Villainous Competition XIX: He Slimed Me!

[Thurbane]

Welcome to Round 19 of the Villainous Competition!

Previous Competitions
Round One: Leader of Armies (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?395046)
Round Two: Nature's Revenger (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?400517)
Round Three: Double Agent (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?406015)
Round Four: Grave Keeper (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?413480)
Round Five: Crime Lord (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?420704)
Round Six: Ultimate Predator (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?430650)
Round Seven: Wicked Witch (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?444478)
Round Eight: Master of the Tundra (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?461482)
Round Nine: The Power of Villainous Thinking (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?474230)
Round Ten: Henchman Are Villains Too (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?478068)
Round Eleven: The Higher They Rise The Harder They Fall (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?483052)
Round Twelve: Power Comes at a Price (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?488846)
Round Thirteen: The Gadgeteer - You Are Not Batman (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?491932)
Round Fourteen: The Thing That Should Not Be (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?496091)
Round Fifteen: The Horsemen Are Drawing Nearer (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?500829)
Round Sixteen: Burn Baby Burn (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?503974)
Round Seventeen: It's Alive! (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?507768)
Round Eighteen: This is Heresy (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?511933)

We're a little different than most of the optimization threads. We run on CR instead of ECL.

Contestants:
You will need to present a write-up of your build with at least one of the following points: 5 CR, 10 CR 15 CR, 20 CR, and a "sweet spot" that you feel is the high point of the build, as well as presenting a fully-fleshed out 20 CR build in the table below. Feel free to present as many of these as you like, and please give a rundown of the build's abilities and playability at all of the levels you didn't show. The rules are as follows:

Secret Laboratory:
Competitors will be free to use any official 1st party (WotC) 3.5 rulebook in constructing their builds. Dragon Compendium is allowed, but Dragon magazine is disallowed. Unearthed Arcana is allowed. 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. Item Familiars and Taint are also banned from the competition. Leadership and all similar abilities are banned for sanity reasons.
Builds that are fully monstrous are allowed at no penalty. All class levels are to be added on as associated class levels.
Elite array (15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8) is the assumed ability score generation method.
Some monstrous characters can technically qualify for Epic feats as soon as their ECL is over 20. While regular Epic feats will be allowed, Epic Spellcasting and all other Epic feats that affect spells, psionic powers, or item creation are not permitted. Including these would give an unfair advantage over standard characters. For Incarnum characters, Epic Open Chakra feats are allowed; other Epic Incarnum feats are not. The Essentia Capacity increases for Epic capacity as described on p. 212. For all characters, please note that Racial Hit Dice do not count towards Epic Progression; use the regular progression even if the BAB ends up higher than 20.

Deadlines:
Contestants will have until 23:59 GMT Sunday March 26th to create their builds and PM them to the Supreme Chancellor. Builds will then be posted simultaneously, to avoid copying. Judges will have until 23:59 GMT Friday April 14th* 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 deadline is subject to extension as/if required.

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, Build Elegance, Competence and Power, Memorable Villainy.
Keep these questions in mind when judging each category:
Originality - Is it unexpected?
Build Elegance - Is it mechanically pretty?
Competence and Power - Can it do what the concept asks of it? Is this a powerfully-built character?
Memorable Villainy - Is this a villain with style? Will it be the BBEG players long to finally kill and then talk about for weeks?
Unearthed Arcana can be penalized for elegance if the specific feature seems unnecessary or makes the playing field unfair (In this case, you can give a 1 if it makes the field unfair.)
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. As the Iron Chef competition states, a little cheddar can be nice, but avoid the mature Gruyere unless you're making a cheese fondue.
You may not judge if you entered the contest, unless you withdraw your submission.

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!

Note:
There is now a hard limit on two (2) entries per competitor.

Using the table below, the easiest way to use it is to go to the top left of the private message, and click the little a/A icon. It allows you to see what you're writing.
Due to concerns about standardizing entry format, I'd like everyone to try to use the following table for their entry.


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


Code immediately below (spoiler).

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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


15t/td]
New Class Level
+x
+x
+x
+x
Skills
Feats
New Class Abilities


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


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


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


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


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


You can use the table below for Spells.

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


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


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


[td]2nd
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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



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.
Once builds are revealed, please do not comment on errors or rules issues on entries unless you are a judge. If you have such a comment, wait until the final reveal to post it.

Get ready to share those Evil thoughts. This edition’s villain is:


He slimed me (the dreaded ooze round)!



Limitations



Must be "ooze-related". This can mean of the Ooze type, someone who summons or controls oozes, uses ooze-theme spells or abilities etc. I'm willing to allow a bit of leeway with this one, but the build should be obviously ooze related/inspired. Regardless of type, your entry must have an Intelligence score.
As always, must be Evil in alignment


We will award 1st through 3rd places, and a possible Honorable Mention.
So, start your evil plotting!

Submission:
To standardize Entries, please use this format when sending it in:

PM: Thurbane
Subject: Villainous Competition 19, Name of your Entry
For Revisions and disputes, do the same thing. It makes it easier for me finding the entries in my mail box.
More questions? PM me with Villainous Competition 19 Questions in the header.

Tips for submitting your entry, provided by Weaselguy:


- Use capitalization and punctuation, correctly.
- Make good use of Spoilers, for cleanliness.
- Don't forget your sources. If it's something that can be found in the contents section, then book title seems to be fine. Obscure stuff, may want to include page number too.
- DeviantArt has about 9 billion pictures that you can reference, I can almost guarantee you can find one there to fit your character.
- Make good use of tables. In addition to the Build table and the Spells table, I like doing on e for my Ability Scores, just to keep it neat.
- Do a build stub at the top of your Build Table, something like Wizard 2/Fighter 3/Abjurant Champion 5/Eldritch Knight 10

As always: let's keep it nice.

I'll mention that again - LET'S KEEP IT NICE! Bickering, name calling and nasty comments on the entries or other forum members are not tolerated.

[Thurbane]

The entries:


The Living Darkness (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=21852528&postcount=102)
The Spellbirth (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=21852532&postcount=103)
The Talariic Abomination (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=21852534&postcount=104)
Miss Dember Mint (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=21852537&postcount=105)
Schlorp (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=21852542&postcount=106)
Consequences (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=21852545&postcount=107)
Captain Charles Gooding: Salt of the Earth (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=21852550&postcount=108)



http://i64.tinypic.com/2zp2jjl.jpg

[MisterKaws]

I'm foreseeing a lot of template-stacking and Vizzini on this round.

Will someone actually attempt the obvious choice on this one?

[Buufreak]

Well, fiddlesticks. Oh well, I can attempt to judge again, if no one has objections?

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Thurbane
Welcome to Round 10 of the Villainous Competition!

…Shouldn’t that be Round 19?


Originally Posted by MisterKaws
I'm foreseeing a lot of template-stacking and Vizzini on this round.

What is “Vizzini” in this context?

[Strigon]

What is “Vizzini” in this context?

I don't think we're officially allowed to say, but there were options mentioned in the previous competitions that were apparently very obvious.

[MisterKaws]

…Shouldn’t that be Round 19?

Probably forgot to update the template again.


What is “Vizzini” in this context?

That's actually a good question...

[Technetium43]

Oooh, this could be fun. I'll be sure to brainstorm some stuff for this one.

[Thurbane]

Probably forgot to update the template again.

I just hit 0 instead of 9 on the keyboard (I updated it correctly in all other areas of the OP).

Not sure of it's origins, but in these comps "Vizzini" means second-guessing your entry because you assume someone else will be submitting a very similar entry.

[LordOfCain]

Ooooooh... a new contest to procrastinate working on....

[Troacctid]

It's too bad Spell Sovereign is off the table. It's definitely the best ooze-themed prestige class out there.

[Technetium43]

It's too bad Spell Sovereign is off the table. It's definitely the best ooze-themed prestige class out there.

... Thank you for that. I was about halfway through a Spell Sovereign build before I saw this and realized it was actually DragMag. >_>

[Tiri]

Chairman, you forgot to italicize the 't' in 'the dreaded ooze round' in the first post.

I've already got the skeleton of a build, but the story part is proving difficult to write.

[daremetoidareyo]

This will be the greatest contest ever seen!

[Dagroth]

Chairman, you forgot to italicize the 't' in 'the dreaded ooze round' in the first post.

I've already got the skeleton of a build, but the story part is proving difficult to write.

Oozes don't have skeletons.

Sorry, couldn't resist.

[Tiri]

Oozes don't have skeletons.

Sorry, couldn't resist.

A skitterhaunt vermin has an exoskeleton.

[Buufreak]

Oozes don't have skeletons.

Sorry, couldn't resist.

Sure they do. The skeletons aren't theirs, per se, but the do contain them.

[Venger]

…Shouldn’t that be Round 19?



What is “Vizzini” in this context?

It refers to this scene (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_eZmEiyTo0) in princess bride when Vizzini rapidly talks himself into and out of drinking each glass of wine.

It refers to you thinking "x is the obvious thing to use in this contest" and then going around it and submitting something else, then going a step beyond that and saying "everyone will assume x is obvious and no one will cook it, so if I cook it I'll be the only one" and dithering between these two options


I just hit 0 instead of 9 on the keyboard (I updated it correctly in all other areas of the OP).

Not sure of it's origins, but in these comps "Vizzini" means second-guessing your entry because you assume someone else will be submitting a very similar entry.
I was the first person to use it and am overjoyed it's become such an institution on the board for the build competitions. I forget which round it first came up in but it goes at least as far back as early 2013 with urban soul

[zergling.exe]

I find The Blob picture very ugly

I believe that is the point of it.

[GrayDeath]

Well, Oozes just dont intruige me at all.

So gonna skip this one. Maybe gonna judge but since I do not like Oozes I would likely not be as good as I would prefer at doing so.....sigh

[Thurbane]

Well, Oozes just dont intruige me at all.

So gonna skip this one. Maybe gonna judge but since I do not like Oozes I would likely not be as good as I would prefer at doing so.....sigh

Hopefully we'll have something more up your alley next time around.

I felt we just needed to get this one out of the way, and it was a judge's vote...

[GrayDeath]

Really?

I must have completely overlooked that, since I didn`t vote ;)
I however do understand the need to get it out of the way.

[D&DPrinceTandem]

He Slimed Me! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ng0olzfFzog)
I'm in for this one.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQUEIhBt_DA

[Ammutseba]

Pardon my not understanding, but must a villain be built at CR 20 for these challenges? It looks like you're saying that it has to be built at CR 20, but that there's an option to build it at a different increment of 5. Have I got that right?

[Thurbane]

Pardon my not understanding, but must a villain be built at CR 20 for these challenges? It looks like you're saying that it has to be built at CR 20, but that there's an option to build it at a different increment of 5. Have I got that right?

Correct. The build should include up to CR 20, and snapshots of lower CRs are encouraged.

I recommend looking at some of the previous competition entries to see what a "typical" submission looks like.

[PrismCat21]

I had 2 builds all ready in my mind that I was looking forward to submitting.
Now, I thought of a third one on my drive home from work this morning. Not as powerful, but more slaptasticly fun :elan:
Decisions, decisions....

[Ammutseba]

That's too bad. I had an idea, but CR 20 just has too much going on for me to wrap my head around.

[Thurbane]

That's too bad. I had an idea, but CR 20 just has too much going on for me to wrap my head around.

You could submit a partial-entry at a lower CR, but it's likely to get judging penalties.

[Tiri]

I just found something interesting. It's another villain competition (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?314883-Villain-Victorious-Competition) that popped up two years before this one started, but the first round never got off the ground.

[The Viscount]

Certainly a different ingredient, I'll be interested to see what people make of this one.

[Venger]

definitely down to cook for this one. can't wait to see what people come up with.

[remetagross]

I sure am going to join in as well! Tiri, that was an interesting stuff, the formatting and intent seemed to be a bit further away from what Iron Chef was proposing at the same time. I guess it did not take off because it asked for three villains at once from the contestants.

[Tiri]

I guess it did not take off because it asked for three villains at once from the contestants.

I guess Jormengand just didn't notice it at the time.

[Ammutseba]

You could submit a partial-entry at a lower CR, but it's likely to get judging penalties.

What kind of penalties are we talking about, here? The "it's inconvenient, but we can get over it" kind of penalty or the "thanks for playing but why did you bother?" kind of penalty?

[Thurbane]

What kind of penalties are we talking about, here? The "it's inconvenient, but we can get over it" kind of penalty or the "thanks for playing but why did you bother?" kind of penalty?

...up to the individual judges.

That gives me an idea for a future contest: building an E6 BBEG.

[Tiri]

That gives me an idea for a future contest: building an E6 BBEG.

That could just be a theme for a round of this competition, really.

[ben-zayb]

Wow, this one is hard... I mean there are just a few ways to play as an ooze type without gimping your NPC stats and originality score. Glad to see itsn't limited by type, at least.


Let's see if I can come up with something

[Jormengand]

I guess Jormengand just didn't notice it at the time.

Oh you.



I might do something for this contest. Not sure yet.

[LordOfCain]

...up to the individual judges.

That gives me an idea for a future contest: building an E6 BBEG.

....Ooooohhhhh.... That sounds fun! Either for one round of VC or for a whole new competition!

[Telonius]

I *might* be in for competing. We'll have to see if this can actually function the way I think it does. :nale:

[Buufreak]

I think it is worth to ask, would it be possible to consider to allow ooze related Dragon things just for this round? Only that it seems hard to have a lot of difference with this theme in only first party. Because WoTC doesn't like oozes apparently.

Quoting for the impending delete.

If used, it will likely be up to the individual judge to score based on legality of the material.

[Darrin]

Only that it seems hard to have a lot of difference with this theme in only first party. Because WoTC doesn't like oozes apparently.

I would beg to differ.

Fiendish Monk Gelatinous Cube (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/eo/20060922a)

More Elite Opponents: Oozes (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/eo/20040521a)

Ectoplasmic Ooze (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psb/20021227a).

Skitterhaunt template (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/fw/20021123a).

Intelligent Oozes:
Reason Stealer (MMII)
Conflagration Ooze (MMIII)
Summoning Ooze (MMIII)
Cesspit Ooze (Cityscape)
Assassin Jelly (WotC Article (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20040916a))
Sentry Ooze template (Dungeonscape)

WotC also did a series of articles on Living Spells (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/archeb/ls).

[ben-zayb]

Wouldn't the above count as speculation?:smalleek:

[Troacctid]

I think it is worth to ask, would it be possible to consider to allow ooze related Dragon things just for this round? Only that it seems hard to have a lot of difference with this theme in only first party. Because WoTC doesn't like oozes apparently.
There are ways to make/use living spells other than Spell Sovereign. Spell Sovereign is just the best way to do it.

If you want to include Dragon material, you can put it in an Adaptation section of your build, and it will not be scored. Or you may post the illegal build afterwards, and it will not be scored.

[Darrin]

Wouldn't the above count as speculation?:smalleek:

I'm just throwing resources out there. I wasn't trying to influence anyone's build, but I can redact the post if necessary.

[Thurbane]

I think it is worth to ask, would it be possible to consider to allow ooze related Dragon things just for this round? Only that it seems hard to have a lot of difference with this theme in only first party. Because WoTC doesn't like oozes apparently.

Definitely not. No Dragon mag material so long as I chair.*

*Other than the Compendium hardback.

[PrismCat21]

Definitely not. No Dragon mag material so long as I chair.*

*Other than the Compendium hardback.

Here Here!

[daremetoidareyo]

I think it is worth to ask, would it be possible to consider to allow ooze related Dragon things just for this round? Only that it seems hard to have a lot of difference with this theme in only first party. Because WoTC doesn't like oozes apparently.

Why does it seem like you are always asking for a special dispensation during these comps?

[Tiri]

Why does it seem like you are always asking for a special dispensation during these comps?

I'd venture a guess that it's because she's always asking for special dispensation.

[Inevitability]

The requesting of anything by anyone notwithstanding, I don't think it should be discussed here and now.

[Inevitability]

Why not? I can ask

I was referring to the reactions to your request, actually.

[danielxcutter]

Eminent Chairman, and judges of the previous round, may I ask a question about the decision of this round's theme? I do not intend to insult anyone, but I would like to know how the votes were distributed, and if any of my ideas received decent amounts of votes or were at least legitimate candidates.

[Thurbane]

Unless I missed any, votes were as follows -

Buufreak: 1/2 vote to "ying yang", 1/2 vote to "tag team"
Tiri: 1 vote to "ooze"

[danielxcutter]

Ah, I see.
Thanks Buufreak.

[Vaz]

In. In some capacity.

[Telonius]

Well, looks like my build would fail by RAW. I'll be judging this time around.

[Buufreak]

Well, looks like my build would fail by RAW. I'll be judging this time around.

Any chance to tweek and salvage it?

[danielxcutter]

I have no idea what to make and I won't anyway, but is being related to oozes in some way or another okay, or do you have to be a ooze druid riding an ooze while summoning more oozes?(That was hyperbole, btw.)

[Thurbane]

Don't forget everyone, the entry need not be an Ooze itself. While there are a few intelligent oozes out there, there's also a few PrCs that are very ooze oriented.

Don't worry about Vizzini! :smallbiggrin:

[Venger]

I have no idea what to make and I won't anyway, but is being related to oozes in some way or another okay, or do you have to be a ooze druid riding an ooze while summoning more oozes?(That was hyperbole, btw.)

I mean...




Must be "ooze-related". This can mean of the Ooze type, someone who summons or controls oozes, uses ooze-theme spells or abilities etc. I'm willing to allow a bit of leeway with this one, but the build should be obviously ooze related/inspired. Regardless of type, your entry must have an Intelligence score.

seems like ooze related in some way or another is a-okay this time around.

please edit your post, my dish is an ooze druid riding an ooze while summoning more oozes

[remetagross]

My build is slowly cobbling up in my head. I'm confident I'll manage to submit it a reasonable amount of time before the deadline :smallsmile:

[ben-zayb]

Is March 5th really the deadline? I could've sworn VC normally gives entrants more than a week (I know because I usually cram more than half my entry only during the last week)

[D&DPrinceTandem]

Don't worry about Vizzini! :smallbiggrin:
Or do, because it would be expected not to. :smallbiggrin: But you knowing me would expect me to do that so i cannot do it. But you knowing that i wouldn't you could think that i am going to not do it. So maybe i will. And.....:smallbiggrin:

[that is a Vizzini]

[Thurbane]

Is March 5th really the deadline? I could've sworn VC normally gives entrants more than a week (I know because I usually cram more than half my entry only during the last week)

Ouch - my bad. Updated the OP.

March 19th!

http://i64.tinypic.com/2zp2jjl.jpg

[Tiri]

That certainly takes a weight off my mind.

[PrismCat21]

Ouch - my bad. Updated the OP.

March 19th!
Well shoot! I was pushing myself to put all the pieces together in my spare time, and was nearly there.
Now I'm going to have to relax and put it off another couple weeks. Probably barely submitting it in time...

...I tend to work better under pressure it seems :D

[Thurbane]

...I tend to work better under pressure it seems :D

I know the feeling: when I was studying software development, all of my assignments were completed the day before due date, and studying was done on the morning of the exam! Got a High Distinction in every subject; although I'm surprised I never got a stomach ulcer or had an aneurysm. :smalltongue:

[PrismCat21]

I know the feeling: when I was studying software development, all of my assignments were completed the day before due date, and studying was done on the morning of the exam! Got a High Distinction in every subject;
Oh yeah. The first time I went to college, I had a full time night job, and two part time jobs.
No school work even got started until 'due date'. :)
A on almost everything :D


although I'm surprised I never got a stomach ulcer or had an aneurysm. :smalltongue:
I developed other problems..., just as bad though. 0_o'

[The Viscount]

Oh yeah. The first time I went to college, I had a full time night job, and two part time jobs.
No school work even got started until 'due date'. :)
A on almost everything :D

Ah that time-honored college adage: Due tomorrow? Do tomorrow.
I remember it well

[sakuuya]

I love oozes, but I've been away from the boards for a long time and my character-building skills are rusty. I'm in to judge; hopefully looking at everybody else's awesome creations will get me back into the proper mindset.. :smallbiggrin:

[3SecondCultist]

Alright, I've been out of the game for too long, but I think I'm going to bounce back for this one! I have a devilish ooze that's just so incredibly slimy... :smallbiggrin:

[Thurbane]

Under a week to go...how are the entries coming along?

[Inevitability]

I have a reasonably interesting concept, but I'm not sure if I'll be on time.

[PrismCat21]

Under a week to go...how are the entries coming along?

Sounds like it's about time to get started again :elan:

[daremetoidareyo]

Judging Iron Chef slowed me down. I have an idea... MWA HA HA

[remetagross]

I think I'll be ready on time :)

[Telonius]

Okay maybe this isn't the best time, but I just had what I think might be a great idea for a future round.

You know how in the official D&D books most of the villains are really ****tily built? So how about having a round where you take one of those villains (and maybe add some backstory or something that fits) and actually optimize it?

I've got a bucketful of those from Shackled City. :smallbiggrin: I love the idea, but I'm not sure how that would work with the Open Gaming License (whether from adventure paths or other example characters from sourcebooks).

[Tiri]

I think I could get behind a round like that.

[Jormengand]

So I've entered. In a flash of inspiration, I wrote up a build... which was really silly, but could be fun. Probably the most you're gonna get out of me, in any case.

[Thurbane]

Is Kingdoms of Kalamar legal?

Unfortunately not.

[Inevitability]

By the way, the '15' part of the build table provided is broken.

[Inevitability]

Build submitted!

[Buufreak]

Build submitted!

Judging pro tip: That is 2 to claim submission. Meaning he will totally be the 2nd build ;)

[Technetium43]

Competing pro tip: I never posted when I submitted my build. :smallwink: yes I'm aware of the sarcasm, just felt like sassing

[Tiri]

I never post when I submit either. Honestly, it just seems pointless to me. It only matters when the Chairman posts all the builds, not at any point before.

[Thurbane]

I've had requests to extend the deadline - in the interest of "more entries make a better comp", I'm bumping it for a whole extra week!

http://i64.tinypic.com/6drhpf.jpg

[D&DPrinceTandem]

I've had requests to extend the deadline - in the interest of "more entries make a better comp", I'm bumping it for a whole extra week!

http://i64.tinypic.com/6drhpf.jpg
Oh thank Slimy dates, i thought o wasn't going to be able to submit. Thanks!

[Tiri]

That certainly takes a weight off my mind.

[Venger]

That is extremely kind of you. More time to pretty up my dish.

[Inevitability]

I've had requests to extend the deadline - in the interest of "more entries make a better comp", I'm bumping it for a whole extra week!

http://i64.tinypic.com/6drhpf.jpg

What have you done? Now all my perfectly good rushing and stressing has been for nothing! :smalltongue:

[PrismCat21]

What have you done? Now all my perfectly good rushing and stressing has been for nothing! :smalltongue:

I hear ya!
Here I was all ready to rush through it today to complete it. Now that I know we have more time, I have much less drive to complete it today. :(

Time to slack off I guess

[Darrin]

Gah... finally got an entry in. I've been noodling around several ideas for the last month, but this'll have to do for now. Oozes are kinda my kryptonite, so I'm very curious to see what everyone else has cooked up.

[Venger]

still finishing mine. I'm going to submit if it kills me. can't wait to see what everyone did.

[Tiri]

I'm just hoping this is one of those times Thurbane doesn't post the entries until about six hours after the deadline, because my Internet connection is about to stop working and won't be back on in time.

