her knowledges, and her spells are actually pretty plentiful - it's her Spells known per day that are the headache. Holt Warden's addition of a domain slot is a serious boon, even if the best spell Selina gets from it is probably Barkskin.



11 Earth Dreamer 3 +7/+2 +11 +3 +11 4 Skill Trick (Spot the Weak Point) Lessor Tremorsense
+1 spellcaster level (Spirit Shaman)

12 Earth Dreamer 4 +8/+3 +12 +3 +12 4 +1 CHA, Skill Trick (Swift Concentration), Trickery Devotion Earthsight
+1 spellcaster level (Spirit Shaman)
13 Earth Dreamer 5 +8/+3 +12 +3 +12 4 Skill Trick (Clarity of Vision) Earth Glide
+1 spellcaster level (Spirit Shaman)
14 Contemplative +8/+3 +12 +3 +14 4 New Domain (war (weapon Focus(short spear))), Divine Health
+1 spellcaster level (Spirit Shaman)
15th Ordained Champion +8/+3 +14 +3 +16 4 Holy Warrior [reserve] Bonus Domain (knowledge), combat feats (not used), continued advancement, modified spontaneous casting

11th – 3rd ED, Spot The Weak Point, 3->5 Listen
12th – 4th ED, +1 CHA (17), Trickery Devotion, 6th lvl spells, Swift Concentration, 5->6 Listen, 12->13 know (Religion)
13th – 5th ED, 6->8 Listen, Clarity of Vision
14th – 1st Contemplative (War Domain (Weapon Focus shortspear)), 7th lvl spells, 9->12 Know (nature), Know (dungeoneer) 5->6
15th – 1st Ordained Champion (Knowledge Domain), Holy Warrior [reserve],0->2 Know (arcana), 0->2 Know (planes)

Spells
per day
11 12 13 14 15
4 6* 6* 6* 6* 6*
5 4* 5* 6* 6* 6*
6 2* 3* 4* 5* 5*
7 - - 2* 3* 3*


OOC: You know what's up.

per day known
11 12 13 14 15
3 3* 3* 3* 3* 3*
4 2* 2* 3* 3* 3*
5 1* 1* 2* 2* 2*
6 1* 1* 1* 2* 2*
7 - - 1* 1* 1*

PLOT:
Answering the call of the earth one day, Selina brought a small band of her fellow Earth Dreamers to a sealed cave, where she discovered a Guardinal, injured and trapped due to a temporary Gate catching her and then causing a tunnel collapse when it winked out seconds later. Between them, sufficient supplies and mining tools were brought to free crow-like being, and, as the one who heard the Mountain’s voice, Selina was given the honor of guesting the Guardinal, Jenebroth, as she recovered.

During those days, Selina became quietly inspired by the unfailing goodwill and magnificent deeds of her patient, and started to emulate her more and more, and the distant balance of her teacher less and less. After the Guardinal was strong enough to leave, Jenebroth thanked the village graciously for its care, and, overcome, Selina swore to follow her example, and become a champion. Jenebroth blessed her, and returned to the outer planes.

Selina went into seclusion, contemplating her life, her deity, and the place she desired in the world. At the end of the month, she exited her hermitage, kinder but fiercer. Forswearing the passive defense of the village, she entered into the woods and hunted portals and their spawn with a fervor that caught the attention of even Odin himself. To honor her efforts, he came to her in a dream, and marked her as his own, an Ordained Champion of Odin, and a Holy Warrior besides.

Her new capacity saw her plant-turning capacity used to powering her Ordained skills (ooc: okay, this is actually next level, but roll with it), and gaining the knowledge domain besides; Selina had become a formidable foe indeed. Her Trickster Devotion allowed her to hunt and explore safely, while her knowledge, skill tricks, and Holy Warrior powers made her as sure a shot as any master archer, when not using projectiles to outmatch any arrow. During this phase, Selina focused more on combat spells, though she remained careful to keep a heal in one of her top slots to power her Healing Touch. Once she became Ordained, the top domain slot was reserved for a War domain spell, to take advantage of the Holy Warrior boost to hit and damage for her bow-work. Owl's Wisdom is in rotation more heavily, and Selina is starting to carry a compliment of Fountainhead Arrows in her new Flaming Quiver of Energy, along with her more mundane arrows - the capacity to deny an area to an enemy is worth the expense, and they can be devastating on less powerful minion groups.

