Ridiculous Character Concepts 2: Slam-Dunk!

[Jormengand]

Welcome to the second Ridiculous Character Concepts Contest! In this contest, we compete to see how viable you can make a completely ridiculous character concept. And generally, how fun it would be!

First up, the concept! The Droplomancer! This means that you are using falling damage as your main, or only, source of damage. Magical or non-magical, dropping things on the opponent or the opponent on things, it's your choice. Droplomancy.

You can make up to 3 characters. If you make more than three, the last three will count. Post them straight onto this thread.

Build your items in. Use standard WBL allowances, and start with 100 gold at level 1, just to standardize everything

LA can be either just hit dice, or ECL. Expect me to look more favorably on ECL, because it limits your options a but more.

THIS SHOULD BE STRICTLY 3.5 CONTENT. NOTHING ELSE.

Builds will be presented at levels 1, 4, 7, and 13. No level 20, and no high point.

Some ground rules for source use - these have changed slightly from the original due to differences in chair.
1. No dragon magazine, yes dragon comp.
2. Yes splatbooks
3. UA will be allowed, but should be used sparingly.
4. No cohorts or followers of any kind.

Points will be awarded based on 6 categories. These are
Viability: How well do you do what you do? /100
Originality: How weird, wacky and left-field is your class? /100
Elegance: How well does your class mesh together? Are you multiclassing every level and using a million different UA variants, or using a simple, cohesive, well thought-out class? /100
Theme: How well does the build fit the theme? /100
Fun to play: How fun do I think this class will be to play? /50
Difficulty challenge: +1 up to 10 for each monk or similar level, +30 no magic/psionics/sp/ps, +10 no multiclassing.

A maximum of 500 points will be awarded. Once the competition is over, the top 3 builds will be rated. A composite score will be provided, but not scores for individual categories.

Standard 32 point buy will be used.

Contestants have until 11:00 PM GMT on March 23rd to submit builds. After that, posting ends.

Builds should be formatted in the same manner as Iron Chief entries.



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



There will be a first, second and third place winner, however, you may not win with more than one character!

Bragging rights to the winner, and happy building!

[sideswipe]

i have a very cliché idea.

[WhamBamSam]

I have a thought which I might try hammering out into a full build. Do we submit builds anonymously ala Iron Chef, or just toss them up in the thread like the last one of these when we're done?

[Darrin]

I think we need an official ruling on how Battle Jump (Unapproachable East) works. Specifically, does it turn any action that results in a fall into a full-round charge? If not, then do Roof-Jumper (Cityscape) and Mantis Leap (Sword & Fist) have the same restriction?

Also, assuming Battle Jump works, are you going to allow the 3.0-era rule that lets you take regional feats with 2 ranks of Knowledge: Local (region)?

[Jormengand]

I have a thought which I might try hammering out into a full build. Do we submit builds anonymously ala Iron Chef, or just toss them up in the thread like the last one of these when we're done?
Unless I have someone else helping me judge, anonymity won't matter. I don't have the faintest clue who any of you are anyway, if what helps. :smalltongue:


I think we need an official ruling on how Battle Jump (Unapproachable East) works. Specifically, does it turn any action that results in a fall into a full-round charge? If not, then do Roof-Jumper (Cityscape) and Mantis Leap (Sword & Fist) have the same restriction?

Also, assuming Battle Jump works, are you going to allow the 3.0-era rule that lets you take regional feats with 2 ranks of Knowledge: Local (region)?

Give me the wording/the bit of the wording that makes it unclear and I'll be able to tell you.

3.5 only. No 3.0 madness.

[Troacctid]

An elasmosaurus hits the damage cap for falling object damage and can be taken as an animal companion at 7th level. Give it a Blink Shirt and it can repeatedly teleport 10 feet above an enemy each round, dealing 1d6 damage to itself and 20d6 damage to them, and you don't even need to spend your own action.

I don't have a full build, but just thought I'd mention it.

[daremetoidareyo]

An elasmosaurus hits the damage cap for falling object damage and can be taken as an animal companion at 7th level. Give it a Blink Shirt and it can repeatedly teleport 10 feet above an enemy each round, dealing 1d6 damage to itself and 20d6 damage to them, and you don't even need to spend your own action.

I don't have a full build, but just thought I'd mention it.

awakened elasmosaurus totemist 2/ factotum X then? (inspiration points for multiple drops per round)

[Darrin]

Give me the wording/the bit of the wording that makes it unclear and I'll be able to tell you.


Text from Unapproachable East:

"You can execute a charge by simply dropping from a height of at least 5 feet above your opponent. For example, a ledge 10 feet above the floor of a cavern would suffice for jumping on a Medium-sized creature, while a ledge 15 feet high is required for a jumping on a Large creature. You can’t jump from more than 30 feet above your opponent, nor can you effectively battle jump while under the influence of a fly or levitate spell or effect, as you have to hurl yourself down on your foe."

The text doesn't specify what sort of action you would use to start your drop. I contend that any action (swift, move, or standard) can be turned into a charge whenever it results in a fall from the appropriate height. This allows up to three drops on your turn, so long as you can figure out a way to get above your opponent with the three different action types.

However, Curmudgeon contends (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=16719560&postcount=473) that Battle Jump only changes the movement portion of the charge. The action required to make a charge remains the same: full-round action, and the restrictions on movement (must be in a straight line) also are still in effect. By his reasoning, this means Battle Jump can only be used if you have started your turn with your opponent immediately beneath you, and you haven't used any move/standard actions to get into position. The geometry of the ledge is also problematic, because if you're standing on a ledge then you can't "charge around a corner" to jump off the ledge, as this would violate the "must be in a straight line" rule.

I disagree with this interpretation because it makes the feat almost impossible to use the way I imagine it was intended. You'd have to be hanging on a shear vertical surface and wait for a stupid/unaware opponent to walk directly beneath you.



3.5 only. No 3.0 madness.

Battle Jump is a regional feat, which means only a character from the Taer region can take it. Unfortunately, the only residents of the Taer region are savage apelike medium-sized giants that fly into a murderous rage at the slightest provocation. The 3.0 rule allowed non-Taer to take the feat if they put two ranks in Knowledge: Local (Taer) to justify "living in that region" (or learning the technique from a resident) for some indeterminate period of their backstory. If you insist on enforcing the PGtF "rescinding" this rule, then any non-Taer that uses Battle Jump will be an illegal build. You're much more likely to get interesting builds if non-Taer have access to the feat.

[Jormengand]

Text from Unapproachable East:

"You can execute a charge by simply dropping from a height of at least 5 feet above your opponent. For example, a ledge 10 feet above the floor of a cavern would suffice for jumping on a Medium-sized creature, while a ledge 15 feet high is required for a jumping on a Large creature. You can’t jump from more than 30 feet above your opponent, nor can you effectively battle jump while under the influence of a fly or levitate spell or effect, as you have to hurl yourself down on your foe."

The text doesn't specify what sort of action you would use to start your drop. I contend that any action (swift, move, or standard) can be turned into a charge whenever it results in a fall from the appropriate height. This allows up to three drops on your turn, so long as you can figure out a way to get above your opponent with the three different action types.

However, Curmudgeon contends (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=16719560&postcount=473) that Battle Jump only changes the movement portion of the charge. The action required to make a charge remains the same: full-round action, and the restrictions on movement (must be in a straight line) also are still in effect. By his reasoning, this means Battle Jump can only be used if you have started your turn with your opponent immediately beneath you, and you haven't used any move/standard actions to get into position. The geometry of the ledge is also problematic, because if you're standing on a ledge then you can't "charge around a corner" to jump off the ledge, as this would violate the "must be in a straight line" rule.

I disagree with this interpretation because it makes the feat almost impossible to use the way I imagine it was intended. You'd have to be hanging on a shear vertical surface and wait for a stupid/unaware opponent to walk directly beneath you.



Battle Jump is a regional feat, which means only a character from the Taer region can take it. Unfortunately, the only residents of the Taer region are savage apelike medium-sized giants that fly into a murderous rage at the slightest provocation. The 3.0 rule allowed non-Taer to take the feat if they put two ranks in Knowledge: Local (Taer) to justify "living in that region" (or learning the technique from a resident) for some indeterminate period of their backstory. If you insist on enforcing the PGtF "rescinding" this rule, then any non-Taer that uses Battle Jump will be an illegal build. You're much more likely to get interesting builds if non-Taer have access to the feat.

It doesn't change the action type as a charge is still a full-round action, it just means that you're not restricted to running along the ground at least ten feet and can instead fall on someone. Even if that weren't the case, unspecified actions are standard unless there's something else we can default to (in this case the action to charge).

I mean, I'll give you standard if you want it, because yes it's necessary to make it work at all as intended, but I don't want anyone trying to have infinite attacks by thinking with portals.

Backstory requirements are fluff requirements. There's no reason that a human couldn't come from Taer just because no humans have come from Taer yet.

[daremetoidareyo]

do we have to do a full build? cuz I just figured out a fun idea.

[Frostthehero]

An elasmosaurus hits the damage cap for falling object damage and can be taken as an animal companion at 7th level. Give it a Blink Shirt and it can repeatedly teleport 10 feet above an enemy each round, dealing 1d6 damage to itself and 20d6 damage to them, and you don't even need to spend your own action.

I don't have a full build, but just thought I'd mention it.

This sounds like a "cohort sort of deal" to me, but I would ask the OP.

[Jormengand]

Yes you need a full build and yes animal companions are okay and no cohorts aren't.

[Darrin]

It doesn't change the action type as a charge is still a full-round action, it just means that you're not restricted to running along the ground at least ten feet and can instead fall on someone. Even if that weren't the case, unspecified actions are standard unless there's something else we can default to (in this case the action to charge).


No, (Su) and (Sp) abilities default to standard actions. Battle Jump doesn't identify itself as either, so if we assume it's (Ex), then the default for those is a free action.



I mean, I'll give you standard if you want it, because yes it's necessary to make it work at all as intended, but I don't want anyone trying to have infinite attacks by thinking with portals.


Infinite attacks isn't really a danger here, unless there's a way to generate infinite actions. And if someone were capable of such a thing, then whatever they did with Battle Jump would be the least of your worries.

Would you say Roof-Jumper (Cityscape) has the same full-round activation issue? The text for Death from Above:

"You do substantial damage if you deliberately leap down to attack a foe beneath you. You must drop at least 20 feet. You must roll to hit; this qualifies as a charge attack, with all relevant bonuses and penalties."

Fortunately, Mantis Leap (Sword & Fist) does talk about activation a bit:

"Designate an opponent who is within the maximum distance you can reach with a successful Jump check. Make a normal Jump check; if your check is successful, you can make a normal charge attack against the opponent you designated as part of the same action."

Unfortunately, it doesn't specify what a "normal Jump check" would be. Based on the Skill section in the PHB... looks like a normal Jump check usually piggybacks on a move action, so I think that works for at least two per turn, but how would you rule on a swift action Jump check, such as with the Sudden Leap maneuver or via Travel Devotion?

Also, how do you propose we settle the "stacking" issue once the falling creature lands in the target creature's square? Should the two creatures make opposed Str rolls to see who gets knocked prone?

[JDL]

Something something Wizard something something Tenser's Floating Disk and Mount spell something something Imbued Summoning and Swift Fly on Celestial Baleen Whale with Statue.

[daremetoidareyo]

“Chuck” Goliath
monk 2/psychic warrior 2/warblade 3/Drunk master 1/Bloodstorm blade 4/hulking hurler 2/warhulk 1/fighter 1/Champion of legacy 4

32 point buy:
Str 22, Con 15, Dex 13, Int 10, Wis 14, Cha 3 All ability bonuses applied to Strength.

This Build is one that will challenge any rational DM, but it should work, there are a bunch of crumple zones to get you to where you need to be. This build is almost entirely built upon the feat "Fling Enemy" from Races of Stone. Almost entirely. RAW between drunken master and hulking hurler and bloodstorm blade, you should be able to grab a bad guy and throw him at huge distances. If you can get fly, (go dragonborn, wings, and switch the ability array to 22 Str, 13 Dex, 12 Con, 10 int, 14 wis, 3 cha, and at level 15 grab snatch level 18 plunging shot)





Level

Class

BAB

Fort

Ref

Will

Skills

Feats

Class Features

Source(s)





1
monk



0


2


2


2
16 (balance 4, tumble 4)

Rock Hurling (1), Improved Grapple (monk), Great Fortitude (flaw, if allowed)

Decisive Strike (PHB2), Bonus Feat, Unarmed Strike

RoS





2
monk



1


3


3


3
20 (Balance 5) (Tumble 5)

Combat Reflexes (monk)

Evasion, Bonus feat








3
psychic warrior



1


5


3


3


22
Fling enemy (3), Dodge (psywar)

Bonus feat, 1 power known (expansion), 0+wis bonus PP (1)

RoS, XPsi





4
psychic warrior



2


6


3


3


24
Point Blank Shot (psywar)

Bonus feat, 2 powers known (pick one), 1+wis bonus PP (4)








5
warblade



3


8


3


3
28 (balance 8)(knowledge: history 1)




Battle Clarity, Weapon Aptitude, 3 maneuvers known and readied (1 must be ironheart), 1 stance (must be ironheart)

TOB





6
bloodstorm blade



4


10


3


3
32 (tumble 8)

Scorpions grasp [or great fortitude if flaws aren’t allowed](6), Throw anything (bb)

Returning attacks, Throw anything, Weapon aptitude

Sa, ToB





7
drunken master



4


12


5


3


36



Drink Like a Demon, Improvised Weapons

CW





8
bloodstorm blade



5


13


5


3
40 (knowledge history 5)




Martial Throw, Thunderous Throw

TOB





9
bloodstorm blade



6


13


6


4


44
Power attack (9), Weapon focus: flung enemies (bb)

Fighter Bonus Feat

TOB





10
hulking hurler



7


13


8


4


46
Snatch arrows (hh), throw anything (again?! see if you can trade this for far shot)

Catch Weapon, Really Throw anything!