[Buufreak]

I'm just hoping this is one of those times Thurbane doesn't post the entries until about six hours after the deadline, because my Internet connection is about to stop working and won't be back on in time.

Grounds for a mild, roughly 6 hour extension?

[Thurbane]

I'm just hoping this is one of those times Thurbane doesn't post the entries until about six hours after the deadline, because my Internet connection is about to stop working and won't be back on in time.

Unfortunately, due to time zone differences and the fact I'm about to leave for work, the reveal won't be until about ten hours time...

[ben-zayb]

Gah! Finally. Admittedly, I'm very disappointed with my write-up compared to my previous entries, but I think this kind of villain will only work on an Ooze-themed round

[Venger]

Gah! Finally. Admittedly, I'm very disappointed with my write-up compared to my previous entries, but I think this kind of villain will only work on an Ooze-themed round

can't wait to see what you have. I'm just putting the finishing touches on my ooze.

[Thurbane]

Without any further ado, here's the reveal (6.5 hours late or so)

PLEASE REFRAIN FROM POSTING UNTIL I GIVE THE ALL-CLEAR

[Thurbane]

http://img00.deviantart.net/078c/i/2014/126/8/e/winter_witch_by_lostknightkg-d7hdroy.jpg

The Living Darkness
CE Anarchic Void Ooze Soul Eater 10


it is dark

so dark

why is it dark

what was before dark

i do not remember

there was something

but i dont remember

why dont i remember

i am trapped

high walls

no food

but mostly

it is dark

***

(The following excerpt was found scribbled in the margins of a spellbook belonging to the lich, Zilquik the Eternal. If taken from the Museum of Failed Villainy, please return it.)

53rd Allure, Year 603 of the Age of Pyre

I have done it! Those fools said I was not ready to do my own binding, that I should stick to Necromancy. Hah! What utter idiocy! The summoning was quite simple, the ooze wasn't even intelligent enough to resist my binding, and this isn't even my specialty. I'm keeping it in a pit for now, with the circle around it, and a grate over the top, there's no possible way it could escape. With it, I can keep myself fueled up with negative energy! With this, I have truly ascended past mortality! The world will learn to fear the name of ZILQUIK THE ETERNAL!

(The rest of the page is largely taken up by a rather exacting transcription of an evil laugh, and part of a ritual to 'Summon A Pie Fiend'.)


***

it is dark

a food came today

food was white and thin

and not right

i dont know why its not right

but it is i know it i know it

i could not eat

and so was bad

food badtouch me

i feel goodfeel leave my body

and go to food

i dont like it i dont like it

there is light where food is

and i want it

but mostly i want food

food leaves

it is dark

***

(This entry was found hastily scribbled on a coffee stained scroll of Magic Missile. We didn't think liches could even drink coffee.)

55th Allure, Year 603 of the Age of Pyre

It works! IT WORKS! This ooze, which I have decided to call D.A.R.K.N.E.S.S (which stands for Disposal And Removal of Kills and Negative Energy Supply Station!), let me refuel after clearing out the last remaining goblins that previously occupied this dungeons. What fools, how dare they stand in the way of ZILQUIK THE ETERNA- what's that? I think I heard something.

(At this point the text is interrupted by a crappy stick figure drawing of a skeleton cackling, with lightning striking in the background, drawn in blood. That would be adorable, if it weren't both sad and terrifying. Almost as sad as his acronym making skill.)


***

it is dark

but i do not care

i do not care

because i ate today

and it made me feel good

there was lots of noise

which was bad

and food came back

and did badtouch

but when badtouch was done

he gave whole food

this 'ad-ven-cher-er' was very good

and good and tasty and good

it made me goodfeel

i want more

i want more

i want more

i want more

i want more

i want more

it isnt dark

why isnt dark

***

(This text appears to be a continuation of the previous entry, written a few hours later on the other side of the scroll.)

Ahahahaha! YES! I just took out my first batch of adventurers! Apparently they thought this place was still occupied with goblins. FOOLS. They weren't expecting ZILQUIK THE ETERNAL!!!! Also, I found that if I fed the bodies to the D.A.R.K.N.E.S.S. (which is an awesome name, no matter what Brent says. You're just a zombie anyways Brent. IDIOT.) and it was much more willing to heal me and my minions. Now, where was I? Oh right. What fools, how dare they stand in the way of ZILQUIK THE ETERNAL!!!!! AHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!

(This is the last of the notes from Zilquik, for further information, see our audio transcription entry at 'FACESMASHER, ANGBAR, ADVENTURE 7' for his interview.)


***

it hasnt been dark for a while

there was lots of badnoise

untasty white food came

but something made him leave

the something food

took off grate

and looked at me

but left

mean

i want it

there is light and food out there

untasty white food is gone

and wont feed me

i want more

i want more

i want more

i want more

***

(The following is a transcription of the audio from one of our curators interviewing the Dwarven Crusader, Angbar Facesmasher, following the success of his 7th straight adventure.)

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT

CURATOR: Now, Angbar, I've heard that you've managed to take out the 'dreaded' lich, Zilquik the Eternal. How ever could you have managed this task?

(Angbar and the Curator chuckle)

ANGBAR FACESMASHER: Well, heheh, I can tell ya it certainly wasn't anything special. Why, just a coupla' blows from my MIGHTY WARHAMMER was enough to get 'im to retreat.

CURATOR: Retreat?

ANGBAR: Well, basically. 'E ran off to this weird... magic circle in tha ground, surroundin' a grate, stuck his bony hand right in thar. Dunno what 'e was tryin' ta do, but I dragged him away and we finished tha job right quick. And of course, destroyed his phylact'ry as well. We aren't idjits.

CURATOR: Hmm. Did you ever figure out what this magic circle was?

ANGBAR: Kinda. Landon 'ad a look at it, said it was some kinda bindin' circle. I lifted the grate, 'spectin to find somethin' else to fight, but there weren't nothin' in thar. Just darkness.

CURATOR: Well, that certainly sounds disappointing. Much like Zilquik's villainous career.

(Angbar and the Curator chuckle)

CURATOR: Well that's all the time I have for today. Glad to see another successful contribution to our collection here at the Museum Of Failed Villainy. I hope to see many more such contributions from you Angbar, you've done quite well so far!

ANGBAR: HAHA! Aye, thank ya, and I certainly hope so as well!

END TRANSCRIPT


***

i leave the hole

there is light and good small food

i am big

why am i big

i can see me

i am not light and not food

and this is good

there is not enough me

and too much food

i must fix

so i eat lots of food

i get lots of big

some 'ad-ven-cher-er'

try to badtouch me

i food them

they are good

it isn't dark enough

i will make it dark

this is good




Attribute
Base
Racial
Level
Total


Strength
14
10
2
26


Dexterity
12
-10
-
2


Constitution
15
16
1
32


Intelligence
8
Min 3
-
3


Wisdom
13
-10
-
3


Charisma
10
-10
-
1




Anarchic Void Ooze (10 HD) Soul Eater 10



CR
Class
BAB
Fort
Ref
Will
Skills
Feats
Class Features


10
Anarchic Void Ooze
+7
+3
+3
+3
Hide 9 (9), Knowledge (Arcana) 4 (2)
Alertness, Weapon Focus (Slam), Willing Deformity
Blindsight 60', Death Ward, Ooze Traits, Energy Drain, Energy Resistance, Engulf, Fast Healing 3, Shadow Shield, Smite Law 1/day, Split


11
Soul Eater 1
+8
+5
+5
+5
Hide 1 (10)
-
Energy Drain 1


12
Soul Eater 2
+9
+6
+6
+6
Hide 1 (11)
Deformity (Teeth)
DR 5/Magic, Fast Healing 5, Soul Strength


13
Soul Eater 3
+10
+6
+6
+6
Hide 1 (12)
-
Soul Blast


14
Soul Eater 4
+11
+7
+7
+7
Hide 1 (13)
-
Soul Enhancement


15
Soul Eater 5
+12
+7
+7
+7
Hide 1 (14)
Deformity (Clawed Hands)
Soul Endurance


16
Soul Eater 6
+13
+8
+8
+8
Hide 1 (15)
-
Soul Radiance


17
Soul Eater 7
+14
+8
+8
+8
Hide 1 (16)
-
Energy Drain 2


18
Soul Eater 8
+15
+9
+9
+9
Hide 1 (17)
Darkstalker
Soul Agility


19
Soul Eater 9
+16
+9
+9
+9
Hide 1 (18)
-
Soul Slave


20
Soul Eater 10
+17
+10
+10
+10
Hide 1 (19)
-
Soul Power



Total Skill Ranks: Hide 19, Knowledge (Arcana) 2

10 is the starting CR for this build. At this point the Living Darkness is just a simple, unadvanced Void Ooze (Planar Handbook pg. 126) with the Anarchic Template applied (Planar Handbook pg. 108). It has been bound by a lich as what amounts to a garbage disposal system/negative energy dispenser/backup plan. This is consistent with the description of Void Oozes in the Planar Handbook:


Some intelligent undead will cultivate a void ooze and use its negative energy touch to repair damage to themselves and their minions.

At this point, despite being fairly annoying in its own right, it's more of a footnote to the actual encounter with its lich owner, or Filquik the Unliving in the example story. It can either work as a fight after the original fight, when the party is still drained from the previous encounter, or it can be saved for... later things, which I'll bring up in the next breakdown.

Alertness, Weapon Focus (Slam), and the Knowledge (Arcana) ranks are prerequisites to enter into Soul Eater at CR 11. Willing Deformity is more meant to represent how creepy and unnerving it is, at this point, and leads the way into further Deformity feats later in the build. And the Hide ranks... well, those will come up later.
And here we get to the meat of the Living Darkness' build, and why I chose these individual elements in the first place. First, there's the following ability of the Void Ooze:


Split (Ex): If a void ooze’s energy drain attack would increase its hit points to 200 or more, it instead splits into two void oozes, each with 100 hit points, as a free action. The new ooze appears adjacent to its parent. If no space is available, it cannot spawn on this turn (but will do so as soon as space is available).

Split abilities are not unique to the Void Ooze, but the Void Ooze has the unique benefit of being able to trigger splits without any sort of 'cheese' being applied, or really any thought. Instead, it is caused by the most natural thing for it to be doing: attacking anything living. It doesn't have to attack itself with a slashing weapon, or use elemental attacks on itself, which an Int 3 creature would almost never do.

Then we get to the next quirk that makes the Void Ooze good for this, that is, the lack of scaling. If its Energy Drain attack (which, keep in mind, also includes the Energy Drain from Soul Eater, which is part of why I used it), increases its hit points to 200 or more, it splits into two. This works EVEN IF its base HP is more than 200, meaning that any attack at full HP will cause it to split. Technically it can pull this off from the start, but the rate is drastically increased by taking the Deformity feats (Clawed Hands effectively gives it better Improved Unarmed Strike, and Teeth gives it a bite) combined with Soul Eater's Energy Drain. At CR 15, the Living Darkness will have, on average, 277 HP when at full health, with the Soul Endurance boost, along with Fast Healing 5, DR 5/Magic, and the ability to gain a potential 30 Temporary HP a round, if all attacks hit.

Now, then we get to the last bit that makes the combo work: the Anarchic Template. The Anarchic Template can EXPLICITLY be applied to Oozes, unlike Celestial and Axiomatic, sharing this trait with Fiendish. And, as shown by the Fiendish Gelatinous Cube Monk, this was quite intentional. Why Anarchic over Fiendish? Simple. Fast Healing. With the ability to force splits very easily, the only other thing left to overcome is that it always leaves it at 100 HP, regardless of what it's at before. The easiest way to get around this, due to the Void Ooze's continuous Death Ward preventing Tomb Tainted Soul from working, is Fast Healing, which Anarchic neatly provides. This means that the Living Darkness can attack something from the darkness, split into a perfect copy of itself, run away, heal up, and repeat.

This effectively means you can have it show up exactly as often as you need it to. Whatever the party is capable of handling, you can throw it at them. In fact, the better the PCs are at beating this build, the more usable it becomes. You could have an entire campaign based around finding the original, or finding a way to eliminate all 'pockets' of oozes, as they spread across the campaign setting. It can be tailored to your exact needs. However, if you want a full analysis of what it COULD be like, that will be in the next analysis.
So at this point, it's assumed that your party has run into the Living Darkness a few times, at least a couple of them. Perhaps it's getting a little stale, maybe you want to mix things up a little. Well look no further than the 6th level ability of the Soul Eater, Soul Radiance. For your reference, have a handy transcript:


Soul Radiance (Su): If a 6th-level soul eater completely drains a creature of energy, it may adopt the creatures soul radiance, taking the victims's form, appearance, and abilities (as the shapechange spell) for 24 hours.

Yes, that's Shapechange Shapechange. The 9th level, subject of many a banning and forum debate, Shapechange. Sure it's not exactly the full unlimited potential of the spell, but 'oh no, how terrible'. With this, literally anything the players run across can secretly be a victim of the Living Darkness. Its god awful mental stats are actually a boon here, giving the poor residents of this campaign world a pretty good shot at actually identifying whether something is real or not. And, speaking of bodies, there's also the 9th level ability of Soul Eater to take into account:


Soul Slave (Su): If a 9th-level soul eater completely drains a creature of energy, the victim becomes a wight under the command of the soul eater.

Note the general lack of restrictions there. This means that pretty much anything can be either the Living Darkness, a thrall under the command of the Living Darkness, or an unrelated undead (as it pretty much ignores all undead due to not being food). For those of you who've read the Crystal Cantrips campaign journal, picture the end stages of the Drifter's occupation. Just... less hivemind-y. Again, this is adjustable to the needs of your campaign. It can either be a locally limited problem, or a global apocalyptic phenomenon.

Oh, and remember the Hide ranks? That I brought up in the CR 10 breakdown? Yeah, this is when they come into play. The Living Darkness' Shadow Shield ability effectively means that it's constantly in darkness, meaning it basically has Hide In Plain Sight, combined with its perfect flight and Darkstalker. This can add to the creepy tone of its encounters, and, while its hiding skills aren't great, and certainly not enough to fool a dedicated scout, it can easily use it to sneak into civilian settlements, and begin chompin' away. Or, well, schlorping away. There's really no good sound effect here.

To give you a good idea of how a single splinter fares, each fragment has an average of 364 HP, DR 5/Magic, Fast Healing 5, +4 to all physical stats, +2 to pretty much all rolls, constant concealment, the ability to shoot rays of soul energy, flight, the ability to bestow up to 13 negative levels in a round, and gain up to 65 Temporary HP from said negative levels.

An Anarchic Ooze, that seems weird? Isn't that just for mechanical effect? Why not use Sentry Ooze?

Primordial, chaotic oozes are a trope for a reason. Their mutability and protean nature lends them nicely to 'otherness', and the Anarchic Template feels like a good way to represent that. Additionally, the binding of 'Elemental Alignment' creatures (Anarchic, Axiomatic, Celestial, Fiendish) is standard procedure, and while messing with Limbo is a bad idea, it's better than either the Negative Energy Plane, or any of the Lower Planes. Not using Sentry Ooze is for two reasons. First of all, no fast healing. That's the most important part of the Anarchic Template. Second of all, having the Living Darkness with high mental stats would be kind of unfair and unfun from the perspective of the later parts of the build, once it gets Soul Radiance. Better to keep it as a 'zombie plague' equivalent, rather than a 'hate plague'. If you want a more horror themed campaign, you could use Sentry Ooze, but that's just an alternative option.

Anarchic doesn't really give an Int score, that makes no sense!

Hoo boy. Normally, I wouldn't exactly disagree with you. There's no real reason why being infused with chaotic essence would suddenly grant this blob the ability to think. But, and there is precedent for it, it works. The Fiendish Gelatinous Cube Monk (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/eo/20060922a) shows that the Fiendish (and by extension, the Anarchic) templates do in fact provide mindless creatures with an intelligence score. It 'sets' the score, and doesn't add to it, thus it doesn't run into the 'adding a number to a - still makes -' clause. Additionally, it even proves that not being mindless doesn't take away the ooze's innate mind affecting immunity. That's just a function of Sentry Ooze.

What's with the Deformity feats? That seems kinda odd for a largely instinctual being.

While it does seem odd at first glance, I see it less an intentionally deformity of the self, and more of the Living Darkness attempting to mimic its prey. 'Oh hey, my food has pointy face bits for eating food, I want those!' 'Oh hey, they use sharp claw things to grab and hold food! Neat!' Being effectively a blob of primordial darkness, 'body' doesn't exactly mean much to it. If it decides it wants these things, it just... kinda happens. This is also what the picture is supposed to represent, which is why it's almost humanoid.

Hey wait a minute, was the story of Zilquik stolen from ToME?

Observant! But, I wouldn't exactly say stolen. One of my earlier ideas was to recreate Z'quikzshl, but I forgot that he was a skeletal mold, not a skeletal ooze like I thought. However, the lore dropped was amusing enough that I decided to base the 'example' villain off of it, in roughly the same style.

Book of Vile Darkness - Deformity (Clawed Hands), Soul Eater
Heroes of Horror - Deformity (Teeth), Willing Deformity
Lords of Madness - Darkstalker
Planar Handbook - Anarchic Creature Template, Void Ooze

[Thurbane]

The Spellbirth

You approach what appears to be the Spellbirth, the creature rumoured to be the source of all magic. You don't know that you believe that, but it certainly looks the part, with whirls of arcane magic blurring around its amorphous form. In the centre sits a hole in the shape of a tiny, almost unassuming rat. Wait, a rat?

A moment later, that rat is a roaring - but invisible - dragon, and you begin to regret your life choices.

The Spellbirth:
Huge Neutral Evil Agender Sentry Living Wish Ooze 17/Sorcerer 1
Ability Scores: 19/22/19/2/26/29 (Living spell and sentry ooze directly set all of your ability scores, and that's the result you get). All increases go to charisma, resulting in 19/22/19/2/26/33 as your ability scores at 18th level. Due to its ability to cast wish at will, it gets +5 to all ability scores, giving it 24/27/24/7/31/38

Word of warning: This build is kinda dumb. But it's fun dumb.

Here, have a nice table:



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


19
Ooze 17
+12
+23
+20
+23
Spellcraft 20
Ability Focus (Spell Effect), Ability Focus (Engulf), Improved Unarmed Strike, Improved Grapple, Extend Supernatural Ability (ToM), Extend Supernatural Ability (ToM)
AC Bonus (+9 deflect), Slam 1d8, Engulf DC 35, Spell Effect DC 35, DR 10/magic, SR 27, Save bonus (+9 resist)


20
Ooze 17/Sorcerer 1
+12
+22
+23
+25
Spellcraft 21
Augment Summoning
Spells (Detect Magic, Ghost Sound, Mage Hand and Prestidigitation 5/day, Mount and Tenser's Floating Disk 7/day), Summon Familiar (Rat)



To be clear, the rat familiar has 84 hit points and 18 effective hit dice, +9 natural armour and an intelligence of 14, as well as the alertness, share spells, improved evasion, empathic link, deliver touch spells, speak with master, speak with animals of its kind, spell resistance (23) and scry on familiar abilities.

Normally.Right, living spell is a template that is applied to a spell. What? Okay, so basically it changes the spell into a creature, slaps a CR on it (the spell level, plus half the caster level, rounding down). It then triggers the spell effect on each creature you hit, and once per round on each creature you have engulfed (unlike a gelatinous cube, a living spell doesn't otherwise harm the creature you've engulfed). Sentry ooze just slaps some nice stat boosts on you and gives you an intelligence score so you're playable.

Where does the rat come in? Well, the rat can sit inside the living spell, soaking up a wish every round, and get some nice buffs. Polymorph Any Object is the obvious one, but greater invisibility and spell turning are also quite nice. Heal is useful if someone hurts your rat. Contingency probably doesn't work, but if it does you can slap a contingent heal or teleport on it.What's a villain without some mooks?

The spellbirth ought to be relevant before the CR 20 where it's actually fightable, so it's entirely possible to have "Spellbirth cultists" who go and deliberately seek out the spellbirth to see what spells it grants them. Because it can whack itself in the face with its own slam (the logistics of this are disputable when you're a cube, but it's certainly technically possible) it can make itself comprehend languages and hear the cultists out. You may hear tales of someone who wanted revenge on someone being greater teleported to them with an iron body spell active. All it wants in return is the cultists' undying loyalty. After all, it can teleport itself too, so you may find yourself in trouble if you betray it...

Eventually, there'll probably be a large presence of Spellbirth cultists, because "Any eighth-level arcane or sixth-level divine spell you can name" is too good to pass up, as well as the +5 to all ability scores which, for an ordinary person, is hugely important. Oh, and you can bring the dead back to life. That's nice too.So the PCs probably wanna fight this thing I guess. Good luck.

First thing they'll have to contend with is that you'll probably quickly PAO everyone on your side into a dragon. And then summon more creatures to PAO into dragons. They'll also have access to buffs like iron body if they need them. You'll then greater teleport away, because no-one likes fighting personally when you have minions to do it for you. That said, if you do just run over your enemies, they need a DC 35 reflex save to avoid you, a DC 35 save of your choice of fortitude or will against death if you do grab them, and an opposed grapple against +31 to escape. You can probably choose Prismatic Wall as the spell whose effect they're subjected to, causing them to take 120 points of damage, and two fort-or-lose effects, and two will-or-lose effects. It's a little unclear whether living spells - especially living wish - work like that, though.

[Thurbane]

The Talariic Abomination

http://68.media.tumblr.com/57a9d47c5093c820f22bf920ad6746ae/tumblr_ni6dejplOT1t7m1kbo1_1280.jpg

NE Advanced Sentry Flotsam Ooze War Mind 5/Cleric of Shothotugg 3/War Mind +4

"Fragments of the Talariic codex have been found carved in buried skulls, engraved in stone slabs, and even worked in the design of potent magical glyphs. More often than not, these texts predate the known humanoid civilizations by millennia.

The obvious question then being: what wrote them?"


Deep beneath the earth, in dead cities older than the gods, the aboleth lie waiting. Immortal and patient, they know that one they their chance to rise and rule the world once more will come.

But sometimes, this patience suddenly melts away, and an aboleth sets about accomplishing something great. It becomes obsessed by the alien aboleth gods, trying to honor them in its own twisted ways. Often, it dies of starvation or exhaustion before completing their works.

The aboleth that created the Abomination was no different. It had filled a basin with acidic ooze. It had given it a mind, if only be fusing the minds of a hundred sacrifices together. It had imparted upon it some instinctive urge to kill, to maim, to grow stronger. And as it felt its consciousness fading, it threw itself into its creation, joining it in death the moment it was freed from domination.

The other aboleths tolerated the being. After all, it seemed content to slither through their caves and eat the occasional bat. Some aboleths even took a perverse pleasure in watching it slowly kill its prey, mauling their bodies until they could barely be called alive and only then dissolving them.

But as it continued to feed, the abomination slowly grew, and the aboleth became worried. After all, the Eater of Worlds was not known to spare any from its destructive urges: why would this imitation be any different? Certainly it was only a matter of time before the abomination would start to see them as prey, too.

Worried of what would happen if they killed or enslaved it, the aboleth lured the ooze far from their city, collapsed the tunnel behind it, and placed glyphs to prevent it from returning. And indeed, they never saw it again.

But as it hungrily wandered through passages unknown, the abomination noticed something new: light and warmth. Curious, it slithered towards these sensations.

It was then that the Abomination spotted a group of beings it had never seen before. Rather than crawl or slither, they walked upright on two legs, with two other limbs holding bits of metal and wood. Their skins were strangely colored and ill-fitting, their eyes small and vulnerable.