This period greatly expands Selina's equipment capacity as she starts to work and trade in a much wider area. Her initial improvements include a studded leather white dragoncraft armor, +3, moderately Fortified, and an upgrade of her weapons to +3 (additionally, the spear gains the Dislocation effect, and the bow is now Weakening). She also gets some gloves of +2 Dex, and her shield upgraded with the Animated property, so she can always benefit from it, even when shooting her bow. Lastly on the attacking side, she picks up to Lesser crystals of Fiendslayer for her weapons. She also picked up one of Hewward's Handy Haversack, a Replenishing Skin, and a bag of Everlasting Rations. Taking the battle to the unseelie means only eating food you trust, always.

OOC: I'm fairly certain some of these upgrades could have been done earlier, but I was trying to keep it reasonable, given the small setting I did in the initial background. The Three Towns have a lot of potential for miscellaneous magic items, but they don't have any sort of reliable way to get more - what they do have is most often stripped from the battlefield (like Selina's red dragoncraft shield), or from a rare inter-planar merchant caught in a sudden Gate phenomenon. To put it another - in the Three Towns, the odds are good...but the goods are odd. Now that she's actually Portal jumping, I felt safe relaxing some of those restrictions. Another reason is that I'm playing the money a little by ear, based on the average gp per level numbers. I'm pretty sure I've stayed in the bounds, but...



16th Ordained Champion 2nd +9/+4 +15 +3 +17 4 +1 WIS Diehard, Smite
+1 spellcaster level (Spirit Shaman)
17th Uncanny Trickster 1st +9/+4 +15 +5 +17 10 Bonus Trick (Conceal Spellcasting), Favorite Trick (Find the Weak Point)
18th Uncanny Trickster 2nd (Mimicking Ordained Champion 3rd) +10/+5 +15 +6 +17 10 Deceptive Spell Bonus Trick (Timely Misdirection), Favorite Trick (Conceal Spellcasting), (from Mimicking OC –
+1 spellcaster level (Spirit Shaman), [Continued Advancement], Channel Spell, Divine Bulwark)
19th Ordained Champion 4th +11/+6/+1 +16 +6 +18 4 Fist of the gods, Rapid Spontaneous Casting
20th Uncanny Trickster 3rd (Mimicking Ordained Champion 5th) +12/+7/+2 +17 +6 +19 10 +1 CHA Bonus Trick (Listen to This), Favorite Trick (Timely Misdirection), Tricky Defense, (from Mimicking OC –
+1 spellcaster level (Spirit Shaman), [Continued Advancement], Holy Warrior, war caster)

16th – 2nd OC, +1 WIS (19) 2->6 Know (Planes)
17th – 1st Uncanny Trickster, 0->10 Sleight of Hands, (Bonus: Conceal Spellcasting) (favorite: Find the Weak Point)
18th – 2nd UT (mimics OC 3rd), 8th lvl spell, Imbued Healing, 10->12 Sleight of Hands, 0->8 Bluff (bonus: Timely Misdirection) (Favorite: Conceal Spellcasting)
19th – 4th OC, (19), 2->5 Know (Arcana), 6>7 Know (planes)
20th – 3rd UT (mimics OC 5th ), +1 CHA (18), 9th spell level, 12->22 Sleight of Hand, (bonus: Listen to This) (Favorite: Timely Misdirection)

Spells
per day
16 17 18 19 20
6 6* 6* 6* 6* 6*
7 4* 4* 4* 5* 6*
8 2* 2* 2* 3* 4*
9 - - - - 2*


OOC: You know what's up.

per day known
16 17 18 19 20
5 3* 3* 3* 3* 3*
6 2* 2* 2* 2* 3*
7 1* 1* 1* 2* 2*
8 1* 1* 1* 1* 1*
9 - - - - 1*

Final Skill block:
Bluff 8 4
Concentration 12 2
Diplomacy 5 4
Handle Animal 1 4
Listen 5 4
Know nature 15 1 5 2
Know local 7 1 5
Know relig 13 1 5
Know dungeon 6 1 5
Know planes 7 1 5
Know arcana 6 1 5
Sleight of hand 22 4
Spot 12 4
Spellcraft 1 1
Survival 1 4 2

PLOT:
Taking this as a sign to push even further, Selina began to assault through more permanent gates and portals, taking the battle to the enemies that had assaulted her home for so long. While Odin did approve of her zeal, the Lord of Berserkers was also a Master of Deception, and during one communion, He insisted Selina stop charging into every battle and show some cleverness. This led Selina through the last part of her evolution, and ended with her mastering Ordained Champion, not through her martial valor, but by care and cleverness, as an Uncanny Trickster.