CW





11
hulking hurler



8


13


9


4


48



Two handed hurl trick, (overburdened heave)

CW





12
fighter



9


15


9


4


50
Least Legacy (12), Cleave (f)

Fighter Bonus Feat








13
bloodstorm blade



10


16


9


4


54



Lightning Ricochet

ToB





14
war hulk



10


18


9


4


56



No time to think, Ability boost Str. +2

Mini





15
legacy champion



10


18


9


6


60
Multigrab (DM permission to stack on scorpions grasp)/far shot/improved rock hurling

Reduced Ritual Cost, Bond of Lore

WoL, SK, SS





16
legacy champion



11


18


9


7


64



Replace legacy ability (least), +1 existing class features (great swing, ability boost)








17
legacy champion



12


19


10


7


68



Extra legacy ability use (least), +1 existing Class features (Mighty rock throwing, ability boost)








18
legacy champion



13


19


10


8


72
channel legacy (lc), precise shot, martial study, plunging shot HAHA

Bonus legacy feat, +1 existing Class features (Mighty swing, ability boost )

WoL





19
warblade



14


20


10


8


76



Uncanny Dodge, 4 maneuvers known (IL 5)3 readied,








20
warblade (if LA buy off is allowed)



15


20


11


9


80



Battle Ardor (5 maneuvers known IL6)

(You can also switch out war blade with legacy champion and pair it with war blade instead)








At level 1, We have a goliath with Rock Hurling. He is right now ECL2. If your DM allows flaws, take great fortitude, it will help with feat taxes later on. The powerful build is a component for making your carrying capacity go up and therefor your throw range & damage.


At level 4, Chuck is a monk 2/ psychic warrior 2 with expansion who can fling his enemies through the fling enemy feat. The feat reads:

When you're grappling a foe, you can fling that foe away from you with a successful grapple check. Flinging the enemy requires a standard action. For every 5 points by which your grapple check beats your foe's grapple check or Escape Artist check, you can throw that foe 10 feet. Your foe lands prone in the square you designate. You can't throw a foe farther than you could throw an ally (as described in the Fling Ally feat). You must be strong enough to lift an enemy over your head (the enemy's weight cannot exceed your character's maximum load) to throw him. See page 162 of the Player's Handbook for more information on carrying capacity and maximum load. The enemy does not provoke attacks of opportunity for this movement.

: Allies one size category smaller than you have a range increment of 5 feet, while allies two size categories or more smaller than you have a range increment of 15 feet. If you have the Improved Rock Hurling feat or the racial ability to throw rocks, the range increments improve to 20 feet and 40 feet respectively. Goliaths are treated as Large creatures for the purpose of this feat, allowing them to fling Medium allies with a range increment of 5 feet and Small or smaller allies with a range increment of 15 feet. You must be strong enough to lift the ally over your head (the ally's weight cannot exceed your character's maximum load) to throw her. See page 162 of the Player's Handbook for more information on carrying capacity and maximum load.

At strength 22 (or 24 expanded) with powerful build, 346 lbs is a light load, 692 is a medium load, and your max is 1044 lbs (or 924, 1848, 2800 when expanded). When expanded, you can throw a horse, with a rider, assuming you can best the horses grapple check, to which you get a +8 (larger size, improved grapple). Each 10 feet away, the damage should be 1d6.
At the second level of monk, the balance and tumbling should be at 5.

A lot has happened since level 4 and level 7!! Chuck’s picked up a level in warblade, added a point of strength (23), picked up a level of bloodstorm blade, wherein he can “throw anything” that can be used as a melee item, and he added a level of drunken master.

Fluff: Let’s just say that Chuck picked up warblading, did some research into the new martial abilities (hence the +1 knowledge history) which he used to track down the bloodstorm blades. After being accepted to the bloodstorm blades, he partied real hard with the fringe monks from the keep in the next town over and picked up some drunken moves as he developed his friendship with them.

Somewhere in all of that research, Chuck finds out that a pair of gauntlets +1 that he bought are bullybasher gauntlets. This is totally DM dependent, and the only reason to have this interlude is so that when we get to war hulk, our BAB continues to increase by using legacy champion as a shell which uses “+1 existing class features” to make war hulk good, which all happens after the level 13 write up. But Chuck is optimized for 19 if not 20 levels. Deal with it. But, you actually save a feat at level 12 if you are willing to part with the BAB by not wrapping war hulk in a champion of legacy skin. Or maybe your DM won’t allow this or any similar weapon of legacy. in which case, at your level 12 you got some decisions to make.

Chuck should be able to also purchase a winged mask by now for flight. At character level 5, Balance goes up to 8, knowledge history goes up to 1. At Character level 6, tumbling goes up to 8.

Droplomancy: If your DM let you take great fortitude with a flaw, you can take scorpion’s grasp, otherwise you need great fortitude for entry into drunken master. Scorpion’s grasp allows you to grapple with one hand! Plus, it lends suspension of disbelief when you say that you are throwing a dude with your “Throw Anything” feat as an improvised weapon. If you don’t need scorpion grasp maybe grab psionic shot. +2d6 damage if you hit another enemy with the enemy you threw! If your DM is not letting you use enemies as improvised ranged weapons yet (don’t worry, we still have one more trick up our sleeve), take “Improved Rock Hurling” which will vastly increase your range with “Fling Enemy”.

Mechanically, Chuck can can use expansion (using all his PP for 2 minutes of large size acting as huge size through “powerful build”. Then he drinks his similarly expanded Flagon of mead, adding another +2 str and +2 con and subtracting -2 wisdom. His strength is now 27, but his AC is trash, but at least he can carry a horse as a light load. He can throw anything he can use as a melee weapon from bloodstorm blade, he can also use anything as an improvised weapon, adding 1d4 damage to the top to whatever he hits. With scorpion’s grasp, hopefully he can use the wriggling body of the dude he just improved grappled as a melee weapon, which he can therefor use as an improvised returning ranged weapon. Some DMs will say that you are assuming too much, which might be a fair assessment. But the language that I’m relying on here is Throw anything feat/ Improvised Weapons

Throw anything: Benefit: You can throw a melee weapon you are proficient with as if it were a ranged weapon. The range increment of weapons used in conjunction with this feat is 10 feet.
Normal:You can't throw a melee weapon without taking a -4 penalty unless it has a range increment (such as a hand axe or a dagger).
Improvised Weapons (Ex): While bottles and tankards are a drunken master's preferred improvised weapons, he can use FURNITURE, farm implements, or NEARLY ANYTHING ELSE AT HAND to attack his foes. A drunken master's improvised weapon deals as much damage as his unarmed strike plus an extra 1d4 points. Most improvised weapons deal bludgeoning damage, although some (a broken glass bottle, for example) would deal piercing or slashing damage. When a drunken master rolls a natural 1 on an attack roll while using an improvised weapon, that weapon breaks apart and becomes useless.


If your DM isn’t buying it, buy an item that allows flight, one with a high speed, grapple anything under your light load, fly up, and throw him at the ground or at other enemies using the fling enemy feat, the returning property from bloodstorm blade should return this projectile to you at the cost of an iron heart maneuvre, to hurl down again. Remember that you can only ascend at half of the rate at which you have a fly speed, so yeah. +23 to your grapple check, so if you are grappling with a medium sized cleric, you can probably fling medium enemies 20 to 45 feat, and if the direction you choose, is on a 45 degree angle from the horizontal, that means they fall from 15 to 30 feet of height.
Round 1: grapple, toss, fly up return does 1d6X the number you beat the opposed grapple check by, divided by 5.
Round 2, grapple to maintain hold, fly up, toss with the additional 2d6 worth of height. The projectile keeps returning to you to throw further down for additional d6 damage per 10 feet height. Etc.

Hopefully, the DM now appreciates what you’re going for here, but don’t worry if he is still a naysayer. There is even more expansive language in the hulking hurler entry coming up!

Well, All the working parts are in place by now. 3 more Bloodstorm blade levels, 2 hulking hurler levels, and a fighter level are gained, along with another point in strength. Feat taxes are catching up to us here. But we can really toss some people around now.

If your DM allows to you to throw people with bloodstorm blade, you can now throw them thunderously, (with a power attack attached) you have weapon focus (flung enemies), and your hulking hurler levels give you an even more expansive permission to throw live enemies as improvised returning weapons: The class ability is literally called “REALLY THROW ANYTHING” and it gives you a range increment for the enemies you grab that isn’t pasted in from the fling enemy feat. This allows you you to apply far shot to really throw anything. If your DM has already been on board with your so far, ask him if you can replace the second free "throw everything feat" with another feat (like far shot, or maybe martial study?)
Really Throw Anything (Ex): A hulking hurler gains the Throw Anything feat (described in Chapter 3 of this book) as a bonus feat. However, since a hulking hurler depends on brute strength more than skill, he can throw anything (not just weapons) he can lift as a light load. If the item is an improvised weapon, he takes a —2 penalty on his attack roll instead of the normal —4. Use the rules in Chapter 4 of this book to determine the amount of damage the thrown weapon does. The range increment of a thrown weapon or improvised weapon wielded by a hulking hurler is 10 feet + 5 feet per size category the hulking hurler is beyond Large (this is a modification of the Throw Anything feat).

With your Two handed hurl trick, you have two great decisions! My favorite, and the one suggested, is to take : The hulking hurler can throw a weapon up to two sizes larger than his size category, or an item that weighs as much as his medium load (so a Large hulking hurler with a Strength score of 25 could heave a Gargantuan javelin or a rock weighing up to 533 pounds). which helps support you throwing caravans of horses at people as ranged Lightning returning weapons, which is no longer limited by the number of your iron heart maneuvers. I do have a sick part of me that likes using enemies as area attacks against other enemies, but that means the size of the enemy you can fling is theoretically smaller (again, depends on DM) By now, you can be sure that you can absolutely throw an enemy as a returning weapon, which, paired with flight, makes for the most ridiculous flesh yoyo ever conceived.

Chuck Can afford a belt of giant strength +4 and a periapt of wisdom +2 (Improve that AC & PP per day, man) and a ring of freedom. Chuck’s unenhanced Strength is 24. Chuck’s best case scenario strength is 24 +4 belt, +2 expansion to Huge, + 2 drink like a demon = 32 (3200 light load (two bison), 6400 medium, 9600 max). Again, if your DM is the biggest killjoy in the world, you can still fling enemies as the feat instructs, with the huge grapple bonus from your strength and size, for considerable distance.

Chuck opened up his bullybasher gauntlets when he takes the least legacy feat, after taking knowledge history up to 5 at level 8. Again, if your DM don’t want you to use weapons of legacy, you can either take a level of warblade, or barbarian instead of fighter. Or keep fighter and nab some other feat you need, (something for that terrible will save maybe).


Now that you are set up for throwmomancy, time to increase the amount of weight you can toss and for how far. WARHULK!, at +2 strength per level, you are a killer on the range increment. By level 18, your expanded, drunk self has a strength of 42! All the money in the world to increase wisdom and strength some more. With legacy champion, you gain a BAB during those levels. The final levels are in war blade, or legacy champion channeling war blade levels to get level 5 and 6 initiator moves. You can snag multi grab to play off of scorpions grasp or plunging shot if you can fly to do an addition 2d6 damage (in addition to that 1d4 from improvised weapons) to people you throw your enemy at. Maybe psionic shot if your dm is friendly towards psionically charging an enemy is an option. At 42 strength, your light load is 22,000 lbs, Your grapple is 15 (BAB) +4 Improved grapple +16 str +8 huge = 43, meaning that if you beat the grapple check of something, chances are that it will be by very little or by a ton, in which case you fling them into the sun, or 60 feet or so into the air.

[JyP]

Obelix the Gaul, Menhir Crafter

http://www.asterix.com/asterix-de-a-a-z/les-personnages/perso/g28b.gif

Human monk 1 / infected lycanthrope 2 / Dire Boar 7 / Hulking Hurler 2 / Warblade 1 / Bloodstorm Blade 5 / Warshaper 2

For those who don’t know : http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obelix
Here I explain the magic potion which grants a fabulous strength the D&D way : all the village’s inhabitants are dire boar lycanthropes ! So they hunt all boars in nearby forest, as this is their turf. Maybe Getafix’s way is to suppress the alternate form and Strength bonus for all, except for Obelix... So I really focuses on Str bonus there, with a late blossoming for Hulking Hurler funhouse.




ECL

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



1st

Human monk 1

+0

+2

+2

+2

Balance 3, Climb 2, Craft (menhir) 4, Hide 2, Listen 2, Move Silently 2, Spot 4, Swim 1

improved unarmed strike (monk 1), stunning fist (monk 1), Sacred Vow (1), Vow of Poverty (human), Nymph's kiss (poverty 1), Brutal Throw (flaw) / Flaw : weak will

AC bonus, flurry of blows / +4 exalted AC bonus / aura of good



2nd
infected lycanthrope 1 (fall in magic potion cauldron when he was little !)