The Abomination attacked immediately. A pseudopod lashed out and took down several of the creatures, but more remained standing.

The Abomination's form tumultuous, it devoured several of the bats stuck to it. Stirred by the exhaustion of their minds, several more pseudopods sprouted and smashed into the remaining humanoids.

For a moment, the goo-covered monstrosity stood silent, observing these interesting new creatures. Then, it began to ooze up the passage they seemed to have come from.

Perhaps there'd be more food up there.

Starting array:
STR: 15
DEX: 14
CON: 10
INT: 8
WIS: 13
CHA: 12

Flotsam ooze adjustments:
STR: 19
DEX: 14
CON: 22
INT: —
WIS: 3
CHA: 2

Sentry ooze adjustments:

STR: 19
DEX: 20
CON: 22
INT: 2
WIS: 13
CHA: 12

Advancement:
STR: 43
DEX: 16
CON: 34
INT: 2
WIS: 13
CHA: 12

The Abomination's 30 HD give it seven ability score increases. These are assigned as such:
4: Intelligence
8: Strength
12: Wisdom
16: Strength
20: Strength
24: Intelligence
28: Strength

Final ability scores:
STR: 47
DEX: 16
CON: 34
INT: 4
WIS: 14
CHA: 12



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


2
Flotsam Ooze
+1
+0
+0
+0
-
-
Adhesive, 60 ft. Blindsight, Transparent


4
Sentry Ooze
+1
+0
+0
+0
Knowledge (History) +2, Knowledge (Psionics) +½
Power Attack
Spell Resistance


8
Advancement (+16 HD)
+13
+6
+6
+6
Knowledge (Psionics) +7½, Listen +1
Cleave, Subduing Strike, Great Cleave, Wild Talent, Extend Spell, Persist Spell
Gargantuan size


9
War Mind 1
+14
+8
+8
+6
Psicraft +1
-
Chain of Personal Superiority +2, Manifesting


10
War Mind 2
+15
+9
+9
+6
Psicraft +2
-
Chain of Defensive Posture +2


11
War Mind 3
+16
+9
+9
+7
Psicraft +3
Fast Healing
Enduring Body (DR 1/—)


12
War Mind 4
+17
+10
+10
+7
Psicraft +4
-
-


13
War Mind 5
+18
+10
+10
+7
Autohypnosis +1
-
Sweeping Strike


14
Cleric 1
+18
+12
+10
+9
Concentration +1
Divine Metamagic (Persistent Spell)
Domains (Ooze+Pain), Rebuke Undead, Spellcasting


15
Cleric 2
+19
+13
+10
+10
Concentration +2
-
-


16
Cleric 3
+20
+13
+11
+10
Concentration +3
-
-


17
War Mind 6
+21
+14
+12
+11
Concentration +4
Practiced Manifester
Enduring Body (DR 1/—)


18
War Mind 7
+22
+14
+12
+11
Concentration +5
-
Chain of personal superiority +4


19
War Mind 8
+23
+15
+13
+11
Concentration +6
-
Chain of defensive posture +4


20
War Mind 9
+24
+15
+13
+12
Concentration +7
Expanded Knowledge (Share Pain)
Enduring body (DR 3/—)



Power Points:



CR
PP


9
3


10
11


11
12


12
18


13
25


17
34


18
44


19
55


20
67



Powers Known:
Level 1: Expansion (9), Grip of Iron (10)
Level 2: Share Pain (20), Strength of My Enemy (12)
Level 3: Dimension Slide (17)
Level 4: Psionic Dimension Door (19)

Spell Slots:



CR
0
1
2


14
3
2+1
-


15
4
3+1
-


16+
4
3+1
2+1



The Abomination's domains are Ooze and Pain. Its domain slots are usually filled with Grease and Sadism.


"The perfect offense is absolute. It is a fire that burns all, a flood that washes all away, a storm that strips bare the land. It is not swayed by sword or spell, but singular and unstoppable."

-The Talariic Codex

A Flotsam Oozes's Adhesive ability is quite confusing. As written, stuck opponents can't get free while the ooze is alive, written in a way that implies teleportation doesn't work either.

Interestingly, it seems to override Freedom of Movement as well, as no grapple check is needed to grapple a creature and checks to escape can't succeed by virtue of Adhesive's wording.

Soap may dissolve the adhesive, but how many adventuring parties both carry soap and know to apply it? Even then, a +9 check ought to make escape hard.

That said, the Abomination isn't that interesting at these levels yet. It's small and smart enough to ambush people, so perhaps have it adhere to one of the party's smaller members and then attempt to flee underwater.

"The joy of battle is what spurns a warrior. Let each swing of the sword lend power to the subsequent! Let each conquest be a step towards the next! Let each broken body be a warning to those opposing you!"

-The Talariic Codex

Sixteen extra HD have greatly increased the Abomination's SR. From now on, it'll be equal to its CR+12: more than able to stop a fair deal of incoming spells, at least until opponents figure out it has SR.

With more BAB, strength, and size modifiers, its ability to grapple has gone up tremendously, with a +42 grapple modifier at CR 8. Whoever it slams is just going to get dragged along for the ride.

However, damage output is lacking with a single attack per round. That's where some of the newly gained feats come in! With Subduing Strike, the Abomination can knock out small creatures (I recommend bats or toads) and attach them to its body, allowing it to attack them again (seemingly without requiring an action) each round. Whenever it wants, it can make such an attack lethal, kill the weak cretin, and Great Cleave a more dangerous foe. With a single bat or toad weighing less than an ounce, the Abomination can drag along hundreds, if not thousands, of them.

"The warrior does not do battle, he is battle. Where the common man must fight mindset and belief to harm another, the warrior's state of being is already focused on combat, and bringing this might to bear requires but a subtle shift in posture."

-The Talariic Codex

Thousands of attacks per round is fun and all, but having to renew your supply of weak animals afterwards is kind of a pain. Fortunately, Sweeping Strike turns every attack the Abomination makes (yes, including the free adhesive attacks) into a two-square-affecting blow. This means that it can now make as many attacks as it has attached creatures, each round.

Some sturdier creatures may be preferable over bats by now, though. Ideally they have many HP, but a low weight and bad grapple checks: maybe ambush a gnomish adventuring party.

War Mind has also brought some other goodies. Expansion lets the Abomination grow to Colossal size, Grip of Iron boosts its grapple checks even further, the various mastered Chains are good in-combat buffs, and Strength of My Enemy lets it drain a point of strength from a helpless attached creature each round, letting it grow stronger over the course of a fight.

Also, Fast Healing will help the ooze recover from fights and be slightly harder to take down.

"Do not love the causing of pain, for love distracts from battle."

-The Talariic Codex

Essentially limitless attacks are nice and all, but don't forget accuracy! By Persisting Sadism, the Abomination gets approximately +4 to attack rolls, skill checks and saving throws for each attached creature, not including the damage dealt to nonattached beings.

Blood Wind, though not Persistable, gives the Abomination an attack option to use at range. Adhesive should theoretically carry over on such strikes as well.

Finally, it is worth noting that with the Ooze domain, the Abomination can command other oozes.

"A warrior carries the world upon his shoulders, and unthankfully it strikes at him. Does he not deserve to return that pain?"

-The Talariic Codex

No big tricks here, though Dimension Slide and Dimension Door do provide some additional movement options. In addition, the Abomination now has enough power points to be permanently Expanded.

Expanded Knowledge gets it Share Pain, which can be used on an unconscious (and therefore willing) attached creature. As long as the chosen victim is a bit sturdy, this doubles the Abomination's HP (as if it didn't have enough already).

What motivation to give a pseudo-divinely-inspired, aboleth-made ooze? There's a few.

One could run the Abomination as any other hungry monster, just killing people until some adventurers stop it. In such a case, I suggest adding a tactical element by having one of the adhered creatures be some kind of plot-relevant NPC. This forces the PCs to be careful with AoEs and forces them to act quickly should the ooze flee into a body of water. Alternatively, the Abomination may instinctively recognize the PC's as prime victims (seeing they are tough yet lightweight) and attempt to add them to its mass.

Alternatively, the Abomination may still be connected to the aboleth colony it sprouted from. Perhaps it's simple muscle used by the psionic slime-slugs, or perhaps it is motivated by whatever dark intellect possesses it. Used in this way, the Abomination can be part of any of the possible aboleth plots.

Finally, there's the option of fluffing the Abomination as one of the many ways used by Shothotugg to destroy worlds. A mortal mind is made to create a small replica of the being, which slowly grows and matures until it assimilates its homeworld's biomass, shatters the planet, and becomes another world-eater. The PCs must stop it to save not just their, but many other planets as well.

Cleave, Cleric, Extend Spell, Great Cleave, Persist Spell, Power Attack - PHB
Flotsam Ooze - FF
Sentry Ooze - Dun
Expanded Knowledge, War Mind, Wild Talent - EPH
Shothotugg - LoM
Subduing Strike, BoED
Fast Healing - ELH
Divine Metamagic - CD
Practiced Manifester - CPsi

[Thurbane]

Miss Dember Mint
CE Mistling (Forge of War p.153) Amphibious (Stormwrack p.136) Rime Sprite (web (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/fw/20030223a))


https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/proxy/EJJgj4-CLWuInSb1Vv-IIpFibseHzwbr1ZgcxOYbIhqPwYijVXbdmLT5qwE-TBwGpzJToI6xUBCp0HvbtCiPlCrg8zeFLr0=w530-h298-p

Str 6 Dex 21 Con 16 Int 18 wis 8 Cha 23
All stat bonuses go to charisma




CR
HD
Class
bab
fort
ref
Will
Skills
Feat
Class Features


2
1
Metamagic specialist (PHB2 p.62) Sorcerer
0
0
0
2
knowledge (Arcane) 4, knowledge history (2), concentration 4, spellcraft 4, bluff 4, craft (goldsmith) 4, UMD (2), Ride (ooze) 2
Incarnum spellshaping (MOI p.38)
Racial: Feats: Dodge, Improved initiative, Mobility,Spell-Like Abilities: At will -- create water, dancing lights, ghost sound, open/close, ray of frost; 3/day -- entangle, minor image, obscuring mist. Caster level 1st; save DC 14 + spell level. Snow Flurry (Su), Water Walk (Su): Nat Armor +2, 1d2 claw attack, aligned strike (Su), magic strike (Su), poison (Ex), Conjure Living Spell (Sp), Obscuring mist (Sp) 3/day, Damage reduction 5/cold iron and magic, Immune to Disease, poison, and polymorph, Resistances: Acid 10, electricity 10, fire 10, Spell resistance =HD+10, Madness (Ex), Misty Aura (Ex)
Class: Metamagic Specialist, spell casting


3
2
Sorcerer 2
1
0
0
3
Knowledge Arcana 5, Knowlege history 2.5, UMD 2.5, concentration 5, spellcraft 5, Ride 2.5




4
3
Sorcerer 3
1
1
1
3
knowledge Arcana 6, Knowledge History 3, UMD 3, Concentration 6, Spellcraft 6, Ride 3
Earthbound Spell (PHB2 p. 91)
Tasha's hideous Laughter (Sp)


5
4
Sorcerer 4
2
1
1
4
knowledge Arcana 7, UMD 3.5, Concentration 7, Spellcraft 7, Bluff 7, Ride 3.5




7
5
Domain Access (complete champion p.52) Sorcerer 5
2
1
1
4
knowledge Arcana 8, Knowledge History 8,

Confusion (Sp)


8
6
Sorcerer 6
3
2
2
5
knowledge Arcana 9, UMD 4.5, Concentration 9, Spellcraft 8,
Sanctum Spell (Complete Arcane p.82)



9
7
Cataclysm Mage 1
3
2
2
7
Knowledge Arcana 10, UMD 5, Concentration 10, Spellcraft 10, Ride 4

Dhakaani secret, personal prophecy, Baleful Polymorph (Sp)


10
8
Cataclysm Mage 2
4
2
2
8
Knowledge Arcana 11, UMD 5.5, Concentration 11, Spellcraft 11, knowledge planes 1, knowledge history 9

Xoriat secret


11
9
Cataclysm Mage 3
4
3
3
8
Knowledge Arcana 12, UMD 6, Concentration 12, Spellcraft 12, knowledge planes 2, knowledge history 10
Midnight metamagic (MOI p.38)
Cataclysm of flesh, Phantasmal Killer (Sp)


12
10
Cataclysm Mage 4
5
3
3
9
Knowledge Arcana 13, UMD 6.5, Concentration 13, Spellcraft 13, knowledge planes 3, knowledge history 11

Cor'dran secret, personal prophecy


15
11
Cataclysm Mage 5
5
3
3
9
Knowledge Arcana 14, UMD 7, Concentration 14, Spellcraft 14, knowledge planes 4, knowledge history 12

Dal Quor secret, True Seeing (Sp) 3/day


16
12
Cataclysm Mage 6
6
4
4
10
Knowledge Arcana 15, UMD 7.5, Concentration 15, Spellcraft 15, knowledge planes 5, knowledge history 13
Improved Essentia Capacity (MOI p.38)
Cataclysm of dreams, damage reduction 10/cold iron and magic


17
13
Cataclysm Mage 7
6
4
4
10
Knowledge Arcana 16, UMD 8, Concentration 16, Spellcraft 16, knowledge planes 6, knowledge history 14

Ashtakalan secret, personal prophecy, Baleful polymorph (Sp) 3/day, polymorph any object (Sp)


18
14
Cataclysm Mage 8
7
4
4
11
Knowledge Arcana 17, UMD 8.5, Concentration 17, Spellcraft 17, knowledge planes 7, knowledge history 15

Haka'torvhak secret


19
15
Cataclysm Mage 9
7
5
5
11
Knowledge Arcana 18, UMD 9, Concentration 18, Spellcraft 18, knowledge planes 8, knowledge history 16
Heighten spell
Cataclysm of silver, Insanity (Sp)


20
16
Cataclysm Mage 10
8
5
5
12
Knowledge Arcana 19, Concentration 19, Spellcraft 19, knowledge planes 9, knowledge history 17, Craft 5

Dragonmark secret





Spells
0: read magic, preserve organ (BOVD), Caltrops (Spell Compendium, p. 42), Acid Splash, Mage Hand, Slash Tongue (BOVD), Launch Item, Detect Magic, Amanuensis
1: Protection from good, Extract Drug (BOVD), grease, Detect Secret Doors (K), Lesser Deflect,
2: Fuse arms (Spell Compendium p. 100), Detect thoughts (K), soulboon (MOI), Wingbind, black karma curse (phb2)
3: Clairavoyance (K), Engulfing Terror (DotU), dispel magic, Haboob (sandstorm)
4: Divination (k), Grim revenge (BOVD), Rend Essencia, Call of Stone (PHB 2)
5: True seeing (K), Arcane Fusion (Complete Mage), Alaunger's Triptych (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/wn/20030226a), symbol of spell loss
6: Find the Path (k), Focal stone (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/wn/20040225a) , Mineralize Warrior (underdark)
7: Legend Lore (k), Gold Finger (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20030825a)

Gear
GLOVE OF INCARNUM THEFT from MOI and Amulet of ooze riding A&EG p.85

Before we ooze on down the road, we need to acknowledge that the rules are going to slither on by towards blOOZEcheese. This build also works with unseelie fey azurins, and if you don’t like the rules abOOZE with conjure living spell, an unseelie fey gnome with magic in the blood as the first level feat, plus a custom metamagic rod of earthbound spell or heighten spell, will work, but it won’t come online until 15HD. Mostly, this build is all about ripping all of your hands off. But we’ll get to that.

Mistlings have a 1/day ability to conjure living spells based on any spell or spell like ability that they have. At first, I was going to use magic in the blood on an unseelie fey humanoid to up that to 3 times per day. But the ability itself is a spell like ability...so the first ooze of the day that you make is a conjure living spell ooze. Just let that ooze slam you around anytime that you want to make another living ooze. This is a bit rules wonky in that the template for living oozes has specific parameters as to what spells are applicable whereas the mistling template doesn’t seem to care at all about all that noise. Seeing as how we’re all villains here, we’re just going to assume that this shortcut works for us.

Then, you need a 1 CR fey, because the mistling template adds +4 to the CR. Uggh. Rather than use a killoren or duskling, the rime sprite pops up as a very viable candidate, with three movement modes, some SLAs, and huge stats. But it doesn’t breath air. So it became necessary to make it an amphibious rime sprite.

Now we’re cooking with fire and doing double damage.

The easiest way to rip off a lot of arms is to use Grim revenge from BOVD (6d6 damage and your hand becomes a wights hand that hates its former owner). But why not use arcane fusion to pair that with fuse arms? But alas, fuse arms is a 2nd level spell. No worries, use a sanctum spell feat to knock it down. Arrgh. The Errata for arcane fusion doesn’t allow you to do that...so you need to use midnight metamagic to reduce the sanctum fuse arms down to a 1st level slot. Now, if you’re permissive of arcane fusioning sanctum midnight fuse arms + grim revenge being used to make a living spell because the mistling ability has nearly no caveats about what you can use and therefor may overwrite what the living spell template says is permissible. Stop there. Don’t take earthbound spell and replace it with the next feat down. Otherwise, you next need to jump through the hurdle of the living spell pre-requisites, which you can do by making the arcane fusion of midnight sanctum fuse arms + grim revenge into midnight sanctum earthbound fuse arms + earthbound grim revenge, which takes 5 essencia loaded into the midnight metamagic. This requires either a pre-emptive casting of soulboon, rend essencia, or the use of gloves of essencia robbery from MOI, the latter of which is the most rules legal option as it allows you to circumvent the 1/day limit on adding essencia to the feat. Earthbound spell removes the target line from the spell and renders it into a 5x5 area of effect. Ocular spell could work too, but then I would have to convince you that the metamagic specialist ACF works on the ocular spells to make them into standard action castings for use in the arcane fusion. And you're probably tired from reading RAW from like 5 different splatbooks.

And boom! At level 12, you can create a living spell that merges all of its opponents upper grasping limbs into one huge arm. Which is then ripped off and transformed into a wight’s claw that hates its former body.

Along the way, when searching for prestige classes to get out of sorcerer as soon as possible, Cataclysm mage pops up as a thematic addition because it has three amazing spell like abilities. Cataclysm of the flesh is a spell like ability that transforms a person into a puddle of worthless writhing oozing agony. Cataclysm of dreams makes and earthquake + illusion that can destroy structures and panick Miss Dember’s opponents. Finally, Dragonmark secret gives you access to every dragonmark’s SLAs...which you can turn into living spell oozes.

In order to become a cataclysm mage, you need to have 8 ranks of knowledge history, which can only be gotten by joining an organization (doesn’t make sense) or using the domain access ACF for the knowledge domain. If it weren't for the knowledge domains lackluster spell list, Miss Dember would have limited wish and disintegrate. On the plus side, the knowledge domains gives you divination, which will helps Miss Dember choose which dragonmark slas to prepare.

A list of dragonmark SLAs can be found here: http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=1072.0 (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=1072.0)

The neat thing about this build is that even if the grim fusion doesn't work, it is still a great opponent. Alaugers triptich allows Miss Dember to make a living spell out of three magic item abilities which are cast as a single spell... magic items that Miss Dember can make out of focal stone spell. The racial SLAs of mistling make for great living spells, and cataclysm mage abilities are so much fun.

Another gear idea is to give miss Dember an amulet of ooze riding, and make pcs fight her through a terrbly mean ooze.

Whew. Now all we have to do is write a backstory and give Miss Dember Mint some motivations…
Being a creature of the mournlands offers Dember an element of otherwordly evil infusion, which, paired with the prophecy aspects of cataclysm mage, gives Dember a reason to villainously adventure. At CR 20, Dember is a hunted entity from dragons, who may commission PCs to hunt her.

[Thurbane]

Schlorp

https://cdnb.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/002/100/825/smaller_square/kendrick-see-daily-spitpaint-gelatinous-cube.jpg?1457261127

Race: Silverbrow Human
Build Stub: Druid 8/Incarnate 2/Thrall of Juiblex 3/Warshaper 2/Druid +5
Ability Scores: Str 10, Dex 14, Con 16, Int 12, Wis 16, Cha 8
Ability Increases: Wis 17 (4th), Wis 18 (8th), Wis 19 (12th), Wis 20 (16th), Wis 21 (20th)
Languages: Common, Druidic, Aboleth
Alignment: NE
Multiclass Penalty: No.