Thanks to her new skills, enemies have a hard time figuring out that she’s even casting, and with her Trickster Devotion in play, attacking “her” becomes a questionable proposition. While she is still careful to keep her highest slots filled with Healing and War domain spells, the remained is filled a healthy mix of utility, combat, and buffs/debuffs, depending on her Healing Touch to keep herself and her allies upright until a more dedicated healer can step in.

Because she can access any druid spell, she’s been trying out several options, and is starting to favor certain cold spells like Boreal Wind, Entomb, Frostfell, Winter’s Embrace and Snowwave to incapacitate enemies in conjunction with Rain of Black Tulips and Rain of Roses to destroy them while they are trapped in the area (Odin approves of her more icy focus…the flowers, he’s taking as a subtle joke). Imbued Healing+plant domain is used in conjunction with mass heal light wounds to give her entire party the Light Fortification effect, especially in the early rounds of combat, or in conjunction with the Knowledge domain when her party needs to be just a little more skillful (she uses her level-0’s to deliver improvements to single targets, including herself in relation to her Knowledge Devotion abilities). She occasionally uses it in conjunction with the war domain, but that is mainly when she's with a large number of physical attackers.

When forced into direct combat, she uses her conversion powers from Ordained Champion to improve her damage reduction, followed by Rapid Spontaneous Casting+Deceptive Spell->Flame Strike to get the enemy's attention the heck away from her. If she can’t avoid melee combat, she’ll use Fist of the Gods, Holy Warrior, and Smite in combination (effectively giving her a +23-31 damage on the first hit, and +18-26 *3 for the next 4 rounds) to try for a rapid KO, and then extricate herself from direct combat post-haste. She still uses a shortbow, though it isn’t all that powerful, along with an array of magic arrows, for low-value targets like weak minions (Fountainhead Arrows/Adamantine/Silvered/Cold Iron arrows and the Flaming Energy Quiver). Between a minimum to hit of 26 (+12 bab at 20+4 Wis+min 1 for knowledge+9 Holy Warrior [reserve]), her buffing magic, her +3 weapons, and her skill trick to negate armor, actually hitting things hasn’t been a real problem for her for a very long time.

Besides the arrows, Selina is toting around a Precise Parrying Weakening CurseSpewer +3 Shortbow, a Binding Collision Dislocator Parrying +4 Shortspear (both with a lesser Fiendslayer crystal), an Animated Arrowcatching +5 Light Red Dragoncraft Shield, and a Fortification (mod) Studded White Dragonwork Leather +5 with Ironward Diamond (greater). Beyond the battle equipment, she's packing gloves that grant +6 Dex and +5 reflex, an Impervious Vest (preferably made with black Dragoncrafted hide instead of silk, but that's a DM's call) and a blue dragoncrafted cape of +6 Charisma, and a Belt of Many Pouches, upgraded to provide +2 Constitution, and a Third Eye Concealment Lens. She also owns 3 Skins: of the Hero, Of the Chameleon, of Ectoplasmic Armor, a Rod of Metamagic (chaining) (because nothing says STAY like dropping a 500 lbs rock on a dude, and then dropping 250 lbs rocks on 17 of his closest friends), some Rhino elixir, blast discs, a blast orb, slashing sand, some Incense of Meditation (for when you have stand an army off by yourself, and have a day's time to prep), Tome of Worldly Memory...a lot of useful stuff XD

ooc: It's sort of interesting - I hadn't really intended to make a divine caster who could shoot, but it seems I did, quite notably. This only hit me when, the day before this was all due in, I actually calculated the basic to hit above. Which is another reason she's moving into area-wide spell effects - even against touch AC, she's a little poor at targeting, so her spell selection involves a lot of "don't worry about it." Also, that's the minimum - most of the knowledge checks will turn up +2 - the nature check can actually turn up a +5 every once in a while.

