Iron Chef Optimisation Challenge in the Playground LXXIII

[Heliomance]

A dimly-lit library. Rows of bookshelves line the walls, and as the camera slowly pans over them, we see that they are filled with gaming books. From the original brown-cover D&D manuals to the newest fifth edition supplements, we are given a brief but breathtaking history of over four decades of gaming in visual form.

A pair of feet, clad in Converse, appear. The camera pans back to reveal the Chairwoman as she strides out into Optimization Stadium. Slowly, she looks around at the battleground. Rapidly, we are shown shots of the gaming materials here assembled: books, miniatures, maps, dice. The Chairwoman reaches down and picks up a twenty-sided die. She rolls it, then turns to the camera... and smiles.

The camera pulls back from the smile to reveal... the Iron Gamers. Row upon row they stand, clad in the uniform of their trade: t-shirts with fantasy images, buttons with obscure quotes from novels and movies, dice bags at the ready. The shot dissolves into flames and the logo:


Iron Gamer

A montage of the contestants plays, with summaries of their optimization triumphs and achievements. Interspersed are brief interviews. Finally, though, the introductions are over. The contestants stand arrayed before the Chairwoman.

Chairwoman: We unveil the ingredient!

Tense music plays as the pedestal containing the mystery ingredient rises from below. Stacked neatly on the pedestal are copies of the Dragon Magazine Compendium.

Chairwoman: This month's theme is... Flux Adept! ALLEZ OPTIMISER!


http://www-01.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/api/content/nl/en-us/SSZND2_6.0.0/com.ibm.etools.webreference.doc/images/hr_runtime.gif

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

Contestants: You will need to present a full 20-level build for your entry. Also required is a rundown of how your build works at lower levels, to demonstrate that it is a functional character that could be played from 1-20 in a real game. Traditionally contestants give "snapshots" of tactics and abilities at levels 5, 10, 15, and 20, as well as a "sweet spot" of their choosing that represents what they believe to be the high point of the build. The purpose of these snapshots is not just to showcase your use of the SI, it is to demonstrate that your character is playable at every level. For this reason, it's still worth giving a snapshot before you have entered the SI.

Menu: The "special ingredient" can be drawn from any legal source. Originally, the plan was to mostly use Core and Completes, but that was a long time ago, and we've started running out of interesting classes to use if we restrict ourselves to those.

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

Kitchen: Competitors will be free to use any official 3.5 rulebook in constructing their builds. Dragon magazine is disallowed, and Unearthed Arcana is allowed; but see Elegance below. Web-exclusive 3.0 or 3.5 materials by WotC are expressly allowed, but take care to verify that an updated version did not appear in print elsewhere, as this may cause an Elegance deduction at the judges' discretion. Alternate rule systems from UA such as gestalt or Generic Classes are not allowed, as they create a different playing field. Also, item familiars are forbidden because I hate 'em. Please refrain from using Taint unless it's necessary for the Secret Ingredient.
NB: Official Errata and 3.5 updates to 3.0 content are considered valid regardless of whether their sources would otherwise be legal. This includes the 3.5 update of Oriental Adventures given in Dragon Magazine, and the 3.5 updates of Dragonlance Campaign Setting content given in later third party Dragonlance books.

Cooking Time: Contestants will have until 09:59 GMT on Sunday, October 25th, 2015 to create their builds and PM them to the Chairwoman, Heliomance. Please put the name of your build in the subject line of your PM. Builds will then be posted simultaneously, to avoid copying. Judges will have until 09:59 GMT on Sunday, November 8th, 2015 to judge the builds and submit their scores. If no judges have scored by that point, only the scores of the first judge to submit will be counted.

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

Power level is up to you. Cheese is acceptable, but should be kept to a sane level unless you're showcasing a new TO build you've discovered. In the words of one of my predecessors, a little cheddar can be nice, but avoid the mature Gruyere unless you're making a cheese fondue.
Elegance could bear a little elaboration. It basically measures how skillfully you put your build together, and whether you sacrificed flavor for power. We're cooking here - if your dish doesn't taste good, it doesn't matter how well-presented it is. Use of flaws is considered in poor taste, and judges are asked to take a dim view of this option, taking it into account while grading. Other things that will cause penalties here are excessive multi-classing, and classes that don't fit the concept - using Cloistered Cleric in a front-line melee fighter, for example, will lose you points.Please note the following change: a legal source's relative obscurity should not be considered as penalizing Elegance, excepting the aforementioned issues with Unearthed Arcana. Using too many sources may result in a penalty to Elegance at the judges' discretion, but a book's relative obscurity may not. In that same vein, drawing solely from the Core 3 (and the d20 SRD) should not be punished for lacking Originality.
Presentation: Builds will be posted anonymously, in order to avoid the potential of bias towards a particular competitor. For this reason, please don't put your name in the build, as I'm likely to miss it when reviewing the entries!

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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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



Code immediately below (spoiler).

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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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



For entries with spellcasting, use the following table for Spells per day and Spells Known. (Spells Known only if necessary, i.e. Sorcerer or Bard, but not Wizard or Warmage)Spells per Day/Spells Known
Spells per Day/Spells Known


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


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


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


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


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


5th
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


6th
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


7th
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


8th
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


9th
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


10th
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


11th
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


12th
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


13th
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


14th
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


15th
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


16th
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


17th
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


18th
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


19th
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


20th
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


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


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


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


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


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


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


5th
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


6th
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


7th
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


8th
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


9th
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


10th
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


11th
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


12th
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


13th
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


14th
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


15th
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


16th
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


17th
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


18th
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


19th
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


20th
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-



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

Leadership is banned; we're producing a meal, not a seven-course banquet for a hundred diners. If your entry includes a prestige class or ACF that grants Leadership or a Leadership-like ability as a bonus feat, the feat should be ignored and is not eligible to be traded away for another feat or ACF through any means.

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

We will award 1st through 3rd places, as well as a shout-out for honourable mention. The honourable mention prize is given to the most daring or unexpected build. Judges, contestants and guests alike are invited to vote for honourable mention via PM. If there are no votes, Honourable Mention will go to the chairwoman's favourite build.

The Builds

Past Competitions

Iron Chef I: Entropomancer (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=142470)
Iron Chef II: Psibond Agent (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=146583)
Iron Chef III: Cancer Mage (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=148584)
Iron Chef IV: Stonelord (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=150595)
Iron Chef V: War Chanter (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=152543)
Iron Chef VI: Master of Masks (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=156876)
Iron Chef VII: Green Star Adept (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=158633)
Iron Chef VIII: Pyrokineticist (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=160266)
Iron Chef IX: Animal Lord (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=162702)
Iron Chef X: Mythic Exemplar (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=164381)
Iron Chef XI: Blade Bravo (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=166539)
Iron Chef XII: War Mind (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=9426386)
Iron Chef XIII: Vigilante (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=172233)
Iron Chef XIV: Seeker of the Song (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=174434)
Iron Chef XV: Drunken Master (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=176049)
Iron Chef XVI: Assassin (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=178202)
Iron Chef XVII: Ardent Dilettante (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=182492)
Iron Chef XVIII: Unseelie Dark Hunter (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=186097)
Iron Chef XIX: Dread Pirate (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=190607)
Iron Chef XX: Incandescent Champion (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=10976416)
Iron Chef XXI: Ghostwalker (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=198921)
Iron Chef XXII: Dervish (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=206576)
Iron Chef XXIII: Divine Crusader (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=210071)
Iron Chef XXIV: Tactical Soldier (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=214198)
Iron Chef XXV: Scion of Tem-Et-Nu (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=217441)
Iron Chef XXVI: Shadowdancer (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=220956)
Iron Chef XXVII: Mindbender (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=224008)
Iron Chef XXVIII: Cryokineticist (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=227304)
Iron Chef XXIX: Consecrated Harrier (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=229688)
Iron Chef XXX: Initiate of Pistis Sophia (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=233346)
Iron Chef XXXI: Shadow Sentinel (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=236908)
Iron Chef XXXII: Temple Raider of Olidammara (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=239786)
Iron Chef XXXIII: Drow Judicator (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=243052)
Iron Chef XXXIV: Dragon Disciple (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=246072)
Iron Chef XXXV: Death Delver (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=249542)
Iron Chef XXXVI: Acolyte of the Skin (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=252923)
Iron Chef XXXVII: Justiciar (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13865473)
Iron Chef XXXVIII: Hand of the Winged Master (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=255215)
Iron Chef XXXIX: Renegade Mastermaker (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=260333)
Iron Chef XL: Nightsong Infiltrator (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=263173)
Iron Chef XLI: Geomancer (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=266709)
Iron Chef XLII: Shadowblade (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=270196)
Iron Chef XLIII: Bladesinger (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=274122)
Iron Chef XLIV: Urban Soul (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=279116)
Iron Chef XLV: Talon of Tiamat (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=15216595)
Iron Chef XLVI: Cipher Adept (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=287314)
Iron Chef XLVII: Cold Iron Warrior (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=291294)
Iron Chef XLVIII: Shadow Sun Ninja (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=297327)
Iron Chef XLIX: Thrall to Orcus (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=302487)
Iron Chef L: Corrupt Avenger (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=307823)
Iron Chef LI: Black Flame Zealot (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=312773)
Iron Chef LII: Anointed Knight (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=317934)
Iron Chef LIII: Zerth Cenobite (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=325164)
Iron Chef LIV: Osteomancer (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=330890)
Iron Chef LV: Mountebank (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?336373-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LV)
Iron Chef LVI: Dwarven Defender (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?342807-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LVI)
Iron Chef LVII: Darkrunner (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?349040-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LVII)
Iron Chef LVIII: Spellsword (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?357412-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LVIII)
Iron Chef LIX: Fleet Runner of Ehlonna (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?364667-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LIX)
Iron Chef LX: Lasher (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?371835-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LX)
Iron Chef LX(II): Acolyte of the Ego (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?372145-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LX)
Iron Chef LXII: Dungeon Lord (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?376810-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LXII)
Iron Cheff LXIII: Witchborn Binder (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?382632-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LXIII)
Iron Chef LXIV: Slime Lord (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?387166-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LXIV)
Iron Chef LXV: Thunder Guide (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?394981-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LXV)
Iron Chef LXVI: Dwarven Chanter (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?400810-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LXVI)
Irogn Chef LXVII: Gnome Giant Slayer (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?406613-Irogn-Chef-Optimisatiogn-Challegnge-ign-the-Playgrougnd-LXVII)
Iron Chef LXIX: Fang of Lolth (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?412530-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LXVIII)
Iron Chef LXIX: Shiba Protector (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?420165-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LXIX)
Iron Chef LXX: Order of the Bow Initiate (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?425634-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LXX)
Iron Chef LXXI: Silver Key (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?431484-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LXXI)
Iron Chef LXXII: Spellfire Channeler (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?439020-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LXXII)

[Heliomance]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Q: So what's the deal with equipment, anyway?
A: There is no official policy on how much equipment you should list. Historically, judges have frowned upon "item dependent" builds, but unfortunately the definition of that has been applied to mean anything from builds that don't function if you remove one very specific item, to builds that so much as mention a particular weapon. Builds that don't list gear should be assumed to buy useful generics - items to boost their primary stats, cloaks of resistance, appropriate magical weapons and armour, and so forth. If a build would find particular items useful, they should be listed, but experience suggests that the more generic you keep them, the more favourably judges are likely to look upon them, as a build being shut down because the Thundering Bagpipes of Urist McTrumpetbritches were unavailable is considered a weakness. Similarly, requiring items in order to be able to qualify for things tends to be frowned upon.

[dysprosium]

I've always wanted to use this class in some way. No I can get a chance. I have an idea but we'll see if I can really banish the Demon Real Life this time.

Plus there should be less hullabaloo this round, right?

Right?

[Sian]

Plus there should be less hullabaloo this round, right?

Right?

taken levels in "jinxer" lately? ... you really ought to retrain those levels

[Amphetryon]

I'll try to compete this round, if for no other reason than to attempt to make [feature] do [thing].

[Venger]

I always mix this class up with shaper of form. It manages to do even less. Down to clown.

[Sian]

first idea done, and figured out that the brilliant core idea wouldn't work due to how potions work.

Guess i'll stay at the drawing board for a while

[erok0809]

What book is this class from?

[Heliomance]

first idea done, and figured out that the brilliant core idea wouldn't work due to how potions work.

Guess i'll stay at the drawing board for a while

I also had a brilliant idea, but I don't think I can fit what I want to do into 20 levels, and I'd only be optimising one class feature anyway. So it goes.

[Sian]

I also had a brilliant idea, but I don't think I can fit what I want to do into 20 levels, and I'd only be optimising one class feature anyway. So it goes.

yeah ... the bit about optimising one class feature (which then doesn't even work all that well) is one of the primary reasons why i let that idea go...

[Deadasadoor]

I always mix this class up with shaper of form. It manages to do even less.

I got excited because I did the same thing. I really like Shaper of Form for some reason.

Maybe I'll compete again, but I have a lot on my plate with school and DMing a campaign along with two planned one-shots.

[Zaq]

This is one of the weirder classes I've seen recently. I know I've looked at it before, but I had absolutely zero memory of it . . . and reading through it, pretty much every level brought some kind of "what?" to my face. It's even more disjoint than most SIs we've seen . . . the different abilities aren't actively working against each other, but they don't really have any connection to each other at all.

I've been surprised by bolts of inspiration before (I certainly wasn't expecting to come up with a Spellfire Channeler upon first reading it, and then I went and won the darn thing), but right this minute, I don't see anything at all to do with this class. It would be much easier to use if it weren't half casting, of course . . . that's just a major pain in the butt from an Iron Chef perspective. And those skills! It's truly a decent list, but 2 + INT? On a class with class features that involve no fewer than seven skills (plus the prereq skills, which are not used by any of the class features)? That's going to make UoSI hard and Originality harder.

Ugh. I'll think about it. If there aren't too many entries, I might end up judging, but no promises (I dunno if I have it in me to handle a ten-entry round, but a four- or five-entry round might be doable). Maybe I'll get inspired, but right now I'm drawing a blank.

[Curmudgeon]

She gains the ability to make such fluids acidic, and can do so a number of times per day equal to 3 plus her Constitution modifier (minimum 1).
Does the "minimum 1" stipulation apply to

Constitution modifier, or
number of uses per day?

[Amphetryon]

Oh, wow. Hi, Vizzini. Nice of you to show up so early in the process. :smallmad:

[Sian]

I've been surprised by bolts of inspiration before (I certainly wasn't expecting to come up with a Spellfire Channeler upon first reading it, and then I went and won the darn thing), but right this minute, I don't see anything at all to do with this class. It would be much easier to use if it weren't half casting, of course . . .

The more i read it, the more i feel it would be a much more viable SI to build for if it had no caster level req and no half casting. Not better in any way (obviously) but much easier to build a character around. With the half casting there's an implicit expectation that the base is some kind of caster (i've several times gotting dinged hard for trying to build dishes around a 10lvl caster class when handed a half-caster), yet none of its abilities are any good for them, but rather for some kind of mobile frontliner

[The Viscount]

What book is this class from?

It's from Dragon Compendium, the book's now on the line just above the ingredient instead of same line due to reformatted OP.

I had feared this day would come. I can only pray that I am prepared. Tentative in.

[daremetoidareyo]

This class is terrible. The only way to make it more terrible is to require you to be a dwarf.

In the 5 levels necessary to enter the prestige class, (by blowing three, THREE!? feats) I can line up analogs nearly all of the class abilities to be granted by multiclassing, except that level 9 ability.


I'm going to try to build something...

[WhamBamSam]

Well, I have some thoughts on this. We'll see if it comes together into anything workable.

[The Viscount]

I'm actually surprised that the SI's class features actually boost class skills. Iron Chef really has warped my expectations.

Couple questions: Does the +2 on Charisma checks from Pheromonic Control last only as long as the eagle's splendor effect, or is it always on?

Out of curiosity, what sort of conditions would negate the scent ability?

Is the limit on Boiling Blood an overall limit (you can only have claws for 1 round per level on a given day) or a limit per use (you can have claws for 1 round per level, you can do this 1+ Con mod times a day)?

Also am I the only one who's confused on how the sample flux adepts massive paws only deal 1d4 points of damage?

[Sian]

Also am I the only one who's confused on how the sample flux adepts massive paws only deal 1d4 points of damage?

It helps slightly if you realize its likely a Gnome Bard (note the lute and its large paperslips, and the relatively large eyes), hence small enough that said paws are medium sized (which fits damage wise)

[Bucky]

I'm actually surprised that the SI's class features actually boost class skills.

And they also boost cross-class Intimidate and Diplomacy!

[Curmudgeon]

In the 5 levels necessary to enter the prestige class, (by blowing three, THREE!? feats) I can line up analogs nearly all of the class abilities to be granted by multiclassing, except that level 9 ability.
Polyhaemia lets the Flux Adept "reuse" a potion they've consumed in the last day, so mostly the benefit is getting two doses for the cost of one. I can see ways to that end. Of course, this is Iron Chef rather than Zinc Saucier. :smallamused:

[Bucky]

Can I Polyhaemia the same potion more than once?

[WhamBamSam]

Can I Polyhaemia the same potion more than once?Seems that way to me. I think you could probably Polyhaemia the same potion over and over forever (within the uses/day limit) if such was your desire, since the potion acts as if you had just drunk it, so you can Polyhaemia it again anytime in the next 24 hours.

[Venger]

Seems that way to me. I think you could probably Polyhaemia the same potion over and over forever (within the uses/day limit) if such was your desire, since the potion acts as if you had just drunk it, so you can Polyhaemia it again anytime in the next 24 hours.

how does dilute potion come into the mix?

[Curmudgeon]

Can I Polyhaemia the same potion more than once?
That depends. Is "synthesized" the same as "consumed"? They're different terms.

[tgva8889]

The text of the ability says:


Once synthesized, the potion immediately affects the flux adept as if she had just drunk it.

Does "affects" in this case mean that it includes the fact that the flux adept consumed it and therefore can copy it, as that is one of the ways in which a potion affects a flux adept? Does the phrase "as if she had just drunk it" imply that synthesizing affects as if drunk, which means that they are equivalent?

Also man, this class certainly...has some abilities. That do things.

[WhamBamSam]

That depends. Is "synthesized" the same as "consumed"? They're different terms.But "drunk" is pretty much the same as "consumed."

Question: Does the acid damage on a touch from Bitter Tides apply to every natural attack, or just on the claws from Boiling Blood? It's basically the old Soul Eater question, but if the chair feels like making a ruling on it, we'd all be saved some disputing. Assuming any of us end up caring about a few points of acid damage, that is.

[Curmudgeon]

But "drunk" is pretty much the same as "consumed."
Of course, there's a big "as if" conditional in front of that term.

[Darrin]

What I find astounding is something this awful was printed not once but twice. Some editor was looking through all the possible material they could have included, and this person decided "Hey, we need to include this!" My best guess is they thought the artwork was awesome and they never really looked at the text.


Question: Does the acid damage on a touch from Bitter Tides apply to every natural attack, or just on the claws from Boiling Blood? It's basically the old Soul Eater question, but if the chair feels like making a ruling on it, we'd all be saved some disputing. Assuming any of us end up caring about a few points of acid damage, that is.

According to Boiling Blood, no. By RAW, the text only mentions "claw attacks". However, it should work with any type of claw, so if you get additional claws from some other means (such as via Totemist), then you could get acid damage on those as well.

I thought Bitter Tides had something that might apply to all natural attacks, but on closer reading, it only applies to objects, which rules out creatures.

The question I'd like to see a ruling on: the duration for Bitter Tides says it lasts 10 minutes, but it's not clear to me if this applies just to the acid sweat or also the acid spittle. As in, once you activate this, can you both spit gobs of acid and secrete acid sweat whenever you like, or does the 10 minutes only apply to the sweat part?

[Sian]

The question I'd like to see a ruling on: the duration for Bitter Tides says it lasts 10 minutes, but it's not clear to me if this applies just to the acid sweat or also the acid spittle. As in, once you activate this, can you both spit gobs of acid and secrete acid sweat whenever you like, or does the 10 minutes only apply to the sweat part?

Read it again,


With this ability the flux adept may either spit a single concentrated bolus of acidic saliva or sweat acid for 10 minutes

[Darrin]

Read it again,

My question still remains, as it's not clear if the 10 minute duration applies to both options. It can still be read, "either spit acid for 10 minutes or sweat acid for 10 minutes". Or put another way, "when activated, this ability lasts 10 minutes, and during that time you can either spit acid or sweat acid whenever you like."

[d20familiar]

Why on earth this physiology-themed kinda-sorta-caster class has good Ref save progression and bad Fort & Will? :smallannoyed:

[Curmudgeon]

My question still remains, as it's not clear if the 10 minute duration applies to both options. It can still be read, "either spit acid for 10 minutes or sweat acid for 10 minutes". Or put another way, "when activated, this ability lasts 10 minutes, and during that time you can either spit acid or sweat acid whenever you like."
I the the "a single" bit answers the question. You either spit "a single concentrated bolus", or sweat continuously for 10 minutes. There's nothing about spitting other than a single time.

[Zaq]

I read it the same way Curmudgeon does. It would have been clearer if they wrote it as "sweat acid for 10 minutes or spit a single concentrated bolus of acidic spittle," but either way, as written, I believe you either get 10 minutes of acid sweat or one shot of acid spit per dose of Bitter Tides.

Which, of course, is terrible . . . an Incarnate can have a 3d6 acid spit (with better range) at-will at level 3 (or at level 1 with the investment of a really good feat that they'd probably take anyway), to say nothing of the DFA's at-will acid breath (AoE, and still with better range) at level 5. And that's without meeting this class's bizarre prereqs. The acid sweat is a little more interesting, because it is relatively unique, but the acid spit is a shining example of "too little, too late."

I think the most offensive thing about the class (aside from the utterly anemic skill points and bizarre prereqs) is the fact that the vast majority of the class's abilities wouldn't be overpowered if they were at-will, but they still felt the need to make them sharply limited in uses per day.

Eagle's Splendor? It's cute, but the class doesn't do anything with CHA directly, and most people who really care about CHA are going to have an enhancement bonus to it from somewhere else. Burning three feats and two levels to save yourself an item slot isn't exactly overpowered, even if it were at-will.
Acid spit? As I said above, an Incarnate can replicate 3d6 acid spit at-will at level 3, so that's hardly overpowered. 3d6 damage isn't really that noticeable at level 9 on a good day, and then they went and made it use-limited.
Haste? Sure, it's nice (and the fact that it's [Ex] is cool), but you're level 12 by that point . . . you could get Haste way more than 2/day from spell slots alone if you were a full caster instead of a half caster. (Sure, even the Swiftblade doesn't technically get Haste at-will, but surely the investment it takes to reach 7th level in Flux Adept is worth more than 2/day Haste. So this doesn't have to be an argument for it literally being at-will, but it's definitely an argument for it not being nearly enough as written.)
Claws that do 1d4 damage? I'm not even going to mention how long the Totemist has had that . . . I'm going to mention that a single level in Monk turns your hands into lethal weapons that do more than 1d4 damage, all day every day, with the opportunity to make an extra attack on a full attack action (much like a full attack with a pair of claws would do; Flurry has a –2 tacked on, but it only costs a single damn level, not eight levels and a trio of feats).
I guess I can sort of see putting a use limit on Polyhaemia, but to be honest, even that seems less than critically necessary . . . I repeat, you spent three feats to get here, you sacrificed four levels of spellcasting advancement, and you're a minimum of level 14. Is it really going to break the game to give you enhanced use of potions? Who even remembers that potions exist at level 14, aside from Truenamers using Rebuild Item (and let's not even get into a discussion of whether Polyhaemia would work with the CArc potion-tiles that Truenamers favor)? Even if you don't want to give them truly at-will potion use, it's still a disgustingly low number of uses per day when you consider what ECL range you're at and what you've sacrificed to get here.

The class isn't totally devoid of useful abilities (it's better than Thunder Guide, at least), but the daily limits on most of its tricks are really unduly harsh. Between the daily limits, the over-spread skill points, and the half casting, I just don't see any way of turning this mess into a coherent character. Anything I can think of to optimize one of its tricks ends up ignoring most of its other tricks, which isn't exactly the way to a good UoSI score. I'm not going to give up thinking about it entirely, but I'm not at all confident that I'll come up with anything that I'd be proud to submit. Good luck, everyone.

[Venger]

Great analysis zaq. I agree wholeheartedly. It seems to be designed in the same mindset as a number of old 3.0 classes that confuse crappy slas with class features. It reminds me a lot of stonelord with how disparate everything feels and how none of its class features really work together

Speaking of things the game thinks are overpowered does anyone else think it's weird that you don't get scent? For a class so occupied with the mystical qualities of your B.O. and the B.O. of others it seems like something you ought to have.

[Bucky]

At some point, the random +2s stop being about extra bonuses to fully trained skills and start being skill point replacements.

Which, by the time the last bonuses pop up is just worse than losing the extra bonuses and getting 3+Int skill points per level.

[daremetoidareyo]

The feat starvation. It's hurting.

Feat Retraining and Elegance, what's the deal round here?

[Venger]

The feat starvation. It's hurting.

Feat Retraining and Elegance, what's the deal round here?


Alternate rule systems from UA such as gestalt or Generic Classes are not allowed, as they create a different playing field.

yeah those feats are gonna be a real pain.

No retraining. Not no way, not no how.

[Heliomance]

yeah those feats are gonna be a real pain.

No retraining. Not no way, not no how.

Actually, I think feat retraining is covered in the FAQ as heavily discouraged but technically allowed.

[tgva8889]

This class does have one or two interesting abilities, but I have no idea how best to use them. :smallconfused:

[Thurbane]

Interesting SI.

Dragon Compendium sure had a thing for awful 1/2 caster PrCs.

If I can find a single thing to make this SI viable, I might try to get an entry in.

[Venger]

Actually, I think feat retraining is covered in the FAQ as heavily discouraged but technically allowed.

How foolish of me. It is indeed. I can't remember the last time I saw someone pull that though.

[daremetoidareyo]

Why does the SI need a metamagic feat? What were they thinking?

[Curmudgeon]

Why does the SI need a metamagic feat? What were they thinking?
It's a PrC which advances spellcasting. They were thus thinking that spellcasting had import.

[Venger]

Why does the SI need a metamagic feat? What were they thinking?

because if they didn't make it stupidly difficult to qualify for Then everyone would take it!

I think it's pretty clear at this point that they weren't thinking.

Can we talk for a second about how it has the gall to require great fortitude (presumably because you're tough and hardy fine so far) and then gives you a poor fortitude save? what the hell Is that?

[Curmudgeon]

Can we talk for a second about how it has the gall to require great fortitude (presumably because you're tough and hardy fine so far) and then gives you a poor fortitude save? what the hell Is that?
What it is is a great concession, in that they didn't also require Iron Will to go with the poor Will save. We should be appropriately thankful.

[Venger]

What it is is a great concession, in that they didn't also require Iron Will to go with the poor Will save. We should be appropriately thankful.

of course!

What Book is great concession in? I think I want my guy to have that feat

[Curmudgeon]

What Book is great concession in? I think I want my guy to have that feat
That would be Dragon Compendium Volume II. Don't you have that one?

[WhamBamSam]

Heliomance, can we get a ruling on whether it's possible to resynthesize the same potion more than once with Polyhaemia? It seems like you can to me, but there doesn't appear to be consensus on the point.

I've got some ideas swirling but none of them really click the way I'd like yet.

[Heliomance]

Heliomance, can we get a ruling on whether it's possible to resynthesize the same potion more than once with Polyhaemia? It seems like you can to me, but there doesn't appear to be consensus on the point.

I've got some ideas swirling but none of them really click the way I'd like yet.
I'm going to say that synthesising a potion counts in all ways as if you'd drunk it, so yes.

I've also been asked to rule whether the claws change die size with size changes, and on that point I don't have a clue. Curmudgeon (and everyone else), what's your read?

[Curmudgeon]

There's no size requirement for Flux Adept, so I don't see any non-contentious way (beginning with agreement on what the "expected" size for FA should be) to make the claw damage different for different sizes of Flux Adept. There's also precedent in the rules for gaining a natural weapon damage progression that's independent of size in Superior Unarmed Strike feat (Tome of Battle, page 33). With Boiling Blood always specifying 1d4 damage, your size is never* going to matter; the class feature says how much damage your claws deal. Beyond that, however, standard rules should apply. That means, for instance, if you can qualify for Improved Natural Attack (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsterFeats.htm#improvedNaturalAttack) (claw) at level advancement you'll get one effective size boost (1d6 instead of 1d4).

* - OK, not strictly true. Effective size increases may be limited based on your actual size, which means being of a physically smaller size makes more effective size boosts possible before you hit the maximum of (effective) Collossal.

[tgva8889]

My question on Polyhaemia is whether or not resynthesizing resets the clock on how long you are able to resynthesize a potion, so to speak.

[daremetoidareyo]

I the the "a single" bit answers the question. You either spit "a single concentrated bolus", or sweat continuously for 10 minutes. There's nothing about spitting other than a single time.

"Single" is the adverb, it describes the manner in which the "concentration" occurs, which to some readings, would be "singly".

Otherwise, the sentence would have included a comma after single.

It would read "either spit a single, concentrated bolus of acidic saliva or sweat acid for 10 minutes."


-----------------

I'm with curmudgeon on the size increases being non-pliable. I wouldn't be so non-lenient if I was running a game as DM, but the RAW is pretty direct. So it would be an elegance hit to rely on that.

[xyianth]

So, this is going to be my first Iron Chef attempt. I'll send in a build soon, but I had a question regarding the submission requirements. Can/Should I submit the character's backstory and/or any rationale for build choices? I think some previous Iron Chefs have had some of these, but I don't think I read anything about it in the first post. Thanks.

[Heliomance]

Bitter Tides: Each use gives you either one (1) bolus of acidic spit, or ten (10) minutes of acidic sweat.

"The flux adept may... spit a single concentrated bolus of acidic saliva... for 10 minutes" could, to me, mean one of two things: Either you activate it, and gain the ability to spit a single blob of acid sometime in the next 10 minutes, or you can spray a constant, unending stream of acid for 10 minutes solid. Neither interpretation seems to make much sense, so I think it's pretty clear that the correct interpretation is "The flux adept may either (spit a single concentrated bolus of acidic saliva) or (sweat acid for 10 minutes)."

ION, I'm thinking about adding Crinti Shadow Marauder to the list of potential ingredients. Thoughts? It's only 5 levels long, but it gives some interesting and completely unique abilities, and I think that it would be possible to base a build around. Dungeon Lord worked well enough, after all.

[xyianth]

Crinti Shadow Marauder is a great little class with lots of potential. It is usually passed over in favor of Teflammar Shadowlord, but it can still work out quite well.

[Sian]

to be frank, Crinti Shadow Marauder is one of the small pool of 5level PrCs that i wouldn't mind running an IC about

anyhows, finally think i've found a halfway decent way to get something out of Flux Adept

[Venger]

So, this is going to be my first Iron Chef attempt. I'll send in a build soon, but I had a question regarding the submission requirements. Can/Should I submit the character's backstory and/or any rationale for build choices? I think some previous Iron Chefs have had some of these, but I don't think I read anything about it in the first post. Thanks.

Yeah you need to do both of those things. Look through past rounds to find a layout you like

Crinti shadow marauder would be amazing. I'd love to cook it

[WhamBamSam]

I love Crinti Shadow Marauder. That'd be tons of fun.

[Essence_of_War]

Under psi-magic transparency, these caster PRCs also advance psionics, right?

[Zaq]

Under psi-magic transparency, these caster PRCs also advance psionics, right?

I don't believe so, no. I definitely wouldn't take that tack if I were you.

[Sian]

you might have an argument if you pick up "Magic Mantle" from Complete Psionic, but its still relatively weak

[WhamBamSam]

The standard transparency rules (www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/psionicPowersOverview.htm#psionicsMagicTransparenc y) absolutely do not allow you to progress psionics with casting PrCs.

The Magic Mantle, by contrast, does work from where I'm standing, since it says you treat Magic and Psionics (in broad generality) as identical. Identical means identical, so it's pretty hard to argue that it doesn't work as a magic (or, equivalently, psionic) bullet when it comes to these sorts of problems. However, it is pretty clearly against the RAI to apply it that broadly (the description indicates that its purpose was to reassert transparency in games where the standard rules are not in effect), and judges may look askance at this in Elegance (I probably wouldn't, but I take something of a "Death of the Author" attitude toward the designers' intent).

This is all getting dangerously close to speculation. In the future, you might do better to take such questions to the Simple Q&A Thread, or PM the chair.

Speaking of which, did you get my rules question PM Heliomance?

[Heliomance]

Speaking of which, did you get my rules question PM Heliomance?

Ack, I did, but I was AFB at the time and then I forgot about it. Unfortunately, I don't have time to go bookdiving now to answer the question (it's bedtime for me!) but I'll try and remember to look into it tomorrow after work. If I haven't answered in the next 18 hours, shoot me another PM.

[Zaq]

Just to get a quick gauge of the temperature of the room (so to speak), how many of us are actively planning to cook this round? I'm coming up absolutely blank for anything to do with this stinker of a Secret Ingredient, so I'm toying with the idea of judging. That said, I don't know if I want to commit to judging a round like, say, Gnome Giant Slayer; as many of you have seen, I try to go pretty far in-depth with my judgments, and I don't know if I have it in me to do that for a round with a dozen or more entries. So I'll keep thinking for a few more days about whether I want to cook or judge (or just watch, though I'd ideally like to participate in some way or another), but in the meantime, can I get a quick (non-binding) show of hands to help me figure out just how deep I'd be in it for if I do decide to judge?

[WhamBamSam]

Just to get a quick gauge of the temperature of the room (so to speak), how many of us are actively planning to cook this round? I'm coming up absolutely blank for anything to do with this stinker of a Secret Ingredient, so I'm toying with the idea of judging. That said, I don't know if I want to commit to judging a round like, say, Gnome Giant Slayer; as many of you have seen, I try to go pretty far in-depth with my judgments, and I don't know if I have it in me to do that for a round with a dozen or more entries. So I'll keep thinking for a few more days about whether I want to cook or judge (or just watch, though I'd ideally like to participate in some way or another), but in the meantime, can I get a quick (non-binding) show of hands to help me figure out just how deep I'd be in it for if I do decide to judge?I have a few ideas that I'm trying to decide between/finalize/work up the motivation to write up. I've got some real life obligations as well, but I'm definitely going to try to get something in.

[The Viscount]

I've got a formed idea, I'm definitely cooking this round.

[Sian]

if i can convince my ducks to line up nicely (they don't want to) i'm most likely submitting

[Sian]

yes (if in doubt pm the chair about it), but i suggest you delete your post as it could help people identifying your character

[Heliomance]

Attention all: the mods have informed me that the term "Book of W****** Fightin' Magic" in reference to ToB is not acceptable. In the interests of not getting me infractions if I happen to miss something, please DO NOT USE THAT PHRASE IN YOUR ENTRIES. The unacceptable part is the word I have censored - apparently it qualifies as hate speech - so don't use it in any other context either.

[OMG PONIES]

So, this is going to be my first Iron Chef attempt. I'll send in a build soon, but I had a question regarding the submission requirements. Can/Should I submit the character's backstory and/or any rationale for build choices? I think some previous Iron Chefs have had some of these, but I don't think I read anything about it in the first post. Thanks.

Yes, you can & you should.


ION, I'm thinking about adding Crinti Shadow Marauder to the list of potential ingredients. Thoughts? It's only 5 levels long, but it gives some interesting and completely unique abilities, and I think that it would be possible to base a build around. Dungeon Lord worked well enough, after all.

Bring on the Conjurer/Swordsage/Monks with Abrupt Jaunt & Sun School!


Just to get a quick gauge of the temperature of the room (so to speak), how many of us are actively planning to cook this round?