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

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

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

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

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

The bed said, "Destorying a fort."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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



Build Progression:


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


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


2nd
Druid 2
+1
+3
+0
+3
Concentration 5(+1), Escape Artist 2, Handle Animal 3(+3), Know:Nature 4, Know:Dung 2, Spot 5(+1)

Rootwalker ACF: Earthen Stride


3rd
Druid 3
+2
+3
+1
+3
Concentration 6(+1), Escape Artist 3(+2cc), Handle Animal 3, Know:Dung 3(+2cc), Know:Nature 4, Spot 5
Willing Deformity
Trackless Step


4th
Druid 4
+3
+4
+1
+4
Concentration 7(+1), Escape Artist 3, Handle Animal 5(+2), Know:Dung 3, Know:Nature 4, Spot 7(+2)

Rootwalker ACF: +4 saves vs aberrations


5th
Druid 5
+3
+4
+1
+4
Concentration 8(+1), Escape Artist 4(+2cc), Handle Animal 5, Know:Dung 4(+2cc), Know:Nature 4, Spot 7

Wild Shape 1/day


6th
Druid 6
+4
+5
+2
+5
Concentration 9(+1), Escape Artist 4, Handle Animal 7(+2), Know:Dung 4, Know:Nature 4, Spot 9(+2)
Aberration Wild Shape
Wild Shape 2/day


7th
Druid 7
+5
+5
+2
+5
Concentration 10(+1), Escape Artist 5(+2cc), Handle Animal 7, Know:Dung 5(+2cc), Know:Nature 4, Spot 9

Wild Shape 3/day


8th
Druid 8
+6
+6
+2
+6
Concentration 11(+1), Escape Artist 5, Handle Animal 9(+2), Know:Dung 5, Know:Nature 4, Spot 11(+2)

Wild Shape (Large)


9th
Incarnate 1
+6
+8
+2
+8
Concentration 11, Escape Artist 5, Handle Animal 9, Know:Arcana 1(+1), Know:Dung 5, Know:Nature 4, Know:Planes 1(+1), Know:Religion 1(+1), Spot 11
Thrall to Demon (Juiblex)
Aura, detect opposition. Soulmelds: Airstep Sandals, Planar Chasuble


10th
Incarnate 2
+7
+9
+2
+9
Concentration 11, Escape Artist 5, Handle Animal 9, Know:Arcana 2(+1), Know:Dung 5, Know:Nature 4, Know:Planes 2(+1), Know:Religion 2(+1), Spot 11

Chakra Bind (Crown). Soulmeld: Elder Spirit


11th
Thrall of Juiblex 1
+8
+11
+4
+11
Concentration 11, Disguise 2(+2), Escape Artist 5, Handle Animal 9, Know:Arcana 2, Know:Dung 5, Know:Nature 4, Know:Planes 2, Know:Religion 2, Move Silently 1(+1), Spot 11

Sickening Slime


12th
Thrall of Juiblex 2
+9
+12
+5
+12
Concentration 11, Disguise 3(+1), Escape Artist 5, Handle Animal 9, Know:Arcana 2, Know:Dung 5, Know:Nature 4, Know:Planes 2, Know:Religion 2, Move Silently 3(+2), Spot 11
Open Least Chakra: Feet
Corrosive Touch


13th
Thrall of Juiblex 3
+10
+12
+5
+12
Concentration 11, Disguise 5(+2), Escape Artist 5, Handle Animal 9, Know:Arcana 2, Know:Dung 5, Know:Nature 4, Know:Planes 2, Know:Religion 2, Move Silently 4(+1), Spot 11

Summon Ooze


14th
Warshaper 1
+10
+14
+5
+12
Balance 3(+3), Concentration 11, Disguise 5, Escape Artist 5, Handle Animal 9, Know:Arcana 2, Know:Dung 5, Know:Nature 4, Know:Planes 2, Know:Religion 2, Move Silently 4, Spot 11

Morphic Immunities, Morphic Weapons


15th
Warshaper 2
+11
+15
+6
+13
Balance 5(+2), Concentration 11, Disguise 6(+1), Escape Artist 5, Handle Animal 9, Know:Arcana 2, Know:Dung 5, Know:Nature 4, Know:Planes 2, Know:Religion 2, Move Silently 4, Spot 11
Natural Spell (finally!)
Morphic Body: Str +4, Con +4


16th
Druid 9
+11
+15
+7
+13
Balance 5, Concentration 14(+3), Disguise 6, Escape Artist 5, Handle Animal 9, Know:Arcana 2, Know:Dung 5, Know:Nature 4, Know:Planes 2, Know:Religion 2, Move Silently 4, Spot 13(+2)

Venom Immunity


17th
Druid 10
+12
+16
+7
+14
Balance 5, Concentration 16(+2), Disguise 6, Escape Artist 5, Handle Animal 9, Know:Arcana 2, Know:Dung 5, Know:Nature 4, Know:Planes 2, Know:Religion 2, Move Silently 4, Spot 16(+3)

Wild Shape 4/day


18th
Druid 11
+13
+16
+7
+14
Balance 5, Concentration 19(+3), Disguise 6, Escape Artist 5, Handle Animal 9, Know:Arcana 2, Know:Dung 5, Know:Nature 4, Know:Planes 2, Know:Religion 2, Move Silently 4, Spot 18(+2)
Bonus Essentia
Wild Shape (Tiny)


19th
Druid 12
+14
+17
+8
+15
Balance 5, Concentration 21(+2), Disguise 6, Escape Artist 5, Handle Animal 9, Know:Arcana 2, Know:Dung 5, Know:Nature 4, Know:Planes 2, Know:Religion 2, Move Silently 4, Spot 21(+3)

Wild Shape (Plant)


20th
Druid 13
+14
+17
+8
+15
Balance 5, Concentration 23(+2), Disguise 6, Escape Artist 5, Handle Animal 10(+1), Know:Arcana 2, Know:Dung 5, Know:Nature 4, Know:Planes 2, Know:Religion 2, Move Silently 4, Spot 23(+2)

A Thousand Orifices





Typical Druid Spells Prepared
0lvl: create water, cure minor wounds, dawn (SC), detect magic, light, read magic
1st: cloudburst (SC), conjure ice beast (Frostburn), faerie fire, impeding stones (Cityscape), spider hand (BoVD), wood wose (SC)
2nd: blinding spittle (SC), cloud wings (SC), heart of air (CMage), kelpstrand (SC), summon swarm, soul ward (CChamp)
3rd: conjure ice beast III (Frostburn), Evard's menacing tentacles (PHBII), dispel magic, heart of water (CMage), sleet storm
4th: call of stone (PHBII), enhance wild shape (SC), flame strike, sheltered vitality (SC), vortex of teeth (SC)
5th: dire hunger (SC), flesh to salt (Sandstorm), wall of thorns, wall of sand (SC)
6th: extract water elemental (SC), greater dispel magic
7th: slime wave (SC)


Druid Spells per Day


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


14th
6
5
4
4
3
-
-
-
-
-


15th
6
5
4
4
3
-
-
-
-
-


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


17th
6
5
5
4
4
3
-
-
-
-


18th
6
6
5
4
4
3
1
-
-
-


19th
6
6
5
4
4
4
2
-
-
-


20th
6
6
6
5
5
4
2
1
-
-





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

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

At CR 5, Schlorp plays like a standard evil druid, except he prefers to use vermin, insect swarms, and aberrations over "those boring furries".



At 6th level Schlorp taps into his own Aberrant Blood heritage, turning himself into forms that most other druids would never dare. These new forms, how did they emerge from what they were before? How much more do they need to change or outcompete the "natural" animals before they become "natural"?
Aberrant Wild Shape gives him some new forms to explore... well, ok, mostly the choker, but Quickness is (Su) and he can't get that yet. But there are some interesting (Ex) abilities he can access via the enhance wild shape spell... which will become much more important shortly.

At 8th level, Schlorp has access to the Nilshai (Unapproachable East), which has an ability called Fearsome Celerity (Ex). When he casts enhance wild shape, this ability gives him an extra standard action every round, allowing him to cast two spells on his turn. But that's not really what we're here for.

Schlorp's fascination for oozes eventually leads him to a revelation of momentous importance... he realizes that oozes and slimes are the oldest creatures, the primordial soup from which all subsequent creatures evolved. These simple mindless creatures are the wellspring of all life. This realization drives him to explore the cult of Juiblex, patron demon lord of all things slimy, and Schlorp is compelled to devote himself to the worship of Juiblex. However, in order to get a more, uh, "intimate" understanding of oozes, he needs a way to make himself immune to paralysis and acid damage. And that's what the dip into Incarnate is for. Planar Chasuble gives him acid resistance 10. And the Elder Spirit soulmeld (Dragon Magic) bound to his Crown chakra gives him immunity to paralysis.

As far as combat goes, Schlorp sticks to Nilshai and relies on the two spells per turn to deal with threats: start with BFC to lock things down, flame strike and vortex of teeth to carve up the meatbags, then let the insect swarms and summons finish off the leftovers.



Ok, with the acid and paralysis dealt with, Schlorp heads into Thrall of Juiblex. Three levels in, he picks up the Summon Ooze ability. This lets him summon a gelatinous cube as a standard action at will. According to the Monster Manual errata, a gelatinous cube weighs 15000 pounds, and that's what he want to cover the world with, an infinite number of gelatinous cubes. But there are several problems we need to overcome.

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

Second, we need to be immune to the gelatinous cube's acid and paralysis. The Incarnate dip means done and done.

Our third soulmeld solves our third problem: we need to be flying to drop things on targets from above. Airstep Sandals may not be the best method for flight here, only 30' with both points of essentia invested, but we can use cloud wings (Spell Compendium) or heart of air to increase our speed, and the perfect maneuverability makes aiming our drops easier. We can hover and presumably flip over, dumping the gelatinous cube on whatever is below us. Note: I'm assuming the perfect maneuverability here trumps the "You must end the flight solidly supported or fall" text from the basic soulmeld ability. If you disagree, the Phoenix Cloak can be picked up for 50K GP.

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

A mimic has 19 Strength, which gives us a max load of 350 pounds to start with. Here's where we need the quadraped form comes in handy (or footy?), as that gets us a x3 multiplier. The Natural Heavyweight feat gives us another x2 multiplier, and if the mimic is wearing a Belt of the Wide Earth (8000 GP, MIC), we can get another x2. But that's only a max load of 4200 pounds... not enough for an ochre jelly (5600 pounds), much less the full cube. As it turns out, we need a Strength score of 29 with all those multipliers to get our max load up to 16800 pounds. The Magic Item Compendium says we can combine the effects of a Belt of Giant's Strength with our Belt of the Wide Earth, adding a +6 enhancement bonus for 36000 GP, but we're still short 4 points of Strength. A two-level dip into Warshaper fixes this, giving Schlorp Morphic Body (Su): Str +4 and Con +4. If that's not quite enough for you, the Bridle of Burden-Bearing from the Arms & Equipment Guide offers an untyped Strength bonus that can be stacked with a Belt of Giant's Strength, a second casting of enhance wild shape can give him a +2 untyped bonus to Strength, or some drugs like devilweed (Book of Vile Darkness) or jhuild (Lords of Darkness) can give him a +2 alchemical bonus to Strength for 1d3 hours. Both of these drugs have drawbacks, but negating the Wis damage and addiction checks are laughably easy at this level.

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

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

However... unless the PCs are dumb enough to stay on the ground and not move, this isn't a tactic that works all that well in combat. Schlorp is much more effective against buildings, population centers, livestock, etc. So at this point he's much more effective as an "offscreen villain", and he can start his villainous reign of terror by carpet-bombing villages, castles, and forts. The PCs encounter mostly the aftermath of Schlorp's handywork (appendagework?), and maybe clean up a few oozes/aberrations that were left behind to chase down stragglers. Using cloudcover or fog spells to hide himself on his bombing runs, the local populace could be clueless about why it's suddenly raining oozes, and beg the PCs to investigate. If challenged directly, Schlorp switches to a faster form and retreats to his lair. If cornered, he switches to Nilshai and hides behind a wall of summoned creatures.



Nothing really fancy here, Schlorp just adds some Druid spellcasting. This brings him up to 7th level spells, which isn't full-on Druidzilla Gawd Mode, but still gives him some pretty nasty finishing moves: flesh to salt and extract water elemental, mostly. Bonus Essentia helps increase his fly speed. But let's finish up by talking about that lair a bit...

Schlorp collects and breeds oozes. So mundane tasks about the lair are handled by trained gray oozes and ochre jellies with the Sentry Ooze template (Dungeonscape). Operational duties and tactical security are handled by summoning oozes (MM2) who are smart enough to summon in whatever creatures are needed for a particular task. For higher-level threats, an elder black pudding, bone ooze (MM2), or flesh jelly (MM2) can be brought in. Traps would of course involve not only brown mold, yellow mold, and green slime, but also grey slime and bone fungus (Dungeonscape). And since most ooze attacks are (Ex), traps that drop flux slime (ELH p. 107) into the room could add some interesting effects to an encounter: magic is supressed with an AMF, contact causes 2d6 Constitution damage, and it also explodes (causing permanent mutations) if exposed to extreme cold, heat, or sunlight.

Schlorp's lair is constructed entirely out of 10' x 10' stone cubes. Stone cubes that don't appear to be carved or shaped with tools. They are, in fact, all gelatinous cubes that have been turned into stone with call of stone (PHBII). Add a Domain Staff of Liberation (36000 GP, Complete Champion), and Schlorp can convert 13 "blocks" of his lair back into gelatinous cubes every time he casts break enchantment.

If you need a climactic boss fight to finish things off, then throw in an awakened terratomorph (MM3).



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

[Thurbane]

Consequences

CE Mistling Half-Fey Sylph Mindbender 7
https://i.makeagif.com/media/8-25-2014/5MRYPg.gif
from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Opening Title Sequence (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sY4f_83t_rw) by Blur Studios

Magic is nice, isn't it?

I'm sorry, let me correct that: magic is great, isn't it? Just look at how it revolutionized our world became: agriculture, health, industry, communication, religion, transportation, and hundreds other things that you can name, and thousands more that you might not even know. It is so deeply integrated and so essential to our society that one might even find it hard to imagine a world without one.

Indeed, thanks in no small part to magic, the world has become a complete paradise.

Again, I'm sorry, let me correct that: the world has become almost a complete paradise. You know, it would be easier to call the blasted landscape a mere blemish on this map, if it wasn't the size of an entire country. This land's the shadow of a bleak past, a remembrance of what can happen when dangerously escalating levels of magic became wielded as weapons, a reminder that magic the power it has to destroy is just as much, if not moreso, as it has to create.

Don't you find it strange that even with all our magic, the world at large still doesn't know exactly what happened there? What do you mean, you "didn't even know magic caused it"?

Alright, let me just clarify that I'm not advocating for anything. But listen closely. I know a little secret..


Being built and flavored from Eberron material, Consequences easily fits right in to the setting as a mysterious entity from Mournland. A feyfolk whose mind, body, and spirit, were twisted beyond recognition by powerful wild magic that has engulfed the country on the Day of Mourning, she now haunts the lands in what seems like a revenge-driven cause to grind the progress of magic, if not eradicate it completely. When positioned that way, one might say that Consequences is an antithesis to one of the setting's cornerstones and arguably its spirit.

Joining her cause are her living ichors of raw magic. Perhaps ironically or fittingly, depending on one's perspective, these are spells that have taken lives on their own, whose origins of mutation can no doubt also be traced back to the horrible fallout on the Day of Mourning. As with most feyfolk, beguiling and compelling creatures into doing her bidding are also valued options, especially useful in situations where the minimum amount of people wields the biggest political sway. For someone who's oozing with so much charisma, being a slimeball is an easy path to power. Together, Consequences and her thralls rid the world of magic users, either by sheer force, by the power of the law, or by permanently suppressing one's magical abilities.
Build Stub
Elite Array: STR 8, DEX 10, CON 13, INT 14, WIS 12, CHA 15
Racial Adjustment: STR -2, DEX +2, CON -2, INT +4, WIS +6, CHA +6
Template Adjustment: STR +2, DEX +2, WIS -2, CHA +4
HD Increase Adjustment: CON +1 (@16), CHA +3 (@4/8/12)
Ability Score: STR 8 (-1), DEX 14 (+2), CON 12 (+1), INT 18 (+4), WIS 16 (+3), CHA 28 (+9)



CR
Class
BAB
Fort
Ref
Will
Skills
Feats
Special

5
Sylph 3HD
3
3
3
3
Balance 3cc, Bluff 3cc, Concentration 6, Diplomacy 3cc, Escape Artist 6, Intimidate 3cc, Knowledge(Arcana) 3cc, Move Silently 6, Sense Motive 3cc, Spellcraft 3cc[/td]
Eschew Materials, Still Spell
sorcerer 7 (4+HD) casting, SLAs

6
Half-Fey
(template)
3
3
3
3


fey type, lowlight vision, immunity to enchantment spells/effects

8
Mistling
(template)
3
3
3
3


Conjure Living Spell 1/d, SLAs, immunity to disease/poison/polymorph, madness, misty aura, SR18 (HD+10), DR5/cold iron and magic, natural armor +2, aligned strike (chaotic), magic strike, poison 1d3 Dex damage

10
Sylph 8HD
(advanced)
8
6
6
6
Balance 5cc(+2), Bluff 5cc(+2), Concentration 11(+5), Diplomacy 5cc(+2), Escape Artist 11(+5), Hide 7, Intimidate 5cc(+2), Knowledge(Arcana) 5cc(+2), Move Silently 11(+5), Sense Motive 5cc(+2), Spellcraft 5cc(+2)
Silent Spell
sorcerer 12 (4+HD) casting

11
Sylph 9HD
(advanced)
9
6
6
6
Bluff 6cc, Concentration 12, Diplomacy 6cc, Escape Artist 12, Hide 12, Intimidate 6cc, Knowledge(Arcana) 6cc, Move Silently 12, Sense Motive 6, Spellcraft 6cc
Extra Spell
sorcerer 13 (4+HD) casting

12
Mindbender 1
9
8
6
8
Diplomacy 12(+6)

Telepathy

13
Mindbender 2
10
9
6
9
Spellcraft 12(+6)

Push the Weak Mind 1/day, Skill Boost

15
Mistling
(CR increase)
10
9
6
9


DR10/cold iron and magic

16
Mindbender 3
10
9
7
9
Diplomacy 15(+3), Spellcraft 15(+3)
Extra Spell
Mind Read 2/day

17
Mindbender 4
11
10
7
10
Concentration 16(+4), Diplomacy 16, Spellcraft 16

Eternal Charm (1)

18
Mindbender 5
11
10
7
10
Sense Motive 12(+6)

Push the Weak Mind 2/day

19
Mindbender 6
11
11
8
11
Concentration 18(+2), Diplomacy 18(+2), Spellcraft 18(+2)
Mindsight
Eternal Charm (2), Enchantment Spell Power +2CL

20
Mindbender 7
11
11
8
11
Concentration 19, Diplomacy 19, Sense Motive 15(+3), Spellcraft 19

Mind Read 4/day, Dominate


Spells per Day


CR
Sorc
LVL
0
1st
2nd
3rd
4th
5th
6th
7th
8th
9th

8
8
6
6
6
5
3
-
-
-
-
-

9
10
6
6
6
6
5
3
-
-
-
-

10
12
6
6
6
6
6
5
3
-
-
-

11
13
6
6
6
6
6
6
6
4
-
-

12
15
6
6
6
6
6
6
6
4
-
-

15
16
6
6
6
6
6
6
6
5
3
-

16
18
6
6
6
6
6
6
6
6
5
3

17
19
6
6
6
6
6
6
6
6
6
4

18
21
6
6
6
6
6
6
6
6
6
6



Spells Known


CR
Sorc
LVL
0
1st
2nd
3rd
4th
5th
6th
7th
8th
9th

8
8
Arcane Mark, Detect Magic, Disrupt Undead, Ghost Sound, Mending, Read Magic, Prestidigitation, Silent PortalSpC
Blood WindSpC, Grease, Resinous TarCM, Sticky FloorRotD, True Strike
Alter Self, HeroicsSpC, WraithstrikeSpC
Dispel Magic, Heart of WaterCM
Minor Creation
-
-
-
-
-

9
10
StickSpC

Shatter
Arcane Sight
Polymorph
Magic Jar
-
-
-
-

10
12
-
-
Ray of Stupidity
Amorphous FormSpC(replace Dispel Magic), Dispel MagicCM
Caustic MireCM, Favor of the MartyrSpC, Extra Spell
Arcane FusionCM
Antimagic Field
-
-
-

11
13
-
-
-
-
CelerityPHB2
Viscid GlobSpC
Geas
-
-
-

12
15
-
-
-
-
-
Miasma of EntropySpC
Ooze PuppetSpC
Energy Transformation FieldSpC, Limited Wish
-
-

13
16
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Body Outside BodyCAr, Extra Spell
Greater Arcane FusionCM
-

16
18
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Reverse Gravity
Avascular Mass
Replicate CastingSpC

17
19
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Discern Location
Wish

18
21
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Gate



Spell-like Abilities


CR
Spell-like Ability

6
Improved Invisibility at will, Summon Monster VI (large elemental) 1/d, Charm Person at will, Faerie Fire or Glitterdust 1/d, Detect Law 3/d, Sleep or Enthrall 1/d

8
Obscuring Mist 3/d, Tasha's Hideous Laughter 1/d

9
Protection from Law 3/d, Tasha’a Hideous Laughter or Suggestion 1/d, Confusion 1/d

10
Confusion or Emotion 1/d, Baleful Polymorph

11
Eyebite or Lesser Geas 1/d, Dominate Person or Hold Monster 1/d, Phantasmal Killer 1/d

13
Dominate Person or Hold Monster 1/d, True Seeing 3/d

17
Mass Invisibility 1/d, Baleful Polymorph 3/day, Polymorph any Object 1/d

19
Geas/Quest or Mass Suggestion 1/d, Insanity 1/d

Despite being closely married to the Eberron flavor, Consequences could just be as usable in any setting as it was in Eberron, provided it has the same central conceit befitting her name: Consequences is a byproduct of extreme concentration of powerful magic, that which is tied to a cataclysmic event brought about by the mortal races themselves. However, using Consequences against a party of much lower optimization level than her isn't suggested, although those closer to her should do fine considering her poor spell choices.

In combat, while she can hold opposition on her own, she works best while Magic Jar is in effect with her Living Spell, as this allows her great stats cover the ooze's weak spots, including hitting the target with the slam attack. At later levels, she also gets her main combo by being inside a Living Spell hit with an Energy Transformation Field slam


CR10
Consequences' goal at this point seems pretty clear. She assassinates criminal magic users and charms (at will) people of power to rally against her somewhat-justifiable cause of stricter policies against criminal magic users and tighter regulations to prevent magical arms race against them. Over time, with less magic available, it will be increasingly easier to either broaden the scope of who gets affected by the antimagic laws or broaded the scope of what constitutes crime (like including using X magic, for instance).

Like her motives and plans, her methods are also straight-forward. Diplomacy and at will Charm for controlling folks, then easy assasination due to Ooze mobility + Improved Invisibility + spells. Her top Living Spell options at this level would be Antimagic Field and Minor Creation (for poisons). She has Wraithstrike, True Strike, and Heroics to get a Slam attack hit, Bloodwind to cover ranged weakness (throwing globs of slime), and various amounts of slime-themed spells to slow her victims down. Watch out for synergies, like Resinous Tar inceasing Sticky Floor and Engulf DCs.


CR15 (Sweet Spot)
By now, it's expected that she'll be getting plenty of support from jurisdictions under her pawns, especially the power-hungry mundanes that she convinced would benefit the most from having magical activities shutdown. They don't necessarily have to issue an open declaration against all magic users, majority of which are low-level crooks that are already imprisoned, but they would all have to be mobilized by the time she makes her grand attack.

With enough information gathering, the PCs would be able to uncover information on how Consequences came to be. During the Last War, majority of the mortal races were focused on the war efforts, directing and focusing their powerful magic at the heart of conflict that became the blasted wastelands; it turns out that the concentrated magical activity caused the apocalyptic disaster that ended the war and gave birth to the twisted inhabitants of that place, not unlike how a magnifyng glass would ignite a section of a paper where it was focused on. It's possible that Consequences may just be removing magical activity everywhere else to monopolize it and replicate the disaster somewhere (perhaps one of the rival nations?).

It's fair to say stopping magic from being used in a setting where magic is integrated even in the lives of the average folks might be crazy, but Consequences is just that. Furthermore, Consequences has the wile and charms to accomplish her goals when killing random casters simply won't cut it. With Telepathy and practically at will Geas, her fine social manipulations will even be more sophisticated.

Combatwise, we've come to the meat of the build, with opening up Limited Wish and Energy Transformation Field as Living Spell options. The first one gives all sorts of spell versatility for practically at will (per slam) Limited Wish for area and effect spells. The second one gives as the meat of Consequences power going forward, as explained:Magic-use Suppression
A creature slammed by a living spell is treated as though within the area or effect of the associated spell. For instantaneous spells, it just happens per slam and we're done. For spells with limited duration, such as Acid Arrow from the Wizards web article, it apparently runs the entire duration. For Energy Transformation Field (ETF), it will absorb and negate any magical ability used within the area, such as spellcasting, and it will run the entire permanent duration.

Furthermore, since Living Spell's wording is that the creature is "subjected to the normal effect of the spell or spells
making up the creature, as if it were within the area or effect", the spells' effect will actually take effect on the creature instead of a stationary specific point in space.

This isn't as bad as it sounds, since, based on the spell's wording, any spell cast from outside and into the area still works, so buffs and healing magic from others (provided there are others) will benefit the creature.


ETF + spells
Now, we look at spells to link to ETF, in case your foe still tried using his magic. ETF + battlefield control are pretty straightforward. ETB + Minor Creation means your foe will be showered with plant-based poisons. ETF + Geas means your foe will be compelled to follow your order. ETB + Body Outside Body means your foe will have CL/5 copies of your possessed living spell going after him for 1 minute at a time.