+0

+2
+2
+2
Balance 3, Climb 2, Craft (menhir) 4, Hide 2, Listen 2, Move Silently 2, Spot 4, Swim 1

Wis +2, natural armor +2, alternate form (dire boar), low-light vision, shapechanger subtype



3rd
infected lycanthrope 2

+0

+2
+2
+2
Balance 3, Climb 2, Craft (menhir) 4, Hide 2, Listen 2, Move Silently 2, Spot 4, Swim 1
Iron Will (lycanthrope 1)
+2 Str, Alternate form (hybrid), dire boar empathy, damage reduction (5/silver)



4th
Dire Boar 1

+0

+4
+4
+4
Balance 3, Climb 2, Craft (menhir) 4, Hide 2, Listen 4, Move Silently 2, Spot 5, Swim 1
Vow of Abstinence (no more magic potion for you Obelix)
+2 Str, +1 Con


5th
Dire Boar 2 :

+1

+5
+5
+5
Balance 3, Climb 2, Craft (menhir) 4, Hide 2, Listen 6, Move Silently 2, Spot 6, Swim 1
Power Attack (3 HD)
+2 Str, +1 Con / AC bonus +5, endure elements


6th
Dire Boar 3
+2

+5
+5
+5
Balance 3, Climb 2, Craft (menhir) 5, Hide 2, Listen 7, Move Silently 2, Spot 6, Swim 1
Defender of the Homeland
+1 Str (4HD) / +2 Str, +1 Con / Exalted strike +1 (magic)


7th
Dire Boar 4
+3

+6
+6
+6
Balance 3, Climb 2, Craft (menhir) 5, Hide 2, Listen 8, Move Silently 2, Spot 8, Swim 1

+2 Str, +1 Con / Sustenance


8th
Dire Boar 5
+3

+6
+6
+6
Balance 3, Climb 2, Craft (menhir) 6, Hide 2, Listen 8, Move Silently 2, Spot 9, Swim 1
Point Blank Shot (6HD), Vow of Obedience (to Getafix)
+2 Str, +1 Con / AC bonus +6, deflection +1


9th
Dire Boar 6

+4

+7
+7
+7
Balance 3, Climb 2, Craft (menhir) 6, Hide 2, Listen 10, Move Silently 2, Spot 10, Swim 1

+2 Str, +1 Con / Resistance +1, ability score enhancement +2 Str


10th
Dire Boar 7
+5

+7
+7
+7
Balance 3, Climb 2, Craft (menhir) 7, Hide 2, Listen 10, Move Silently 2, Spot 11, Swim 1
sanctify natural attack
+1 Str(8HD) / +2 Str, Ferocity (Ex) / Natural armor +1, mind shielding


11th
Hulking Hurler 1
+6/+1

+7
+9
+7
Balance 3, Climb 2, Craft (menhir) 7, Hide 2, Intimidate 3, Listen 10, Move Silently 2, Spot 11, Swim 1
Weapon Focus (club) (9 HD), Throw Anything (hurler)
Catch weapon, really throw anything / AC bonus +7


12th
Hulking Hurler 2
+7/+2

+7
+10
+7
Balance 3, Climb 2, Craft (menhir) 7, Hide 2, Intimidate 6, Listen 10, Move Silently 2, Spot 11, Swim 1
Favored of the Companions
Overburdened Heave / Exalted strike +2 (good), damage reduction 5/magic



13th
Warblade 1
+8/+3

+9
+10
+7
Balance 8, Climb 2, Craft (menhir) 7, Hide 2, Intimidate 6, Listen 10, Move Silently 2, Spot 11, Swim 1

Battle Clarity, Weapon aptitude, iron heart Stance, iron heart maneuver / Ability score enhancement +4 Str/+2 Con


14th
Bloodstorm Blade 1
+9/+4

+11
+10
+7
Balance 8, Climb 2, Craft (menhir) 11, Hide 2, Intimidate 6, Listen 10, Move Silently 2, Spot 11, Swim 1
Monkey Grip (12HD) can use a two-handed improvised melee weapon weighing up to 200 lbs : an unconscious roman, a tree trunk... for 4d6 damage, Touch of Golden Ice
+1 Str (12HD) / Returning attacks, Throw Anything, weapon aptitude / AC bonus +8, deflection +2, greater sustenance


15th
Bloodstorm Blade 2
+10/+5

+12
+10
+7
Balance 8, Climb 2, Craft (menhir) 16, Hide 2, Intimidate 6, Listen 10, Move Silently 2, Spot 11, Swim 1

Martial throw, thunderous throw / Resistance +2, energy resistance 5


16th
Bloodstorm Blade 3
+11/+6/+1

+12
+11
+8
Balance 8, Climb 2, Craft (menhir) 16, Hide 2, Intimidate 6, Listen 10, Move Silently 2, Spot 11, Swim 1
Improved Grapple, Gift of Faith
Exalted strike +3, freedom of movement


17th
Bloodstorm Blade 4
+12/+7/+2

+13
+11
+8
Balance 8, Climb 2, Craft (menhir) 16, Hide 2, Intimidate 6, Listen 10, Move Silently 2, Spot 16, Swim 1
Fling Ennemy (15HD)
Lightning ricochet / AC bonus +9, ability score enhancement +6 Str/+4 Con/+2 Dex, damage reduction 5/evil


18th
Bloodstorm Blade 5
+13/+8/+3

+13
+11
+8
Balance 8, Climb 2, Craft (menhir) 19, Hide 2, Intimidate 6, Listen 10, Move Silently 2, Spot 17, Swim 1
Gift of Discernment
+1 Str (16HD) / Blood wind ricochet / Natural armor +2


19th
Warshaper 1
+13/+8/+3

+15
+11
+8
Balance 8, Climb 2, Concentration 3, Craft (menhir) 19, Hide 2, Intimidate 6, Listen 10, Move Silently 2, Spot 17, Swim 1

Morphic immunities, morphic weapons / Exalted strike +4, resistance +3, regeneration


20th
Warshaper 2
+14/+9/+4

+16
+12
+9
Balance 8, Climb 2, Concentration 5, Craft (menhir) 20, Hide 2, Intimidate 6, Listen 10, Move Silently 2, Spot 17, Swim 1
Fling Ally(18HD), Nimbus of Light
Morphic body +4 Str +4 Con / AC bonus +10, deflection +3, true seeing




Obelix is a young warrior, timid and only knowing the gauls’ way - fistfights. As he is very innocent, I used the Vow of Poverty line to separate him from the other gauls, and monk as there’s no penalty on nonlethal damage - nobody ever dies in this comics. I had to take one Flaw though, so he can use his already great Strength to throw clubs.
Str 18, Con 16, Dex 10, Int 8, Wis 12, Cha 8
Club +4 ranged, 10 ft range increment max 50 ft, 1d6+4 ×2

As he felt in the magic potion cauldron at level 2, he is starting to gain more Strength in hybrid form.... And as all Dire Boar levels are bland, Vow of Poverty helps adding some fun.
Str 22, Con 17, Dex 10, Int 8, Wis 14, Cha 8
Club +6 ranged, 10 ft range increment max 50 ft, 1d6+6 ×2 damage

With great Strength comes great BAB
Str 29, Con 20, Dex 10, Int 8, Wis 14, Cha 8
Club +13 ranged, 10 ft range increment max 50 ft, 1d6+10 ×2 magic damage

Str 42, Con 24, Dex 10, Int 8, Wis 14, Cha 8
Let’s compute :
Medium load 346×16×2 lbs = 5.5 metric tons
An appropriately sized granite menhir would be for example 5.4 metric tons, for a volume around 2,2 m × 140 cm × 70 cm (a very thick stone door). So :
menhir, 2-handed improvised thrown weapon, 52d6 improvised damage.
Attack : menhir +26 ranged, 10 ft range increment max 50 ft, 52d6+18 magic good-aligned damage.


The 3 remaining non bonus feats after 13th level are for signature moves : hit a roman with another roman, fling a roman away, fling Asterix. Bloodstorm Blade unlocks another signature : hit many romans at once with a thrown menhir. Finally, at level 20, Warshaper raises Strength up to 50 - which would allow to throw up to 266×64×2 lbs = 17 metric tons / 173d6 damage. Here we unlock last signature move : throw a mature oak tree (http://sylva.org.uk/oneoak/tree_facts.php).

Asterix and the Big Fight, Book of Exalted Deeds, Champions of Valor, Complete Adventurer, Complete Warrior, Player’s Guide to Faerun, Races of Stone, Savage Progression rules, Tome of Battle, Unearthed Arcana.

http://www.carrefouruncombatpourlaliberte.fr/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/menhir.gif

[Djinn_in_Tonic]

Hm. I see cohorts are prohibited...is it prohibited to spend wealth on NPC spell-casting? If so, I have a crazy build...

[Ermac]

Half-giant warlock with maxed out strength, Fell Flight, and improved grapple.

[Jormengand]

Hm. I see cohorts are prohibited...is it prohibited to spend wealth on NPC spell-casting? If so, I have a crazy build...

If you use it to build your character, it's fine, but you shouldn't be spending money each time you go into combat.

[Djinn_in_Tonic]

If you use it to build your character, it's fine, but you shouldn't be spending money each time you go into combat.

Exxxxxxxxxxxxxcellent. :smallbiggrin:

Edit: Nevermind. Forgot we can only go to 13th level. My living 17,000 cubic foot block of steel will not work. :smallfrown:

[Jormengand]

Exxxxxxxxxxxxxcellent. :smallbiggrin:

Edit: Nevermind. Forgot we can only go to 13th level. My living 17,000 cubic foot block of steel will not work. :smallfrown:

Aww.

How was it gonna work?

[Djinn_in_Tonic]

Aww.

How was it gonna work?

Firstly, it's actually only 1,700 cubic feet of steel. Sadness.

Anyway, here's The Thwomp.

Astral Seed (the 8th level self-only power I needed to make it permanent) + NPC-cast Polymorph Any Object + Mind Switch allows you to, through shenanigans, take anything you can polymorph, turn it into a creature for a short time, Mind Switch with it, and make the end effect permanent via Astral Seed. Polymorph allows you to turn up to 100 cubic feet of material per caster level (caster level 17) into something else. Rock -to- Steel has enough of a modifier to be permanent (and rock is easy to come by, especially with Wall of Stone available). Steel -to- Chipmunk won't last long, but that doesn't matter: kill yourself (put yourself in the astral storage crystal), Mind Switch with the chipmunk from inside the crystal, smash the crystal, wait out the effect to turn the chipmunk back into 1,700 cubic feet of steel.

Congratulations. You're now a Psion occupying a body made of 1,700 cubic feet of steel.

Now fight by manifesting Psionic Overland Flight. Fly 10 feet above your opponent, fall, and make a DC 15 Jump or Tumble check. You take 0 damage. Your opponent takes a lot of damage.

Fall damage can be a little wonky: it's not entirely clear from RAW whether the 20d6 damage is a maximum for all fallling object damage, or whether or not it's a maximum for distance-based damage, and weight-based damage is separate. Both readings are reasonable given the text in the SRD. In the former case, you deal 20d6 damage, every time. In the latter case...well, you weight about 833,000 pounds. So they take a lot of damage. Even more if you take the reading from an old 3.0 book (and to my knowledge the only source of really heavy falling object damage), which says that spiky objects deal falling damage as if they were twice their weight. So just add some spikes to the bottom of the cube when you cast Polymorph Any Object and have a blast.

You also occupy approximately a 40x40x40 foot block, so there's going to be some collateral there as well. :smallbiggrin:

Now, a challenge to everyone: make a more ridiculous build than a giant cube of steel with the mind of a Psion. :smalltongue:

And yes, I could get Astral Seed via an item...but that feels like cheating, since I could just be a pure commoner with an item of Mind Switch and an item of Astral Seed and Psionic Overland Flight.

[Darrin]

T'chub-t'chub

Race: Non-Psionic (ahem) Thri-Kreen
Build Stub:Thri-Kreen 2/Psychic Warrior 1/Ardent 2/Monk 7
Ability Scores: Str 18, Dex 14, Con 12, Int 12, Wis 16, Cha 8
Ability Scores (Obese): Str 18, Dex 12, Con 14, Int 12, Wis 16, Cha 8
Ability Scores (Expansion): Str 20, Dex 10, Con 16, Int 12, Wis 16, Cha 8
Ability Increases: Wis 17 (5th), Wis 18 (9th), Wis 19 (13th)
Languages: Thri-Kreen, Common, Auran
Alignment: LE
Multiclass Penalty: Yes (10-13).


It was a slow afternoon in the noodle shop, but when three men dressed in black monk's robes entered, the few patrons, save one, quietly abandoned their noodles and left as quickly as politeness would allow. The owner bowed his head to the three monks, but a quick dismissive motion from the thin monk in front told him it was a personal call, not a business visit, and the owner quickly decided there was something important he had to do in the kitchen. The thin monk, with two shorter, thicker companions in tow, approached the remaining patron calmly but deliberately.

The remaining patron, a thri-kreen of considerable girth, regarded the three monks approaching with disinterested, multi-faceted eye, then returned to eating his firegrub noodles. But he also inched his chair back just slightly.

The thin monk stopped in front of the thri-kreen's table and smiled brightly. "Good afternoon, most distinguished sir. Is it not a most pleasant and propitious day?"

A noodle ascended up into the thri-kreen's mandibles, but there was no response.

The thin monk tried again. "Forgive my manners, most honorable sir! I am Shin Xu, a lowly and humble servant to his most exalted and benevolent Big Brother Pi. I would not dare intrude on your meal if it were not for my unfortunate duty to inquire into a matter that is of utmost importance to my benefactor. Are you, most respected sir, aware of the unspeakably tragic accident that befell Threetooth Nangi, the proprietor of the Three Dragons Brewery?"

An uncomfortable silence stretched out, but after a long pause, the thri-kreen turned to regard the three monks, and then turned back to his noodles. He said, "I am enjoying my noodles in peace. I would prefer to remain so."

Undeterred, Shin Xu went on. "I am told by the authorities that the roof of the brewery had collapsed in three different places. Threetooth and his two sons were crushed, but I am told not by the roof. Threetooth himself, I am told, was so flat you could roll him up as a rug."

Another uncomofrtable silence streatched out. The thri-kreen set down his bowl of noodles and gripped the edge of the table with all four claws. He said slowly, "It is such a nice day, I would hate to spoil my meal with talk of such business."

Shin Xu's smile widened. "You misunderstand me, my most respected sir! While the accident that befell Threetooth Nangi is truly horrible to comprehend, it was a blessing in disguise for my most gracious benefactor. I am not privileged to know the particulars, but it is my understanding that there was a serious disgreement between Big Brother Pi and Threetooth Nangi regarding a business arrangement, but after the accident at the Three Dragons Brewery, my master now finds that the disagreement has been rectified in a manner that he finds most pleasing to his present wishes. Again, may I beg of you a thousand pardons for interrupting your meal, but my master directs me to extend to you this boon, a mark of his gratitude and a symbol of the debt he has the pleasure to owe towards you."

One of the shorter monks reached into his robes and produced a small painted wooden box. Shin Xu took the box and opened it, revealing a piece of bright green rice paper crisply folded into the shape of a grasshopper.

A third uncomfortable silence stretched out, but after a pause the thri-kreen extended a claw and accepted to origami grasshopper.

Shin Xu bowed deeply. "Most pleasant sir, it pains me beyond my most imminent death to trouble you further, but if your most glorious person were to request an audience with Big Brother Pi, then it would undoubtedly overwhelm him with boundless joy to grant it. I will not disturb your meal any further, and withdraw my worthless presence in the most immediate manner possible. Good day to you, most kind sir."

T'chub-t'chub regarded the origami grasshopper a moment, and then slipped it carefully into his pouch. Threetooth was an "old schoolmate" that had needed a lesson on the consequences of picking on other students that did not match a particular race or body type. T'chub-t'chub hadn't been aware that he'd also run afoul of Big Brother Pi. If the Triad boss owed T'chub-t'chub a favor... well, now, there were several other "old schoolmates" that could use a similar lesson...