I'm off work until the 26th so I may have time to tinker with something.


The unacceptable part is the word I have censored - apparently it qualifies as hate speech - so don't use it in any other context either.

Thanks, good looking out.

[arclance]

Attention all: the mods have informed me that the term "Book of W****** Fightin' Magic" in reference to ToB is not acceptable. In the interests of not getting me infractions if I happen to miss something, please DO NOT USE THAT PHRASE IN YOUR ENTRIES. The unacceptable part is the word I have censored - apparently it qualifies as hate speech - so don't use it in any other context either.
It is used as a Class?/Lifestyle? slur by a certain portion of the Internet so I can understand their reasoning.
You might want to copy each post into a text editor and do a search for the word in question to be safe in the future if you are worried about it.

[WhamBamSam]

Well, it's more or less guaranteed that I won't have time to get my build done. Grad school is hard.

[Axorfett12]

Hey all! I've been lurking here for a little bit, and this competition caught my eye. I just had to register and participate. I doubt i'll have enough time to actually flesh out a build and format it before the dead line, but I will try my best. Good luck to all!

[Venger]

Hey all! I've been lurking here for a little bit, and this competition caught my eye. I just had to register and participate. I doubt i'll have enough time to actually flesh out a build and format it before the dead line, but I will try my best. Good luck to all!

Welcome! Best of luck in the competition.

[Axorfett12]

Thank you! I have a really cool idea, just hope i can get it done in time.

[Heliomance]

Two entries so far. Come on, people!

[OMG PONIES]

Two entries so far. Come on, people!

Traveling and won't have time to get an idea together on this one.

[The Viscount]

Don't worry, my entry's coming. I have plenty of time today.

[Axorfett12]

I'm getting there. I'll have to cast Haste and Create Coffee to get it done but I should have it to you before the deadline.

[Heliomance]

"Three! Two! One! That's time, people! Put down your dice and lay your pencils to one side, it's time to judge your dishes."

[Heliomance]

"This entry will cause such a hullabaloo!"
"The terrible antics of Thing #1 and Thing #2!"


Thing #1 & Thing #2

N Dvati Wizard 1/Barbarian 5/Flux Adept 9/Blood Magus 4
Str 18
Dex 10
Con 10
Int 16
Wis 10
Cha 8
All bonuses go towards strength.


http://orig04.deviantart.net/6a15/f/2012/219/c/e/thing_1_and_thing_2_by_iblue_potato-d5a55b3.png



Let me tell you of the build of Thing 1 and Thing 2
Using Flux adept and Cheese fondue.
A dash of mage
A well of rage
And lots of bloody goo.

No one knows from where they came,
but a creature with a dumb hat made the claim
to call them thing 1 and 2.
He cages them like beast from the zoo
Claims that they told him that’s what he is to do.

Mostly, this is two wildly stupid dvati that run around with +4 strength most of the time while their familiar takes care of business for them. They use diehard and tempting fate feats to continue fighting until it is time to feign death. They use deadly spittle from serpent kingdoms to spit 3d6 acid damage in a 15' cone, out of two heads. Blood magus's Blood Draught ability allows this guy to brew potions into his own blood, where flux adepts' polyhaemia lets you reuse those blood potions. The blood components help the Things keep their HP below 5Xbarbarian level. Dvati splits HP between the two bodies, so there are 9 or 10 levels where all concentrated skills need to be done by the familiar using the skill scores of the things. Your berserk strength brings you up to a strength of 22 or more almost all the time. Grace through will keeps marbles from tripping your every maneuver.

Pheromonic control helps with your handle animal checks. Pimp those numbers up, hire a warrior with combat reflexes feat and 4 in spellcraft (or convince your huitzle to trade weapon finesse for combat reflexes), buy the hireling the best armor and a tower shield as well as and 5 sparrows and train them to know teamwork benefits together. Train the sparrows to be warbeasts just because...actually your huitzle has to....Make them all spellcaster guardians (particularly the birds.)

Haste helps you smash things sooner.

In between Levels 1 and 8 you need to convince the DM to send you on an adventure to the court of thieves. What you want is a free luck feat. Lucky start is good enough luck feat for you. You NEED a luck feat in order to get tempting fate, which is exactly what this build is always doing. You will probably need to hire a bunch of competent allies to help you through, then you have to betray and kill them so the thieves court stays special. If you do it in the first 5 levels, you can be true strike power attacking like a maniac. Use a two handed weapon, preferably with reach.

Spells during a Rage?!]They might be able to cast spells during their rage, using the False Theurgy skill trick on whatever spell they want to cast by swapping its components with a silenced spell from one level lower. They aren't technically applying a metamagic feat, they are just swapping components. Therefor the spell does not have any verbal component, and assuming there is no somatic component (you listening to me true strike), and your material components can be furnished by blood as a free action, there is a chance that a DM will rule favorably on the spell not needing any concentration to actually occur. If not, remind them that you're using a FLUX ADEPT.

If that doesn't convince them, you need to do something more drastic, drop the 4 levels of blood magus and add a level of druidic avenger, 1 or 2 levels of duskblade or fortune's friend, and 1 or 2 levels of rage mage: or any combination of 4 levels that gets you a legit rage, combat casting, and gets you into rage mage, where you can wear armor!. (Combat casting or Improved spit or lucky start can replace a feat slot opened by toughness, which you can omit by going boar totem barbarian 2/bear totem barbarian 2). So the final build in this scenario looks like wizard 1/boar totem 2/bear totem 2/waste barbarian 1/druidic avenger/fortune’s friend 2/flux adept 3/rage mage 1/flux adept 6.

Or, between levels 3 and 9, you don’t cast spells unless you find a way to get temporary hit points.



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


1st
Domain Combat Wizard with a drakken cat familiar
+0
+0
+0
+2
concentration 4, spellcraft 4, knowledge (arcana) 4, profession (midwife) 4, knowledge (religion) 4
Precocious Apprentice, Power Attack (b)
Drakken Familiar huitzl or raven(DrM p. 12), Domain Wizard (Battle) (UA p.57), Combat Wizard (UA p.59)


2nd
Bear Totem (UA) Berserker Strength (PHB) Barbarian
+1
+2
+0
+2
Heal 5, knowledge arcana 5
Toughness (b)
Berserker Strength (PHB 2 p.33), Toughness Bonus feat (UA p. 48)


3rd
Bear Totem (UA) Berserker Strength (PHB) Barbarian
+2
+3
+0
+2
knowledge arcana 6, hide 1, handle animal 3,
Silent Spell, Improved Grapple
Improved Grapple (Ask DM for Uncanny Dodge instead!)


4th
Bear Totem Berserk strength barbarian
+3
+3
+1
+3
knowledge arcana 7, spell craft 5, handle animal 4, balance 1,
Great Fortitude (b)
Great Fortitude


5th
Bear Totem (UA) Berserker Strength (PHB) Barbarian
+4
+4
+1
+3
knowledge arcana 8, spell craft 6,bluff 1, handle animal 6




6th
Wastelands (Sst) Berserker Strength Barbarian
+5
+4
+1
+3
bluff 3, handle animal 7, spellcraft 7
Endurance (b) Diehard
Bonus Feats (SandStorm p. 44)


7th
Flux Adept
+5
+4
+3
+3
bluff 8
LUCKY START (Must beg DM to Do the Court of Thieves Location) Complete Scoundrel
Grace Through Will


8th
Flux Adept
+6
+4
+4
+3
spellcraft 8, balance 3, skill trick
False Theurgy Skill Trick (CS)
Pheromonic Control, Thermoregulation +2


9th
Flux Adept
+6
+5
+5
+4
Continue increasing handle animal, bluff, balance, ride, at necessary intervals. Craft alchemy 2, UMD 2
Tempting Fate (CS)
Iron Stomach


10th
Flux Adept
+7
+5
+6
+4
Continue increasing handle animal, bluff, balance, ride, at necessary intervals. Craft alchemy 4, UMD 4

Bitter Tides


11th
Flux Adept
+7
+5
+6
+4
Continue increasing handle animal, bluff, balance, ride, at necessary intervals. Craft alchemy 6, UMD 6

Feign Death


12th
Flux Adept
+8
+6
+7
+5
Continue increasing handle animal, bluff, balance, ride, at necessary intervals. Craft alchemy 8, UMD 8
Deadly Spittle (SK)
Taste of Truth


13th
Blood Magus (comp Arcane)
+8
+8
+7
+6
Continue increasing handle animal, bluff, balance, ride, at necessary intervals. Craft alchemy 10, UMD 10

Blood component, durable casting, stanch


14th
Flux Adept
+8
+8
+7
+6
Continue increasing handle animal, bluff, balance, ride, at necessary intervals. Craft alchemy 12, UMD 12

Thermoregulation +4, Haste


15th
Blood Magus (CA)
+9
+9
+7
+6
Continue increasing handle animal, bluff, balance, ride, at necessary intervals. Craft alchemy 14, UMD 14
Practiced Spellcaster
Scarification


16th
Blood Magus
+9
+9
+8
+7
Continue increasing handle animal, bluff, balance, ride, at necessary intervals. Craft alchemy 16, UMD 16

Deathknell


17th
Blood Magus
+10
+10
+8
+7
Continue increasing handle animal, bluff, balance, ride, at necessary intervals. Craft alchemy 18, UMD 18

Blood Draught


18th
Flux Adept
+11
+10
+9
+7
Continue increasing handle animal, bluff, balance, ride, at necessary intervals. Craft alchemy 20, UMD 20
Arcane Strike (CW) or summon elemental (CM)
Boiling Blood


19th
Flux Adept
+11
+11
+9
+8
Continue increasing handle animal, bluff, balance, ride, other skills as needed

Polyhaemia


20th
Barbarian (if Level Buy off Allowed) Otherwise, you done foo’.
+12
+12
+10
+9
Continue increasing handle animal, bluff, balance, ride, other skills as needed

Trap Sense +1



Gear suggestions: Weapons: great swords and glaives and composite longbow. Find armor with the lowest arcane failure chance. You need to, because you have a nearly constant -2 to your AC. Get dexterity improving baubles to further boost that AC.


Spells per Day


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


1st
3
1+1
1*
-
-
-
-


2nd
3
1+1
1*
-
-
-
-


3rd
3
1+1
1*
-
-
-
-


4th
3
1+1
1*
-
-
-
-


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


6th
3
1+1
1*
-
-
-
-


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


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


9th
4
2+1
2+1
-
-
-
-


10th
4
2+1
2+1
-
-
-
-


11th
4
3+1
3+1
-
-
-
-


12th
4
3+1
3+1
-
-
-
-


13th
4
3+1
3+1
1+1
-
-
-


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


15th
4
4+1
4+1
2+1
1+1
-
-


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


17th
4
4+1
5+1
3+1
2+1
1+1
-


18th
4
4+1
5+1
3+1
2+1
1+1
-


19th
4
4+1
5+1
3+1
3+1
2+1
-


20th
4
4+1
5+1
3+1
3+1
2+1
-


* Precocious Apprentice Second level spell is weird.

Spells:
0: Flare, read magic, detect magic mage hand
1: Benign transposition, Arrow mind, Blade of Blood, Blockade, mage armor, blood wind
2: Shadow double* (DotU), sonic weapon (CAdv), mirror image, heroics(SC), grazzt’s long grasp (BOVD)
3: Displacement, evard’s menacing tentacles, fly, vampiric touch
4: Polymorph self, translocation trick (SC), Ghorus Toth's Metal Melt (MOF), Summon monster IV
5:create darken beast (MM:MOF) Halaster’s fetch, contact other plane, Sakkratar's Triple Strike (LEoF)

Battle Domain Spells:
0—daze
1st—true strike;
2nd—protection from arrows;
3rd— greater magic weapon;
4th—fire shield;
5th—Bigby’s interposing hand;
6th—Tenser’s transformation;
7th—power word blind;
8th—moment of prescience;
9th—time stop.







Level
HD
Average roll
Total
HP per body


Wizard 1
d4
4 (max @ 1st)
4
2


Barbarian 1
d12
6.5
(+3 toughness)
13.5
6


Barbarian 2
d12
6.5
20
10


Barbarian 3
d12
6.5
26.5
13


Barbarian 4
d12
6.5
33
16


Barbarian 5
d12
6.5
39.5
19


Flux adept 1
d6
3.5
43
21


Flux Adept 2
d6
3.5
46.5
23


Flux adept 3
d6
3.5
50
25


Flux adept 4
d6
3.5
53.5
26



Flux adept 5
d6
3.5
57
28


Flux adept 6
d6
3.5
60.5
30


Blood Magus 1
d6
3.5
64
32


Flux adept 7
d6
3.5
67.5
33


Blood Magus 2
d6
3.5
71
35


Blood Magus 3
d6
3.5
74.5
37


Blood Magus 4
d6
3.5
78
39


Flux Adept 8
d6
3.5
81.5
40


Flux Adept 9
d6
3.5
85
42


Level+1 or
Barbarian 6
- or
d12
6.5
91.5
45



XX = Dvati can concentrate for themselves
XX = Familiar handles all concentration issues: Effective intelligence of the whole character is 5.





This plays like a typical dvatis
wizard and barbarian naughties
Berserker strength all day rage
If your familiar lets you out of the cage
Oh the things we do for pre-requisite feats


Level 1:
As a first level domain combat wizard with a drakken familiar: the first thing that need to do is choose a domain. I strongly suggest the battle domain. But if you want other spells, you may be able to talk to your DM to make a custom domain. Your familiar is a drakken raven, mostly because it will need to be able to speak common for you between the levels of 3 and 9, mostly to use your skill modifiers where you cannot. If the DM rules that a huitzl with an intelligence of 5 can speak common, that is a much more fun familiar to have. The profession skill is what will impel you towards adventuring. You’re a precocious apprentice, so you know, choose a second level spell that you can sometimes cast as pre-requisite for flux adept.

Level 2:
As a berserker strength Bear totem barbarian you give up rage and fast movement. Your rage becomes a +4 to strength whenever your HP is less than 5 times your barbarian level. Also you lose 2 to your AC and you gain DR 2. Instead of fast movement, you have the Toughness Feat. Does toughness get applied to each twin or do you divide it in half? Ask your DM.

Level 3:
Your bear totem grants improved grapple instead of uncanny dodge at this level. If you can opt for uncanny dodge instead, that is far more beneficial to your squishy things. This is the level where your familiar takes over all of your concentration necessary skills. The face of your entire enterprise is your familiar. You take the silent spell feat on this level, which makes true strike a silent, motionless maneuver.

Level 4:
At this level, you get the ever so wonderful great fortitude feat. Right around here is where you need to get your familiar to start researching and hiring adventurers to work on participating in completing the court of thieves (legendary site from complete scoundrel). You want a luck feat, and you’re willing to pay for it. You are also willing to kill all of your hired help to keep the prize special.

Level 5:
Nothing special here. Your familiar handles all of the business while the things are caged up.


The things get hit in the head
And pretend that their dead.
Diehard plus tempting fate
Attacking with hate
Long after their souls run red


Level: 6
Use the Waste barbarian substitution level to trade out improved uncanny dodge for a bonus feat: endurance. Then you stack some diehard on top of that. Now you get to berserker rage all the way to -9 HP! At this level, anytime your Dvati is below 25 hp, they have +4 strength.

Level 7:
Finally, your Flux Adept levels begin. Grace through will is kinda bleh. But now you can keep marbles from destroying your charges. You should buy some combat animals (magebred ideally) and let your familiar use your handle animal ranks to train them into warbeasts (MM2).

Level 8:
Pheromonic control helps out your animal handling. Consider picking up some crazy mounts, like a loadstone marauder (MM3)

Level 9:
Finally, a class feature that lets me eat air and hair and stones and dirty socks. Now, instead of adventuring, you can make 2 XP per gold piece earned by asking people if they dare you to eat that while pointing at something gross. I hate this class. On the plus side, you can survive most things now, with diehard and tempting fate kicked into play. Also, at full HP, you are totally in control now!!!

Level 10:
Flux adept 4. Bitter tides that bind. Because you have two heads, it is reasonable to assume that you can spit two singular boli of acid saliva. FOR 3D6 DAMAGE!! Crazy. At this point, you have second level spells, a BAB of +7, and some control over your spell casting vs. berserk rage.






Could you, would you spit in a cone?
Could you, would you, cut yourself to the bone?
Would you haste a spell or power attack?
Taste of Truth a bluff or get hit and go slack?

Could you say level 12 is among the sweet spots?
Would you claim that while Thing 2 rots?
Have you seen such a crazy thing
as things that cut things?


Level 11:
The build is coming together. Now you can feign death as a last minute option after dying hard and tempting fate. I assume faking your death through meditation is a standard action. But if it’s a swift action, that is even better.

Level 12: The SWEET SPOT
Now we can bluff with +6 bonus. We can also spit those singular boli of acid in 15’ cones. Our diehard feign death combo is on line. We have 4 first level spells and 4 second level spells. Techniques look like Thing 1 charges and power attacks while Thing 2 hangs back and casts true strike, which affects both bodies. The rules are unclear if each body gets a true strike or if it lives in a sort of limbo between the twins waiting to be used by either body. I argue that each body gets one because I had to pay a Level adjustment to get here. If so, On round 2, Thing 1 full attacks, while thing 2 uses his true strike to fire an arrow from a composite bow into the baddies at +20 to hit or uses blood wind on himself. If baddies look like they can kill you in a single hit, use mirror image and mage armor. When thing 1 goes down and feigns death, thing 2 charges into the fray. Maybe throw some of those discretionary skill points into UMD and give your familiar a wand to buff Thing 2.

Level 13: Blood Magus
Sometimes, you are going to want to hurt yourself to get a +4 strength bonus and DR 2. Blood Magus hooks you up. And you get 3rd level spells finally!

Level 14:
Haste 2 times a day as an ex ability. So now you can charge-power attack and spit a cone of acid. Or both things can stand there and spit 2 cones of acid per head, and then attack. Think about researching a spell that is the reverse of the druid spell venomfire from SK where you turn acidic saliva into being additionally poisonous.

Level 15
Admit it. You didn’t study magic very hard. Time to fix that. Pick up practiced spell caster feat. Your second level of blood magus makes you into a rune scarred berserker, but kinda a crappy one. However, If thing 1 is shirtless and has a scroll written on his back, Thing 2 can read it while Thing 1 rages. Which is neat.




At this point, a level by level breakdown is unnecessary. Polyhaemia + Blood draught: you can keep 4+ constitution modifier (prolly 0) potions in your blood, and then polyhaem them in perpetuity. That’s fun. With those spell slots that are now supplied by potions, you can arcane strike your raging power attacks while the potions take care of you major spell casting needs. mage armor, protection from arrows, true strike, and mirror image are all great potion choices. If you don’t like arcane strike at level 18, you can instead opt for summon elemental reserve feat. You can self haste in your berserk rage while imbibing potions. The crazy thing about blood draught is that the only limit of who can drink your blood for a potion buff is the number of people who can fit around you in a turn. With the dvati twin body, each could probably hold 4 spells and the first round of combat could just be twins sucking each others blood, hastily. Round 1: cone of acid 3d6 X2, hasted imbibing of mirror image. Round 2: Cone of acid X2, hasted imbibing of grazzts long grasp, Round 3 drink each others vampire touch potion while their hands attack the opponents who are left from all that acid hasted death knell on the dying.

[Heliomance]

"Is she a wizard or a sorceror?"
"Honestly, I'm not sure she knows herself."



Liara Rosebloom (Part 1)
LN Human Wizard 5/Mage of the Arcane Order 1/Blood Magus 4/Flux Adept 10
"Maybe those sorcerers are onto something..."
http://s17.postimg.org/krkqjd317/flux_adept.jpg

Entry VII -- I was forced to take another test today. Father is determined to send me off to some magic boarding school so I can 'follow the family tradition' or somesuch nonsense. Magic is fun and all, but learning the rituals is sooo boring. Why can't I be a sorcerer so I can skip all the studying and spend my time having fun?

Entry XXIV -- Here I am, Wizard school. I just know I am going to have to spend all my free time studying here. Everyone else seems so excited to be learning magic, but I want to feel it. Anyone can read a bunch of dusty old books and follow the instructions, but can you imagine what it would feel like to tap into magic that was a part of you?

Entry XLII -- I think I am starting to feel the magic within me. My teachers think that I have a talent for conjuration, but really conjuration spells just feel like such a rush when I use them. The power swirls around me and surges outward. I must learn more.

Entry XCV -- Graduation day. I am a full-fledged conjurer now. Father has made arrangements with his friends to ensure that I am fast-tracked into the Arcane Order. Apparently they are some kind of big deal or something. So long as I can go on interesting adventures and use my magic, I really couldn't care less.

Entry CXXII -- Something has changed. A few weeks ago I was sent out on a supply run for the guild. I don't really remember what happened exactly, it all happened so fast. Before I knew it, I was being stabbed to death by bandits. So, yeah, that happened. Death wasn't so bad really, at least I don't remember it being bad. It is difficult to remember what exactly happened while I was dead, guess that is just how it works. Father had me brought back to life. I am grateful and all, but ever since I came back, my magic has felt, I dunno, weird? Conjuration spells have always been a rush, but now it is on a whole other level. From the moment I start casting I feel like my blood is boiling in my veins. I've heard legends about blood magic, but could they be true?

Entry CLVIII -- I've done it! Blood magic is real and I can wield it. I've never felt so alive before. I've been experimenting with different ways to use my talent and have made some surprising discoveries. I am also certain that still more secrets lie waiting inside myself, just waiting to be discovered.

Entry CCVC -- The body is an amazing thing. I've begun using my magic both within and through my body. While the blood can strengthen and contain magical power, the body can express it in fantastic ways. I wonder if these sensations are anything like what the sorcerers I used to dream about experience. I don't know, but I intend to master these arts anyway.

Entry CDXVI -- It was so simple. Right there, staring me in the face. Magic is life, and life is magic. Once the two are unified, something new is born. I am different now, better, I think. Magic is no longer my profession, but a part of me. And Magic is forever.

-- Excerpts from the journal of Liara Rosebloom


Stats


Stat
Points Spent
Base
Race
Levels
Age
Other
Total
Mod


STR
0
8
0
0
0
0
8
-1


DEX
6
14
0
0
0
0
14
+2


CON
6
14
0
0
0
0
14
+2


INT
16
18
0
5
0
0
23
+6


WIS
2
10
0
0
0
0
10
+0


CHA
2
10
0
0
0
0
10
+0


Levels


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


1st
Wizard 1
+0
+0
+0
+2
Concentration 4, Craft(Alchemy) 4, Decipher Script 4, Knowledge(arcana) 4, Knowledge(the planes) 4, Knowledge(history) 4, Spellcraft 4
Collegiate Wizard, Heighten Spell(racial), Toughness(Combat Wizard ACF, replaces Scribe Scroll)
Spellcasting, Focused Specialist ACF(conjuration; prohibited schools: enchantment, evocation, necromancy), Immediate Magic ACF(Abrupt Jaunt Int/day, replaces Summon Familiar)


2nd
Wizard 2
+1
+0
+0
+3
Concentration 5, Craft(Alchemy) 5, Decipher Script 5, Knowledge(arcana) 5, Knowledge(the planes) 5, Knowledge(history) 5, Spellcraft 5




3rd
Wizard 3
+1
+1
+1
+3
Concentration 6, Craft(Alchemy) 6, Decipher Script 5, Knowledge(arcana) 6, Knowledge(the planes) 6, Knowledge(history) 5, Knowledge(nature) 2, Spellcraft 6
Cooperative Spell



4th
Wizard 4
+2
+1
+1
+4
Concentration 7, Craft(Alchemy) 7, Decipher Script 5, Knowledge(arcana) 7, Knowledge(the planes) 7, Knowledge(history) 5, Knowledge(nature) 4, Spellcraft 7




5th
Wizard 5
+2
+1
+1
+4
Concentration 8, Craft(Alchemy) 8, Decipher Script 5, Knowledge(arcana) 8, Knowledge(the planes) 8, Knowledge(history) 5, Knowledge(nature) 6, Spellcraft 8
Great Fortitude(Combat Wizard ACF)



6th
Mage of the Arcane Order 1
+2
+1
+1
+6
Concentration 9, Craft(Alchemy) 9, Decipher Script 5, Knowledge(arcana) 9, Knowledge(the planes) 9, Knowledge(history) 5, Knowledge(nature) 8, Spellcraft 9
Acidic Splatter
Guild Member, Spellpool I


7th
Blood Magus 1
+2
+3
+1
+8
Concentration 10, Craft(Alchemy) 10, Decipher Script 5, Heal 4, Knowledge(arcana) 9, Knowledge(the planes) 9, Knowledge(history) 5, Knowledge(nature) 8, Spellcraft 10

Blood Component, Durable Casting, Stanch


8th
Blood Magus 2
+3
+4
+1
+9
Bluff 4, Concentration 11, Craft(Alchemy) 11, Decipher Script 5, Heal 5, Knowledge(arcana) 9, Knowledge(the planes) 9, Knowledge(history) 5, Knowledge(nature) 8, Spellcraft 11

Scarification


9th
Blood Magus 3
+3
+4
+2
+9
Bluff 9, Concentration 12, Craft(Alchemy) 12, Decipher Script 5, Heal 5, Knowledge(arcana) 9, Knowledge(the planes) 9, Knowledge(history) 5, Knowledge(nature) 8, Spellcraft 12
Endurance
Death Knell 1/day


10th
Blood Magus 4
+4
+5
+2
+10
Bluff 13, Concentration 13, Craft(Alchemy) 13, Decipher Script 5, Heal 5, Knowledge(arcana) 9, Knowledge(the planes) 9, Knowledge(history) 5, Knowledge(nature) 8, Spellcraft 13, 1 unspent

Blood Draught


11th
Flux Adept 1
+4
+5
+4
+10
Balance 5, Bluff 13, Concentration 14, Craft(Alchemy) 14, Decipher Script 5, Heal 5, Knowledge(arcana) 9, Knowledge(the planes) 9, Knowledge(history) 5, Knowledge(nature) 8, Spellcraft 14

Grace Through Will


12th
Flux Adept 2
+5
+5
+5
+10
Balance 5, Bluff 15, Concentration 15, Craft(Alchemy) 15, Decipher Script 5, Heal 5, Knowledge(arcana) 11, Knowledge(the planes) 9, Knowledge(history) 5, Knowledge(nature) 8, Spellcraft 15
Minor Shapeshift
Pheromonic Control, Thermoregulation +2


13th
Flux Adept 3
+5
+6
+5
+11
Balance 5, Bluff 16, Concentration 16, Craft(Alchemy) 16, Decipher Script 5, Heal 5, Knowledge(arcana) 14, Knowledge(the planes) 9, Knowledge(history) 5, Knowledge(nature) 8, Spellcraft 16

Iron Stomach


14th
Flux Adept 4
+6
+6
+6
+11
Balance 5, Bluff 17, Concentration 17, Craft(Alchemy) 17, Decipher Script 5, Heal 5, Knowledge(arcana) 17, Knowledge(the planes) 9, Knowledge(history) 5, Knowledge(nature) 8, Spellcraft 17

Bitter Tides


15th
Flux Adept 5
+6
+6
+6
+11
Balance 5, Bluff 18, Concentration 18, Craft(Alchemy) 18, Decipher Script 5, Heal 5, Knowledge(arcana) 18, Knowledge(the planes) 9, Knowledge(history) 5, Knowledge(nature) 8, Spellcraft 18, Use Magic Device 2
Practiced Spellcaster(Wizard)
Feign Death


16th
Flux Adept 6
+7
+7
+7
+12
Balance 5, Bluff 19, Concentration 19, Craft(Alchemy) 19, Decipher Script 5, Heal 5, Knowledge(arcana) 19, Knowledge(the planes) 9, Knowledge(history) 5, Knowledge(nature) 8, Spellcraft 19, Use Magic Device 5

Taste of Truth


17th
Flux Adept 7
+7
+7
+7
+12
Balance 5, Bluff 20, Concentration 20, Craft(Alchemy) 20, Decipher Script 5, Heal 5, Knowledge(arcana) 20, Knowledge(the planes) 9, Knowledge(history) 5, Knowledge(nature) 8, Spellcraft 20, Use Magic Device 8

Thermoregulation +4, Haste 2/day


18th
Flux Adept 8
+8
+7
+8
+12
Balance 5, Bluff 21, Concentration 21, Craft(Alchemy) 21, Decipher Script 5, Heal 5, Knowledge(arcana) 21, Knowledge(the planes) 9, Knowledge(history) 5, Knowledge(nature) 8, Spellcraft 21, Use Magic Device 11
Craft Contingent Spell
Boiling Blood


19th
Flux Adept 9
+8
+8
+8
+13
Balance 5, Bluff 22, Concentration 22, Craft(Alchemy) 22, Decipher Script 5, Heal 5, Knowledge(arcana) 22, Knowledge(the planes) 9, Knowledge(history) 5, Knowledge(nature) 8, Spellcraft 22, Use Magic Device 14

Polyhaemia


20th
Flux Adept 20
+9
+8
+9
+13
Balance 5, Bluff 23, Concentration 23, Craft(Alchemy) 23, Decipher Script 5, Heal 5, Knowledge(arcana) 23, Knowledge(the planes) 9, Knowledge(history) 5, Knowledge(nature) 8, Spellcraft 23, Use Magic Device 17

Regeneration 1


Spells (Only listing bonus spells from levels, additional spells can be added through play as a Wizard)

benign transposition, wall of smoke, grease, mage armor, mount, enlarge person, nerveskitter, feather fall, ray of clumsiness, expeditious retreat, identify, guided shot, silent image, shield
glitterdust, rope trick, cloud of bewilderment, create magic tattoo, alter self, quick potion, mirror image, detect thoughts
haboob, heart of water, slow, haste, fly, dispel magic
solid fog, black tentacles, polymorph, heart of earth
vitriolic sphere, teleport, major creation, cloudkill
planar binding, freezing fog, greater dispel magic, eye of stone
call kolyarut, greater teleport, plane shift, elemental body
maze, greater planar binding

Spells per Day


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


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


2nd
3+3
2+3
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


3rd
3+3
2+3
1+3
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


4th
3+3
3+3
2+3
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


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


6th
3+3
3+3
3+3
2+3
-
-
-
-
-
-


7th
3+3
4+3
3+3
2+3
1+3
-
-
-
-
-


8th
3+3
5+3
3+3
3+3
2+3
-
-
-
-
-


9th
3+3
5+3
4+3
3+3
2+3
1+3
-
-
-
-


10th
3+3
5+3
4+3
3+3
3+3
2+3
-
-
-
-


11th
3+3
5+3
4+3
4+3
3+3
2+3
0+3
-
-
-


12th
3+3
5+3
4+3
4+3
3+3
2+3
0+3
-
-
-


13th
3+3
5+3
4+3
4+3
3+3
3+3
1+3
-
-
-


14th
3+3
5+3
4+3
4+3
3+3
3+3
1+3
-
-
-


15th
3+3
5+3
4+3
4+3
4+3
3+3
1+3
0+3
-
-


16th
3+3
5+3
5+3
4+3
4+3
3+3
2+3
0+3
-
-


17th
3+3
5+3
5+3
4+3
4+3
3+3
3+3
1+3
-
-


18th
3+3
5+3
5+3
4+3
4+3
3+3
3+3
1+3
-
-


19th
3+3
5+3
5+3
4+3
4+3
4+3
3+3
1+3
0+3
-


20th
3+3
5+3
5+3
4+3
4+3
4+3
3+3
1+3
0+3
-





1: 4x 1st level spells/day, AC 16, +2 to-hit with light crossbow, 9hp. Liara plays like a normal conjuration wizard:

Primary spells are wall of smoke and grease


2-5: {at 5th:} 4x 3rd level spells/day, AC 16-20(varies by items), +5 to-hit with light crossbow +1, ~29hp(half+1). Liara continues to play like a normal conjuration wizard:

Primary spells are haboob, cloud of bewilderment, and glitterdust


6-10: {at 10th:} 5x 5th level spells/day, AC 16-24(varies by items), +7 to-hit with Acidic Splatter(5d6, 25’), ~58hp(half+1). Liara has a few special tricks now:

Blood Component gives CL 12 on acid spells, CL 11 on other spells
Primary spells are cloudkill, solid fog, and black tentacles
reserve 1x 5th level spell slot for vitriolic sphere to power Acidic Splatter (Heightened acid splash if you haven't yet gained access to vitriolic sphere)
Use Scarification and Blood Draught combined with Spellpool I to keep useful Bard and Sorcerer spells available


11-15: {at 15th:} 4x 7th level spells/day, AC 16-28(varies by items), +9 to-hit with Acidic Splatter(7d6, 35’), ~88hp(half+1). Liara gains a few more special abilities, one of which becomes a staple trick in her repertoire.

Blood Component gives CL 17 on acid and polymorph spells, CL 16 on other spells
Primary spells are freezing fog and call kolyarut; you have an elemental body
Reserve 1x 7th level spell slot for Heightened vitriolic sphere to power Acidic Splatter
Reserve 1x 4th level spell slot for polymorph to power Minor Shapeshift
Use Scarification and Blood Draught combined with Spellpool I to keep useful Bard and Sorcerer spells available
Use Minor Shapeshift for temporary hp as a swift action


16-20: This is the sweet spot, build grows steadily all the way through 20th level. {at 20th:} 3x 8th level spells/day, AC 16-32(varies by items), +12 to-hit with Acidic Splatter(8d6, 40’), ~118hp(half+1). Liara has access to all of her tricks now:

Blood Component gives CL 21 on acid and polymorph spells, CL 20 on other spells
Primary spells are freezing fog and greater planar binding; you have an elemental body
Reserve 1x 8th level spell slot for Heightened vitriolic sphere to power Acidic Splatter
Reserve 1x 4th level spell slot for polymorph to power Minor Shapeshift
Use Scarification and Blood Draught combined with Spellpool I to keep useful Bard and Sorcerer spells available
Use Minor Shapeshift for temporary hp as a swift action
Use Polyhaemia to refresh Blood Draughts throughout the day
Regeneration heals damage dealt by Blood Component
Use Craft Contingent Spell for emergency situations





Flux Adept is a terrible prestige class. You need two terrible feats, 2 skills normally not associated with the same caster classes, 2nd level spells, and a metamagic feat to enter. It has half casting, half BAB, poor fort and will saves, and most of its features are underwhelming. Finding any aspect of this class to build around is difficult enough, but trying to take advantage of more than 1 feature in the same build is even worse.