ETF + GAF (Greater Arcane Fusion)
Another Living Spell that you're currently possessing will be the one slammed by the Living ETF+GAF. You can have 2 Living Spells at a time due to the 16 hour duration, so this is possible. Everytime the living ETF (or you, if you now possess it) uses magic, it will be absorbed as spell levels.
Use at-will Improved Invisibility on two successive round (4x2=8) to trigger the ETF. This leaves it with 1 spell level (8-7=1) and gives you the GAF effect
Use GAF to cast [Favor of the Martyr + Arcane Fusion (Celerity + any L1 spell)].
With another standard action now and next round, repeat Improved Invisibility twice for another trigger (9-7=2) leaving you with 2 spell levels and another GAF effect.
Use GAF to cast [Celerity + Arcane Fusion (Celerity + any L1 spell)], giving you 1 free spell and 2 standard actions in the same round.
Use at-will Improved Invisibility twice for another trigger (10-7=3), giving you another GAF to loop steps 5 and 6 as much as you want on the same turn. Do note that leftover spell-levels will eventually give you arbitrarily number of triggers for GAF
Use arbitrary amount of leftover GAFs to basically cast any spell of 7th level or lower multiple times in a round for free via GAF. You can use this to renew Favor of the Martyr, or get standard actions with Celerity for doing something else like move or attack. Do note that you still can't cast spells the normal way due to ETF, which means no 8th-9th level spells as long as you possess the Living Spell.
An alternate route to do this is to cast Heroics first to get the Child of Shadows stance before being slammed by the Living ETF+GAF. This way, activating the supernatural stance will trigger ETF and add spell levels equal to your HD (11), at a cost of only a swift action every round.


at will spell "passive effects"
Disrupt Undead: destroy all undead
Shatter: destroy all nonmagical objects 10lbs/CL
Arcane Sight: detect all spellcasters
True Strike: +20 to all attack rolls, and ignore concealment
Wraith Strike: melee attacks all hit touch AC
Ray of Stupidity: +X int damage
Heart of Water: passive Freedom of Movement
Minor Creation: poison sludge everywhere
Polymorph: change form anytime (usually outside combat)
Ooze Puppet: autocontrol any ooze
Geas: autocompel creatures
Dispel Magic: dispel everything with CL below 15 (foe CL + 11 VS CL16 + 10)
Body Outside Body: arbitrary amount of noncasting Living Spell clones
Grease: 1/2 movement, autodrop held items, autoprone creatures, Balance check to move
Resinous Tar: 1/2 movement, -5 to Escape Artist & Grapple, full-round to pick weapon up, STR check to stand
Sticky Floor: 1/2 movement (entangle), Ref check per round or can't move, Escape Artist or STR check to move
Caustic Mire: 1/2 movement, 1d6 acid damage per round

With the last 3 spells all active, one square costs 40 feet, possibly with standard action just to break free or stand up
Since she prefers not killing important people who may still be of use to her outside, she usually possesses a Living ETF+Geas to just use them as her pawns.


CR20
By now, she should have made her grand attack using her clones, sweeping the mortal world clean of magic users while simultaneously compelling those that she already disabled with ETF to join her. She might even gather groups of civilians (including d4 casters who can't cast) as shields to outmaneuver her foes.

If the PCs were unable to stop her, Consequences will indeed replicate the disaster that struck her homeland years ago. Finally, she gets access to the most powerful of spells, including Replicate Casting that enables here to get much more variety Living Spells, Gate that can forcibly send anyone anywhere, and Wish, the mightiest of all. With all her living spells and clones saturating their energy-transformed power, Consequences will have enough powers to cause the disaster, although it'll be too late for her to find out it's at the expense of her own life.

Contrary to some beliefs, however, Consequences isn't out for revenge and never intended to "nuke" the rival nation that destroyed her homeland. Instead, she will set it off at the heart of the wilds, were majority of her fellow feyfolk live. In her deranged and broken brilliance, she wants nothing more than to share to her brethren the same magnificent power that was bestowed upon her by the disaster.Monster Manual II: Sylph
Monster Manual III: Living Spell
Fiend Folio: Half-Fey
Forge of War: Mistling
Complete Arcane: Mindbender, Extra Spell
Lords of Madness: Mindsight
Tome of Battle: Martial Study, maneuvers

[Thurbane]

Captain Charles Gooding: Salt of the Earth
http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/dcanimated/images/2/2b/Deformed_Aaron.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20150607194803




Journal of Fianeric Torel, summer:

We have been tasked with liberating sacred artifacts from some long-forgotten tomb. In the intervening decades or perhaps even centuries, the place has rotted from both within and without, its body of stones becoming putrid with unspeakable beasts.

It is our somber duty to find what we’re looking for and cleanse the place of its evil taint along the way.

We have contracted the assistance of a guide. He is rumored never to lose his way, not as long as he’s on this plane, no matter how deep underground he goes.

Our letters of writ would not cover him due to certain unsavory rumors about his last expedition. Of course, I myself place little stock in such things, but the need to cover his fee out of my own pocket proved somewhat irksome. While we had plenty of the necessities for our expedition, we tragically had to make do without some of the luxuries.

Overall, I am optimistic about our odds of being back before the harvest.


Evidently, I was too generous in my prior assessment of this place.

There are traps what seems like every single step. Despite our guild paying through the nose for an expert to disable the damned things, he’s been of little use. His excuse that they had long since rotted away and were no longer in proper operation, just jagged hulks of rusted metal without proper catches to finagle did little to reassure us.

Our guide, who, against normal protocol on excursions such as this insists upon being called by his given name, Charles, has proved far more reliable. While at times we seem to be going in circles, he is quick to explain his rationale. He leads us away from the horrid beasts in the tunnels of this place when they are too much for our hirelings to dispatch, and uses his magic to turn the tides when they’re something we can deal with.

Truthfully, I’m growing concerned. I’ve noticed changes in some of the men during our time here. While I’m no expert in the area, I would wager it’s something to do with the bush meat they seem to have developed a taste for. I don’t trust the stuff myself. While the trail rations are hardly palatable, I don’t need to worry about whatever exotic pathogens are inside them, no matter how good the brightly-colored beasts that skulk around these tunnels smell.

I’ve spotted some of our company wandering the tunnels long after we’ve made camp, talking to themselves about things I can’t follow. When questioned, some of them were evasive. Others said they were talking to the slime molds that drip from the ceiling and make our every footstep sticky. Whatever form of madness afflicts them, I’m sure we can have it over and done with when we get back to the surface.


Despite Charles’s amiable nature, I am giving him a wide berth from now on.

We lost our thief quite some time ago. He wandered off in the night and Charles found his clothes inside a flesh jelly. We were able to burn it to death. I fear the stench shall never leave me.

As a result, we’re wandering around more or less blind to the less-obvious dangers that lurk within the edifice. Going back is no safer due to the entropic rot that closes tunnels off as soon as we’ve mapped them due to cave-ins or spots being worn smooth by the acid of the slimes and jellies that surge within its halls.

Charles was good enough to take point after the departure of that so-called expert.

He hadn’t taken one step before he tread on some rune-carved button. No doubt a warning was on it in some language none of us could read. Before he knew what hit him, an arrow went straight through his eye.

Due to my position just off to his side, I saw it as clear as day (or at least as close as I can remember. Pelor, how I miss your light)

The arrow stuck in the wall behind him, and not in his head. It was as though it had been shot through water.

And upon it, not a drop of blood.

The men were shaken, but Charles gave one of his amiable laughs that shook his jowls and said he’d been lucky it missed.

I knew it hadn’t, but no one else had seen what I did.

I chose not to share it or try to convince anyone. In truth, I fear I may be succumbing to the madness that infects this place.

I had trouble sleeping that night. Charles offered me a cup of some kind of panacea. An herbal tea from some far-off place. He said it always kept his spirits up.

Though it shames me to say so, once he left my company, I poured it out on the cold, stone floor. I could not bring myself to drink it.

I had no idea what to trust any longer.


I finally have this damned artifact. Were it not for the curse on this place, we could be transported home in an instant. But nothing is ever so simple.

Charles has always had the eye of a naturalist when talking about the monsters that live in this place. He doesn’t judge their behavior when they burn us, break us, or eat us alive. At times, he sounds almost fond of the beasts.

Especially the oozes.

The fewer of us remained, the more he talked. About their bioluminescence, their pheromones, their slime trails and quizzical reproductive habits. My patience winnowed, but the last thing I needed by now was to push my luck.

One of our last remaining porters triggered a trap. Some fiendish device that launched a blade, long pitted and scarred with age, at knee level from the wall. It embedded itself on the other side of the corridor with a horrible clang nearly loud enough to drown out the boy’s screams.

I went to help him, but Charles told me to go on ahead, he had to make sure the area was safe before anyone else got hurt.

All I could think about was how he said all this on his own two feet. He’d been standing right next to the boy. The blade had passed right through him, like a knife through butter, and he didn’t seem any worse for the wear.

I waited around the corner and heard something eerily like one of those predatory blobs feeding. I looked around to warn Charles, but I was too late. Some beige ooze was spread out over the boy, undulating across him, the blood from his stumps leaching into it.

I reached for a flask of smokeless fire to scare it away, but Charles’s voice chided me to wait.

He was nowhere in sight.

The ooze slid off the boy’s form, white bone in its wake as though he had lain here a hundred years. It poured itself into Charles’s shape, his apple belly and round cheeks looking as solid as ever.

He told me there was no sense leaving food out for the oozes. It would only attract more of them.

I had no stomach for such things, but drew my sword, trying not to let it waver and told him we could travel together no longer.

He laughed and told me the tunnel to the surface was just the next right. He would remain behind. If we ever required his services again, we’d know where to find him.

Though it shames me to admit it, as far as I know, he’s still down there. I pray I never see the day I have to find out.


str 13
dex 12
con 14
int 10
wis 15 (increases here)
cha 8


NE human cloistered cleric 1/oozemaster 10/contemplative 9




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


1
Cloistered Cleric 1
+0
+2
+0
+2
concentration 4, craft (alchemy) 4, diplo 4, k(religion) 4, k (planes) 4, spellcraft 4, swim 4
far horizons, eldritch corruption
rebuke undead, lore, knowledge devotion, dwarf domain, planning domain


2
Oozemaster 1
+0
+4
+0
+2
k(nature) 4, k(religion) 1 (5)

Minor oozy touch 1 (gray ooze)


3
Oozemaster 2
+1
+5
+0
+2
k (nature) 2 (6), k(religion) 1 (6), spellcraft 2 (6)
mastery of faerie enchantment
Charisma penalty —1, oozy glob 1 /day, slithery face


4
Oozemaster 3
+2
+5
+1
+3
disguise 3, k (nature) 1 (7), k(religion) 1 (7)

Minor oozy touch 2 (ochre jelly)


5
Oozemaster 4
+3
+6
+1
+3
concentration 2 (6), disguise 1 (4), k (nature) 1 (8), k (religion) 1 (8)

Charisma penalty —2, oozy glob 2/day, malleability


6
Oozemaster 5
+3
+6
+1
+3
concentration 2 (8), disguise 1 (5), k (nature) 1 (9), k (religion) 1 (9)
magic of the land
Major oozy touch 1 (green slime)


7
Oozemaster 6
+4
+7
+2
+4
concentration 1 (9), disguise 2 (7), k (nature) 1 (10), k (religion) 1 (10)

Charisma penalty —3, oozy glob 3/day, indiscernible anatomy


8
Oozemaster 7
+5
+7
+2
+4
concentration 2 (11), disguise 1 (9), k (nature) 1 (11), k (religion) 1 (11),

Major oozy touch 2 (gelatinous cube)


9
Oozemaster 8
+6/+1
+8
+2
+4
concentration 1 (12), disguise 2 (11), k (nature) 1 (12), k (religion)
contagious paralysis
Charisma penalty —4, oozy glob 4/day, slime wave


10
Oozemaster 9
+6/+1
+8
+3
+5
concentration 1 (13), disguise 2 (13), k (nature) 1 (13), k (religion) 1 (13)

Major oozy touch 3 (black pudding)


11
Oozemaster 10
+7/+2
+9
+3
+5
concentration 1 (14), disguise 1 (14), heal 1 (3), k (nature) 1 (14), k (religion) 1 (14)

Charisma penalty —5, oozy glob 5/day, one with the ooze


12
Contemplative 1
+7/+2
+9
+3
+7
diplo 2 (6), k (religion) 1(15)
death blow
bonus domain: time, divine health


13
Contemplative 2
+8/+3
+9
+3
+8
diplo 2 (8), k (religion) 1 (16)

Slippery mind


14
Contemplative 3
+8/+3
+10
+4
+8
diplo 2 (10), k (religion) 1 (17)

Divine wholeness


15
Contemplative 4
+9/+4
+10
+4
+9
diplo 2 (12), k (religion) 1 (18)
practiced spellcaster



16
Contemplative 5
+9/+4
+10
+4
+9
diplo 2 (14), k (religion) 1 (19)

Divine body


17
Contemplative 6
+10/+5
+11
+5
+10
diplo 2 (16), k (religion) 1 (20)

Bonus domain:travel


18
Contemplative 7
+10/+5
+11
+5
+10
diplo 2 (18) k (religion) 1 (21)
harvester of souls
Divine soul


19
Contemplative 8
+11/+6/+1
+11
+5
+11
diplo 2 (20), k (religion) 1 (22))




20
Contemplative 9
+11/+6/+1
+12
+6
+11
diplo 2 (22), k (reilgion) 1 (23)

Eternal body




Spells per Day


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


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


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


3rd
4
2+1
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


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


5th
4
2+1
1+1
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


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


7th
5
3+1
2+1
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


16th
6
5+1
4+1
4+1
3+1
2+1
1+1
-
-
-


17th
6
5+1
4+1
4+1
3+1
3+1
2+1
-
-
-


18th
6
5+1
5+1
4+1
4+1
3+1
2+1
1+1
-
-


19th
6
5+1
5+1
4+1
4+1
3+1
3+1
2+1
-
-


20th
6
5+1
5+1
5+1
4+1
4+1
3+1
2+1
1+1
-






you’ve got spells and you’re already in oozemaster. Part of what I wanted to showcase with this build is the earliest entry and the maximum amount of prcs at 19 levels. Far horizons nabs you swim as a class skill, along with other great utility spells to your cleric list, eldritch corruption allows you to cast 1sts as 3rds via use of heighten, planning allows you extend spell which qualifies you for eldritch corruption, and dwarf domain grants great fortitude.

Cast spells, enjoy the free extend on all enchantment mastery of faerie initiate grants you and have fun hurling oozy globs at people. You have the gray ooze’s acid damage which harms animal, vegetable, and mineral, and the ochre jelly’s as well when you need to kill enemies and not harm the environment.

Malleability means if there’s even a 1 inch hole, you can get through it. The possibilities are nearly limitless, and with the use of the acid from gray ooze, you can bore small holes through walls and doors and get through them in short order.

Cloistered cleric’s knowledge domain transforms into knowledge devotion and among other things gives a new knowledge skill that is a class skill forevermore. In this instance, it is religion, since oozemaster has no use for such things, and we need it to qualify for contemplative.

Cleric pulls it weight from the beginning. It’s got many great spells, and one of particular note is blood wind, which will allow you to treat your oozy touches as thrown attacks, letting you inflict con damage at range.


magic of the land allows you to heal yourself and your pals and make use of your nature oozemaster helpfully imparts. your first major oozy touch from the humble green slime is online, allowing you to deal no-save 1d6 con damage at will, which will kill just about anything.

You’re lightly fortified thanks to your increasingly plastic anatomy, and can paralyze foes due to the paralytic touch of the gelatinous cube. At a minimum, enemies are paralyzed for 10 rounds, so that’s more than enough to last the whole combat.

Your paralysis doesn’t end there, since it is now contagious. When enemies try to pick up or move a paralyzed creature, they get paralyzed too. Very efficient.

Black pudding’s helping out too, letting you deal more acid damage when you have occasion for it.


You are now one with the ooze and have obtained the ooze type with all its concordant benefits. Congratulations. You are also in contemplative, picking up a bunch of other goodies to improve your resiliency including immunity to all disease, even magical ones, some self healing, and the time domain.

In addition to all its great spells, it gives improved initiative, which no character will complain about. Aside from its primary benefit of helping you go first more often, it also pays the tax for death blow, which allows you to coup de grace as a standard instead of a full round. With all the people you’re paralyzing, this allows you to deal with enemies more quickly and continue to be mobile around the battlefield.

While your ooze type does protect you from most enchantment, since it’s mind-affecting, slippery mind fills the few remaining gaps, such as freezing glance and anathema, giving you another chance to protect your slippery self.


contemplative gives some more spells, travel domain, spell resistance, immunity to poison, and you no longer rack up aging penalties. you stop short of level 10 because 1) you ran out of room, and 2) ooze is a way better type than outsider anyway. practiced spellcaster helps keep you in step and you round out with 8ths, a bunch of domains, and all kinds of oozy powers. harvester of souls is online allowing you to keep your enemies from being brought back and giving you a little extra health from yet another source on top of it when you coup de grace them, made easier from deathblow earlier, which cascades down from your paralytic ability from oozemaster



srd: cloistered cleric
races of destiny: far horizon
complete champion: knowledge devotion
heroes of horror: eldritch corruption
masters of the wild: ooze master
complete divine: contemplative
player’s guide to eberron: mastery of faerie enchantment
libris mortis: contagious paralysis
complete adventurer: death blow
elder evils: harvester of souls
races of the wild: magic of the land
complete arcane: practiced spellcaster

[Thurbane]

...and there we go. Congrats to all entrants, in what was a bit of a challenging round.

Feel free to post, and judges feel free to volunteer. :smallwink:

[Venger]

Wow, what a great turnout. Some really exciting builds here. Can't wait to read everything.

[danielxcutter]

Hmmm, btw, wasn't there an Assassin spell that turns you into an ooze?

[Venger]

Hmmm, btw, wasn't there an Assassin spell that turns you into an ooze?

Amorphous form doesn't turn you into an ooze. You can squeeze through small cracks, and pick up immunity to polymorphing, stunning, crits, poison, flanking, and lets you swim and breathe underwater, but you don't get any of ooze's other goodies. plus you lose all your own powers. it's sort of a mixed bag.

[danielxcutter]

Oh yeah, I just remembered that there was mention of an intelligent gelatinous cube in Magic of Incarnum. Not really related to build ideas, but it's something that I thought would be okay to mention. I think it was the head of the Sewer Workers' Guild or something...

[Thurbane]

So I see we got a Thrall of Juiblex and an Oozemaster, but no Slime Lord.

Also, by my reckoning, these are only two non-mindless oozes before templates are applied: Summoning Ooze (MM3, Int 10) & Conflagration ooze (MM3 Int 9)...

[Technetium43]

Reason Stealer could also qualify. Doesn't have any by default, but steals the intelligence score of things it eats. I wanted to find some way to build around one, but couldn't think of something interesting enough to do with it, so I just focused on my main build.

[D&DPrinceTandem]

Well i wasn't able to Submit so i will put a Picture and the table here~


[QUOTE=D&DPrinceTandem]http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/forgottenrealms/images/e/e3/Yochlol.png/revision/latest?cb=20131006134427



CR[LVL]
Class
Base Attack Bonus
Fort Save
Ref Save
Will Save
Feats
Special


8[10]
Outsider
+10/+5
+7
+7
+7
[B] Exotic
weapon pro: Hand crossbow
F]Thrall to demon
1: Weapon focus: Tendril
3: Alertness
6: Willing deformity
9: Power attack
At will—detect thoughts (DC ), dominate person (DC ), darkness, desecrate, greater teleport (self plus 50 pounds of objects only), spider climb, stone shape, web (DC )
Lolth’s favor,
mind blank,
rapid shapeshifter
Humanoid form
Gaseous Form
Spider form
Telepathy 100ft


9[11]
Warshaper 1
+10/+5
+9
+7
+7

Morphic Immunites
Morphic Weapon


10[12]
Warshaper 2
+11/+6/+1
+10
+8
+8
12: Improved Critical: Tendril
Morphic Body


11[13]
Slimelord 1
+11/+6/+1
+10
+10
+8

Paralytic Slime, Pseudopods 1/day


12[14]
Souleater 1
+12/+7/+2
+12
+12
+10

Energy drain


13[15]
Thrall of juiblex 1
+13/+8/+3
+14
+14
+12
15: Cleave
Sickening slime


14[16]
Thrall of juiblex 2
+14/+9/+4
+15
+14
+13

Corrosive touch


15[17]
Thrall of juiblex 3
+15/+10/+5
+15
+15
+13

Summon ooze [At/will]


16[18]
Warshaper 3
+16/+11/+6/+1
+15
+15
+13
18: Greater cleave
Morphic Reach


17[19]
Warshaper 4
+17/+12/+7/+2
+16
+15
+14

Morphic Healing


18[20]
Warshaper 5
+17/+12/+7/+2
+16
+15
+14

Flashmorph


19[21]
Fighter 1
+18/+13/+8/+3
+18
+15
+14
21: Devastating critical
Bonus feat: Overwhelming critical


20[22]
Fighter 2
+19/+14/+9/+4
+19
+15
+14

Bonus feat: Multiattack




To give the community something to do as they are waiting for Judges and all of that, I ask for YOU to give this Villain a Background!


So I see we got a Thrall of Juiblex and an Oozemaster, but no Slime Lord.

Also, by my reckoning, these are only two non-mindless oozes before templates are applied: Summoning Ooze (MM3, Int 10) & Conflagration ooze (MM3 Int 9)...
..... Sorry i wasn't fast enough.....

[Venger]

Oh yeah, I just remembered that there was mention of an intelligent gelatinous cube in Magic of Incarnum. Not really related to build ideas, but it's something that I thought would be okay to mention. I think it was the head of the Sewer Workers' Guild or something...

Oh, you probably mean in incarnum ooze or someth-



In settlements where rilkans are the majority, other races are welcomed with open arms. This extends even to bugbears, orcs, gnolls, and other “monstrous” races, as long as they keep
the peace. In one famous rilkan city, the head of the Sewer Workers Guild is an intelligent gelatinous cube.

What the heck.


So I see we got a Thrall of Juiblex and an Oozemaster, but no Slime Lord.

Also, by my reckoning, these are only two non-mindless oozes before templates are applied: Summoning Ooze (MM3, Int 10) & Conflagration ooze (MM3 Int 9)...

back in 3.0 he was called jubilex

that might have something to do with slime lord being a terrible class.


Reason Stealer could also qualify. Doesn't have any by default, but steals the intelligence score of things it eats. I wanted to find some way to build around one, but couldn't think of something interesting enough to do with it, so I just focused on my main build.

I thought about reason stealer too, but I figured only having an int some of the time would probably not go over too well with the judges, plus it's a lot of bookkeeping.

EDIT: cool yochlol picture, D&DPrinceTandem

[Thurbane]

back in 3.0 he was called jubilex

I'm pretty sure in my AD&D days, he was called Jubilex in a lot of the books.


What the heck.

I wonder if he was a Monk (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/eo/20060922a)? :smalltongue:

[D&DPrinceTandem]

that might have something to do with slime lord being a terrible class.


EDIT: cool yochlol picture, D&DPrinceTandem

I think Slime lord can use some help [via warshaper] But it is quite strong at low levels due to its Parasitical Slime which applies to Natural attacks. Combine that with Warshaper and you have quite the stun lock.....


And thank you!

[Venger]

I'm pretty sure in my AD&D days, he was called Jubilex in a lot of the books.

I wonder if he was a Monk (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/eo/20060922a)? :smalltongue:
Oh, yes, of course. What I meant was he was called jubilex straight through til 3.0, then in 3.5 they switched over to calling him juiblex. I have no idea why. I just know there's a typo in some book where he's called "jubiblex" but I can't for the life of me find it right now.


I think Slime lord can use some help [via warshaper] But it is quite strong at low levels due to its Parasitical Slime which applies to Natural attacks. Combine that with Warshaper and you have quite the stun lock.....


And thank you!

I have a number of tricks for when I build slime lords, but I'll wait to discuss them after the reveal, since they bear a certain similarity to a couple of the dishes.

any time

[Tiri]

Curses. Just minutes away from being on time.