Build Progression:


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


1st
Thri-Kreen 1
+1
+2
+4
+5
Balance 4, Jump 4, Tumble 2
Willing Deformity, Deflect Arrows
Speed 40', Darkvision 60', Immune to sleep, +3 Natural Armor, Poison, Leap, 4 Claws/Bite


2nd
Thri-Kreen 2
+2
+2
+5
+6
Climb 1, Balance 5, Jump 5




3rd
LA +1
+2
+2
+5
+6





4th
Psychic Warrior 1
+2
+4
+5
+6
Tumble 5
Deformity (Obese), Speed of Thought
Skilled City Dweller ACF (Tumble)


5th
Ardent 1
+2
+4
+5
+8
Concentration 3

Freedom Mantle, Elemental Mantle (Air)


6th
Ardent 2
+3
+4
+5
+9
Concentration 6

Mental Mantle


7th
Monk 1
+3
+6
+7
+11
Jump 9, Tumble 6
Power Attack (Overwhelming Attack), Shape Soulmeld: Sphinx Claws
Flurry of Blows, Unarmed Strike


8th
Monk 2
+4
+7
+8
+12
Jump 10, Tumble 10
Improved Bull Rush (Overwhelming Attack)
Evasion


9th
Monk 3
+5
+7
+8
+13
Concentration 9, Jump 11, Tumble 11

Still Mind, Standing Long Jump ACF


10th
Monk 4
+6
+8
+9
+14
Concentration 12, Jump 12, Tumble 12
Open Least Chakra: Hands
Wall Walker ACF


11th
Monk 5
+6
+8
+9
+14
Climb 3, Concentration 13, Jump 13, Tumble 13

Purity of Body


12th
Monk 6
+7
+9
+10
+15
Climb 5, Concentration 14, Jump 14, Tumble 14
Improved Trip
Standing High Jump ACF


13th
Monk 7
+8
+9
+10
+15
Climb 7, Concentration 15, Jump 15, Tumble 15
Mantis Leap
Wholeness of Body







Level
PP
Powers Known


4th
1
expansion


5th
4
dimension hop, elemental steward


6th
11
hustle


7th
11
-


8th
11
-


9th
13
-


10th
13
-


11th
13
-


12th
13



13th
13







There's no offical breakdown of non-psionic thri-kreen into monster/racial class levels, but if there were, it might look something like:



Level
Hit Dice
Base Attack Bonus
Fort Save
Ref Save
Will Save
Skill Points
Class Features


1st
1d8
+1
+0
+2
+2
(2 + Int mod) x 4
+2 Strength, -2 Intelligence, +2 Wisdom, -4 Charisma, +1 natural armor, speed 40', Hide +4, Jump +10, darkvision 60', immune to sleep, multiple limbs/natural attacks, weapon familiarity


2nd
2d8
+2
+0
+3
+3
2 + Int mod
+2 Dex, +2 natural armor, Jump +20


3rd
-
+2
+0
+3
+3

+2 Dex, +3 natural armor, Deflect Arrows, Jump +30, poison



At first level, T'chub-t'chub is already large for his size, which means he gets picked on. Even worse, he has no psionic abilities, so among typical psionic thri-kreen he's treated as a disabled mutant. Fortunately, he has a coping strategy to deal with this: overeating. His only job at this point is to survive long enough to stoke a burning, unquenchable hatred for everyone that picks on "the fat bug".



After a endless amounts of humiliation and shame, T'chub-t'chub has finally unlocked his long-dormant psionic abilities. Unfortunately, the only thing he can do is what got him picked on in the first place: getting even fatter! But now, expansion along with Deformity: Obese, assuming an average starting weight for a thri-kreen, T'chub-t'chub has maxed out the "Two-Ton" limit for falling object damage. 212 lbs x 3 (obese) x 8 (expansion) = 5088 lbs. This unlocks his first signature move, the "Bugsplatter": With a 20' running start and a couple very affordable magic items, he can perform a 15' high jump, which should be sufficient to smash any medium-sized creature with 20d6 falling object damage.

Jump check:
10 (Belt of Ultimate Athleticism, 3000 GP, MIC)
+30 (Racial bonus)
+8 (50' speed bonus)
+5 (Skill ranks)
+5 (Strenth bonus)
+2 (Tumble synergy)
----
60 = 15' high jump

If he's wearing Boots of Landing (500 GP, MIC), he takes no damage from the 15' fall and automatically lands on his feat. He only has 1 PP at this level, so expansion only lasts 10 rounds, but with a double-move every round he can back up 20', get another 20' running start, jump up 15', fall 15', and still have movement left over. That's 10 straight rounds of 20d6 damage for an ECL 4 character... not too shabby for a fat bug. Without expansion he's still 600+ pounds, which is 3d6 falling object damage. When he's not crushing his opponents under his corpulent thickness, he has 5 attacks when he uses a full attack action: unarmed/claw/claw/claw/claw/bite. He doesn't bother with Flurry, as he gets more attacks with his natural weapons, and it's not worth trading in for Decisive Strike either, as his Dex is too low to take advantage of Combat Reflexes.



T'chub-t'chub thought joining a monastic order would put an end to the teasing, but it got worse. The monks didn't tease him openly, but they were much more accomplished at humiliating him in other not-so-obvious ways: slipping things into his food, replacing his clothes with smaller sizes, weakening the frame of his bed. Of course, all that ended when he flattened Brother Blanka into a bloody throw-rug. And he's found a new mentor: Master Kurgan. His new master is a cruel man, but as T'chub-t'chub is learning, cruelty is just a weapon you can use to get what you want. Master Kurgan has been teaching him how to turn his disadvantages into advantages, and how to leverage his shame into his greatest weapon.

T'chub-t'chub's Jump check is now high enough that he doesn't even need the Belt of Ultimate Athleticism to high jump 15' (although the 1/day "Take 20" option would still be useful for getting the drop on a large-sized opponent).

1 (minimum roll)
+30 (racial bonus)
+12 (60' speed bonus)
+9 (skill ranks)
+5 (Str bonus)
+2 (Tumble synergy)
+1 (Sphinx claws)
----
60 = 15' high jump

With the Elemental (Air) mantle, he no longer needs the Boots of Landing to negate the 15' fall damage. If he picks up a pair of Boots of Striding and Springing (5500 GP, DMG) he has enough speed to perform his Bugsplatter as a move action: 20' backup, 20' running start, 15' high jump, and 15' fall = 70'. Boots of Jumping (2500 GP, MIC) are cheaper, and he even has movement to spare: 10' backup, 10' running start, 15' high jump, and 15' fall = 50' (to stick the landing, he'd need a dorje of catfall or move the Landing property to Bracers of Armor). This would allow him to perform a "Double Bugsplatter" every round for 40d6 falling object damage. If we add hustle for 2 PP, he can perform a "Triple Bugsplatter" for 60d6 falling object damage.

While taking monk levels may not be the most optimized choice for a 5000-pound bug, the AC Bonus helps him make up for his weak Dex score, and he's still pretty decent in melee. He can attack with unarmed strikes as his primary weapon and has five secondary natural attacks, so something should hit at least once. Improved Grapple + expansion gives him an excellent lockdown option, I've gone with the Overwhelming Attack variant style here with the idea that he'll probably be picking up Leap Attack and Shock Trooper later.



This is where T'chub-t'chub unlocks Mantis Leap, and his ultimate combo is now possible: the "Triple Bugsplatter with Cheese". T'chub-t'chub has two move actions + hustle for a third, Mantis Leap turns each move action into a charge, and Sphinx Claws bound to the Hands chakra turns each charge into a full attack. He gets 7 attacks on a pounce:

unarmed#1 +12/unarmed#2 +7/claw#1 +7/claw#2 +7/claw#3 +7/claw#4 +7/bite +7

Mantis Leap doubles his Str bonus on damage (+10 with expansion, +8 without), and he can power attack for more damage if he likes. Assuming every attack hits, each Bugsplatter does 251.5 damage on average. For all three, that's 21 attacks at the expense of 3 PP on top of 60d6 falling object damage, so about 754.5 average damage if everything hits. With 13 PP, he can do this at least 4/day, and if he runs out of PP he can still do Double Bugsplatters with Cheese while expansion lasts. Even without expansion, at 600+ pounds, he can use Mantis Leap for full attack + 3d6 falling object damage twice a round whenever he likes. Assuming he has acquired at least Bracers of Armor +1 with the Landing propert (+4000 GP, MIC), Sandals of Springing (10000 GP, MIC), and a Ring of Jumping (2500 GP, DMG), he can make 20' standing high jumps or 80' standing long jumps without a running start.

1 (minimum roll)
+30 (racial bonus)
+12 (60' speed bonus)
+15 (skill ranks)
+10 (enhancement, Sandals of Springing)
+5 (competence, Ring of Jumping)
+5 (Str bonus)
+2 (Tumble synergy)
+1 (Sphinx claws)
----
81 = 20' high jump or 80' long jump

From here, T'chub-t'chub should probably take some fighter levels to pick up Shock Trooper and Leap Attack, and possibly look into Dodge/Mobility/Roofwalker/Roof-Jumper for additional damage on the downstroke. Putting more levels in Ardent + Practiced Spellcaster also helps him augment expansion up to huge size as well as expands his repertoire of powers.



Cityscape: Skilled City Dweller ACF
Complete Psionic: Ardent, Mantles
Dungeonscape: Standing Jump ACF, Wall Walker ACF
Magic Item Compendium: Belt of Ultimate Athleticism, Boots of Landing, Landing property, Sandals of Springing
Magic of Incarnum: Shape Soulmeld: Sphinx Claws, Open Least Chakra: Hands
Shining South: Non-psionic Thri-Kreen
Sword & Fist: Mantis Leap. Yes, this is a 3.0 source. Yes, it's 3.5 legal as per the 3.5 DMG page 4.
Unearthed Arcana: Overwhelming Attack

[daremetoidareyo]

T'chub-t'chub

Race: Non-Psionic (ahem) Thri-Kreen
Build Stub:Thri-Kreen 2/Psychic Warrior 1/Ardent 2/Monk 7
Ability Scores: Str 18, Dex 14, Con 12, Int 12, Wis 16, Cha 8
Ability Scores (Obese): Str 18, Dex 12, Con 14, Int 12, Wis 16, Cha 8
Ability Scores (Expansion): Str 20, Dex 10, Con 16, Int 12, Wis 16, Cha 8
Ability Increases: Wis 17 (5th), Wis 18 (9th), Wis 19 (13th)
Languages: Thri-Kreen, Common, Auran
Alignment: LE

I thought that I loved the psionic thwomp. But a fat bug, that is delicious!

[Darrin]

Thumpelina

Race: Dragonborn Anthropomorphic Baleen Whale
Build Stub: Anthro Whale 3/Simple Ranger 1/Monk 2/PsyWar 2/Drunken Master 2/Totemist 2/Monk +1
Ability Scores: Str 22, Dex 18, Con 18, Int 12, Wis 20, Cha 8
Ability Scores (Post-Dragonborn): Str 22, Dex 16, Con 20, Int 12, Wis 20, Cha 8
Ability Scores (Expansion): Str 24, Dex 14, Con 20, Int 12, Wis 20, Cha 8
Ability Increases: Wis 21 (4th), Wis 22 (8th), Wis 23 (12th)
Languages: Common, Aquan
Alignment: LN
Multiclass Penalty: No.


A southwesterly wind pushed the airship over a thick forest, mottled into dark patches by scattered cloudcover. The quartermaster paced across the quarterdeck, waiting for the watchman to call the hour and end his shift. The shift had been quiet and uneventful, and yet... he kept finding himself looking up, searching the clouds for... something. He wasn't quite sure what he was looking for.

A hatch opened on the deck below, but it wasn't the watchman he was expecting. Three angry crewmen spilled onto the deck, yelling and shoving each other. The quartermaster turned sharply and strode toward the center rail, stamping his boots in agitation to let the men know he was still on deck.

"Just a fancy! Just a fancy, is all!" protested one of the men, an older sailor with a salt-and-pepper beard and a green cap.

"Tell 'im!" shouted another man, a bald and well-rounded cook. "Tell 'im what yer saw!"

"Lay off! I ain't sauced, an' it warn't nothin'," said the third man, thin and sallow-faced with coal-black hair.

The quartermaster gripped the rail and glared down at the three men. "Gentlemen, is there a problem?"

The cook pointed at the older sailer. "He saw it! Port side, barely a tallowdrip ago!"

"Saw what?" demanded the quartermaster.

"W-w-whu... W-well, see now..." stammered the old sailor. "A fancy, you see? Had maybe just a sip, just a sip mind you... might'a been a dragonfish, a mer-whale, or one'a those giant flying babies y'see from time to time..."

"Giant flying baby... wait, did you say mer-wh..." and then understanding suddenly hit the quatermaster. "GENERAL QUARTERS!" he shouted. "GENERAL QU--"

A hundred feet above him, banking gently out of a dark cloud, Thumpelina smiled wickedly to herself. Too late, quartermaster, too late... She furled her wings tight into her body, and felt the firm grip of gravity envelope her and hurl her mercilessly down toward the deck of the airship. She activated the scarab hanging around her neck just before her bullet-shaped body blasted through the deck, sending splinters everywhere, smashing straight down through two lower decks and right through the bottom of the hull. As ballast stones dribbled out of the hole in the bottom of the airship, Thumpelina unfurled her wings and flapped back up towards the deck. Payback time.