Requirements: Great Fortitude is a two-for-one feat tax since it is also required for Blood Magus. Endurance is kind of wasted on this character since she doesn't use armor, but at least the bonuses on specific skill/saves might come in handy. Liara is a primary spellcaster, so the 2nd level spells requirement is not a problem. The metamagic feat Heighten Spell is useful as a requirement for Cooperative Spell, Mage of the Arcane Order entry requirements, and for powering the reserve feat Acidic Splatter with a Heightened Acid Splash/Vitriolic Sphere. It also has some use in boosting save DCs on lower level spell effects.
Theme/Fluff: This is the main focus of the build. Instead of trying to pick a few abilities from the class to specialize in, I chose to build around the concept being portrayed by the Flux Adept: that of a wizard learning to use her magic within her own body. This is why I chose to start with a conjurer, a wizard that focuses on magic outside the body; then shift through Blood Magus as a transition from external magic to internal magic brought on by a traumatic event (dying); and finally following through with all 10 levels of Flux Adept. The feats Acidic Splatter, Minor Shapeshift, and Craft Contingent Spell were selected as an extension of the Flux Adept class abilities.
Grace Through Will: A +1-5 bonus to these skills can be quite helpful if Liara is ever tied up or forced to deal with physical skill challenges. It is difficult to showcase a passive bonus to skills in a CharOp build, but these skills will absolutely come up in actual play.
Pheromonic Control: Sadly, this ability will see little use by Liara. Being an Int-based caster means +4 Cha doesn't affect all that much. The best use of this is probably when Liara is in a situation where she is using Bluff; but she will likely have a blood draught of glibness available which is a far more potent boost. This ability does stack though, so it is not like it won't ever be used.
Thermoregulation: Another passive ability, but becomes noticeably more useful upon gaining your capstone Regeneration ability. This provides an always useful boost to saves against 2 of the 4 things that still deal lethal damage to you. Dealing with extreme temperatures is also a nice bonus, even if it is entirely campaign dependent.
Iron Stomach: Yet another passive ability. Try as I might, I could not find a way to make this ability a useful signature trait. I suppose the ability to survive on virtually anything might come in handy in some campaigns, but you are a conjurer: unless you lose your spellbook too, you can always summon something to make food/drink instead. Immunity to ingested poisons might come up in an intrigue based campaign/session, but it is unlikely to have much impact in a dungeon crawl type adventure.
Bitter Tides: This is one of the Flux Adept abilities that I chose to 'enhance' through the use of a reserve feat: Acidic Splatter. Mechanically, Liara uses this ability for the acid sweat option, as a single 10' 3d6 acid attack is utterly worthless in combat. Thematically, every use of Acidic Splatter is essentially like a magic enhanced version of this ability's acid attack.
Feign Death: Well, hopefully Liara is never in a situation that requires this ability, but it is nice to have if she ever does need it. As this is more of an emergency ability, it is not really showcased as part of the build.
Taste of Truth: Still another passive ability. Bluff is a major part of Liara's skill repetoire, so this ability will be very helpful. It essentially makes up for Liara's poor Charisma when using Bluff, with a nice boost to Sense Motive thrown in for good measure.
Haste: Ex Haste is a wonderful ability. As a primary caster, anti-magic zones are annoying if they get too large. Liara can fall back on this ability to help run away if she ever finds herself inside such a zone. Otherwise, Haste is every bit as useful on Liara as it is on everyone, and getting 2 uses per day as free actions is just awesome.
Boiling Blood: This is another Flux Adept ability that I choose to 'enhance' through the use of a reserve feat: Minor Shapeshift. Mechanically, if for some reason Liara is forced to fight bare handed, the claws from this ability are usable as secondary attacks along with the better claws from Minor Shapeshift. Thematically though, Minor Shapeshift can be thought of as a magically enhanced version of Boiling Blood with additional options.
Polyhaemia: I love this ability. Liara creates 'potions' in her blood using the Blood Magus' Blood Draught ability. She can then 'consume' them by pricking her skin. Polyhaemia can then be used to re-synthesize the effects of the 'potion' anytime within 24 hours. This effectively lets Liara get multiple uses of a single Blood Draught. If the effect lasts 24 hours, Liara can even maintain it indefinitely if she chooses.
Regeneration: The capstone of Flux Adept does not disappoint. This is a big boost to survivability for Liara, and has a nice natural synergy with the Blood Component ability of Blood Magus. Liara uses that ability often to make up for the lost caster levels from Flux Adept.
Why so Late?: Although I could have started taking Flux Adept levels earlier in the build, the transition from Conjurer to Blood Magus to Flux Adept made for an interesting angle for Liara's personal story. As an added side bonus, it also pushed off the lost caster levels until later which improved Liara's potency in the early part of her build.



In general, I usually don’t like to pick magical items for a character. Magic marts are not guaranteed and the selection of what items are available is firmly in the DM’s hands. That said, this character does not require much in the way of mundane gear. She doesn’t use armor, weapons, or even a spell component pouch after level 6.


From 1-6, a light crossbow, bolts, and a spell component pouch will be useful. Obviously, she will need her spellbook from 1-20.
To account for the revive after death, I am assuming that a single casting of raise dead (5450 gold) is required prior to level 7.
In addition to this, general adventuring gear is always useful: handy haversack, liquid sunlight, shapesand, adamantine dagger, fortifying bedroll, wand of lesser vigor, etc…
As a wizard, she benefits from all the normal wizard items: headband of intellect, intelligence tomes, etc…
Finally, a significant amount of wealth should be spent acquiring additional spells for her spellbook. A decent amount of reserve gold should go towards funding the Blood Draught and Scarification abilities as well.




Fractional BAB/saves: If this rule is in place, final BAB becomes +10 and base saves become Fort +7, Ref +8, Will +9.
Collegiate Wizard: I am using the interpretation that the expanded bonus spells only applies to Wizard class levels and not to prestige class levels that advance Wizard spellcasting. I believe this is commonly houseruled to work, but I chose to stick with RAW for this build.
Blood Magus requires death and revival: I am including the cost of a raise dead spell cast by an NPC in the Suggested Items section. The assumption is that Liara dies prior to level 7, gets revived (losing a level), then continues to level up through the build.
Spellpool spell availability: The DM can allow non-wizard spells as part of the spellpool. I am assuming that bard and sorcerer spells are made available. Liara will likely make use of some of these with her Blood Draught/Scarification abilities. If this assumption is incorrect, the build still functions but loses a few interesting tricks.




Player's Handbook: wizard class, specialist wizard option, spells, items, human race, feats, skills
Complete Arcane: mage of the arcane order prestige class, blood magus prestige class, feats, spells
Complete Mage: focused specialist wizard alternate class feature, feats, spells
Unearthed Arcana: combat wizard alternate class feature
Player's Handbook II: immediate magic wizard alternate class feature, spells
Sandstorm: items, spells
Spell Compendium: spells
Magic Item Compendium: items
Dragon Magic: spells

[Heliomance]

"It's a dwarf. Didn't expect that!"
"I thought everyone was fed up of dwarves!"
"So did I - apparently this chef disagreed. More power to them!"



Double Door, the Melancholy Maeluth

N DragonbornRotD8 LesserPGtF191 MaeluthFF136 Sorcerer (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/classes/sorcererWizard.htm#sorcerer) 6 / Flux AdeptDC76 10 / Fiend-BloodedHoH102 4

http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/forgottenrealms/images/0/0a/Maeluth.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20130912023651

Name: Double Door (the Melancholy Maeluth)
Race: DragonbornRotD8 LesserPGtF191 MaeluthFF136: Humanoid (dwarf, planetouched, dragonblood)
Alignment: Neutral

Strength: 12
Dexterity: 14 -> 10
Constitution: 14 -> 20
Intelligence: 14
Wisdom: 8
Charisma: 16 -> 22
All ability increments go to Charisma. Fiendish Heritage adds another +1 Charisma.

Birthplace: ThayPGtF28, Faerûn
Languages: (automatic) Common, Dwarven, Undercommon; (regional) Mulhorandi; (dragonborn) Draconic; (bonus) Infernal, Gnoll
I know what you're thinking: it's a Dwarf! Well, actually it's a Maeluth: a planetouched, fiend-descended version of a Dwarf. So yes, you're right. What else would be appropriate for a terribad prestige class like Flux Adept? It's got to be a Dwarf.

Double Door's origin was not a happy one. His mother was a slave to the powerful Red Wizards of Thay. He never knew his father, but the Red Wizards like to breed their slaves with Outsiders of various types in an effort to create the perfect servitors. With magic in his blood and seeking his own destiny, Double ran away before he turned 16. He found a group of planetouched Dragonborn in the Hordelands who treated him fairly, which was a marked improvement over his earlier life. In Thay, sorcery is regarded as corruption of the Art, while wizardry is respected as a studious and academic pursuit.

Double Door was both born and reborn before he began his sorcery. That means he underwent the Draconic Right of Rebirth when he had 1 Humanoid Hit Die, prior to obtaining his first class level. He chose the Heart aspect, gaining a breath weapon: a great upgrade over ordinary saliva. Upon entering his first Sorcerer level, he claimed his Draconic Heritage birthright (Gold). This change was all about the blood: specifically, the dragonblood. Double didn't know about the fiend blood in his lineage — yet.


Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and caldron bubble.

Double was always fascinated by the simplicity of potions. These phials of fluid can bring magic to anyone, with no special knowledge of spellcasting required. Opportunities to learn about potions in the Hordelands were scarce, which is why Double Door's best option was to study under a Flux Adept. And yes, he did learn to Brew Potion (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/feats.htm#brewPotion)s while under her tutelage.

What with all the changes to his body fluids as a Flux Adept, Double Door was slow to understand the fiendish blood in his veins. But with his Flux Adept training drawing to an end, Double decided to embrace his fiendish heritage — body and soul. He hopes to unlock more and more of the potential hidden within him.
BoVD = Book of Vile Darkness
CC = Complete Champion
D = Draconomicon
DC = Dragon Compendium
F = Frostburn
FF = Fiend Folio
HoH = Heroes of Horror
PGtF = Player's Guide to Faerûn
PH = Planar Handbook
PHII = Player's Handbook II
RotD = Races of the Dragon
S = Stormwrack
SC = Spell Compendium
UE = Unapproachable East


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


1st
Dragonblood Sorcerer (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/classes/sorcererWizard.htm#sorcerer) Substitution LevelRotD107 1
+0
+2†
+0
+2
Concentration 4, Heal 4, Knowledge (arcana) 4, Spellcraft 4
Draconic HeritageRotD102 B (Gold), Great Fortitude (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/feats.htm#greatFortitude)
Arcane Insight +2, Draconic Heritage


2nd
Sorcerer 2
+1
+2†
+0
+3
Concentration +1 (5), Heal +1 (5), Knowledge (arcana) +1 (5), Spellcraft +1 (5)




3rd
Sorcerer 3
+1
+3†
+1
+3
Bluff 1, Concentration +1 (6), Knowledge (arcana) +1 (6), Spellcraft +1 (6)
Endurance (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/feats.htm#endurance)



4th
Dragonblood Sorcerer Substitution Level 4
+2
+3†
+1
+4
Bluff +1 (2), Concentration +1 (7), Knowledge (arcana) +1 (7), Spellcraft +1 (7)

Arcane Insight +4, Spell-Like Ability


5th
Planar Sorcerer Substitution LevelPH35 5
+2
+3†
+1
+4
Knowledge (the planes) 4

Force-Charged Energy, Domain AccessCC52 (BestialBoVD80), Scent (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/specialAbilities.htm#scent)


6th
Sorcerer 6
+3
+4†
+2
+5
Bluff +1 (3), Concentration +1 (8), Knowledge (arcana) +1 (8), Spellcraft +1 (8)
Extend Spell (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/feats.htm#extendSpell)



7th
Flux AdeptDC76 1
+3
+4†
+4
+5
Bluff +1 (4), Concentration +1 (9), Knowledge (the planes) +1 (5), Spellcraft +1 (9)

Grace Through Will


8th
Flux Adept 2
+4
+4†
+5
+5
Bluff +1 (5), Concentration +1 (10), Knowledge (the planes) +1 (6), Spellcraft +1 (10)

Pheromonic Control, Thermoregulation +2


9th
Flux Adept 3
+5
+5†
+5
+6
Balance 1, Concentration +1 (11), Knowledge (the planes) +1 (7), Spellcraft +1 (11)
Brew Potion (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/feats.htm#brewPotion)
Iron Stomach


10th
Flux Adept 4
+6
+5†
+6
+6
Balance +1 (2), Concentration +1 (12), Knowledge (the planes) +1 (8), Spellcraft +1 (12)

Bitter Tides


11th
Flux Adept 5
+6
+5†
+6
+6
Balance +1 (3), Concentration +1 (13), Spellcraft +1 (13), Tumble 1

Feign Death


12th
Flux Adept 6
+7
+6†
+7
+7
Balance +1 (4), Concentration +1 (14), Spellcraft +1 (14), Tumble +1 (2)
Eschew Materials (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/feats.htm#eschewMaterials)
Taste of Truth


13th
Flux Adept 7
+8
+6†
+7
+7
Balance +1 (5), Concentration +1 (15), Spellcraft +1 (15), Tumble +1 (3)

Thermoregulation +4, Haste


14th
Flux Adept 8
+9
+6†
+8
+7
Concentration +1 (16), Spellcraft +1 (16), Sense Motive 1, Tumble +1 (4)

Boiling Blood


15th
Flux Adept 9
+9
+7†
+8
+8
Spellcraft +1 (17), Sense Motive +2 (3), Tumble +1 (5)
Blood Calls to BloodHoH120
Polyhaemia


16th
Flux Adept 10
+10
+7†
+9
+8
Spellcraft +1 (18), Sense Motive +3 (6)

Regeneration 1


17th
Fiend-BloodedHoH102 1
+10
+7†
+9
+10
Bluff +2 (7), Spellcraft +2 (20)

Fiendish Companion, Fiendish Heritage +1 AC


18th
Fiend-Blooded 2
+11
+7†
+9
+11
Bluff +3 (10), Spellcraft +1 (21)
Shape BreathD73
Fiendish Sorcery (Flame Strike (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/flameStrike.htm)) (4th)


19th
Fiend-Blooded 3
+11
+8†
+10
+11
Bluff +3 (13), Spellcraft +1 (22)

Blood of Fiends +1 saves, Fiendish Heritage +1 CHA


20th
Fiend-Blooded 4
+12
+8†
+10
+12
Bluff +3 (16), Spellcraft +1 (23)

Fiendish Sorcery (Dark TideS114) (7th), Smiting Spell 1/day


† - includes +2 Great Fortitude (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/feats.htm#greatFortitude) bonus
Spells per Day / Spells Known


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


1st
5 / 4
4 / 2
—
—
—
—
—
—


2nd
6 / 5
5 / 2
—
—
—
—
—
—


3rd
6 / 5
6 / 3
—
—
—
—
—
—


4th
6 / 6
7 / 3
4 / 1
—
—
—
—
—


5th
6 / 6
7 / 3+1*
5 / 0+1†
—
—
—
—
—


6th
6 / 7
7 / 3+1
6 / 0+1
4 / 0+1
—
—
—
—


7th
6 / 7
7 / 4+1
7 / 1+1
5 / 1+1
—
—
—
—


8th
6 / 7
7 / 4+1
7 / 1+1
5 / 1+1
—
—
—
—


9th
6 / 8
7 / 4+1
7 / 1+1
6 / 1+1
4 / 0+1
—
—
—


10th
6 / 8
7 / 4+1
7 / 1+1
6 / 1+1
4 / 0+1
—
—
—


11th
6 / 8
7 / 4+1
7 / 2+1
7 / 2+1
5 / 1+1
—
—
—


12th
6 / 8
7 / 4+1
7 / 2+1
7 / 2+1
5 / 1+1
—
—
—


13th
6 / 9
7 / 4+1
7 / 2+1
7 / 2+1
5§ / 1+0
2 / 0+1
—
—


14th
6 / 9
7 / 4+1
7 / 2+1
7 / 2+1
5 / 1+0
2 / 0+1
—
—


15th
6 / 9
7 / 4+1
7 / 3+1
7 / 3+1
6 / 2+0
3 / 1+1
—
—


16th
6 / 9
8 / 4+1
7 / 3+1
7 / 3+1
6 / 2+0
4 / 1+1
—
—


17th
6 / 9
8 / 4+1
7 / 3+1
7 / 3+1
6 / 2+0
5 / 1+1
3 / 0+1
—


18th
6 / 9
8 / 4+1
7 / 3+1
7 / 3+1
6 / 3+0+1F
6 / 2+1
4 / 1+1
—


19th
6 / 9
8 / 4+1
7 / 3+1
7 / 3+1
6 / 3+0+1F
6 / 2+1
5 / 1+1
3 / 0+1


20th
6 / 9
8 / 4+1
8 / 3+1
7 / 3+1
6 / 3+0+1F
6 / 3+1
7 / 2+1
4 / 1+1+1F


* - Domain AccessCC52 replaces one normal Sorcerer spell known at each level with a BestialBoVD80 domain spell.
† - Force-Charged EnergyPH35 reduces # of 2nd-level spells known by 1.
§ - Selecting Claws of the SavageBoVD88 as a SLA removes it as a known spell, and loses two spell slots (@ 4 & 5).
F - Fiendish Sorcery adds Flame Strike (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/flameStrike.htm) (4th level, Fire) and Dark TideS114 (7th level, Necromancy) to spells known.


Level
Spells Known


0th
CaltropsSC42, Detect Magic (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/detectMagic.htm), Light (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/light.htm), Mage Hand (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/mageHand.htm), Mending (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/mending.htm), Message (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/message.htm), Prestidigitation (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/prestidigitation.htm), Touch of Fatigue (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/touchOfFatigue.htm), Read Magic (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/readMagic.htm)


1st
Chill Touch (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/chillTouch.htm), Ebon EyesSC77, Mage Armor (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/mageArmor.htm), Power Word PainRotD116, Magic Fang (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/magicFang.htm)


2nd
Blinding Color SurgePHII104, Spider Climb (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/spiderClimb.htm), Wings of CoverRotD119, Bull's Strength (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/bullsStrength.htm)


3rd
Analyze PortalSC10, Control TemperatureF92, Nondetection (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/nondetection.htm), Greater Magic Fang (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/magicFangGreater.htm)


4th
Burning BloodSC40, Flight of the DragonSC95, Superior DarkvisionUE53, Claws of the SavageBoVD88, Flame Strike (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/flameStrike.htm)


5th
Draconic MightSC72, ThalassemiaS123, Wall of Stone (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/wallOfStone.htm), Charm Monster (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/charmMonster.htm)


6th
Demonic Blood Infusion (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20030607a), Wall of Iron (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/wallOfIron.htm), Hold Monster (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/holdMonster.htm)


7th
Plane Shift (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/planeShift.htm), Whirlwind of TeethBoVD110, Dark TideS114


GREEN = BestialBoVD80 domain spells
BLUE = Spell-Like Ability, 3/day
RED = Fiendish Sorcery spells


Level 1
Double Door knows seven languages at level 1, and has a good Charisma score (16). He's socially adept, especially with Constructs, Dragons, and Magical Beasts (Knowledge (arcana) skill modifier of +8). He always feels a bit out of place, but does a good job of hiding that. He's got a breath weapon, good every 1d4 rounds.

Level 5
Still no Secret Ingredient, but Double Door has taken 3 Sorcerer substitution levels to diversify his capabilities (beyond being a full arcane spellcaster). He has Scent (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/specialAbilities.htm#scent), which makes him more aware of his surroundings and potential risks. His Knowledge (arcana) skill modifier is +13, so he'll recognize many Constructs, Dragons, and Magical Beasts on sight. He's started in on Knowlege (the planes), adding Outsiders and Elementals to his knowledge base.

Level 10
Double Door has been able to Brew Potion (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/feats.htm#brewPotion)s since the previous level. His breath weapon is up to 4d8 damage now. Flux Adept Thermoregulation lets Double use Control TemperatureF92 to greater effect. He's got BestialBoVD80 domain spells including Claws of the SavageBoVD88. That spell gives him claws, and other Bestial domain spells like Magic Fang (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/magicFang.htm) enhance them. He's doing a good job of making his spellcasting and other FA class abilities work together. Iron Stomach protects Double if someone were to mix a potion of Poison (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/poison.htm) among the stores of potions he trades for to add to those he brews himself. It's always good to have ready phials!

Level 15
Double Door got to enough Concentation skill to cast any spell defensively, even with a rolled 1, a level ago. His Boiling Blood ability gives him claws, and Claws of the SavageBoVD88 now enhances those claws for greater effect than if the spell were used alone. Double can now Feign Death, though sadly Scent (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/specialAbilities.htm#scent) cannot be used as a trigger to wake him from it. Polyhaemia gives Double double use of the potions he drinks. With a +1 boost to Double's Transmutation caster level — a Robe of Arcane Might (Magic Item Compendium, page 129) would be a handy item — he'll get +3 to his claws from his potions of Greater Magic Fang (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/magicFangGreater.htm). Double has synergy bonuses from Bluff, Knowledge (arcana), Knowledge (the planes), and Tumble; defensive gains from 5 ranks in Balance and Tumble; and FA skill boosts from Grace Through Will and Taste of Truth. This is the build's sweet spot, where his Flux Adept class abilities, his skills, and his spells are really working well together.

Level 20
We're past Flux Adept levels now, so the additional capabilities at this snapshot accrue from Double getting double benefit from his Knowledge (arcana) ranks for entry to both Flux Adept and Fiend-Blooded. Fiend-Blooded class features have boosted his AC, saves, and Charisma ability. He's added two more non-Sorcerer spells to his known spells repertoire. His Smiting Spell adds +10 damage to all within a spell's area. Added to Whirlwind of TeethBoVD110 and that's 7d8+10 damage in a 150' diameter, repeating every round for 15 rounds while Double is free to take other actions. (Whirlwind of Teeth takes only free actions to send chasing enemies (moving up to 80' per round), not Concentration.) Alternatively, Double Door can add Smiting Spell damage to Dark TideS114, a nasty spell which fairly quickly (27 rounds) floods a full mile in diameter in dark water, which lasts 15 hours (1 hour/level). Smiting Spell would increase the no-save hourly damage for everyone from 1d6 to 1d6+10. Double's breath weapon is now shapeable, greatly expanding the area it covers for more acid damage (7d8 in a 100' cone). His base Charisma score is now 22, or 26 when using Pheromonic Control to augment his sorcery.
What is a Flux Adept? The essence of a Flux Adept is schizoid. They're a spellcaster (must be to enter, and spellcasting advances throughout the PrC), but their class features have nothing to do with spellcasting. They prioritize skills, but not the skill points necessary for those skills. They can make acid from their body for offense or defense, but it's rather an either/or (not both) option. They can taste infinitesimal hormonal secretions in the air, but don't have Scent (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/specialAbilities.htm#scent). They can grow claws, but not make them capable of significant damage. They can reconstitute potions in their blood, but can't brew them in the first place. They require no food if they Feign Death, but they can already gain nourishment from everything with their Iron Stomach; going without food is hardly necessary.

I made Double Door to work with the Flux Adept in all its shizoid glory. Flux Adept has several abilities dependent on CON, so Dragonborn Maeluth (+6 CON total) seemed like a good idea. Pheromonic Control's Eagle's Splendor (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/eaglesSplendor.htm) effect helps a Charisma-base character, hence Sorcerer entry. His other levels are full spellcasting, but have as many non-casting features as I could come up with (in both Sorcerer and Fiend-Blooded) and an emphasis on blood. For saliva he's got a Dragonborn breath weapon for acid offense, leaving Flux Adept Bitter Tides sweat for its more effective defensive capability. (His breath weapon is available as a line at character level 1, becoming shapable into a cone with Shape BreathD73 later.)

Beyond giving him a decent INT score I couldn't come up any way to really adequate skill points, but I did acquire more Sorcerer class skills (Heal, Knowledge (the planes)) and prioritized getting skills to where they provided the most effect: synergy bonuses, avoiding the flat-footed condition with Balance, giving a boost to fighting defensively/total defense with Tumble, & c. Before entering Flux Adept, Domain AccessCC52 provides BestialBoVD80 domain and its Scent (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/specialAbilities.htm#scent) granted power. There's a useful synergy between Scent and Pheromonic Control: any check opposing an enemy's Charisma-based skill is boosted +2 ("the flux adept gains an additional +2 bonus on any Charisma-based skill check made against a creature with the scent ability") — even if the creature with Scent is the Flux Adept. That's basically +2 to Sense Motive to oppose Bluff, +2 to opposed Diplomacy, +2 to Spot to oppose Disguise, and +2 to the modified level check to oppose Intimidate. It's not as good as having 8 more skill ranks to spend freely, but it's a clever (I think) way to get better use of his skills along with Grace Through Will and Taste of Truth.

The character picks up Brew Potion (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/feats.htm#brewPotion) at the first opportunity after entering FA and can then make potions of spells like Greater Magic Fang (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/magicFangGreater.htm), which Polyhaemia can "recycle" so one dose will affect both sets of claws created by Boiling Blood. Double Door can also cast Claws of the SavageBoVD88 to give those claws +2 to attack and damage, plus two effective size boosts. His Dragonblood Sorcerer substitution Spell-Like Ability gives him 3 daily uses of that spell as a SLA, so it's good for multiple encounters.

I've picked spells to dovetail with Flux Adept capabilities, rather than choices like Polymorph (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/polymorph.htm) which supercede FA class features entirely. Control TemperatureF92 works compatibly with FA Thermoregulation, for example; Double can raise or lower the temperature drastically, causing problems for enemies while he is immune to the effects of cold and hot conditions. Chill Touch (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/chillTouch.htm) adds bonus cold energy damage on top of Bitter Tides acid when Double uses his Boiling Blood claws to "touch" enemies. The extra damage (both acid and cold) on multiple attacks works with FA Haste because that's Extraordinary and doesn't conflict with spellcasting. Domain AccessCC52 adds BestialBoVD80 domain spells, about half of which are normally unavailable to Sorcerers. Fiendish Sorcery adds a couple more known spells: Flame Strike (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/flameStrike.htm) (4th level, Fire) and Dark TideS114 (7th level, Necromancy). Flame Strike (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/flameStrike.htm) is already half divine and half fire damage; Force-Charged Energy can make half the fire damage into pure force damage instead, so ¾ the damage will impact even the fire-immune. Burning BloodSC40 can be similarly altered to make half the acid damage into force damage instead. Double's Dragonborn breath weapon can be cold, electricity, or fire as well, so he's got the FA acid damage bases covered but also has diverse options besides.

In short, Double Door embraces and enhances all of what a Flux Adept is about. That doesn't make him any less melancholy, alas. The lot of the fiend-blooded is a lonely life. :smallsigh:

As for the character name: besides the obvious, the planar metropolis of Sigil is referred to as the "City of Doors". It's the place in the multiverse where fiend-descended creatures are most welcome, and where Double's devilish ancestor may have lived. Visiting Sigil is why Plane Shift (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/planeShift.htm), Wall of Stone (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/wallOfStone.htm), and Wall of Iron (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/wallOfIron.htm) are on Double's list. Sigil has no native building materials, and hauling in a couple of rocks and creating Walls is a way to earn his keep. Walls are good battlefield control spells also, of course. http://ftm3.altervista.org/ASMoNM/ThumbUp.gif

[Heliomance]

"I like this one. He has an honest fa- hey! Where's my wallet gone?!"


Honest James Horson
NE Half Drow
Marshal 1/half-elf paragon 3 / shugenja 1/ human paragon 3 / flux adept 7/contemplative 1/ insidious corrupter 3
Str: 8
Con: 12
Dex: 8
Int: 17
Wis: 10
Cha: 17
Ability increases: 4th +1 int, 8th, 12th, 16th, 20th +1 cha
https://sketch.io/render/sketch562c2b27f0d00.png
Honest James is a con artist and animal trainer. He lives in Stormreach. The son of a prostitute, Honest James has 5 siblings, all of whom he keeps in contact with. Honest James never stood up to a fight that he couldn’t run away from. Honest James is smart and charming and ambitious, but Honest James ain’t brave. He’d sooner sell you his virgin sister than suffer a punch to his face. Problem is, his sister ain’t a virgin, or his sister, and he just made plans to pay the bilge rats to waylay you tomorrow. Honest James is an entrepreneur, and has a few cover identities that he makes possible via his disguise self spell. Until 16th or so level, he hires prostitutes and aids them on take 20’s to disguise himself as various cover identities. Honest James has this idea that he can create a ring of spies and infiltrators that will be the best in the world.

Honest James does not seek to surround himself with strong people. He specifically targets weak people, particularly nasty weak people. People who are just trying to get by are not exempt, but if they can be avoided, they get avoided, particularly single moms. Honest James is still thoroughly evil, he just has a few broad categories of people that he is less likely to cheat or kill.

Honest James loves to train animals. He loves that animals lack the ability to lie. Communication across the language divide means that deceit is ineffectual. Seeing as how he is so good at lying, he loves the purity of experience of bending an animal to do his will because it has been taught to try to please him.

This build detests all combat. This build is also best served by early use of epic skill checks. It can work without them, but the undetectable alignment + at will suggestion make the best possible use of the “taste of truth” ability from flux adept. Anytime Honest james takes damage in a fight, he either combat panaches the next attack into an enemy or combat panaches a fake death. Later, when fearless destiny comes in, he doesn’t feign death until he actually almost dies. Honest james is willing to use this ability to have his "dead" body get taken to convenient places, with trained tiny animals being used to wake him up. In order to keep things from eating his feign death body, he also activates bitter acidic taste. Honest James doesn’t take time to eat unless he has to show appearances, and will use his iron stomach ability to literally eat air.

This build takes loads of game time to set up his ability to compete with higher tier builds. Honest James is similar to an artificer in this way. This build is most appropriate in campaigns that focus a less on combat and more on politics/ trade/ culture clashes.




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


1st
Marshal
+0
+2
+0
+2
Handle animal 4, ride 1, bluff 4, sense motive 4, intimidate 4, perform 4, knowledge (arcana) 4, Diplomacy 3
Able Learner (RoD)
Skill Focus (Diplomacy)*, minor aura


2nd
Half-Elf Paragon (UA)
+0
+2
+2
+2
Bluff 5, Craft 4, diplomacy 4, perform 5
Endurance
Bonus feat, divided ancestry, elven vision


3rd
Shugenja (air+order of Spring Zephyr (CD)
+0
+2
+2
+4
craft 5, heal 5, knowledge arcana 5
Earthbound Spell (PHBII)
Elemental Focus (air), Sense Elements


4th
Human Paragon (UA)
+0
+2
+2
+6
bluff 7, perform 7, intimidate 7, knowledge arcana 6

Adaptive Learning


5th
Human Paragon (UA)
+1
+2
+2
+7
bluff 8, perform 8, intimidate 8, knowledge arcana 8, handle animal 7
Combat panache (PHBII)
Bonus Feat, +1 CL


6th
Human Paragon (UA)
+2
+3
+3
+7
bluff 9, diplomacy 8, handle animal 9, sleight of hand 1, knowledge religion 2
Great Fortitude
Ability Boost (+2 Cha), +1 CL


7th
Half-Elf Paragon (UA)
+3
+3
+4
+7
Bluff 10, handle animal 10, sleight of hand 3, sense motive 6,

Persuasion, +1 CL


8th
Flux Adept (DrComp)
+3
+3
+6
+7
bluff 11, handle animal 11, sleight of hand 4, sense motive 6, gather information 2, diplomacy 9


Grace Through will, +1 CL


9th
Flux Adept (DrComp)
+4
+3
+7
+7
knowledge religion 8

Heroic Destiny (RoD)
Pheromonic Control, Thermoregulation +2


10th
Half-elf Paragon (UA)
+5
+4
+7
+8
knowledge religion 13, bluff 13, handle animal 12


Ability Boost (+2 CHA)


11th
Flux Adept (DrComp)
+5
+5
+7
+9
handle animal 14, bluff 14, sense motive 7, gather information 4


Iron Stomach, +1 CL


12th
Flux Adept (DrComp)
+6
+5
+8
+9
handle animal 15, bluff 15, sense motive 8, gather information 7

Fearless Destiny (RoD)
Bitter Tides


13th
Flux Adept (DrComp)
+6
+5
+8
+9
handle animal 16, bluff 16, sense motive 9, gather information 8


Feign Death, +1 CL


14th
Flux Adept (DrComp)
+7
+6
+9
+10
handle animal 17, bluff 17, ride 7, gather information 9


Taste of Truth


15th
Flux Adept (DrComp)
+7
+6
+9
+10
handle animal 18, bluff 18, ride 10, gather information 10

Persuasive
Thermoregulation +4, Haste, +1CL


16th
Contemplative (CD: Domination Domain)
+7
+6
+9
+12
handle animal 19, bluff 19, sleight of hand 8


Bonus Domain (Domination), Divine Health, +1CL


17th
Insidious Corrupter (DotU)
+7
+6
+9
+14
handle animal 20, bluff 20, sleight of hand 9, disguise 1


Claws of influence (1 target), manipulate senses


18th
Insidious Corrupter (DotU)
+8
+6
+9
+15
handle animal 21, bluff 21, sleight of hand 10, disguise 4

Master Manipulator (PHBII)
Probe Thoughts, +1CL


19th
Insidious Corrupter (DotU)
+8
+7
+10
+15
handle animal 22, bluff 22, sleight of hand 11, disguise 7


Manipulation, claws of influence (2 targets)


20th
Insidious Corrupter (DotU)
+9
+7
+10
+16
handle animal 23, bluff 23, sleight of hand 12, disguise 10


Minion, +1 CL






Level
0lvl
1st
2nd
3rd
4th
5th


1st
-
-
-
-
-
-


2nd
-
-
-
-
-
-


3rd
5
3
-
-
-
-


4th
5
3
-
-
-
-


5th
6
4
-
-
-
-


6th
6
5
-
-
-
-


7th
6
6
3
-
-
-


8th
6
6
4
-
-
-


9th
6
6
4
-
-
-


10th
6
6
4
-
-
-


11th
6
6
5
3
-
-


12th
6
6
5
3
-
-


13th
6
6
6
4
-
-


14th
6
6
6
4
-
-


15th
6
6
6
5
3
-


16th
6
6
6
6
4
-


17th
6
6
6
6
4
-


18th
6
6
6
6
5
3


19th
6
6
6
6
5
3


20th
6
6
6
6
6
4



Bonus Spells per day according to charisma score.



Character Level
Caster Level
Order spell
Element Spell
Other Spell


3
1
0: Daze
1:Disguise Self
0: Ghost Sound, Know Direction
1: Silent Image
0: create water, detect magic
1: Speak with animals


5
2


0: Guidance



6
3

1: Expeditious retreat



7
4
2:Blur
2: Color spray
0: Light


8
5

0: read magic
1: Obscuring Mist
2: Fog Cloud


11
6
3: Invisibility
3: Major image



13
7

1: Feather Fall
2: Detect thoughts
0: Detect Poison
3: When two become 1 (OA)


15
8
4: Air walk
4: Detect Scrying



16
9

0:??? No legal choice
3: wingblast (DrM)
2: Horse's Nose (OA)
4: Dominate person


18
10
5: Greater Invisibility
5: Persistant image



20
11

2:Minor Image
4:Hallucinatory Terrain
3: Glyph of Warding
5: Scrying



Know the shadows from OA is an air spell that can replace colorspray. It gives you +20 to hide.



RACIAL ABILITIES: Immune to sleep, +2 saves against enchantment, +1 bonus on listen, search and spot. +2 on Diplomacy and gather information checks. 60’ dark vision. Elf blood. Drow blood.

1: MARSHAL - 2: HALF-ELF PARAGON - 3: SHUGENJA (AIR) - 4-5: HUMAN PARAGON

At level 1, Honest James is a marshal that can motivate charisma. Best to pair up with a bard for adventures at this point. At level 3, Honest James joins the Hollow shards, and he attempts to swindle his way into not paying the 1000 gp entry fee. If he can pull it off, even for a second, he will try to diplomance his way into a higher affiliation ranking, getting the +2 competence bonus to bluff. At level 3, Honest James is an air shugenja who belongs to the order of the spring zephyr. At level 4, he increases his intelligence for the much needed Skill points. His human paragon skills are: handle animal, bluff, sense motive, knowledge arcana, intimidate, perform, diplomacy, sleight of hand, gather information, knowledge religion. At Level 5, Honest James has most of the SI pre-requisite feats. He has earthbound spell, which he can use to make daze traps while combat panache allows him to redirect attacks made against him after getting hit.

Considering that James can't hit to save his life, he should carry around alchemists fire, and wield (unproficiently) a sandblaster (from MM3, on the sand giant’s description) or a sandpipe (secrets of Xendrik). If you spit in a cone, you don’t need to worry about non-proficient attack rolls.

Honest James has two cover identities at this point that he puts some effort into. He is human animal trainer entrepreneur from Cyran that specializes in Tixlin bird training. “Only spends a few weeks a year in Stormreach.” He offers free room and board to university botanists to rear jungle plants for Tixlin birds. Trying to get the art perfected to start a business shipping the tixlin birds overseas to rich clients. He is also trying to pay botanists to rear felsul trees, because he wants to hire some alchemists to distill powerful colognes that help with lying (Magic of Faerun).