Well, perhaps I'll be able to salvage some of this for the next round.

[Inevitability]

Interesting builds all around!

I had a number of ideas before settling on my final one (which did get submitted).

One was a Phaerlin Giant/Thrall of Juiblex who'd summon gelatinous cubes and throw them with Fling Ally or somesuch, but I ended up dropping it as the rules for throwing creatures are a mess.

I also worked on a Cesspit Ooze that'd use an acidic version of the Locate City Bomb to send small countries in a homicidal frenzy. I stopped developing it because its actual combat ability fell short of my expectations.

Finally, I briefly considered finding a way to use the Ghaunadan's gaze on yourself somehow, as a +8 bonus to charisma is pretty interesting, but I couldn't find anything other than the questionable 'any creature can always suppress its immunities' text from the SRD.

[danielxcutter]

Oh, you probably mean in incarnum ooze or someth-



What the heck.

Yeah, that was more or less my reaction when I read that.


I wonder if he was a Monk (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/eo/20060922a)? :smalltongue:

Hmm... would Monk levels help when working in a sewer?

[Vaz]

Thanks to internet issues and the onset of moving out of the area for Cyclone Debbie i wasn't able to get my entry in.

The baseline was using Slime Lord 5 and Ardent to get the whole change into Visilight and using the Charisma Drain and Psychometabolism Power to power Con Based abilities like its Paralysis and Party Face abilities.

Coming online at 10-11th level with its own Shapechange abilities, or using Profession (Executioner) to get it earlier it could also become a decent 'face' to oppose the party in shapeshifted form to act as a foil to the party that they can eventually uncover. But with shapechanging abilities, who knows where he will end up?

All that they know is that they are following a collection of grisly murders and missing individuals, and a collection of people who are mysteriously hurt in the same way as they have their personalties drained.

As it becomes higher and higher levelled, thye start encountering Dream based attacks from the Lucid Dreaming ability, and experiencing things like Psionic Body Outside Body effects from the Spell to Power Erudite letting it go to the Consumption Mantle.

I'll have a look at judging because this round turned out to be very creative but time may be an issue.

[Telonius]

This looks like an awesome round - very much looking forward to judging!

The build I'd been considering, but unfortunately didn't 100% sure work RAW - a Reason Stealer who had (by pure dumb luck) put the final blow in on a Lich, Vampire, or some other regenerating undead baddie. The idea was that it lugs the coffin or phylactery around, and "kills" the thing again once a day to take its mental stats over and over again. Didn't work because undead are immune to mind-affecting effects. While what's considered a mind-affecting effect is not completely clearly defined, stealing someone's mental stats is probably close enough to fall under the definition.

[Inevitability]

This looks like an awesome round - very much looking forward to judging!

The build I'd been considering, but unfortunately didn't 100% sure work RAW - a Reason Stealer who had (by pure dumb luck) put the final blow in on a Lich, Vampire, or some other regenerating undead baddie. The idea was that it lugs the coffin or phylactery around, and "kills" the thing again once a day to take its mental stats over and over again. Didn't work because undead are immune to mind-affecting effects. While what's considered a mind-affecting effect is not completely clearly defined, stealing someone's mental stats is probably close enough to fall under the definition.

There's an argument to be made it isn't. After all, Mirrors of Opposition copy someone's entire body (including mental stats, class features, prepared spells...) and aren't mind-affecting either.

[PrismCat21]

I had two written up on paper :)
I rarely can find the time to get to a computer.

The one I was truely excited for was Kool-Aid Man type monster.
An Alchemical Golem with the Incarnate Construct and Lost templates. Specialized in breaking through nearly any barrier and finding its target.
Fighter 2 for dungeon crasher. A few object destroying and intimidating feats. Many incarnum feats. Enough psionics to use paraelemental (ooze) effects. and a powerful breath weapon of acidy(oozey) goodness.
The soulmelds and mucho essentia really helped him to shine. He could sense creatures through obstacles and walls in a variety of ways, even telepathically. Intimidate bonus higher to potentially stop any/all creatures not immune in their tracks when he attacked or made an entrance. And he could bust through anything in his path to get to his target. (Much like Juggernaut) :elan:
His preferred method was busting through walls while projecting a telepathic battlecry of 'Oh YEAH!' to any creature on the other side, paralyzing them with fear.


The second was an Ooze Paraelemental Weird found in an encounter on page 148 in Champions of Ruin. It has innate Sorcerer 18 casting at a CR of 12. I bumped it up to Sorcerer casting 20, couple Dungeon Lord levels, and some Psion (Seer) levels.
Weirds have Prescience abilities and are unable to physically leave their pool. So, it built a home(dungeon crawl) in and around the pool. :D Since she knows things before they happen, adventures and other powerful creatures often seek advice and pay handsomely for it, in ways not always apparent...
For traveling, she uses Astral Form. One of the very few ways she is able to leave her pool. She can seek out anything she might want in the world and harass whomever she pleases without much fear. If anyone or anything is ever foolish enough to come after her, she'll know in advance and have preparations ready for them.

[sakuuya]

I tried to make a Summoning Ooze work, but it doesn't combo well with any summoning PrCs, and moving away from summoning with class levels felt like a waste. Ah well, onto judging! :smallcool:

[Darrin]

Also, by my reckoning, these are only two non-mindless oozes before templates are applied: Summoning Ooze (MM3, Int 10) & Conflagration ooze (MM3 Int 9)...

There's at least two others:

Cesspit Ooze (Cityscape), Int 7.
Assassin Jelly (WotC Article (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20040916a)), Int 10.


I tried to make a Summoning Ooze work, but it doesn't combo well with any summoning PrCs, and moving away from summoning with class levels felt like a waste. Ah well, onto judging!

Yeah, that was my other idea, but I couldn't get excited enough about it to pull it together. Summoning Ooze (CR4) + Wizard Focused Conjurer 16 (CR +16) could throw out some pretty impressive meatbags by stacking the Str/Con buffs, but only once per round. Against a typical PC party, it would get horked over on the action economy unless it spent several rounds before the fight started getting its summons in place. Hmm. Maybe I should have looked at Factotum 8, get everything out in the first round with Cunning Surge + FOI.

[remetagross]

Crap I didn't manage to make it on time :( I was almost done, though. My trick was a Pseudodragon Psion hiding inside various Oozes, using psionic powers to remain immune to their negatives effects. That would then mean that as long as the Ooze around him live, opponents do not have line of effect to him, making him immune to practically everything. He would have used Burrowing Power to bypass this limitation.

It relied on a crapton of complicated rulings and ambiguous interpretations anyway, I'm fairly sure it would have gotten dunked pretty hard in Elegance :)

Here it is, the crunch only:


Smalltalon is a Chaotic Evil Psion (Egoist) 19. He uses an array of oozes as his bodyguards, which will be detailed according to each CR highlight.
Ability scores before racial adjustement:
Str 8 Dex 10 Con 14 Int 15 Wis 13 Cha 12
Ability scores after racial adjustement:
Str 4 Dex 15 Con 17 Int 15 Wis 15 Cha 12
Each stat increase goes to Int.




CR
Class
Base Attack Bonus
ML/PP
Fort Save
Ref Save
Will Save
Skills
Feats
Class Features


1
Pseudodragon (2 HD)
+2
0/0
+2
+2
+2
Diplomacy 5, Sense Motive 5, Bluff (cross-class) 2, Listen 5, Spot 5, Search 5, Survival 5, Hide 4

Mindsight (LoM p.126)

Skill trick: Collector of Stories (Csco p.85)

Darkvision, blindsense, telepathy 60ft, low-light vision, immunity to sleep and paralysis, fly (good) 60ft


2
Psion (Egoist) 1
+2
3/2
+2
+2
+4
Psicraft 4, Diplomacy 5, Sense Motive 5, Bluff (cross-class) 2, Listen 5, Spot 5, Search 5, Survival 5, Hide 4

Practised Manifester (CPsi p.57), Burrowing Power (bonus)
Bonus feat


3
Psion (Egoist) 2
+3
4/6
+2
+2
+5
Heal 2, Psicraft 7, Diplomacy 5, Sense Motive 5, Bluff (cross-class) 2, Listen 5, Spot 5, Search 5, Survival 5, Hide 4


Int +1


4
Psion (Egoist) 3
+3
5/11
+3
+3
+5
Heal 6, Psicraft 8, Diplomacy 5, Sense Motive 5, Bluff (cross-class) 2, Listen 5, Spot 5, Search 5, Survival 5, Hide 4





5
Psion (Egoist) 4
+4
6/17
+3
+3
+6
Heal 8, Psicraft 9, Knowledge (Psionics) 2, Diplomacy 5, Sense Motive 5, Bluff (cross-class) 2, Listen 5, Spot 5, Search 5, Survival 5, Hide 4

Psionic Meditation



6
Psion (Egoist) 5
+4
7/25
+3
+3
+6
Heal 8, Psicraft 10, Knowledge (Psionics) 5, (Dungeoneering) 1, Diplomacy 5, Sense Motive 5, Bluff (cross-class) 2, Listen 5, Spot 5, Search 5, Survival 5, Hide 4


True healer ACF (M'sE)


7
Psion (Egoist) 6
+5
8/35
+4
+4
+7
Heal 8, Psicraft 11, Knowledge (Psionics) 5, (Dungeoneering) 6, Diplomacy 5, Sense Motive 5, Bluff (cross-class) 2, Listen 5, Spot 5, Search 5, Survival 5, Hide 4


Int +1


8
Psion (Egoist) 7
+5
9/46
+4
+4
+7
Heal 8, Psicraft 12, Knowledge (Psionics) 5, (Dungeoneering) 11, Diplomacy 5, Sense Motive 5, Bluff (cross-class) 2, Listen 5, Spot 5, Search 5, Survival 5, Hide 4

Expanded Knowledge: Remote Viewing



9
Psion (Egoist) 8
+6/+1
10/58
+4
+4
+8
Heal 8, Psicraft 13, Knowledge (Psionics) 5, (Dungeoneering) 13, Diplomacy 5, Sense Motive 5, Bluff (cross-class) 2, Listen 5, Spot 5, Search 5, Survival 5, Hide 4





10
Psion (Egoist) 9
+6/+1
11/72
+5
+5
+8
Heal 8, Psicraft 14, Knowledge (Psionics) 5, (Dungeoneering) 14, Diplomacy 5, Sense Motive 5, Bluff (cross-class) 2, Listen 5, Spot 5, Search 5, Survival 5, Hide 4





11
Psion (Egoist) 10
+7/+2
12/88
+5
+5
+9
Heal 8, Psicraft 15, Knowledge (Psionics) 5, (Dungeoneering) 15, Diplomacy 5, Sense Motive 5, Bluff (cross-class) 2, Listen 5, Spot 5, Search 5, Survival 5, Hide 4

Psicrystal Affinity, Psicrystal Containment (bonus)
Bonus feat, Int +1


12
Psion (Egoist) 11
+7/+2
13/106
+5
+5
+9
Heal 8, Psicraft 16, Knowledge (Psionics) 5, (Dungeoneering) 16, Diplomacy 5, Sense Motive 5, Bluff (cross-class) 2, Listen 5, Spot 5, Search 5, Survival 5, Hide 4





13
Psion (Egoist) 12
+8/+3
14/126
+6
+6
+10
Heal 8, Psicraft 17, Knowledge (Psionics) 5, (Dungeoneering) 17, Diplomacy 5, Sense Motive 5, Bluff (cross-class) 2, Listen 5, Spot 5, Search 5, Survival 5, Hide 4





14
Psion (Egoist) 13
+8/+3
15/147
+6
+6
+10
Heal 8, Psicraft 18, Knowledge (Psionics) 5, (Dungeoneering) 18, Diplomacy 5, Sense Motive 5, Bluff (cross-class) 2, Listen 5, Spot 5, Search 5, Survival 5, Hide 4

Overchannel



15
Psion (Egoist) 14
+9/+4
16/170
+6
+6
+11
Heal 8, Psicraft 19, Knowledge (Psionics) 5, (Dungeoneering) 19, Diplomacy 5, Sense Motive 5, Bluff (cross-class) 2, Listen 5, Spot 5, Search 5, Survival 5, Hide 4


Int +1


16
Psion (Egoist) 15
+9/+4
17/195
+7
+7
+11
Heal 8, Psicraft 20, Knowledge (Psionics) 5, (Dungeoneering) 20, Diplomacy 5, Sense Motive 5, Bluff (cross-class) 2, Listen 5, Spot 5, Search 5, Survival 5, Hide 4

Extend Power (bonus)
Bonus feat


17
Psion (Egoist) 16
+10/+5
18/221
+7
+7
+12
Heal 8, Psicraft 21, Knowledge (Psionics) 5, (Dungeoneering) 21, Diplomacy 5, Sense Motive 5, Bluff (cross-class) 2, Listen 5, Spot 5, Search 5, Survival 5, Hide 4

Feat



18
Psion (Egoist) 17
+10/+5
19/250
+7
+7
+12
Heal 8, Psicraft 22, Knowledge (Psionics) 5, (Dungeoneering) 22, Diplomacy 5, Sense Motive 5, Bluff (cross-class) 2, Listen 5, Spot 5, Search 5, Survival 5, Hide 4





19
Psion (Egoist) 18
+11/+6/+1
20/280
+8
+8
+13
Heal 8, Psicraft 23, Knowledge (Psionics) 5, (Dungeoneering) 23, Diplomacy 5, Sense Motive 5, Bluff (cross-class) 2, Listen 5, Spot 5, Search 5, Survival 5, Hide 4


Int +1


20
Psion (Egoist) 19
+11/+6/+1
21/311
+8
+8
+13
Heal 8, Psicraft 24, Knowledge (Psionics) 5, (Dungeoneering) 24, Diplomacy 5, Sense Motive 5, Bluff (cross-class) 2, Listen 5, Spot 5, Search 5, Survival 5, Hide 4

Expanded Knowledge: Psionic Telekinetic Sphere



Psionic Powers
1st level: Energy Ray, Vigor, Entangling Ectoplasm, Offensive Precognition
2nd level: Empathic Transfer, Energy Adaptation, Animal Affinity, Share Pain
3rd level: Dispel Psionics, Touchsight, Hustle, Psionic Glibness (SoS p.133), Remote Viewing (via Expanded Knowledge)
4th level: Psionic Freedom of Movement, Stygian Ward (Life mantle, CPsi p.102), Metamorphosis, Wall of Ectoplasm, Intellect Fortress (instead of a 5th level power)
5th level: Anticipatory Strike, Adapt Body, Change Fate (M'sE)
6th level: Temporal Acceleration, Psionic Disintegrate, Mend Wounds (Life mantle, Cpsi p.92)
7th level: Fission, Psionic Control Weather (SoS p.133), Personal Mind Blank
8th level: Bend Reality, True Metabolism (Life Mantle), Fusion, Psionic Telekinetic Sphere (via Expanded Knowledge)
9th level: Greater Metamorphosis, Affinity Field, Reality Revision, Assimilate

Cpsi: Complete Psionics
Csco: Complete Scoundrel
LoM: Lords of Madness
MoE: Magic of Eberron
M'sE: Mind's Eye web enhancement (Expanded classes, part II (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20070314a) for the True healer ACF and Power Conversions (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20040827e) for the power Change Fate)
SoS: Secrets of Sarlona


That Ooze theme has been hanging around for quite some time, and my plan has always been to build a villain that would not be itself an Ooze, but inside the Ooze. Yeah, that crazy Amulet of Ooze Riding in the Arms and Equipments Guide p.85 makes it possible, and the idea was too fun to pass up. Three problems, however. First, said Amulet costs 28000 gp, so given the average NPC wealth by level, that villain wouldn't have been working before CR 13. Second, having a villain whose entire trick hinges solely on one magic item is pretty risky, both because a Dispel Magic makes you look fairly stupid (though not in that one case, see below), but also because that's a guaranteed hit in Elegance. Third, Vizzini. Yeah, I'm betting on the Amulet showing up elsewhere - and why wouldn't it? It's so cool.
So my villain still is a villain inside an Ooze, but without these three limitations. Is the coolness accompanied by power, though? One answer: Line of Effect.
See, with Smalltalon comfortably nudged inside an Ooze, without the tip of his tail protruding from any side or something, there is no line of effect between him and anything on the other side, so to speak, of said Ooze. Which means that XXX is safe from a metric crapton of spells and abilities, as long as his living bunker, well, lives. He plainly can't be attacked neither by melee nor by range, either.
The SRD states:
"A line of effect is a straight, unblocked path that indicates what a spell can affect. A line of effect is canceled by a solid barrier. It’s like line of sight for ranged weapons, except that it’s not blocked by fog, darkness, and other factors that limit normal sight."
The Ooze itself does constitute such a barrier (even if it's more spongy than solid, depending on the Ooze).
When it comes to mundane attacks, not only is this RAI-obvious, but also pages 80 and 81 of the Rules Compendium expand on these two line notions and make it clear that line of effect is needed for the attack actions.
Page 80, second paragraph:
"You must have line of effect [...] to any space in which you wish to create an effect". Including mundane attacks.
Also, the vast majority of Ooze are not transparent, and block line of sight in addition to line of effect. So not only the PCs cannot affect the Pseudodragon, but they cannot even see him, or guess that inside the Ooze lies a tiny lizard.
The trick, of course, is that this predicament works only one way. To bypass these limitations, XXX has two ways.
To circumvent the lack of line of sight, and to actually know what is going on outside the Ooze, XXX first uses the Mindsight ability. Using his racial 60ft Telepathy, Smalltalon takes the well-known feat from Lords of Madness. Indeed, Telepathy does not need line of effect to function.
True, the text of the feat states "this works much like Blindsense", and Blindsense does need line of effect; but this description is relevant insofar as the Mindsight ability, just like Blindsense, allows the detected creature total concealment unless the creature is also noticed by another sense.
On the other hand, the Telepathy ability as defined in the SRD does not explicitely require line of effect. But Blindsight and Blindsense do state out that line of effect is needed. This means that the default assumption is that modes of perception do not require line of effect. This might seem finnicky, but it actually makes perfect sense. If line of effect were needed as a standard, we could not roll a Listen check to hear a Troll banging at the door of the castle! And the riding dog could not smell a Troglodyte just after the next corner of the dungeon. And while sight requires (spoiler alert) line of sight, the Rules Compendium page 80 once again clearly state out that line of sight without line of effect is completely possible, clearly separating the two notions. A window blocks line of effect but not line of sight.
So, a RAW and a RAI argument to support Telepathy not requiring line of effect. The feat then allows Smalltalon to "pinpoint beings that are not mindless [...] within range of its telepathy." No problem to detect anything sentient on the other side of the Ooze...and here is the telling blow: the Ooze itself being mindless, it is not detected by Mindsight. Thus preventing the RAI-but-not-RAW-but-perfectly-reasonable argument saying "hey, but your Mindsight is completely overwhelmed by the mind of the creature inside of which you currently are!"
But Mindsight alone is not enough, since it only gives a rough idea of the disposition of the PCs. Enter Touchsight. This psionic power gives a remote tactile sense, accurate enough so that you don't need to roll for Listen or Spot to perfectly map your environment. By comparing what Touchsight and Mindsight give him, the Pseudodragon can separate between a piece of furniture, a house cat, a door violently slammed closed, or a sneaking Halfling.
"Hey, but Touchsight is a psionic power! And no jokes, psionic powers need line of effect no less than anything else to be able to work!" Yes, and it is time to reveal why my villain is a Psion and not a Wizard:
1) A Pseudodragon Psion is a sort of Mew.
2) One of the very rare things that psionics handle better than magic is to bypass line of effect. There exists a Burrowing Power metapower feat that does exactly that, but not a Burrowing Spell metamagic feat.
Combine Burrowing Power and Touchsight, and Smalltalon can perceive everything withint 60ft despite the few inches of goo that separate them.
Living inside an Ooze imposes a few other hurdles, though. Like, actually keeping on living.
After all, many blobs and other jellys deal automatic acid damage, for example, to anyone inside. Some even deal negative levels, or even more horrible status. And, of course, a Pseudodragon still needs to breathe.
Well, Arms and Equipments Guide p.85 does explain that Gelatinous Cubes are, in fact, air permeables. But we cannot infer from that that all Oozes posses such a quality. Thus, to be on the safer side...more psionic powers to the rescue! Energy Adaptation allows Smalltalon to survive all the various energy-based damage. Stygian Ward takes care of negative energy. For the matter or oxygen, Adapt body saves the day when level 5 powers come online. Prior to this, Smalltalon will simply hold his breath, for a duration equal to his Con score (PHB p.84), or maybe twice his Con score (DMG p.304), no one really knows...Either way, that means 17 rounds at minimum. Way longer than what an encounter usually lasts, and anyway it takes only a move action to peek one's snout out of the jelly and take a few deep breaths. Because, yes, Psionic Freedom of Movement allows Smalltalon to "fly" inside any Ooze despite the fact that he is, technically, Grappled.
"But the Ooze does not obey the villain in the slightest! He cannot control it!" Simply put, Smalltalon does not need an absolute control over the Ooze. Being faster (60ft flight speed) than any of them, he simply hovers before them like a carrot before a donkey, and baits them into moving in the direction he wishes. Once he has gotten close enough of the the area that he wants to lay waste on, he flies to the Ooze, fails his Grapple check and is safely engulfed. The Ooze, however, is now surrounded by all the creatures that Smalltalon wants to get rid at, and will try to eat'em all! Smalltalon is Chaotic, after all.
There is another way, but this one is a bit less RAW. The text of the Amulet of Ooze Riding explains how a character inside a jelly can control it and make it move in the right direction: a simple Ride check! However, to be totally honest, we must point out the fact that the ability to perform these Ride checks seems heavily correlated with the specific use of the Amulet, rather than to the general situation of being safely engulfed in an Ooze.
"Yeah, ok, but seriously, what are the odds that this one Pseudodragon will find out all those obscure and Farfetch'd Oozes dispersed in the Prime? These Oozes don't come out of nowhere like a Celestial Mount or an Animal Companion, you know?"
And I answer with the last part of the puzzle: the Remote Viewing power. A non-mind affecting power, it allows the target a Will save or else Smalltalon can Scry it. It's fortunate that Oozes have crappy Will saves. Do note that the power has a very general formulation about the target: it can can detect "some creature". So "the closest Ochre Jelly towards the North" is a valid target. And yes, spoilering four lines was totally worth it, for coherence's sake!
And now, let's dive into the next batch of nested spoilers!



CR 8 is when the build comes online. It is at that level that Smalltalon gets access to Psionic Freedom of Movement, and takes Expanded Knowledge to acquire Remote Viewing. He already knows Energy Adaptation and Touchsight, and the Burrowing Power and Mindsight feats.
The Pseudodragon only has 60 PP. Between Psionic Freedom of Movement, Energy Adaptation, Offesnive Precognition and Burrowing Touchsight, already 18 PP are expanded. It can be assumed that Smalltalon has used Remote Viewing and found the Ooze of the moment the previous day. So, only 40 PP remaining. Smalltalon mainly blasts out with Energy Ray to hit anyone that could handle his mobile bunker wihout needing to close in.

I was expecting the living spells, but more than one Amulet of Ooze Riding though!

[Venger]

Wow, that stub is hysterical. Truthfully, I'm surprised we didn't see anyone else do this trick. Following your line of thinking, I abandoned ooze riding thinking it would be common.

[remetagross]

Hey thanks :) really pissed off that I could not fight my slack for a few more hours!