Build Progression:


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


1st
Anthro Baleen 1
+1
+6
+6
+7
Listen 4, Spot 4, Tumble 2
Great Fortitude
+9 Natural Armor, Blindsight 120', Hold Breath, Tail Slap


2nd
Anthro Baleen 2
+2
+6
+7
+8
Listen 5, Spot 5, Swim 1




3rd
Anthro Baleen 3
+3
+7
+7
+8
Swim 2, Tumble 3
Air Heritage



4th
Simple Ranger 1
+4
+10
+8
+8
Jump 5, Tumble 5
Track -> Dragon Tail (Dragonborn)
Fast Movement +10', Favored Enemy: Krill, Spiritual Connection ACF, Skilled City Dweller ACF (Tumble), Tail Slap 1d8


5th
Monk 1
+4
+12
+10
+10
Balance 5
Dodge (Cobra Strike)
Flurry of Blows, Unarmed Damage, AC Bonus


6th
Monk 2
+5
+13
+11
+11
Balance 7, Tumble 8
Mobility (Cobra Strike), Roofwalker
Evasion


7th
Psychic Warrior 1
+5
+15
+13
+11
Jump 7, Tumble 9
Versatile Unarmed Strike
Skilled City Dweller ACF (Tumble)


8th
Drunken Master 1
+5
+17
+13
+12
Concentration 4, Tumble 10

Drink Like a Demon, Improvised Weapons


9th
Drunken Master 2
+6
+18
+14
+12
Concentration 7, Tumble 12
Roof-Jumper
Stagger


10th
Psychic Warrior 2
+7
+19
+14
+12
Concentration 10
Speed of Thought



11th
Totemist 1
+7
+21
+16
+12
Jump 9, Tumble 13

Wild Empathy, Skilled City Dweller ACF


12th
Totemist 2
+8
+22
+17
+12
Jump 12, Tumble 15
Open Least Chakra: Hands
Totem Chakra, Skilled City Dweller ACF


13th
Monk 3
+9
+22
+17
+12
Jump 16, Tumble 16

Still Mind, Speed Bonus +10'







Level
PP
Powers Known


7th
2
expansion


8th
3
-


9th
3
-


10th
7
catfall


11th
7
-


12th
7
-


13th
7
-





Savage Species does not break the anthropomorphic animals into monster/racial class levels, but if they did, it might look something like:



Level
Hit Dice
Base Attack Bonus
Fort Save
Ref Save
Will Save
Skill Points
Class Features


1st
1d8
+1
+0
+2
+2
(2 + Int mod) x 4
+2 Str, +2 Dex, +2 Con, +3 Natural Armor, Tail Slap 1d3, Blindsight 60', Darkvision 60', Hold Breath, medium size


2nd
2d8
+2
+0
+3
+3
2 + Int mod
+2 Str, +2 Dex, +2 Con, +2 Wis, +6 Natural Armor, Blindsight 90'


3rd
3d8
+3
+1
+3
+3
2 + Int mod
+4 Str, +2 Wis, +9 Natural Armor, Tail Slap 1d4, Blindsight 120', large size



If the DM has suffered enough blunt head trauma to allow such a monstrousity to be played at ECL 1, Thumpelina starts off as just a meatbag, wielding a simple two-handed spear and her tail slap along with her high ability scores to dish out/soak up DPS. Shunned and misunderstood by her own kind, she lives off the land by herself, occasionally finding work as a caravan guard or hired muscle for bandits. Her blindsight gives her the ability to see her surroundings in complete darkness, which helps her detect ambushes or melt into the night when discretion proves the better part of valor.



Thumpelina's first class level! Woot! After some time living on her own, she's acquired the skills of a ranger, tracking game and living off the land. Her experience with caravan guards, bandits, and merchants has also taught her the imporance of improving her combat skills, such as Jump and Tumble. Striking up a friendship with a local bronze dragon named Fraxilara, she is introduced to the worship of Bahumat, which she takes to it like a whale to water.

Becoming a Dragonborn of Bahumat via the Ritual of Rebirth removes her natural armor, blindsight, and tail slap, but she gains a better tail attack by swapping the Track feat for the Dragon Tail feat. She now uses large-sized halberd with her tail slap as a secondary attack. She can also use a ranseur with her natural reach, which means she can threaten out to 20', and use her tail to attack anyone who gets inside her reach. The simple ranger variant gives her Fast Movement as a Barbarian and she takes the Spiritual Connection ACF to get more detailed information from the animals and plants around her.



When Fraxilara is killed by an evil band of looting adventurers, Thumpelina swears revenge. But first, she has to find a safe place for Fraxilara's hidden cache of eggs. This leads her to the Disciples of the Shining Scales, an order of monks dedicated to the worship of metallic dragons. They agree to safeguard the eggs, as well as help Thumpelina track down Fraxilara's murderers and teach her how to remove their spines with her fists. While studying with the Disciples of the Shining Scales, Thumpelina taps into her latent psionic abilities, and learns how to become... a lot more of herself, let's say.

As a monk, the AC Bonus helps shore up the loss of her natural armor a bit. If she's using a ranseur for reach, Improved Unarmed Strike lets her full attack adjacent targets with her tail slap as a secondary attack. The monks teach her how to move around in an urban environment and how to get out of tight spots (Dodge/Mobility/Roofwalker).

At ECL 6, her Dragonborn wings give her a 30' fly speed, improved to 70' with Air Heritage and Fast Movement. At ECL 7, Expansion opens up her first finishing move, the basic "Cannonball": She can fly directly over her opponent, expand to huge size, and deliberately stall, falling on them for 20d6 falling object damage. Savage Species doesn't give height/weight tables for anthropomorphic animals, but if we assume she's at least a svelte 500+ pounds at large size with all of her equipment, then she's at least 4000+ lbs when expanded. A single PP lasts for at least 10 rounds, so she can "Cannonball" 10 rounds in a row if need be. If she adds Boots of Landing (500 GP, MIC) or Bracers of Armor with the Landing property (+4000 GP, MIC), she can do this from 20' in the air and receive no falling damage. Without the boots, a Jump and/or Tumble check can reduce the falling damage. She also has a Dive Attack that she can perform with a piercing weapon, most likely with a two-handed piercing weapon such as a halberd or ranseur, but Versatile Unarmed Strike allows her to use unarmed strikes as piercing weapons as well. Ideally, we want to combine the Cannonball with the Dive Attack, but we're not quite there yet... first, we've got to get her really drunk...



What shall we do with a drunken whale-her?
What shall we do with a drunken whale-her?
What shall we do with a drunken whale-her?
Heave her up t'the wild blue yonder...

Two levels of Drunken Master gives Thumpelina the next part of her combo: Stagger (Ex). This ability allows her to make a charge that isn't in a straight line, which means she can fly straight up, make a 180-degree turn, and fly straight down as a Dive Attack. We could also do this without Drunken Master, taking Fleet of Foot (Complete Warrior) + Psionic Charge (XPH) to make a 180-degree turn on a charge, but you'd have to expend your psionic focus to do it. Drunken Master's Stagger works every single round and lets Thumpelina move around anything that might get in her way. At the same level she gets Stagger, she also gets the next piece of her combo: Roof-Jumper. She doesn't need this so much to turn her fall into a charge (Stagger and Dive Attack already do that), but it does add +1d6 damage to each 10' she falls after the first 10'. The last piece of the combo she needs is Pounce, and she gets that from Totemist, grabbing Sphinx Claws and binding to the hands chakra with a feat. She gets another two soulmelds, so we'll grab Wormtail Belt to get back some of her natural armor bonus and Girallon Arms for giggles (and the four secondary claw attacks).

Once she unlocks Pounce at ECL 12, if she acquires a Pectoral of Maneuverability (12000 GP, Draconomicon), she can fly straight up, turn 180 degrees, Dive Attack on the way down, full attack with everything, and then Cannonball for 20d6 falling object damage. The monk level after Totemist 1 is to grab a +10' speed boost, so she can squeeze more bonus damage out of Roof-Jumper. With a fly speed of 90', she can move up to 180' on a charge. This gives her enough movement to fly 70' straight up (costs double, so 140'), make a 180-degree turn, fly 70' straight down (costs half, so 35'), Pounce kicks in on the Dive Attack (x2 damage), and Roof-Jumper gives her +6d6 damage on all her attacks. She gets 7 attacks on a pounce:

unarmed#1 +15/unarmed#2 +10/claw#1 +10/claw#2 +10/claw#3 +10/claw#4 +10/tail +10

Assuming all her attacks hit, that should be about 47 average damage for each unarmed strike and 35 average damage for each claw/bite, and another 70 for the 20d6 falling object damage... total should be somewhere in the neighborhood of 339 average damage. And if that isn't enough, she can dimension hop as a swift action for another 20d6 falling object damage.

If she can't fly (high winds, underground, religious holiday, etc.), Stagger and Pounce work perfectly well together on the ground. So long as she has 10' to back up from her opponent, she can charge + pounce every single round. She doesn't get the extra damage from Roof-Jumper, but 7 attacks with at least a +6 Str bonus should be plenty of DPS.

After ECL 13, Thumpelina should probably pursue a fighter dip to pick up the standard Ubercharger package: Power Attack/Leap Attack/Improved Bull Rush/Shock Trooper, along with anything that can increase her flight speed: the higher she can fly straight up, the more bonus damage she can squeeze out of Roof-Jumper.



Cityscape: Roofwalker, Roof-Jumper, Skilled City Dweller ACF
Complete Champion: Spiritual Connection ACF
Complete Warrior: Drunken Master
Draconomicon: Pectoral of Mobility.
Magic Item Compendium: Boots of Landing, Landing property, Scarab of Invulnerability
Magic of Incarnum: Totemist, Sphinx Claws, Girallon Arms, Wormtail Belt, Open Least Chakra: Hands
Planar Handbook: Air Heritage
Player's Handbook II: Versatile Unarmed Strike
Races of the Dragon: Dragonborn of Bahumat, Dragon Tail
Savage Species: Anthropomorphic Baleen Whale.
Unearthed Arcana: Simple Ranger, Cobra Strike variant monk style

[JyP]

JonRa’mbo

Half-Drow Ranger 5 / Yathchol Webrider 2 / Wildrunner 2 / Dungeon Lord 4

And now for something completely different - which works at low levels...




ECL

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



1st
Half-drow’ Elf Ranger 1
+1+2+2+0
Climb 4, Craft ( trapmaking ) 4, Craft ( weaponsmithing ) 4, Heal 4, Hide 4*, Jump 2, Knowledge (nature) 4, Listen 4’*, Move Silently 4*, Search 4’, Spot 4’*, Survival 4*, Swim 2
Skill Focus (trapmaking)
1st favored enemy (servants of Lolth*), Trapfinding, Spiritual Connection


2nd
Ranger 2
+2+3+3+0
Climb 5, Craft ( trapmaking ) 5, Craft ( weaponsmithing ) 4, Heal 4, Hide 5*, Jump 2, Knowledge (nature) 5, Listen 5’*, Move Silently 5*, Search 5’, Spot 5’*, Survival 5*, Swim 2




3rd
Ranger 3
+3+3+3+1
Climb 6, Craft ( trapmaking ) 6, Craft ( weaponsmithing ) 4, Heal 4, Hide 6*, Jump 2, Knowledge (nature) 6, Listen 6’*, Move Silently 6*, Search 6’, Spot 6’*, Survival 6*, Swim 2
Dodge
Endurance


4th
Ranger 4
+4+4+4+1
Climb 7, Craft ( trapmaking ) 7, Craft ( weaponsmithing ) 4, Heal 5, Hide 7*, Jump 4, Knowledge (nature) 7², Listen 7’*², Move Silently 7*, Search 7’², Spot 7’*², Survival 7*², Swim 2
Mobility
Spiritual guide², bonus feat, (no spells)


5th
Ranger 5
+5+4+4+1
Climb 8, Craft ( trapmaking ) 8, Craft ( weaponsmithing ) 4, Heal 6, Hide 8*, Jump 4, Knowledge (nature) 8², Listen 8’*², Move Silently 8*, Search 8’², Spot 8’*², Survival 8*², Swim 2

2nd favored enemy (orcs*), spider shape


6th
Yathchol Webrider 1
+5+4+6+1
Climb 8, Craft (poisons) 4, Craft ( trapmaking ) 9, Craft ( weaponsmithing ) 4, Heal 6, Hide 9*, Jump 4, Knowledge (nature) 8², Listen 9’*², Move Silently 9*, Search 9’², Spot 9’*², Survival 8*², Swim 2
Brachiation
Web hide, web ride (20 ft.)


7th
Yathchol Webrider 2
+6/+1+4+7+1
Climb 8, Craft (poisons) 8, Craft ( trapmaking ) 10, Craft ( weaponsmithing ) 4, Heal 6, Hide 10*, Jump 4, Knowledge (nature) 8², Listen 10’*², Move Silently 10*, Search 10’², Spot 10’*², Survival 8*², Swim 2

Spider climbing, summon spider (Large)


8th
Wildrunner 1
+7/+2+6+9+1
Climb 8, Craft (poisons) 8, Craft ( trapmaking ) 10, Craft ( weaponsmithing ) 4, Heal 6, Hide 11*, Jump 4, Knowledge (nature) 10², Listen 11’*², Move Silently 11*, Search 10’², Spot 11’*², Survival 10*², Swim 2

Fast movement, trackless step


9th
Wildrunner 2
+8/+3+7+10+1
Balance 4, Climb 8, Craft (poisons) 8, Craft ( trapmaking ) 10, Craft ( weaponsmithing ) 4, Heal 6, Hide 12*, Jump 4, Knowledge (nature) 10², Listen 12’*², Move Silently 12*, Search 10’², Spot 12’*², Survival 10*², Swim 2
Spring Attack
Primal scream, scent


10th
Dungeon Lord 1
+8/+3+6+12+3
Balance 4, Climb 8, Craft (poisons) 8, Craft ( trapmaking ) 13, Craft ( weaponsmithing ) 4, Heal 6, Hide 12*, Jump 4, Knowledge (nature) 10², Listen 13’*², Move Silently 13*, Search 10’², Spot 13’*², Survival 10*², Swim 2

Dungeon mastery,horde lord +1


11th
Dungeon Lord 2
+9/+4+6+13+4
Balance 4, Climb 8, Craft (poisons) 8, Craft ( trapmaking ) 14, Craft ( weaponsmithing ) 4, Heal 6, Hide 14*, Jump 4, Knowledge (nature) 10², Listen 14’*², Move Silently 14*, Search 10’², Spot 14’*², Survival 10*², Swim 2

Dungeon step


12th
Dungeon Lord 3
+10/+5+7+13+4
Balance 4, Climb 8, Craft (poisons) 9, Craft ( trapmaking ) 15, Craft ( weaponsmithing ) 4, Heal 6, Hide 15*, Jump 4, Knowledge (nature) 10², Listen 15’*², Move Silently 15*, Search 10’², Spot 15’*², Survival 10*², Swim 2
Able Sniper
Complete awareness, dungeon minions


13th
Dungeon Lord 4
+11/+6/+1+7+14+5
Balance 4, Climb 8, Craft (poisons) 10, Craft ( trapmaking ) 16, Craft ( weaponsmithing ) 4, Heal 6, Hide 16*, Jump 4, Knowledge (nature) 10², Listen 16’*², Move Silently 16*, Search 10’², Spot 16’*², Survival 10*², Swim 2

Animate objects





JonRa’mbo is a young half-drow from the Underdark conscripted for a war in a great jungle against wild elves… All drows scorn him for his inferior blood, until he turns rogue and traps them all in the forest !