His other cover identity is a changeling reality seeker anarchist/poet. He is setting up a changeling enclave “safe space” in Stormreach for the wealthiest, most pacifistic changelings. Routinely “on tour” in other kingdoms. Occasionally sends plagiarized sweet notes to their marks. When in the kingdom, spends time recruiting other reality seekers to attract more reality seekers. Plans on having the disaffected youth raised there to join a counter cultural “reality seeking through reality breaking” crime ring. These are the other streams of plot hook generation that Honest James brings to the table in addition to being a part of the hollow shards.



6: HUMAN PARAGON - 7: HALF-ELF PARAGON - 8-9: FLUX ADEPT - 10 HALF ELF PARAGON

After exploring the various identities offered to him by his mixed ancestry, Honest James decides to take his ability to lie to a whole new level. He decides to employ ancient techniques from cosmopolitan cultural influences to lie to his own body to make it behave how HE desires.

Honest James gets into some special ingredient now. Yessir. By level 10, his bluff and handle animal is at 33 before he rolls. He can train anything into a war beast (MM3). He can also train animals to have teamwork benefits. If he takes 10 and uses a masterwork item of +2, he can train like 3 t-rex war beasts at a time. This is money that he uses for 3 reasons, to set up his own personal spy network, to rise in level in the Hollow shards, and to make his tixlin bird hatchery/felon tree arboretum.

His bluff score is impeccable. Grace through will offers Honest James a small reprieve on some skill checks that he never invested in. Pheromonic control helps with the eagles splendor buff, and the additional +2 to training animals with scent. His paragon capstone powers all increase Charisma, giving a ton of extra spells per day. Persuasion, the half elf paragon class ability is another little charisma booster. Honest james has combat control spells (fog and mist), colorspray, and some simple illusions. To be honest, spells are just diversions to James. Except speak with animals. He loves that spell.

Somewhere around level 9, Honest james will spend good money to find out how to magically become a better liar and animal handler. His introspection into self doesn’t seem to be covering it. He hopefully finds out about an Eberonni equivalent to the Ritual of honest pain from church of Cyric (Lords of Darkness). This gives Honest James -2 constitution permanently but a +2 on diplomacy, bluff and handle animal. Also, he can lie, even in a zone of truth or similar spell. There are some worshippers of Vol in stormreach, but Honest James is willing to travel to get this ritual.

His cover identities depending on the campaign should continue growing. He should be training a few animals a week for cash, laundering the clean money through shady businesses and presenting it to the hollow shards. He should also be training mice and raccoons and monkeys and lizards to steal, which he then sells to friends and sailors. Honest James should have 10-20 mice trained at any point for use as scouts. Any significant wealth gain should go towards buying land in storm reach to start his changeling cult that he plans on using to transform into his personal spy ring, one generation from now. He still hires specific disguise artists to allow him to continue in his disguises. Sometimes wearing a disguise spell on top, if dealing with truesight type folk.



11-15: FLUX ADEPT

Honest James now has epic bluffing skills. He can instill a suggestion for 10 minutes using epic bluff rules. He can use his fearless destiny feign death combo. Always, Always saving action points to do so. Honest James has a +7 bonus to his bluff skills from the taste of truth. At level 15, his bluff is at 47, 49 with a masterwork bluff item. His animal handling is around 40 before you even roll. At level 15, he takes persuasive as a feat as a prerequisite for Insidious corruptor prestige class. Ask your DM if the persuasive class ability that does dang near the same thing can fulfill that. If so, consider [creaturetype] trainer and training oozes. I’m sure that there are some living spells out there that just need the right trainer and a lying sleaze bag from storm reach might be such a trainer. Jimmy can use epic animal handling to train single hit die animals in a single day. Further, at level 13, Honest james can take the spell, “when two become 1” to merge with his “horse.” Which means his BAB improves dramatically, and assuming that he properly crossbreeds his horses to get templates and whatnot, perhaps by making bluff checks to seduce (ala sword and fist) a young dragon into it.



16: CONTEMPLATIVE - 17-20: INSIDIOUS CORRUPTER

Contemplative offers the choice of domain. Any domain that offers dominate person at a level lower than 6th is fine. I chose the…domination domain. Now, the wording of the bonus domain is weird, and doesn’t comport easily with Shugenja levels. A kind DM will grant you access to all of the spells in the domain that you are entitled to by level and maybe even extra domain slots to cast them from along with your normal spells. A judicious DM would count your order spells slots as being available to be used to learn domain spells into. Whatever the case, get dominate person somehow. Insidious corrupter allows you even more bluff bonii, and paired with unlimited suggestions, you can get anyone under your claws of influence to attack anyone else around. Master manipulator allows you to argue around with people to get at the truth of why they lie to you. If you don’t like that feat, there are a bunch of riding based feats that maybe helpful at this level, seeing as how the only way that you survive dungeon crawls is to send menageries of trained animals in first and scry on them. You can then ride your more efficient beasts in. Honest James should have a little farm of animals that he is training and a number of staff kept as retainers. He should also be dumping tons of money into his reality seeker changeling safe space, paying off all of the major players in storm reach from molesting them. Should anyone break that trust, Honest James will make sure that they are incapacitated. By creating this haven for changelings to breed true in storm reach, he hopes that their children become bored with their middle class lifestyles and seek adventure and fame. That is where Honest James begins training them as spies. Little missions at first, go buy this from the drowelfs. Then working them up to “live in the castle for 6 months, report back using these carrier pigeons every week. They’ll be trained to sit in the big tree every sunday night. On top of your house keeping wages, you’ll have 150gp bonus.” He views training of changelings very similarly to animal training: he must rear his own…

This spy network will give him the blackmail clout necessary to begin training planar animals without molestation from the often power mad and paranoid rest of the known world.

[Heliomance]

"This was nearly a disaster - the chef almost forgot to plate up the sides!"
"All fixed now though, just in the nick of time!"


Edmond Dufresne
NE Changeling Changeling Rogue 1/Savant 4/Assassin 3/Flux Adept 10/Assassin 5

Stats
Str 10
Dex 14
Con 16 (All Increases Here)
Int 16
Wis 10
Cha 10

Build


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


1st
Changeling Rogue 1
+0
+0
+2
+0
Balance 4, Bluff 4, Climb 4, Diplomacy 4, Disguise 4, Hide 4, Intimidate 4, Jump 4, Knowledge (Arcana) 4, Move Silently 4, Sense Motive 4, Tumble 4, Use Magic Device 4
Weapon Finesse
Sneak Attack +1d6, Social Intuition


2nd
Savant 1
+0
+0
+2
+2
Balance 5, Bluff 5, Diplomacy 5, Heal 1, Hide 5, Jump 5, Knowledge (Arcana) 5, Move Silently 5, Sense Motive 5

Academic Lore, Skill Assistance (Hide) 5 ft, Trapfinding


3rd
Savant 2
+1
+0
+2
+3
Bluff 6, Diplomacy 6, Heal 3, Hide 6, Knowledge (Arcana) 6, Move Silently 6, Sense Motive 6, Use Magic Device 5
Endurance, (B) Great Fortitude
Talent Lore


4th
Savant 3
+2
+1
+3
+3
Bluff 7, Diplomacy 7, Heal 5, Hide 7, Knowledge (Arcana) 7, Move Silently 7, Sense Motive 7, Use Magic Device 6

Sneak Attack +2d6


5th
Savant 4
+3
+1
+3
+4
Bluff 8, Diplomacy 8, Hide 8, Knowledge (Arcana) 8, Move Silently 8, Sense Motive 8, Tumble 5, Use Magic Device 8

Skill Assistance (Move Silently) 10 ft


6th
Assassin 1
+3
+1
+5
+4
Craft (Alchemy) 3, Diplomacy 9, Hide 9, Move Silently 9, Use Magic Device 9
Deceptive Spell
Sneak Attack +3d6, Death Attack, Poison Use, Spells


7th
Assassin 2
+4
+1
+6
+4
Craft (Alchemy) 7, Hide 10, Move Silently 10, Use Magic Device 10

+1 Save Against Poison, Uncanny Dodge


8th
Assassin 3
+5
+2
+6
+5
Craft (Alchemy) 11, Hide 11, Move Silently 11, Use Magic Device 11

Sneak Attack +4d6


9th
Flux Adept 1
+5
+2
+8
+5
Craft (Alchemy) 12, Escape Artist 1, Hide 12, Move Silently 12, Use Magic Device 12
Obtain Familiar
Grace Through Will


10th
Flux Adept 2
+6/+1
+2
+9
+5
Craft (Alchemy) 13, Escape Artist 2, Hide 13, Move Silently 13, Use Magic Device 13

Pheromonic Control, Thermoregulation +2


11th
Flux Adept 3
+6/+1
+3
+9
+6
Craft (Alchemy) 14, Escape Artist 3, Hide 14, Move Silently 14, Use Magic Device 14

Iron Stomach


12th
Flux Adept 4
+7/+2
+3
+10
+6
Craft (Alchemy) 15, Escape Artist 4, Hide 15, Move Silently 15, Use Magic Device 15
Staggering Strike
Bitter Tides


13th
Flux Adept 5
+7/+2
+3
+10
+6
Craft (Alchemy) 16, Escape Artist 5, Hide 16, Move Silently 16, Use Magic 16

Feign Death


14th
Flux Adept 6
+8/+3
+4
+11
+7
Craft (Alchemy) 17, Escape Artist 6, Hide 17, Move Silently 17, Use Magic Device 17

Taste of Truth


15th
Flux Adept 7
+8/+3
+4
+11
+7
Craft (Alchemy) 18, Escape Artist 7, Hide 18, Move Silently 19, Use Magic Device 18
Brew Potion
Thermoregulation +4, Haste


16th
Flux Adept 8
+9/+4
+4
+12
+7
Craft (Alchemy) 19, Escape Artist 8, Hide 19, Move Silently 19, Use Magic Device 19

Boiling Blood


17th
Flux Adept 9
+9/+4
+5
+12
+8
Craft (Alchemy) 20, Escape Artist 10, Hide 20, Move Silently 20

Polyhaemia


18th
Flux Adept 10
+10/+5
+5
+13
+8
Craft (Alchemy) 21, Escape Artist 12, Hide 21, Move Silently 21
Detach
Regeneration 1


19th
Assassin 4
+11/+6/+1
+5
+14
+8
Bluff 12, Craft (Alchemy) 22, Hide 22, Move Silently 22

+2 Save Against Poison


20th
Assassin 5
+11/+6/+1
+5
+14
+8
Bluff 16, Craft (Alchemy) 23, Hide 23, Move Silently 23

Improved Uncanny Dodge, Sneak Attack +5d6



Spells
Spells per Day


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


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


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


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


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


5th
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


6th
-
0*
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


7th
-
1
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


8th
-
2
0*
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


9th
-
3
1
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


10th
-
3
1
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


11th
-
3
2
0*
-
-
-
-
-
-


12th
-
3
2
0
-
-
-
-
-
-


13th
-
3
3
1
-
-
-
-
-
-


14th
-
3
3
1
-
-
-
-
-
-


15th
-
3
3
2
0
-
-
-
-
-


16th
-
3
3
2
0
-
-
-
-
-


17th
-
3
3
3
1
-
-
-
-
-


18th
-
3
3
3
1
-
-
-
-
-


19th
-
3
3
3
2
-
-
-
-
-


20th
-
3
3
3
3
-
-
-
-
-



Spells Known


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


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


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


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


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


5th
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


6th
-
2
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


7th
-
3
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


8th
-
3
2
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


9th
-
4
3
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


10th
-
4
3
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


11th
-
4
3
2
-
-
-
-
-
-


12th
-
4
3
2
-
-
-
-
-
-


13th
-
4
4
3
-
-
-
-
-
-


14th
-
4
4
3
-
-
-
-
-
-


15th
-
4
4
3
2
-
-
-
-
-


16th
-
4
4
3
2
-
-
-
-
-


17th
-
4
4
4
3
-
-
-
-
-


18th
-
4
4
4
3
-
-
-
-
-


19th
-
4
4
4
3
-
-
-
-
-


20th
-
4
4
4
4
-
-
-
-
-


Spells Known:
1st: Alibi, Distract Assailant, Ebon Eyes, True Strike
2nd: Blade of Pain and Fear, Phantom Foe, Swift Invisibility, Veil of Shadow,
3rd: Amorphous Form, Spider Poison, Toxic Tongue, Vital Strike
4th: Cursed Blade, Deathsight, Shadow Phase, Unseen Strike

Backstory
Fate stacked the deck against Edmond Dufresne before he was even born. His mother came from a family of some wealth, who were understandably disappointed when she began courting with the town rake. Their whirlwind romance proceeded quickly, and the couple eloped when her parents didn’t give their blessing, and for a time they were happy. But after only a few weeks their lives were disrupted, as were the lives of all of Khorvaire, when war broke out. He was drafted to serve on a warship, and she was left to make do with the rationing back home, worrying if he would ever return.

He returned after a few years when the ship made port, more reserved than when he left, thinner but still pleased to see her. He was no less amorous than he was before, and their time together passed with blissful speed. After only a few days his ship had resupplied and he was to return to the war, and they bid a tearful adieu.

Soon after he left she discovered she was with child. She raised him as best she could on her own, pale and weak though he was. She named him Edmond after her father in an effort to reconcile and eagerly awaited her husband’s return.

A few years later the war finally ended, and the couple finally reunited. He entered the house haggard, weary, and with the look of so many returning soldiers in his eyes. He greeted her with little warmth and seemed unsure of where to stand in his own house. It was at a heavy pause in their conversation that Edmond ran in from playing outside to embrace his mother. His father was shocked to see the child and demanded to know who his father was, so that he could cut down the man that cuckolded him. She looked up at him with fear in her eyes and told him that the child was his own, from when he had returned on leave five years previous. He screamed that this was his first return, and that he expected her to have come up with a better lie in the years he was gone. She protested that she had never been unfaithful, and asked who it could have been if not he. He was having none of her talk, and drew his sword in a final effort to gain the truth from her. She only repeated her claims of innocence and confusion in a panicked whimper. The young Edmond did not fully understand what was going on, but he could tell his mother was scared and that someone meant her harm, and he bravely stepped in front of her to protect her. The man who was not his father cast the child aside with a backhand swipe, easily removing his outstretched hand. Edmond fell to the floor and was unable to stop the violence that ensued.

The man who was not Edmond’s father was caught soon after, and summarily tried. He was quickly found guilty and sent to prison. Edmond survived the encounter, minus his hand, but found himself in an uncomfortable position. Care of the child fell to his mother’s family, who wanted little to do with the bastard son of a doppleganger, and they had him raised alongside the servant children. The servants had no compunctions against telling the growing Edmond the torrid story of his origins, though they had the decency to express sympathy for his dear departed mother.

It would have required extraordinary circumstances for Edmond to grow up into an upstanding member of the community. Those circumstances did not manifest. Edmond took to petty crime in the streets, all the while haunted by the memory of his innocent mother. Though he kept up in his studies, he soon realized that he was not meant for gainful employment, and turned his thoughts to the only meaningful change he could effect in the world: revenge. He fell in with worse and worse criminals to learn the deadly arts and searched for information on where his mother’s killer could be found. He discovered that years of violent behavior coupled with the barbaric nature of his crime had landed the man in the highest security prison available. Infiltration would be impossible. The only way in would be to earn himself a spot near the target. Killing was not unthinkable for Edmond, and getting caught was the easiest thing in the world. He was sent to prison to spend the rest of his days, just as planned. From there it was a simple matter of starting fights and disrespecting the guards enough for him to land himself a solitary cell in the same block as his mother’s killer. Luck had never smiled on Edmond Dufresne, and this was no exception. Though in the same block, he was five cells down from his target, and none of the prisoners ever were allowed to leave their cell.

This certainly made things difficult, but Edmond would not be stopped. Weeks of imprisonment in a tiny cell with nothing but a rat he trained for companionship and his own thoughts gave him much time to reflect and ponder. He had learned much of the principles of life and anatomy both in his earlier schooling and for practical applications as a killer for hire. He had nothing but time and used it to apply his learnings inward, finally putting his aberrant ancestry to good use. He learned to hone his reflexes, to channel the inherent persuasive nature of his own changeling charm, to survive through the freezing winters with no blankets and scorching summers where the stone walls turned to a giant oven. He trained his innards to accept anything as sufficient for survival, and to craft potions from his own blood. When he had trained his body enough to manifest burning acid and a wicked claw, he knew it was time to put his plan into action.

He began by digging at the ground just below the wall, careful to keep it small enough to disguise it as a rat hole. From there he drew on one of his favorite tricks from his days as a killer, dissolving his form into shapeless slime, and traveling deep as he could through the tiny tunnel. From there he exuded burning acid to eat away at the stone in front of him. When he had finished for the night he would push the dust and debris back into his cell where he would eat it to keep his unnatural body running. It was a slow process and could only be done at night when the guards had done their final sweep of the halls. Every night for a very long time he worked his way toward his target, burrowing just beneath the floor. He did not know how long he worked, for he had no marks for the days, and it did not matter to him how long it took, only that he finished. He took to preparing potions of his trick so that he could push on after his natural ability failed, and placed them all in his blood so that he could access them without leaving the tunnel. Finally he reached the cell of his mother’s killer, and when lights out had fallen he slipped through the tunnel, reformed in the cell, and woke the man. He did not recognize Edmond, but he had not expected him to. It was unlikely anyone would recognize him from the child he was, his single hand now replaced with two unnatural claws. He shredded the man in a rapid frenzy and crept back to his cell before morning light.

With his purpose accomplished Edmond Dufresne pulled his final trick: he died. At least, to the world he did. After training his body to deal with the most extreme requirements it was exceptionally simple for him to simply turn it all off, becoming as immobile and inert as his former target. The guards asked few questions of the two bodies that greeted them in the morning, and tossed the two of them on the sea rocks to be eaten by buzzards. It was then that Edmond’s rat awoke his master to alert him that he was free. As Edmond took his first breaths of the salt air as a man free from confinement and guilt, he could finally appreciate that he had developed a unique and special set of skills, skills that would make him a competitive killer on the market.

Edmond Dufresne’s story was over, but the story of the Doppleganger’s heir had only begun.
Level 5
Pretty much any changeling can benefit from a level in changeling rogue, and Edmond is no exception. The ability to take 10 on basically all the social skills dovetails wonderfully with the SI’s healthy bonus and boost to cha when they come online but for now they just make your life easier. Savant provides a wonderful grab bag of options including access to all the skills necessary to enter the SI, a free feat, more sneak attack, and the ability to help others making Hide and Move Silently checks, which helps Edmond when he’s working with a team of thieves and killers. Play is much like rogue plus at this point, stab people in the back and be excellent at skills. Weapon Finesse lets you put some dex to good use, especially since Edmond’s at a bit of a disadvantage with only the one hand.
Level 10
We’re making a brief stopover in Assassin for casting before we enter the SI. Assassin has a fantastic list. The spells I’ve selected are partially to help Edmond in his pursuits, but they are also good for utility. Uncanny Dodge means people can’t get the drop on you, and Death Attack can turn a prepared surprise round into the final round of combat. More sneak attack is always appreciated, and poison use allows you to employ another means of killing your targets.

In terms of feats, Deceptive Spell is the last prereq to enter the SI, but it also means you can attack your targets without seeming like the one who did it. Obtain Familiar allows you to use many of your skills at a distance (escape artist for a rat means some very tiny spaces) as well as help you on your own. Talk to your DM if every level in a spellcasting class counts for familiar bonuses (ie 15 levels here) or only levels that advance casting count (ie 10 levels here). It’s not a huge difference, just nice to know.

On to the SI. Grace through will boosts skills that you have and use, pheromonic control is great for when you really need your face skills to work, and thermoregulation is both helpful for environments and saves vs fire and cold, the two most common descriptors. This plus a good dex and reflex save mean you should be avoiding the worst effects pretty easily.
Level 15
More levels of the SI mean more goodness. Iron Stomach means you never have to worry about whether something is safe to eat, and immunity to ingested poisons mean you can get your Dread Pirate Roberts on and simply poison any communal stewpot or barrel of ale to hit all your targets. It also means no pesky evidence of Edmond’s nighttime burrowing. A potential use that requires discussion is storing your poison doses by swallowing them so intense searches cannot find them on your person. It’s up to your DM to determine whether the poison is still effective after you bring it up with ipecac (you can make it with craft alchemy).

Bitter Tides is useful to simply add some oomph to fighting with your claws. It’s also great as a single spit because it can act as a vehicle for your SA, which is now also acid. Edmond uses it to slowly burn through rock, which has a low enough hardness that he makes progress with every use.

Feign Death is most useful for avoiding the fallout of tricky tasks or target assassinations. Use in conjunction with poisoning communal food to pass as one of the victims. A neat trick you can pull with it is to set the coma to end when your rat familiar performs a specific action (I picked rat because it wouldn’t be noticed in a prison) and then tell the rat to wake you when a more complicated event happens. This sidesteps the normal limitations of the coma.

Taste of Truth also pairs nicely with taking 10 on skills you already have ranks in to make you great at being face. Thermoregulation now provides immunity to environment, and haste with a full attack means more sneak attack, especially great because it isn’t on the assassin list.

In terms of feats, Staggering Strike really limits enemy action if they survive your initial assault, and brew potion lets you use your own spells to exceed assassin’s normal limit of spells per day. By next level you have a high enough UMD mod to use wands automatically, so make full use of that.
Level 20 (Sweet Spot)
Now it’s time to get wild and crazy. Boiling blood means you no longer have to carry weapons in to wherever you’re infiltrating, making you extremely unassuming combined with natural disguise abilities. Polyhaemia is up so you can simply drink your potions as soon as you make them and keep them circulating in your bloodstream at all times. Your craft check is now high enough to ensure success on 3rds, the highest level of potion, so you can keep 6 of your choosing in your blood at all times, which means you can activate them while sneaking in amorphous form.

We dip into assassin after we finish to finish up assassin casting with a perfect 10 levels, and improved uncanny dodge, higher death attack DC, and more SA don’t hurt.

Regeneration means you have little to fear from normal combat, and Edmond can finally regrow his hand. More importantly it allows access to detach, a hilarious feat from Savage Species that is deadly in Edmond’s hands. The feat allows you to tear off your claw and chuck it at someone. More interestingly it says that this allows you to deliver things that would normally come with it, such as acid and poison. Now we turn to Assassin’s spells, notably Spider Poison. Spider poison is a touch spell that deals strength damage. As such it is a weaponlike spell and fair game for use with death attack. First cast spider poison and hold the charge. Buff with whatever potions you want from your bloodstream, like true strike or deathsight. Then throw your claw at the target. Your spell is something delivered typically by the claw, so detach transmits it. The canny will notice that detach has you make the attack as a thrown weapon, not a melee weapon. However, detach has not changed the nature of the spell you are using, which is still a touch spell, so still uses death attack. Use this to kill people from a distance with flying hands. It will take some time to regrow, but Edmond’s used to one hand, so no great loss for him.

Sources
Savant: Dragon Compendium
Changeling Rogue: Races of Eberron
Deceptive Spell: Cityscape
Obtain Familiar: Complete Arcane
Staggering Strike: Complete Adventurer
Detach: Savage Species
Rogue,Assassin, Weapon Finesse, Brew Potion, Great Fortitude, Endurance: srd

[Heliomance]

"So, this one's an Alchemist, huh? Think he can turn lead into gold?"
"I dunno, mostly Alchemists just seem to be able to turn gold into less gold."




Rincefix




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


1st
Hexblade 1
+1
+0
+0
+2
Diplomacy 4, Concentration 4, Know(Arcana) 4, Craft (Alchemy) 4, Heal 2
Endurance, Toughness
Hexblade's Curse 1/day


2nd
Hexblade 2
+2
+0
+0
+3
Diplomacy 5, Concentration 5, Know(Arcana) 5, Craft (Alchemy) 5, Heal 2.5

Arcane Resistance


3rd
Hexblade 3
+3
+1
+1
+3
Diplomacy 6, Concentration 6, Know(Arcana) 6, Craft (Alchemy) 6, Heal 3
Great Fortitude
Mettle


4th
Sorcerer 1
+3
+1
+1
+5
Bluff 1, Concentration 7, Know(Arcana) 7, Spellcraft 1, Heal 3.5

Summon Familiar, (casting as Sorcerer 1)


5th
Sorcerer 2
+4
+1
+1
+6
Bluff 2, Concentration 8, Know(Arcana) 8, Craft (Alchemy) 7, Heal 4

(casting as Sorcerer 2)


6th
Sorcerer 3
+4
+2
+2
+6
Bluff 3, Concentration 9, Spellcraft 2, Craft (Alchemy) 8, Heal 4.5
Extend Spell
(casting as Sorcerer 3)


7th
Sorcerer 4
+5
+2
+2
+7
Bluff 4, Concentration 10, Spellcraft 3, Craft (Alchemy) 9, Heal 5

(casting as Sorcerer 4)


8th
Flux Adept 1
+5
+2
+4
+7
Bluff 6, Tumble 2, Craft (Alchemy) 10

Grace Through Will, +1 spellcasting (Sorc 5)


9th
Flux Adept 2
+6
+2
+5
+7
Bluff 8, Tumble 4, Craft (Alchemy) 11
Brew Potion
Pheromonic Control, Thermoregulation +2


10th
Flux Adept 3
+6
+3
+5
+8
Bluff 10, Tumble 7

Iron Stomach, +1 spellcasting (Sorc 6)


11th
Flux Adept 4
+7
+3
+6
+8
Bluff 12, Tumble 10

Bitter Tides


12th
Flux Adept 5
+7
+3
+6
+8
Bluff 14, Tumble 13
Flyby Attack
Feign Death, +1 spellcasting (Sorc 7)


13th
Flux Adept 6
+8
+4
+7
+9
Bluff 16, Tumble 15, Craft (Alchemy) 12

Taste of Truth


14th
Flux Adept 7
+8
+4
+7
+9
Bluff 17, Spellcraft 5, Tumble 17, Craft (Alchemy) 13

Thermoregulation +4, Haste, +1 spellcasting (Sorc 8)


15th
Flux Adept 8
+9
+4
+8
+9
Bluff 18, Tumble 18, Craft (Alchemy) 14, Know(Geography) 1
Combat Casting
Boiling Blood


16th
Flux Adept 9
+9
+5
+8
+10
Bluff 19, Know(Arcana) 10, Tumble 19, Craft (Alchemy) 15

Polyhaemia, +1 spellcasting (Sorc 9)


17th
Flux Adept 10
+10
+5
+9
+10
Bluff 20, Spellcraft 7, Tumble 20, Craft (Alchemy) 16

Regeneration 1


18th
Blood Magus 1
+10
+7
+9
+10
Bluff 21, Concentration 13, Spellcraft 8
Empower Spell
Blood component, durable casting, stanch, +1 spellcasting (Sorc 10)


19th
Blood Magus 2
+11
+8
+9
+10
Bluff 22, Concentration 16, Spellcraft 9

Scarification, +1 spellcasting (Sorc 11)


20th
Blood Magus 3
+11
+8
+10
+11
Bluff 23, Concentration 19, Spellcraft 10

Death Knell, +1 spellcasting (Sorc 12)



Languages: Common, Draconic, Dwarven
All classes get 2 skill points per level, +2 from Int modifier, +1 from Human = 5 skill points per level throughout.



Str 14 6
Dex 10 2
Con 14 6
Int 14 6
Wis 10 2
Cha 16 10
(that's stat and then points of point buy)
Increases go to Cha



Spells per Day/Spells Known


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


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


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


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


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


5th
6/5
4/2
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


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


7th
6/6
6/3
3/1
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


8th
6/6
6/4
4/2
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


9th
6/6
6/4
4/2
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


10th
6/7
6/4
5/2
3/1
-
-
-
-
-
-


11th
6/7
6/4
5/2
3/1
-
-
-
-
-
-


12th
6/7
6/5
6/3
4/2
-
-
-
-
-
-


13th
6/7
6/5
6/3
4/2
-
-
-
-
-
-


14th
6/8
6/5
6/3
5/2
3/1
-
-
-
-
-


15th
6/8
6/5
6/3
5/2
3/1
-
-
-
-
-


16th
6/8
6/5
6/4
6/3
4/2
-
-
-
-
-


17th
6/8
6/5
6/4
6/3
4/2
-
-
-
-
-


18th
6/9
6/5
6/4
6/3
5/2
3/1
-
-
-
-


19th
6/9
6/5
6/5
6/4
6/3
4/2
-
-
-
-


20th
6/9
6/5
6/5
6/4
6/3
5/2
3/1
-
-
-



Level 1: 5: Fist of Stone, Protection from Evil, Grease, Magic Missile, Benign Transposition
Level 2: 5: Mirror Image, Web, Wraithstrike, Bull's Strength, Scorching Ray
Level 3: 4: Displacement, Fly, Haste, Fireball
Level 4: 3: Evard's Black Tentacles, Thunderlance, Dimension Door
Level 5: 2: Summon Monster V, Teleport
Level 6: 1: Tenser's Transformation
Spells learned in order given, for better or worse. Adaptations include getting Fly as the first 3rd-level spell to have a way to qualify for Flyby Attack at level 12 and other adaptations.
Cantrips not listed due to insignificance. They probably include spells like Prestidigitation, Read Magic and the like.






Rincefix is a Hexblade by class and a worker of an Alchemists' Guild. He has three jobs: He can do alchemy work with his Craft ranks, he can talk to people angry about their houses getting leveled by wayward explosions with his Diplomacy and hold his own in combat against the ones he can't convince not to be angry with his 1 BAB, 13 HP and martial weapon proficiency which lets him hold a longsword/greatsword correctly (and possibly a tossed flask of acid or two, or his Curse for a tough customer), and he can try patching up his fellow alchemists when they get leveled by wayward explosions with his cross-class Heal ranks.
And, should he be blamed for an unfortunate incident again, he's most likely a better long distance runner than his fellow alchemists.



A Hexblade would begin having spellcasting at level 4, and so does Rincefix - but it's more and better spellcasting. Fist of Stone allows for way better swording, or punching if need be. The other spell is subject to debate - it's Protection from Evil in the spell list, but it could very well be Magic Missile taken earlier (for Allips, if they didn't kill you at level 3) or Mage Armor, later swapped out for Protection from Evil. There's also Grease so that you can sword people while they're down.
Rincefix's familiar is a snake. While he only begins taking ranks in Bluff now, the familiar and high Charisma help them be sufficient. Concentration is kept maxed to help assure he can cast, and a single Spellcraft rank means he can maybe sometimes find out what's being cast. In general, though, faced with a caster, he should probably just run away - or use his 6 Will save and 5 Fortitude save, +3 against spells from Arcane Resistance, with Mettle, to have a good chance of ignoring incoming spells of a novice caster.
Still probably a better idea to run away forever.



Secret Ingredient is entered as soon as possible without having Heal as a class skill. Extend Spell is taken as the necessary metamagic feat - most of Rincefix's spells are and will be buffs, so it's probably more useful than most. Entering the SI allows Rincefix to take ranks in Tumble, which will be useful for avoiding AoOs when moving around - which will be aided by whichever 3rd level spell we pick, be it Fly, Haste or Displacement. If you picked up some other method of achieving flight, the latter two spells are a better bet, if you haven't yet, it's about time to patch that up.
With 10 ranks in Bluff and 6 ranks in Diplomacy and extras like synergy, snake familiar and 3/day Charisma boost from Pheromonic Control, Rincefix makes for a good, although not excellent and non-threatening face. As a Sorcerer, he doesn't need UMD to find at least 50 traps with a wand of Summon Monster I.
Brew Potion is picked up as well to eventually allow for Rincefix's allies to buff themselves with his spells without him needing to spend all the actions on it. It costs 36 XP to make a potion of Displacement, which is unlikely to break banks. It's an option for shorter downtimes - for longer downtimes, there's Craft (Alchemy), where DC 25 can be hit using a lab/masterwork tool and taking 10. Make a batch of eggshell grenades, a sack of firestones to use all at once to obliterate one thing, or anything else you can think of.
In combat, Rincefix begins by dropping BFC spells. Web, Grease or both. Then, once he's convinced his enemies he's playing god wizzard (impression helped by his hat with "wizzard" on it and robe), he wades into melee combat and draws enmity like a dangerously spellcasting sack of d4s which he partially is. Mirror Image and/or Displacement and possibly armor help him avoid enemy attacks while his good saves (7/5/8 +4 vs spells by now, Flux Adept helps by patching up the Reflex save) help him survive the other ones. With martial weapon proficiency, Rincefix can (but doesn't have to, he's equally decent either way) wield something with reach to threaten all around, help flank (if the Grease isn't making party sneak attackers happy enough), and he may actually sometimes hit with attacks (6 BAB is pretty bad, but it's just 1 less than a 3/4 BAB class would have at level 10.)
Rincefix can wear light armor, so he can risk a little ASF to bolster his AC. Less ASF if it's good armor.
Also, thanks to the third level of Flux Adept, he can poison both goblets (if he finds any poison) and eat dirt.



These are somewhat worse times, since only two Flux Adept levels out of five taken since last snapshot advanced spellcasting. Let's just look at what was gained since level 10.
At level 11, Rincefix learned to sweat acid. Spitting acid isn't particularly worthwhile, but sweating is - situationally. Assuming the clause about ignoring hardness doesn't restart when the 10 minutes are up, you can indeed escape manacles with two uses of the ability, or even adamantine ones (probably) with three. Assuming the clause about ignoring hardness counts time you aren't sweating acid (it could be read that way), you can wait 10-20 minutes before beginning to sweat. All this is irrelevant if your GM isn't kinky enough to manacle Rincefix up, but it's better to have an option than not. Since you can't make a sufficient Escape Artist check or cast stilled Knock or something.
At level 12, Rincefix learned to feign death. This is possibly a handy way to tap out and lose enmity, should Rincefix be hurt too much by walking into combat with d4s and d6s for HP. Just make sure to tell your allies to kick you in the fork before they deem you actually dead.
Speaking of dying, Rincefix will need to do that to qualify for Blood Magus eventually. Use your social skills to convince a priest in a large city somewhere to cast Revivify on you for 1450 gp after you commit ritual suicide to convert to his faith. Or hope that someone in your party can do that, or use GM fiat to come back to life. If Rincefix managed to die already, that's ticked off, if he hasn't, congratulations on your safe playing.
The last thing of note is the level 12 feat, Flyby Attack. It requires a fly speed, so make sure you have it from whatever source when obtaining level 12 - like having your own Fly spell last since just before the level came. While you provoke AoOs for moving, it combos with Tumble ranks courtesy of Flux Adept, which allow you to avoid them.
At level 13, Rincefix got +6 to Bluff (and Sense Motive) against living creatures. This goes up by 1 per level. He's already got maxed Bluff ranks at level 13, too. At level 15, that'll be 18 ranks + 8 from Taste of Truth + 4 from Charisma + 3 from familiar. That's 33 and isn't done getting better.
At level 14, Rincefix got free action Haste 2/day, self only. This is not bad - it especially patches up a hole if the only two 3rd-level spells Rincefix knows at this point are Fly and Displacement, since he can't actually become Hasted on his own then. Once he learns how to do so, it's still a free action.
At level 15, Rincefix gets some natural attacks, 3/day with his Con score. Ideally, both of these would be secondary natural attacks used alongside some weapon, but considering they're hand modifications, common sense says that's not happening. Ah well. At the very least, should he ever make a full attack, he's getting two attacks (one from haste), an iterative (one) and maybe one of the claws. In ideal conditions, these hit touch AC due to Wraithstrike picked up a few levels ago and are coming off like 20 strength due to Fist of Stone, and thus maybe actually hit despite +9 BAB. Damage output remains non-excellent, but hopefully passable. Level 14 also got Rincefix Evard's Black Tentacles, which become the opening BFC spell. The last new combat trick is Benign Transposition - swapping places with an ally is handy when said ally is standing next to a felled enemy while Rincefix's enemy isn't yet felled. 10 ranks of Concentration with Combat Casting might be a little low to succeed at casting it within enemy reach, though. It can still work sometimes. Flyby Attack presumably allows for moving and casting the spell and finishing moving, so it's a way for Rincefix to place allies where they want to be. It's a way to be useful.
With 18 ranks of Bluff and 1 rank of Knowledge (Geography), Rincefix can finally become the Professor of Cruel and Unusual Geography at the academy he first learned to wizzard at.