Yeah, I figured that would be one of the first choices to come to mind. I suppose, this theme has been hanging around for so long in this thread that everyone has had the time to discover more imaginative tricks :smallbiggrin: like this template based around Living Spells, never heard of it before, very fitting!

[daremetoidareyo]

What great entries! So much smack talk...

[Telonius]

Almost done judging the third build. With any luck I'll have them all written up by the end of the week.

[remetagross]

What a fast judge, thanks Telonius :)

Quick question people: I've never DM'd a game before, so I figured I would be a poor judge. To what extent does that reasoning hold water? To know if I could throw my hat in in a future round.

[Venger]

What a fast judge, thanks Telonius :)

Quick question people: I've never DM'd a game before, so I figured I would be a poor judge. To what extent does that reasoning hold water? To know if I could throw my hat in in a future round.
I mean, if your past dishes are anything to judge by, you have a grasp on the basics, so you should do fine. Worst case scenario, you make some mistakes, in which case the contestants will let you know about it via disputes.

[Buufreak]

My life has been absorbed by work and Horizon. I will get to the duty shortly.

[Thurbane]

There's at least two others:

Cesspit Ooze (Cityscape), Int 7.
Assassin Jelly (WotC Article (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20040916a)), Int 10.

Hmm, looks like the source I used may be missing some source material: http://monsterfinder.dndrunde.de/

Assassin Jelly would have made for an interesting entry. Maybe as the head of an Assassin's Guild? :smalltongue: Assassin Jelly ooze 5/Rogue 3/X 1/Assassin 10...

I'm seriously considering this for my game now!

[daremetoidareyo]

Hmm, looks like the source I used may be missing some source material: http://monsterfinder.dndrunde.de/

Assassin Jelly would have made for an interesting entry. Maybe as the head of an Assassin's Guild? :smalltongue: Assassin Jelly ooze 5/Rogue 3/X 1/Assassin 10...

I'm seriously considering this for my game now!

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?476019-Optimize-this-Feat-4-Contagious-Paralysis-from-Libris-Mortis (contagious paralysis)

There ya go.

[daremetoidareyo]

Hmm, looks like the source I used may be missing some source material: http://monsterfinder.dndrunde.de/

Assassin Jelly would have made for an interesting entry. Maybe as the head of an Assassin's Guild? :smalltongue: Assassin Jelly ooze 5/Rogue 3/X 1/Assassin 10...

I'm seriously considering this for my game now!

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?476019-Optimize-this-Feat-4-Contagious-Paralysis-from-Libris-Mortis

There ya go.

[remetagross]

I mean, if your past dishes are anything to judge by, you have a grasp on the basics, so you should do fine. Worst case scenario, you make some mistakes, in which case the contestants will let you know about it via disputes.
I suppose that's right for judging in Power or Elegance (and thanks :smallsmile:), but I'm thinking more about Memorability. How does that play out exactly? Disputes about the score in that category are a bit murkier than in others, and I feel don't help out as much as they do for the others, since they rely more on subjectivity. Telonius, for example, how do you handle memorability, and disputes about it?

[Telonius]

Well, last competition was actually the first one that I was being a judge (and not a contestant or the chancellor). But here were the criteria I used. It seemed to work pretty well, and I'll be using them again this round.


Okay, my criteria!


Originality - Is it unexpected?

I've seen quite a lot of builds both as former Supreme Chancellor and former competitor. Try to surprise me. A build with a high originality score will either show me some mechanical thing I hadn't thought of before, or have a class, feat, or feature that fills a unexpected role. A low scoring submission will be a clone of things I've seen before.

Regular optimization or competence stuff isn't going to hurt you here; Fighters don't need to worry about hurting their score by taking Power Attack.


Build Elegance - Is it mechanically pretty?

An elegant build is one that minimizes dipping. I don't mind taking Feats or spells from a half-dozen books, but a Barbarian/Bard/Cleric/Druid/Fighter/Monk is going to have a low score here. A well-chosen ACF or racial substitution level that fits with the fluff is fine; a single template is okay too. But try to minimize the stacking; if I start going crosseyed trying to remember all of the traits, that's not a good thing.

A high elegance score will have a logical progression of classes and prestige classes that minimizes dipping and supports the general concept. A low scoring build will not.

Mechanical problems (builds not meeting prereqs, requiring questionable rule interpretations, etc) will result in elegance scores being docked. I don't like giving out zeroes, but if the rules problem seems particularly egregious, willfully ignoring the rules of the competition, or far beyond what a sane DM would allow (or a sane group would accept) I reserve the right to give them out here.


Competence and Power - Can it do what the concept asks of it? Is this a powerfully-built character?

This is a tricky one; I will be judging "competence and power" based on my subjective idea of what the character ought to be able to do. This baseline would be different for casters, faces, melee combatants, or whatever role your villain is filling. A particularly well-built melee character could get a higher Competence and Power score than an averagely-built caster, even if the caster would mop the floor with the melee guy if they were pitted against each other in combat. A high score here will go beyond what the regular role would require of it. A low score will not be able to fulfill what the role asks of it.


Memorable Villainy - Is this a villain with style? Will it be the BBEG players long to finally kill and then talk about for weeks?

This is the most subjective one of all. My guiding principle here will be, "Is this villain something I would love to spring on my players?" If you want to get a good idea of what I'd like, leaf back through a few of the previous villainous competitions and see some of my entries. A good backstory is a key component. You don't have to write a novel, I'm not a total grammar Nazi, and the motivation can be as simple as, "He's hungry." But give me some reason that this is more than just a random encounter or a statblock wearing a hat. A high scoring submission will give me a dynamic character that the players will love to hate. A low scoring build will not.

[remetagross]

Thanks Telonius! I'll closely look this round and read some old ones :)

[Telonius]

All right, judging is done! I have a few things to do this weekend. If there are disputes it might take some time to get to them; but I will reply.

I will say that this round was full of excellent builds. In some ways this was an easy round to judge; not so many rules problems as the last one. But this was also a really hard round to judge - some of these were really, really close.

The Living Darkness
Total Score: 17.5
Originality - Is it unexpected?
Very nicely done! Lots of neat tricks, including the split after 200 bit. I would caution that this is a bit dangerous to try in combat; you can split if you’re anywhere over 200, but the wording of the ability says both halves will be set at 100hp (regardless of what you started at). No problem if it’s happening off-camera, though; fast healing takes care of it nicely.
Score: 5.0

Build Elegance - Is it mechanically pretty?
You qualify for everything you take. No dips, one template, and a 10-level prestige class. Simple, pretty. The Willing Deformity feats are pretty well-explained.
Score: 5.0

Competence and Power - Can it do what the concept asks of it? Is this a powerfully-built character?
This will certainly be a dangerous foe if the players aren’t prepared. However, it does have some pretty serious weaknesses. First and most important is its low mental stats, and low Dex stat. It’s immune to energy drain, but there are lots of ways for players to deal ability damage. If the players figure this out, he’s toast. With no SR and an AC in the basement, he’s two Rays of Stupidity (or one Shivering Touch) away from unconsciousness. Second serious weakness is reliance on negative energy. Death Ward renders most of his attack sequence useless. As soon as the players see that they’re getting hit with a lot of negative energy attacks, it’s going to be up and prepared. That also has the effect of making his wight minions much less dangerous.
On the other hand, what it lacks in profit it can make up in volume. Like other splitting enemies, it can give you as many enemies as you need, and even offers its own justification as to why there are so many of these things.
Soul Radiance is kind of a double-edged sword here. It does open up an awful lot of option for messing with the players, but it also closes off a lot of options in combat. The wording of Shapechange says that you lose your Supernatural abilities when you change. For the Void Ooze, this means his energy drain, death ward, shadow shield, and all of the class features of Soul Eater turn off as long as he’s under the effect. You’re also losing any of the Willing Deformity feats until you’re back in your normal Ooze form.
All in all, I’d give this a solid 3. Easily solve-able if you figure it out, and some of its coolest features don’t play well with each other; but lots of non-combat uses that can make up for a lot.
Score: 3.0

Memorable Villainy - Is this a villain with style? Will it be the BBEG players long to finally kill and then talk about for weeks?
Yeah, this can definitely be a campaign’s worth of villainy, but you would have to be a bit cautious in not over-playing your hand. Throw too many of the splits at them and it can get tedious. But if you do it in just the right amount, this is going to be an extremely satisfying victory when you finally clear out the last one. (Not to mention keeping the paranoia up, in case there was one that got away).
Score: 4.5
Total: 17.5


The Spellbirth
Total Score: 14.75
Originality - Is it unexpected?
I did expect to see a Living Spell in the competition. Living Wish, though – it’s a pretty obvious one, and it’s been discussed to death previously. I like the idea of using the familiar as the target of the spells.
Score: 2.0

Build Elegance - Is it mechanically pretty?
Well, you can’t get much simpler than one class level. Unfortunately, a living spell of Wish does not quite work like you suggest. Living spell is a template that can be applied to any spell with an area or effect. But Wish’s effect is “see text,” which says it can create one of the following effects. You’d have to pick one at the time of creation. So it can either give you inherent bonuses, or duplicate spells, or … but not all at once. Usually I wouldn’t give quite as big of a penalty for this, but the template pretty much *is* the entire concept. Still, at-will of any single one of those effects is still pretty powerful.
Score: 4.0

Competence and Power - Can it do what the concept asks of it? Is this a powerfully-built character?
Assuming the build worked, this would be an extremely powerful enemy. Even leaving spellcasting aside, it would break WBL for any enemy NPC. That said, the Spellbirth would have to be careful only to engulf friendly creatures. If the PCs manage to take a dive into the same square, they can Wish their way to victory.
Score: 4.75

Memorable Villainy - Is this a villain with style? Will it be the BBEG players long to finally kill and then talk about for weeks?
This has the potential to be a memorable villain. You’d need to spend some time fleshing out the enemies and building up to it. It’s wacky enough that it could turn into comic relief if you’re not careful. You’d probably need to figure out if/why there’s a limit on its powers; otherwise it kind of begs the question how it’s possible for him to not already be emperor of the world. With some well-developed cult members, this guy could be the source of an entire campaign’s worth of villainy.
Score: 4.0
Total: 15.0


The Talariic Abomination
Total: 16.5
Originality - Is it unexpected?
I was not expecting a Psionic class. Combining it with Cleric was another unusual pick. Combining an absurd strength with a slow speed, but shoring it up with Dimension Door? Neat trick, but it’s more of a “that makes sense” than an unexpected combination. The sweeping strike trick that’s the centerpiece of the build is interesting, but it’s a variation on the “bag of rats” trick that’s come up quite a bit before. (Though it has been a while since I’ve seen it).
Score: 3.5

Build Elegance - Is it mechanically pretty?
You qualify for everything you take, and the templates make sense. The build progression is a bit strange, though, with Cleric levels in the middle of War Mind. It also seems a bit odd to put resources (feats for Extend, Persist, and Divine Metamagic – before you can actually cast spells) into something you take for three levels and drop. Nothing against the rules there; it’s just not pretty.
Score: 4.5

Competence and Power - Can it do what the concept asks of it? Is this a powerfully-built character?
This is a very dangerous enemy up close. It would be kind of vulnerable to ranged attacks though. In terms of the build, you might have done better with War Mind 5/Cleric3/Psychic Theurge 4 rather than taking War Mind out to 9. 4 extra levels of Cleric casting seem like they’d be worth more than the Warmind’s class features. If nothing else, it would open up the possibility of persisting higher-level Cleric spells. Still, this guy does what he’s supposed to do, which is be an absolute beast up close.
Score: 4.5

Memorable Villainy - Is this a villain with style? Will it be the BBEG players long to finally kill and then talk about for weeks?
I think this score is going to hinge on how it’s used. If it’s building an Aboleth cult around himself, which he’s perfectly capable of doing, he could really strike some loathing and revulsion into the PCs. Being mechanically powerful helps a lot with the fear. He does run the risk of being kind of a one-trick pony, though; his options in battle are kind of limited, and he doesn’t seem like the type of creature that would banter with the PCs. Still, I think that if one of the players was on the business end of a Sweeping Strike, “Okay, that’s 500 attacks on you. What’s your AC again?” is going to kind of stick out in his mind. If I were using this guy in a campaign, I would make 100% sure that they see what he can do to some other creature before he attacks them directly. An ungodly number of attacks like that, out of nowhere, will result in loud cries of BS from many groups.
Score: 4.0
Total: 16.5


Miss Dember Mint
Total: 17.5
Originality - Is it unexpected?
All right, our first non-Ooze villain! Several nice combinations on Sorcerer to allow early access to Cataclysm Mage (I’ll have to remember the Domain Access trick when I’m trying to qualify for prestige classes – Complete Champion is one that I really haven’t spent all that much time perusing). Putting Incarnum into the mix is not something I anticipated in this competition – and I’m a sucker for Incarnum builds. There’s another Mistling in the competition, but I generally don’t like penalizing for things like that. (With the limited number of options available this time, Vizzini can take a hike).
Score: 5.0

Build Elegance - Is it mechanically pretty?
This is a really nice build. It makes thematic sense every step of the way, you qualify for everything you take, and the couple of ACFs you use are not anything out of the ordinary. It’s got a very Eberron-y feel; both with Mistling, Living Spells, and the Dragonmark abilities.
Very nicely spotted on the Conjure Living Spell (Sp) effect of Mistling – and noted that there Is some rules wonkiness about the target. Personally I think the wording of Conjure Living Spell excludes itself from becoming a Living Spell. Living Spell is a template that can be added to anything with an area or effect – but not a spell (or in this case, spell-like ability) whose effect is already a creature. Mistling doesn’t mention anything about altering the possible targets of the template; since it’s silent on the matter, the rule would typically default to what already exists. The effect of Conjure Living Spell is pretty clearly a creature, which means it’s not a valid spell for the template. This does take a lot of versatility out of the build – no creating living spells multiple times per day – but you are still left with a whole bunch of nice effects thanks to your Dragonmarks and nasty list of spells known. You just can’t get all of them at once. No points docked here, since this doesn’t make anything in the mechanics illegal.
Score: 5.0.

Competence and Power - Can it do what the concept asks of it? Is this a powerfully-built character?
This character is very versatile, with loads of possible effects coming into play. But in terms of raw power, it seems like it falls a bit short. As a Sorcerer, you’re a caster level behind Wizard already; templates hurt; and Cataclysm Mage sets you further back. You’re still getting 7th-level spells at the end, but without some supporting bad guys (aside from your Living Spell) you’re going to have some trouble challenging the players on your own. (If you’re in Eberron, cultists tend to pop out of the woodworks, so you shouldn’t have any trouble finding them or justifying their existence).
Score: 3.0

Memorable Villainy - Is this a villain with style? Will it be the BBEG players long to finally kill and then talk about for weeks?
This is a unique villain with unique (and memorable) shtick. Chopping people’s hands off and turning them into oozes. This can easily become a recurring villain in a campaign, or the center of a plot to destroy the world. One thing that I would really have liked to see is something that could tie those two themes (cutting off hands, destroying the world) together. Almost seems like it would fit in more with Faerun (and Tyr) or Greyhawk (and possibly Vecna or Hextor?) than Eberron – but that’s kind of detail-y.
Score: 4.5
Total: 17.5


The others to follow shortly.

[Telonius]

Schlorp
Total: 16.5
Originality - Is it unexpected?
This is flat-out, awesomely wacky. “A Druid wildshaping into a flying bed in order to summon an unlimited number of Gelatinous Cubes” is not something I ever expected I’d type.
Score: 5.0

Build Elegance - Is it mechanically pretty?
This is not an elegant build. Two base classes, two prestige classes, everything seems taken to solve a mechanical problem with the concept rather than support the concept. (Silverbrow Human, for example, seems there exclusively so you can access a single Draconic Soulmeld).
That said, the build is really impressive in a Rube Goldberg sort of way. You do qualify for everything you take.
Score: 3.0

Competence and Power - Can it do what the concept asks of it? Is this a powerfully-built character?
This guy is designed around exactly one thing: dropping oozes from the sky. It certainly accomplishes that better than any of the many other builds I’ve seen who are trying to … okay, I can’t keep that up. It does what it’s supposed to. The problem’s going to be when it’s called on to do something other than that. It’s a Druid with a bunch of friends, so it’s got that going for it; but it is lagging behind for casting. Druid13 is nice, but at 20th level it’s kind of a letdown. I do like the idea of him being at the center of a lair and using all of the terrain against the party; he’s going to need allies (besides just slimes) when the players try to take him down.
Score: 3.5

Memorable Villainy - Is this a villain with style? Will it be the BBEG players long to finally kill and then talk about for weeks?
No one is going to forget this.
Score: 5.0.
Total: 16.5

Consequences
Total: 18.75
Originality - Is it unexpected?
Second Mistling of the competition, but I’m not taking any points for that. I really like how you’ve gotten two sets of HD-granted LA’s to work together with Mistling’s create living spell ability. The big limitation on Sorcerer is the number of spells known; this is a creative way of overcoming that. The Energy Transformation Field shenanigans are particularly nice.
Score: 5.0.

Build Elegance - Is it mechanically pretty?
The build is very nice. Two templates that make thematic sense; plus a single prestige class. The progression is logical, intuitive, and supports the overall idea. Starting score is a 5.0.

Unfortunately your casting is a bit off, starting with the Mindbender levels. The Sylph’s “Hit Dice+4” casting is keyed to racial hit dice only. It’s not an automatic gestalt with whatever class it takes, and you certainly don’t get to double-dip. You would end up casting as a Sorcerer 17. Still plenty powerful, but a lot less versatile than having 9th level spells (besides the HD-related SLAs) available. Taking off three quarters of a point here.

The BAB and saves are off as well. Half-Fey changes the Type to Fey; so it would have the Fey progression for BAB, saves, and skill points; not Sylph’s outsider dice. (The Centaur example in MM2 has BAB of 2 at 4hd, as opposed to the 4-BAB it would have if it were a Monstrous Humanoid). The BAB and Fort save decrease won’t hurt so much, but losing 2 skill points per HD is another story. It doesn’t disqualify you from any prereqs, but it would require a bit of reworking. Taking off another half point here.

Score: 4.25.

Competence and Power - Can it do what the concept asks of it? Is this a powerfully-built character?
If the caster level had worked like you thought it would, this would be an extraordinarily powerful sorcerer. As it is, it’s still a really powerful caster, but with a few limitations. It’s very, very good at what it does. This would be a 5 if not for the casting issue.
Score: 4.5.

Memorable Villainy - Is this a villain with style? Will it be the BBEG players long to finally kill and then talk about for weeks?
This is a dangerous character with a good support system, clear motivation, and the ability to fuel an entire campaign’s worth of villainy.
Score: 5.0
Total Score: 18.25


Captain Charles Gooding
Total: 14.5
Originality - Is it unexpected?
I was expecting Oozemaster to make an appearance, but the early qualification trick was really creative (even if it didn’t ultimately work). Oozemaster to Contemplative was definitely not what I would have expected. And to have all that as a Cleric of (I think) Fharlanghn, of all things? You took a very counter-intuitive concept and made it make mechanical sense.
Score: 5.0

Build Elegance - Is it mechanically pretty?
The class progression is elegant. A single Cloistered Cleric level, followed up with Oozemaster taken to full, plus Contemplative for 9 levels. Several of the abilities and feats build on each other, and it all supports the concept. 5.0 to start. The build does require you to be using the Taint rules. Makes sense for the character, but not every campaign is going to be comfortable using them. -0.25.

Unfortunately, there are a few things that make the early qualification not work. First, your deity. Far Horizons requires that you worship Fharlanghn, which - if you have the Dwarf and Planning domains - you don’t. As far as I can tell, there isn’t a published deity with both the Dwarf and Planning domains. You could get them both by selecting your own domains for a “Cleric of a Cause,” but then that means you’d have a pretty hard time qualifying for the fluff requirement of Contemplative (meeting a direct representative of your deity) let alone for Far Horizons. Either way, an explicitly called-out deity is a pretty major thing for a Cleric build to be missing, especially for a build that includes an alignment. You’ve also put down the Time domain (kind of randomly) as a bonus domain from Contemplative. There are only a couple of deities that grant that, and Fharlanghn is not one of them. -1.

Since you don’t qualify for Far Horizons, Swim isn’t on the skill list – meaning you can’t qualify for Oozemaster. And if you do qualify for Far Horizons, you miss out on Dwarf and Planning, meaning you don’t qualify for Oozemaster. This throws the whole build off-kilter. Since the early qualification is the centerpiece, it needs to be right; unfortunately it’s just not. -1 again.

I think this could be salvaged as an early qualification trick, but only by using flaws. Because the Taint is moderate, you’d also qualify for a bonus feat (per the rules in HoH page 67). So you could take Travel, Luck, and Knowledge (traded for devotion) as the domains; take Extend Spell, Far Horizons, and Great Fortitude for your first-level, human, and corruption feat. You’d still be out a feat; you’d need to take Eldritch Corruption via Flaws to get everything you needed.

Eldritch Corruption requires that you have Moderate Depravity. The table on page 65 of Heroes of Horror shows what the various types of Depravity are; each of them has mechanical as well as roleplay consequences. You would need to pick one. -0.25

Score: 2.5

Competence and Power - Can it do what the concept asks of it? Is this a powerfully-built character?
The build (assuming it worked the way you thought) is very nice, but a bit underpowered. I really like what the story is going for, and I think this build can achieve a good bit of it. But he’s a guide without Survival; a semi-secret baddie without Bluff; an Ooze specialist without a single rank in Dungeoneering. That can be shored up with spells and glossed over with roleplay, to an extent, but he seems to be lacking in what ought to be his shtick. I know that a big point of the build was to show off an early entry trick, but I think this would have been much better at what he does if you’d chucked Contemplative and kept going with Cloistered Cleric for a few levels with all the skill points that go along with that.

That said, 15 levels of Cleric casting is definitely nice, and can cement his position in a party of adventurers. If “what the concept asks of it” is to “help” a group of adventurers in battle, this can do that.

Score: 3.0

Memorable Villainy - Is this a villain with style? Will it be the BBEG players long to finally kill and then talk about for weeks?
The way you’ve written him, Captain Gooding seems more like a necessary evil guide through the Underdark, not really an outright antagonist. I’m having a hard time figuring out how the players would come into contact with him, other than being in the group for a while. That comes with all of the potential pitfalls of a DM-controlled NPC in the party. A betrayal by a supremely creepy “helper” could be really memorable – especially in a Horror campaign – but in a more standard “kick in the door” you’d need to figure out how to stop the players from attacking him when they first meet him – like when the Cleric thinks to Detect Evil, or the Paladin realizes he’s adventuring with a tainted freak. If the players do come into conflict with him it will be a satisfying victory, but not something they’ll be talking about for weeks.
Score: 4.0
Total: 14.5

[Technetium43]

Thank you very much for your timely and well-articulated judging Telonius! Glad to see a break like this after the 14 entry rounds we've been having, and I'm glad to hear that it was easier to judge. :smallsmile:

EDIT: Gonna go ahead and make a table real quick.



Entry Name

Telonius'
Score

[/TH]
Total
Score

Rank



The Living Darkness

17.50

17.50

2nd



The Spellbirth

14.75

14.75

6th



The Talariic Abomination

16.50

16.50

3rd



Miss Dember Mint

17.50

17.50

2nd



Schlorp

16.50

16.50

3rd



Consequences

18.75

18.75

1st



Captain Charles Gooding

14.5

14.5

7th

[Thurbane]

Disputes part one:


thank you for your prompt and thorough judging. I had a few things I would like to clarify, as well as a few questions

elegance
while I am aware that clerics of concepts are usually discussed as separate from clerics who are devoted to one specific deity, to my knowledge there is not a rule precluding a cleric who is devoted to an ideal from also having a relationship with one particular god.