So here I devise droplomancy through traps - which implies a different kind of adventurer : not the shock troop who invades dungeons, more the kind to defend a known area through attrition versus hordes of servants of Lolth.
Trapmaking has 2 major flaws : prohibitive costs which infer weeks of work. But this is because we are talking about traps in dungeons, where you have to basically dig holes yourself, camouflage your traps with architecture and big stones in mind.
My solution is to use Knowledge (nature) and Survival checks to help him gather all required parts on his traps and found the best area to use - to drop rocks from tall trees, and existing holes.

Str 10, Dex 14, Con 10, Int 18, Wis 16, Cha 8
Equipment : Dagger (masterwork Survival kit), trapmaker tools, silk rope...
Craft ( trapmaking ) 4 +3 skill focus +4 Intelligence + take 10 = 21. He is already able to create CR 1-3 traps easily... for example cover a deep hole with folliage, with fire-hardened spikes at the bottom.
Survival 4 +2 tools +3 Wisdom +3 favored enemy + take 10 = 22.

Spiked Pit Trap
CR 3; mechanical; location trigger; manual reset; DC 20 Reflex save avoids; 20 ft. deep (2d6, fall); multiple targets (first target in each of two adjacent 5-ft. squares); pit spikes (Atk +10 melee, 1d4 spikes per target for 1d4+2 each); Search DC 21; Disable Device DC 20. Market Price: 3,600 gp.


Our young half-drow is on a perilous path, between invading drows and defending wild elves. Even if he pilfered better tools, he still has to find a place in this great war.

Equipment : +1 Dagger of Survival (+4 competence bonus) 3902 gp, Magical Trapmaker Tools (+3 competence bonus) 950 gp, Dust of Tracelessness, light crossbow ...
Craft ( trapmaking ) 7 +3 skill focus +4 Intelligence +3 tools + take 10 = 27 => CR 4-6 traps
Survival 7 +3 tools +3 Wisdom +3 favored enemy +1 divine + take 10 = 27.

Spiked Blocks from Ceiling
CR 6; mechanical; location trigger; repair reset; Atk +20 melee (6d6, spikes); multiple targets (all targets in a 10-ft.-by-10-ft. area); Search DC 24; Disable Device DC 20. Market Price: 21,600 gp.


Drows infected the jungle with hordes of spiders, as they could not battle the wild elves directly. The Queen offered free holds to those who can reclaim some space before all trees die.

On level 5, yet another variant : Spider Shape (which is a druid variant for drows on change shape, but we also applied another variant to gain change shape as a ranger here). Because I found this gem in Monstrous Spider Web description : A single strand is strong enough to support the spider and one creature of the same size. So a great material to both trigger a trap and also support the weight of various rocks above unsuspecting characters. Plus, I like Hisoka from Hunter X Hunter, and it’s a great explanation to circumvent those pesky trap costs.

Why didn’t I use the obvious Trapsmith prestige classes after 5th-level ? Because they are designed for shock troops invading dungeons - to find traps and use quick traps which are only ok at low levels. As our ranger is defending is home turf, I think he can take the time to prepare his traps. Yachthol webrider allows stronger web strands as Ra’mbo can summon a Large monstrous spider, and climbing speed.

Craft (trapmaking) 10 +3 skill focus +4 Intelligence +3 tools + take 10 = 30 => CR 7-10 traps.
Poisoned Spiked Pit Trap
CR 10; mechanical; location trigger; manual reset; hidden lock bypass (Search DC 25, Open Lock DC 30); DC 20 Reflex save avoids; 50 ft. deep (5d6, fall); multiple targets (first target in each of two adjacent 5-ft. squares); pit spikes (Atk +10 melee, 1d4 spikes per target for 1d4+5 plus poison each); poison (purple worm poison, DC 24 Fortitude save resists, 1d6 Str/2d6 Str); Search DC 16; Disable Device DC 25. Market Price: 19,700 gp.

After level 5 I got stuck on many choices : Dread Commando, Dungeon Lord, Yathchol Webrider, Wildrunner... But it seems to me Dungeon Lord should be the last if we go up to level 13, as it shows whenever our ranger finally found his own place, as a buffer between hordes of spiders sent by drows and maybe at peace with the wild elves.

Craft (trapmaking) 16 +3 skill focus +4 Intelligence +3 tools + take 10 = 36 => whatever traps - some additionnal options in Dungeonscape for higher CR traps, but I didn’t see an update on Craft skill to create them higher than CR 10 - so it would be house rules there.


Ranger 1 : Trap Expert (no track) (Dungeonscape)
Ranger 1 : Elf Ranger Racial Substitution Level (8+Int skills), d6 hp, +3 vs orcs. (RotW)
favored enemy ability grants him a +3 bonus on Hide, Listen, Move Silently, Spot, and Survival checks used against Servants of Lolth, and a +3 bonus on weapon damage rolls against such creatures. "Servants of Lolth” includes drow, monstrous spiders of all sizes, and driders;
Ranger 1 : Spiritual Connection, no wild empathy (CC) (speak with animals / plants 3/day)
Ranger 2 : No Combat Style but wild shape at 5th level (UA)
Champion of the Wild : no spellcasting, bonus feat level 4 (CC)
Ranger 4 : no animal companion but spiritual guide (CC) (+1 divine bonus on Handle Animal, Knowledge (nature), Listen, Search, Spot, and Survival checks, commune with nature 1/day)
Ranger 5 : Spider Shape (DotU)
Brachiation : Complete Adventurer
Yathchol Webrider : Underdark
Wildrunner, Able Sniper : Races of the Wild
Dungeonlord : Dungeonscape

[Darrin]

Now, a challenge to everyone: make a more ridiculous build than a giant cube of steel with the mind of a Psion. :smalltongue:


Challenge accepted. I give you...

Ker'plunk - The Jellobomber

Race: Silverbrow Human
Build Stub: Druid 8/Incarnate 2/Thrall of Juiblex 3
Ability Scores: Str 10, Dex 14, Con 16, Int 12, Wis 16, Cha 8
Ability Increases: Wis 17 (4th), Wis 18 (8th), Wis 19 (12th)
Languages: Common, Druidic, Aboleth
Alignment: NE
Multiclass Penalty: No.


As the hobgoblin horde charged the gate, the elven archers along the walls of the fort let loose another volley. The horrible screams of the wounded and dying intensified, but the hobgoblins renewed their push, and were rewarded with the sound of splintering wood. A terrible cheer rose up from the hobgoblin ranks, and the entire horde pressed in closer, hoping to break open the gate. From a wooded bluff overlooking the battle, a four-poster bed emerged from the trees and floated towards the battlefield. Some of the hobgoblins or elves might have noticed the bed, but there were more pressing matters that demanded their immediate attention.

There was one, however, who did notice the flying bed, and curious enough to investigate further. As the bed got closer to the battlefield, a pixie suddenly appeared next to the bed.

The pixie addressed the bed, "Mister bed, sir?"

The smooth wood at the footboard dimpled and bulged as a vaguely human face appeared. "Yes?"

The pixie turned toward the face, flying backward but keeping pace with the bed. "Whatcha doin'?"

The bed said, "Destorying a fort."

"Oh," said the pixie. "You here to help the hobgoblins, then?"

"Not exactly", said the bed. "Are the fey folk involved?"

The pixie shrugged. "Not really. I was just sorta hangin' out, 'cause you know... all those big folk, stabbin' each other and cuttin' off limbs and blood spurtin' everywhere... that's *kinda* interesting. But I ain't never seen home furnishings getting involved, outside of catapults and such. Normally us dainty types help out the elves, but they've been really snotty lately, and our King Jollyhop said something about them borrowing a hedge-trimmer and not bringing it back... well, the elders talked it over last night, and they thought us dainty-folk should sit this one out. So... you don't like the elves? Did they borrow somethin' and not give it back?"

"Not really. In fact, what I'm about to do has a good chance to wipe out both sides."

The pixie frowned at the bed. "Well, that doesn't make any sense! How can you not be on a side?"

"I am not always given the reasons behind my instructions. I am bidden to reduce this fortress to rubble, and if any creatures happen to have the misfortune to be there, then so be it."

The pixie smirked. "Well, I seen a few tables get tipsy and tear apart a house, and I once saw a credenza demolish an entire glassblower's shop, and my Aunt Tallywhicker has this armchair that you absolutely do not want to get on it's bad side... but how exactly is one four-poster bed going to destroy an entire fort?"

"Why, by bombing it with several hundred gelatinous cubes, of course. You might want to back off just a bit... this is about to get very messy."

The bed stopped, hovering about a hundred feet directly above the main gates. With a wet *splorch*, a large cube of quivering protoplasm appeared on top of the bed, which dipped slightly and then flipped over, dropping the cube onto the gates below. After a few seconds, another cube appeared and dropped. And then another, and another, and another...



Build Progression:


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


1st
Druid 1
+0
+5
+2
+5
Concentration 4, Know:Nature 4, Know:Dung 2, Escape Artist 2, Spot 4
Aberration Blood (Bulging Eyes), Natural Heavyweight
Nature Sense, Rootwalker ACF: Vermin Empathy, Wasteland Companion: Vulture


2nd
Druid 2
+1
+6
+2
+6
Concentration 5, Handle Animal 3, Spot 5

Rootwalker ACF: Earthen Stride


3rd
Druid 3
+2
+6
+3
+6
Concentration 6, Know:Dung 3, Escape Artist 3
Willing Deformity
Trackless Step


4th
Druid 4
+3
+7
+3
+7
Concentration 7, Handle Animal 5, Spot 7

Rootwalker ACF: +4 saves vs aberrations


5th
Druid 5
+3
+7
+3
+7
Concentration 8, Know:Dung 4, Escape Artist 4

Wild Shape 1/day


6th
Druid 6
+4
+8
+4
+8
Concentration 9, Handle Animal 7, Spot 9
Aberration Wild Shape
Wild Shape 2/day


7th
Druid 7
+5
+8
+4
+8
Concentration 10, Know:Dung 5, Escape Artist 5

Wild Shape 3/day


8th
Druid 8
+6
+9
+4
+10
Concentration 11, Handle Animal 9, Spot 11

Wild Shape (Large)


9th
Incarnate 1
+6
+11
+4
+12
Know:Arcana 1, Know:Religion 1, Know:Planes 1
Thrall to Demon (Juiblex)
Aura, detect opposition. Soulmelds: Airstep Sandals, Planar Chasuble


10th
Incarnate 2
+7
+12
+4
+13
Know:Arcana 2, Know:Religion 2, Know:Planes 2

Chakra Bind (Crown). Soulmeld: Elder Spirit


11th
Thrall of Juiblex 1
+8
+14
+6
+15
Disguise 2, Move Silently 1

Sickening Slime


12th
Thrall of Juiblex 2
+9
+15
+7
+16
Disguise 3, Move Silently 3
Open Least Chakra: Feet
Corrosive Touch


13th
Thrall of Juiblex 3
+10
+15
+7
+16
Disguise 5, Move Silently 4

Summon Ooze





Typical Druid Spells Prepared
0lvl: create water, cure minor wounds, dawn (SC), detect magic, light, read magic
1st: cloudburst (SC), conjure ice beast (Frostburn), faerie fire, impeding stones (Cityscape), spider hand (BoVD), wood wose (SC)
2nd: cloud wings (SC), heart of air (CMage), summon swarm, soul ward (CChamp)
3rd: conjure ice beast III (Frostburn), dispel magic, heart of water (CMage), sleet storm
4th: enhance wild shape (SC), flame strike, sheltered vitality (SC)

Druid Spells per Day


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


1st
3
2
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


2nd
4
3
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


3rd
4
3
2
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


4th
5
4
3
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


5th
5
4
3
2
-
-
-
-
-
-


6th
5
4
4
3
-
-
-
-
-
-


7th
6
5
4
3
2
-
-
-
-
-


8th
6
5
4
4
3
-
-
-
-
-


9th
6
5
4
4
3
-
-
-
-
-


10th
6
5
4
4
3
-
-
-
-
-


11th
6
5
4
4
3
-
-
-
-
-


12th
6
5
4
4
3
-
-
-
-
-


13th
6
5
4
4
3
-
-
-
-
-





Ker'plunk didn't really "fit in" with most other druids. Where most druids saw vermin and oozes as agents of decay and the despoiling of nature, Ker'plunk saw them as just another part of nature. Disease, infestation, and rot were not examples of nature's weakness, but instruments of nature's strength. Breaking down biomass so that other creatures can use those resources... this is the power of rejuvenation, not destruction. And where most druids saw aberrations as abominations of nature, to be hunted down and purged from the "natural" world, Ker'plunk saw them only as the next step in evolution, a response to other creatures interfering with the natural order. Were not all creatures aberrations at some point? Don't all creatures deserve a chance to find their place in the natural order? Who are we to try and define "natural order" when the world allows wizards to rip apart the very fabric of the universe and reorder it as they see fit? To demand that some proud few get to determine which creatures are "natural" and which are "unnatural"... does that not make us the monsters?

Aside from all that, Ker'plunk starts out much like any other druid, except he prefers vermin, oozes, and aberrations to "normal" animals. Actually, it's best not to bring up the whole natural/unnatural creature thing... bit of a sore spot with him, you'll definitely get an earful.



As Ker'plunk explores the whole "what is natural/what is unnatural?" problem, he's begun experimenting on himself (hence the Willing Deformity), trying to determine what causes some creatures to mutate or evolve. Disease, poison, parasites... many creatures die, but some of them survive, change, and get stronger... what happens when he himself has to deal with these "destructive" aspects of nature? If these things do not kill him, and he survives... will he, too, change? Into what, exactly?



At 5th, Ker'plunk gains Wild Shape, but animals are boring. He pushes himself even further, and at 6th he's tapped into his own Aberrant Blood heritage, turning himself into forms that most other druids would never dare. These new forms, how did they emerge from what they were before? How much more do they need to change or outcompete the "natural" animals before they become "natural"?

From a mechanical standpoint, Ker'plunk diverges from most treehugger builds here because he doesn't take Natural Spell. Aberrant Wild Shape gives him some new forms to explore... well, ok, mostly the choker, but Quickness is (Su) and he can't get that yet. But there are some interesting (Ex) abilities he can access via the enhance wild shape spell... which will become much more important shortly.