And here's the reward for dying. It does come a bit late.
The capstone of Flux Adept is regeneration. Right afterwards comes Blood Magus - where you deal damage to yourself for fun and profit. Fun because it'll heal right away anyway, profit because it's +1 CL to salvage Rincefix's CL. It also makes up for the lack of Concentration ranks so far. And, if your kinky DM still likes locking you up, he can't take away your spell components anymore! Great Fortitude is needed to enter both prestige classes, so hey, use of prerequisites. This is what Chekhov's Toughness was for. Death Knell salvages CL further, although for a limited amount of time each day.
Skillwise, Bluff has a +36 (23 ranks, 10 ToT, 3 fam) before Charisma, allowing for serious connery, while Tumble has 20 ranks +5 from the level 1 Flux Adept feature, allowing for full-speed moves avoiding at least one AoO guaranteed.
Polyhaemia exists. You can hit the DCs with okay rolls (if you can take 10, you're set) and you brew potions so you might sometimes drink potions and thus sometimes get extra uses of potions. Or circulate a potion, acquired through purchase, of a spell you can't cast by using this daily. If you can't take 10, you might not always succeed and thus find it unsustainable. Ah well.
New spells picked up include some blasting - Empowered Scorching Ray is 18d6 fire damage to one thing and storable as scars for a rainy day, while Empowered Fireball is 15d6 delivered in an area from an appreciable fraction of a mile. Thunderlance is a fun spell which functionally replaces Fist of Stone, granting 20 feet of reach and hitting using Charisma, neat thing to have on three iteratives. Due to lateness, less heed is paid to high level slots, so the two 5th level spells are just generic. The one 6th level spell gained at level 20 is not.
Why Tenser's Transformation? Three reasons. One, it's level 20 - it won't be in play for most of the career, so it matters less. Two, it helps with being up close - Rincefix casts his spells, then wades into melee when he's done casting, so the downside is somewhat alleviated. Three - it requires the material component of "drinking a potion of Bull's Strength", which Rincefix can make, and, possibly, say "I Polyhaemia the potion up and it was the material component part of the spell" - so he can slightly uniquely cast it even when his stuff is taken away, as long as he's had one in the past day. And why wouldn't he? It helps wash down potatoes.




If you manage to fulfill the death requirement early (say, before level 5-8), you can do a build with 5 levels of Sorcerer and Blood Magus levels taken before Flux Adept. This allows for not buying Heal cross-class, since it's one of the few class skills for Blood Magus.
If you don't want to take Toughness or die, Sorcerer isn't much worse than Blood Magus, losing nothing but the class features. They're nice little bonuses and very flavorful with Flux Adept, but far from crucial.
Spell selection is far from final. 5ths and 6th can be chosen to suit the campaign's end. If you do get an alternative source of flight, which you probably should, Fly can be swapped out for a different 3rd. Solid Fog can replace Tentacles, being an arguably better way of keeping enemies in place as long as it's not windy or wet where the fight is.



This shouldn't be a long section.
If your GM gives you actual random items in loot and doesn't just say 'here's your WBL, go buy or craft what you want', grab a weapon. You can wield martial ones and don't need a specific one. One-handed weapons are probably less iffy in terms of letting you attack with the natural claws later on.
Light armor you can comfortably cast in is nice to have.
A wand of Summon Monster I provides cheap corpses to throw at suspicious hallways.
A wand of Glitterdust provides Glitterdust, which is a great spell to have but which Rincefix doesn't know.
Since you get Cha to saves, although only against spells, it's an argument for a Cloak of Charisma over a Resistance one. A Ring of Evasion allows for negating the last save where you can still get partial, and it's a use for Flux Adept's good Reflex save.
There's little advice to give which wouldn't be useful in general, and it's assumed that generally useful gear is... assumed.



Hexblade - CWar
Flux Adept - well dragon compendium
Blood Magus - CArc
four spells - Spell Compendium
Everything else, probably - PHB/SRD

[Heliomance]

"That's all the dishes, now let's go to the judges!"

[Curmudgeon]

Lot of Blood Magus going 'round this round. :smallwink:

I had an idea for a Favored Soul character that I couldn't get to work in a satisfactory way. They have both Knowledge (arcana) and Heal as class skills. FSs also get Weapon Focus with the deity's weapon as a bonus feat, and a bunch of Dragon deities have claw as their favored weapon, which would work with FA's level 8 class feature. The problem was what to do after Flux Adept. My best guess was Elemental Savant (Complete Arcane, pages 32-34) and hope that taking two bad prestige classes would get me sympathy points from the judges.

[Sian]

I had two builds that i considered but both of them suffered to much from feat taxation that it felt overly difficult to get something worthwhile out of them.

Shifter Druid 8 / Totemist 2 / Flux Adept 10, with Druidic avenger for the ability to rage and go Shifter feats, cornerstone being Shifter Savagery gaining much stronger natural weapons

Strongheart Halfling Cleric 5 / Master Alchemist 4 / Flux Adept 9 / ??, who's sthick was 6th level potions that kept getting reused.

[daremetoidareyo]

I had two builds that i considered but both of them suffered to much from feat taxation that it felt overly difficult to get something worthwhile out of them.

Shifter Druid 8 / Totemist 2 / Flux Adept 10, with Druidic avenger for the ability to rage and go Shifter feats, cornerstone being Shifter Savagery gaining much stronger natural weapons

Strongheart Halfling Cleric 5 / Master Alchemist 4 / Flux Adept 9 / ??, who's sthick was 6th level potions that kept getting reused.

It was difficult to get a mix of class abilities that could get you the potions for flux adept's polyhaem.

[Amphetryon]

Huh. I thought we might see a Warshaper, or Master Transmogrifist.

[WhamBamSam]

Surprised that we only saw one build using Quick Potion (I suppose the other Wizard could use it as well) and none with Delay Potion (use Polyhaemia out of combat to have one potion which you can reactivate as a swift action instead of a full-round action). Really surprised not to see any Master Alchemist outside of Sian's scrapped idea.

My primary build was a Wyrm of War (Maneuver Variant) Dragonwrought Earth Kobold Dragonblood Domain Sorcerer 5/Unarmed Swordsage 1/Flux Adept 10/Shadow Sun Ninja 1/Jade Phoenix Mage 4. Because ToB PrCs explicitly add their class level to your initiator level, you can double dip with JPM to bootstrap IL from the variant Wyrm of War, so the build ends up with an IL of 14 (Sorc casting after the Greater Draconic Rite)+1 (Shadow Sun Ninja)+4 (JPM)=19. From there, a Delayed Potion of Heroics (created with Quick Potion to save a feat) could grant any maneuver so long as I had prereq maneuvers (was going to be a bit awkward without assuming White Raven Crowns and the like, so I was considering getting Craft Wondrous Item in there somehow).

Other tricks included using Sanctum Spell to cast a "3rd level" Polymorph into Quick Potion, which could then be Polyhaemia'd and/or Delayed, Draconic Heritage (Gold) from Dragonblood Sorcerer 1 to get Heal as a class skill (like Double Door did), Dwarf Domain to save a feat on Great Fortitude, Taste of Truth+Baffling Defense, Regeneration+Touch of the Shadow Sun for infinite out of combat healing, 1/encounter Pounce+Unarmed Strike as primary weapon+Weapon Focus (Tiger Claw)+various Tiger Claw boosts+maybe Rapidstrike if I could fit it in to go with the claws.

Another idea I had was some manner of Polymorphing (most likely using Polyhaemia'd Quick Potions of Sanctum Polymorph again, natch) thrower using stockpiled detached claws (via the Detach feat in Savage Species) as thrown weapons to make long distance Rend attacks (via the Rend feat or maybe the Great Rend shifter feat). I also may have tried passing off pulling a claw out of his bag o' hands as "drawing a melee weapon" just to get something out of the amusing fact that Pheromonic Control applies to Iaijutsu Focus. That idea was quashed when the chair ruled that detached claws revert to normal hands after the Boiling Blood duration expires, and that they'd decompose if left to their own devices (the latter being more manageable, but still inconvenient).

[Axorfett12]

I must have gotten my dates mixed up. I thought i had til tonight at 10:00. Oh well. I was working on a Yuan-Ti Tainted One Dragonfire Adept 4/Druid 3/ Flux Adept 10. Sort of a snake-tongued jack of all trades type. Flux Adept fit the fluff of a tainted one perfectly. Little girl kidnapped and subjected to dark rituals that made her a yuan-ti hybrid with dragon magic coursing through her veins.

[daremetoidareyo]

Another idea I had was some manner of Polymorphing (most likely using Polyhaemia'd Quick Potions of Sanctum Polymorph again, natch) thrower using stockpiled detached claws (via the Detach feat in Savage Species) as thrown weapons to make long distance Rend attacks (via the Rend feat or maybe the Great Rend shifter feat). I also may have tried passing off pulling a claw out of his bag o' hands as "drawing a melee weapon" just to get something out of the amusing fact that Pheromonic Control applies to Iaijutsu Focus. That idea was quashed when the chair ruled that detached claws revert to normal hands after the Boiling Blood duration expires, and that they'd decompose if left to their own devices (the latter being more manageable, but still inconvenient).

This idea has an inherent sexiness. I nominate it for "my favorite non-submitted idea."

[WhamBamSam]

This idea has an inherent sexiness. I nominate it for "my favorite non-submitted idea."Thank you. I was rather sad when it fell apart. I'm not sure how I would have managed all the feat taxes, though.

[The Viscount]

I've tried to make a hand throwing build once or twice, and it never worked out very well. I think the closest I got to a functional build was a troll duskblade who severed his hands with detach, cut a bit of skin off somewhere on his body, and then grafted the hand on treating that point as the "stump" to generate multiple extra hands, and then throwing them after channeling a spell into them. The major hitch was getting Favor of the Martyr or similar immunity to nonlethal without major investment. Never really took off. Using thrown claws for rend is a very interesting idea though.

A 50% Blood Magus incidence in a round of 6. Vizzini was truly cruel to us. Must have been the cup scene jokes we were making.

[Venger]

I've tried to make a hand throwing build once or twice, and it never worked out very well. I think the closest I got to a functional build was a troll duskblade who severed his hands with detach, cut a bit of skin off somewhere on his body, and then grafted the hand on treating that point as the "stump" to generate multiple extra hands, and then throwing them after channeling a spell into them. The major hitch was getting Favor of the Martyr or similar immunity to nonlethal without major investment. Never really took off. Using thrown claws for rend is a very interesting idea though.

A 50% Blood Magus incidence in a round of 6. Vizzini was truly cruel to us. Must have been the cup scene jokes we were making.

they just don't make throwing easy in this game. master thrower xendrik boomerang etc is the only way to get close to competence, and even then you're lagging behind where you ought to be damage and utility wise.

silver pyromancer is usually a good way to backdoor in for that kind of stuff since it's easier to get wizard7 casting than paladin 14. though alignment's often something of a pain.

[Darrin]

The best I could come up with was focusing on the Regeneration 1, which you hardly ever see on a PC without some shenanigans. I tried to get all four energy immunities along with immunity to non-lethal... finally got something workable (couldn't quite get Half-Dragon in there), but I wound up sandbagging all of the other class abilities:

Race: Saint Warforged.
1) Cleric 1. Feat: Adamantine Body. Domains: Planning (Extend Spell), Warforged.
2) Cleric 2.
3) Cleric 3. Feat: Endurance.
4) Cleric 4.
5) Cleric 5.
6) Cleric 6. Feat: Great Fortitude.
7) Flux Adept 1.
8) Flux Adept 2.
9) Flux Adept 3. Feat: Power Attack.
10) Flux Adept 4.
11) Flux Adept 5.
12) Flux Adept 6. Feat: Improved Bull Rush.
13) Flux Adept 7.
14) Flux Adept 8.
15) Flux Adept 9. Feat: Martial Study (Death Mark). Spell: energy immunity (Sonic).
16) Flux Adept 10.
17) Warforged Juggernaut 1.
18) Warforged Juggernaut 2. Feat: Martial Stance (Flame's Blessing)
19) LA +1.
20) LA +2.

So, immune to all damage, but that's pretty much all it did. Everything else involving pheremones or stomach or blood or claws on a Warforged was going pretty far into "N!pples on a Bull" territory. That and I couldn't think of any interesting backstory involving a saintly warforged.

[Troacctid]

That build doesn't have the requisite 3 exalted feats to qualify for sainthood, though.

[Darrin]

That build doesn't have the requisite 3 exalted feats to qualify for sainthood, though.

Yeah, probably should have brushed up on that. No room for VoP, either.

[Venger]

Yeah, probably should have brushed up on that. No room for VoP, either.

dropping the initiator feats and taking 1 flaw makes it possible, I think, since you apply sainthood at the end. VOP only needs 1 feat, so that'd fit.

[Curmudgeon]

A 50% Blood Magus incidence in a round of 6. Vizzini was truly cruel to us. Must have been the cup scene jokes we were making.
You didn't see that one coming? What qualifies as "obvious" depends upon your viewpoint, of course, but still ...

[Heliomance]

I wanted to do something with Master Alchemist, but between the half casting and the steep prereqs, I couldn't fit enough in to feel worth it.

[Venger]

You didn't see that one coming? What qualifies as "obvious" depends upon your viewpoint, of course, but still ...

I saw an obvious thematic link but didn't think it'd be nearly as common as it was since it adds more annoying feat taxes

[Curmudgeon]

I saw an obvious thematic link but didn't think it'd be nearly as common as it was since it adds more annoying feat taxes
... which in itself is a (meta-)thematic synergy. But there's also overlap in spellcasting and one feat requirement.

[Zaq]

Six entries? I think I can judge six entries, if we don't have a flurry of last-minute submissions like we did last time. I didn't have any ideas at all for this horrible SI . . . my only idea was "scrap it and sell it for parts," but there aren't actually rules for taking a pair of scissors to Dragon Compendium and pasting the class features in other classes. The only even remotely interesting thing I could think of was trying to use the "any" part of Iron Stomach to eat through walls and stuff, but I couldn't find an easy way of getting adamantine teeth, and the whole thing was still pretty stupid.

Anyway, criteria!

Originality: Did you surprise me? Did you do anything that your fellow chefs didn't do? I may or may not penalize for using well-known combos; on the one hand, I want to see things I've never seen before, but on the other hand, 3.5 has been around for many years, so there's only so many truly new things that actually work. If you did things that were obvious to me upon my first consideration of the SI, I generally won't look favorably on you in this category. When prereqs are hard to meet in more than a couple ways, I'll be more lenient about that, but for Flux Adept, there's more than just a couple ways to meet the prereqs, so let's see what happens there.

Power: How well do you do what you set out to do? How big is the level range where you actually matter? (I don't expect anyone to be functional 100% of the way from 1 to 20, but the earlier you come online and the later you stay relevant, the happier I will be.) How well do you earn your share of the XP budget? In other words, if you're in a four-person party fighting challenges geared for a four-person party, is that party going to do better than if they dropped you from the party and started fighting challenges geared for a three-person party? If you are prevented from using your primary trick, or if your primary trick doesn't work perfectly, how well are you able to recover and use a backup strategy? (Do you even have a backup strategy?) Are you severely limited in how many times per day you can use your main abilities? Do you rely on specific magic items to function? Can you handle a wide range of foes, from undead to humanoids with class levels to fiends to dragons to aberrations? Can you do anything interesting out of combat?

Elegance: First and foremost, is your build legal at every level, including in how you spent your skill points? Is your build easy to read and understand? If I were to look at your build one level at a time without knowing what came next, how often would I say "yeah, that makes sense" versus "what the hell good is THAT doing you?" How often do you have to say "I know this [feat/skill choice/class/class feature] doesn't do me much good now, but it'll be really important in four levels, trust me"? Do you have any ways of elegantly knocking out prereqs (for the SI or for other feats/PrCs) with minimal resource expenditure? Do you have any nice overlapping prereqs or any ways of making prereqs do double duty? Do you have any tricks that nicely cover or mitigate your weaknesses? Does it make sense to me why you took what you took when you took it? Does your build avoid any questionable rules interpretations or things that might cause GM headaches? I do not penalize for dipping if the dipped level adds something concrete to the build (preferably immediately), though if I have no idea why you dipped a level, you might get a penalty for that. I do not care about multiclass penalties. I don't generally care how many sources you pull from, so long as every source you pull from adds something distinct to the character. (As an example of when I'd be unhappy about pulling an additional source, one of the chefs in the Silver Key round used Midnight Dodge, from Magic of Incarnum, in place of Dodge. They had no other Incarnum-related abilities, and they had absolutely nothing to do with the point of essentia, so there was no point in bringing in MoI to use Midnight Dodge instead of just using regular Dodge. Don't do that sort of thing.) I'm not going to be super strict about using cross-setting material if it's generic (just because a feat is found in an Eberron book doesn't necessarily make it an Eberron feat, for example), but try not to use anything too tightly tied to the flavor of cross-setting material if possible. (Taking both a Dragonmark feat and an Initiate feat for a Forgotten Realms deity, for example, isn't going to be wise.) Finally, if you don't provide me with a source list, you get an automatic –1 here.

Use of Secret Ingredient: Why is your build better for being a Flux Adept than for being more of your base classes? Did you make use of as many of the SI's abilities as possible? Did you take all ten levels of it by ECL 20, including any LA? Did you do anything fun with the prereqs? Did you convince me that Flux Adept is the best choice for the character? Was it obvious to me that the character wanted to be a Flux Adept, rather than being told to be a Flux Adept? Did you make Flux Adept's abilities important enough to the character that they're worth the crappy prereqs and the lost caster levels? Does your build do things that non-Flux-Adepts can't do, and do those things actually make the character more awesome? I will not automatically rank you higher for taking the SI ASAP and I will not automatically rank you lower for taking it late in the build, but all things being equal, I would rather see it being taken (and finished!) sooner rather than later.

Other notes: My scores all start at 3, and predictably, I add points for things I like and deduct points for things I dislike. I consider your fluff and backstory strictly secondary to what your character can actually do, and it will be very rare for me to directly award or deduct points based on fluff alone; I do ideally want to see your mechanical abilities match up to what your fluff says you can do, if that makes sense. I never consider LA buyoff to be in play, so if you have any LA but still put 20 class levels in your build table, you're not getting the level or levels at the end. I assume that you can get pretty much whatever mundane gear you need, within reason (pick your favorite weapon and your favorite armor; I don't have any problem with you assuming that you have access to a set of full plate and a spiked chain, for instance), but if you need specific magic items to function (including stat-boosting items to meet prerequisites), I'm going to look down on that, unless you have the ability to craft them yourself. (I do assume that you'll be getting some generic magic items throughout your career, but I don't want to see you relying on specific ones for your main tricks.) Unless you specify otherwise, I'll assume that you're working with some kind of party (I'm not asking you to go it alone, after all), but I don't want you relying on having a specific type of character on your team.

Finally, I'm going to judge you on what you wrote. I think I do a pretty damn thorough job reading and parsing these things (look at some of my previous judgments if you want examples of that), but if you want me to give you credit for something you're doing, you'd better have told me exactly what you're doing and why it's cool. I'll interpret the builds to the best of my ability, but I'm not going to do more work than I have to by reading in something that isn't plain in the write-up. I'll do my best to make common-sense judgments about stuff that's truly obvious (e.g., if you have Power Attack, I'm going to assume that you like hitting things in the face, unless you tell me otherwise), but don't expect me to do the work for you of figuring out how every last one of your combos works. I hope I'm not coming off as too hostile by specifying this, but I just want to be clear about how I'm judging.

And with that, I'll get started!

[xyianth]

my only idea was "scrap it and sell it for parts," but there aren't actually rules for taking a pair of scissors to Dragon Compendium and pasting the class features in other classes.

This was my first reaction too. I figured that might get frowned upon in the judging though. :smallwink:

[WhamBamSam]

The only even remotely interesting thing I could think of was trying to use the "any" part of Iron Stomach to eat through walls and stuff, but I couldn't find an easy way of getting adamantine teeth, and the whole thing was still pretty stupid.Strength Devotion will let all your melee attacks, bites included, bypass hardness and are treated as adamantine for 1 minute. That may or may not be long enough to eat a wall, though.

[The Viscount]

10 levels of Binder or your regional equivalent will get you adamantine on attacks, plus double damage to objects. You'd need some tricks to get those 10 levels and the SI in addition to the casting to qualify for everything, but I'm sure someone can think of a way. Eating your way through stuff is still not exactly high op, but if you want to be Matter Eater Lad you can.

[Venger]

10 levels of Binder or your regional equivalent will get you adamantine on attacks, plus double damage to objects. You'd need some tricks to get those 10 levels and the SI in addition to the casting to qualify for everything, but I'm sure someone can think of a way. Eating your way through stuff is still not exactly high op, but if you want to be Matter Eater Lad you can.

very gutsy. binder 10/si 10, historically, does pretty well in iron chef.

+5 for matter eater lad.

[daremetoidareyo]

10 levels of Binder or your regional equivalent will get you adamantine on attacks, plus double damage to objects. You'd need some tricks to get those 10 levels and the SI in addition to the casting to qualify for everything, but I'm sure someone can think of a way. Eating your way through stuff is still not exactly high op, but if you want to be Matter Eater Lad you can.

Wizard 3/binder 3/anima mage 7/ flux adept 3 (willing deformity, obese)
precocious apprentice wizard 1/binder 3/anima mage 7/flux adept 3

Now if we're really gonna optimize a dude who eats anything, we need a way to speed up that metabolism, and get swallow whole, and gape of the serpent on him.

[Venger]

Wizard 3/binder 3/anima mage 7/ flux adept 3 (willing deformity, obese)
precocious apprentice wizard 1/binder 3/anima mage 7/flux adept 3

Now if we're really gonna optimize a dude who eats anything, we need a way to speed up that metabolism, and get swallow whole, and gape of the serpent on him.

rogue10 is always good for gape of the serpent

[daremetoidareyo]

rogue10 is always good for gape of the serpent

Can you explain what this means? Is there a way to optimize rogue's swallowing things whole? That sounds excellent.

[xyianth]

Technically you only need an EBL of 9 for adamantium bite + double damage to objects if you bind both Aym and Ipos. This frees up 1 level to grab casting.

human wizard 1/binder 2/anima mage 7/flux adept 3 (feats: precocious apprentice{1}, extend spell{h}, improved binding{3}, endurance{6}, great fortitude{9}, persist spell{12}) lets you persist polymorph 2/day using vestige metamagic and it gives you adamantium melee attacks and double damage to objects. Your BAB is terrible though, so you may need to change this to sha'ir instead of wizard so you can later take a level of contemplative and add divine power to your spell list. Better find defenses against dispels if you go this route.

Find a good form with swallow whole and you can probably grab gape of the serpent at 15th.

The Rogue 10 trick is based on the dubious gap in the rules regarding the term 'bonus feat' as applied to Rogues. All other cases of bonus feats are defined solely in the scope of the class that grants them. Rogues, however, can swap a special ability (first one is gained at Rogue 10) for a bonus feat. There is no rules text regarding whether the Rogue needs to meet the prerequisites of these bonus feats or where they can draw them from. There is however a general rule in Savage Species (?) that indicates bonus feats do not have to meet prerequisites. Since there are no specific rules in this case, the general rule applies and Rogue 10 can choose any feat without qualifying for it. I don't agree with this rule as it is pretty obvious what was intended.

[WhamBamSam]

Wizard 3/binder 3/anima mage 7/ flux adept 3 (willing deformity, obese)
precocious apprentice wizard 1/binder 3/anima mage 7/flux adept 3

Now if we're really gonna optimize a dude who eats anything, we need a way to speed up that metabolism, and get swallow whole, and gape of the serpent on him.I would say make your second vestige Zagan, but honestly, it's probably better to just get your grapple size and your Swallow Whole from Polymorph, seeing as you're a caster anyway. Shame all the best Swallow Whole creatures have such high HD.

How about this?

Mulan Human Sha'ir 3/Binder 1/Anima Mage 4/Flux Adept 9/Anima Mage or Tenebrous Apostate +3. Bind Tenebrous. Use Practiced Spellcaster, Divine Spell Power, Reserves of Strength, and some other CL boosters to cast a CL 24 Southern Magician'd Sanctum Polymorph into a Quick Potion, so you can use Polyhaemia to turn yourself into a Mivilorn (MMIII) on demand forever. You can now Swallow Whole and not suck at it. Tenebrous can also fuel Strength Devotion ad nauseum for all your wall-eating needs. You might even get some use out of the other Flux Adept abilities. If you can convince your DM that you make the Diplomacy check to retrieve spells "against" the elemental powers you're petitioning, you can find ones that have scent to petition, and your DM lets you petition them specifically (a stretch, I know). Mivilorns also don't have claws natively, so that's almost not unlike a thing. It even sort of gives you a reason to use Polyhaemia over Vestige Persisting, since you only have to pull off the CL boosting once.

[xyianth]

Yeah, that's pretty good. It doesn't get adamantium jaws though. (you need 10 real binder levels, improved binding doesn't work; edit: nevermind you are using strength devotion) I ended up with:

build: human sha’ir 1/binder 2/anima mage 7/flux adept 3/contemplative 1/anima mage +2/warshaper 4/
feats: precocious apprentice{1}, extend spell{h}, improved binding{3}, great fortitude{6}, endurance{9}, persist spell{12}, gape of the serpent{15}, minor shapeshift{18}

add the competition domain using contemplative
persist polymorph, divine power, and righteous might using vestige metamagic
bind aym and any 6th level vestige of your choice (chupoclops and zceryll are both good)
polymorph as a remorhaz for swallow whole and heat special abilities
righteous wrath makes you gargantuan and you can swallow whole up to your size

This doesn't really highlight the flux adept at all, so your build is probably better for this thread. A question about Sanctum Polymorph Quick Potions: what happens when you enter/drink it in your sanctum?

[Thurbane]

Do we post our honourable mention nominations openly, or should they be PMd to the chairperson?

[Curmudgeon]

Honorable mentions are exclusive of those entries which medal, so it might be better to wait for the judging.

[KrimsonNekros]

I have really got to get my entries in. Dread Necromancer 11/ Flux Adept 9 would have just come out of left field for this one.

[Thurbane]

I have really got to get my entries in. Dread Necromancer 11/ Flux Adept 9 would have just come out of left field for this one.

That could have been interesting - with Versatile Spellcaster you could still get 9ths. Although the capstone of FA is one of it's few worthwhile features...

Also, surprised no Ur-Priest entries. They should have done well in power, although I guess many thought it to be an expected tactic with a half-caster PrC.

[xyianth]

That could have been interesting - with Versatile Spellcaster you could still get 9ths. Although the capstone of FA is one of it's few worthwhile features...

Also, surprised no Ur-Priest entries. They should have done well in power, although I guess many thought it to be an expected tactic with a half-caster PrC.

Ur-Priest is one of those classes that I find hard to use. Part of the fun of these challenges is making something effective with suboptimal parts. With Ur-Priest, you have to go out of your way to not be obscenely powerful, no matter what parts you work with. The same is true for all the accelerated casting PrCs, dweomerkeeper, incantatrix, shadowcraft mage, etc...

[Curmudgeon]

Also, surprised no Ur-Priest entries. They should have done well in power, although I guess many thought it to be an expected tactic with a half-caster PrC.
That would depend on the judge, I think. Some rate on absolute power, while some rate on power in accord with the SI. By the latter metric Ur-Priest would score low for being overpowered.

[Sian]

Running with a Ur-Priest would also have the issue of severe feat-taxation as you would need Iron Will, Spell Focus (Evil), Great Fortitude, Endurance and a Metamagic Feat ... which would lay claim to all human/Strongheart Halfing Feats up to and including 9th level

[Thurbane]

Running with a Ur-Priest would also have the issue of severe feat-taxation as you would need Iron Will, Spell Focus (Evil), Great Fortitude, Endurance and a Metamagic Feat ... which would lay claim to all human/Strongheart Halfing Feats up to and including 9th level

You could get a few of those through class bonus feats (especially Iron Will, Great Fortitude and Endurance) while on your way to qualifying for Ur-Priest, but I take your point.

[KrimsonNekros]

That could have been interesting - with Versatile Spellcaster you could still get 9ths. Although the capstone of FA is one of it's few worthwhile features...

Also, surprised no Ur-Priest entries. They should have done well in power, although I guess many thought it to be an expected tactic with a half-caster PrC.

I was debating 10 and 10, but the final build just felt better at 11 and 9

[The Viscount]

That could have been interesting - with Versatile Spellcaster you could still get 9ths. Although the capstone of FA is one of it's few worthwhile features...

Also, surprised no Ur-Priest entries. They should have done well in power, although I guess many thought it to be an expected tactic with a half-caster PrC.

Dread Necromancer 9nths are more impressive in theory than practice; they're probably the worst. Even healer gets gate. There's only 1 spell I see someone using with any real frequency, so you'd have to supplement them with something.

Ur-Priest as mentioned is rather a demanding PrC to enter, but also just from a flavor perspective it's kind of something that uses up your whole focus, or maybe that's just my thoughts.

[daremetoidareyo]

Ur-Priest as mentioned is rather a demanding PrC to enter, but also just from a flavor perspective it's kind of something that uses up your whole focus, or maybe that's just my thoughts.

Ur-priest can be thematically melded with flux-adept with some fluff about "turning inward to find power". But I agree, ur-priest is a different flavored beast. But mostly, going ur-priest on a flux adept seems like a blatant power grab to outright cover up the terrible SI. Like when a politician telling you that his brother really is qualified to run the bureau. It may be true, but we all really know what is going on.

[Heliomance]

Eye of Xanathar looks like an interestingly crap PrC...

[Amphetryon]

Eye of Xanathar looks like an interestingly crap PrC...

Here I figured that you'd take the high Blood Magus turnout this round as the excuse to give us Blood Magus as the SI next round, just for cruelty's sake. :smallwink:

[Thurbane]

Eye of Xanathar could be an interesting SI, although my innate loathing of setting specific material wouldn't let me cheer for it loudly.

There's a couple of things that instantly make me lose a fair amount of interest in a particular IC comp: setting specific (especially Eberron) stuff, and subsystems I either an not very familiar with (Incarnum) or actively dislike and never use (Psionics).

Has there been a ToB SI yet? Or are they all considered too strong/good?

[Sian]

Has there been a ToB SI yet? Or are they all considered too strong/good?

XLVIII was Shadow Sun Ninja ... while Bloodstorm Blade and Eternal Blade might be interesting (former much more so than the latter IMO), the rest is either to strong (Jade Phoenix Mage/Rudy Knight Vindicator) or 5 levels

[KrimsonNekros]

Eye of Xanathar could be an interesting SI, although my innate loathing of setting specific material wouldn't let me cheer for it loudly.

There's a couple of things that instantly make me lose a fair amount of interest in a particular IC comp: setting specific (especially Eberron) stuff, and subsystems I either an not very familiar with (Incarnum) or actively dislike and never use (Psionics).

Has there been a ToB SI yet? Or are they all considered too strong/good?


Setting specific, but easily adapted for any setting with Beholders.

[Thurbane]

Setting specific, but easily adapted for any setting with Beholders.

True - you'd have to change the odd way FR handles Knowledge (local) though...

[daremetoidareyo]

Has halfling whistler already been done? Someone posted a link to that one earlier and it seems like a semi good chef situation.

[Heliomance]

Has halfling whistler already been done? Someone posted a link to that one earlier and it seems like a semi good chef situation.

I looked at it at the same time I found Dwarven chanter. Trouble is, it's full casting with nothing interesting to differentiate one full caster from another.

[Troacctid]

I looked at it at the same time I found Dwarven chanter. Trouble is, it's full casting with nothing interesting to differentiate one full caster from another.

If you think about it, is that really any different from no-casting with nothing interesting to differentiate one no-caster from another?

[Heliomance]

If you think about it, is that really any different from no-casting with nothing interesting to differentiate one no-caster from another?

Except what happens is that the casting overshadows the crap class features and you end up with just another generic full caster. Non-casters have only got the crap class features, and so they take more prominence in the build.

[xyianth]

If you are looking for additional prestige classes that would make interesting iron chefs, may I suggest Serene Guardian from The Shattered Gates of Slaughtergarde splatbook? It is 10 levels long with a unique mechanic and interesting options, although it suffers from obscurity and the alpha strike mentality of most D&D encounters. It is an interesting class though, and should present some opportunities for different characters.

PS: I vote yes on the Eye of Xanathar idea, I already have ideas forming...

[The Viscount]

I've been waiting for mentions of Serene Guardian to come up. It might be an interesting class to work with.

Eye of Xanathar is frustrating and has only a faint glimmer of usefulness. That is to say, I think it would make a prime ingredient.

[WhamBamSam]

Eye of Xanathar could be an interesting SI, although my innate loathing of setting specific material wouldn't let me cheer for it loudly.

There's a couple of things that instantly make me lose a fair amount of interest in a particular IC comp: setting specific (especially Eberron) stuff, and subsystems I either an not very familiar with (Incarnum) or actively dislike and never use (Psionics).

Has there been a ToB SI yet? Or are they all considered too strong/good?I really like Incarnum and Psionics SIs and don't really care if something is setting specific as it generally only impacts backstory (The Incarnum-ish Eberron Thief of Life, Psionic Elocater, and the Faerun Great Rift Skyguard are all near the top of my list). Though as I've observed previously, your preferences seem to align you with my burning desire for Beast Heart Adept, so perhaps we're not so different, you and I.

We had Shadow Sun Ninja as Sian said. The thing about SSN though, is that while it's certainly stronger than usual for a SI, it's also probably weaker than straight Swordsage generally and more importantly, it's really, really weird. Bloodstorm Blade is sort of the same way with respect to the expected Warblade entry, but it's also too common (even if it's rare for anyone to take it all the way to 10th level). I'm not sure we'd really find that much to do with it that hasn't already been done to death. Eternal Blade is simultaneously too good (being essentially a straight upgrade on a straight Warblade or Crusader) and too restrictive (Elf prereq, and you can't lose any BAB and still finish pre-Epic) to really work for Iron Chef.


If you are looking for additional prestige classes that would make interesting iron chefs, may I suggest Serene Guardian from The Shattered Gates of Slaughtergarde splatbook? It is 10 levels long with a unique mechanic and interesting options, although it suffers from obscurity and the alpha strike mentality of most D&D encounters. It is an interesting class though, and should present some opportunities for different characters.

PS: I vote yes on the Eye of Xanathar idea, I already have ideas forming...Eh, Serene Guardian doesn't strike me as being as interesting an optimization problem as it might seem at first glance. You can only discharge resonance from one target at once and it's too easy to hit the cap for the amount of resonance you can create in a single round. The things you can discharge resonance for are also for the most part a little too uninteresting.

I'm not super enthused by Eye of Xanathar, but I suppose I could throw something together.

[Thurbane]

I really like Incarnum and Psionics SIs and don't really care if something is setting specific as it generally only impacts backstory (The Incarnum-ish Eberron Thief of Life, Psionic Elocater, and the Faerun Great Rift Skyguard are all near the top of my list). Though as I've observed previously, your preferences seem to align you with my burning desire for Beast Heart Adept, so perhaps we're not so different, you and I.