As you surmised, the dwarf domain as well as the planning domain are selected so that I will be able to enter oozemaster in a timely fashion. Deducting for this twice seems excessive.

While you are absolutely correct that using flaws is an option, I thought I would showcase this means of entry since it is as far as I know a unique way to begin play in a prestige class aside from racial paragons at level 1.

I did not think it was necessary to go into detail about what particular depravity was selected. I think that 0.5 penalty seems somewhat harsh in this regard. He would select “jittery” since his change to the ooze type renders him immune to being panicked.

Someone who has access to 8th level cleric spells in addition to all of the domains from this build is fairly powerful. Being called underpowered doesn’t make sense. Cleric’s spell list can do all the things that you mention, and cleric has no class features after level 1, so I don’t see what additional levels would have added

Memorable villainy:
the way players would come into contact with him is through the same channels as the example given in his back story. If you are running a traditional dungeon crawl, you could have him function as a guide for your party helping them avoid some of the dangers within your dungeon, while Gooding is up to certain nefarious activities of his own, again showcased in his backstory.

He definitely fits most comfortably in a horror game. As far as him being saddled with a “smite evil first, ask questions later” type party, many options are standard operating procedure for any evil cleric, such as undetectable alignment, misrepresent alignment, and moral facade to name a few.


Thanks for giving out your feedback and judging! I just have some clarifications on elegance and competence/power.


Elegance
For the casting levels, MM2 references Hit Dice + 4 instead of Racial Hit Dice + 4, which admittedly is close to Phaerimm-level of cheese. The MM2 3.5 update didn't errata it to RHD either (what I've also noticed there is that Balance became a class skill, giving me 5 unspent skill points).

For the templates, plenty of type-changing ones have "It uses all the base creature’s statistics and special abilities except as noted here". Emphasis mine. For Half-Fey, it only specifically noted Racial Hit Die change to d6 and Skill Point change to 6+INT, which I actually followed on my (6+4)*(RHD+3) distribution. Contrast this to the Zombie and Skeleton templates that noted RHD, BAB, save, skill point, and feat changes. On the


Competence and Power
Just wanted to clarify if the score is based on if the build worked as I assumed, or otherwise. I've noticed Spellbirth got a 5, so I'm guessing the judgement is based on the former, in which case I o wonder why Consequences is only 4.5 considering the fact that it can just as well create a Living Wish (at CR16, no less!) and even that is just one of its lesser tricks.

[Telonius]

To Captain Gooding:

- I may have gotten a bit muddled in my explanation for the two 1-point deductions. I think the problems - deity selection, domain issues, and getting the skills, feats, and fluff requirements to qualify for both Oozemaster and Contemplative - are all related. Initiate Feats in general mean a much-greater-than-usual connection with a single patron deity. (You're only allowed one such feat, for example). I don't think that being a Cleric of a Cause (rather than a deity) fulfills that requirement. And if that piece of the build isn't there, the whole rest of the build can't function as presented. You'd have to choose whether to go with Fharlanghn as a patron, and miss out of the feat-granting domains; or go with a cause, which makes you miss out on Swim. Same way with Contemplative's requirements. You'd need to meet with a representative of your deity or ideal - you'd need to pick. Again, that can be handwaved into the backstory; the representative never has to have screen time. But to qualify for it mechanically, you'd need to pick if it's a representative of Fharlanghn or a representative of your cause. That need to pick is there for Cleric and Contemplative, and which choices you make determine whether and when you can qualify for Oozemaster. Since the problem is important, not easily fixable, and affecting everything in the build from first level on, I have to give a pretty big penalty for that. The 2 -1's stand.
- Agreed on the -.5 for depravity being a bit much. Adjusted upward to -.25.
- For competence and power; my criteria aren't judging an abstract power level, but how far it deviates from a baseline of what it's supposed to be doing. What that is, is mostly based on the descriptions competitors give. For your entry, he's supposed to be functioning as a tricky sort of underdark guide. Being a guide isn't just about not getting lost. Not being knowledgeable about the basic things that the party's likely to encounter in the Underdark says to me that the jig's going to be up as soon as he can't identify an unusual enemy. I do think this could be really helped out by a couple extra levels of Cloistered Cleric. It might not have class features, but the chassis (mainly the 6+Int skill points, but also the higher Fort saves and increased Lore abilities) aren't something you should ignore. 4 extra skill points per level to play around with would let you at least attempt DC 10+ knowledge checks in Dungeoneering by getting a rank in it, or give you a few ranks in Bluff, Survival, or other skills that might come in handy with the ruse. That seems much more valuable to the concept than most of what you're getting from Contemplative. That said, I do think I judged a bit too harshly on it. Bumped the score up to 3.0
- Memorable Villainy: Okay, I think I'm getting that a bit more now. Bumped the score up by .5.


I'll adjust the post shortly; I'll get to the second dispute this evening (with any luck).

[Telonius]

To Consequences:

Agh, I'm undone by another bad example monster statblock! Getting rid of that -0.5. Not going to allow the double-dip casting though.

Have to go at the moment, but I'll be considering that "if it works like you thought it did" issue later this evening.

[Telonius]

Sorry for the delay. I'd thought I had taken off a quarter point for Spellbirth - Must not have saved it when I was drawing it up in Word. So unfortunately Spellbirth loses a quarter point. Since you're getting the same effect at a lower CR I'll bump you up a quarter point as well.

Just to let everyone know - I am going to be traveling all next week (visiting family) and responses aren't going to be very regular. If any of the other contestants have disputes it would probably be best to get them in sooner rather than later.

[Thurbane]

Disputes part two:


I'm not sure where you're getting the part where I have to pick a mode when I create the living spell. You certainly don't when you create items of bestow curse or wish or anything else for that matter. Apart from that the critique seems essentially fair and reasonable.

[Telonius]

Wish is a special case for the template. Living spell can only be applied to a spell that creates an area or effect, not a targeted spell; and not a spell whose effect is a creature (like one of the Summon spells). For Wish, the "Target, Area or Effect" is "See text." Wish can be a spell that's targeted, or that creates an area, or that creates an effect, or whose effect is a creature, depending on what you're Wishing for. It's impossible to tell if the spell is a valid target for the Living Spell template until it's cast. Once it's cast, and the effect is determined, it's possible to apply the template.

[Buufreak]

Whelp. Life kinda hit me hard and fast all the sudden. I'm dropping as a judge, my apologies.

[D&DPrinceTandem]

has there been an extension to judge deadline. I believe it would be quite unsatisfying if there were only one judges submissions in. I would like to know this to see if i could be included as a judge.

Also if not yet i request a deadline extension of.... April 14 [i think i could get it done by my birthday:smalltongue:]

Edit: just putting this here for me

The Living Darkness (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=21852528&postcount=102)
The Spellbirth (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=21852532&postcount=103)
The Talariic Abomination (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=21852534&postcount=104)
Miss Dember Mint (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=21852537&postcount=105)
Schlorp (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=21852542&postcount=106)
Consequences (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=21852545&postcount=107)
Captain Charles Gooding: Salt of the Earth (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=21852550&postcount=108)

Also as a judge i think it is something i have to mention
my judging will be quite like talks.
Point system for me
originality
1:you did do enough to either a) amuse me or b) surprise me [Rare]
2: you either a)amused me or b) surprised me
3: you did both that are stated as above
4: you touched the ceiling of what 3 says
5: you went over the top. [Less rare than a one but still quite rare], I can tell at least one person will get this this round
Elegancy
1: No order to your build, multiple rule mistakes, breaking actual comp rules [Almost never will happen]
2: followed comp rules, few mistakes in game rules, build is as neat as my room [lol yup i said that]
3: Build is neat, comp rules followed, few to no mistakes in game rules
4: Build flows well all rules are followed
5: [currently can't find an example of this perfection]
Power [Based around sweat spot]
1: Its dead the first round. [Surprisingly this is not that rare]
2: Its dead in 5 rounds
3: It kills 2 players but dies inevidably
4: It can wipe the party in 2 rounds with good rolls
5: it can take the part in a surprise round
Memorability
1: Its like any other villain in the multiverse
2: Doesn't hold a special spot in anyones heart but....
3: "Oh that guy, we tangled a few times here and there"
4: Bards will sing about it for centuries to come. It holds a place in your heart
5: Take the end part of # and take it literal.

[Thurbane]

I'll extend judging - will update the original post when I get back from work in a couple of hours.

[remetagross]

So, about next round's theme - are we standing by the rule according to which judges get to pick it? Anyway, I would still put forward my idea of a highly social villain. Once again, Lord Kubota of OotS. What else? I noticed there was an ice-based roubd, a fire-themed one, we could pick an underwater villain too? To complete the environmental thematics.

[danielxcutter]

So, about next round's theme - are we standing by the rule according to which judges get to pick it? Anyway, I would still put forward my idea of a highly social villain. Once again, Lord Kubota of OotS. What else? I noticed there was an ice-based roubd, a fire-themed one, we could pick an underwater villain too? To complete the environmental thematics.

Underwater sounds interesting. Social villains aren't that good of a theme, however, as standard Diplomancers probably win at that 19 times out of 20.

[ben-zayb]

So, about next round's theme - are we standing by the rule according to which judges get to pick it? Anyway, I would still put forward my idea of a highly social villain. Once again, Lord Kubota of OotS. What else? I noticed there was an ice-based roubd, a fire-themed one, we could pick an underwater villain too? To complete the environmental thematics.

The next comp's also the 20th, so I'm hoping we get something bigger than usual for that. Not sure what exactly, though... Maybe a villain that has a "bigger is better" schtick? Crafting golems? Summoning Colossal centipedes? Becoming a planet? Controlling the ocean? Seduc- One thing's for sure: this should end up (i.e. CR20) being more "Avengers", "Justice League", or "X-Men" -level kind of threat, than, say, "Antman", "Batman", or "Deadpool".

[danielxcutter]

The next comp's also the 20th, so I'm hoping we get something bigger than usual for that. Not sure what exactly, though... Maybe a villain that has a "bigger is better" schtick? Crafting golems? Summoning Colossal centipedes? Becoming a planet? Controlling the ocean? Seduc- One thing's for sure: this should end up (i.e. CR20) being more "Avengers", "Justice League", or "X-Men" -level kind of threat, than, say, "Antman", "Batman", or "Deadpool".

I second the notion of having a special theme for the next comp.

[Buufreak]

I'll extend judging - will update the original post when I get back from work in a couple of hours.

Alright, pending this, I can squeeze in by earliest... Tuesday night, EST?


So, about next round's theme - are we standing by the rule according to which judges get to pick it? Anyway, I would still put forward my idea of a highly social villain. Once again, Lord Kubota of OotS. What else? I noticed there was an ice-based roubd, a fire-themed one, we could pick an underwater villain too? To complete the environmental thematics.

Totally down with a special round, but also really liking the sound of underwater. I've got a soft spot for Black Manta.

[Thurbane]

Alright, pending this, I can squeeze in by earliest... Tuesday night, EST?

Done. :smallwink:


So, about next round's theme - are we standing by the rule according to which judges get to pick it?

I'm happy to still run with that for now, but I reserve veto rights if I feel the ingredient may not be good for the comp. And in the case of a tie, I chose.

[Telonius]

I really like the idea of an underwater round, too. For the 20th round though, it ought to be kind of special. Something unusual, something memorable. I can't think of exactly what that might be. Maybe, a numbers-related villain, or a villain obsessed with dates or cycles. That's kind of nebulous though; and I don't think I've really been very good at picking topics in the past. if someone could refine that concept, I'd go with it.

Otherwise, underwater sounds good to me.

[Thurbane]

I really like the idea of an underwater round, too. For the 20th round though, it ought to be kind of special. Something unusual, something memorable. I can't think of exactly what that might be. Maybe, a numbers-related villain, or a villain obsessed with dates or cycles. That's kind of nebulous though; and I don't think I've really been very good at picking topics in the past. if someone could refine that concept, I'd go with it.

Otherwise, underwater sounds good to me.

Hmm, good point: I kind of missed that it was 20!

[Telonius]

Heading out to the land of no internet connections now. If there are any more disputes for my judging, I'll get to them when I get back on Friday.

[GrayDeath]

Seeing as there is at the moment 1.5 Judges, and the upcoming round is a Jubilee, I am heavily against a Judge Vote (aside from that last round there was a Judge vote where ONE Judge voted as at least some Judges, meaning me^^; didn`t know they could decide it.


For the 20th I would put up: really unlikely Villains, 20HD Monsters with a Twist, or something along the lines of that.

[Thurbane]

Since competition 20 is a special event, I might be willing to throw it open to a popular vote, and then make a chairman's pick as to what I think is the most "special" theme. :smallwink:


https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/604758844808548352/sgGUCTWG.png

[remetagross]

Hey :) how about a conspirationist villain ? There's that Belgian comics, XIII, about a secret fellowship of 20 American politics secretly behind Kennedy's assassination. We could throw in a fully fleshed-out boss and summarily describe his secret triad, somehow based on the number 20. Maybe there are 20 member, or the boss wants to achieve divine rank 20!

[Thurbane]

Due to some family health issues, Buufreak was unable to complete his judging, and asked me to pass this on. We all wish you and yours the best Buufreak


Also if not yet i request a deadline extension of.... April 14 [i think i could get it done by my birthday:smalltongue:]

OK, in the interests of having a second judge, I'm doing a final extension.

If no new judging by this deadline, reveal will be posted without further delay.

[TheCount]

Newbie here!

Sorry if it comes across bad (not good at phrasing) but i didnt saw two categories in the previous competitions:

1st: the (possibly lovable) idiotic-or-harmless-but-lucky-minion who always gets out of everything with minimal harm....if not with some prize.

2nd:a sweet spot of mine: The Base (read as death trap) if that counts in the competition, as no villian who gives to his/her/its infamy would let unwanted guests in it easiliy, without reason.
Thought, its so full of possibility that its understandable if not chosen.
Castle Heterodyne (http://girlgenius.wikia.com/wiki/Castle_Heterodyne)

[Inevitability]

Crazy round 20 idea:

Everyone creates an elder evil, with a number of signs and malefic properties as determined by the chairman, then writes a short campaign outline similar to the 'timeline' sections in Elder Evils. The elder evil itself won't have to be statted.

Accompanying this is a villain who serves (or is directly involved with) the elder evil. This villain does have a direct statblock, and will function much like villains in earlier rounds, with the PCs encountering him at various levels before a final confrontation.

[Venger]

Crazy round 20 idea:

Everyone creates an elder evil, with a number of signs and malefic properties as determined by the chairman, then writes a short campaign outline similar to the 'timeline' sections in Elder Evils. The elder evil itself won't have to be statted.

Accompanying this is a villain who serves (or is directly involved with) the elder evil. This villain does have a direct statblock, and will function much like villains in earlier rounds, with the PCs encountering him at various levels before a final confrontation.

that sounds like fun. I'd love to do that. if we're voting, I'll pick that.

[Thurbane]

If "create your own elder evil" is too much work, how about create a CR 20 emissary/cultist/servant of a published Elder Evil?

[remetagross]

So the theme would simply be "Elder Evil"? Well, more than one villain around here across the various themes has already been worshipping an Elder Evil (like my participation at the VC XV the Bodak and the Roc serving Leviathan), so it does not strike me as a particularly uniting theme, actually.

[3SecondCultist]

If "create your own elder evil" is too much work, how about create a CR 20 emissary/cultist/servant of a published Elder Evil?

I would say this should be an option, at the very least. It could be very fun to see a minion of an Elder Evil and write up their addition into the setting.

In keeping with the spirit of this challenge, it should be something like adapting this Elder Evil into a whole campaign, with the villain build serving an integral part of it. That way, it avoids repeating any previously made builds that happened to worship Elder Evils.

[Technetium43]

I mean, I've already basically done that exact same Elder Evils thing with Ragnarök, but I would be down to do it again. Throw my vote in for that as well. :smallamused:

[ben-zayb]

My Witches-round entry had a unifying theme tied to Sertrous (snakes and atheistic divine magic), but I don't mind giving another go at an Elder Evil theme.

[Venger]

If "create your own elder evil" is too much work, how about create a CR 20 emissary/cultist/servant of a published Elder Evil?

I believe that's what was being suggested: our villain would be the emissary and we'd just say they were serving a custom elder evil who we'd do signs and fluff for (but not a whole nother build/statblock)

just doing an emissary sounds fine to me too, and appropriately apocalyptic for round 20

[remetagross]

Well if people go for it :) but as Venger suggests we could make Elder Evils up? In order to differenciate from past entries that happened to rely on Elder Evils. Though that brings a dose of homebrew in the competititon, since we could choose just the right setup of foreshadowings among the possible list for the Elder Evil to fit one particular build for its servant...would that be ok?

[Telonius]

Emissary to an Elder Evil sounds great to me!

[Venger]

Well if people go for it :) but as Venger suggests we could make Elder Evils up? In order to differenciate from past entries that happened to rely on Elder Evils. Though that brings a dose of homebrew in the competititon, since we could choose just the right setup of foreshadowings among the possible list for the Elder Evil to fit one particular build for its servant...would that be ok?

Yeah that makes sense. Since we'd just be "homebrewing" fluff, I don't see much of an issue balancewise.

[Troacctid]

I'd definitely like to see the signs and sample encounters from every entry, it's one of the coolest parts of an elder evil.

Since some people might not have the book, here are some links to excerpts from it on the old D&D website, which should provide good examples on what an Elder Evil might look like:
The End Times (https://web.archive.org/web/20090602224033/http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/4ex/20071203a&page=1)
Signs of Apocalypse (https://web.archive.org/web/20090602224024/http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/4ex/20071203a&page=2)
Atropus, the World Born Dead (https://web.archive.org/web/20090602224021/http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/4ex/20071203a&page=4)
Kyuss, the Worm that Walks (https://web.archive.org/web/20090602224034/http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/4ex/20071203a&page=5)

[Thurbane]

I'm happy to go with the flow...I just want Villainous Competition XX to be fun and memorable. :smallwink:

[Strigon]

All of my yes for the Elder Evil idea; I've got some thoughts already, but more importantly I'm excited to read what everyone else cooks up!

[Thurbane]

1 hour to the final reveal...



Entry Name
Telonius'
Score
Total
Score
Rank


Consequences
19.25
19.25
1st


The Living Darkness
17.50
17.50
2nd


Miss Dember Mint
17.50
17.50
2nd


The Talariic Abomination
16.50
16.50
3rd


Schlorp
16.50
16.50
3rd


Captain Charles Gooding
15.75
15.75
6th


The Spellbirth
14.75
14.75
7th

[Jormengand]

1st/2nd/2nd/3rd/3rd/6th/7th doesn't really make sense - 1st/3rd/3rd/5th/5th/6th/7th or 1st/2nd/2nd/3rd/3rd/4th/5th would, but the former of those two is more conventional. [/nitpick]

[Thurbane]

1st/2nd/2nd/3rd/3rd/6th/7th doesn't really make sense - 1st/3rd/3rd/5th/5th/6th/7th or 1st/2nd/2nd/3rd/3rd/4th/5th would, but the former of those two is more conventional. [/nitpick]

Hmm, I see your point, but I'll likely leave it in the current format. A second judge to break the ties would have been great.

I also think we haven't had any honorable mentions this round?

[ben-zayb]

My HM vote goes to Schlorp. Can't go wrong with a cube bomber

[Technetium43]

If we're opening it up to everyone, I'd like to throw my HM vote to The Spellbirth, for having the guts to submit a Living Wish. :smalltongue:

[Thurbane]

Here's the final reveal (including the adjustments after disputes).



Entry Name
Creator
Total
Score
Rank


Consequences
ben-zayb
19.25
1st


The Living Darkness
Technetium43
17.50
2nd


Miss Dember Mint
daremetoidareyo
17.50
2nd


The Talariic Abomination
Inevitability
16.50
3rd


Schlorp
Darrin
16.50
3rd


Captain Charles Gooding
Venger
15.75
6th


The Spellbirth
Jormengand
14.75
7th



Congratulations to all competitors, especially ben-zayb!

New comp will be up a little later today.

[danielxcutter]

Seconding Spellbirth as HM, cause I didn't even know that you could do that.

[Thurbane]

Due to holidays and going out for a friend's birthday drinks, new comp may not be up for a little longer than expected.

[Jormengand]

The most dishonourable honourable mention ever aww yiss.

[Tiri]

Why dishonourable?

[Jormengand]

Mainly because my entry was entirely me thinking of something silly and really dumb, and then spending the next couple hours messing with that.

[Darrin]

My entry was "inspired by" *cough cough* my Jellobomber (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=18994487&postcount=27) build, mostly with Warshaper added after I realized I could get another Str +4 that way. This made stacking the Bridle of Burden-Bearing on top of the Belt of Giant's Strength unnecessary. The fluff is the same. I was a little worried that I'd get eviscerated in the Originality category for stealing the build from "someone else", but the theme was too good to pass up. Now I'm not sure if I should be annoyed no one called me on it... I suspect several of you noticed but were being polite. Thank you.

Of course, after the deadline I stumbled into an idea for the Summoning Ooze + Factotum 8, load up on Font of Inspiration, and then throw out all 42 HD of your standard-action summons on the first round. Which is actually a pretty crappy move to throw at a party, but wow... it'd definitely be memorable!

[Jormengand]

Yeah, I instantly recognised it. It's pretty damn fun.

[Buufreak]

Sorry guys, I'm finally getting back to normalcy (knock on wood). My wife had her gallbladder out Monday night/Tuesday morning. Regardless, I feel like a d-bag for not getting judgments in.

[Inevitability]

Sorry guys, I'm finally getting back to normalcy (knock on wood). My wife had her gallbladder out Monday night/Tuesday morning. Regardless, I feel like a d-bag for not getting judgments in.

Don't feel bad for prioritizing a loved one's medical treatment over being second judge for a pretend game competition on the internet. I hope everything's okay!

[ben-zayb]

Congrats to our entrants for making an ooze-themed round actually work!

Original idea I had was a Mistling Half-Fey Yu Lung (aka Carp Dragon) Ur-Priest who plans on drowning everyone, using a twisted interpretation of Living Spell of Create Water: the creature is treated as though within the spell effect (ie gallons of water), and the duration being instantaneous means it never ends and creatures will be under underwater combat rules including drowning. This is also how the Carp Dragon can breathe and "swim" on land and in the air. Cap it off with Miracle-d Energy Transformation Field keyed to Create Water, triggering infinitely due to being a level 0 spell and filling the entire plane with high pressure water. Alas, only problem was, it never really felt ooze-themed.

EDIT: Wait a sec...I think it would work for an "underwater" themed round, though. Shoot, I should've kept it on standby, then!


Sorry guys, I'm finally getting back to normalcy (knock on wood). My wife had her gallbladder out Monday night/Tuesday morning. Regardless, I feel like a d-bag for not getting judgments in.That's certainly understandable. Hopefully she's doing well.

[GrayDeath]

Custom Elder Evils? Hell yes!

I`m all for it. :)

[Thurbane]

New competition is up: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?521560

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4e/Elder_Evils.jpg


Sorry guys, I'm finally getting back to normalcy (knock on wood). My wife had her gallbladder out Monday night/Tuesday morning. Regardless, I feel like a d-bag for not getting judgments in.

Don't feel bad at all - real life and especially family come first.