Ker'plunk's fascination for oozes eventually leads him to a revelation of momentous importance... he realizes that oozes and slimes are the oldest creatures, the primordial soup from which all subsequent creatures evolved. These simple mindless creatures are the wellspring of all life. This realization drives him to explore the cult of Juiblex, patron demon lord of all things slimy, and Ker'plunk is compelled to devote himself to the worship of Juiblex.

At ECL 8, Ker'plunk has access to the Nilshai (Unapproachable East), which has an ability called Fearsome Celerity (Ex). When he casts enhance wild shape, this ability gives him an extra standard action every round, allowing him to cast two spells on his turn. But that's not really what we're here for. We're here for carpet-bombing with oozes. Thrall of Juiblex 3 has a Summon Ooze ability that lets you summon a gelatinous cube as a standard action at will. According to the Monster Manual errata, a gelatinous cube weighs 15000 pounds, and that's what I want to drop, an infinite number of gelatinous cubes. But there are several problems we need to overcome.

First, we need a surface that will support the cubes. According to the PHB page 172: "It must arrive in an open location on a surface capable of supporting it." So that's why we need a large-sized aberration: the mimic. When we cast enhance wild shape, we get access to the Mimic Shape (Ex) ability, which allows us to assume any shape up to roughly 150 cubic feet. A 10' by 10' platform, 18 inches thick, should be sufficient. The shape also needs to be a quadraped for reasons we'll get into later, so for now we can just call it a four-poster bed.

Second, we need to be immune to the gelatinous cube's acid and paralysis. The Incarnate dip takes care of this with two soulmelds. Planar Chasuble gives our evil druid acid resistance 10. And the Elder Spirit soulmeld (Dragon Magic) bound to our Crown chakra gives us immunity to paralysis.

Our third soulmeld solves our third problem: we need to be flying to drop things on targets from above. Airstep Sandals may not be the best method for flight here, only 30' with both points of essentia invested, but we can use cloud wings (Spell Compendium) or heart of air to increase our speed, and the perfect maneuverability makes aiming our drops easier. We can hover and presumably flip over, dumping the gelatinous cube on whatever is below us. Note: I'm assuming the perfect maneuverability here trumps the "You must end the flight solidly supported or fall" text from the basic soulmeld ability. If the DM rules otherwise, the Phoenix Cloak (50000 GP, MIC) is still within WBL.

The fourth problem is considerably trickier... we need our flying four-poster bed to be able to actually support the weight of a 15000 pound gelatinous cube long enough that it doesn't immediately piledrive us into the ground. Even assuming we can get our max load up that high, the rules are exceedingly vague on what actually happens when you try to fly while heavily encumbered, and there are no rules at all which say what happens when you exceed your max load. There are several different flying effects, and it depends a great deal on how you got your flight speed to determine what happens when you try to fly while encumbered. Air Step Sandals actually don't say anything about flying while encumbered, so we have to use the default rules in the SRD, but they put them in a weird place (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/specialAbilities.htm#movementModes) and they're still pretty vague: "A creature with a fly speed can move through the air at the indicated speed if carrying no more than a light load." It doesn't say here that we *can't* fly with a medium or heavy load, just that we can't fly at the indicated speed. To determine the reduced speed, we just use the same encumbrance rules we'd use for land speed. For a 30' fly speed, it gets reduced to 20', which should be sufficient to get out from under the gelatinous cube. To avoid the problem of figuring out what happens when we exceed our max press while flying... well, then we need to get our max load up to 15000 pounds.

A mimic has 19 Strength, which gives us a max load of 350 pounds to start with. Here's where we need the quadraped form comes in handy (or footy?), as that gets us a x3 multiplier. The Natural Heavyweight feat gives us another x2 multiplier, and if the mimic is wearing a Belt of the Wide Earth (8000 GP, MIC), we can get another x2. But that's only a max load of 4200 pounds... not enough for an ochre jelly (5600 pounds), much less the full cube. As it turns out, we need a Strength score of 29 with all those multipliers to get our max load up to 16800 pounds. The Magic Item Compendium says we can combine the effects of a Belt of Giant's Strength with our Belt of the Wide Earth, adding a +6 enhancement bonus for 36000 GP, but we're still short 4 points of Strength. There's at least two methods we can use to get there within our WBL for 13th level:

1) Bridle of Burden-Bearing from the Arms & Equipment Guide. While this costs the same as the Belt of Giant's Strength, the item description never mentions the word "enhancement". So if we get the +4 version, the bonus is "untyped" and stacks with the +6 enhancement bonus from our combined Belt of Wide Earth/Giant's Strength. Belt/Belt + Bridle = 8000 GP + 36000 GP + 16000 GP = 60K, just over half our WBL.

2) If Ker'plunk casts enhance wild shape twice, he can give his wild shape form a +2 untyped bonus to Strength. If he also smokes some devilweed (Book of Vile Darkness) or drinks some jhuild (Lords of Darkness), he gets a +2 alchemical bonus to Strength for 1d3 hours. Both of these drugs have drawbacks, but negating the Wis damage and addiction checks are laughably easy at this level. Also, the drugs are much cheaper than the bridle. A dose of devilweed or a dose of jhuild both cost only 6 GP. If we buy the Belt/Belt combo for 44000 GP, there's plenty of gold left over for drugs.

So now we can summon gelatinous cubes onto our flying 10' x 10' platform and drop them wherever we like. It's a standard action to summon the cube (SLA) and a move action to flip over, tilt it off one side, or slide out from underneath it. We can drop one cube every round, 60 cubes per hour, for however many hours until the duration on either wild shape or enhance wild shape expires. The cube can't hurt us (Planar Chasuble and Elder Spirit render us immune to the acid damage and paralysis), and so long as we drop it quickly, never gets a chance to engulf or attack us. Whatever the cube hits takes 20d6 falling object damage, and then (if the cube survived the fall... on average, any fall 160' or higher will kill the cube) has to deal with the acid damage, the save vs. paralysis, and engulf. I'm actually not entirely sure what happens when a creature is crushed underneath a gelatinous cube... I'd be inclined to say it auto-engulfs for simplicity's sake, but technically the cube doesn't do any acid damage, paralysis, or engulfing until it's turn comes up in the initiative order. Before that happens, you'd have to resolve the "stacking" issue with a large creature occupying the same square as the target creature, presumably with some sort of roll to see if either the target creature or the cube gets knocked prone... and I'd really like to know what a gelatinous cube looks like when it gets knocked prone.

Well, there you have it: carpet-bombing with gelatinous cubes made easy. Bombs away!



Arms & Equipment Guide: Bridle of Burden-Bearing.
Book of Vile Darkness: Willing Deformity, Thrall to Demon, Thrall of Juiblex, Devilweed.
Dragon Magic: Silverbrow Human, Elder Spirit Soulmeld.
Lords of Darkness: Jhuild/Thrallwine.
Lords of Madness: Aberration Blood, Aberration Wild Shape.
Magic Item Compendium: Belt of the Wide Earth, Phoenix Cloak
Magic of Incarnum: Incarnate, Air Step Sandals, Planar Chasuble, Open Least Chakra.
Planar Handbook: Natural Heavyweight.
Sandstorm: Wasteland Companion: Vulture.

[Jormengand]

Show's over, folks. I'll try to get up judging tomorrow.

[Darrin]

I had some other ideas, but I didn't find them quite as interesting as my other three entries:

Build Stub: Anthro Snake 3/SLT Barbarian 1/Psychic Warrior 2/Totemist 2/Swordsage 1/Telflammar Shadowlord 4
Shadowpouncer with the usual: dimension hop (swift), shadow jaunt (standard), blink shirt (move). I wanted to add Cavestalker 4 in there, so it could MWF with four spiked chains before the falling damage, but had to settle with Girallon Arms + four kusari-gama. But more or less a typical shadow-pouncer, if there is such a thing.

Build Stub: Anthro Cheetah 2/Wildshape Ranger 5/Psychic Warrior 2/Totemist 2
A reworking of this Swanmay build (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=18076139) from Iron Chef LIX (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?364667). I'm not sure Cheetah's Speed will double up with Sprint (Ex), but the idea is to activate the x10 twice for a 9000+ charge, fly straight up, then dive attack for 449d6 damage on the way down. I was also hoping to get Mark of Minauros in there for a +1800 attack bonus, but wasn't sure what to do with that (Power Attack would only reduce it by about -9). This build was too similar to Thumpelina, and even though that build doesn't get nearly as much damage out of Roof-Jumper, she can do it every round, whereas using Fleet of Foot/Psionic Charge to make the 180-degree turn only works when you expend your psionic focus, so every-other round. Still, probably had the best shot at "highest damage" award (if there were such a thing).

[WhamBamSam]

I had thought about trying something involving an outsider Thrall of Juiblex turning into a Jovoc (MMII) with Alter Self+Assume Supernatural Ability/Metamorphic Transfer so that when he dropped head first from a distance of a few hundred feet, everyone within 30ft would take the same damage he did, then using some manner of death prevention to survive the fall himself. I didn't end up with anything good that fit into a 13 level build though.

[Jormengand]

Viability: How well do you do what you do? /100
Originality: How weird, wacky and left-field is your class? /100
Elegance: How well does your class mesh together? Are you multiclassing every level and using a million different UA variants, or using a simple, cohesive, well thought-out class? /100
Theme: How well does the build fit the theme? /100
Fun to play: How fun do I think this class will be to play? /50
Difficulty challenge: +1 up to 10 for each monk or similar level, +30 no magic/psionics/sp/ps, +10 no multiclassing.

Viability: 68. It works, certainly, and deals a decent amount of damage, but I can't give you more than high 60s in good conscience while it's such an involved process to actually do it - you have to grapple an opponent who may be unreachable or much better at grappling than you before you can throw them.

Originality: 54. Sorry, but I've just seen one too many Really Throw Anything builds. You get kudos for doing it a little differently from most people.

Elegance: 24. It's all over the place, and it seems just to be a Goodstuff build rather than anything that makes cohesive sense. The points you do get come from choosing a thing to do, and doing it.

Theme: 45. Droplomancy and throwlomancy aren't the same thing, but you can always chuck someone off a cliff I guess?

Fun: 43. I worry that it might be aggravating if you can't find anyone you can actually throw, but that's fairly minor.

Difficulty: 2. You know where those points come from; move along, citizen.

Total: 236. Don't get me wrong, I like it, it just doesn't fit.

Viability: 66. Not great at lower levels, to put it mildly. But, then, you throw menhirs and it's okay.

Originality: 68. Okay, yes, he's Obelix and you can't get full points for Obelix, but... that was a clever idea, and I really like it. Okay, sure, you're a hulking hurler and that loses you a lot of points, but you get some back for a neat, imaginative way of realising your inner Gaul.

Elegance: 66. Again it's a bit all over the place, but it's Obelix. It's all over the place with a coherent - perhaps even cohesive - character concept in mind.

Theme: 40. What's with all the throwlomancers in my droplomancer thread? But still, a little theme-warping was necessary to fit your own theme: that of Obelix the Gaul. You get a few points back for that. But, you lose points for the fact that what should be your primary schtick doesn't come online for most of the build.

Fun: 28. Everyone wants to be Obelix, but the nature of "Pick a target, throw a rock at it" hurts your score here.

Difficulty: 31. You know how it is.

Total: 299. I like what you're doing here, but I don't like how you're doing it here.

Viability: 89. You lose points for inability to do stuff at the lowest levels, but this is solid. You can splat someone for more damage than they've any right to have hitpoints when you're at fourth level, and at thirteenth... yeah, thirteenth. More on thirteenth later.

Originality: 78. You're a big bug in the Chinese mafia? Well, that's pretty cool, and that's not a build I've seen before. However, I was expecting at least one Thri-kreen, so some points get cut for predictability.

Elegance: 8. Yeah. About that. You have levels everywhere, a multiclass penalty, ACFs out the wazoo, 7 levels of monk which I suspect you took just to try to squeeze out an extra point apiece, and options that don't even look as though they're meant to make thematic sense together.

Also, there's one maxim I try to abide by when judging something's power, but it seems more appropriate here. Optimus non maximum est. The best is not the most. Look at your thirteenth-level build and then look me in the eye and tell me that it's not a TO build. The entire build is trying to squeeze as much damage out of the jump as possible, and it works. Heck does it work. But the price you pay is that you set your score on fire in this category.

I'm sorry I'm really bad at saying this kind of thing nicely please don't hurt me.

Theme: 75. Yup, that's falling damage. Except when it's damage that you happen to deal while/because of falling, or when you're just trying to survive your first three levels. But otherwise, that's falling damage.

Fun: 40. That combo at the end is broken as hell... which means that instead of my eternal reward in the afterlife, I would like a statue of the exact look on my DM's face when I use it. It's also just a fun I-jump-you-die build anyway.

Difficulty: 7. I'm not convinced that you didn't take those monk levels just to get 7 points, but those seven points are yours all the same.

Total: 297. You're a TO build and I don't like that, but otherwise you couldn't have done a huge deal better. Good show.

Viability: 56. You're a capable fighter, but the droplomancy is only really a thing at the peak of your build.

Originality: 77. Genderbent Moby **** and a dive-attack build, well then. OTOH, I don't mind the idea of a giant drunken whale one jot.

Elegance: 34. This time, you have a cool theme that you're working towards, and you're not overdoing it. However, the mix'n'match nature of the build still lands you a massive hit in this category.

Theme: 53. Doesn't come online for ages and not all of it is fall damage, but at least some of it is.

Fun: 25. Nothing beats barreling through a ship while being a whale. Much, however, beats the slog of leveling to that point.

Difficulty: 5. DrM counts.

Total: 250. You need to get your droplomancy online faster and we might have a deal. Grabbing 25 extra points in each of three categories would have done your score some real good.

Viability: 70. Not the most damage, sure, but you get points for realism and it works from the word go.

Originality: 97. Who exactly sees "Falling damage" and thinks "Traps"? Not me. But you did, and the result. Was. Awesome.

Elegance: 89. That's a slight hit for the sources and a slightly messy build, but you get many, many points for something which I can actually see being played. Maybe a little mundane, but it works, and it works without having to do anything crazy to get there.

Theme: 100. Are pit traps fall damage? Yuppers. Are they an inventive use of the theme? Looks likely. I was going to give you a high ninety-something, but then couldn't think of anything you actually lose points for.

Fun: 23. The problem I see is that it will quickly become annoying for the rest of your party, who now have to plan every encounter around where you can put your traps. And setting traps isn't necessarily very fun compared to taking actions in combat - which I grant you can, but not very many or very effective ones.