True, I think BHA would be a very interesting SI.

I'm not wrong in my understanding that FR handles Knowledge (local) different than other games, am I? FR has Knowledge (local - Waterdeep) and Knowledge (Local - Calimshan) as two different skills, whereas most (all?) other games treat Knowledge (local) as one skill that can be applied to any area.

Or was that only a 3.0 FR thing?

[Venger]

True, I think BHA would be a very interesting SI.

I'm not wrong in my understanding that FR handles Knowledge (local) different than other games, am I? FR has Knowledge (local - Waterdeep) and Knowledge (Local - Calimshan) as two different skills, whereas most (all?) other games treat Knowledge (local) as one skill that can be applied to any area.

Or was that only a 3.0 FR thing?

this was something changed in the 3.5 update.

in 3.0, you would need to take knowledge local (thay) or (crinth) or whatever.

one additional "functionality" of this rule is regional feats. even if your guy was born in say, thay, if you took at least 2 points of k: local (rashemen) then you could take regional feats as if you were from there (still limited to one region's feats, of course, as normal)

[Zaq]

Judging update: I'm about 80% done with each of two of the builds, and I have at least a couple paragraphs of preliminary stuff for each of the other four. I'm going to try to speed things up in the next few days, but that may or may not be possible. I haven't fully completed any of the builds yet, but like I said, I'm pretty close to it for two of them. I picked up some extra hours at work today, so I'm not going to be doing as much judging this afternoon as I was expecting, but I should hopefully be able to get some more progress made tomorrow, if nothing surprises me.

Am I the only announced judge so far? Is anyone else going to help me judge this terrible SI? I'm putting my customary amount of effort into my judgments either way, but I do always feel better when there's at least two voices in play and my judgments aren't The Finality Of The Law.

[OMG PONIES]

So I'm back and I've missed a lot. If the judging deadline is still Sunday, I'm afraid I can't be much help. If we can get it extended at all, I may be able to assist.

[daremetoidareyo]

So I'm back and I've missed a lot. If the judging deadline is still Sunday, I'm afraid I can't be much help. If we can get it extended at all, I may be able to assist.

Is there a quick way to poll who would be cool with an extension? I'm all for waiting so that an additional judge has time to crank these decisions out.

[xyianth]

I have no problem with an extension.

[Curmudgeon]

An extension is OK with me.

[The Viscount]

I can wait.

[Zaq]

Judging update: Four builds are done. One more build is very nearly done, and if I apply myself, I can probably finish it before I leave for work today (though the chances of me getting anything done after work are basically nil). EDIT: Five builds are done. The remaining build has some preliminary notes scribbled down in all four categories, but I'd hesitate to call them even 50% done. My goal is to finish the last build tomorrow; I have a busy evening, so there's not much more that I'm going to accomplish today, but hopefully tomorrow will see things to the end.

As far as a judging extension goes, I'm a judge and not a chef (so I dunno if my vote counts for much here), but I would definitely rather see two judges than have everyone's score be entirely my responsibility.

[daremetoidareyo]

I think we may have a quorum for an extension.

OMG PONIES: have you a sense of how much time you may need?

[OMG PONIES]

I think we may have a quorum for an extension.

OMG PONIES: have you a sense of how much time you may need?

Wednesday at the latest, Monday very late at night if I push myself. Mrs. Ponies is traveling for work, and as such I must fill the sorrowful hours of my temporary bachelorhood.

[Temotei]

Wednesday at the latest, Monday very late at night if I push myself. Mrs. Ponies is traveling for work, and as such I must fill the sorrowful hours of my temporary bachelorhood.

One to three days is a fine sacrifice for doubling the judging pool, I think.

[Zaq]

All right, let's do this! Clocking in at 18,000 words even (for the judgment itself, plus whatever I'm saying here), my judgment is done! It's too long for one post, so please be patient while I break it up; I actually am going to have to put it in three posts, so give me a minute to do that. I guess I was verbose. (Big surprise there, right?)

I hate to say it, but there weren't any builds this time around that really knocked my socks off. That's not an indictment of the chefs in any way; this was a really nasty SI, and the reason I'm judging is because I straight up gave up on cooking it, so I definitely want to send some respect to those of us who managed to tough it out and put something in front of me. Anyway, I've got a lot of posting to do, so let's get to it!

Post 1 of 3:

Thing #1 and Thing #2:

Originality: 3.0 Blood Magus. Yeah. I'm not just taking off points because there were three Blood Magi. I'm taking off points because there were three Blood Magi and Blood Magus was the very first thing I thought of when I read Polyhaemia. (Plus, the fact that it's got overlapping prereqs and offers Heal as a class skill makes it a pretty natural choice for Flux Adept.) So you've got the double whammy of it being obvious and it being repeated. [–0.5] Beyond that, though, I definitely didn't expect a Barbarian, and even though we were already in the Dragon Compendium, I didn't expect a (pair of) dvati either. I have no idea why you're doing either of those things, but the fact remains that I didn't expect them at all, so I can give you points for that. [+0.5] Using Precocious Apprentice to get "2nd level spells" with only one level expended is gutsy, but it's also not exactly anything new.

Power: 1.75 Using dvati to get your HP down low enough to have Berserker Strength active is . . . I'm going to say clever. Too clever by half, perhaps, but clever. That said, is it actually wise to have HP so low that you can rely on that? You're getting up close and personal with the enemies, you've got no CON bonus, and you're at half HP compared to a regular character to begin with (plus, you're a level behind thanks to your LA, so your HP is even lower than usual compared to a normal character). And of course, you mentioned that you're using Blood Magus to self-damage with the express goal of getting into Berserker Strength. You also have low AC (no DEX, I'm not sure what kind of armor you actually wear, and Berserker Strength imposes a –2, as you mentioned). What prevents you from just keeling over the first time something decides that you look squishy? I guess you do have a few basic defensive spells (Mage Armor, Mirror Image, Displacement, Fire Shield), but aside from Mage Armor, all of those take actions in combat (from both twins, mind you), and I don't see any way of reducing that action cost, assuming that you can even concentrate to cast them (see my comments in Elegance). (It also doesn't help that you have to occupy both twins to cast those spells.) Plus, it's an awfully long time before you actually have enough spellcasting mojo to have the slots and CL available for those things, so you're definitely a few steps behind a normal "squishy Wizard," who wouldn't normally be Power Attacking things in melee range. Tempting Fate only works once per day (and only on one twin!), and there's a lot of levels before it comes online (even assuming you can get a bonus luck feat from the Court of Thieves, which I really don't like you relying on in an Iron Chef context, especially given that I'm not at all sure how you would actually get past the gauntlet of traps that protects the Court of Thieves). I do see Diehard in there, which I guess kind of works with Stanch from Blood Magus, but really, that's kind of weak tea (and it might make you even more likely to be killed, since someone standing and fighting as an active combatant at negative HP is more likely to get knocked to –10 than someone who's unconscious and therefore no longer a threat—and remember that Feign Death takes a standard action, so you can't just fall over and play dead in response to someone hitting you). Overall, I just don't see how you can actually survive your primary strategy of Berserk-ly meleeing things in the face, and that makes me think that you just aren't that effective at what you profess to do. [–0.75]

You seem to be relying a fair bit on using Handle Animal to take care of things for you (you mention training magebred combat animals into Warbeasts, loadstone marauders, and warbeast sparrows, I believe?), but your Handle Animal is really nothing special. I don't know how many ranks you actually have in it (since you didn't actually finish your skill points), but you don't have that many to begin with (and it looks like you have one point free per Flux Adept level, which you're somehow splitting between four different skills?), you have 8 CHA, and Pheromonic Control is only worth a +4 at best (limited times per day for the Eagle's Splendor part, and only against things with Scent for the other part). I can't tell just how much of your primary strategy actually relies on this, but I don't see you as actually being good at it. Since you mention it in three separate areas in your entry, I figure you care about it enough that it kind of matters whether or not you're actually good at it. [–0.25]

I'm incredibly skeptical that you can use your familiar to do all the work for you that you think it can do. With no ranks in Diplomacy, why should anyone actually listen to a weird talking semi-draconic animal thing (of indeterminate type, since you didn't specify cat vs. raven vs. huitzl) to find hirelings or train teamwork benefits or purchase trainable animals or introduce a pair of weird (constantly raging) Things to a party? (We're not even going to talk about them somehow setting up your whole Court of Thieves escapade.) I do understand that this is D&D, so I'm not saying that no one would ever listen to a weird semi-draconic talking animal, but I'm still highly skeptical that you can just use your familiar as a proxy to do everything you think it can do. As a result, I think your out-of-combat abilities are more limited than you're admitting. I'm not going to hand out a penalty in that regard (since I do appreciate you at least acknowledging that you'll need some flavor of workaround for those levels where you're literally always raging), but neither am I going to award any bonuses for that sort of thing. At best, you're half-covering a weakness; I don't see enough of a positive strength here to be worthy of a bonus. [0]

I'm not seeing a lot of utility coming from your magic. You seem to mostly have combat spells, but with your super-slow progression and your limited ability to cast thanks to Berserker Strength, I'm not sure how often you can bring those spells to bear. What's more, you have no ranks in Concentration or Tumble, so if you're in melee range of something you can't 5 ft step away from, you WILL get attacked for trying to cast, and with no CON and no Concentration, there's no guarantee that the spell won't fizzle. So you can basically only cast before stuff closes in to you. Between all this and the fact that casting occupies both twins' actions, I'm not at all convinced that your spells are going to be very useful to you. [–0.25]

Overall, I'm not getting a strong impression of what you do well. You've got high STR, Berserker Strength, and Power Attack, but you're way too squishy to survive going toe-to-toe for long against anything CR-appropriate, and Power Attack is your only real source of bonus damage (with a possible exception of Arcane Strike, but I'm not sure, because you didn't actually pick an 18th level feat; either way, there's a whole lot of levels before 18th), so you're not actually a good melee character. You've got some spells, but you lose so many caster levels that you basically never have level-appropriate ones, you can't cast them half the time, and casting spells ruins your dvati action advantage. You don't have enough skill bonuses to serve as the party skillmonkey. I just don't see a niche that you're able to competently fill.

Elegance: 0.75, raised to minimum of 1.0 Okay, first things first. Let's talk about your use of wildcards. This build, to be blunt, is not finished. It is not my job to assign your skill points for you. It is not my job to pick between Arcane Strike and Summon Elemental. It is not my job to figure out whether your familiar is a cat or a raven or a huitzl (all three of which are mentioned in the build table). It is your job to make those decisions and present me with a finished build. You don't get to rely on the judge picking the most favorable setup for you. That just plain isn't how Iron Chef works. Can you imagine one of the real (food-related) Iron Chefs presenting a judge with an unseasoned dish and a spice rack, telling them to add whatever spices they see fit? That's just as silly as what we've got here. I don't know what more to say than that. [–1]

You can't get 5 ranks in Heal by level 2. It's not a class skill for Wizard or for Barbarian, no matter how many variants you invoke. You can't actually get 5 ranks in Heal until you've got 7 HD, so even if you rejigger your skill points, that means that you're entering Flux Adept a level early. You can see that this puts me in a tough situation. There's no easy way to realign your levels to actually make this work, since you don't come anywhere near the CL 5 necessary to enter Blood Magus for quite a while. That's really not a good place to be. At best, that means that you're losing a level of Blood Magus (which means you don't get the Polyhaemia + Blood Draught trick); at worst, it means you're losing a level of Flux Adept (which still means you're losing the Blood Draught + Polyhaemia trick). Either of those costs you a level of spellcasting advancement, unless you put Wizard in the placeholder level. Plus it means you spent too many skill points. (You also spent too many skill points at level 5.) To be blunt, this is bad. [–0.5]

I'm not at all convinced that your "componentless spells" trick is enough to cast while raging. Even if we accept your dubious interpretation of False Theurgy (which, I will remind you, only works once per encounter, like all skill tricks do unless stated otherwise, and False Theurgy does not state otherwise), componentless spells still require concentration (they still take a standard action and still provoke AoOs without use of the Concentration skill, after all), and they still can't be cast while raging. Rage (or in your case, Berserker Strength, which has "the same limitation on actions as a barbarian in rage") doesn't interfere with components—it just says flat out that you can't cast spells. You will also notice that Rage specifically bans using metamagic feats, so even if we accept your dubious argument that you can use False Theurgy to mimic a Silent True Strike, you can't do that while raging, because you can't use Silent Spell while raging. Appealing to the GM's mercy because "you're using a FLUX ADEPT" might work in a home game, but this is Iron Chef, and we don't get convenient houserules to make things work the way we want them to work just because the RAW is inconvenient. The end result is that you've got a few levels where you just can't cast, and then you've got a bunch more levels where you can only cast until something hurts you, which doesn't seem like an effective way to play a character. (It's also a massive rules headache whether you can cast when one twin is Berserk and one twin is not, since both twins have to concentrate to cast a spell, but even glossing over that, this isn't pretty.) Overall, I just plain don't think it works. I respect the amount of effort you put into trying to make Barbarian play nice with Wizard casting, but ultimately, it doesn't actually do what you want it to do, and the entire character just suffers from a massive lack of cohesion as a result. [–1]

You also don't qualify for Blood Magus. When you take Blood Magus, you have 1 level in Wizard and 6 levels in Flux Adept, for a total of CL 4 on your Wizard casting. Blood Magus requires CL 5. You could fix this by swapping Flux Adept 7 one level earlier and putting Blood Magus one level later, but you didn't do that, so that's another way your build is illegal. [–0.25]

I do appreciate the use of Bear Totem Wasteland Barbarian to take care of many of the troublesome prereqs for Blood Magus and Flux Adept. Since Toughness, Great Fortitude, and Endurance aren't Fighter bonus feats, it's actually relatively tricky to get them all from class levels. The fact that Great Fortitude is a prereq for both Blood Magus and Flux Adept might be obvious, but I already dinged you for that in Originality, and I do like seeing prereqs serve double duty, so I can give you some credit for the nice way you handled those prereqs. [+0.5]

I've got you sitting at a total Elegance of 0.75 right now. The minimum score is 1, so we'll bump it up to 1, but there's really not much that's elegant about this character.

Use of Secret Ingredient: 1.5 The fact that you didn't finish the SI is unfortunate. Regeneration is an ability that's otherwise really hard to get as a PC, so passing up on that is definitely regrettable, especially on someone as squishy as you are.

Overall, I'm not sure what good Flux Adept is doing you. Deadly Spittle is a clever trick, but with only enough CON to get 3 (or maybe 4, depending on how you read "minimum 1") doses of it per day (and note that being a dvati doesn't let you double it—you get 3 per day, not 3 per day per body, so spitting from 2 bodies at once will just drain your reserves faster), I'm not really seeing it being a primary strategy for you. Feign Death might be useful for someone so squishy (and of course, that's a massive headache as far as dvati are concerned—can one Feign Death without the other one doing so?), but beyond that, I don't see you actually making much use of the abilities. I guess the fact that you actually like to make physical attacks makes Haste a little more useful for you than for your fellow chefs, though you seem to be under the mistaken impression that we're still using the 3.0 Haste that just grants an extra standard action, which isn't at all true. And I guess that you do have the (obvious, but still flavorful) trick of Blood Draught + Polyhaemia = "my blood is all the potions," though it's not clear to me if that's really going to matter by the very, very late point at which it comes online. (It's horribly unclear how either Blood Draught or Polyhaemia work with dvati, anyway; I'm inclined to think that at least Polyhaemia does care which twin drank the potion, though I could go either way for if Blood Draught cares which twin's blood holds the potion; either way, it's ugly.) Also, your Barbarian-ness actively interferes with using Polyhaemia; you can't make INT-based checks, including Craft: Alchemy checks, while raging, so I hope you aren't at low HP when the time comes to use Polyhaemia.

If you're relying on your familiar to make all your skill checks for you, remember that your familiar doesn't get the Flux Adept features that boost skills, so you're basically losing the SI's features there. Grace Through Will has no effect on whether "you can keep marbles from destroying your charges"; only true ranks in Balance prevent flat-footedness when Balancing, and since you didn't actually assign your skill points before plating up the dish, I have no idea when you actually get enough ranks in Balance to deal with that sort of thing.

Being a dvati doesn't actually help most of your Flux Adept abilities; on the contrary, it makes many of them less efficient. The dvati rules say "In most cases, an effect that applies to one twin fails to spill over to the other," so you have to burn more of your precious uses per day if you wanted to give both twins claws, or have both twins sweat acid, or have both twins use Haste, or have both twins use Pheromonic Control. It's not even at all clear how Polyhaemia would work for them (or for that matter, if Blood Draught is tracked for them separately); only Personal spells are automatically shared, and you can't even put a Personal spell in a potion, so it looks like you have to even track your potions separately. In short, being a dvati actively interferes with you getting a lot of use out of most of your Flux Adept abilities. That's kind of a big deal, and not in a good way. Honestly, I think that's your biggest problem as far as UoSI goes: many of the SI's abilities are use-limited per day, you don't have enough CON to use them very often, and you have to use them twice as often as a normal person to get the same effect, so you're really drastically limited in how much use you can get out of the SI's features.

I can see the effect that Flux Adept had on your build, in that it seems pretty clear to me that the prereqs pushed you in the direction of Barbarian. The downside is that I still don't see how Barbarian meshes with Flux Adept at all, so you just have this weird contraption of a character who doesn't seem to know what it wants to do. You're a Barbarian to facilitate Flux Adept, but you didn't do anything with Flux Adept once you got in, so you've just got this hodgepodge of abilities that don't really seem to make much sense.

Your one saving grace is that the character is chaotic enough (in terms of design, not in terms of alignment) that it's not automatically the case that you'd be stronger for being more of your base classes, but that's really just because your non-SI classes are all over the place and don't really do you much good. All told, though, you can't really benefit from the SI's abilities, so even though you were building toward the SI instead of building around the SI, you still don't really need to be a Flux Adept. [–1.5]

Final Thoughts: Playing a dvati is always kind of swinging for the fences. You know that they're pretty cheesy to begin with, so you're pretty much going big or going home. I can tell that you knew this, since you've got a hell of a lot of shenanigans packed into a single build. I do applaud your bravado; it takes guts to put a dish like this in front of the judges. Unfortunately, I'm not convinced that it actually works. I really have no idea why this character made any of the choices they did. Wizard and Barbarian are like oil and water here, and Flux Adept honestly comes out of nowhere, especially considering that dvati actively fights with it. Overall, no part of this build plays nicely with any other part of the build, and you end up with a character who doesn't really have any strengths. The only thing about this character that really impressed me was using Barbarian to take care of most of the annoying prereq feats for Blood Magus and Flux Adept, but beyond that, there just wasn't much to recommend it.
Total Score: 7.25


Liara Rosebloom:

Originality: 2.5 Blood Magus. Yeah. I'm not just taking off points because there were three Blood Magi. I'm taking off points because there were three Blood Magi and Blood Magus was the very first thing I thought of when I read Polyhaemia. (Plus, the fact that it's got overlapping prereqs and offers Heal as a class skill makes it a pretty natural choice for Flux Adept.) So you've got the double whammy of it being obvious and it being repeated. [–0.5] Beyond that . . . you're a Wizard. You've got a touch of MotAO (but not enough for the full Spellpool), and of course you're a Flux Adept, but fundamentally, you're a Wizard. You're not the only Wizard (though you're the only Wizard who went for basically a full caster build), and you don't do much that differentiates you from any other Wizard/Flux Adept, so I'm not seeing anything that makes me want to give out extra Originality points.

Power: 4.0 You're the only chef to hit 8th level spells, which is worth something. You're not the only one to basically play a full caster, but still, you do have the highest level spells of anyone in the contest, so that's worth mentioning. Sure, those missing 5 levels definitely hurt at the end, but you pretty much brought about as much magic to the table as it's possible to bring without losing levels in Flux Adept, so you can get some points for that. [+0.5]

While your UoSI is likely not happy about the fact that you waited until the last possible minute to take Flux Adept, the fact that you took it so late does mean that you have as much spellcasting advancement as possible before you start losing caster levels, so you're able to pretty much function as a normal Wizard (minus a few annoying prereq feats) for the first half of your career, which is definitely helpful. I like seeing a strong early game, and with full Wizard casting, you definitely can solve problems early on. [+0.25]

I'm not sure if Focused Specialist helps you more than it hurts you. At high levels, most of your spells known appear to be Conjuration, but at lower levels (where you're more likely to need to worry about running out of slots in the first place), you almost seem to like Transmutation and Abjuration spells as much as Conjuration, and I wonder if you're actually going to have enough slots per day to do everything you want to do. Conjuration spells are powerful enough that you can probably find a way to muddle through with them, but it does make me wonder. I guess we'll call that even. [0]

Your feats are basically divided into two categories: Strong Wizard Feats and Annoying Prereqs. You do have a lot of annoying prereq feats (Cooperative Spell, Toughness, Great Fortitude, Endurance—Heighten Spell is kind of a mix of prereq and useful on a Wizard), but your non-prereq feats are all pretty useful, give or take Acidic Splatter (it's a nontrivial matter for a prepared caster to devote a high-level slot to powering a reserve feat, since that has a much higher opportunity cost than a spontaneous caster doing so; that said, it's not a bad option to fall back on, though I really would have ideally liked to see Precise Shot to make the RTAs easier). Collegiate Wizard is a great way for an Iron Chef Wizard to get lots of spells without quibbling over how much gold you have to spend and how many scrolls you can find, Practiced Spellcaster is good for shoring up the weaknesses of the SI, Craft Contingent Spell is crazy powerful, and Minor Shapeshift is good for any caster who has the feat space available. With three PrCs, each of which requiring at least a feat or two that you wouldn't take on your own, you've got a lot of prereqs to burn through, but your non-prereq feats definitely stand on their own merit. I'm almost hesitant to give you more points for them, though; I've already given you points that boil down to "you're a Wizard, and Wizards are powerful," so rewarding you for taking powerful Wizard feats like Craft Contingent Spell and Minor Shapeshift kind of feels like letting you double-dip in "Wizards are powerful and have powerful toys." (There's also the not-so-minor problem about you taking feats that aren't legal bonus feats, meaning that you'd actually have to give up some of your powerful feats to make the build legal, but we'll talk about that in Elegance.) So I guess I can give you a little more credit here, but you've already earned the bulk of what I'm giving you. [+0.25]

Elegance: 2.0 First off, Toughness isn't a Fighter bonus feat, so you can't get it instead of Scribe Scroll. Weird, right? But them's the rules. Believe it or not, Great Fortitude isn't a Fighter bonus feat either, so that's also not a legal bonus feat for you. In Iron Chef, always, always, always check the prereqs for your feats, and always, always, always check your bonus feats to make sure that they're legal choices. You aren't the first person who's been burned by this, and you won't be the last. But the fact remains that you don't qualify for the SI, nor do you qualify for Blood Magus. None of your other feats are Fighter bonus feats, so you can't just shuffle things around and become legal. That's bad. Very bad. You'd have to radically redo your feats to make this legal, probably losing Collegiate Wizard and Acidic Splatter (though you could conceivably shunt Heighten Spell up to 3rd level and then Cooperative Spell up to 5th level, since you can take a metamagic feat as a non-Martial Wizard bonus feat, so you actually might be able to keep one or the other of Collegiate Wizard or Acidic Splatter). Honestly, I'm tempted to slap you with a Failure To Qualify, since the build is flat out not legal as presented, it takes more than trivial changes to make it legal, and one of the things for which you fail to qualify is the Secret Ingredient. Since you could theoretically make it work by losing one of your feats, I'll just assess a half-point penalty for each illegally chosen feat instead of giving you a zero for FTQ, but you really need to be more careful about that. [–1]

You overspent a skill point at level 11, since Concentration is cross-class for the SI. You accounted for that at every level of Flux Adept after that, but you did mess up there. A minor problem, but still a problem. [–0.25]

I dinged you in Originality for taking Blood Magus, but you definitely took it for the right reasons: Blood Draught + Polyhaemia is highly flavorful, there's that overlapping Great Fortitude prereq, and perhaps most importantly, it gets you Heal as a class skill without losing any caster levels. It's unfortunate that you still didn't get into Flux Adept any quicker than you would have by just taking Heal cross-class, but still, you definitely paid attention to your prereqs, so that's nice to see. [+0.25]

I do not believe that you get access to Bard and Sorcerer spells by means of the Spellpool. The sidebar on pg. 49 of Complete Arcane is very clear that the Spellpool has spells "on the wizard/sorcerer spell list in the Player's Handbook," which is not the same thing as Bard spells (or non-PHB Sorc-only spells). The Spellpool is still a useful trick to have, but you're still just a Wizard, not a Wizard with Bard spells. [0]

I definitely like seeing Quick Potion. I actually really like that spell, since I think potions are thematically very cool, and Quick Potion is a great way of making them not be a major gold drain. The downside, of course, is that you only have access to Polyhaemia for all of two whole levels (at an ECL where having access to a couple extra 2nd- and 3rd-level spells per day really doesn't mean jack, especially when those extra spells are subject to the limitations and downsides of potions), so that's regrettable, but I do like seeing Quick Potion as a way of enabling Polyhaemia. It's not useless before Polyhaemia, of course, but it's not so powerful that it's worth a bump in score anywhere. Still, I wanted to mention it. [0]

Use of Secret Ingredient: 1.75 The fact that you waited until the last possible minute to enter the SI really makes me think that you were avoiding it. And to be honest, you didn't do anything with the SI that actually makes sense for the character. You have a much higher Bluff than the average Wizard (between having it as a class skill, Pheromonic Control, and Taste of Truth), but you didn't tell me why you really care about that, and with no other face skills, it's kind of weird to have someone who can lie like a champ but who can't convince anyone of anything honestly. Polyhaemia is thematically appropriate (especially with Blood Draught). Other than that? You seem to mostly just care about being a Wizard, and Flux Adept makes you a worse Wizard, which really doesn't do anything to convince me that Flux Adept is a natural choice for the character. This is compounded by the fact that the Flux Adept abilities that you get the most use out of (Taste of Truth, Polyhaemia, and Regeneration) all come super late in the build, so there's a lot of levels there where you're really just strictly worse for having Flux Adept and don't really have much to show for it.

Overall, this is an obvious case of a build who took the SI because it was the SI, not because you liked the abilities or because it was a natural choice for you. All of the SI's abilities seem like things you rationalized after the fact instead of things you actively incorporated into your build. Pretty much anything you can do is done despite being a Flux Adept, not because of it. You did take all ten levels, and you did put some token investment into Polyhaemia and Taste of Truth, but beyond that, I just don't think you actually used the Secret Ingredient well. [–1.25]

Final Thoughts: Fundamentally, you're a Wizard, Harry Liana. Your Power benefited from basically being a full Wizard, and your UoSI suffered for the same reason, since your Wizardliness totally eclipsed anything you got from Flux Adept. You definitely got too clever with your bonus feats; always double-check your feat prereqs and your bonus feat options. Vizzini was either too strong or not nearly strong enough, depending on how you look at it; either way, Blood Magus was an obvious and thematic choice, but it suffered from being too obvious. At the end of the day, this is a perfectly strong character, but it's an unremarkable Flux Adept.
Total Score: 10.25

[Zaq]

Post 2 of 3:

Double Door:

Originality: 3.5 Using Sorcerer as the source of casting isn't staggeringly original, but I definitely approve of using the Dragonblood Sorcerer substitution level to get Draconic Heritage to get Heal as a Sorcerer class skill. That was cool, and I didn't think of it ahead of time, so points there. [+0.25] Using Planar Sorcerer to get the K: Planes necessary to enter Fiend-Blooded isn't anything new, though I wasn't expecting to see a Domain Access Sorcerer, and I definitely wasn't expecting a lesser maeluth (dragonborn or otherwise), so I guess I can give a couple points for that. [+0.25] Other than that, you're pretty much a Sorcerer, so we'll leave off there.

Power: 2.0 You've got a good pile of Sorcerer casting; there's basically no elegant way to get more Sorcerer casting and still finish all ten levels of the SI (kobolds and their Draconic Rites notwithstanding, and your Elegance score thanks you for not going down that road). You lose a fair bit of freedom as far as spells known goes, since many of your ACFs cost you spells known (or, in the case of Domain Access, restrict your freedom regarding spells known), but you're still very clearly a full caster, plus or minus an annoying half-casting SI.

However, while you've got a lot of Sorcerer spells, I'm actually not sure how I feel about your spells known. The majority of them seem to be utility spells, which isn't necessarily bad, but it does leave me wondering exactly what your plan is in combat. (The breath weapon is nice, but with a 1d4 round recharge, it's not a reliable primary strategy in the absence of anything else—an average of 2.5 rounds between uses is a long time, considering that many D&D combats only last 3-5 rounds.) At low levels, Chill Touch and Power Word Pain are perfectly serviceable. However, you don't have much at 2nd or 3rd level that actually brings combat to a close faster (Blinding Color Surge is about the only one that affects an enemy, and that only affects one enemy for one round). Are you planning on doing a gishy thing with Bull's Strength, Claws of the Savage, Draconic Might, and (Greater) Magic Fang? That seems like it'll take a lot of actions in combat, since all of those have short durations (except GMF), and your base stats (12 STR, unremarkable BAB, no armor beyond Mage Armor, poor DEX) aren't that great as a backup. (Claws of the Savage has a middling duration, but it's still far from an all-day spell, especially since you can't Extend an SLA, and there's a lot of levels before it comes online.) You eventually get access to some more combat-oriented spells in the form of Burning Blood, Thalassemia, Wall of Stone/Iron, and eventually Flame Strike and Whirlwind of Teeth, but there's a good chunk of levels in the middle where none of your at-level spells seem to be geared around ending combat faster. None of the SI's abilities in that level range are going to be great for that, either, so I feel like there's a pretty good period of time where you actually aren't very good at combat. Kind of weird for a Sorcerer, but that's what I'm seeing based on your spells known. Sorcerers have great potential power, but I'm actually not seeing a spell list that's good at combat for a lot of your career, and since spells are pretty much the alpha and omega of what you're capable of (especially with the bulk of your feats devoted to SI-related prereqs), that's kind of a problem. You start pretty strong, and you eventually make up some of the ground you lost (though I'd never say you end up with game-smashing power), but there's kind of a donut hole in the middle that really stands out. Since I'm not sure how good you are at gishing it up even once you get all the buffs you want, I just don't think you're good at combat for most of the game. [–0.5]

I mentioned that your spells tend to be utility rather than combat. So, how good are you at utility? Spider Climb is solid, and Flight of the Dragon is eventually decent (though kind of a short duration; I would have been tempted to hold out for Overland Flight). You have a couple defensive combat spells (Blinding Color Surge, Wings of Cover); they do help you survive combats, but they don't help you end combats, and they don't do a ton out of combat. You have a couple buffs that can be cast on allies, even if they're kind of situational. Your 3rd level spells mostly confuse me. Analyze Portal is a really situational spell, and that seems like the kind of thing that you would leave up to the Wizards and the scroll-users, not the Sorcerer with harshly limited spells known. Control Temperature is cute with Thermoregulation, but how useful it is in its own right is debatable, at least without other spells to combine with it. Nondetection baffles me; what are you hiding so frequently that it's worth a spell known, especially considering the expensive material component? 3rd level spells have a ton of crazy good options (Haste/Slow, Fly, Mass Snake's Swiftness, Dispel Magic . . . even Fireball is halfway decent when you have Force-Charged Energy, even if it's not a primary choice), so the fact that you took nothing but weird situational spells confuses me. Overall, I think you've got a few out-of-combat tricks, but not as many (nor as many that are generally applicable) as I'd expect from a Sorcerer with so few combat spells. As with your combat spells, the late game sees you in a better spot for this sort of thing (Plane Shift is major, Wall of Stone/Iron are great, and even Charm Monster can have its moments). Outside of your spells, your skills are decent enough, but you're decidedly not a skillmonkey, and I can't see your skills being your primary way of solving too many problems. [0]

Let's go down your feat list. Your early prereq feats are unfortunate, but not significantly more so on you than on anyone else in the contest. Extend Spell is a perfectly serviceable choice for your required metamagic feat, and you do have a decent number of spells it would work with pretty well. Brew Potion is a bit of a problem, though. You took it for Polyhaemia, right? Well, you forgot that Polyhaemia relies on Craft: Alchemy, which you don't have a single rank in. So it's not actually enabling the SI; it's just serving under its own merits, and its own merits are not very strong. Potions are hella expensive, even when you brew them yourself, and at least a few of your potion-legal spells (including, but not limited to, Mage Armor and Greater Magic Fang) definitely suffer from being put into potions and therefore using minimum CL (unless you pay out the nose for a higher CL, of course, but that just makes the first problem worse). After that, we get into late prereq feats, which in some ways are even more annoying that early prereq feats. (On the one hand, they're less bad than early prereq feats because you have a more robust character with more tricks to fall back on, so each lackluster feat represents a smaller portion of your character's total abilities, and you've got other tricks to use as a backup even if a feat isn't doing you much good. On the other hand, they're worse than early prereq feats because you qualify for better feats that are actually useful at these levels, meaning that you've got a higher opportunity cost to taking a lackluster prereq feat instead of something that's actually strong.) As far as how those late prereq feats actually stand up (outside of being prereqs), Eschew Materials is a reasonably fluffy feat, but if your GM is still messing with your spell component pouch at level 12, you've got other problems, and Blood Calls to Blood is pretty darn situational, so those feats are really only serving as the cost of entry into Fiend-Blooded rather than making you stronger in their own right. Shape Breath is decent (having played a DFA, I can definitely appreciate the benefits of having access to both lines and cones), though I'm not sure how critical your breath weapon is going to be from levels 18-20. You basically don't have any bonus feats (except Draconic Heritage, which serves as a different kind of prereq), so your feats are almost entirely prereqs, Brew Potion, and Shape Breath. Brew Potion is an uninspiring feat for you, and Shape Breath comes so late that it almost doesn't matter, so you've pretty much got nothing really interesting in your feat list. I guess Extend Spell is useful despite being a prereq, but other than that? I'm thoroughly unimpressed, and I don't think your feats are making a good argument for your Power. [–0.5]

I like the Smiting Spell + Dark Tide trick, but there are two problems with it: first (and perhaps most importantly), it's level 20 only, and I don't really care about stuff that only works at level 20. Second, you don't seem to have any way of being immune to the giant pile of extra-spicy blackwater, so that might be dangerous. In short, it's a cute trick, but because of those two reasons, I don't think I can give much credit for it. (Smiting Whirlwind of Teeth is also fun, but again, 20th level.) [0]

Elegance: 2.75 3.0 Playing a dragonborn who's not Good is a little iffy, but since you're also not Evil, I'll call that close enough. A real hard-ass GM might invoke the Tarnished Dragonborn rule on pg. 15 of RotD in response to a dragonborn taking Fiend-Blooded and using a surprisingly high number of [Evil] spells, but I don't feel like being a hard-ass about this, so whatever. It's not explicitly illegal, and fluff is mutable, so we'll leave it at that. (The only thing that really still worries me is your use of Demonic Blood Infusion, which has the [Evil] tag, explicitly makes the target Chaotic Evil, and has a tendency to permanently turn the target CE even after the spell wears off. I can definitely see Bahamut having a problem with that. Since you didn't list it as being a primary strategy, I guess I won't mark off for that, but do be careful with that sort of thing in the future.)