I know Dislocator on a Shortspear is a little odd, but it let's her get some breathing room if she gets mobbed, and it lets her do a little battlefield manipulation in a pinch (removing a flanker from an ally, forcing an enemy melist to move to get another hit in, really ruining the round if someone charges her and she sets to take the charge, that sort of thing). The bow is similarly spec'd to not necessarily murder things, but to ruin a lot of people's day while the frontliners handle them.



ooc: now, clearly, this is outside the scope of the contest, but I put some thought into this, so...a 3rd level of Warden, to get Earth's communion, followed by getting Spirit Shaman to 11, for the sweet res and the concentration minder. Probably some GateCrasher afterwords - it fits thematically, given all the portal diving she does at the end, and it gives me enough skillpoints to get the attack knowledges all up to 26 (with the bonuses), and keep Spot and Sleight of Hands healthy, no problem - probably tackle Hide and Bluff boosting, too. Feats on the to do list include Invisible spell, Fellfrost, rapid metamagic, and probably chainspell

It's a toss up, actually - between 15/16, when 75% of build clicks into place, and 17/18, when the other 25% shows up. 15/16 gets Selina a lot of stuff - a really good to hit (physically), a use for all her plant turning, an extra domain that enhances her major attack booster - it's really sweet. 17/18 gets her back into her more diverse, sneaky role and let's her take better advantage of all her skill tricks, which maximizes the effects of 15/16. in some ways, level 25 or so could also be argued as a sweet point, in that is finishes off all the dangling would have/should haves of the build - nicely rounds out it's features, gives me 30+ skill points to finish bolstering the main attack knowledges, and probably started punching my inherent stat bonuses up.

Ordained Champion, Holt Warden, Imbued Healing, Healing Touch, Noble Warrior [reserve], and both Devotions are from Complete Champion, Uncanny Trickster and a ll skill tricks are from Complete Scoundrel, Dream Dwarves, Earth Sense, and Earth Dreamer are from Races of Stone, Spirit Shaman and Contemplative are in the Complete Divine. Nymph-kissed and Zen Archery are from the Book of Exalted Deeds. Most of the equipment was pieced together in the 3.5 Magic Item Compendium. Deceptive spell is from Cityscape

[WhamBamSam]

Final Results
Build Score Place
sakuuya's Vathoa Frostspeaker Kualavoaka 11 1st
WeaselGuy's Garag "Sunsword" Ragnarsund 8 2nd
madtinker's Car-Innul-Vulkan-Volk Penathan-Koldune-Zemlya 6 3rd
madtinker's Pyotr Bloodfist 6 3rd
Miles Tiden's Terrato, the Abyssal Maw 4 5th and Honorable Mention

So there you have it. While Terrato is in a "Honorable Mention by default" position of sorts, it should be noted that he did receive several votes. He was popular with the peanut gallery, at least, and I quite liked him as well. That idea was the closest to my own thoughts on the synergy between the classes, which was to strike with channeled spells from behind (see-through, thanks to Earth Dreamer) walls using Brilliant Energy Weapon (or Brilliant Energy Arrow channeling through an Elvencraft Bow if I was feeling cheesier). I'll also admit that the synergy that I saw in my deranged mind had a fair bit to do with seeing Ordained Champion 3 as a good break point, awkward as it often is to forgo any of a SI in IC-style competitions. This would make it possible (if potentially messy) to make for a [Base] 4/Ordained Champion 3/Earth Dreamer 5 stub for the first 12 levels, entering both PrCs as early as possible.

Anyway, good round all. Thanks to all competitors and our judge. Hope no one came away with too many hard feelings.

Next round should be up soonish. Between travelling, real world concerns, and getting sick, I haven't gotten round to deciding what the components should be yet.

[sakuuya]

It's pretty cool that madtinker got double bronze.

[madtinker]

It's pretty cool that madtinker got double bronze.

Thanks! And congrats on your first place!

I was a bit paralyzed with indecision and ended up with too little time to do either character really well. Next time, I'll try to choose one idea and really polish it.

Thanks to the WhamBamSam for chairing and curmudgeon for judging!