Difficulty: 30. Okay, technically Ranger gives you spells, but you're not actually using any of them, are you? You don't need to.

Total: 409. We have winra. There are some things you could fix, I guess, but it's cool and it works.

Viability: 56. It's powerful, and you're a druid, but augh, the waiting time.

Originality: 100. How could I not?

Elegance: 67. Okay, you're still a TO build, ish, but you're a funny TO build and you're a coherent, cohesive, co-operative... wait, maybe that's a step too far, but you're an honest to god cool TO build. And at least the way everything fits together makes some twisted kind of sense.

Theme: 60. It doesn't come online until quite late on - again - but what it does do is CARPET BOMB EVERYTHING WITH GIANT JELLY. That is AWESOME. That's taking the theme and running with it without letting it go out, and that's worth a sixty if ever there was one.

Fun: 40. Druids aren't exactly unfun, and JELLY BOMBS EVERYWHERE WAHAHAHAH!

Difficulty: 0. Kden.

Total: 323. This is a terrible, terrible thing. And I love it.

Jon: 409
Ker'plunk!: 323
Obelix: 299
T'chub: 297
Thumpelina: 250
Chuck: 236

Overall, a compelling set of builds. They were all cool. They were all good for something. I enjoyed them all. But in the end, there can only be one winner, so congrats to JyP's JonRa'mbo! Honorable mentions to Ker'plunk by Darrin, and another of JyP's builds, Obelix the Gaul! But of course, you can only win once, so the real third place goes to Chuck by daremetoidareyo!

Thank you all, it's been an honour to be your host for the evening, so goodbye from JyP, Darrin, daremetoidareyo and me, goodnight!

[Darrin]

Thanks for judging!

Re: T'chub-t'chub



Look at your thirteenth-level build and then look me in the eye and tell me that it's not a TO build.


We probably have different working definitions of TO. +60 on a jump check doesn't seem all that TO to me. Certainly not Jumplomancer numbers. Actually, I was surprised that his jump check at ECL 13 wasn't all that much better than at ECL 4. Now, if I'd managed to get Marshall 1 and Factotum 3 in there...



Difficulty: 7. I'm not convinced that you didn't take those monk levels just to get 7 points, but those seven points are yours all the same.


If I could have taken less monk I would have! Sadly, Mantis Leap requires 7 levels of monk. Other than the Standing Jump ACFs from Dungeonscape, the monk levels don't help all that much... I was a bit stumped with what to do with the bonus feats, actually. I loathe Stunning Fist, but Improved Grapple would interfere with jumping, I already had the nearly-useless Deflect Arrows, and Combat Reflexes with such a low Dex seemed a bit pointless. I settled on Power Attack/Improved Bull Rush because they appeared to be at least marginally useful. Now if I could add Leap Attack, Shock Trooper, then Dungeon Crasher Fighter 6 with Knock-Down... bull rush them into the ground for (8 x 8d6) damage and then fall on them 20d6? Yeah, ok that's probably pretty far into TO territory, but the look on the DM's face would definitely be priceless.



I'm sorry I'm really bad at saying this kind of thing nicely please don't hurt me.


No problem. I feel no shame.

Re: Thumpelina



Viability: 56. You're a capable fighter, but the droplomancy is only really a thing at the peak of your build.


If she just wants to fly over a target and drop on it, it's viable at 7th. I think I may have had Psychic Warrior as her first class level at one point, but switched in the Ranger level so I could do the Dragonborn swap for Dragon Tail (which isn't exactly vital to the build). Some other form of flight might have worked better... losing the +9 natural armor and blindsight hurt. But I wanted to avoid LA (+2 for winged or half-fey template) and I didn't want to rely on items for flight. Dragonborn + Air Heritage was the best flight speed I could fit in with everything else... and I was worried you'd ding me for taking Air Heritage before she could fly.

Stagger kicks in at 9th, and Totemist gets me pounce, but those are kinda just gravy on the basic Cannonball. Everything else after that was about "how do I get a faster fly speed?" I was hoping for 100', thought I had it with the Mantled Warrior ACF/Freedom Mantle, then I remembered that if she attacks with a ranseur she can't use two of her claws, and she needed Versatile Unarmed Strike to dive attack with her unarmed strikes.



Originality: 77. Genderbent Moby **** and a dive-attack build, well then. OTOH, I don't mind the idea of a giant drunken whale one jot.


She wound up female because I was using this Swanmay build (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=18076139&postcount=300) as the starting point (Mach 1.48 and 449d6 Roof-Jumper damage), and I'd already used the name Thumpback (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=16756072&postcount=44) for a Battle Jump build.



Difficulty: 5. DrM counts.


You lost me. Digital Rights Management on a baleen whale?



Total: 250. You need to get your droplomancy online faster and we might have a deal.


7th seemed pretty decent. If she can grab flying earlier via items and takes Psychic Warrior at 4th, she can Cannonball for 20d6 earlier. I guess I wasn't aware you were looking for drop damage as early as possible (T'chub-t'chub pulling it off at 4th was kinda accidental).

Re: Ker'plunk



Viability: 56. It's powerful, and you're a druid, but augh, the waiting time.


The fly speed, acid resistance, and immunity to paralysis can be accomplished via items, which means you can cut out the Incarnate levels. Thrall of Juiblex can be taken earlier... ECL 6-ish with a couple fort-heavy dips, but that puts Summon Ooze at 9th at the earliest. Prior to the mimic thing, I think my preferred method of jello-bombing was a Flying Force Surfboard (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?185882-Shield-Bashing-fun&p=10294124#post10294124), but 21465 GP is a bit pricy.

The sticking point is Wild Shape, and I spent several days beating my head against Wildshape Ranger 5/Master of Many Forms 2 and then Druid 7/Master of Many Forms 2 before I realized that Druid 8 didn't need no stinkin' MoMF. Divine Minion + Aberration Wild Shape could have unlocked mimic a lot earlier, but... ok, there are some things even I consider "too cheesy". But I did discover a couple new ways to get bonus feats as a Druid (Urban Companion gets Alertness, and Sandskimmer/Heat Endurance via Sandstorm ACFs).

Actually, what I had the most trouble with was figuring out what to do with his animal companion. I had it as Urban Companion: Raven for awhile, considered ditching it entirely for the Druidic Avenger variant, before I finally decided that "Vulture" fit the "carrion and decay" theme best. I was still a little worried you'd ding me for taking a Wasteland Companion on a Rootwalker/Vermin/Ooze theme (or failing to mention what the vulture was doing to help with the droplomancy... mostly "Nutsy" was an appreciative audience).



This is a terrible, terrible thing. And I love it.


Thank you. I'd done stupid things with gelatinous cubes before (Orthagonel Velodrake (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=16886796&postcount=204)), but Ker'plunk required some optimization in areas I hadn't dealt with before... namely immunity to paralysis and carrying capacity.

I've been inordinately fond of the falling object damage thing ever since I stumbled onto 4500 lbs of stupid. And I still had several other ideas for builds... I need to rework that Cheetah's Speed/Sprint thing, but that only works 1/hour. I'd love to see WhamBamSam's Jovocian Bomb idea fleshed out a little more. I don't think this trick is entirely mined out quite yet.

[daremetoidareyo]

Thanks for judging.

I loved the competition and don't mind losing to any of them.

[WhamBamSam]

The fly speed, acid resistance, and immunity to paralysis can be accomplished via items, which means you can cut out the Incarnate levels. Thrall of Juiblex can be taken earlier... ECL 6-ish with a couple fort-heavy dips, but that puts Summon Ooze at 9th at the earliest. Prior to the mimic thing, I think my preferred method of jello-bombing was a Flying Force Surfboard, but 21465 GP is a bit pricy. You can actually potentially enter at 4th. Getting Escape Artist as a class skill on all good Fort classes is tricky but doable. Ex-Monk works if you don't mind making an alignment change, as does DFA using Dragontouched to qualify for Draconic Heritage (Ethereal).


I've been inordinately fond of the falling object damage thing ever since I stumbled onto 4500 lbs of stupid. And I still had several other ideas for builds... I need to rework that Cheetah's Speed/Sprint thing, but that only works 1/hour. I'd love to see WhamBamSam's Jovocian Bomb idea fleshed out a little more. I don't think this trick is entirely mined out quite yet.The biggest problems are a) wanting to grapple people on the way down so I'm not limited to Jovoc Bombing things within 30ft of the ground (an issue, since Jovocs are small) and b) the exact mechanism by which I manage not to die, especially on a mostly mundane build (the best one that doesn't involve casting Delay Death I've yet come up with is Xorvintaal Exarch, which can't be applied to outsiders, and therefore demands some chicanery).

Zceryll and Zagan would solve both these problems between them, but that'd take 10 levels of Binder to pull off. You could also pick up outsider typing via some acquired template, but that'll generally result in even more LA.

I suppose one might be able to use Thrall of Juiblex's Polymorph to take a typing that's valid for Xorvintaal Exarch. I'm pretty sure you can retain the Jovoc ability if you Alter Self into one then Polymorph into something bigger though, so this might end up solving both problems.

So how about this? It actually manages to get online by ECL 13.

CE Neraph DFA 1/Spirit Bear Totem Barbarian 1/Fighter 1/Thrall of Juiblex 8/Xorvintaal Exarch LA +2
Dedicated to Zargon, because why not?
1. Dragonfire Adept 1 - Dragontouched, Draconic Heritage (Ethereal), Willing Deformity
2. Spirit Bear Totem Barbarian 1
3. Fighter 1 - Improved Unarmed Strike, Thrall to Demon (Juiblex)
4. Thrall of Juiblex 1
5. Thrall of Juiblex 2 - Deformity (Obese)
6. Thrall of Juiblex 3 - Improved Grapple
7. Thrall of Juiblex 4
8. Thrall of Juiblex 5
9. Thrall of Juiblex 6 - Assume Supernatural Ability (Jovoc's Aura of Retribution)
10. Thrall of Juiblex 7 - Deformity (Teeth or Clawed Hands)
11. Thrall of Juiblex 8
12. Xorvintaal Exarch LA
13. Xorvintaal Exarch LA

Also, related to the use of Deformity (Obese) to increase weight for falling object damage, Haagenti's sign doubles your weight. One level of Binder with Improved Binding, or two feats for Bind Vestige and Improved Bind Vestige will let you make a pact with her to gain said influence.

[JyP]

Thanks for judging :-)



JonRa'mbo :

Fun: 23. The problem I see is that it will quickly become annoying for the rest of your party, who now have to plan every encounter around where you can put your traps. And setting traps isn't necessarily very fun compared to taking actions in combat - which I grant you can, but not very many or very effective ones.
I think I would house rules in this case : as our half-drow is a genius, maybe he planned what would happen before encounters : so in middle of combat, roll craft (trapmaking) versus Search / Spot of the opponents, and if Ra’mbo succeeds by ten or more , instant trap which was there all along...

’all according to plan’ meme for the win ;-)

However, it would mean that we defang Trapsmith prestige classes. I guess as a counterbalance Ra’mbo would have to spend his wealth per level in this kind of traps.

[Jormengand]

I think I would house rules in this case : as our half-drow is a genius, maybe he planned what would happen before encounters : so in middle of combat, roll craft (trapmaking) versus Search / Spot of the opponents, and if Ra’mbo succeeds by ten or more , instant trap which was there all along...

That sounds very much like the Pathfinder Chronicler's Deep Pockets ability, only with setting traps instead of buying items. I approve, but it should be a class feature of a homebrew class, rather than a general house rule.

@Darrin, I'll tell you that DrM is a shortening of Drunken Master (which you get points for because it's monkish), but I don't really have the heart or the will to go through the rest. Sorry.

[Darrin]

The biggest problems are a) wanting to grapple people on the way down so I'm not limited to Jovoc Bombing things within 30ft of the ground (an issue, since Jovocs are small) and b) the exact mechanism by which I manage not to die, especially on a mostly mundane build (the best one that doesn't involve casting Delay Death I've yet come up with is Xorvintaal Exarch, which can't be applied to outsiders, and therefore demands some chicanery).


Hmm. I was half-remembering something I was looking at for an Iron Chef that stops lethal damage at -9... turns out it was Death Delver's Nine Lives with some sort of combination with the Immortal Fortitude stance from Devoted Spirit. But now that I've tracked it down, I don't think it helps. Nine Lives is limited to 9x, and getting a high enough IL for Immortal Fortitude doesn't look doable.

I found something else: Fiendbinder's Bind Tormented Soul (ToM), but that requires a DC 30 Truespeak check, and it just lets you still act in negatives rather than stops you at -9. If the damage is several hundred HP, getting back up to "not dead" numbers could be pretty tricky without a bucket of water.



Also, related to the use of Deformity (Obese) to increase weight for falling object damage, Haagenti's sign doubles your weight.

I think "half again as much" means +50% of your normal weight.

[WhamBamSam]

Hmm. I was half-remembering something I was looking at for an Iron Chef that stops lethal damage at -9... turns out it was Death Delver's Nine Lives with some sort of combination with the Immortal Fortitude stance from Devoted Spirit. But now that I've tracked it down, I don't think it helps. Nine Lives is limited to 9x, and getting a high enough IL for Immortal Fortitude doesn't look doable.

I found something else: Fiendbinder's Bind Tormented Soul (ToM), but that requires a DC 30 Truespeak check, and it just lets you still act in negatives rather than stops you at -9. If the damage is several hundred HP, getting back up to "not dead" numbers could be pretty tricky without a bucket of water.It's offensively easy with casting, of course.

Fiendbinder would also require 5 levels in a PrC that has skill prereqs as high as 10 ranks. Even drown healing requires having Delay Death cast on you. If it were just staying conscious up to -9, then Die Hard would suit our purposes, but it really does seem like Xorvintaal Exarch might be the best option, despite the inherent problems, and the fact that you need to get new favor tokens every time you use this trick. On the bright side, it comes with 100 mile telepathy, so that's nice.

I seem to recall there was some way to get Planar Binding with just feats. It's usually not very good, because you lack all the lab safety mechanisms that you use to keep the outsider pinned down and force it to do what you say, but you might be able to use that to call up some Jovocs then throw them to produce the intended result. That's not as fun though.


I think "half again as much" means +50% of your normal weight.Whoops, I misread it. And you might have to do D&D multiplication on that, meaning you only get +2.5 times your normal weight from Haagenti and Deformity (Obese). Still though, there's sort of a cool factor in being able to optimize a vestige's sign.