Nice job using Lesser Planetouched to dodge the LA and qualify for Fiend-Blooded. I normally view Lesser Planetouched as being a little cheesy (not so cheesy as to usually earn a penalty, but it definitely doesn't usually get any goodwill from me), but turning the alleged drawback of going from Outsider to Humanoid into a benefit (since a non-Lesser maeluth couldn't qualify for Fiend-Blooded) is clever enough to earn some points. (I just love seeing drawbacks turned into assets.) [+0.25]

I have some bad news about your skill points. Believe it or not, Concentration isn't a class skill for Flux Adept. (Yeah, the class is even worse than you thought it was!) That means that at 7th through 14th, you overspent by 1 skill point per level. Since it's an easy mistake to make, I'll only count off once, but the build is still not legal as written. [–0.25]

I'm not sure it's actually possible to have become a dragonborn "when he had 1 Humanoid Hit Die, prior to obtaining his first class level." You don't have any RHD, so there's no provisions for you having a Humanoid HD before gaining a class level. Especially because the Rite of Dragonic Rebirth costs 100 GP, and while I'm willing to believe that you can get that many before attaining 2nd level, I'm not confident you can do it before attaining 1st. And you can't get your Heal skill on if you don't qualify as [dragonblood] when you take Sorc 1, huh? I'm really torn about this. I mean, the rules are pretty clear that you have to start as a non-dragonborn and become a dragonborn. On the other hand, they're pretty much presented as a race like any other (or a pseudotemplate that's easy to get), and honestly, I've always been in favor of ignoring a lot of the costs of stuff you need at level 1 (a standard Sorc doesn't have enough starting GP to summon a familiar; a standard Pally doesn't have enough GP to afford real heavy armor; a standard Fighter doesn't get a masterwork weapon . . . all of these things are dumb and should be glossed over, in my opinion, and it's not going to break the game to let you start with a familiar or a suit of armor or a dragonborn race). In a home game (not that I'd ever start at level 1, eww), I'd never tell someone they couldn't start as a dragonborn, and I'd only make them pay the 100 gp if they actually did start as something else and truly transformed on-camera. In the end, I think I really do have to mark off a little bit for this; I'm not marking off so much because it's illegal as because it requires the GM making a favorable ruling for you, if that makes any sort of sense (and it may not at this point). [–0.25] EDIT: Successfully disputed. No penalty for this issue.

You don't have any clever way of dealing with prereq feats, either by getting them as bonus feats or by making them do double duty. I mentioned it in Originality already, but I do like your use of Draconic Heritage to take care of Heal, so that's cool. The fact that both Flux Adept and Fiend-Blooded use K: Arcana is nice, but hardly amazing, since that's pretty much the most common skill for casting-related PrCs to require (or darn close to it; I've never seen the numbers). Still, I like your trick with Heal. [+0.25]

Your progression is pretty smooth, or as smooth as it can be for a weird SI like Flux Adept. The most noticeable hiccup is actually taking Planar Sorcerer. At the level you take Planar Sorcerer, you don't have any spells that can actually qualify for Force-Charged Energy (and you only ever get a couple of them at all), and the K: Planes ranks don't pay off until much later (even getting K: Planes as a class skill doesn't do much, since the SI gets it as well), so you're basically giving up a 2nd level spell known (your highest level known at the time, I might add, so definitely a big cost!) for a vaguely defined benefit that won't pay off for quite some time. That's . . . less than elegant. It's just one level, but still, for a low-level Sorcerer to give up a precious, precious spell known in exchange for a benefit they can't use for many levels to come? That's not good. In fact, it's not even clear if it's legal to take Domain Access and Planar Sorcerer at 5th level, since they both give up the same thing: the ability to learn a new 2nd level spell at 5th level. You might be able to talk a GM into ruling that you can lose two spells known without each of them trying to grab the same spell known, but I don't think that it works by RAW (and at best, you'd be giving up your already-learned 2nd level spell, replacing it with the domain spell). The Planar Sorcerer level just isn't elegant no matter how you slice it. [–0.25]

Use of Secret Ingredient: 3.5 I like the flavor of a Flux Adept with Scent (how bizarre is it that they don't actually get it normally?), but I don't buy your argument that having Scent makes all your opposed CHA-based rolls get the +2 from Pheromonic Control. "Against" has a meaning, and it's not that. If the wording was something like "any CHA-based skill check involving a creature with the Scent ability," I'd definitely give it to you, but you're very clearly rolling against the other creature, not against yourself. So that's clever, but it's not clever enough to really work.

As far as everything else goes, I guess it's best to look at everything one at a time. You have a few token ranks in Tumble and Balance, but you otherwise ignore Grace Through Will entirely (and even the full +5 bonus from GTW doesn't make you good at those two skills). Pheromonic Control is both good and bad on a CHA-based caster; on the one hand, the Eagle's Splendor effect does directly make your casting better, but on the other hand, a CHA-based caster is ideally going to want to find a permanent enhancement bonus (that doesn't take an action in combat and that affects bonus spells per day, unlike Eagle's Splendor). I do appreciate you not assuming that you'll automatically have access to a Cloak of Charisma, but you can see where I'm coming from, I hope. Still, it's not totally useless on you. Control Temperature was a very clever choice for you; you're basically the only chef to be able to proactively do anything with Thermoregulation, so kudos there. You don't have any especially clever uses of Iron Stomach or Feign Death; I definitely recognize that those abilities are situational and hard to show off as primary strategies, but I don't see a lot of effort put into them on your end. Bitter Tides also isn't doing you a ton of good; RAW, it only adds extra damage to the claws you get through Boiling Blood, not the ones from Claws of the Savage, and you don't do anything especially interesting with it. You have enough Bluff that Taste of Truth is noticeable (and getting Scent is thematically appropriate, if not actually that useful), but you don't max it out, and you have the same trouble as some of your fellow chefs in that (1) you don't really pay a lot of attention to Bluff for a while but then get a massive bonus all at once after Taste of Truth comes online, and (2) you don't have any other face skills, so you have a character who can lie like crazy but who can't convince people of things honestly, which is weird. If you actually do use your crazy claws strategy, I guess Haste does you some good (there's ambiguity if Haste grants an extra claw attack, since the spell description specifies "one extra attack with any weapon he is holding," but I'm willing to let that slide); I'm not sure how powerful you actually are with your claws even when fully buffed, but at least you're making some effort there. You're the only chef to make use of spells that directly buff your claws, so Boiling Blood is a bit less bad on you than on everyone else; the fact that you have to spend a ton of actions turning on the claws and then turning on the buffs (again, minus GMF, though it's ambiguous what happens if GMF's duration goes beyond the duration of the claws, or if you can pre-cast GMF before your claws exist) is definitely not a great thing for how useful that'll actually be, but as far as UoSI goes, you're the only chef who seems to do much with Boiling Blood, so that's good for you. You sort of ignored Polyhaemia; you went out of your way to pick up Brew Potion to guarantee that you'd have potions to use with it, but you completely forgot that it takes a Craft: Alchemy check to use it, so you can't actually do anything with it, and that's sad. Regeneration is a nifty ability, but you didn't do anything special with it; the only thing I can see you doing is casting Demonic Blood Infusion on yourself to get some minor resistance to cold and fire, but as I mentioned in Elegance, I can definitely see that jeopardizing your dragonborn status, so that doesn't seem like a primary strategy.

Overall, there are a couple abilities in the SI that aren't doing you much good (that loss of Polyhaemia is really unfortunate, given that you burnt a feat on the otherwise not-so-great Brew Potion), but I do appreciate you trying to make use of Thermoregulation, Boiling Blood, and Haste in ways that most of your fellow chefs didn't. (You also did get some baseline use out of Pheromonic Control, Taste of Truth, and Regeneration, even if you didn't do anything special with those abilities.) I'm not going to go so far as to say that you use the SI's abilities well enough to make up for the loss of 5 spellcasting levels (especially given that the actual results of your efforts are questionable), but you seem to be trying to work with the SI's abilities as much as or more than many of the other contestants, and with an SI this awful, that counts for a lot. No one started the SI earlier than you (there was a tie), and you finished the SI earlier than anyone else who actually took all 10 levels, so that's cool. I don't know that I'm actually convinced that you really needed to be a Flux Adept, but I think you put more effort into being a Flux Adept than pretty much anyone else, so at the end of the day, you've earned some points here. Not a ton of points (it does definitely interfere with the character's other capabilities, and that loss of Polyhaemia is bad), but definitely something. [+0.5]

Final Thoughts: I wasn't sure what to make of this build. You've got a lot of magic, but you don't have a lot of really great spells known. A Sorcerer lives and dies on their spells, so to have a limp spell list is a pretty big crime on a Sorcerer. You put in the best effort I saw as far as using the SI's abilities goes, but being brutally honest, I'm not sure how much good it really does you in the end. You've got a number of buff spells that make me think you want to gish it up, but you've got no way of dealing with the massive action economy headache that accompanies all of them, and I'm not sure how great the payoff is even if you get all your buffs up at once. You're not the most chaotic entry I've ever seen by a long shot, but there isn't a real clear picture of what the character really wants to accomplish, and I think that ended up costing you in the end.
Total Score: 11.75 12.0


Honest James Horson:

Originality: 3.5 Shugenja is an interesting way of answering the question of "how do I get Heal AND K: Arcana AND spells on a single character?", so that's neat. I definitely wouldn't have guessed we'd see any Shugenjas (especially not with weird spells from OA, though I'm not convinced that those OA spells are super useful), so I can give you some points for that. [+0.25] Since the SI has two abilities that focus on boosting CHA-related things, it's not entirely surprising to see another character who plays the face role to the hilt and tries to just talk their way out of everything, but it's definitely gratifying to see one of those characters who doesn't happen to be a Changeling Rogue, so thumbs up for that. (I love Changeling Rogue in general, but we see soooo many in Iron Chef, so it's nice to see a face who isn't one.) [+0.25]

Power: 2.75 Doing a Handle Animal-heavy character is always risky in Iron Chef, since it's really not clear how many animals (and what kind of animals) it's fair to assume you have at any given point. That's really dependent on availability of funds, availability of time, and availability of the animals in question, all of which are incredibly campaign-specific. You are clearly aware of this, as you mention early on that "this build takes loads of game time to set up," so you can understand where I'm coming from. It's obviously not fair to put this build in a fast-paced hack-'n'-slash dungeon crawl and judge it based on that. That said, it's also not entirely fair to just assume that you have all the time you could ever need and can bring tons of CR-appropriate animals to every fight, or that you can always afford as many rare animal cubs as you want (of whatever type you want), or that you can just generate arbitrarily high amounts of income by selling your animal training services during arbitrarily long downtimes. It is important to remember that pg. 75 of the PHB stipulates that you can't rear more than 3 animals of the same kind at once, though I admit that it's ambiguous if that also bars you from raising other animals of different kinds or if it just means you can only do 3 at a time per type of animal. (Either way, it does put a bit of a damper on your plan to have 20 mice trained at all times, or anything like that—at the very least, it makes it take longer, which brings us back to the original concern about not being sure how much downtime it's fair to assume you have available.)

Let's start with what you do well. You're an excellent liar, and while I'm not willing to believe that you've got epic skill checks for most of your career, you do have undeniably respectable totals for your highest skills, and you can certainly hit a few epic DCs late in the game. [+0.5] I ideally would have liked to have seen some higher totals for face skills other than just Bluff, but you don't totally ignore your other CHA-based skills, and enough of your bonuses apply to all CHA skills (between Half-Elf Paragon, Motivate Charisma, Eagle's Splendor, and just stupidly high CHA, you've got a pretty darn good total before we break down the skill-specific bonuses) that you can certainly make a functional face, even if you're only really at your best when lying to people. When you have access to animals to train and the time necessary to train them, you're definitely very good at that; I'm not willing to say that you're always going to have the time and the resources available to always have the perfect pet ready, but you definitely invested enough in your Handle Animal abilities that I'm willing to say that you can definitely use it to solve a few problems over the course of your career. [+0.25]

You're going to have a nontrivial time casting spells in combat if anything decides you look like a target, since you have no Concentration and no Tumble. Anything you can't 5 ft step away from WILL mess up your casting. I understand that you're a half-caster at best, but your spells still seem to be your primary way of contributing to things after initiative is rolled, so the fact that you're entirely relying on your party to stand between you and things that don't want you to cast is worrisome. [–0.25]

Let's look at your feats. Able Learner is never a bad choice, especially when you're jumping around from class to class. Combat Panache may be your single most helpful feat, since it's about the only thing that you can do once someone gets too close to you. I'm not sure why you chose Earthbound Spell (yes, you needed a metamagic feat, but I don't see why you chose that specific one); you're ECL 11 before you can even use it on a 1st level spell (and I think only Obscuring Mist actually makes sense as an Earthbound Spell among your 1st level spells), and very few of your spells known really seem to do anything when you turn them into traps. Heroic Destiny and Fearless Destiny seem like an awful lot of work for something that only works once per day; I do like the synergy between Fearless Destiny, Combat Panache's ability to play dead, and Flux Adept's actual Feign Death feature, but that's still a lot of feat space for a once-daily ability. (It's not clear whether an animal would be smart enough to wake you from Feign Death after the battle is over. Without you there to tell them what to do, an animal would have to be extraordinarily well trained to stick around a battle dangerous enough to drop its master, and even if you invent a new, non-RAW trick for "wake up the master, who is playing dead," I'm not sure that INT 2 is enough to get an animal to wait until combat is over to do that, especially without you there to tell it what to do. You might wake from your coma and continue to play dead if the animal wakes you up too early, but you could do that with just Combat Panache, kind of obviating the usefulness of the SI.) Persuasive is a prereq, of course, though at least it does make your main trick better, and Master Manipulator has its uses. At a minimum, I think Earthbound Spell is poorly chosen (you just don't have high enough spell slots to really use it, and relatively few of your spells are even good targets for it), and I'm not convinced that Fearless Destiny improves your Combat Panache Play Dead trick enough to warrant spending two feats on it. So after dealing with your prereqs, you've got relatively few feats that really make you stronger, and since you've got a lot of annoying prereq feats to begin with, having dead feat space is pretty rough for you. [–0.5]

Insidious Corruptor is an interesting choice. I do like the thematic potential of it, and it was clever of you to use half-drow to qualify for yet another thing. My biggest concern with it is that the save DC on Claws of Influence is really low, since it's based on your class level, and you take it super late in the build. Yeah, your CHA is definitely higher than most, but not so much higher that a DC 11 + CHA effect is likely to work at ECL 17 (unless you're dealing with someone of such low level that you likely didn't need Claws of Influence). All told, I think it's a neat thematic choice for the character, but I'm not convinced that what it gives you will really affect your power level at the level you take it. [0]

As is often the case for silver-tongued rascals, it's not at all clear exactly at what level the character starts being playable; you've got reasonably high skills out of the box, but you don't have "never-fail" levels of skills until you get a good few HD under your belt, and if your skills fail you early on, you have absolutely nothing to fall back on (your early spells are a joke as far as combat goes, and you have no real combat capabilities beyond that). I wouldn't really be comfortable playing this character in the 1-5 range; you're about as good a talker as they come in that range (barring silliness like a Changeling Rogue with a dip in Warlock for Beguiling Influence), but I don't think you're a good enough talker to rely on it to the exclusion of everything else at that level, and if initiative ends up being rolled, you're pretty much useless there. At mid levels, you've got enough tricks that you can handle yourself, but it'd take some really charmed d20s to actually level you up to a point where I'd be comfortable bringing you to the table. [–0.25]

Overall, you're a hard character to rate in terms of Power, as is so often the case for tricksy skill-reliant characters in Iron Chef. You're not going for a full Kole Naerrin-style "talk your way out of literally every single problem" character, and you do have a trick or two once initiative is rolled, but you tend to be way stronger when things aren't making attack rolls around you. A GM who's willing to work with you (by letting you have access to lots of trainable animals and time to train them, by letting you build up a network of contacts, by letting you try to talk your way out of more than the average dungeon crawl would usually allow, and so on) would see you as a very strong force, but you do rely pretty heavily on the GM giving you opportunities to use your tricks (in ways that a "normal" character wouldn't necessarily need). I guess we'll just leave it at that.

Elegance: 2.5 I'm a little wary of allowing half-drow into Half-Elf Paragon, given that Drow Paragon exists, but I think the strictest reading of the rules does allow it (depending on whether you read the "except as follows" bit to have Drow Blood replace Elven Blood), so I'll let it slide. Once we're over that hurdle, it's a little bit impressive to see just how much crap you managed to make half-drow qualify you for (Able Learner AND Half-Elf Paragon AND Human Paragon AND Insidious Corruptor). Of course, you do have to invoke the variant rule in the sidebar on pg. 150 of RoD to actually qualify for Able Learner (by default, half-elves qualify for elf-only stuff, but not for human-only stuff; Human Paragon is an exception thanks to the wording of Divided Ancestry in Half-Elf Paragon), so that makes me a little bit less happy. I'm going to say that the positive part of cleverly using half-drow to qualify for a million things cancels out the negative part of having to use fuzzy rules to qualify for Half-Elf Paragon and Able Learner. [0]

I'm torn about what to do with your lack of a source list. On the one hand, you do offer a lot of citations in your build table, which is good. On the other hand, you don't have a master source list, and you don't actually cite everything—it took me way longer than I care to admit to find half-drow, which was very frustrating. I'm not going to give you the full –1 penalty, since you do cite almost all of your sources, but you still didn't include a list, and I still had to spend time looking for one of your sources, so that's a penalty. [–0.25]

You spent 2 extra skill points at level 6. You underspent by 2 at 7th, so it's conceivable that you accidentally shuffled the 2 ranks in K: Religion from 7 to 6, but you do need to be careful about that. You also underspent by 2 at 13th, but then you overspent by 3 at 14th. You then underspent by 4 at 17th, and then you underspent by 2 at 18th, 19th, and 20th. You ended up underspending more than you overspent, so I'm not going to take off a ton of points for this, but the fact remains that your skill points ended up sloppy, and you did overspend a couple times. [–0.25]

I don't like seeing you trying to cross setting lines by invoking a ritual of the Church of Cyric in Eberron. I'm not going to dock you points for it, but I'm also not going to assume that you actually have access to it. Since it's just a bonus to what you're already doing, that's not a huge loss (it's not like it gave you a brand new ability that you were relying on using), but that's going just a little bit too deep into cross-setting material for me to feel comfortable about it in an Iron Chef context. [0]

In terms of how your actual build is set up, I don't see anything especially elegant, but I don't see much that's terribly inelegant. In a vacuum, using Shugenja to take care of three of the prereqs for Flux Adept (spells + Heal + K: Arcana) is clever. The fact that you're using Human Paragon and Able Learner makes the clever use of Shugenja a lot less clever—since you could easily get the awkward skills out of the way with Human Paragon and Able Learner, you could have gotten your spells from a casting class with a more generally applicable list, so Shugenja ends up feeling like a grab at exoticism for the sake of exoticism rather than simply a clever way of knocking out several prereqs that usually don't come together. [0] Other than that, your early levels are kind of a hodgepodge, but they're a hodgepodge that makes sense for what you're trying to do, and I did mean what I said when I mentioned that I don't mind seeing dips if they really contribute to the character's goals. It's nice to see you using bonus feats to get the SI's prereqs out of the way, but beyond that, nothing really makes me sit up and take notice.

Use of Secret Ingredient: 2.0 Seven levels of Flux Adept? Ugh. That doesn't make me happy, especially since levels 9 and 10 are some of the most interesting abilities that the SI grants. [–0.5]

You appear to use basically two abilities from the SI: Pheromonic Control and Taste of Truth. You really don't seem to care about anything else, with the possible exception of Feign Death. (I do see your offhand mention of using Bitter Tides to make you less appetizing when Feigning Death, but I don't see where you're going to get the actions to do that, since they both take standard actions to activate.) Taste of Truth is a pretty decent boost to Bluff, but is it really the best way you could have gone about doing things? It ends up being a +7 to Bluff from Taste of Truth for the cost of seven levels and three feats (plus some skills). If that's all you care about, why not just dip a single level of Warlock to get Beguiling Influence, giving you a +6 to Bluff, Diplomacy, and Intimidate for the cost of a single level? A level or two in Incarnate and/or Totemist could have provided much the same effect as you get from Pheromonic Control, and then you'd still have more feats and more levels to play with. Please note, of course, that I'm definitely not marking off on you because something else is stronger (and/or easier) than the SI; I'm marking off on you because the only part of the SI that you really used was something that could have been better handled with something else, and you let the rest of the SI's abilities rot on the vine. When you only care about one or two things the SI does, and those things in question can be easily replicated elsewhere, I'm not at all convinced that the SI is the best choice for the character, you know? You make a good effort at making use of those two abilities, but I don't think they add enough to the character to make me feel like you really wanted to be a Flux Adept. This character is definitely working around being a Flux Adept rather than working with being a Flux Adept, if that makes sense. And again, only taking seven levels is really not doing you any favors.

The fact that you have Combat Panache doesn't do you much good here, since its Play Dead ability is pretty much strictly superior to Feign Death for day-to-day usage (mostly because of the action required, though the fact that it doesn't require obtuse trigger conditions to wake up is also helpful). I have no trouble believing that you like to play dead when the going gets tough, but I do have a hard time believing that it's better for you to do that with the SI than with Combat Panache. So I don't think you're really getting much use out of the SI's version of Feign Death more often than not. (I'm not saying it could never ever be useful, but I don't think you're really going to be relying on it in the way you say you are.)

Overall, you did get good use out of Pheromonic Control and Taste of Truth. Pretty much every chef shoved some ranks in Bluff to take advantage of those abilities, but you went farther than most in explaining why it matters that you're good at lying and exactly what kinds of things you can do with a crazy high Bluff total, so I can give you credit for that. [+0.25] The problem is that you didn't really use anything else, and as I said earlier, in no way am I convinced that Flux Adept was a natural choice for this character. [–0.75]

Final Thoughts: There are a few things in your write-up that made me really scratch my head, but they didn't really affect your score, so I'm just going to mention them here. First, while I definitely like the audacity associated with faking being a changeling reality seeker, I don't see how you're going to pull that off, given that you've got no Disguise ranks until the very tail end of your build, and reality seekers look like untransformed changelings, not half-drow. (I did see something about hiring prostitutes to help you, but that's still something literally anyone can do, so I don't really get what you're going for with that one; besides, are prostitutes necessarily going to have higher Disguise than you, what with your miscellaneous bonuses to everything CHA-related?) Second, your comment about "laundering the clean money through shady businesses" is just downright confusing, since that's kind of the exact opposite of how money laundering works, so I have no idea what you're getting at here. Third, you mention "wearing a disguise spell on top, if dealing with truesight type folk," but that's exactly when you need to NOT use a disguise spell, since True Seeing would pierce the disguise spell (but maybe not the mundane Disguise check). Like I said, none of those things bothered me enough to have them affect your score, so I'm putting them here, outside of the main judgment. Anyway, other than that, you're another talky character who tries to live and die on their skills, but you aren't really much of a Flux Adept. You might be a playable character, but you're playable despite Flux Adept, not because of it.
Total Score: 10.75

[Zaq]

Last one, so feel free to start complaining at me after this one. (I'm pretty sure I got all the math right, but if I didn't, go ahead and call me out.) Post 3 of 3:

Edmond Dufresne:

Originality: 3.5 With a half-casting SI, I was expecting more chefs to use PrC-granted casting to fulfill the spellcasting requirement, but luckily for you, no one else actually did so. I may have been expecting it, but I was still surprised by you being the only one to actually do it, so that works out in your favor. [+0.25] Changeling Rogue makes an appearance in more Iron Chefs than not . . . yeah, it's an amazingly powerful level (one of the most character-defining single levels in the game, especially at level 1), but it seems like no SI is immune to someone throwing it in there. (I may have to ask one of our lorekeepers how many Changeling Rogues have actually shown up in Iron Chef, at least in the past year or so, because it seems like there's always at least one.) I'm not going to say that it's a bad choice, but it's the exact opposite of an original choice. [–0.25]

Savant, on the other hand, I didn't see coming. Perhaps I should have, since we already had Dragon Compendium open, but since it's usually so completely overshadowed by Factotum, I nearly forgot that it exists. For that matter, I didn't expect anyone to try to make a stealthy skill-primary character here—yeah, the SI grants a few random bonuses to skills, but with 2+INT skill points per level, the SI really isn't a class that you expect to live and die on its skills. So I really didn't expect anyone to pull out something like Assassin. I can give you some points for going with a character role I didn't really expect. [+0.5]

Power: 3.0 Your early levels see you as a fairly generic skillmonkey. Changeling Rogue is as useful as ever (like I said, it's one of the most character-defining single levels in the game), and you've got a couple dice of SA, so you can do some damage when you manage to hit (WF doesn't hit the field until 3, as I discuss in Elegance, and your BAB isn't great early on, but you'll be okay). Skill Assistance is a nice trick that I'm surprised we don't see more often. Overall, I think you've got one of the stronger starts out of this crop of entries, which is nice to see. [+0.25]

Your feats aren't really anything special. Three of them are, of course, eaten up entering the SI—that's unavoidable on some level, but you didn't really put any of them to extra use, so there's a large chunk of build resources that are just kind of sitting there. Deceptive Spell would be very thematically appropriate if you had any spells where you needed the visual effect to come from somewhere else, but since most of your spells are either personal buffs, touch attacks, or mind-affecting tricks with no real visual component, you don't really have a whole lot of use for Deceptive Spell . . . which means that it's nearly a wasted feat. I'm also not sure how much good Brew Potion is doing you. I definitely appreciate that you want to guarantee that you have access to potions to use with Polyhaemia, so I do understand why you took it, but you have very few spells known that can be brewed into potions. Remember that personal spells (or spells above 3rd level, for that matter) can't be made into potions, so you can't use a lot of your stuff like Vital Strike, True Strike, Swift Invisibility, Veil of Shadow, Toxic Tongue, and so on. Ebon Eyes would work, and Amorphous Form would work, and I'm honestly not sure whether or not Blade of Pain and Fear would work. So that puts you at either two or three spells that actually can be made into potions. Not really a shining example of an incredibly useful feat. Overall, I'm seeing more dead weight in your feat list than I really like to see. [–0.25]

I do think Staggering Strike is a good feat. For most of the time you have it, you've got 4d6 SA, which isn't going to break any damage records, but at least it's noticeable. You have enough swift-action defensive spells that I'm willing to believe that you might actually get away with making a melee sneak attack or two, and you might even have a way of debuffing a Fort save, so I can see you getting some use out of that. Making enemies unable to full attack you is a pretty good way of staying alive, so I like that. [+0.25]

Unfortunately, you didn't really pay your feat taxes. You've got maxed Hide and MS, but you don't have Darkstalker, which means that anything with Scent, Blindsense, Blindsight, or Tremorsense (and I don't need to tell you how dirt-common those are, do I?) can see you anyway. I absolutely hate that Darkstalker is a feat tax for a character archetype that doesn't necessarily have a lot of free feats anyway, but the fact remains, without Darkstalker, stealth tends to be a losing battle. (It also would have been nice to see HiPS in there somewhere, but I understand that getting HiPS is a nontrivial investment much of the time.) It's clear what the character is aiming to do, but it's not clear how well you'll succeed at that past the earliest levels with neither Darkstalker nor HiPS. (Swift Invisibility is a band-aid, but you don't have enough spell slots to rely on it all day.) [–0.25]

Elegance: 2.75 Bad news, mate. You don't qualify for Weapon Finesse. It requires BAB +1, which you don't have at level 1. Yes, that's incredibly dumb, and in a home game, I'd houserule that away before you could blink, but you're still not legal as written. You could be legal just by swapping around your 3rd level feat and your 1st level feat (even if that does make your first two levels a bit harder), so I won't give you a zero here or anything, but the fact remains, the build isn't legal. [–0.25] At the very least, your skills are all legal—no bonus for that (that's a baseline assumption, and you don't get a cookie for meeting baseline assumptions), but at least I don't have to penalize for that.

I'm not seeing any elegant ways of handling prereqs or of making them do double duty. The closest thing is using Assassin casting to qualify for having 2nd level spells, but that's not really anything groundbreaking, and it does mean that you get into the SI later than if you were a base casting class. (It might help you in UoSI by making it so that the SI didn't cause you to lose caster levels, but it's not so elegant that I'm really impressed by it, if that makes sense.) I guess it's nice to use Savant's open-ended bonus feat to get one of the SI's prereqs out of the way, and I do appreciate using Savant's skill list to get the weird mix of skills you need for Flux Adept out of the way, but I'm not seeing anything that really wowed me in that department, since the skill points and the feats still kind of got wasted (you got into the SI, and then you never did anything with them ever again). [0]

By the very strictest reading of the rules, you don't qualify for Detach, since technically you pick feats before you get new class features (PHB pg. 58-9), meaning that you technically don't have Regeneration until after you pick your 18th level feat. That said, I've never met a GM who's going to be quite that strict about things, so I'll mention it, but I won't penalize for it. Besides, it's funny. Sure, it's not strong, but it's funny.

Overall, I don't see a whole lot that's really painfully inelegant (aside from the unpleasant prereqs on the SI), but I don't see a whole lot that's especially elegant, either.

Use of Secret Ingredient: 3.0 Let's just go step by step. You have at least a few token ranks in everything Grace Through Will gives a bonus to—in a perfect world, I'd like to have seen more ranks in them, but with the crappy skill points you get from this class, that's not really possible, and at least I feel like you're making more of an effort on that front than many of your comrades. I'm torn on whether Pheromonic Control does you a ton of good; you do have Changeling Rogue as a high baseline for your CHA-based skills, but you don't really maintain high ranks in most of them (other than UMD and a couple levels of Bluff at the end), and so I can't tell how much you're really relying on that sort of thing. Thermoregulation is passive, so it's not something that's easy for anyone to show off here. (I would have liked to have seen Evasion to really take the biggest advantage of Thermoregulation, but we can't have everything.) I like your fluff use of Iron Stomach to eat the debris from digging your way out of prison; I'm not convinced that you can it to store poisons in your stomach, since the "any" part of it means that you'd probably just start digesting them, vials and all! (It's also not clear where you're getting your poisons, aside from Toxic Tongue and Spider Poison, which don't stick around—Craft: Alchemy doesn't make poisons, since that's what Craft: Poisonmaking is for). Still, that's cute. I do like your use of Obtain Familiar to circumvent the limitations on Feign Death, which is clever. I'm torn about how well you use Bitter Tides; your fluff painted an interesting way to use the ability to sweat acid, using it to burrow out of a jail cell, but that's very clearly a clever situation rather than a strategy that can be adapted to many different situations. Everyone suffers from how late Taste of Truth hits the field, so it's always awkward to have no Bluff advancement for 9 levels and then have a massive boost to it all at once, but at least you've got your Changeling Rogue baseline to fall back on, so it's not like you've never been able to bluff and then suddenly got good at it. You do seem to want to make the occasional full attack (even if I don't see any crazy mobility boosters to really facilitate that round after round), so Haste isn't wasted. Like I said way back on page 1 or 2 of the thread, Boiling Blood is almost strictly inferior to just a single level of Monk, so it's going to be hard to impress me with how you use it; I don't see anything here that really makes me sit up and take notice, but the ability for an assassin-type character to appear unarmed is at least giving it some lip service. As I said in Power, I'm not sure that you can use as many potions as you think you can, but you do have both Brew Potion and enough ranks in Craft: Alchemy to make use of Polyhaemia, so that's not bad. I was wondering if anyone was going to take Detach; you're the only chef who explicitly used Regeneration to qualify for anything, which is a mark in your favor, even if I would have liked to see some way of covering your vulnerability to the things that pierce it. (And yeah, Detach isn't actually that great on a Flux Adept, since they can't reattach members by holding them to the stump, but I guess it's something.)

Overall, I feel like you at least paid some token attention to using most of the SI's abilities. The fact that you used a 10-level casting class (and therefore technically didn't lose any caster levels) is nice to see, and you're not leaving me wondering why you'd bother slowing down a full caster progression for the SI's lackluster toys. Mind you, I'm still not feeling like the character needed to be a Flux Adept to do what they want to do; you wove a neat story about how Flux Adept might help someone deal with being in solitary confinement, but that's more after-the-fact justification rather than an explanation of why this character is stronger for being a Flux Adept than for being, I dunno, more Assassin and Assassin-related stuff. I'm not going to go so far as to say that being a Flux Adept didn't hurt you; your early feat progression is painful, and you definitely lose some effectiveness as a Roguish character by taking 10 levels in something with 2 + INT skills. But I feel like even if Flux Adept doesn't really make the character that much stronger, it's a lot less confusing on someone like you than on most of your fellow chefs. At this point, I'm willing to call it even; you aren't critically invested in the SI, but compared to a lot of other entries, you seem to be trying a lot harder to actually use the features you're given. [0]

Final Thoughts: Your fluff wasn't bad (if a bit long), though I admit that it bothered me to consider you gaining eight or ten levels while rotting in solitary confinement. In terms of what you actually do, you aren't breaking any crazy new ground here, but you're overall decently effective at what you're trying to do. I don't think you're 100% as effective as you're billing yourself to be (no Darkstalker means you're way less stealthy than you think you are, the number of spells that you can actually potionify is actually much smaller than you seem to believe, and so on), but you're not a bad character overall. I'm still not 100% convinced that Flux Adept is actually the best choice for you, but at least you're making a token effort to use most of its abilities, which is more than I can say for some of your fellow competitors.
Total Score: 12.25


Rincefix:

Originality: 2.5 Blood Magus. Yeah. I'm not just taking off points because there were three Blood Magi. I'm taking off points because there were three Blood Magi and Blood Magus was the very first thing I thought of when I read Polyhaemia. (Plus, the fact that it's got overlapping prereqs and offers Heal as a class skill makes it a pretty natural choice for Flux Adept.) So you've got the double whammy of it being obvious and it being repeated. [–0.5] Beyond that, you're a Sorcerer, and you've got some Hexblade levels slowing your progression down, and that's about it. I have to admit that I'm not incredibly impressed, Originality-wise. I mean, I didn't see Hexblade coming, but I also don't see how it really fits the character (the character doesn't feel like a Hexblade; the character feels like a Sorcerer who happens to have Hexblade levels for some reason), so there's that.

Power: 3.0 First off, I really don't understand what good Hexblade is doing you. You seem to care about your spells, so why sacrifice three more spellcasting levels than you have to? I do understand that Blood Magus interferes with you using Paladin to get CHA-to-saves (though I kinda think a Sorcadin might have been more interesting than what we've seen here), but is Mettle really worth the loss of spellcasting mojo? Your saves are definitely above average, but I don't know if they're so great that Mettle was worth 3 levels. This really slows down the start of your build; your first few levels and your first few feats are basically entirely passive and/or defensive, and it takes a long time before you've got enough magic to make up the difference, if you ever really do. [–0.25]

I also don't see why you bothered with Blood Magus. Sure, it has Great Fortitude as an overlapping prereq with Flux Adept, but you still have to take Toughness, and worst of all, you don't have enough levels of it to get Blood Draught, the very ability that makes it an obvious pairing with Flux Adept! The fact that Blood Magus is an easy (-ish) way of getting Heal as a class skill might have been a factor if you put it before Flux Adept, but you didn't. I just don't see why it's in there. I can respect putting in something because of matching flavor, but when you don't get far enough into the second class to actually get the flavorful ability in question, I'm just left kind of scratching my head. It does advance Sorcerer casting, so it's not really making you actively weaker (aside from the opportunity cost of taking Toughness), but it's definitely not adding much to your power level. [0]

Your feats mostly make sense, or as much sense as can be made with the prereqs standing in your way. The first few are painful, but things mostly seem to come together starting with Extend Spell, which is probably the best metamagic feat for you to choose (aside from maybe Invisible Spell, since you lose so many caster levels and therefore don't have a ton of extra slots for metamagicking stuff up). Brew Potion isn't a terrible choice, since I definitely appreciate wanting to guarantee that you'd have access to potions to use with Polyhaemia, though it's a little unfortunate that most of your good potion-legal spells are 3rd level (and therefore expensive; you might not be worried about the 36 XP, but 375 gp a pop definitely adds up if you use it frequently). Flyby Attack is useful for nearly any caster, though it's unfortunate that you have to burn an action in combat to turn on Fly (since you never learn any all-day flight spells). Combat Casting is an interesting way of dealing with the fact that the SI doesn't have Concentration as a class skill; it's still not the strongest feat in a general sense, but it's more useful on a Flux Adept than on your average caster, I suppose. I'm not absolutely in love with Empower Spell, since I'm not convinced that your damaging spells will actually still be worthwhile by the time it comes online, but I suppose it's not completely worthless. (Heighten Spell might have been a better choice, just to make your low-level BFC spells have some more utility.) I don't see any crazy combos or anything with them, but once you get out of prereq hell, your feats mostly stand on their own merit. None of them provide a drastic increase in utility, but after the prereqs are out of the way, none of them are totally dead weight, which is surprisingly rare to see in some rounds of IC. [+0.25]

You've got a good pile of low- or mid-level Sorcerer spells, but the fact that you lose 3 levels of casting at the beginning when you know you'll lose 5 levels of casting later on is just confusing to me, since you otherwise seem to want to be a full caster. It's always useful to have someone in the party who can cast Grease, Web, and Haste (top-notch spells all around), but with all the lost progression, it seems like that's about all you can bring to the field for quite a while. You're kinda like a Mystic Theurge without the divine spells backing you up; you've still got some well-chosen spells from the strongest list in the game, but you don't necessarily get them at the right levels, and the save DCs and caster levels are lower than they really should be. Fundamentally, this is the same complaint as I made in my first Power paragraph; your Sorcerer spells are good, but Hexblade is standing in the way of you using them to the fullest. In the interest of not double-dinging you, I won't mark off again; what I'm basically saying here is that I appreciate that you made good choices with your spells known, but I don't think that you've got enough spellcasting mojo to justify a bonus for that alone. Sorcerer casting is strong enough that you might be functional in a low-op group even with the handicap you've given yourself, but that's as much as I can say in favor of your power. [0]

Elegance: 2.5 It's technically ambiguous whether a level 1-3 Hexblade can even make use of Craft (Alchemy), thanks to that pesky "must be a spellcaster" clause, and a Hexblade isn't really a spellcaster until level 4, so that's kinda funky. However, I think that rule is really dumb, and since a Hexblade eventually becomes a spellcaster (even if you never get enough Hexblade levels for that to happen), I'm going to call that close enough, so no penalty on that end. Still, be careful with that sort of thing.

You spent one skill point too many at level 14. You then underspent by one point at level 15, so I guess that evens out; you could just move the point in Spellcraft one level later, since that's not bumping up against any caps or any prereq thresholds. I kind of wish I didn't have to give out a penalty for such a small error (since your net total is the same), but my criteria state that your skill points have to be legal at every level, and it's a bad judge who ignores his own criteria. [–0.25]

You might have sold me on Toughness being useful at level 1 if you started as a Sorc instead of a Hexblade, but it's mostly useless for you until you enter Blood Magus, which means there's a massive level gap between investment and payoff. That's a textbook example of something I consider to be inelegant. Add in the fact that Blood Magus doesn't actually do you any good, as I discussed in Power, and we have a really graceless feat choice. Since level 1 is the only level when Toughness even comes close to being useful, I'll mark off less for taking it at level 1 than I would at level 3 or level 6 (even though that does mean you have a larger gap between investment and payoff), but I still really don't like seeing a (nearly) useless prereq feat taking up space for 17 levels. [–0.25]

Using Great Fortitude as an overlapping prereq may have been obvious, but I already dinged you for that in Originality, and it's still nice to see a prereq feat doing double duty. I really would have liked to have seen Blood Magus earlier (so as to get Heal as a class skill before taking Flux Adept), and the fact that you lose out on Blood Draught is definitely unfortunate (since that's exactly why Blood Magus makes sense to pair with Flux Adept), but at least you've got one instance of aligned prereqs. That's your only elegant way of dealing with prereqs, though; you don't have any clever ways of getting anything as a bonus feat, you don't have any other double-duty feats (or even double-duty skills), and very few of your prereq feats stay useful once you get into whatever you're qualifying for, with the possible exception of Great Fortitude making Mettle a bit more likely to come up. I definitely would have liked to have seen more on this front, but I can give you a little credit for what you did manage to do. [+0.25]

The jump between Hexblade and Sorcerer is jarring. If I were to look at your build one level at a time instead of looking at the whole thing all at once, suddenly going from Hexblade to Sorcerer doesn't seem to make sense; you do make an argument that Sorc 1 gives more and better spells than Hexblade 4 does, but it still comes off as strange to make the jump there. After a few more levels of Sorc, it becomes clear that you care more about Sorc than about Hexblade, but that just flips the confusion around; instead of wondering why you jumped ship from Hexblade to Sorcerer, we're left wondering why you started with Hexblade at all if you really wanted to be a Sorcerer all along. I think the point I'm really trying to make is that your first three levels (and the feats that attend them) don't have anything at all to do with your next four levels, Flux Adept or no Flux Adept, and that would make the character awkward to play at low levels. It almost might have made more sense if you were obviously jumping around gathering prereqs (I don't view a build full of one-level and two-level dips to be automatically "awkward" if you're obviously building up to something, especially right at the lowest levels), but you seemed to have an early build concept ("tough, resilient Hexblade") that got abandoned in favor of another one ("um, full-casting Sorcerer or something"), with the SI sprinkled on top after you qualified for it. Maybe it's the fact that Hexblade 3 isn't a super-common breakpoint (you usually see 2 levels for CHA to saves or 4 levels for the Dark Companion), so it stands out more than an obvious and common dip like Monk 2 or Paladin 2? I dunno. I just don't think your pre-SI life really hangs together cohesively. [–0.25]

Beyond that, I'm not seeing anything that stands out to me in terms of Elegance. At the end of the day, the build is relatively simple, but the different parts of it don't dovetail in any particularly clever or elegant ways—meaning that you don't have a ton of moving parts, but the parts you do have don't really seem to mesh that well with each other. It's easy to point at the different build-chunks on a high level (Hexblade provides Mettle, Sorcerer is the base casting, Flux Adept is mandated by the contest, and Blood Magus is late-game filler that's vaguely thematic), but since the different parts don't really do much to build off each other (Mettle is decent, but it has nothing to do with the rest of the build; Blood Magus doesn't really hurt you, but you don't get the ability that makes it a real thematic match, so it's just kind of sitting there), it doesn't feel especially clever or elegant, so really, we can just leave it where we are. [0]

Use of Secret Ingredient: 2.75 I guess we should just go down the line. Grace Through Will seems to only matter to you for Tumble, but I suppose you at least didn't ignore it entirely. I'm torn about whether Pheromonic Control is good or bad on a CHA-based caster; on the one hand, the Eagle's Splendor effect does directly make your casting (and your saves) better, but on the other hand, a CHA-based caster is ideally going to want to find a permanent enhancement bonus (that doesn't take an action in combat and that affects bonus spells per day, unlike Eagle's Splendor). I do appreciate you not assuming that you'll automatically have access to a Cloak of Charisma, but you can see where I'm coming from, I hope. Still, it's not totally useless on you. Thermoregulation is passive, so there's not much you can do to show that off. You didn't mention any crazy tricks with Iron Stomach or Bitter Tides; I do understand that those are abilities that are very situational rather than something you can showcase as a primary trick, but I don't see you doing much with them that your fellow chefs aren't also doing. I also don't see you doing much with Feign Death; it's kind of in the same boat as Iron Stomach and Bitter Tides in that it's situationally useful, but again, I'm not seeing anything special or clever that you're doing with it. You have high Bluff, so Taste of Truth is good for that; you don't have any other face skills, so it's a little weird to have a "party face" who can lie to anyone but who can't engage in honest dealings at all, but at least you do max out one of the skills that this particular SI ability boosts (although Sense Motive seems to have been ignored outright). I'm not sure what good Haste is doing you; you don't really seem to care about making attacks (though you do mention your martial weapon proficiency now and again, and you have non-dumped Strength), so I can't tell if you really care about Haste. I'm torn about whether it's good or bad that you still have Haste as a spell known; it's good because your Haste actually benefits the party and therefore really does something useful, but it's bad because it kind of obsoletes one of the SI's abilities (though I do understand that you said that you learn it as a spell known after the SI gives it to you). I'm thoroughly unimpressed by your use of Boiling Blood; as I mentioned early on in the thread, it's basically obsoleted by a single level in Monk, so it's going to take something special to make me really notice it, but I don't see you really trying to do much with it. (See my earlier comments about it being unclear if you care about hitting things or not.) You do have Brew Potion and high Craft: Alchemy, so you've got Polyhaemia covered (your argument about Tenser's Transformation and the potion of Bull's Strength involved is cute, even if it's not exactly a groundbreaking capstone ability). I'm not seeing anything that makes you especially able to take advantage of Regeneration (I would have loved to have seen some ways of getting resistance or immunity to the elements that pierce it); I guess the fact that you can heal the self-damage you do with Blood Component is something, though you would have been way better off not taking Blood Magus and instead spending the feat you spent on Toughness on Practiced Spellcaster, so far as your CL is concerned.

Overall, you don't completely ignore the SI's abilities, but neither am I seeing any way in which they really make you stronger. Since you do have Mettle, I guess Great Fortitude is a little bit less useless on you than on some of your fellow chefs, but the prereq feats still make your early levels really painful, and the fact that you've already lost some CL from Hexblade makes the half-casting nature of the SI even worse for you than for some other entries. Your build doesn't seem to be actively avoiding or fighting the SI, but neither do I believe that you'd ever have given Flux Adept a second glance if it weren't required by the contest, and nothing you do with the SI's abilities really seems critical to how the character functions. The strongest argument in favor of how Flux Adept makes you different from every other Sorcerer out there is that you take advantage of the bonuses to Bluff and Tumble, but when you consider that it interferes with your Concentration progression to the point that you need to take Combat Casting (normally not considered to be a strong feat at all, especially at ECL 15), it's kind of hard to feel great about how the SI affects your skills. In short, I don't think that Flux Adept made you a stronger character, and I don't think that it makes sense as a natural choice for the build. I just don't see you incorporating its abilities into your suite of tricks in such a way that it makes sense for you to have invested in the SI. You aren't ignoring them outright, but I still don't think the character really needed to be a Flux Adept (or even necessarily really wanted to be one), and that just doesn't make me want to give out a high score. Since you did put in a little effort for some of the abilities, I won't give out a terrible score, but I still just wasn't impressed by how well Flux Adept fit your build. [–0.25]

Final Thoughts: Your Hexblade levels are the only thing that really made you stand out from every other Sorcerer out there, but I just couldn't wrap my brain around what made 3 levels of Hexblade good enough to sacrifice 3 levels of Sorcerer spells. It's a shame that Blood Magus ended up being so common this round, and it's a double shame that you didn't get to take advantage of Blood Draught; that really makes it feel like you lost out in Originality without getting the bump from having the thematic ability that every other Blood Magus was grasping for. Overall, this character isn't terrible, and I could see them being interesting in a very low-op group (it'd be a way to bring a small amount of Sorcerer problem-solving to the table without being a full-blown T2 caster), but I never really got a unified vision of what the character wanted to accomplish and why their abilities made them cool.
Total Score: 10.75

[The Viscount]

Wow, that judging is indeed very thorough. Thanks a bunch, Zaq.

[Troacctid]

Yeah, I'm impressed. That's a lot of words. Wow.

[Heliomance]

Disputational!


Thanks for judging, Zaq. And now for every judge's favorite part: the feedback.

Double Door:
Power: 2.0
There are two usual ways of building for Power: on absolute terms, and matching the Secret Ingredient. I opted for the latter. Thus the SI requires spellcasting, but does nothing (other than half advancement) with it, so I chose Double's spells to augment Flux Adept capabilities rather than be used in place of them. Even so, the character's power comes more from spells than FA class abilities; it's a very weak class and hard to get in line with. Similarly, the FA requires lackluster prerequisite feats, so I largely chose similar feats so the rest of the character didn't overwhelm the SI. Your judging went more for absolute capabilities than for keeping capabilities in line with those of the SI. There's nothing I can do about this; we're on different wavelengths.


I like the Smiting Spell + Dark Tide trick, but there are two problems with it: first (and perhaps most importantly), it's level 20 only, and I don't really care about stuff that only works at level 20. Second, you don't seem to have any way of being immune to the giant pile of extra-spicy blackwater, so that might be dangerous. In short, it's a cute trick, but because of those two reasons, I don't think I can give much credit for it.
Dark Tide starts at a location Medium range away from Double Door; that's up to 1,000' away. The blackwater expands at 100' per round, and thus takes 27 rounds to get to full ½ mile radius. Double has Flight of the Dragon for 100' flight, or 200' per double move, or 400' per round using Run; he can easily avoid the blackwater that way. But he probably doesn't even need that. Starting at 1000' from the center of Dark Tide, Double can Run at 80' per round.

You can run for a number of rounds equal to your Constitution score, but after that you must make a DC 10 Constitution check to continue running. You must check again each round in which you continue to run, and the DC of this check increases by 1 for each check you have made. When you fail this check, you must stop running. A character who has run to his limit must rest for 1 minute (10 rounds) before running again. During a rest period, a character can move no faster than a normal move action.
Double Door has a Constitution of 20, so he can run for 20 rounds before needing to make any checks. In 20 rounds he can run 1,600', placing him 2,600' away from an effect which extends 2,640' after 27 rounds. Resting and moving at a normal move action gets him the remaining 40' in 1 round (6 rounds before the blackwater reaches that point), still without needing to make any checks. Double picks where and when to cast Dark Tide, so he can pick a location where there's a reasonable path to Run. (Note that Run requires a straight line each full-round action, but there is no requirement to have 20 rounds each in exactly the same direction; only a bunch of 80' straight lines.)

In short, Double doesn't need to be immune to the blackwater because he has multiple ways to avoid it. As for the level 20 issue, that's back to the original intent: the build was designed to be in line with the Power of the SI, so his most powerful capabilities were intentionally arranged for late in the build.


Elegance: 2.75
I have some bad news about your skill points. Believe it or not, Concentration isn't a class skill for Flux Adept. (Yeah, the class is even worse than you thought it was!) That means that at 7th through 14th, you overspent by 1 skill point per level.
I don't understand. I still spent the skill points; it's just that my goof means the arithmetic for the ranks bought is off. The total is then +4 ranks for +8 points (12 ranks total), not the +8 points (16 ranks total) indicated.


I'm not sure it's actually possible to have become a dragonborn "when he had 1 Humanoid Hit Die, prior to obtaining his first class level." You don't have any RHD, so there's no provisions for you having a Humanoid HD before gaining a class level.
From page 136 of Fiend Folio:
MAELUTH
Medium-Size Outsider
Hit Dice: 1d8+2 (6 hp)
From page 191 of Player's Guide to Faerûn:
Planetouched: Planetouched are humanoids (not outsiders) with the planetouched subtype.
The type changes, but there's nothing there about removing any racial HD — just the LA.
From page 310 of Monster Manual:

Humanoids with 1 Hit Die exchange the features of their humanoid Hit Die for the class features of a PC or NPC class.
Double Door has 1 Humanoid HD as a Lesser Maeluth, rather than 1 Outsider HD as a regular Maeluth. That HD doesn't go away until it's exchanged for their first class level, as stated in the Humanoid type rule.


Final Thoughts: I wasn't sure what to make of this build. You've got a lot of magic, but you don't have a lot of really great spells known. A Sorcerer lives and dies on their spells, so to have a limp spell list is a pretty big crime on a Sorcerer.
I've mentioned this above, but I'll recap for your recap. :smallsmile: I tried to make this as much about the Flux Adept as I could (except for goofing on the skill selection) and very much less about the Sorcerer so the base class didn't outshine the SI. You judging the character as a Sorcerer means we're not going to see eye to eye. :smallsigh:

Also, if it means getting a second judge, I'm fine with waiting a couple more days.

[Zaq]

A dispute? 18,000 words wasn't enough for you? Why I oughta— Ah, a dispute. Always good to see some feedback on what I wrote. Not sure if I'll necessarily be changing much, but here we go.


There are two usual ways of building for Power: on absolute terms, and matching the Secret Ingredient. I opted for the latter. Thus the SI requires spellcasting, but does nothing (other than half advancement) with it, so I chose Double's spells to augment Flux Adept capabilities rather than be used in place of them. Even so, the character's power comes more from spells than FA class abilities; it's a very weak class and hard to get in line with. Similarly, the FA requires lackluster prerequisite feats, so I largely chose similar feats so the rest of the character didn't overwhelm the SI. Your judging went more for absolute capabilities than for keeping capabilities in line with those of the SI. There's nothing I can do about this; we're on different wavelengths.

Yeah, you're right about us being on different wavelengths. You'll notice that I judged everyone on absolute terms, not just you, so it wouldn't be fair to them if I suddenly popped out more points for you now based on that alone. I did give you points in UoSI for picking spells that work well with the SI's abilities, but even accounting for that, there's room on the character for spells that would be more generally applicable than the spells you took. Sorry, but no score change. (I do understand where you're coming from; I made Li'l Brudder (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=19553609&postcount=256), after all, so it's not like I've never submitted a dish where the power level is intentionally constrained to fit the abilities of the SI, but at the end of the day, the important thing is that I graded everyone's Power in the same way.)


Dark Tide starts at a location Medium range away from Double Door; that's up to 1,000' away. The blackwater expands at 100' per round, and thus takes 27 rounds to get to full ½ mile radius. Double has Flight of the Dragon for 100' flight, or 200' per double move, or 400' per round using Run; he can easily avoid the blackwater that way. But he probably doesn't even need that. Starting at 1000' from the center of Dark Tide, Double can Run at 80' per round.
You can run for a number of rounds equal to your Constitution score, but after that you must make a DC 10 Constitution check to continue running. You must check again each round in which you continue to run, and the DC of this check increases by 1 for each check you have made. When you fail this check, you must stop running. A character who has run to his limit must rest for 1 minute (10 rounds) before running again. During a rest period, a character can move no faster than a normal move action.
Double Door has a Constitution of 20, so he can run for 20 rounds before needing to make any checks. In 20 rounds he can run 1,600', placing him 2,600' away from an effect which extends 2,640' after 27 rounds. Resting and moving at a normal move action gets him the remaining 40' in 1 round (6 rounds before the blackwater reaches that point), still without needing to make any checks. Double picks where and when to cast Dark Tide, so he can pick a location where there's a reasonable path to Run. (Note that Run requires a straight line each full-round action, but there is no requirement to have 20 rounds each in exactly the same direction; only a bunch of 80' straight lines.)

In short, Double doesn't need to be immune to the blackwater because he has multiple ways to avoid it. As for the level 20 issue, that's back to the original intent: the build was designed to be in line with the Power of the SI, so his most powerful capabilities were intentionally arranged for late in the build.

I guess your argument for being able to outrun Dark Tide makes sense (though it makes it even more situational in that you have to be very careful to cast in in areas where you can run away), but really, the fundamental reason that I didn't give any extra points for it is because it comes online at level 20, and basically nothing that only works at level 20 matters. (To use the example everyone's thinking of, Truenamers have Gate without the XP cost at level 20, but that doesn't make them actually powerful.) You'll notice that I didn't deduct points for it or anything. I just mentioned it because I wanted to recognize that it's a cute enough trick, but I don't think it's actually doing enough for the character's power level to be worth any points in Power.


I don't understand. I still spent the skill points; it's just that my goof means the arithmetic for the ranks bought is off. The total is then +4 ranks for +8 points (12 ranks total), not the +8 points (16 ranks total) indicated.

Sorry, but that's arguing after the fact. You didn't list skill points spent; you listed skill ranks taken, and as written, the build spent too many skill points. Like I always say, I grade the build based on what you actually wrote, and what you wrote was that you took 1 full rank in Concentration at each of those levels. Your dispute offered a change to make things legal, but the build was not legal as presented. That's why I marked off. As I mentioned in the judgment, it's a super easy mistake to make, so I only marked off a little bit, but illegal is illegal. (I think only one chef this round was 100% legal on their skill points, and they ended up being illegal on one of their feats, so it's not like everyone escaped this. You're in good company.)


[Discussions on humanoid RHD]

Now we might be getting somewhere. You do make a reasonable argument that you might have a Humanoid HD before you take your first class level—the game gets really funky when considering stats on PCs prior to them taking their first class level, but yeah, I can see a possibility that it might work that way. The problem comes when we consider the 100 gp. Sorcerer starting gold is 3d4 × 10 gp, or 75 gp. You're arguing that you're getting access to 100 gp before you actually take your first Sorcerer level. You don't have any of the skills that are used by RAW to make money (no Craft, no Profession, no Perform), not that it's clear if you could have those skill ranks before taking Sorcerer (yeah, RHD can have skill points, but you sure as hell don't have access to those skill points after you take your first class level, so I'm not going to look favorably on an argument that you had a bunch of Craft or Profession ranks with your RHD and then overwrote them when you took Sorcerer 1). I'll accept that you could exist as a character with one Humanoid RHD before taking Sorcerer; the question is now if you can reasonably be assumed to have access to 100 gp (which is above your typical starting gold value) before taking your first class level. 100 gp is pocket change to an adventurer, but it's a fortune to a commoner (and someone with only 1 RHD and no class levels really can't be considered to be much above commoner level). To be honest, I don't like that your build forces the GM to think about that question.

As I kind of mentioned in my actual judgment, if I were actually GMing (not that I like GMing 3.5 anymore, and not that I would ever start at level 1), I wouldn't personally have a problem giving you enough gold to get some character-defining stuff out of the way: let the Wizard have enough gold to summon a familiar, let the Ranger have enough gold to buy a decent composite bow that actually matches her STR, let the Paladin have enough gold to buy armor of the type that she plans to wear long-term, let the Truenamer have enough gold to pay some dues to the Paragnostic Assembly and start being a member in good standing. Letting Double Door have enough gold to play as the race he intends to be seems pretty reasonable when you put it that way; you're clearly designing this character as being a dragonborn from square one (as evidenced by taking a dragonblood RSL at level 1), so I don't think it would make the game better to force you to be a maeluth first and earn your way into being a dragonborn later. It's especially true when you consider that, while 100 gp is more than the average starting gold for a Sorcerer, it is technically possible (though very unlikely) to roll well enough that random starting gold (not that random starting gold is actually a good idea) to have that much gp starting out.

But . . . this is Iron Chef, and Iron Chef tends to play by RAW. The rules don't have provisions for starting with more gold just because it's inconvenient that you don't have all your character-defining stuff at level 1. Every GMing instinct I have tells me to tweak the RAW, but the RAW still need to be tweaked to get the end result I want, and as an Iron Chef judge, I can't just make "nice GM" rulings all over the place (ignore that prereq! That class ability is actually at-will! Have some extra skill points! Of course that's a class skill for you!) the way I would if a real player showed up with an Iron Chef-grade PrC. And like I said, this is pretty much a GM headache that it even has to come up, which itself does not speak well of your Elegance.

I am super torn about this. The RAW seems to be against you, but I feel like the RAW is kind of unnecessarily punishing in this particular case, and if the game started even at level 2, we'd be able to just gloss over this without even casting Bigby's Waving Hand. In the end, I think I'm going to say that since it's such a character-defining piece of the build (it's your bloody race, for crying out loud! This isn't even your signature weapon or signature pet—it's your damned body), and since it is technically possible that you could have rolled well enough on your starting gold to get 100 gp, I'm going to let my Nice GM Shoulder-Angel overrule my RAW Hard-Ass Shoulder-Devil and say that it's possible that you could become a dragonborn prior to taking your Sorcerer level. Score change: Remove the –0.25 penalty for this matter. New Elegance score: 3.0; new total score: 12.0.

[OMG PONIES]

Thanks for judging (and responding to disputes), Zaq! Spreadsheet has been updated.

[Heliomance]

How are you doing with the judging, Ponies?

[Sian]

looking though some of my books, i found a very interesting PrC that could be interesting to Optimize ... Watch Detective from Masters of the Wild. Skillmonkey specializing in whodunnits

[Thurbane]

looking though some of my books, i found a very interesting PrC that could be interesting to Optimize ... Watch Detective from Masters of the Wild. Skillmonkey specializing in whodunnits

Now that sounds like something I'd be up for! http://www.giantitp.com/forums/images/sand/icons/icon_thumbsup.png

[daremetoidareyo]

looking though some of my books, i found a very interesting PrC that could be interesting to Optimize ... Watch Detective from Masters of the Wild. Skillmonkey specializing in whodunnits

I'd be willing to judge that one. I have little interest in crafting anything for that prestige class.

[Zaq]

looking though some of my books, i found a very interesting PrC that could be interesting to Optimize ... Watch Detective from Masters of the Wild. Skillmonkey specializing in whodunnits

I'm not sure how I feel about that class. It'd be fun to play in a low-power game, but it's so bloody GM-dependent that it seems really hard to make fun in an Iron Chef context. Kind of like Silver Key, now that I think about it: both of them are skill-heavy classes with really specific specialties (and sharply limited in-combat capability from the SI), and it's very hard for either one to show off the class's abilities in a proactive manner (absent a GM-presented scenario). I predict a divide between people who are clever at concocting fluff scenarios for the character's abilities and people who aren't, and then a second divide between judges who accept those fluff scenarios as actually being what the character has to do and judges who take a more general-purpose take on the matter. (I'm not volunteering to judge this one yet, but if it wasn't clear from my last few judgments, I'm in the latter camp; I don't dislike seeing your scenarios you present to me, but I'm not going to assume that a character has a lot of strong general-purpose utility just because you concocted a specific scenario to show off the SI's abilities, since it's almost never the same person who designs the character and who designs the challenges for that character.)

I'm not saying it couldn't possibly be fun to Iron Chef, but it wouldn't be a top choice for me. Speaking both as a chef and as a judge, it's frustrating to have the SI offer a bunch of abilities that are really situational, since those are hard to show off. (Flux Adept was bad enough with Iron Stomach, Bitter Tides, and Thermoregulation.) It does have a clear focus, so it's not as bad as Thunder Guide (or Flux Adept, for that matter), and there's no super difficult prereqs to meet, so there might be some amount of variety in the entries, but I just worry about how well any entry would be able to proactively show off the class's features.

There's no way we would actually do this, since it would involve way the hell more work and would involve totally reinventing the way Iron Chef works, but Watch Detective would be interesting if all of the entries ended up going through the same set of challenges (revealed after the builds are posted), ideally run by the same GM. Then we'd have actual situations and problems that need to be solved, rather than just theoretical musing about what kind of scenarios would really let a Watch Detective shine. Way more work than I'm volunteering to do anytime soon, of course, but it might be interesting to watch.

[Sian]

The problem with Silver key was not as much a question about its abilities (which was lackluster, don't get me wrong ... i competed), but rather the strict prerequsites that it had, asking for you being a Dwarf (or counting as such) and have Trap Sense.

[The Viscount]

I am 100% on board for Watch Detective. I do agree with Zaq that it is frustratingly hard to use, and essentially requires the right type of game, but I'd like to try regardless.

[Amechra]

May I make a suggestion for the future?

Give the judges three weeks instead of two - that's what we seem to end up doing anyway.

[daremetoidareyo]

May I make a suggestion for the future?

Give the judges three weeks instead of two - that's what we seem to end up doing anyway.

There is a chance that going this route will eventuate in us waiting four weeks instead of three, due to human nature.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BwufIIgIQAAqE99.jpg

[Zaq]

May I make a suggestion for the future?

Give the judges three weeks instead of two - that's what we seem to end up doing anyway.


There is a chance that going this route will eventuate in us waiting four weeks instead of three, due to human nature.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BwufIIgIQAAqE99.jpg

What daremetoidareyo said. Deadline creep is all but unavoidable in something this informal. (Besides, I finished within two weeks! This time!) Let's at least pretend that we can do this in two weeks. It's not like we don't already have mechanisms for extending it if necessary.

[Deadline]

Deadline creep

Oi! Watch who you are calling a creep! :smallwink:

[Venger]

I would absolutely be down for watch detective.


I'm not sure how I feel about that class. It'd be fun to play in a low-power game, but it's so bloody GM-dependent that it seems really hard to make fun in an Iron Chef context.

weak classes are a ton harder to play in "low power" games. it'd be even more unusable than in a default game.

but it's a perfect thing for IC: a dish no one has ever played. I dabbled with it back in nightsong infiltrator. it's grotesque. we'd likely have some questions about their peculiar code of conduct, but it seems like a fun SI.

[WhamBamSam]

I'll be honest, I'm less than enthused about Watch Detective. It seems to fall a bit too much into the old 3.0 PrC design pattern of giving you a few mediocre SLA uses/day instead of actual class features. I guess I've seen worse skill bonuses come up in IC ingredients, the disarm bonus is sort of like a thing (or would be if it weren't for the fact that it only ends up being 1 point better than just going full BAB for 10 levels), and Int to subdual damage is sorta nifty, but on the whole, ehhh.


weak classes are a ton harder to play in "low power" games. it'd be even more unusable than in a default game.

but it's a perfect thing for IC: a dish no one has ever played. I dabbled with it back in nightsong infiltrator. it's grotesque. we'd likely have some questions about their peculiar code of conduct, but it seems like a fun SI.Depends what "low power" means. If it means the magic mart is closed, then yes, we have a bit of a situation. If it just means that there won't be some snooty wizard in the party buzzing around your head casting all the divinations that your fancy detective PrC would have given you several levels earlier, then it's a preferable circumstance for a PrC like Watch Detective.

[Venger]

I'll be honest, I'm less than enthused about Watch Detective. It seems to fall a bit too much into the old 3.0 PrC design pattern of giving you a few mediocre SLA uses/day instead of actual class features. I guess I've seen worse skill bonuses come up in IC ingredients, the disarm bonus is sort of like a thing (or would be if it weren't for the fact that it only ends up being 1 point better than just going full BAB for 10 levels), and Int to subdual damage is sorta nifty, but on the whole, ehhh.

Depends what "low power" means. If it means the magic mart is closed, then yes, we have a bit of a situation. If it just means that there won't be some snooty wizard in the party buzzing around your head casting all the divinations that your fancy detective PrC would have given you several levels earlier, then it's a preferable circumstance for a PrC like Watch Detective.

"low power" is inevitably code for "no magic/low magic," which D&D is not a great system for for a lot of reasons (can't overcome a lot of monsters since magic is understood as being part of a standard adventuring party, etc) so yeah, that's what I meant. mundanes are a lot more dependent on items than casters, so they suffer the most in a "low power" game since it's a lot harder for them to fill in gaps

[xyianth]

Honestly, watch detective will suffer from the same problem that flux adept does. There are a few very obvious options that will feature prominently in the submissions, and due to the complete lack of combat options offered by the class all submissions will have to choose between scoring well on power or scoring well on use of the special ingredient.

[Sian]

Honestly, watch detective will suffer from the same problem that flux adept does. There are a few very obvious options that will feature prominently in the submissions, and due to the complete lack of combat options offered by the class all submissions will have to choose between scoring well on power or scoring well on use of the special ingredient.

Not quite sure on that ... it could certainly be argued that having it as a success criterium to never get into combat (although Watch Detective might not be the best PrC for that), and actually pulling it off, would qualify for having a relatively high power rating.

rate after what the character aims at and are able to, instead of rating after a sliding scale of TO

[xyianth]

The problem is that, as Zaq already stated, not all judges do that. You can describe a set of situations that you expect to use the character in, but ultimately judges are perfectly within their right to ignore those and judge entries based upon what an average campaign might throw at them.

[Sian]

The problem is that, as Zaq already stated, not all judges do that. You can describe a set of situations that you expect to use the character in, but ultimately judges are perfectly within their right to ignore those and judge entries based upon what an average campaign might throw at them.

not all judges are judging the same? ... shocking!!! :smallbiggrin:

That said, its always possible to make a character that might be good but simply doesn't fit the box that a Judge is trying to fit them in, nothing new.

[Sian]

soooo .... Ponies?

[Zaq]

I just realized that in all the thousands of words I wrote about these entries, I didn't discuss the stuff I was expecting to see and was surprised not to see.

First, I was really surprised not to see any Glimmerskin Halflings, since those are one of the easiest ways of getting Heal as a class skill on whatever you want. I was surprised not to see any Cloistered Clerics, since that provides Heal, K: Arcana, and strong spells. I know that having a casting SI (half-casting is still casting) makes this a little bit less likely, but we didn't see anything from Tome of Battle, Tome of Magic, or Magic of Incarnum, nor did we see anything psionic, and that's kind of surprising when you look back at the history of the contest. It's not shocking when you consider that the prereqs of the SI don't line up with it, but it's one of the rare contests where we didn't see any Martial Rogues. Rangers get Heal and Endurance, so I was kind of expecting at least one Ranger entry. I won't say I'm actually shocked not to see this last one (since it would have kind of been a bear to cram much of it into the same build), but I was a little surprised that no one tried to use a Master Alchemist to make increased use of Polyhaemia.

It's not necessarily bad that we didn't see any of this stuff, but I still feel like it's worth mentioning. Was anyone else expecting some things that didn't show up?

[Sian]

[...] but I was a little surprised that no one tried to use a Master Alchemist to make increased use of Polyhaemia.

As mentioned after the dish reveal, i tried making a Master Alchemist work, but it failed to materialize on the fact that it had to many prerequsite feats and to little time to get them

[Heliomance]

As mentioned after the dish reveal, i tried making a Master Alchemist work, but it failed to materialize on the fact that it had to many prerequsite feats and to little time to get them

I was thinking about slipping a Master Alchemist entry in as well, but the spell level prereq stopped me

[OMG PONIES]

How are you doing with the judging, Ponies?
I was trying, but don't think I can complete. I was going to have a nice quiet Bachelor Week while Mrs. Ponies was away on business...but then I had a baby nephew decide to show up a month early and a crazy week at work, so it's probably not happening. Sorry folks! :smallfrown:


looking though some of my books, i found a very interesting PrC that could be interesting to Optimize ... Watch Detective from Masters of the Wild. Skillmonkey specializing in whodunnits
Not only would I be interested, but I already have a build skeleton ready to go for that one.

[Heliomance]

I was trying, but don't think I can complete. I was going to have a nice quiet Bachelor Week while Mrs. Ponies was away on business...but then I had a baby nephew decide to show up a month early and a crazy week at work, so it's probably not happening. Sorry folks! :smallfrown:


Okay, in that case I'll call time there.

...damn! You didn't make a shiny table for me! Okay, here we go:



Entry
Chef
Place
Total
Average


Edmond Dufresne
The Viscount
Gold
12.05
3.0625


Double Door
Curmudgeon
Silver
12
3


Honest James Horson
daremetoidareyo
Bronze
10.75
2.6875


Rincefix
Minnakht
Bronze
10.75
2.6875


Liara Rosebloom
xyianth
Fifth
10.25
2.5625


Thing #1 and Thing #2
daremetoidareyo
Sixth
7.25
1.8125



Congratulations to the winners! Also I've only just spotted that daremetoidareyo's name is "dare me to I dare yo". I was pronouncing it da-re-metoid-ar-eyo.

[The Viscount]

Wow first! This was a very fun round to cook for. I was moderately surprised to be the only changeling, since the whole body control aspect seemed right up their alley.

I was incredibly embarrassed to find that Brew Potion didn't work on personal spells, since I never really use potions. I realize I didn't learn this while building because the clause that restricts this is found not under the section for brew potion, or even in the PHB, but in the DMG section on creating magic items. Why on earth was it done so? For that matter, why are personal spells not brewable?

[Curmudgeon]

Wow first!
Congratulations, and I vow to step up my game in the future. :smallbiggrin:

[Bucky]

This round's unofficial Best Use of Secret Ingredient award goes to Liara Rosebloom for using Polyhaemia with quick potions.

(You can consider this award an Honorable Mention nomination where applicable)

[xyianth]

Congratulations to all! If I ever compete again, I will actually remember to check what counts as a fighter bonus feat! :smallredface: